Z Day-2012

A year is a long time and a lot can happen.

Since Z Day 2011 there has been the 'will they won't they' of the Greek debt default debacle, Arab Spring uprisings, Bin Laden was found and killed (allegedly) London had seen a million people march through its streets (with several hundred then camping on them) and a riot reminiscent of the 1980's, a tsunami in Japan resulting in a nuclear episode and of course the fall out between The Zeitgeist Movements founder, Peter Joseph and The Venus Projects Jacque Fresco. 

The rift between the two movements has I hope healed some what, but I feel it has gone some way to setting back the good work done up to that point. 

Z Day 2012's main event was this year held in Vancouver, Canada (which was a bit further than my fraudster bank manager would allow me to go) so it was business as usual in London at Euston as people descended from across the country for their latest dose of 'what next?'

There were some exceptional talks, notably that of Cassie Earle and Myles Dyer, plus an interesting documentary called 'Economics of Happiness' which highlighted the problems caused by a society driven by globalisation and continuous growth on a finite planet in a quiet Tibetan town that I am sure many the world over would be able to empathise with.

Cassie Earle's speech was on a subject I feel very deeply about, namely education and the importance of critical thinking and critical education. 

What is it to be a critical thinker?

Critical thinking, I believe, is the ability to take in information, move around it and be able to take it from another perspective then question what you have been told. This is something that is becoming less and less prevalent in society today as the majority of the public blindly accepts what they are told at face value. Kony 2012 anyone?

In Cassie's speech she pointed the finger at what she called 'critical education', the need for open dialectic  conversations that challenge the status-quo. A process where we ensure all voices are heard on a subject, where ideology is not imposed. 

Wouldn't this be a grand world to live in?

Another important point was one of formal education as it stands. Today society believes in something we call 'officially sanctioned knowledge'...i.e if you read it in a text book and have the correlating diploma or degree then of course you must be right and better than the next human.
As Cassie put it "is the shelf stacker in a multinational corporation that builds computers in their spare time more or less capable or qualified than the graduate from a top university?"

Of course it is difficult to say but it could be assumed that the person that spends every spare minute of their own time working building things because they love to do it may well be better qualified than someone with a piece of paper that has set them back £15,000. If you disagree with this view point try looking up Dan Pink - Drive- on YouTube.

Everyone is an intellectual, our problem is remembering or believing this fact. 

Our minds are capable of assimilating vast amounts of knowledge yet generally we choose to waste it. As a society we must regain our sense of curiosity before it is too late, we damage our children by quashing their natural curiosity about the world for a quiet life when they ask 'why'? We should encourage each other to question everything. Question what I am writing, what the media tells you, what your employers and teachers may tell you and remember formal or sanctioned knowledge is not the only knowledge.

Myles Dyer spoke about his exciting new project Universal Solutions Project, which has the potential to aid activists in their quest to educate and inform the masses on a scale not necessarily achievable up until now.

I have always said, and people at work will confirm this, that people do not care about something until it directly affects them (fire service pensions being one example) but unfortunately it is usually too late by this point and usually people fail to see how interconnected these problems are.

What Myles is hoping to create and achieve will get right to the heart of this problem and potentially blow it wide open for us, giving us the tools to help people connect the dots that others seem to do so effortlessly. 

Myles' speech was an exciting moment in the day for me as I got a sense of frustration from some, myself included, that there are still a lot of people waiting for someone else to do the work. Last year at Z Day two important messages were made; firstly there is no point in saving the world if you are not having fun and secondly that if you were there you were an activist and had a duty to get involved in spreading the message and attending chapter meetings etc. 

I do feel the second part, as I have mentioned earlier, has been affected in part by the fall out between TZM and TVP but this should have made no real difference as the problems we all face remain unchanged, if not more pressing as the system teeters on the brink of collapse.

We must not wait for a leader, we have to get up and do it for ourselves. As Jiddu Krishnamurti once said "You, have to be a light for yourself". We must be willing get our own hands dirty.

