This page is to show that for myself as a journalist, there is writing life after The Age -it is just that it is found in different places.
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I intend to post all my published articles as a freelancer (second time around) on this page.
My article for ABC online from a couple of weeks ago marking the 15th anniversary of ABC Jazz going digital:
From international legends like Herbie Hancock to the young Australians bringing their lived experiences to the ever-evolving jazz sound, ABC Jazz is one-of-a-kind.
Is this the end of journalism as we once knew it?
Look beyond Peter Costello's encounter with a News Corp journalist and you'll see an industry in its death throes.
Just added a cover photo. It was from when I was in Gaza City in 2005. I had the Australia Arabic Council Media Award for 2004 for the story “No Man’s Land” about Palestinian Kuwaiti refugee Aladdin Sisalem, left behind on Manus Island when all the other refugees were moved out. I was working for The Age then and the prize was a trip to the Middle East. It was delayed because of my mother’s ill health, she had died that September 2005 and then by Ramadan which made it had to get flights.
But I did get there, entering via the Rafah Crossing which was an experience in itself. My friend and contact Riyad Albuhaisi, a nurse who had escorted a number of children in need of operations to Australia for treatment which I had written up.
He took me around and introduced me to people who told me about their experiences at the hands of the Israelis with Riyad translating- the fishermen who couldn’t work because they could be shot if they rowed more that an Israeli imposed distance from shore, the pregnant woman stopped at zistaeli road blocks from getting through to hospital, the young boy in a wheelchair after being shot by Israeli soldiers…..so many stories, some written up for The Age.
We met these delightful children walking down a street. They were on their way home froM school and were fascinated to meet someone from Australia. They were adorable. At that time because young people were such a huge proportion of the population, they addenyrd school each day in three streams to fit everyone in. Some started early in the morning, the next session was early afternoon and there was a late session.
I wonder now how many of these children who would be in their 20s are still alive, how many professions or careers they had decided on have been cut short by Israel’s indiscriminate bombing.
There was a young Palestinian woman who helped me get through the Rafah Crossing snd the subsequent long wait that stretched into the early morning, in an overcrowded bus, still inside the Crossing until we were finally released. I stayed in contact with her but since the Israeli ground and air invasion, my only way of knowing she is still alive is when she had done a like on one of the posts I have put up from the weekly Sunday rally and march in Melbourne, in solidarity with Gaza and calling for an immediate ceasefire.
It is sometime now since she had done “ a like”. - such a simple but sad way of knowing if someone in Gaza is still alive.
This photo, the only one I have from that trip for reasons I won’t go into now, was taken by Riyad. He later moved to Australia with his family and is trying to help his sister and niece get out of Gaza to Egypt. I will repost the campaign details.
An important investigation:
Washington Post investigates an earlier incident of Israel granting safe passage, this time to medics, and all of them and the six-year-old girl they were trying to reached were killed by Israeli forces:
A Washington Post examination raises questions about Israel’s assertion that its forces were “not present near the vehicle or within the firing range” of 6-year-old Hind Rajab.
My latest story, this time in the Music Trust's Loud Mouth on the
final program for the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues:
"A handful of local artists who previously performed at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues have been chosen to bid the festival farewell. They are saxophonist/singer and master of entertaining gags, Wilbur Wilde and band, pianist and improviser Barney McAll and his Unforeseen band, Elixir wit...
My latest story. This one is in the Brunswick Voice but you might have to subscribe to read ithttps://brunswickvoice.com.au/a-musical-odyssey-from-taste-to-the-jazzlab/:
Michael Tortoni’s long career has brought him back to Brunswick, where it all began.
Iterviewed on today's ABC The Conversation Hour looking at the future of festivals:
From cultural enrichment, to jobs creation, to bringing tourism to regional towns in this edition of The Conversation Hour the team look at why music festivals matter and what is at stake when they are cancelled.
A LETTER FROM UKRAINE:
This letter was sent to me last week by a man in Ukraine fighting the Russian invasion. He obtained my email from a journalist database. He is just an ordinary person and his letter from some insight into what the average Ukrainian is going through. Of course, any information is rapidly superseded by events on the ground that receives immediate media coverage but his letter is still insightful. It is accompanied by an information site for those who want more background.
Good Day,
My name is Oleksii. I’m Ukrainian. In my everyday life, I am the Chief Marketing Operative in a Ukrainian-American real estate startup.
It’s been more than four weeks since the Russian Federation attacked my country.
I used to live with my family in the Kyiv suburb city of Irpin, which is now almost destroyed by Russian forces.
On February 24, I woke up at 5-30am after hearing an explosion. As everyone was warning us about upcoming aggression from the Russian Federation, I understood that "it" had started. I turned on the TV, and all channels showed the same, that Russia had started a war against Ukraine.
