Quiz4Dili will be a fun night of games and raffles for all members of the community.  Dinner is included in the tickets price and light drinks will be available for purchase. Everyone is invited to have fun and rise money for ACF to help improve the circumstances of young people in Dili.

The English school is located in an impoverished area in Dili, one of Darwin’s Sister Cities and is our closest neighbour.  With no phone or internet lines, and very basic facilities, we are trying to set up a regular internet connection, provide computers, and offer ongoing support to allow the good work the volunteers at ACF do every day to grow.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 concession and a delicious light dinner comes FREE with your ticket!

A bar will be operating throughout the quiz providing refreshments and light alcoholic beverages (if you are over 18!)

Be there from 7:00pm for a 7:30 start on Friday, August 6^th and LET’S GET QUIZZING!

For more info and to book tickets please call Kin, Council’s Youth Services Officer on 8930 0635 or email k.leong@darwin.nt.gov.au

For all of you who are getting ready to vote, are or starting to become interested in the way our country is run, here is some basic information about the Government and how your vote works.

There are three “arms” of Federal Government. These are;

• the legislature (or parliament, made up of the House of Reps and the Senate.) is responsible for debating and voting on new laws.
• the executive, which is responsible for enacting and upholding the laws established by the legislature.
• the judiciary (the high court and federal courts) is the legal arm of the Commonwealth Government. It is independent of the other two arms, and is responsible for enforcing the laws and deciding whether the other two arms are acting within their powers.

When we talk about politics, the Prime Minister and voting, we are usually referring to the Legislature.

The Commonwealth of Australia is a federation, and that means we have a Federal Government and State Governments. State and Federal Governments do different things, and what these things are are outlined in the Australian Constitution.  States also have their own constitutions, and if they want to pass a law the Federal Government doesn’t like, it can be overturned. There are State Elections and Federal Elections (there are also Council Elections) and if you are 18 or over you HAVE to vote in them!

Federal Parliament is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Reps is all of the individuals who we (the general public) vote in to represent us, they are our voices and are elected by preferential voting. Preferential voting is how you vote in a Federal election: you are given a ballot with a number of candidates for your electorate, you will then assign each of these candidates a number, 1 being your favourite choice, 2 being your second favourite, and so on. This is very important, so pay attention- sometimes who you vote for second can be just as important as who you vote for as first.  If one candidate gets more than 50% of number 1 votes, they are the automatic winner, if this does not happen (which happens a lot) then the candidate with the least amount of votes is excluded, and if you voted for them then your second preference is counted as your first preference. This process is repeated until one candidate has more than 50% of the vote.

The senate does not use preferential voting, they use proportional representation, which is very complicated. The main thing you need to know about the senate is that they are NOT voted in directly by the public, instead they allocate senate seats to parties in proportion to their overall vote.

Political parties are like teams that Politicians can be part of. Australia has four main political parties.  The Australian Labor Party (ALP) is a social democratic party founded by the Australian labour movement (that’s who is in charge right now). The Liberal Party is a party of the centre right. The National Party of Australia, formerly the Country Party, is a conservative party representing rural interests.  The Australian Greens is a left-wing and environmentalist party. Being a member of a party means that you will generally agree with the policies your party agrees with, and disagree with the things your party disagrees with. Some politicians prefer to make up their own minds, and are voted in with no party, as an Independent. Often the big parties must rely on convincing the Independents to join their views for laws to be passed, especially in the Senate.

Something that lots of people who are new to voting don’t understand is that in Australia the public does not vote in our Prime Minister. The Prime minister is a candidate, like everyone else, who must be voted in in their particular electorate. The candidate who is chosen to be Prime Minister is NOT voted in by the public when we vote, the political parties elect their own ministers and Prime Minister. Lately lots of people have been saying that Julia Gillard is not our “real” Prime Minister because we did not vote for her, without realising that we didn’t vote for Kevin Rudd either, we voted for the ALP.

So, go enrol! It’s your country, and it’s your vote!

While you’re at it check out Count Me In

Another year, another Darwin Festival. And the festival’s line up is looking bigger and better than last year’s frankly awesome line up. We managed not only to get a sneak preview on the festival’s program, we also managed to get an interview with Joe Duffy, the artistic director of the festival. There is also a snippet of what to expect from the festival as well, which we have put together into a short clip so you can see what Joe Duffy has to say and the interesting performance.

So what about the line up itself? Well, there are sorts of things, from the comedic genius of former ROVE Corinne Grant to the famous names of music like John Butler Trio and The Cat Empire, just to name a few. There are 75 events, 47 of them involve artists from around here! Similar to last year, there are plenty of free events, like Dancing in the sand, and the famous Teddy’s Bear picnic makes a return. There are dancers from all over the world as well as people from local areas. And aimed squarely at the youth of Darwin, events such as Silent Disco, Hip Hop battle and an all new event, En Route, based around mobile phones and IPods. All this will happen between 12th and the 29th August in Festival Park, otherwise known as Civic park, with the lighthouse, in the amphitheatre and other places. Tickets are to be sold online, and from box offices in DEC, Festival park and other places, so look out for places that sell tickets.