Since Z Day 2011 I have doubled my efforts and commitments to learning, educating and achieving the goal of a better world. Following this years event I hope I can again double those efforts and productions, like a kind of Moore's Law, or not.

What will you do?

Evictus

The unbiased coverage of BBC media never fails to amaze me. After 4 months the City of London Corporation have finally managed to get their wish and evict the occupiers from the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, only for them to move around the corner to Finsbury Park. The BBC would lead you to believe that every man, woman and their dog was pleased to see the back of them. Admittedly in recent weeks due to my travels I have not been there, but my experiences before hand were not one of people wishing them away. There were always as many people interested in learning at the Tent University, where people made speeches in their free time, or people giving food to the mess area.

But not according to our tax paid Beeb.

They must have looked for every human possible on the Tuesday morning that would give them the sound bites they required; from "yes that looks much better" to "about time, it's a disgrace, an absolute disgrace what they have been allowed to do". The last one must have been a bankers mistress.

I find it a disgrace that I have to sit and listen to people talk about 'What Katie Did Next'.

Having done some talking to people that were there it appears that when the police arrived the people asked for notice as none had been served. The police refused and then all of a sudden came back with a 15minute warning. Of course this led to the rally cry for people to support the Occupy camp.
It was relatively peaceful and as usual the occupy camp conducted themselves with integrity, but whilst this was happening the police were conducting a covert operation to evict the school of ideas.

The school of ideas had no eviction notice served on them.

Whilst the people from the school of ideas helped the St Paul's protesters the police waded in and evicted those left and binned their personal items. Then the area was bull dozed. I have been told of stories how passports and other personal items were lost during this siege.

Does anyone remember when the police raided the banks and dragged the bankers down the stairs to a kangaroo court for fraud?

#BeatMe

Two young rising stars, apparently in love, and then it all goes horribly wrong for them both.

Welcome to the circus that is Chris Brown and Rihanna.

I am sure plenty of words have been spilt over the two former love birds (and it has) in the last 3 years since Brown was charged and found guilty of assault on Rihanna but the one thing that cannot, or should not, be ignored by anyone is the message (or lack of) that these two ego driven maniacs, their fans, the media and the music industry continue to undermine... violence or abuse towards women.

Is this love, that I'm feeling?

Brown has made the headlines frequently in recent weeks following his performances at the Grammy awards 2012. The only question that should be asked is 'what was a convicted woman beater doing performing at a prestigious awards ceremony such as this?'
I guess it may be difficult to come down too hard on the Grammy organisers for scheduling him when the courts saw fit to only sentence him with 180hrs community service as punishment for his assault. 180 earth hours.

It is refreshing to know that you can thrash the woman you supposedly love and still pick up a six figure pay packet at the end of the day but I am pretty sure if his woman beating shoe was on my foot then I would be facing some jail time and lose my job in the process.

After the ceremony the world of twitter was awash with tweets from both camps, but more worrying were the tweets from the Brown bandwagon with gems such as;

 "@BeatMeSenseless I'd let Chris Brown beat me up anytime ;) #womanbeater" or;

 "@Muffin5685 Chris Brown u can punch me in the face any time u want!!!! #facialsweats"
These were two of the best that I could find that could be printed in a family edition, of course there have been those who have dared to speak out against the issue, notably actor Seth Rogan who had this to say;
"You say a few hateful things (about the gay community), they don't let you within a few hundred yards of the Oscars," adding, "You can literally beat the shit out of a nominee and they'll ask you to perform twice at the Grammys.”  Rogan is hitting the nail on the head and more power to him for doing so. 


It would appear that beating women in the music industry or Hollywood is fair game but mention sexuality or Jews and you can effectively kiss your career goodbye. Just ask Mel Gibson.


