Deep suspicions have been triggered, and it will be interesting to see if this features on media watch this week.

While watching SBS one’s advertising guard is down, the usual scepticism which filters television’s ‘current affairs’ programs is placed on the coffee table with the remains of that night’s dinner. It was therefore a vulnerable audience who last night watched an imported American commercial dressed as a news piece, which told of Mcdonald’s plans to have free Internet and squishy coaches in it’s restaurants.

The drawn out footage of a shiny new look Maccers, and light hearted debate on what the food chain really meant to random individuals was a confusing slightly channel Seven style finish to a news night which was dominated by the unrelenting terrors of Iraq and Sudan’s Darfur region.

So is the infiltration of advertising on SBS already spreading meaningless and misleading information like a disease through a once healthy channel?. What does the commercialization of SBS mean for the viewers?, maybe our Bull Sh*tometers should be set to turn on when SBS is on as well as all the other stations now.

Even if a reader was unaware of the despair seeping out of Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, the morbid quote from Corman McCarthy at the start of the article was a clear warning that tragedy would unfold within the lines which followed it:

“He said that journeys involving the company of the dead were notorious for their difficulty but that in truth every journey was so accompanied”

There is however nothing which could prepare for the shock unveiled in the fourth paragraph, which begins…;

“There is no avoiding its immediate cause: on November 22 last year, Sula’s wife Rita bashed their 21 year old son, Jerry, senseless with an axe, then used it to kill their daughter Connie, 15, before dousing the house with petrol and setting it alight”

The placid descriptions in the first three paragraphs lull the reader into false sense of calm, which in turn deepens the effect of the revelations in the fourth paragraph. Once the reader has reached the fourth paragraph there is no turning back, you are hooked.

The journalist, Frank Robinson, very effectively captures Sula’s grief, not just through emotional quotes but descriptions of the physical appearance of his misery:

“Charles Sula appears strangely burdened – as though gravity may have singled him out”

“There is no bitterness in Sula’s tone, only a weariness so pervasive it crushes the inflection of his words”

Interestingly Robinson even brings his own presence into the article on a couple of occasions. This works well, as his awkward appearances in the story effectively symbolise the inability of the Australian people to fully understand the scars these people carry. The feature addresses the difficulties faced by Sudanese immigrants in adjusting to life in Australia and the failure of the local community to really connect with these new comers despite some good intentions. This divide manifests itself in the brief exchanges between Robinson and his interviewees:

“He breaks off covering his face. It’s my turn to look at the wall. (an enraged owl I hadn’t noticed before glares back from it’s tiny portrait above the mini bar”

“I find myself blurting out an invitation for him and his son to visit me in Brisbane. He smiles and grasps my shoulder, yet we both know he won’t come”

The feature begins and ends with the story of Charles Sula, which gives the article a comfortable neat feeling. Furthermore, this return to the tragedy of paragraph four provides a powerful finish.

They sit upright, but partially submerged. Every now and then as the water shifts with the suggestion of a wave, a few of them plop down onto there shiny bellies and paddle around each other. They stalk the space inbetween others like predators ready to pounce if and when the water surges up into a face, down which they can slide and glide escaping the trappings of the crowd.

It is a strange ritual to witness, comical even. At a distance they are tiny their black regiment moving as one, like jungle ants.

The feature draws you in by opening with a controversial topic; the rights and opportunities open to women in Arab countries. The description of Sara’s exciting modern lifestyle is juxtaposed to the Egyptian farm girl’s existance and this striking comparison is a strong lead.

“Sara El-Gamal had been in Egypt just three days when she came face to face with how her life might have been, had fate taken a different course. A “typical Aussie kid” who grew up in Sydney’s southern suburbs, the 31-year-old had spent her adult life roaming the globe in search of adventure, snowboarding, dirt biking – anything for an adrenalin rush.

