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The Art of War

March 11th 2008 01:33

500 years before Christ's birth Sun-Tzu in his legendary military manuel, The Art of the War, stated

'There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.' - Art of War, Chapter 2, Paragraph 6.

Sun-Tzu

Sun-Tzu was no douby right then and is no doubt right now. However, little has changed after 2500 years of world history and still much of the world lives during times of war.

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Posted By: Barlow Redfearn - Category: No Category

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The Top 10 Films About Journalism

February 12th 2008 09:20

Recently the Gawker compiled a list of the 10 films ‘that made you want to be a journalist’ and the idea of a list dedicated to the films, which either feature a journalist/newspaper man or comment about the media industry, was one that struck me as very specific and very interesting.

The Greatest Film About the Media

As a writer and journalism graduate whose favourite thing in the world is watching films I was naturally curious about seeing the films selected for the list. Having then read list and realising that there were some stunning films left of by the Gawker I then decided to come up with my own list.

The title of the Gawker list is, ‘the movies that made you want to be a journalist’ but really when you see the films featured on the list and the ones that I featured on mine you will see that they are generally films which look at the media and the journalism profession as an industry of corruption, vainity and moral bankruptcy.

Citizen Kane, La Dolce Vita, Sweet Smell of Success and even a film like Broadcast News - famed for its glorification of news corporations – all feature lead characters that suffer terrible fates and become corrupted by power.

Journalism like any profession of power (lawyer, politician, police officer etc) has been the inspiration for many brilliant films and I’m sure the inspiration for many successful journalistic careers. However, there are still very few quality films made about the media industry that make you want to sign up for a reporters job with News Limited.

Anyway, here is my top 10

1. Citizen Kane (1941)

2. La Dolce Vita (1960)

3. His Girl, Friday (1940)

4. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

5. All the President’s Men (1976)

6. The Philadelphia Story (1940)

7. Network (1976)

8. Good Night and Good Luck (2005)

9. The Killing Fields (1984)

10. Almost Famous (2000)

the gawker list is linked above - have a look

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The 10 Most Important Australians

February 8th 2008 01:03

In 2003, political journalist Craig McGregor devised a list of the top 10 most important Australians. Lists like this are obviously incredibly subjective but it is nonetheless a very interesting selection of personalities.

Our minds run wild when thinking of important Americans, Britains and Europeans but who are the people who have had the most profound influence on Australia?

McGregor states in the lists preface, ‘These Australians, whatever you may think of them, have had an enormous impact upon this nation. That's why they are important and why they comprise the top 10.’ Here is McGregor’s top 10 – who would you have in yours?

1. Ned Kelly
You've got to start with Ned. He's the great, iconic figure of Australia - a tragic, confused but brave-hearted man who, in many ways, sums up the history of this contradictory continent.

The no.1 Australian

2. Sir Donald Bradman
The Don. The greatest batsman ever, probably the greatest cricketer ever. What more do you need?

3. Germaine Greer
A heroine. A pretty strange one: idiosyncratic, a deliberate controversialist, as likely to hit you with a distorted exaggeration as a profound insight. But she is also highly intelligent, radical, irreverent, sexual ... an in-your-face Public Intellectual. Maybe she's what public intellectuals should be like.

4. Rupert Murdoch
Love him or hate him, he bestrides global media like a colossus. After the US president, he is probably the most powerful man in the world - and even the president depends upon him to manipulate the masses in his favour.

5. Cathy Freeman
What a triumph! Not because she is a great athlete - which she is - but because of what she surmounted in her personal life: born to a struggling Aboriginal family, confronting the endemic racism of a Queensland coastal town, lacking anything in her background that might have given her confidence to take on the entire world.

6. Barry Humphries
Australia's greatest living satirist. Also, possibly, our greatest living misogynist? Or even our greatest living misanthrope?

7. Emily Kame Kngwarreye
A dignified desert-dweller who was born in 1910 in Alhalkere country, near Utopia, and didn't even begin painting on canvas until she was an old woman.
What astonished the art world, however, is that in subsequent years she produced work in radically differing genres, which virtually reimagined some of the major movements of the 20th century: pointillism, abstract expressionism, colourfield and even op-art.

8. Slim Dusty
A national treasure.

9. Bruce Petty
Cartoonist, filmmaker, animator, installation artist, illustrator, writer - there isn't much Bruce Petty hasn't done.

10. John Howard
A bit of a surprise, perhaps. But prime ministers are important; he may be the most reactionary and divisive prime minister Australia has had, but Howard has also had an enormous impact on Australian society.

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Nobel Prize Ruined in the 21st Century!

February 6th 2008 01:19

The Nobel Peace Prize is probably the most prestigious award a person can receive.

The prize, awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Institute, is an annual celebration of the person or persons who have the most positive and profound influence on the progression of mankind

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proud to write this as the first topical posting

January 29th 2008 03:35

Australia's reformist and progressive community has been waiting for our government to formally apologise to the nation’s Aboriginal community for the last 15 years.

I am proud to say that this is finally going to happen. Australia’s new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has told the Australian people that his Labor Government will be making a formal apology to the nation’s Indigenous population on February 12.
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a new perspective

January 29th 2008 02:09

This blog aims to provide readers with an insight into global events and issues which are generally not covered by the commercial media. I live in Australia, so the blogs perspective will of course be that of an Australian, but by no means will it be written solely for Australian readers. It is for anyone who is interested in politics.

The news industry in Australia, and virtually everywhere else in the world, is nothing more than a business enterprise. It is concentrated in the hands of too few people and is generally so void of important content (except for a small handful of organisations) that it does not even fulfill its primary function of keeping people informed. Opinion and feature writing allows journalists/writers to expand on ideas and look at complex issues in sufficient depth. Issues that are worth reading about are generally only addressed within the mass media in a brief and fleeting manner instead of examined in the depth they deserve

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