Author: cottonward

Social Justice for Life conference

Went to the Social Justice for Life Conference at University of Sydney for law students.

Lots of speakers and it was very interesting.

Redfern Legal Centre did a great presentation and we did a role play where I had to be an angry former drug addict with a violent drug-addicted partner. My child had been staying at her grandmother’s and then was taken away by FACS. And my response to every problem had to be expressed via cursing and/or storming out.

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Lance Leopard part 3 columns 1993-2000

You can click on these for Full-size — there’s a small sign on the right hand side. Or right-click on each column and open in a new tab — it will be full-size.

Lance Leopard part 1 columns 1993-2000

I looked forward to reading Lance’s columns every fortnight, it was such a highlight. They were in On The Street, Capital Q, the Sydney Star Observer (6 June 1996 to 18 Sept 1997), then back to Capital Q.  As a journalist since the early 1980s, I was totally blown away by Lance Leopard’s stream-of-consciousness columns and his chatty style. I cut out and kept several. Over time, Lance’s writings inspired me to write about the everyday events I attended. He could make a trip to the convenience store next to the Taxi Club at midnight sound hilarious. He was a witty gossip writer who truly captured the 1990s GLBTIQA+ social scene.

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Kevin Rudd’s talk

Mr Rudd was in great form at the Law School today. Chatted in Mandarin for visiting Chinese lawyers, cracked jokes, charmed everyone. He pointed out that it’s important for countries to intervene when there’s a slaughter/genocide happening, such as in Libya and Syria. He said it was a positive modern-day development that international interventions happen nowadays to save civilian populations. On the topic of law studies, he encouraged more Australians to go to China to study Chinese and Chinese law. “It’s tough learning the language, but it has to be done.”

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