This sickness in our society is not restricted to State side, it has in the past, reared its ugly head on UK shores too. Cast your minds back to the late 90's and you may recall a certain footballer and weather girl that famously hit the front page of every tabloid and magazine stand from John O'Groats to Land's End. Stan Collymore and Ulrika Johnson. 
Whilst Collymore fell off the planet for a few years only to re-emerge as a footie pundit, ironically criticising players and pundits every week on their tactics and ethics, Johnson wound her way into the bed of former England Manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson. 


The failure here is on all parties involving the Brown/Rihanna fiasco of the people that really matter; their young fans, our children. These young girls and boys see these adults conducting themselves in such ways and go on to think it is O.K. to beat each other to a bloody pulp because nothing happens? At worst you will get 180 earth hours, a pat on the back and a Grammy in your back pocket to go with the adulation of millions of young girls the world over. 
What kind of message are we sending them? What future are we creating for them?


It is never O.K. for a man to hit a woman, nor is it O.K. for a woman to hit a man. 


This is the message that we should be reinforcing to our young, especially at a time when our governments are busy watering down our human rights and tearing up women's rights. As I have written about numerous times now, domestic violence in the UK is not a violation of a woman's human rights, unless it occurs during a period of peace time, according to Theresa May. 
You may want to take a look around you if you are a woman reading this because we have not been at peace since World War II ended.


Ultimately we are all products of our environment and if our environments are going to be that of tolerating the physical abuse towards women and then glorifying it by rewarding the perpetrators with tea and medals then what hope for our young?

#BeatMe

In the past few days I have seen an increasing number of Rihanna t-shirts showing up for sale on clothing racks around the country. Someone in her position should be using the platform to do more and tell young girls, or any woman for that matter, that they do not have to be a victim of violence and that they do have a choice. As a result of this silence I have since decided to hijack these shirts and rebrand them. The above picture, #BeatMe, was taken from a shirt I purchased in Topshop of all places and has a Chris Brown signature on the side. 


Maybe someone will stop and ask me what it is about, maybe they won't, either way the message is simple; no one should have to suffer at the hands of another.






http://thisorthat.com/blog/the-fall-of-celebrity-will-chris-brown-ever-learn
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/chris-brown-can-beat-me-tweets_n_1273605.html#s692327&title=Vinci_Jacopelle

The Kon-is On. Kony 2012

Pic by Lewis

I wonder how many people woke up this morning and had never heard of Joseph Kony? Well 12 hours is a long time in the world of the social media and a video about Joseph Kony made by the charity Invisible Children has gone viral. As usual, the public have swallowed it up.

Kony 2012 is a short documentary made by Jason Russell, featuring his son and the people of Uganda. He takes us through the plight of children at the hands of Kony and shows images of child soldiers, sex trafficking and mutilation. It is quite horrific. I have sat and watched the tweets and Facebook posts come rolling in all day as the 'sheeple' have all of a sudden realised that men, women and children are being brutalised in Africa, I wonder how many of them posted their tweets etc whilst sporting a chunky conflict diamond on their paws.

Where do they think these stones come from, the Cotswold's?

The Kony 2012 campaign video is a propaganda piece that has done its job superbly. It claims Joseph Kony is invisible and aims to expose him, using what they call 'the knowns' such as Angelina Jolie or Bono. George Clooney in an interview went as far as to request that dictators causing such atrocities should be made as famous as him. Once they have secured this they move on to the policy makers in congress.
So any and every other media whore willing to share the charities word, about securing Kony and trialing him, has been tweeting or re-posting and even as I type this my phone is still bleating... meaning the posts are still going.

Angelina hates Kony, but does she know why?

I am confused as to how or why people are surprised that these atrocities go on, not just in Africa I might add, but in many countries, including the sex trafficking and grooming of young girls in the UK. Nothing about that video was new in terms of news.

The 'sheeple' have found the latest bandwagon for them to climb aboard.

For 30 earth minutes they have managed to sit and have the fairy tale woven around them and encourage them to back and support the campaign. What people have not thought about however is how this will be achieved? Invisible Children is advocating military intervention. People are supporting a group that is advocating military intervention, are we expecting our soldiers to go in and shoot a child square between the eyes? The majority of Kony's personal bodyguards are children.

