Fellow_Human,
Thanks for the info from Egypt and FGM. I wonder if that Government will enforce the ban on FGM, or turn a blind eye like our State Governments do. Its bad enough to see kids suffer from things like cancer, but preventable suffering from sexual abuse and FGM is unexcusable in my book. Probably nothing will be done here until the media takes up the cause after a tragety.

If you hear of anything further on the matter let me know via this General section.

Hi Banjo,

Thnaks no problems, will email you articles as I find them.
I started a new discussion re elections:

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1152

This is who to vote for in the up coming elections

www.sep.org.au/statement.html

F.H....the challenge is not so much to have more debate in the media.. its about making it:

a) Entertaining. (we don't want to die of boredom)

b) Commerically viable.(after all..they only exist by advertizing bucks)

"Hard Talk" is a good example of both I think.

But there are other ways to get serious issues into the spotlight.

Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Colbert Report. with Stephen Colbert (alias "messiah")

Fox has taken the hint here and brought in the "Red Eye" as a kind of copy of the above.

Leave the dry boring stuff for the ABC... commercial stations can only survive if people buy ads... which means there has to be more effort made in the 'packaging'.

cheers mate.

The media are heavily influenced by American culture and Christianity at the moment. At the core of American culture and Christian values is the principle is to preach and to follow direction. There can not be tolerance of a diversity of ideas. There is no room for listening to others in order to develop knowedge and gain information to make an informed debate let alone good decisions. The reason is Christianity like all religions is myth based and so the spread of knowledge is dangerous to its 'wizard of oz' structure, like wise its authority is based on a specific style of interpretation of fiction and is vulnerable to the exchange of ideas that is synomonous with a free world. American culture is a consumer culture and so to sustain it it requires a 'take it for granted' approach that advertising is directing the consumer in his/her own best interests.

This is why modern Australian newspapers tend to be little more than ignorant editorial drivel ( a couple are worst than the others)and television has been hijacked by church groups dictating what we can and cannot view as adults, to the point of stacking contestants in game shows to proliferate future propaganda potential.

Many of us have been to a quiz night.

The best place for public debate is a public gathering, contact your local government or cafe or pub owner and host a debate in your local park, pub or cafe. Publish a short franzine or blog page of the minutes. Sounds like a good way of getting to know your locals and exchange ideas.