Dear Canberra: WHUT? Just... whut?

Dear Canberra:

I thought I had adjusted. I rejoiced whenever the temperature exceeded 15 degrees celcius, and regarded four or five degrees as perfectly normal. I went to Sydney and laughed at the people on the streets shivering in 18 degree weather. I barely used my thermal underwear, despite my early-season panic.

I thought we had come to an agreement. Spring was boding well.

As I speak, the temperature has not been *below* fifteen degrees celcius for 48 hours (at 7.30am on the 31st, in fact). It was over twenty degrees at 8am this morning! And humid!

Nolove, leaving you for your stormy sticky sister Sydney as soon as possible,

Amy

Oh NO YOU DON'T

Does anyone else get the GetUP emails? Today's email, concerned with the treatment of asylum seekers and the perception that the Australian population is xenophobic, irritates me.

Firstly, it advocates changing community perceptions by talking to family and friends - while at the same time insisting that the Australian community is not xenophobic. Logic, please. Either the community at large IS xenophobic, and we should be talking to people and working on changes of opinion; or it's not.

Secondly, the organisation offered, via a link embedded in their email, a factsheet on asylum seekers, refugees, and Australia's immigration policy. So far, so good.

Except that when you click on the link in the email, you don't get the PDF I just linked you to. You get this page: not a petition, as GetUp pages usually are, but instead a pledge, asking you to

Pledge to do your part to bust the harmful myths about asylum seekers, by spreading the truth to your friends and neighbours.

The link to the actual factsheet is buried in-text, and the biggest text on the page is "PLEASE ENTER YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS". I don't know about you, but I thought at first that I'd have to enter my email address to receive the facthsheet, and I suspect many other people will too.

OH NO YOU DON'T, GetUP. I call foul. You know who else purports to offer information and resources on their topic of interest, and then springs you with pledge cards enjoining you to "do your bit", with big vague calls to changing cultures and destroying harmful things, before you actually get to the information? You know who else seems to think that the inherent value of their information isn't enough to change people's practices, and feels the need to spring emotive pledge drives on people who come looking for resources?

YEAH. I BET YOU DO.

I may or may not have a use for the information in your factsheet when engaging in conversation about asylum seekers, but I have no more use for your pledge form than I did for the chastity pledge card.

You all really want to know what I had for dinner, don't you?

Yes, yes you do, because it was awesome. S and I got Lucy's mum to give us her recipe for chilli and pine-nut pasta, and then we did things to it. And added chicken, because S's boything doesn't believe in meals without meat.

( FUN WITH PINE NUTS )

All due credit to Lucy's mum!