Now, however, in a tiny mud hut on an impoverished farm in the Egyptian countryside, she found herself sharing tea with a teenage girl with no education, no career and nothing to look forward to except the chance that a suitor might appear to rescue her from a life of drudgery. “Suddenly, it just hit me,” recalls Sara. “This could have been me if Dad hadn’t migrated. I could have had that life, stuck there in a mud hut, just waiting, minding the cow and the goat. It was scary.”

The lead also constructs the conflict which will be central the whole article: The conradiction created between the western experiences of the Australian citizens and the vastly different traditional cultures which are part of their heritage.

This conflict is a personal one for the four people who are profiled in this article, and is therefore approached from four different angles. It is however also some thing which links these four Australians and fits into one big narrative. This narrative is the individuals persuit of a better life, and this idea is refferred to repeatedly in the article.

The feature explores the family background of each character and by doing this, gives the narrative a feeling of progression. The reader is taken on a chronological journey and thus given the feeling of movement or travel, as is the topic of the feature.

The language used is very basic and often veryAustralian; “a typical aussie kid”. This adds to the conflict or contrast between the character’s home in Australia and these exotic locations which are part of their history.

The article is very readable, mainly because it has a real narrative feel, with a beginning middle and end and provides interesting and colourful insights through anecdotes into the four destinations.

 As armies of thonged feet tramp past, the motionless reptiles emerge from the illusion of their camouflaged. Their yellow eyes catch your own for a split second before they disappear once more.

It could the damp oppressive weather drawing them out from the undergrowth. As if they can not breathe among the lush green leaves which constitute their homes. Instead they prefer to rest their underbellies on the cold lifeless stone of the path, waiting to be disturbed by the inevitable onslaught of student traffic.  

Was there a point behind all that energy expenditure? Maybe there was a spider celebration or insect only carnival just out of sight, behind the line of browning encyclopedias. Or maybe, the bookcase provided a possible starting point for a fantastical new place of residence for the spider. A web strung glistening between the A to C volume and the light fixtures. Who knows.

“A Muslim women took the helm of Amnesty International just as terrorists too out the World Trade Centre. Stephanie Bunbury talks with Irene Khan about human rights post 9/11”

The bulk of the feature provides a very interesting insight into Irene Khan’s career, it does not however step outside this into her personal life which leaves the reader wondering about this women’s deeper motivations.

The impression this article gives is that the interview was a defensive one. It seems the Jounalist, Bunbury, is struggling to get a more personal perspective on the life of a Muslim woman dealing with Human rights abuses. It is however clear that Irene gives little personal insight and sticks to the hard stuff.

“We stay right on message; her secretary sits in , recording the entire interview in shorthand”

The only point where the article seems to reveal something more of the personal qualities of the subject, feels a little forced:

“She read the Koran. She read, along with the rest of the Empire’s children, Enid Blyton. “That’s right!” she says, her face lighting up. “The Famous Five, The Secret Seven and all that!” It is a momentary glimpse of what I suspect is the at home Irene Khan, who likes to cook great feasts for her family and sit at the dinner table all night.”

Interestingly, Bunbury relies on multiple Bloggers for perspectives on Khan:

Legions of bloggers damned her as “witless apparatchik”, a “dime-a-dozen loon”

“Those issues, however, were not half as rousing as her “propaganda for al –Qaeda”, to quote another blogger.”

The feature lacks a real connection with Irene, she was obviously a difficult person to profile and not willing to give away to much of herself. As a result the article is interesting from a political perspective but not a personal one. There is little emotion in the article, which leaves the reader feeling a little isolated from the suject. What we do learn is that Irene Khan has a hard job, she clearly faces a huge amount of criticism and this in turn would make her relationship with the press and strained one.

“Amnesty… was an organisation that once knew the meaning of the word ‘gulag’”, wrote columnist Anne Applebuam in the Washington Post. “Amnesty also once knew the importance of political neutrality……I don’t know when Amnesty ceased to be politically neutral or at what point its leaders’ views morphed into ordinary anti-Americanism”. The widespread accusation was that Khan was predictably hard on Americans and soft on “her own kind”.