So watch, Grinders, and see you at the festival! And check out their website

Since 2008, the Chinese government has been running the Hanyu Qiao Chinese Bridge Chinese Speaking Competition. The competition gives students learning Chinese a chance to show their skills in Chinese speaking, general knowledge about China and their cultural knowledge and performances.

Twenty students competed for the chance to represent Australia at the finals of the competition in China. Three of them came from Darwin, one of them was yours truly, and the other two were Gabriel Heines and Jeremy Lung.

All of the contestants performed incredibly well, with topics ranging from the humdrum families and activities to international travels and Chinese censorship. There were four winners, and while unfortunately no one from the Territory won, Gabriel won a special mention for his speech, in which he talked about the history of the Chinese in Darwin. Good work Gabriel!

If you are learning Chinese, this competition is a great opportunity to show off your Chinese. And to those who are not, remember to consider learning Chinese due to Australia’s (and Darwin’s) proximity to China and its prominence in the world.

The world’s heating up and there is no better action than to take a reaction towards this climate diffraction. The recent frustration has people in desperation for a simple explanation, showing them how our fundamental interaction is causing a massive transformation of our planet. We must make and take a plan of action, so the next generation can continue to live in this world with the realisation, that we are not the only ones.

Windmills use the breeze and replace burning trees as a better means of forming electricity. There are Hydrokinetic turbines that are designed to refine the energy of water waves when they both combine. Solar panels dismantle the sun’s rays to channel and save potential energy.

These means do not come cheap but are definitely greening our scene and mainly unseen so be serene in our clean energy.

If you found this article to be quite appealing, then I hope you understood the meaning, and had the feeling that you should not be concealing, that you should be intervening and greening the planet in which we are leaving for the next generation.

BASSINTHEGRASS, this SATURDAY from 11am at Gardens Amphitheatre

BASSINTHEGRASS is back again in 2010.

This year’s line up boasts awesome Darwin bands like Sweet Amber, DJ Fish, Semishgure, Leigh Chisholm, the winner of the battle of the school bands Sleeve Heads.  Big name acts like Silverchair, Empire Of The Sun, Hilltop Hoods, Shortstack, Jessica Mauboy, Children Collide, Horrorshow and Redcoats are also playing.  I think the line up isn’t as good as it could be this year; they could have chosen a band other than Hilltop Hoods because they have played so many times at BASS.

There has been lots of controversy on facebook about Shortstack playing BASS this year.  Groups like “don’t bring Shortstack to BASSINTHEGRASS” and “If Shortstack come to BASSINTHEGRASS we’ll bottle them,” while amusing could pose problems in the Darwin music scene.  Although I think that this is funny, as a musician myself I would not like the idea of people throwing bottles at me while on stage.  This can also cause OH&S problems such as water on stage (a slipping hazard); also with so much electrical equipment on the stage someone will be at high risk of getting electrocuted.  Because of this there have been rumours going around that there will not be any bottled water this year, these accusations are false.  There will, as always, be free bottled water but you are not aloud to bring bottles inside with you.  The producers of the show have also threatened, in years past, to shut down the festival.  This would be very bad, because that means no more really good music festivals in Darwin (other than The BIG GIG of course).  Please if you don’t want to listen to any band playing then you can bring an iPod OR if you’re over 18 then you can leave and come back after they finish their set.

There’s an encouraging amount of new music on the bill this year and I’m really excited about Melbourne band Redcoats.  They were picked up on Triple J Unearthed last year and have had a growing fan base ever since.  I was lucky enough to have a chat with their singer Emilio Mercuri last week and now I’m even more excited about what they will bring to the concert.

GRIND: “Hey Emilio, how are you mate?”
“Yeah, good mate.”
GRIND: “You’re playing at bass in the grass next Saturday, how are you guys looking forward to that?”
“Ah, mate we’re very excited about it, we’re just tailoring the set to hopefully bring something different to the day. Looking forward to seeing Darwin and playing to a lot of new people.”
GRIND: “Sounds great, I can’t wait to see you play, I’ve heard some of your music on Triple J Unearthed and it’s great.”
“You enjoyed it?”
GRIND: “Yeah it was… different”
“Yeah well, you know that’s the thing, that’s what we’re hopefully going to add to the bill, there’s a bit of diversity.  Yeah, like I said, we are really looking forward to it”
GRIND: “You released your first EP in September last year, how’d that go for you?”
“Mate it’s done really well for us, it’s really circulated quite significantly through the industry, and it’s helping to set us up quite well to do our album.  So it’s really established a good working team for us anyhow.”
GRIND: “You got you new guitarist in February last and you hit the road straight after that, how’d that go?”
“Yeah, no it went really well.  He came from a band called “The Escape Committee” and was playing quite significantly across town for a number of years, and as soon as he came in it was just kind of the fourth part of the square and it all just started moving a lot quicker and really working well and still to this day it’s still working.”
GRIND: “You are releasing your new LP do you know when it might creep out?”
“Well we’re writing our debut LP which is a full length album, and we’re hoping to record towards the end of this year, so right now we’re just in the writing process and it’s really shaping up well so you should be able to see it the start of next year.”
GRIND: “That’s honestly great and I’m differently going to buy your EP if I can find it.”
“Yeah, fantastic man! We’ll show you a few of the new ones on Saturday.”
GRIND: “Sweet, I’ll see you then man, have a good one”
“You too man take care,”