The video highlights the efforts made by the team to raise the issues with the American government, who at first decree that there is no way they would intervene in a conflict that had no baring on American security interests. Eventually Congress changed its tune. Allegedly due to the power of the people and the movement. They receive a letter from Barack Obama stating the U.S intention to send out 100 'specialists' to aid the training of the Ugandans.

Anything backed by Obama, with his record, must be questioned thoroughly.

Joseph Kony, is number one on the International Criminal Courts worst criminal list. Kony, indicted July 8th 2005, keeps good company including Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif al Islam Gaddafi, who were both indicted June 27th 2011. Two questions spring to mind;

"Why has it taken the world seven earth years to care about Kony enough to do something and a few weeks to indict and hang Gaddafi out to dry?" and;

"How did we go from two people ranked 24th and 25th on the list, without stopping at a single murderer or dictator along the way, to Kony?"

If anyone can answer this for me please feel free to message me.

Invisible Children also supports the Ugandan Military which have a chequered reputation at best with claims of rape and looting.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the things that is particularly hard to take is the awareness I personally have tried to make to people about Liberia and the situation there.
Nobody seemed to notice, nobody seemed to care.
Children addicted to heroin barely older than my nephews, women raped by U.N soldiers, former warlords who fought naked and cut out the hearts of children and bathed in their blood, warlords who at the drop of a hat claim they could take back power with in a few hours if they wanted.

I was lucky to get maybe two people to share the video, The Vice Guide to Liberia or my blog Liberian Girl.

It pains me to say this but Obama and co do not care about black African-American babies in their own country, let alone black babies in Africa.

Uganda either has resource based benefit or a strategic benefit to America (probably both) for their policy to have changed. The American government, and Americans in general, want to start by arresting their own war criminals first, such as Henry Kissinger, George Bush Jnr, Dick Cheyney and even Barack Obama himself. Let us also not forget the UK's very own Tony Blair who should top any wanted list for acts of terrorism and genocide. People like this and the W.H.O and I.M.F have been raping Africa for decades and what have we done about this? Bought a bracelet and soothed some guilt. This is an Afri-Con.

Factually Kony is not in Uganda anymore either, not for 5 years or so.

In two days the video and the movement has gone viral but, like Live Aid, the peoples attention will only last until the advert break, where they will then be told what crap to buy and consume or until CSI starts. The video, nor the charity make any real effort to educate people on the matter at hand and instead resort to drum beating, feel good, prepackaged activism. Humans love a fashion trend or a fad and this is just another one in a long line of fads to make fair trade, coffee drinking ladies that lunch, feel better about their conflict diamond rings.

It is called manufactured consent, ask more questions.


"The first thing about manipulation and control is to first understand how it is done, then you can see it coming" Liberaté 2012




With thanks to Lewis, Dean, Justice and Anthony for keeping it together.

Choose Life

This has taken longer to get out than I had hoped but then that is the price of a hectic schedule at the day job in the so called real world. Having recently sat through The Matrix Reloaded and the final scene with the Architect where he describes the role of 'the one' being to reset the matrix and repopulate Zion is a metaphor, I believe, for the turning of the New Year.
Each year we reset the system and continue on in the same vein, making the same mistakes. Of course it does not have to be this way, we can choose to create our own reality, just as Neo does. Ultimately everything comes down to a choice.

Which door did you choose?

To Read or Not to Read

"Give a human a fish and they'll eat for a day, 

Teach a human to fish and they'll eat for a life time."

"The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." 

"Ignorance is the route of all fear." 

These are a few of an endless list of sayings or proverbs that have been said over the centuries about the importance of education and knowledge to our existence and progress. Not since the dark ages, where book burning was common place and the Greek philosophical schools were shut down, has there such an attack on the education of our youth and ourselves. With our libraries being shut down by government cuts and book shops closing it is a sad time we live in.

