New OUTRadio Service

I have been kind of busy lately, preparing for the launch of a second radio station. At present, OUTRadio broadcasts 24/7 with music from the 1970s through to the present, and on Sundays, was broadcasting various talk shows.

From February 3rd 2007, the shows will have their own station [OUTRadio 2] which will also run on a 24/7 basis. I’ll be also adding new ones upon launch, and gradually expanding the service. In addition to the on-air shows, there will also be GLBT TV shows to view as well as on-web articles to read. So the second site will be more of a portal than strictly a radio station.
To help expand the audience of the new station, I am looking for new shows to add as well as offering FREE ON-AIR advertising to GLBT businesses. On-site advertising is strictly by reciprocal arrangement [ie, I’ll carry your banner/button ad on the site, in exchange for one of ours]. Anyone interested, please visit www.OUTRadiomedia.com for more information.

In the meantime, stay tuned. Keep an eye out for the announcement on both www.OUTRadio.com.au and www.OUTRadiomedia.com

Anyway, that’s it. Back to work for me.

James

Enemy Propaganda on Al-Jazeera English

Be afraid! Very very afraid! Al-Jazeera English is something you should not watch nor should you encourage your local cable or pay-tv provider to carry.

After reading the pros and cons of Al-Jazeera English since it’s launch in December 2006, I decided I had to make up my own mind on what the Qatar-based news service was all about. Not having it available in Australia, I subscribed to the service via JumpTV for the nominal charge of US$9.95 [or approximately $12 Australian] for a month. Not bad for enlightening one’s self, I thought. My subscription started coincidentally the same day Saddam Hussein was hung.
After some frustration in connecting, and finally realising that JumpTV is not compatible with Firefox, and then fine-tuning the stream to allow a smooth uninterrupted broadcast, I sat in front of my PC and watched. My initial reaction was that I had accidentally subscribed to the BBC, but my fear was allayed by the continual mention by the news hosts of “Al-Jazeera”.

My first viewing of Al-Jazeera English lasted nearly 3 hours of various programming, including news reports, documentaries, general entertainment shows and sports. Shows like Witness, The Fabulous Picture Show, Inside Story, Listening Post and more, were real eye openers. And of course, the endless commercials from both international organisations like Reuters, tourism ads from Cyprus and Malaysia [amongst others], and loads of Middle East-based businesses.

As this is a “self enlightening” event, I had the BBC and CNN running on my pay-TV service and comparing the reporting between them and Al-Jazeera English. The more I compared Al-Jazeera English against it’s western counterparts, the more I became worried and afraid. After 5 days of watching Al-Jazeera English, for an average of 4 hours a day, I feel myself changing, and I can “sense it” within me. Whereas CNN provided a very pro-US and US-centric look at the world in short glossed over reporting, and the BBC provided a more international but still US/UK orientated viewpoint, Al-Jazeera provided a more in-depth analysis in its reporting.

With the hanging of Saddam Hussein, they broadcast not only the Iraq Government’s and the US reaction, but also those opposed to the current Iraqi Government and other nations and people who oppose hangings regardless of who is at the end of the noose. Further, their reporting of the world was much more in-depth and thorough than either the BBC or CNN.

In addition to the news, their documentaries provided a refreshing look at the rest of the world. I am not talking about political documentaries but rather just general interest ones, like the Shao Lin temple in China, the mud volcano in Indonesia that has left thousands homeless, the Kenyan village that is populated solely by women, the poppy growers in Afghanistan and more. All of them broadcast without passing judgement, simply letting the people from all sides, voice their opinion.

So, why should one be afraid, very afraid of Al-Jazeera English?

Simple. By watching this station you slowly begin to realise that there is always more than one side to a story. But more importantly, you realise that the world consists of more than Europe, North America and Australia. There are billions of people in Latin America, Africa and Asia from whom we only hear about if there is a natural disaster or a major war breaks out. And even then, our current media only provides the ultra basic details.

But be warned. If you do decide to preview Al-Jazeera via JumpTV or your local pay-TV/Cable carrier, then be prepared for some mind-adjusting. And yes, you will change. You will be influenced by this “enemy propaganda” coming out of Qatar, as some have labelled Al-Jazeera English. And when you un-subscribe [if you manage to do that], you will then look at your existing media news services and wonder . . how much have we not been told about in the past?