My wife was already packing the kids' stuff. We decided that we would move to our hometown Rivne, the city 300 km to the west of Ukraine. I had only a half-tank of fuel in my car, and the traffic jam to the main Kyiv exit from our side was terrible, so I was afraid that we could be stuck in the middle of the road without fuel. So we decided to stay and wait for the first wave of people leaving Kyiv to go.
I saw several air-fights over our houses just 200 meters above. By the evening, we started to hear explosions near us. We didn't have any basement in our house, so our neighbors invited us to stay at their house with a basement overnight.
We all were "sleeping" in the basement, hearing blasts every 30 minutes. Someone said that it was our air defense systems. But we were still terrified.
In the morning, we gathered all the essential stuff and moved on.
The 300 km road journey took us nine hours. Traffic was terrible; many cars were abandoned after a crash or end of fuel. Some people were just walking with their stuff and kids.
In a day or two after we moved, I received videos that Russian forces were already in our neighborhood. They were looting a food shop just 200 meters from my house. They occupied our community, and some of them live in a neighbor's house because he has a wooded fuel heating in the house.
The next day after we arrived at Rivne, I went to sign to Territorial Defense, but there were so many people that even after three weeks, I was still waiting for my turn. Now they accept only guys with war experience or those who were in the armed forces before.
The first week in Rivne, I volunteered in the local humanitarian center all day. As a city without active fights, the Rivne mayor asked citizens to start opening their businesses and support our economy.
I decided that if I could work, I should work to support our economy and armed forces. We also started brainstorming how our company could help the people of Ukraine in this situation.
As a marketing specialist, I know how to get email lists of different audiences, so that's why you have got my letter.
Currently, my team is developing a feature to help refugees find accommodation on our website.
The Rivne region borders Belorussia, and for the last several days, we hear that they might attack us from the north, so everyone preparing for that.
We hear an air-raid siren several times a day and go to the bomb shelters because our region is still shelled several times with rockets.
I want to bring to your attention the catastrophic situation in the sieged city of Mariupol. Terrorists from Russia are holding hostage the entire city.
According to the city’s mayor, Mariupol’s destruction rate is 80-90%. There’s no building that wasn’t damaged or destroyed, and Russians already killed more than 20,000 civilians in the city of 450,000 people.
Last week, Russian war criminals dropped the bomb on the Mariupol Drama Theatre, where more than 1,000 people with many kids and elderly were hiding in the bomb shelter. Fortunately, we have since learned that most people survived, and now rescuers have been trying to save them from under the debris. This is just one example of the thousands of war crimes committed by Russians against the Ukrainian people.
The people of Mariupol can't wait. The Terrorists don't allow humanitarian aid for civilians. They fire in green evacuation corridors. They make their green corridors to take people to Russia, that is true. I'm sure they will send those people somewhere to the east as far as possible. Stalin did the same during WW2.
Russian forces have no dignity. As they already understood, they couldn't do much on the ground; because of the resistance of our armed forces and ordinary people, they decided just to throw deadly bombs on our cities.
The sooner we get new air defense systems, the sooner our forces will have the ability to unlock our cities.
Also, I wanted to share a project created by the Ukrainian government — https://war.ukraine.ua/. This website gathers all crucial information about the war in Ukraine.
I’m asking you to share only the truth about what's happening here in Ukraine. Putin’s regime is trying to spread lies and misinformation about what’s happening in my country. But, it is more important than ever for the people of Ukraine to be heard and to tell their own stories.
Every day of a delay means only more injured and killed innocent people, bombed hospitals and residential buildings. Please help us stop the suffering.
Glory to Ukraine!
Слава Україні!
Oleksii Humeniuk
CMO
Rentberry, Inc
t. 415.795.7171
e. [email protected]
w. rentberry.com
On 24 February 2022 Russia attacked Ukraine. This website provides verified information and updates about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Our first review for the Wang book co-written with brother Adrian:
https://musictrust.com.au/loudmouth/wangaratta-festival-of-jazz-blues-30-years-adrian-and-andra-jackson/
"Importantly, he talks about making the festival accessible to all jazz lovers—from traditional, to mainstream, through to contemporary and experimental jazz, a healthy dose of big bands, and of course the blues."
Out now at Readings stores and The Avenue bookshop in Albert Park -The book I have co-written with my brother Adrian Jackson to make thirty years of the Wangaratta Jazz Festival.
My latest Review in Rhythms Music Magazine: https://rhythms.com.au/melbourne-jazz-festival-review/
By Andra Jackson. The Melbourne International Jazz Festival When: Gala opening concert on Friday November 26 and concerts from Thursday December 2 to Sunday December 5. Jazz is back, and with renewed vigour. – that [...]
My latest piece in Rhythms:
https://rhythms.com.au/melbourne-international-jazz-festival-set-for-december-2-5/
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