The comparison to Melbourne, Australia to England and my home town could not be greater. Book shops are on virtually every street, in every town and surf town from Melbourne city to Apollo bay down the great Ocean Road.

Dymocks, a major book retailer in Australia.

There are more books and book shops than there are pubs in Ireland, so I am told.

When did it become cool to not know stuff? I know a little bit about some stuff but there is a hell of a lot I do not know about a whole lot more. As I grow older I think about the space-time I spent in my youth doing things other than reading and learning, it is never cool to not know things or be ignorant to things however innocent. 

I do not dwell on this for too long however because life is all about the moments of now and right now I am making the most of my space-time and reading whatever I can.

One of many in Melbourne City.

With my new found enthusiasm for reading over the last six years I have managed to build up quite a library. At the rate I am going at (and the rate of library and book store closures in town) I may find a gap in the market to make a killing, if I believed in money. The picture above of a town that had one bookstore and now none should be one that shocks and saddens us all. I wish I could say that the reason for the closure was due to the rise of the eBook readers such as Kindle or the iPad but I just do not see it. 

All I tend to see on an iPad is the latest seasonal update for Angry Birds and Sky Sports News updates.

The breadth and depth of the book stores in Melbourne and Victoria in general is astonishing, you could (and I almost did) spend entire days walking from one shop to another and you could spend another day in each of them wandering around the aisles in amazement at their selection. Back home you would have an half hour drive for a shop filled with books like the latest Karen Slaughter novel or the latest Jeremy Clarkson effort. Why anyone would want to continue to read books by an over weight, balding, middle aged bigot who talks like a Tory is beyond me.

Books with a history and a story, you never know
what you might find inside.

Some people may try to argue (and maybe well) that the book is out dated and this is why there is a decline in book shops, that for the majority of the population that does still read, a book is not as feasible in the rat race life styles that we have let ourselves become a victim of. The invention of the iPad and the eReader, I hear some of you scream, has revolutionised the way we read books; all in one spot, no storage issues and are a joy to take on a trip however far or short because it is all in one place. 

Yes and no I would say. 

You still have storage issues (depending on the device and its uses) then there is the issue of battery life (again more pressing depending on your device) and then there is the affect that these devices have on the planet.

"But what about books and the trees!" I hear you scream? 

Well yes at the moment books are made from trees, yes some books are made from recycled paper but that is not great either. One book was famously written on plastic, it was called 'Cradle to Cradle' by McDonough and Braungart, which is a fine read and one I recommend, and is about redesigning the way we make things in the biosphere and the techno sphere. Again plastic is not the answer but it was to highlight the fact that it could be done and that just because we currently produce books on paper, that is not the be all and end all to it. 

Another company has found a way to print a book that can have the ink washed off it and be re-printed.

Now the eReader, for those of you still scowling at me for wanting to save the humans and the planet but advocating buying books, what is an eReader made from? I will not ask you how it works because there aren't that many of us out there that do know, but it is made from oil and there are wars being fought over that whilst you read this. Powered by oil, recharged by oil, built not to last and will be out of date within six months of purchase thus forcing you into the cyclical consumption cycle the corporations feed on. It is easy to think that the eReader is a better bet for going green than reading a book but then it is all relative. If you go to a charity store or second hand book shop that has a ton of books to choose from, is it more or less friendly to the planet and our health than either a new book or a Kindle, iPad or some other device? Do not forget your local library either, it was once said "why buy a book when you could join a library?" You had better do so before your council shuts yours down.

Think about the second hand book store for an earth minute, there are literally millions of books out there being sold and read as we speak, a lot of the time these books end up in a charity store or second hand store at a fraction of the price and (here is the best part) each of those books has a history, a story. From time to time they have messages inside them from a far away land, or a ticket stub for some event...there's a mystery behind them. Then there is the smell, the smell of a good book filled with knowledge takes some beating and all the while you are broadening your horizons and potential.

