shanemcdonald.org

Happy Australia Day to all my friends in Australia … Rachel, Michelle, Clare and all the gang in Sensis in Sydney.

To celebrate Australia Day I’ve just uploaded a picture which I took on Australia Day back in 2004.

In a recent survey of litter in ireland, it was found that Irelands  cities and towns are now cleaner than they have been for many years – thanks to better awareness from the public, more bins and a huge effort from city and town councils.

However, some pedestrians and motorists ignore bins and drop cigarette butts and food on the streets.

Litter Report 2008

The 2008 National Litter Pollution Monitoring System report found that Cigarette-related litter formed 46% of street litter and food packaging & Sweet wrappers making up 17% of all litter.

For some reason, cigarette smokers have some sort of ignorance when it comes to litter. Cigarette Butts also contain over 4,000 toxins which can kill birds and fish – so why, when finished a cigarette do smokers flick their butt into the streets – in a “F**k it, someone else will clean  that up!” attitude.

Smokers should be fined for doing this – after all it is litter. If they are not fined then there should be a 10c tax on each cigarette in a packet to pay for butt clean up.

Butts in Australia

In Australia, cigarette butt awareness is something which is pushed quite a lot. On beaches, and in cities, signs tell you to put your cigarette butt in the bin.

Some examples are shown below.

Cigarette Butts - Signs in Australia

Naming and Shaming

I think Ireland may have to Name and Shame pubs, restuarants or outlets which don’t encourage smokers to bin their butts when finished smoking.

The 10 Step Test

Try walking 10 steps in the city without seeing a cigarette butt on the ground – it is almost impossible.

Review of  Australia

Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman in an ambitious but entertaining epic by Baz Luhrman.

Set in Australia at the beginning of World War II the film starts out, introduced and narrated by a young half Aboriginal boy.  The story is not overly complex, English Lady’s husband as gone to Australia (Oz) to farm a cattle ranch and she goes to Australia just as war is breaking. I am not going to spoil the story but the film is a tale of how Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) hires the aid of a drover to move her cattle to the port of Darwin for sale while passing near a competitor cattle ranch. One the way some disasters strike, war breaks out, and Lady Sarah tries to save the young boy from separation.

The story is somewhat predictable, but ties in the Wizard of Oz and also modern and recent Australian history. Although in parts the story gets a bit slow, (it is a long film), its not a bad film.  Some of the scenery is CGI enhanced or in the case of 1940’s Darwin, totally computer generated, it doesn’t look too bad.

The young boy’s thick Aboriginal accent is a bit tough to understand but you do get used to it.

The film is not a classic, its a bit long, a bit predictable, but certainly a good watch.

Overall Score : 7/10