I got Polled

I have always wanted to experience being Opinion Polled on politics (sad! yes I know). Growing up in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, AFAIK, we hardly received phone calls for opinion polls. Now that I have settled in a middle-about suburb, we must be within the pollster demographics / geography. I missed the previous two calls but it was 3rd time lucky.

ACNielsen was conducting a not-so-maybe-so random phone poll on politics, current affairs and entertainment. Interestingly they were conducting multiple polls coupled with a marketing survey. Note: I choose to separate the opinion polls from the marketing surveys eventhough they can all be viewed as product preferences.

The first poll was about the preferred Prime Minister in the aftermath of the Bob Carr retirement. The questions were about John Howard vs Kim Beazley vs Bob Carr.

The second survey was on anti-terrorist crime prevention measures. Questions were about Shoot to Kill orders, National ID cards, CCTV Cameras in public places and the Detention and Deportation of terror suspects.

Finally the marketing survey was for the struggling cinema industry. The questions focused on the choice of films, cinema audio / video quality, pirate films, importance of customer services, etc.


Also, on polling and the outer suburbs......

As I mentioned previously, political polls were a rare occurrence in the outer suburbs. For all I know the rest of the family may have answered the phone when the pollsters rang but I had my fair share of the phone and cannot remember a single political poll. There were the usually annoying telemarketers but I've always wondered what kind of people they rang for opinion polls. Back in the day the outer suburbs were Labour strongholds, I wonder if this was a cause as it may have lead to lopsided poll result.

Lately however these suburbs have changed as the political compass has moved in the direction of the Liberal party. Some attribute this to the rise of the Aspirationals and their McMansion housing estates. I would also venture to say that there has been a rise in the number of people reaching maturity and paying off their home-loans, feeling a sense of economic security and taking an interest in, and feeling an affinity with, the (neo?)liberal political discourse. Interestingly, many migrants initially settle(d) in these suburbs.

ABC on CBK

A quickie...arrived home last night only to find an interview with the Iron Lady of Sri Lanka (their words not mine) on an ABC TV program called Foreign Correspondent. The ABC is our version of the BBC and usually do a good job. The story and the streaming video (RealMedia format) can be found here. It was followed by a story on decorative coffins.

An interview with CBK seems to be an annual event in the Oz TV landscape. Related in someway to this is Indi's blog about CBK's games with the constitution of SL.

A meme of books

Morquendi tagged me couple of weeks ago with the book meme. Finally got around to having some blogging time. How can this be a meme? It's sent out with intent unlike memes that spontaneously evolve through social dialogs. If anything its viral meme.

Total Number of Books I Own:

Currently the bookshelf contains about 150+ books, leaving out the books from my teenage days and library borrowings. I also abuse the work printers periodically on books from Project Gutenberg and the net. I was addicted to reading as a kid involving weekly trips to a small lending library in the backstreets of Nugegoda and regular visits to the second-hand bookshops near St.Josephs ( can't remember the area ). Oh yeah, these guys always offered overseas prOn mags from behind the counter. I lost interest in personal reading during the early years of migration and uni but thankfully recovered it afterwards. Don't get to read as much as I would like to and I need a new bookshelf.

Last Book I Bought:

   Liberalism in Australia - need to know more about Oz history.

Last Book I Read:

   As Above

Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me:

These are not the favourites (some are) but they have equally contributed from different perspectives.

1. Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder

2. On Liberty - John Stuart Mill

3. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas S Kuhn

4. Foundations of Computer Science - A V Aho & J D Ullman

5. The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson

Tag Five People And Ask Them To Do This On Their Blogs:

   Anyone over at kottu.org

Is.....

…one man’s terrorist another man’s freedom fighter ?

If they lived in a village in Darfur,
If we disagreed with our own,
If some are starving in North Korea,
If we were Tutsi in the 1993 of Rwanda,
If our right to vote did not exist,
If your mother caught a train to London today,
If she was a black living in apartheid,
If your lover worked in the fateful twin towers,
If his house was demolished in Zimbabwe,
If her house is still a Tsunami tent,
If our son is killed in a Redfern chase,
If my religion leads to a correction camp

While I sleep on the way to school,
Will you be justified?

Another attack,
Another sign of the times,
Few thoughts many questions

It’s 10:35 PM and the preacher on TV is Rohan Gunaratna