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Multiple recent studies have linked alcohol advertising with children drinking alcohol earlier, and at dangerous levels. On Wednesday 10 October 2018, Australian sporting legends and leading public health advocates will rally together to launch End Alcohol Advertising in Sport, a campaign calling for an end to alcohol advertising in our major sporting codes.

A number of Australian sporting legends have joined the ranks of End Alcohol Advertising in Sport, a national campaign endorsed by the country’s leading public health and medical organisations.

The official End Alcohol Advertising in Sport campaign Ambassadors will be revealed at the campaign launch event on Wednesday 10 October in Melbourne’s iconic sporting precinct, Olympic Park.

Multiple recent studies have linked alcohol advertising with children drinking alcohol earlier, and at dangerous levels. A new report to be released at the launch will again highlight the proliferation of alcohol advertising during the 2018 football grand finals.

Australian sporting legends and End Alcohol Advertising in Sport campaign

So I'm down here in Van Nuys right now -- at an Islamic trance-dancing convention of all things. So this morning I go into a Sufi-like trance and what is the first thing that crosses my mind? How much I hate all those hundreds and hundreds of new-car commercials we always see on TV. What a waste of a good trance dance!

And what a waste of good TV air-time too.

Here we all are, living on a planet that is about to extinguish all human life here by choking us to death with all the rings and layers of air pollution that currently circle the earth -- and the only thing mankind can come up to hopefully solve or stop this desperate and scary crisis is to bombard Americans with hundreds and hundreds of commercials to go out and buy yet even more new cars? Cars that are causing this desperate and scary crisis in the first place?

That is not thinking outside the box. That is a death wish.

And now I'm about to go off to have dinner at a famous Jewish delicatessen in Encino, about six miles away. And I'm gonna walk there!

PS: Are you aware that some sleazy Israeli neo-colonialists have just sold some sleazy Saudi Arabian neo-colonialists a bunch of bunker-buster bombs -- which the House of Saud immediately went out and dropped on helpless civilians in Yemen? Apparently Yemen has become the House of Saud's equivalent of Gaza.

And are you also aware that the Saudis, in order to stop relief ships loaded with medicine, food and toys from landing in Yemen, have totally bombed and destroyed the port where the ships were supposed to land? This war crime would be the equivalent of that if the House of Saud didn't want relief ships to dock in California (perhaps after watching the movie "San Andreas"), they then blew up the entire Port of Oakland.

Talk about your air pollution!

I guess that I should just be grateful that there aren't any ads for bunker-buster bombs or bomb-dropping airplanes on prime-time TV.

So far.

NOTES

The painting in the illustration is by Mahmoud Said. Mahmoud Said was a central figure in modern Egyptian art, born in Alexandria. He is called the “father of Egyptian modern art.” He abandoned his career as a court judge when he turned fifty to dedicate himself to his art full-time. His paintings are much sought after by collectors. A museum dedicated to his art has opened in Alexandria.

The subject of this painting is the ecstatic whirling of the Sufis or dervishes of the Mawlawi (Mevlevi in Turkish) order that follows the teachings of Jalal al-Din Rumi. For more on this mystical order and its practices, see this site.

First posted on Jane Stillwater's blog at http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2015/05/climate-change-car-commercials.html

To many, xmas has become an annual social pressure. The thought of each looming xmas heralds anxiety and stress and an imposed orthodox dogma. To a great number it brings on depression.

CEO of beyondblue: the national depression initiative Leonie Young says:

"Christmas can be a very stressful time with the pressures of selecting gifts, preparing food and entertaining family members. Many people look forward to this time of year only to face an anticlimax if their hopes aren't fulfilled" [Beyond Blue].

Xmas means complying with religious ritual and cultural expectations. It is a Christian superstition that has an irrational hold on millions. It imposes unnecessary costs and many are compelled each year to rack up credit card debt simply to comply with and somehow fund the over-evangelised 'time for giving'.

The Church evangelises its conformist message across the land - 'thou must partake in the xmas ritual, or else feel guilty about ignoring Jesus's message. Such guilt-laden conformity to a traditional orthodoxy denies head space, so who needs it?

Retailers evangelise its 'shoppist' message across the land - 'thou must partake in the xmas ritual, or else feel guilty at the 'annual unwrapping'.

Retailers and their advertisers cash in on the guilt trip and profit from it. But the whole 'chrissy' splurge is unnecessary, decadent, wasteful. It is harmful financially and its consumerism is harmful to the planet.

Xmas excess is so 20^th C!

A liberating alternative

Xmas comes at a time of year when really the fundamental need of most people is to simply relax, kick back, share quality time with valued people of choice, and perhaps review, reflect, forget, chill and get one's head space into a happy state and perhaps helping others. No dramas!

Instead, 'Rest and Recreation' (R&R) although derived from American military culture, is so much more aligned to the real human need this time of year. The end of year period should be set aside for rest and recreation - what ever that means for each person, family, friends and culture.

Bugger the dogma, the guilt-laden complying to religious dogma, the gifting, the unaffordable excesses, the overeating, the shopping congestion, that invasive 25^th deadline. Bugger the retail super profits! More and more are waiting for the January sales anyway. How liberating!

Surely society has matured enough to question why we do it. R&R deserves to replace xmas. Replace gifting with catch up and with 'me' time. The rest of the year is inflexible and typically demanding. This year end break need not be. It should a time of flexibility and personal choice and mental health.

R&R (or perhaps the 'chill season') is a more mature thinking. It is free thinking.

The universal test is that year end ought to be a time to look forward to. If xmas has become a time not to look forward to, then question it, stay away from the shops and take well needed R& R instead. One only lives once and life is too short!

Happy Holidays!

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria 3885
Australia

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