Not a good time to get sick

It's the middle of MSA election strategising, time to get The NLC Link out, and have a law group meeting tomorrow and I spend most of the day in bed with some sort of food poisoning (I think?). That would explain the ... erm... ok, let's not get into details here.

That's just annoying cos I had to cancel today's policy session with my caucus!

But now I'm better and I guess I'll be up all night working on law...

and I'll be working on policy speeches for feeders tomorrow... and getting whatever I can get done for network.

*sigh*

I guess if I were a local student who was able to defer courses for a couple years I wouldn't have to work as hard...

But as they say - work hard, party hard ... and don't sleep (- ok, that was my addition)

By the way - for anyone who has read this far - Mother Teresa said a beautiful thing:

"Let us always greet each other with a smile for the smile is the beginning of love"

MMN pics and more...

the international ball (Monash Multicultural Night)


if I didn't know better, I'd say this is a fight between lefties and libs at NUS annual conference / or a human tug of war? / why are me and Krishna being pulled apart / ???


It's strange seeing men in suits party...


rickyyyyyy!!!


after party at mercury lounge - just chilling with the boys


life through a wine glass as reflected through an espresso machine

For more where those came from - mail me!

Coming up in NLC-Link: A Preference In Discrimination

The international student faces two types of discrimination on coming to Australia: The overt and nationalistic neo-Nazi and the institutions themselves. Institutionally, the discrimination comes in two linked, yet distinct forms: the legal and the economic. Which is worse? The overt or the institutional?

Since the demise of the Colombo plan in 1986, international students have paid full international rates for their tuition in Australia. Competition between states has meant that the ‘smaller’ states have had an incentive to attract more international students by lowering their living costs and attracting them by offering concessions on travel and other ‘carrots’. The ‘big’ states, on the other hand (read: Victoria and New South Wales) have had no such incentive. They are perceived as the centres of Australia, and the majority of students choose to come to these states.

On top of all this, a 20-hour work limit for international students means that while an international student is paying higher fees than any local student up-front, they are unable to work the extra hours to off-set this imbalance. Universities are required, under the ESOS Act, to provide certain services to international students so that they can become a registered ‘CRICOS’ provider – meaning they can accept international students. Although the ESOS act makes no such requirement, the majority of institutions have implied an allowance to charge more fees to international students as a result. Brendan Nelson has been quoted saying “universities would still be able to charge international students services fees as this was a requirement under the CRICOS [sic] act” .

So what of the international student who does try to off-set this balance? Mandatory visa cancellation. In one case , an international student was taken from his house in a singlet after it was raided without a warrant. He was taken to a detention centre and told he could leave given he could pay a bond, but then denied a phone-call to request that his sister pay that bond. He was charged with working 22 hours in one week out of an entire year (his boss had requested that he stayed back a little longer because a colleague was unable to make it to work). His representatives managed to keep him the distinction average student in the country to finish his studies – based on a technicality, not on the injustice of the actions of DIMIA officers. As DIMIA argued in the case: “It doesn’t matter if you work one minute extra – it is the same thing. It is mandatory cancellation.”

Arguing that there is such a thing as an Equal Opportunities Act that forbids discrimination in the provision of goods and services seems to do no good in the fight against this institutionalised discrimination. And who do we argue against? The staff at the counter? They are the ones that care, but are not given the funds to dole out more than what the university will give. So, as an international student, more often than not, we are to take the institutional variety of discrimination. At least with the ‘usual’ variety, we can all shout and hurl abuse at a common enemy.

Check out this link for more details: dimia v alam

a fruitloop - totally nuts!!

I've decided to detox for a while and become a fruitarian ... maybe for a couple weeks? Maybe for a month? We'll see how that goes... I'll have to make an exception this Sunday because I promised to make lunch for the boys who are helping me move - and I think for any balls I attend I'll have to stick to just veganism cos I don't think I'll get very far explaining fruitarianism to the chef...

But otherwise, here's what I've read on it:

The fruitarian diet consists of RAW fruit and seeds ONLY!

Examples of fruits are: Pineapple, mango, banana, avocado, apple, melon, orange, etc., all kinds of berries, and the vegetable fruits such as tomato, cucumber, olives; and dried fruits such as nuts, hazelnuts, cashews, chestnuts, etc.. And seeds including sprouted seeds.

The Fruitarian lifestyle includes avoiding all cooked food and consider it non healthy for the individual and pollutant to the environment, causing unbalanced nutrition, all kinds of disease, mood swings, cravings for synthetic nutrients and chemicals, decrease of vitality, loss of external beauty and loss of inner happiness, depreciation for life and lack of wisdom. All of these consequences we can identify very well in modern civilized societies!

fruitarian.com

Fruitarians (or fructarians) are a subgroup of vegans who eat only the fruit of plants. This includes not only what one typically thinks of as a "fruit" in the culinary sense such as apples and oranges, but also other foods that are botanically the fruits of flowering plants (that is, the seed-containing reproductive parts), including berries, nuts, seeds, capsicums, tomatoes, squash, beans, peas, and so on. There are different variations of fruitarianism. Some fruitarians will eat only what falls (or would fall) naturally from a plant—fruits, seeds, nuts. Others may eat all biological fruits. Grains are usually accepted, as they are conventionally harvested by cutting down the plant. Most fruitarians are also raw foodists.

* Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis.
* There is evidence that the Essenes were raw foodists and fruitarians. Some scholars even believe Jesus to have been an Essene and practiced a fruitarian diet, although this contradicts the mainline Bible.
* It is believed Leonardo Da Vinci was through evidence left in his notebooks. One comment he made was:

"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men."

* Mahatma Gandhi in his later years.
* Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer, was during the 1970s:

"I was actually a fruitarian at that point in time. I ate only fruit. Now I'm a garbage can like everyone else. And we were about three months late in filing a fictitious business name so I threatened to call the company Apple Computer unless someone suggested a more interesting name by five o'clock that day. Hoping to stimulate creativity. And it stuck. And that's why we're called Apple."

* The fictional Eloi from HG Wells's The Time Machine. Note: These were not fruitarian for ethical reasons but were forced to by the Morlocks who took all of the animal-based products.

en.wikipedia.org

Hmmm... should be a fun challenge :)

Also, started Yoga yesterday... quite famliar with a lot of the excercises because of meditation... but hey, a little bit of instruction is always good!

Monash Anthology

Yay! I got in to the Anthology Editorial team!! Hmm... I'm gonna die this semester (or just not sleep) - (a)National Publications Officer for NLC, (b)Negotiating the international ticket as the MSA elections are coming up, (c)moving house (again), (d)campaigning for the abovementioned ticket (e)and doing two law and two arts subjects... at this workload rate, most local students already defer their studies :(

The pains of being an international student, huh?

This semester will be hectic - but should be fun!

Little Sand...

Victorians Strike Again

I'm impressed. The party goes on even after conference, with the Victorians out clubbing again, looking after each other and generally having a great time with each other. Go team!

Congratulations to all MUOSS people who have moved on, and all the incomings who I'm sure will be a dynamic team!

And La Trobe... I'm coming there next Thursday na!

Morning blues...

'...future looking strange...'

'...encumbersome...'

'...caught up with an old friend yesterday, here's a picture...'
'...full-time student politics...'

'...balloons are sad...'


'...then my dad said...'
'...only ... for tax purposes...'

'...grandfather is not well...'
'...water in the candleholder...'




...nora....

friends first, then colleagues!