Review: Haunted Australia

 Haunted Australia

 

Author:                               John Heffernan

Publisher:                           Scholastic

Type:                                   Soft Cover

Pages:                                  161

Genre:                                 non-fiction

Published:                            2005

ISBN:                                   9781865048260

 I purchased this book online at about three in the morning, along with a few others, i missed the fact it was a scholastic book. For those who don't know Scholastic does fine works making books easier for school children to access. However Scholastic books tend to be for younger readers, so it has large printing, is wide spaced, glosses over many details and sometimes descends into silly speak.  
 Now don't get me wrong using 'spooxpert' to refer to parapsychologists, or paranormal investigators was kind of amusing the first time, however it grated more and more with every single use, and by the end of the book i wanted to hit something. 
 To be fair to this book i am going to rate it as best i can for its child to teen target audience.

 The book is a collection of true ghost encounters from Australia, while some cover a few pages others take up a single paragraph.
 The book has a good introduction, and i should mention i suppose that the book does deal with ghosts and therefore mentions death a few times, as with everything, if you are concerned about younger readers, be a responsible parent and read it yourself first, and discuss it after you have both read it. There are no pictures in this book at all, though some pages have a pattern (as seen in the above photo).
 The book covers haunted houses, ships, theaters, hotels, islands, barracks, prisons, hospitals, roads and even a haunted toilet.
 There is a section on ghost animals including  horses and cattle in addition to the usual dogs and cats.
 Other topics covered include Indigenous spirits, 'guardian angels', ghost hunting, spook (min min) lights, ghost towns, phantom hitchhikers, animal PSI, possession and old hag syndrome.

 There is a short frequently asked questions, but sadly;

 "Why are you trying to make 'spooxperts' a thing?"

wasn't one of those questions, my personal conclusion is that it wasn't included because there is no excuse as 'spooxperts' is an unjustifiable abuse of the English language.

 The book closes with a glossary and some references. There is no index!

 OK so all joking aside, this is a decent book, i can see myself reading this in mid to late primary school maybe. It might have been nice to know there were other haunted houses in Australia. Its simple to read, doesn't get too dark and should peek a child's interest in exploring the subject more. Personally while i can understand not putting the home addresses in the descriptions i would still have liked to see times, dates, and names, some of the places described have been destroyed so why not give there locations. And it has no index, how can any book of this nature be published without an index? 

 I would recommend this book to younger readers who have an interest in the paranormal or are experiencing a haunting, books of this nature focusing on Australia are not too common so anyone interest in Australia or its history might also find this book a launching point to further research.

__

Remember always expect a skeptic to be skeptical of everything, not just what they don't want to accept.

Drop Bear Growls

Review: Closets are for Clothes

Closets are for Clothes

A history of queer Australia 

 

Author:                               Rachel Cook

Publisher:                           Black Dog Books

Type:                                    Soft Cover

Pages:                                   147

Genre:                                  non-fiction

Published:                            2010

ISBN:                                   9781742031040

 The book itself is well made. I did notice a few (only two) errors however these were seen in extracts from letters and diary, so they may have been included to retain authenticity. As mentioned the book has many accounts of the history of Australia from those who lived it, sadly there are only a few black and white photos within the book.

 Pages from book

 This book is an exploration of LGBT life in Australia from "colonization" onward. It is a pity that there is no information within about LGBT life before invasion. Though i have a feeling that this is because such information is difficult to access if it even still exists at all, and not necessarily a whim of the author. Lets take a quick look thorough with some commentary on what i thought were some of the highlights.

 The book begins with some praise by notables including The Honorable Michael Kirby and nice introduction
 Chapter One deals with the first non-native Australians, the convicts. We see lesbian marriages taking place way back in 1792, now that's traditional. We learn that sodomy (oral or anal sex) was punishable by death or transportation (to Australia), though it is noted that only gay men were prosecuted for sodomy. This must mean that a considerable number of early white Australians were indeed gay, indeed there is much evidence of homosexual couples living as married in the colony's. The homosexuality was so prevalent (and distasteful to snobbish British eyes) that it brought about the first calls for an end to transportation.

 Chapter Two we learn that gay men also came to Australia as free settlers seeking a better life away from the prying eyes of family and harsh judgement of the law. We take a look at some gay bushrangers, as well as early works on the fact homosexuality was a natural part of human sexuality.

 Chapter Three We hear a lot of the 1950's fear of the other, and it is sad how much these sentiments mimic the hate spewed forth by racists and homophobes today. You may be forgiven if you think the author was in error and accidentally published pages from the One Nation website in the wrong section, but no 1950's bigots and 2016 bigots are just playing to the same darker aspects of humanity.