You have to ask the questions for yourself and ask if what you are being told about with regards to how green something is, is factually correct? 

So go on switch off the X-Factor and get yourself down to your nearest bookstore (second hand or otherwise) or support your local library and read! Read everything you can on as many subjects as you may be interested in, just remember to leave some for me.

P-P-Penguin Fiasco

If you have a cool $400 spare you can sit in a fish tank with
a shark...

Leaving England in a foot of snow for the sunny climes of Melbourne Australia, I walked around the city centre on my first two days, kicking my heels and with a certain smugness as the bitter chill engulfing Europe went from "worse to bad". Melbourne is a city of true culture, unlike some of the amateur efforts around the UK at present, with back street coffee shops selling the highest calibre of conflict coffee available and a range of gluten free options I've not seen since Berlin.

There is so much to do. The MCG, Rod Laver Stadium, Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Moonlight Cinema, the aquarium..... The aquarium.

Aquariums for me are like the zoo. An abomination. A place where animals are herded for our entertainment for no need. Anyone who has seen a BBC production such as Blue Planet, Frozen Planet, Life or Planet Earth will I am sure be disappointed at seeing a wolf pack or penguin colony stuck in a pen, with nothing but the smell of freedom on their horizon. So it was with the aquarium this time, the first time I have been to one since a school visit in Southend back in the late '90s. As you approach, the signs describe how vast their marina is, in this case some two million litres.

Two million litres does not go far.

When entering through the ticket office you are greeted by everyone's favourite, the penguin. Maybe 40 penguins, 3 different species, in a 10x3 metre pen with a pool a few thousand litres in total for them to swim in. Admittedly there was some ice for them to stand on, which is a bonus compared to my local zoo back home, but ultimately T.I.A, this is Australia. What are penguins doing in Australia?

Due south, 9+1 minutes that way.

Some of them looked truly depressed. One poor little guy was stood staring at a wall illustration of Antarctica. The information provided informed you how far away these creatures are from home.

You do not have to be a Doctor Dolittle to work out he was not amused.

As we walked around their prison my partner made the mistake of putting her hand too close to the glass. A penguin came over and tried biting at it, she was holding a leaflet. When she put her hand against the glass without one the penguin was not interested, if she tried again with a leaflet the penguin would again try to bite at the glass. A sad indication of the learned behaviour of this beautiful animal. Pavlov's dogs would be proud.

We moved away somewhat disgusted at this learned behaviour and it appeared to some of those around us that this had become a game. Numerous tourists went up to the glass and took it in turns to tease the penguin with benign papers. Their game was however cut short for a far worse show. Feeding time.

Some of the penguins came marching down eager for a big feed as the keepers came out with buckets of mercury filled dead fish. A few however were not interested, not one bit. The keepers embarked on a round of force feeding on some of the less interested penguins, namely the few wistfully staring at the image of the Antarctic, who tossed and turned their heads trying to avoid fish after fish.  I overheard one eager viewer explain to her child that the penguins were being fed... again.
The brochure advises two Earth hours for the full experience so was it possible they were being fed again just to amuse our younglins? Either way, the penguins were not interested and it seemed as though the most depressed one took a fish just in the hope that his oppressor would go away.

Force fed

The aquarium carried on in a similar vein throughout, with sedated sharks in fish bowls floating around in circles. The highlight of the experience happened to be an ice core in the arctic show room with markings on it depicting evidence of nuclear testing in it from the 1960's onwards, but that is another story.

Once we left the the aquarium a conflict coffee was in order to settle the nerves. There was of course an alterior motive for heading to the aquariums I have vowed to boycott, especially since watching The Cove. I had been previously been made aware of a spectacular penguin viewing experience in the wild on the coast of Philip Island in Victoria, a drive of 90 earth minutes from the aquarium.

Why would you keep penguins in a pen when you can have penguins in the wild everyday for free...?

Only it was not free.

