Everybody slow down, take a deep breath, and think…

It's time we all stopped running around and slowed down for a bit. It's time that we realised that having pride in the end result often means taking a few more steps to get there. It's time that our media and our politicians realised that being faster isn't necessarily being more efficient.

I'm not a huge fan of mainstream media these days. Check out the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald website (a once reputable news source) and you'll find stories of celebrity scandal, and innocuous events that are written to invoke a reaction, but don't actually contain any content. A noticeable exception to this has been the ABC News website – which has been responsible for producing factual and interesting news stories for some time now. But even they are not innocent of the desire to produce fast and punchy news stories.

I've been following some of their latest stories on the latest media sensation that is Twitter. Boy, when the media gets a sniff of something that is considered in vogue, they do hang onto it with both hands. Recent stories on this most popular of topics have included Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tweeting for advice on whether to see Julie and Julia, and a bunch of Twitter users complaining that their iPhone alarms don't work. Still, this isn't as bad as the doyen of trashy Twitter stories that the Sydney Morning Herald supplied us with: Kevin Rudd tweeting about eating a biscuit. Apologies for the atrocious pun, but I'd hardly consider that a cracker of a information worth spending time on.

Twitter is an interesting and foreign topic to many, no doubt, but is this really the best manner in which to cover it? How about the various ways in which politicians use Twitter – some effectively to increase interaction with the community, others to produce token efforts that they are in touch with technology and youth (no fingers pointed, Uncle Kevin)? How about a story about whether Twitter and other social media is improving our inter-personal relationships or lessening them?

Garnered by my dismay at reading these stories, I wondered to myself: “What could be the possible reasons of this onslaught of poorly planned and rushed stories?”

I'm sure there are many reasons but I can think of two off the top of my head:

1. The lack of sub-editors is leading to less control over what kind of stories are being published
2. The 24 hour news cycle is driving an increased push for quicker and more regular stories, but not necessarily more informative stories.

The second point is worth expanding on. You may recall recently the recent trials of Dennis Ferguson, a convicted paedophile who had been relocated from Queensland to a quiet, family suburb in Sydney's North West, only to have vehement and vindictive local residents in uproar over his placement. This is an entirely fascinating topic in itself, but in the week or so that this story was big news, no less than 7 news articles over the space of 24 hours was published by ABC News. Now really, can there be that many developments over a 24 hour period that justifies 7 separate articles?

Even worse than this was the response to this dilemma from the NSW State Government, who conveniently changed a previous law which stated that they were unable to relocate criminals such as Ferguson. This can only be described as a knee-jerk reaction to the Housing Minister David Borger's previous statements that Ferguson would be quickly relocated, only to find out that, bugger – I don't have the legislative power to do that.

So what we have is media overproducing stories, a housing minister rushing out a statement that he could not actually back up in practice, and a State Government making policy on the run to compensate for this frenzied activity.

The question remains – is this rush of ADHD-like behaviour in media and government a product of society's demands for a quick response, or is society being influenced and conditioned by media and the government to act this way? In reality, it's probably a little bit of both.

Unfortunately, rushing around and trying to produce results before they are ready can only lead to one thing, and that is disaster. We need politicians who are able to provide foresight further than the next election, and media who don't act like excited little schoolkids passing on the most recent bit of gossip.

Twitter, Advocacy, Folding Bikes and the NSW State Government

I attended my first Green Drinks in July at the Climate Change Exhibition at the Australian Museum. It was very inspiring and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I just wanted to share an experience I had recently which is very relevant for the next Green Drinks, considering it concerns bikes and green behaviour.

As someone who has recently started taking the train to work, I noticed at the start of the year that you had to pay a child's ticket for carrying bikes on during peak hours. What irked me even more was the there was no differentiation between a folding bike and full sized bike. So around March, I tweeted our Premier Nathan Rees on Twitter, asking him why this was the case when many folding bikes were able to be carried as a small piece of luggage. Another point was that you could carry large items such as a double bass or suitcase on there for free. My point was that trains heading away from the city were often half empty, while roads were constantly choked, and maybe this was because people couldn't get access to the trains without driving or getting buses.

At the time I had received a phone call from the premier's office about another issue with our work funding, so I used this opportunity to remind them that I hadn't received a reply and to push my own agenda with the folding bikes. The guy who I spoke to happened to be in my class at uni, and promised to follow up on both issues.

