Vintage face Sydney, where will it end?

 

Indonesian proverb once says, “a good nation is a nation who respect their history”, and it is the first thought that came up on my mind when I arrived in Sydney. There are a lot of very old buildings in Sydney, and it lives side-by-side with the newer building built in the modern days of metropolitan Sydney. This is another face of Sydney that I would like to explore, a good old Sunday morning around the Rocks area, which is the first place that impressed me in Sydney, instead of the Harbor Bridge and Sydney Opera House, no offence to Sydneysiders. However, with the people more concerns with global warming and making Sydney a sustainable city, what would happen to these beautiful buildings?

 

This is a slideshow of old buildings in the Rocks area, where everything seems to stay the same since the first glass of beer brewed in this area. It should be the reminder of all the Sydney people, even though these building may not be pass the sustainability standard, it is still the part of Sydney city, another side of Sydney face that is beautiful. This is where the Australians should learn from the Indonesians, to respect one’s history is to be one good nation, and I believe Australia is a good nation.

 

Head On: Another face of Australia

 

Australian Centre for Photography is lucky enough to host the Head On portrait exhibition this year because the exhibition and the competition have been amazing.

May 1^st 2008 was the opening day of the exhibition where 42 finalists and 130 photographs are shown in the gallery. And this exhibition has showed me another face of Australia, the ordinary face of Australia.

Clever Moore, the Lord Mayor of Sydney, opened the exhibition. “In a city obsessed with celebrity, it is refreshing to see portraits which speak about the community and precious individuality,” Clover Moore said.

Social impact and ordinarily are the theme of competition and the exhibition. A portrait of ordinary person with extraordinary impact on the society is likely to win the portrait competition.

This side of Australian face is represented by three portraits that won the award that night, which are Brendan Esposito’s portrait of two children sleeping roughly under a blanket, Richard Kendall’s portrait of two men being treated in Alfred hospital with bubbles on their head, and Tobias Titz’s portrait of an indigenous man where his life experience can be seen through details of his face.

“If it’s a strong images, than it is there,” Moshe Rosenzveig, the founder of Head On, said to conclude the night and to present the other side of Australian faces.

The Faces of Anzac Day

Cruising Sydney City at 4 AM in the morning has opened my eyes recently. I was there on my way to the ANZAC Day Dawn Service. I have never been to the dawn services before.

On the way, I’ve seen the two faces of Sydneysiders. One is the drunk people whom at that time still on the street struggling to get home just because it feels hard to walk straight. Two is the people I saw in Martin Place during the ANZAC Day dawn service.

The first thought when I arrived in Martin Place was why on earth there were so many people there. This is another side of Sydney people that I’ve seen on the street a few minutes before. They were there to commemorate the deaths of Australian soldiers and Gallipoli specifically.

Even though it was 4 AM, cold, and starting to rain, the people who were there felt as it was nothing. That was what I believe as Australian nationalism.

And because I did not know that there would be so many people, I could not get closer to the ceremony and I only could take photographs of the crowd. The thing I regret was Kevin Rudd was there and I could not see him, but I could only hear his speeches.

 

Sokwanele amongst others

The most interesting part of this blog is the sidebar that listed all the other blogs from all over Africa. This means that the Internet has created an unseen link between African nations and maintains communication of issues around Africa. Africa has become a forgotten continent where people living under impossible condition. And this is where the technology of blog and Internet takes a big part of changing the condition.

 

Just say, someone would access the This is Zimbabwe blog, and manage through the sidebar into other African nations’ blogs. It makes them aware of what happens in Africa and not from the eyes of western world. This is an alternative medium. For some people, blog would be another place to write their diary, but to Sokwanele and other African bloggers, it is a place to shout to the world and let them know the real African story. Blog has become another bar for African people to meet and chat about their side of the story.

Sokwanele’s steps into Zimbabwe

 

This is Zimbabwe, as a blog, has maintain the currency in its writings. The most recent posts have always about the campaign before the election, the election, and the issue within the election. However, since this blog has been maintain since 2005, far before the election and the tension in Zimbabwe, Sokwanele has been able to created a media for Zimbabweans to receive more information and analysis on living in Zimbabwe.

 

The topics range from economy into human interest and even Rhino conservation in Zimbabwe. As a blog, Sokwanele has become an alternative media for Zimbabweans to know better what is happening in Zimbabwe. Within those range of issues, each posting has one specific purpose, which is to criticize the Zimbabwean government. Oddly, a posting about Coca-Cola could be a critic on the Zimbabwean government. The posting said that Coca-Cola is rationed in Zimbabwe, and why such government who ration Coca-Cola could stay in power.

 

The early posting of This Is Zimbabwe all are about observation. I believed at this stage Sokwanele has not tried to be critical with the government and just tried to be an observer of what happened in Zimbabwe. An early posting, “Courage at corner of 23^rd ave/plumtree Rd”, observed a number of people with MDC’s flag in the side of the road.

 

This is Zimbabwe

A blog maintained by Sokwanele, a Civic Action Support Group, from Zimbabwe is the blog that I chose to look at and analyse. The recent blog posts mainly discuss about the Zimbabwean election, where it was started with peace but now it has entered a critical situation. However, this is still an on going issue where it has taken the world’s eyes into Zimbabwe.

The blog has been maintained since March 2005, and continue to manage the blog with frequent postings over the years. The blog’s sidebar has links to other similar blogs from other African nations. It has its mission on the sidebar as well, which is a people’s movement that embraces pro-democratic society. Photos from Zimbabwe have also put in the blog’s sidebar.

The postings themselves have a clear language and with one focus each posting. However, most of the postings are really long, but it comes with great details of the event. For instance, the post on 8th of April 2008 titled “An eyewitness account of election in Zimbabwe” is written with details and sequence of what happened during the elections, it took the reader to witness the elections themselves. Sokwanele has also maintain communication with the reader with each postings has at least five comments. Sokwanele has also linked the posting to numerous international news media outlet, such as BBC News and SKY News.

The one when it’s all start..

This would be a beginning of a blogging journey in the name of justice and truth. A journey of insight, analysis, and photography..