How much of our news in the past has been “tailored” to suit the objectives of governments and/or news outlets?

Am I biased with my opinion of Al-Jazeera English? Yes, I am. Not because I support Al-Jazeera English or any “Arabic plot” to corrupt the west. I am biased because I have always sourced my news from all over the world via the Internet. But the biggest drawback was the TV services.

Now, until my local pay-TV carrier decides to have Al-Jazeera English as a channel for subscribing, I will continue to watch it via the internet. Just as I continue to watch CNN and the BBC on TV. But now, when the BBC/CNN broadcasts a news story, Al-Jazeera English will give me the other side of the story, thus allowing me to make my own mind up.

James
www.jebadel.com

Ignorance breeds fear

Questions.Why are humans so afraid of other opinions and views? Why do we refuse to open our eyes and see someone else’s perspective? Why do we jump to defend our own opinion when someone challenges our viewpoint? What are we scared of?

These questions and more have been playing on mind for some time now, and the conclusion I have come up with is that we are all afraid of changing. Change brings instability, even though the end result may be a betterment for us as individuals. It is safer for us to be ignorant than to become enlightened, for to change one’s view implicitly implies that our original stance was wrong. And as humans, we hate to be wrong.

But, is “being wrong”, a wrong thing anyway? Does “wrong” have to equate with us making a mistake or believing in something that is not correct? Is not everything a matter of perspective?

Take for example when we believed that the world was flat. Our ancestors confined their “world” within the limits they set themselves, whether it was the distant mountain range or the neighbouring sea. Anything beyond that limit simply did not exist, nor could anything exist. To attempt to cross that self-imposed “correct” limit, would result in one falling off the face of the Earth. The question that was rarely asked was “so if we fall off the face of the Earth, where do we fall onto or into?” To think about this would result in not only realising that one could possibly be wrong [i.e. the world is not flat] but also that the world may be bigger than they actually were led to believe.

It took a few people to challenge this flat-earth belief and explore beyond the “known world”, and as a direct consequence, people’s perceptions change. Mind you, even when the Classical Greek philosophers scientifically proved that the world was actually a globe rather than flat, their ideas were ridiculed. Why? Because it went contrary to millennia of popular belief that the earth was flat, and that if the world was actually a globe, then it was likely that they were “upside down”.

The same applies today, despite our vast advancements in technology. We can place people on the moon and undertake inter-species transplants, but our ignorance in other areas are the same, if not worse than those of our ancestors.

It is easier for many to believe that gay people are a danger to society, and that gay marriage will see our civilisation collapse or that AIDS is some almighty deity’s way of cleansing humanity of a “disease called homosexuality”. It is easier to see Aljazeera as a radical islamic television station than to actually sit and watch it, and draw our own conclusions. It’s so much easier to sit silently and listen to our politicians tell us what is right than to make up our own minds on whether we find “the evil enemy”.

It is easier to conform to the [current] norm than to challenge it, for our world is then “stable and safe” within our minds, and we can sleep easily at nights knowing we are part of the majority.

And that’s the sad thing with humanity. We prefer to be ignorant of another perspective or to challenge the current viewpoint - whether that of our own or those around us - than to try and expand our personal development. Ignorance of what may be out there simply allows us to live within the fears we have enveloped ourselves in.

To discover that gays are just normal human beings, that AIDS is a disease that knows no sexual boundaries, that Aljazeera is actually more factual and more diverse in the opinions it broadcasts than CNN or the BBC, or that going to war with the “evil enemy” is actually due to us fighting because our petrol is at stake and not because of a madman running that “evil country”, will challenge our ignorance. By challenging our ignorance, it may enlighten us to the point we are no longer part of the “majority” but instead become a “minority” member ourselves.

And that is even sadder. All the great people - both in the past and the present - are those that have challenged the norm. Whether we look at Bill Gates, Alexander the Great, any major religious leader, or the guys that founded Google. They challenged the current norm and didn’t allow their ignorance and fear of the unknown inhibit them.

Where will you stand? Part of the ignorant fearful majority, or one of the few who will challenge the norm and hopefully become a more open, tolerant and enlightened person?

James
www.jebadel.com