 

Khan is painted as an unfriendly interviewee; who speaks “crisply” and who could “roll with any number of punches, she is small, compact and resolute”

Although Abrupt this approach works well in the context of an online publication. As online readers are less likely to have the time and level of concentration as a newspaper reader.

The journalist Leslie Cannold is by-lined in this piece which is essentially opinion based. Leslie lays out a social debate for the reader, inviting them to join with repeated use of rhetorical questions.

“So what should be done when the values we hold about cultural and religious diversity, and our beliefs about equality between the sexes, collide?”

This ‘collision’ or conflict provides the back bone of the article, and around this examples and opinions are brought in. The article is jam-packed with information, which could be expected from an academic writer. There is little descriptive colour to the piece, accept the odd dig at male politicians:

“Certainly it was the first time many Australian feminists heard the fair, fat and 50-ish men who run the nation even mention the word feminism, little less in such impassioned and unequivocal tones.”

This article does, however make use of other sources, mainly academic. Schollars and politicians break up the voice of the author, this gives the article a detached feel. The reader is left wondering what individual women think. This shows the limitations of opinion based features, which in this case despite being well researched lack the insight of a narrative of real life experience.

The closest the feature comes to touching on the real poeple involved in this debate is very brief and cold:

“A story of an Indian student facing a forced marriage that would preclude her graduation from high school. While the 17-year-old admitted that her parents’ decision had “messed up” her dreams and plans, leaving her “tormented”, she bristled at her teacher’s suggestion that she might resist. “In our religion, we have to think of our parents first … I will do it the Muslim way”.

This story is just a minor part of the feature. It was however, the most interesting part. The debate comes to life fleetingly in these lines before returning to the dry opinion of the rest of the article.

This opinion based feature focuses on a fascinating topic but leaves the reader wanting real life experiences to bring it to life. Although this is the nature of opinion pieces and they still provide a good read if only to find out more about the journalist, who in this cased has written many articles about multicultural issues, most notably To Hijab or not to Hijab?

What women do or do not wear has always been debated. More is less, less is more, to cover up or to bear all?, liberation or exploitation that is the question?. To any young girl this can be a minefield of possible fashion faux pas, to a Muslim girl however, whether or not to cover up is a personal decision which is increasingly taking on wider political connotations.

There is a wealth of current debate all over the world regarding the role of the traditional Muslim Hijab in multicultural societies. In a post 9/11 world many traditional Muslim practices have been brought under suspicion, and this modest form of dress has become a political tool:

“it [The Hijab] is bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult. It was such a visible statement of separation and of difference.”said British politician Jack Straw this week.

So why does this piece of cloth supposedly offend the sensibilities of so many? Would Mr straw be equally uncomfortable having a conversation with one of the teenagers who has decided to cover their whole face with a pair of ultra hip super sized sun glasses? Surely clothing is up to the individual regardless of their reasoning?

“The extent to which modesty manifests in Muslim’s style of dress and its form, depends on a number of factors such as personal choice and interpretation” say The Islamic Women’s Welfare Council of Victoria.

For Muslim women in the Western world veiling is about choice. This choice is however not just about how they interpret this commitment to their god, but also shopping for the Hijab which compliments their features. There is an increasing market for online fashion stores catering to muslim needs:

“This website is exclusively devoted to those women who believe modesty is beautiful and good. In our line of garments we are presenting all western style clothes, taken from mainstream fashion, which meet the Muslim guidelines of modesty”…………
This feature would aim to address the Hijab at a more personal level, and therefore take it out of the political sphere and into the context of the women themselves. The feature will look at the history and definitions of the multiple head dresses, what they mean to the individual and also take a look at the Headwear fashion industry, such as Headwear Heaven and Hijab fashions

It would be interesting to get some different opinions from Muslim Women’s groups ,such as The National Muslim Women’s Network, on the westernization of the Hijab through fashion stores.

The Muslim human rights commission provides some interesting stats on the Hijab and who is wearing what.