My guide for the day was a woman who had been in the past, in the last 10 years. She told me wonderful stories of how the penguins stream onto the beach from the sea in their hundreds to shed feathers etc and how they would waddle right past you. I charged the camera, filled the 4x4 up and headed off chasing the sunset towards the coast.
On our arrival we noticed a sign on the way up to the building, some worrying signs were already afoot as my guide informed me the car parks were all new and the huge building we were about to enter was new too. I am pretty sure you could still smell the paint thinners.
A large sign was crowded by a group of people, one of them turned and shouted to her family that there were to be no pictures taken once the other side of the building. I stopped in my tracks, kitted up like a member of the film crew from BBC Life I suddenly felt the con was on.

As the mist started to descend I made comment to the people huddling around the sign like king penguins that the only pictures they would be getting tonight, were government approved pictures. As with all things in life today some CEO somewhere had seen a chance to make a quick dollar and has taken something that used to be free and accessible to all and slapped a monetary ball and chain around it.
Huge banners explain the pricing $22 for general admission, $42 for penguin plus. Penguin plus what? They are coming out of the sea, onto a beach and having a waddle, what else were these penguins going to do? Between the ban on pictures and the penguin plus I elected to go with the cattle and sit in general admission.

The saying used to be 'please exit through the gift shop' in the la la land of the penguin barons though it is 'please enter and exit through the gift shop'. Scandalous, $4.50 for a tiny coffee, $5 for an mp4 player to give you a running commentary and more merchandise and souvenirs than I have seen. In fact Bernie Ecclestone would have been proud of the almost grand-prix weekend nature of the operation. We exited the back of the premises and watched as penguin plus were ferried on golf cart up the hill and away from the rest of us.

The masses await their show. Note the floodlights

When we got to the steps we sat down and some actor, sorry ranger, came out with a microphone on a hugely lit area and gave us some talk about how the penguins hated noise and were waiting for the sky to get dark so they could safely traverse the beach...and how they hate cameras. No photos, filming, phones etc etc. Media blackout. Everyone was gutted but it is OK, you can buy photos from the gift shop.
As if the clown in the brown was not clear enough, the voice from above echoed the same tune over an even bigger P.A system. They also warned of the dangers of being near wild animals as they "can and will bite". It had been a few years since my guides previous visit but I was assured the few times they had been the penguins would just waddle right past you and not even give you a moments notice.

After a few minutes a penguin came out of the sea, the excitement of the people was palpable, he gave them a show by playing around and then disappeared up into the dunes. A few more minutes passed and a couple more. Not exactly the hundreds I had been imagining.
In all the biggest group I counted was of about 13, I think we saw 30, maybe 40 penguins in total. Between the noise being made by the clowns in brown and the huge floodlights illuminating the beach I am not sure whether I would have climbed out of the sea either. My guide was bitterly disappointed as previously they had seen hundreds of penguins streaming across the beach.

We waited until the very last knocking, an hour sat on a concrete step in the bitter sea wind for 30ish penguins was not how I expected my week to end. Eventually one of the clowns in brown asked us to leave. Before doing so however I was sure I heard him say to another couple, that had waited as long as us, that the penguins mostly head round to penguin plus...the red mist began to descend again. So as he approached me I asked him what penguin plus was about, he just tried to fob me off by saying it was a smaller, more intimate area. When pushed as to whether or not this is where the majority of the penguins really come to the beach he sensed my bitterness and said "erm...sometimes, it depends" and then tried to diffuse me by urging me to head to the walkway where I would be sure to some more.

He was not wrong.

There were hundreds of penguins, groups of a bakers dozen or more, running around, laying down and clowning around. This only served though to compound the disappointment of the experience as a whole. My guide said it was very sad to see the commercialisation of these creatures in the few years since their last visit. The whole experience was a let down. The penguins returning to Australia is one of natures great sights but the chase for a few dollars more has turned one of natures spectacular free events into a little goldmine and with it the loss of the little bit of magic that went with it.