A few weeks later he approached me to tell me that they were considering a policy on folding bikes, because they actually thought more people might use the trains this way, and their revenue might go up, rather than down. Funny that.

On Wednesday when I walked down to my local train station, to my complete surprise, I saw this sign (which has probably been there for a few weeks already). Success!

A couple of footnotes:

To me, this illustrates the changing way in which technology can be used to access government on many levels. The old way of doing things which involved letter writing to the admin department, having that processed and maybe getting a reply 3 months later is out.

In this particular case, the fight is not over yet. The actual policy is full of holes. Firstly, you supposedly need to put your bike in a carry bag (God knows why) which I'm pretty sure no one will do. Secondly, the size dimensions are not as generous as the ones in Victoria, which means that certain bikes may be excluded from being acceptable.

Finally, I now need to go out and buy a folding bike. Not only is this policy (hopefully) decongesting roads, encouraging greener behaviour and exercise, but it's also stimulating the economy!

Weh Yeoh is a guest blogger at the World is a Playground and the esteemed classmate of the blog's owner.

Beyond Race

I GREW up in a small town in Terengganu and enjoyed the liberty of running wild and free with my bicycle, and my brothers and my friends. My world was small; it revolved around the town and its people, my family, and my Nancy Drew series collection.

When my father took me along on his business trips to Thailand or Singapore, I played with other kids as the parents sat together and talked business. Life was easy and uncomplicated, and I don’t remember pointing out differences between other people and myself.

It was only when I went to school that I learnt that boys are off-limits, and good girls pray, read the Quran and wear tudungs. There were no children from other ethnic groups or religion in my religious boarding school.

After 10 years in this environment, I’ve forgotten they existed. For a long time, they were simply etched in the background of my life like white noise on television. I was indifferent and uninterested to differences.

What dominated my mind at the time was how to become a good Muslim, how to please my parents, and how to become the best student sitting for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM).

What matters was living in a Muslim community, working in sincere piety for my religion, and fending off temptation.

Not the same
The first blow came in my pre-university years when I learned how religion is not a guarantee to good sense and company. When a Chinese family friend offered me a lift from the airport to school when I first arrived in Kuala Lumpur, she received nothing but rude scowls from the college security guard.

“What do you think you’re doing, not wearing tudung and wearing skirts around?” he pointedly said as he stopped the car.

I was burning with shame and anger, and what was worse was that I didn’t even have the guts to defend my friend.

The incident opened my eyes and shook my world. A question suddenly dawned on me, “What’s so special about me now? What makes me different than other people?”

In between reconciling with what was real and what was not, between getting frustrated with certain people and being simply myself, I began to shed my outer shell and embrace the world as if it’s a whole new classroom.

Suddenly, I saw things differently. Suddenly, I recognised the presence of my fellow countrymen who (despite our differences) share my dreams and hopes. I said to myself, “there are so many great things and great people out there, how come nobody ever told me about them?”

Celebrating differences
I tried to learn many new things. I tried to move away from conventions thrust on me, and tried to see how things look from different perspectives. Unfortunately, not many people share my enthusiasm.

While people from my own religion and culture labelled me a rebel who is too liberal for her own good, people from other cultures thought I’m just another Malay girl who has everything ready on her plate. While people from the village said I’m too Westernised, people from the city saw me as not being progressive enough.

In the end, I got tired of trying to fit in and fled to Australia to further my studies. It has been almost 18 months since I boarded the airplane with relief because I thought I’d be able to finally chart my own course. But I am still a misfit in the local Malay community because I live in a house with students from different countries, I live with men in my house, and I live with non-Muslims.

But who cares whether you’re a Malay, Chinese, Indian, Arab, or Punjab? Who cares whether you’re a Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, or Jewish?

I don’t. I accept that we are all different. I understand that my parents sent me to a religious school in the hope that I could go through life with the best education about life and society; something they didn’t get a chance to do when they were younger.

I did not regret going to a religious school, or burying my nose in books and magazines in search of all things to clear my confusions, or being perceived as different to many people – the experience has brought me where I am today.

But if I was given a chance to turn back time, I’d ask my parents to send me to a national school where I could be friends with children from different races.