 Chapter Four looks at life after World War Two.

 Chapter Five examines the sham that is aversion therapy as well as the treatment of homosexuality as an illness and its failure. Because even then they knew the problem wasn't homosexuality it was homophobia.

 Chapter Six shines a light on a dark era of Australian history with the targeted harassment, and entrapment of Gay men by government forces. It is also incredible to think that we were once so barbaric as to have made it illegal to have been born a 
homosexual male. It is amazing how humans thought they were above the laws of nature.

 Chapter Seven deals with the 60's and 70's with topics ranging from the white Australia policy, the Kinsey report, the burgeoning gay rights movement, and the forming of what would become the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

 Chapter Eight takes a look at feminism, and AIDS. It is interesting to note that despite the vilification and hate of the disgusting Fred Niles (and his ilk) the LGBT community helped Australia become a world leader in dealing with the AIDS crisis.

 Chapter Nine shows us some gay people becoming famous and some LGBT characters appearing on television. It looks at inclusiveness, transgender issues, adoption, IVF, and the fight for equal rights. As well as the horrible act of John Howard changing the marriage act, in order to nullify existing LGBT marriages and prevent more, he did this disgusting thing without a plebiscite mind you. We also see that about 70% of homophobic bullying experienced by young Australians happens at school, which shows again how important initiatives like the Safe Schools anti-bullying program really are and how immoral it would be to oppose them.


The book ends with an extensive glossary, timeline, index and ample references. 

I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Australian history, law, civil rights and LGBT issues. It is easy to read and should be in every school library history section. The book really needs an updated edition but is still a good reference from 2010 and back.

Also check out The Sex Lives of Australians for more on this topic.

 
 

Its trash Day: Sonia Kruger

Its trash Day: Sonia Kruger

 

 Sonia Kruger is apparently a 'media personality', i had to look it up as i preferring my news unbiased, i don't actually watch much commercial television.

Sonia Kruger made derogatory comments in 2008 saying:

 "Let's just say there's a sweatshop full of illegal immigrants working on them right now,'' Kruger said before referring to Lim, the show's Malaysian-born musical director.

"How's the family, Chong? All right?'' 

The station apologized without reservation for her offensive comments.

 It seems she may have learn her lesson about trivializing the plight of sweatshop workers and immigrants, but unfortunately she has turned her attention to religious discrimination.

 Sonia Kruger has called for the scrapping of the Australian constitution and the ban of Muslims entering Australia. She wants our country to do this because she is frightened of tourism. her uneducated comments were apparently inspired by an Andrew Bolt article, she might fell better if she didn't read that anymore and got her news from more respectable sources.

 For those who are lucky enough to not know who Andrew Bolt is, he is a radical right commentator who has widely been criticized for quoting leaked  intelligence documents, being a stolen generation denier, publicly defaming a female magistrate, racial discrimination against Aboriginal Australians, and his homophobia.

 Back to Sonia Kruger, she has now added LGBT children to her list of enemy's. She has attacked the one scholarship that was designed for an LGBT year 10 student. She seemed to be implying that people can not make a person disadvantaged for being LGBT. With the recent attacks and neutering of the Safe Schools anti-bullying program it seems scholarships like this one are even more necessary. She seems visibly pained by the idea of a young LGBT person getting a fair go.

I do wonder if she is also against scholarships based on race, gender, or economics?

I am also left to wonder just how serious she is about opposing terrorism when she carries on in such a homophobic manner, has she so quickly forgotten the Orlando Pulse tragedy? 

No you really cant be both, you cant be against terrorism and for homophobia.

 I can speak from experience, at my high school i was forced to the deputy's office every morning and told i wasn't welcome at the school, i was told that i should leave. I spent many days in 'the room' (isolation cell) and was eventually refused a school certificate, at least in part due to my sexuality.

Can you guess which disadvantaged minority she will attack next?

 Some Statistics:

61% of LGBT youth experience homophobia.

18% of LGBT youth experience physical homophobic abuse. 

80% of Homophobic bullying of youth happens at school.

LGBT youth are three times more likely to experience depression due to the homophobia in our society.

Further Reading:

Sonia Kruger Anti-LGBT youth comments.

LGBT facts. 

Sonia Kruger Islamophobia. 

Media Personality.

Sonia Kruger racial remarks. 

Andrew Bolt

Andrew Bolt Homophobic

All About Andrew Bolt