In+the+Media

=__** In the Media: **__= ==== Some of you may choose to share your //In the Media// articles by pinning them to our classroom board. This is another option for you, so you can share your articles online. Feel free to **comment** on articles posted, however remember that **courtesy and respect** needs to extend to the online world, too. ====

__//LETTER TO THE EDITOR//__ =**Hardly a recipe for productivity**= SO EMPLOYER groups are dissatisfied with the plan to be released by union groups that outlines protection for casual and temporary workers (Business slams casuals plan, //The Age//, 15/5). My heart bleeds for them. Casual workers are not only penalised by the very nature of their work insofar as they have no real sick leave, annual leave or job security; casual workers are unable to source loans or mortgages, and sometimes on the bottom of the list in the rental market. There is often the unspoken threat that if their work is not consistently above average they will be replaced by the next person. It is a fool who thinks this makes for a healthy, productive workforce in the long term.
 * Gainore Atkins, Altona Meadows**

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ //__OPINION__// =**We can communicate clearly, but who listens anyway?**= MY GIRLFRIEND didn't believe me. "Did you really say that to your students?" she asked incredulously. "They're first-years in their first week!" It's true. I had sounded like a dark and overripe Mr Chips. Earlier that day I'd just held my first class in politics and communications. I thought some heavy advice was in order. "You're born in a cage," I started ominously, "and you'll stay in it because there'll always be a gap between your experiences and the words you have to describe them. More, you'll only ever be able to occupy one skull - you'll never completely know what it's like to think or feel like somebody else." Fresh but troubled faces turned towards me, inducing a crisis of confidence. Perhaps this monologue was best reserved for those scotch-fuelled 3am sessions with friends and nicotine. But I had to continue. "But you can enlarge that cage by developing ways to communicate and your confidence to do so. That starts with expanding your vocabulary. The strength - and intimacy - of your relationships in life will largely depend upon your ability to express yourself warmly and precisely." In truth, I was just paraphrasing my tutor from my first class nearly 15 years prior. His words had stuck. But I failed to mention the heartbreaking coda: that it might not matter terribly, because few of us listen anyway. The fear of being misunderstood induces our anxiety. But it happens every day. Confusion, inarticulateness and self-absorption conspire to render our gestures, speech and, yes, newspaper columns unrecognisable upon reception. Yet clear and precise communication is no safeguard. We rightly celebrate our bustling marketplace of opinion. But behind its clamour are prejudice, pettiness, entitlement, suspicion, hostility and frustration. Such things are the principal constituents of our political discussions. This is what we are. And it means we squander some of the blessedness of our democracy because we do not truly engage. I'm happy for people to disagree with me, but to disagree with someone you first need to have engaged. To have engaged with them, you need to have listened. And to have listened you need to have made a decision to be aware of all of the calcified selfishness and suspicion that colours what you see and hear. And then you need to ask yourself: what's being said here? What's this really about? In my experience, this rarely happens. It's a disturbing moment when you realise that it doesn't matter what you write and how clearly you write it, people will take it a thousand different ways. I once wrote a piece about the callousness of my moral superiority as an undergraduate - and was called a neo-fascist and warmonger. I wrote a piece about the psychology behind our politics - and was called an apologist for John Howard. It's chastening to think of our great marketplace of ideas as a lame tragicomedy of people talking over each other in breathless cycles of misunderstanding. Perhaps we are hard-wired to misunderstand each other - as the late David Foster Wallace wrote, each of us is "the realest, most vivid and important person in existence". We're also built with the self-awareness to try to correct that tendency. Before you cut off your friend, or post a comment, meditate on your own baggage and how it might distance you from the beating hearts all around you. Read more: [|http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/we-can-communicate-clearly-but-who-listens-anyway-20120516-1yr2b.html#ixzz1v4xn5Myw]
 * Behind our marketplace of opinion are prejudice, pettiness and hostility.**
 * Martin McKenzie-Murray is a former Labor political speechwriter.**

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ //__VICTORIAN NEWS__// =Human roadblock not police policy: chief=

Nathan Partenza
May 16, 2012 - 1:06PM Police who ordered civilians to [|**form a human roadblock**] to stop a speeding driver remain in their jobs despite failing to follow correct procedure, Victoria's top police officer says. "I've been briefed about this situation and to be perfectly frank, the circumstances that have been described to me in no way, shape or form conform to our policy," he said. "When I see members of the public put in positions of danger, it causes me significant concern." Mr Lay would not say whether the officers involved would be disciplined, but said they would stay in their positions until a review of the incident is complete. Learner driver Madhawa Mapa was hit after being made to form part of the human roadblock. He said he would await with "great interest" the findings of the report, which he expects in the next 30 days. "I watched TV last night with a great deal of concern when I saw a father and two children articulate a story about being put in what I consider a very invidious position and dangerous position," Mr Lay said. "From what I understand of the circumstances of that interception, it has no relationship at all to the Victoria Police policy. Motorists - including one who had two children in his ute - were told to block all lanes of the Hume Freeway to halt a speeding motorist who was driving erratically following a failed police pursuit. The incident occurred about a kilometre before the Western Ring Road, at Epping, on Saturday morning. Premier Ted Baillieu said he was "surprised and concerned" to hear of the roadblock but said he supported police pursuits. "I think that the Chief Commissioner has made it pretty plain that this is not something that anybody expected and we need to do that review and [determine] exactly what's happened," he said. Chief Commissioner Ken Lay today said it appeared the officers involved in Saturday's roadblock - where drivers on the Hume were asked to blockade a section of the freeway - failed to follow normal procedures. Read more: [|http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/human-roadblock-not-police-policy-chief-20120516-1yqam.html#ixzz1v4wgVEFF]