“That’s so gay” Back in my school days, everything was gay. Science class was gay, bumbags were gay, a chip packet missing a Tazo was gay. Of course, no one says that anymore. In this day and age, it’s frowned upon to use gay in a derogatory way. Or really to mean anything other than homosexual, even if the original meaning of the word was … Continue reading Is political correctness impoverishing or enriching our language?
The difference between a celebrity and an influencer I’m not sure when we stopped using the word celebrity in favour of the word influencer, but I feel like it happened around the time Instagram took off. It seems that once you have several thousand followers, you’re an influencer. Which means you’re kind of a celebrity. Which means you’re famous. Which means … what exactly? For … Continue reading Under (or over) the influence
Cool Ridge has an ad campaign with the tagline “When you can/When you can’t”. It both offended and intrigued me. And it got me thinking about the ethics of bottled water and why we do (or don’t) good. Continue reading The bottled water ad I keep thinking about
Leadership I’ve written previously about the first time I was told that I had demonstrated leadership. It was both surprising and super gratifying – for most of my life it has not been a word used often to describe me. You see, I am a beta kinda girl. When other people make comments about my leading well, they mean it as a compliment – as … Continue reading Lost in leadership: why we need to talk about following well
Sometimes I wish I was good at Twitter. It would be proof that I’m not just intelligent but super witty and have something to say about the state of the universe. There may be no “I” in team, but there is definitely “wit” in Twitter.
If I was a tweeter, here’s what I would tweet
Here are a few things that have crossed my mind to tweet but never made it to the Twittersphere … Continue reading To tweet or not to tweet?
Safe enough to thrive I read Greta Thunberg’s UN address today and I’m glad I was looking at the transcript rather than the video. The words alone, sans any added emotion in her delivery, were jarring enough. Sure, it was designed to be a slap in the face to dawdling political leaders. But while I agree we need to take stronger action to counter climate … Continue reading Angry enough to be free, safe enough to thrive
I first discovered that the Melbourne Cup was a Big Deal when my kindergarten class ran our own sweepstakes. There was no money involved, of course, and I don’t recall watching the race, but every 5 and 6 year old in the class drew a small piece of paper from a Danish cookie tin. Thus were we each assigned a horse. Being a very rational … Continue reading A Big Deal? Melbourne Cup memories, millennials and Michelle Payne
I stumbled upon an interesting website this week. In the wake of the failed plebiscite and planned postal vote on same-sex marriage, there’s so much noise around the issue that it really wasn’t hard to run into The Equality Campaign. Titled Having a conversation about marriage equality, this particular page struck me because it was so, well, familiar. “[R]eal life conversations are incredibly powerful. They’re what … Continue reading Converse and convert
I’m halfway through my commitment to match my charitable giving with my alcohol spending.
See how much I’ve paid for booze so far. And see which charities are going to be better off for it! Continue reading Half-time: the benefits of alcohol
The other day after work, I was flowing with the peak hour crowd down Anzac Parade, when I witnessed something awful.
An Aboriginal man was heckling and shoving an East Asian man. The Indigenous guy was yelling obscenities and things like “Go back to where you came from!” to the suited up Asian guy, who was trying, literally, to shake him off. That was Awkward thing Number 1.
People just watched. And did nothing. That was Awkward thing Number 2.
By people, I mean mainly Asian people. The University of New South Wales appears to be predominantly Asian, even the law faculty – a contrast with the College of Law at my own alma mater. That was Awkward thing Number 3.
And I did nothing because, frankly, I’m both Asian and female. I actually thought I might get hit. That was Awkward thing Number 4.
It made me think about how Australia is not the place I thought it was when I was little. Continue reading Australia: Not the place I thought you were
