Speaks for itself!
Bienvenue à Montréal
on Category: Reminiscents
on Price of Freedom
on Today (06/11/14), I went to the US Consulate for my visa interview. For a B1 B2 visa interview that lasted no more than five minutes and three questions; Why are you going to the US? How long have you been living in Melbourne? Are your parents in Melbourne?; I was shocked at the height of security measures we were subjected to as applicants. I realise that they have every right to be uneasy after all of the embassy attacks that have been occurring all over the globe, but I’ve come to the realisation that these security measures were even stricter than that of 
Tullamarine’s. There were not as many guards standing around intimidating mischief-doers, though I couldn’t help but notice the AFP patrol car stationed at the exit, as I was crossing the busy St. Kilda Rd to search for a bathroom (yes, they had no bathrooms in the lobby). After being stripped of my prized possessions; my phone, laptop, keys, earphones, novel, belt and watch, I was escorted by a security guard along with three other applicants up a few levels, where a maximum of fifty people waited for their five minute spotlight. There, we were subjected to a ridiculously patriotic montage of America’s beautiful cities and bountiful resources on loop, as I waited for at least an hour for my stub number to be called out.
I couldn’t help but wonder where this paranoia originated from. That answer was easy. From history. Past events when anti-American foreigners of varied motivations attacked American establishments. Since the founding of the English colonies on North American soil, Americans have had many enemies and continue to do so as the biggest superpower in the world. It is this freedom that the States’ founding fathers fought for against their English superiors, the freedom that would later on translate to a cultural and political dominance on a worldwide scale–we’re not obsessed with Hollywood films through a coincidence. Today, American president Barrack Obama is considered the most powerful man in the world, often labeled “Leader of the Free World”. And there’s that free word again. Yet with this freedom comes the knowledge embedded within their citizens, that the ability to be free is binary to backdated opposition who will try to take this away. Citizens are oppressed by its own protection laws, for the reason of its own description, and it can’t be helped to perceive freedom as an illusion. These are similar sentiments to America’s Second Amendment; the right to bear arms is a promise of protection to its citizens, but is used as a tool for offensive measures like school shootings. How is it possible to detach minors from the danger of weapons, when it is easy to purchase such at the corner gun-shop?
Such is the price one pays for these freedoms. Dangerous words like liberty, birthright and meritocracy contest with fear, responsibility and capitalism.
Trash TV
on I’m not one to associate myself with intellectual shows nor do I discriminate other people’s hard work, but we all know that there is a definite classification between television content that pursue financial success through flash and cliche, and those that actually attempt to stimulate its 
audiences. Out of all the people I know, I’d say that my taste in TV is varied, being one who aches for the next season of House of Cards, whilst binging on the latest season of Gossip Girl–and yes guys watch that too, or at least I do. The popular saying goes “TV rots your brains,” and it is often preferable by coffee-sipping hipsters to read books and ditch the television. But television addiction it is a vital part of my existence as an aspiring TV producer to acquaint myself with the latest trends and story structures. Especially now with the worldwide dominance of the Internet and the influence of networks like Netflix, the spectrum of content available literally at your fingertips makes it harder to tear myself away from my computer and into my yellowing copy of Of Mice and Men. I acknowledge this because I truly think that television and films has definitely dampened by literary skills, as well as decreased my attention to detail versus distraction. The question I pose, and this is definitely open-ended as nobody will respond to this, is how does one find balance between these two mediums of the written and the audiovisual? After all, they both appeal to different sides of my amusement, taking me on adventures that my physicality could not even begin to ponder. More succinctly, how does one stop themselves from choosing the easier path of watching TV and films over the creative benefits of reading?