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arsisto.bsky.social
Journalism lecturer, writer, Talking Indonesia, Melbourne Press Club, PhD on horror + digital culture + ethnography I also write and think about food, identity, colonialism, monsters and racism
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In many industries, DEI is not a ‘nice thing to have’ but a crucial requirement for survival and growth.

Here's an e-mail that just went out to NASA agency wide. 🔭

In Indonesia, after human rights violator Prabowo was elected as president, I saw Ibu Maria Sumarsih, the activist who lost her son in the 1998 violence, simply continued with her weekly Kamisan protest. That’s also when I thought: this is not game over, this is game on.

In Australia, news organisations and universities have retreated into their safe zones. Ones that have supported calls for social justice in the past became silent on Gaza. Ones that have profited from employing migrants and international education fell silent in the face of racism and xenophobia.

Bishop Mariann Budde reminds me of the compassionate and courageous Muslim teachers I had when I was young who steered me away from the world of deep hate to one that is open, kind & loving. Trump is like the hateful Muslim ‘leaders’ who wanted to recruit me to their cause for their personal glory.

We’re getting a DNA test for this beautiful old dog, Nina Van Horn (15 years old). We have no clue about her mix. We know one highly possible breed but the rest is a mystery. Result will be available in 2 weeks. Does anyone want to play a game and guess her mix? Will post result when it’s done!

I just moved to a well-built concrete apartment building in Melbourne and guess what: in consecutive 40 degree days, no air conditioning was required. The apartment remained cool, around 25-30. This is in a north-facing apartment with floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors that get afternoon lights.

Good journalism is important but we often confuse the acts of publishing, storytelling and journalism. Journalism is not the same as publishing or storytelling. Most people have access to publish information. Many can tell stories convincingly. Neither requires journalism.

"Given the frame of our inquiry - decolonising knowledge for development - these experiences and observations suggested to us that story-telling is a particularly appropriate method to use in this case." @idsglobaldev.bsky.social's PeterTaylor in our latest blog www.developmentresearch.eu?p=2096

One of these White Australian Olympians is unlike the others: Steven Bradbury, Peter Norman, Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn.

do i really want to read these and why is it that Apple news is trying to push these to me

Imagine if there was a professional sport worth billions of dollars where the game can just stop because it rains

BREAKING: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been impeached by the country’s National Assembly over his attempt to impose martial law, a move that plunged the country into political turmoil aje.io/mdyo2e

I don’t know why but a website called ‘Nangwizard’ providing a page about how to make fresh whipped cream is really really funny

Sharing my little exchange from the other website. I've only just written it, and I don't have the space to deal with trolls today, so I'll log off. But it's so bloody annoying and hypocritical that people like Babet are asking others to be polite and quiet when it comes to accusations of racism.

Seems very odd someone can be found by a federal court to have acted in a racist manner, yet it remains "unparliamentary" to refer to them as a racist. Even more absurd when that somebody is the leader of far-right political party. www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

The Canadian writer Madeleine Thien just donated the entirety of her $25,000 Writers’ Trust of Canada award to charities, including to Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and the Lebanese Red Cross. I have not read her books but will now buy every single one. www.instagram.com/reel/DCsIuQL...

I'm a board member of the Melbourne Press Club. Last year I was VP. This is to say: as a brown man, I know how to navigate the White spaces of Australian journalism. To an extent. I also know where the brick walls are, where Whiteness are maintained; and I also know where the good folks are.

Hello! Yes I’m now here but I’m also still on Twitter. I’ll be there until all the lights go out. Most of the warm gathering places there are gone but there are still some of us warming our hands on the embers of good memories, hiding under bridges while trolling some of the annoying people there.

This year, three of my journalism students in Australia separately pitched stories exploring ‘ethical stealing’ in a time when living costs are soaring so high that people are stealing from supermarkets that have been making so much profit.

❤️ my swirly son. Also his swirly back is from his gentle lazy beautiful golden retriever mum which is his temperament 90% of the time. The rest of him is an unknown energetic protective barky zoomy athletic farm dog dad which is him when he hears someone knocking on the door.

Many Australians are experiencing food insecurity for the 1st time. Meanwhile, corporate profits (including supermarkets’) are hitting record-highs. I’m not an economist but it’s clear a large amount of money has been shifted from workers to corporations. www.sbs.com.au/news/article...

Just had a nice lunch with extended members of my Australian family who hold various ideological persuasions. Just want to send out a warning to those preparing for Christmas gatherings: yes, be ready for your uncles aunties and cousins. They WANT TO and WILL talk about politics.

omg just used Descript to edit a podcast episode and it’s bloody awesome 👏🏽 never realised how good it is to be able to see the words as I edit

Which culture in the world do you think encourages its people to think too much about food on a daily basis? Happy to hear what you think but the only correct answer is Indonesian.

Katalin Karikó was the daughter of a butcher. She wanted to be a scientist, although she had never met one. She immigrated to the US in her 20s, but for decades never found a permanent position, receiving little support from the scientific establishment. Now she’s a Nobel winner!

My first iphone was an iPhone 3 and I’ve been hating its autocorrect function for a long time but it’s only now, on an iPhone 13, that I turned it off. It feels weird. Kind of freeing. No scribbly interlocutor following my words, judging and fixing my words like a little busy bee protecting its nest

Recently realised that most young people today don’t know the pleasure of disappearing for a few hours after school; no one knows where you are, just you, your mind, your deep feelings and the wide streets and the big world.

‘I’ll sit outside, get a bit of sun’ - me, realising I am now a White Australian and no longer an Indonesian

Fifteen of my books are apparently being used to train AI without my permission using the Books3 dataset. Fucking hell.

Reading some comments about the Voice on a Facebook page for Indonesian migrants in Australia and it’s nice to see some anti-colonialism solidarity there. People who simply say: we were (or are) colonised, too, so it’s a yes from me 🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽

I’m still thinking this through, but we journalists have played a part in creating this circus of respectability and trustworthiness based on how it looks and sounds. Now I think we have to actively shape ways of packaging news and information that’s closer to the way people talk to each other.