You should go, the gig will be fun and no doubt the bands will put on a great show.

Check out the BASSINTHEGRASS website HERE

In comparison to the band’s previous records, Alex Turner’s vocals are different on Humbug, lower, more restrained. His more mature tones suit the feel of Humbug, and rely more on melody than lyrics. The highlights of the album are the lead single ‘Crying Lightening,’ the slower ‘Secret Door’ and ‘Pretty Visitors.’ The new direction is a pleasant surprise for fans of the Arctic Monkeys, and is bound to pick up some new fans along the way.

After a year and a half of looking for the right career for myself I’ve decided to finally put some of my tips and hints about job searching into an article.

1.Build a good resume

The most important part of the entire job searching process is having a solid resume. Work on having a good structure to it and keep it tidy. Also think of a good career objective that summarises what you want out of the position you’re applying for. Don’t be afraid to list all your great activities which don’t necessarily have anything to do with your career of choice, such as volunteer work and community based activities. Plus let your family and friends look over your resume to see if they think you’ve missed anything. Sometimes it takes someone on the outside to see the best qualities in yourself and those qualities are what employers are looking for.

2. Be Persistent to the point of obnoxiousness

Hand in your resumes everywhere! Face to face contact is an excellent way to let the management see that you’re eager. When handing in your resumes to places be presentable. You wouldn’t want someone coming into your workplace looking like they just climbed out of a horror movie would you?

If you’re faxing your resume or even emailing it, you should call to make sure it was received on the other end. This is another good way to let the employer know that you’re a real person and serious about the position.

3. Cover letters make you fancy

Before I started going to job agencies I had no idea what a cover letter was. I quickly learned that they are the piece de la resistance of your application to a potential employer. A cover letter is pretty much just a summary of what you have in your resume already but it gives you a good chance to boast about how great you are. Talk about all the skills you’ve learnt and how they would work great in the position you’re applying for. A cover letter is usually optional, however, if the employer has asked you supply one make sure you do.

4. Don’t be scared if you’ve never worked before

If you’re looking for your first job try not to feel too intimidated by people with more experience than you. Employers usually think of you as a clean slate so they can train you to their standards. Plus they don’t have to worry about any nasty history with any of your other jobs.

5.  Try not to turn down offers

If you’re given the opportunity to work somewhere you don’t really think is right for you there is no harm giving it a try. Most places have a probation period of 3-5 months that allows employers to assess its employees. This gives you plenty of time to decide if the job is right for you. Don’t forget everyone has some issues with their jobs so unless there are some serious dodgy things going on try to look on the bright side of things.

Good luck!

All of a sudden, it was 11.55 and it was time for shaving my hair! I walked outside and met up with my mum. She came to watch, and she had brought a camera to film it. I handed the money into the teacher in charge, handed my school bag to my friend and sat in the chair. There were so many people surrounding the designated area and all my friends were cheering me on. I looked at the teacher who was shaving my hair, Ms Deacon, she was preparing herself, put the smock over my shoulders and positioned my hair. The presenter, Darcy, introduced myself and the crowd cheered, Ms Deacon whispered in my ear ‘Would you like it at a number 3, 2, or 1. ‘ She was talking about how close I wanted the shave. I chose 3, I still had some hair on my head. And within what seemed like half an hour, but was actually a few minutes she started chopping away at my hair. I looked up at my friends and they were pulling scared, exaggerated faces. I felt my hair, it wasn’t there, When I looked back at my hand it was covered in tiny little shaved hairs.  Darcy applauded me and the crowd cheered again, he asked me how I was feeling. I was shaking, I was a bit nervous,  I didn’t respond to what he said and jumped into the crowd to my friend who was holding my bag. My friends came up to me, rubbing my hair, hugging me, and congratulating me.

Still to this day, even though it’s only been a few weeks since it happened, people still come up to me, patting my hair, and telling me what I did was so fantastic.  All together, I raised $448 dollars.

I hope the money I raised helps someone out, and maybe even saves a life. I personally did this because of the people from my past I know that have passed away because of cancer, cancer is a terrible thing.