Brandishing virtual pitchforks, netizens bayed for his blood. Only after the Tsarnaev brothers were formally identified as suspects, did Tripathi gain his reprieve. Reddit has since issued an apology regarding its role in fuelling the social media witch hunts for Boston bombings suspects. But when speculations and accusations are re-tweeted with such recklessness, perhaps the time has come to re-evaluate our dependence on online sources and social media for news.

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are becoming more ubiquitous in our lives. Twitter recently revealed that there are about 500 million Tweets a day. Every 60 seconds, it is estimated that there are about 300000 status updates on Facebook. It is no wonder that we are increasingly getting our news from these social networking websites. The instantaneity of the Internet has streamlined the information-gathering process.

However, with so much information at our fingertips, how discerning are we with regards to their validity and accuracy? In the case of the Boston bombings, there was simply too much information being exchanged over social media platforms. As the chaos in the virtual world emulated that of reality, there was an aberrant rush for information. This meant that facts were not verified properly. Redditors (Reddit users) were convinced that Tripathi and Dzhorkhar were one and the same. And we all know how that turned out.

News was once restricted to the confines of daily broadsheets. Now, we have apps which provide us with news. As our sources of news become more diverse, we as news consumers are also becoming more demanding. Information has changed from a luxury good to a commodity. We are so accustomed to having news at our fingertips that we heap tremendous pressure on news producers. This would inevitably lead to a compromise in the quality of the news which we receive. An American study in 2009 revealed that the public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories was at its lowest level in more than two decades.

Citizen journalism is on the rise as well. We see more and more user-generated content every day. Evidently not all of them are legitimate or credible, as can be seen from the case of Reddit. In fact, with the sheer volume of information available, it is difficult to assess the reliability of every source. One need only look at the dozens of conspiracy theories which have surfaced on the Internet in the aftermath of the Boston bombing to understand some of the ludicrous attempts at producing ‘news’.

Online social media is also susceptible to the bane of cyberspace: the hacker. Just a few days ago, Twitter’s security flaws were harshly exposed. Hackers breached the Associated Press’s Twitter account and tweeted about explosions in the White House that had injured President Barack Obama. This sparked a furor in Wall Street and resulted in US stocks plunging. The credibility of news via online Tweets and status updates are thus being subjected to intense scrutiny.

At a time when many organisations and corporations are engaging in a symbiotic relationship with Twitter, this notion of insecurity is disconcerting. What is to say that another incident such as the one mentioned above will not trigger another Wall Street Crash?

The specter of the Tripathi saga still hangs over social media. But at least the future of social media is not entirely bleak. The Boston Marathon bombing was not a complete loss for social media platforms. There were numerous reports of people using social media to locate their loved ones in the aftermath of the bombing. It is comforting to know that there is still some semblance of logic within our Tweet-crazy, Facebook-obsessed society.

When a status update is more powerful than a phone call, it is important that we pause to take stock of how we process and spread information. At the very least, we owe it to Sunil Tripathi to ensure the credibility of that 140-character message.

No one could argue against public school reform. As a former public school student myself I was pleased to hear of the Gonski study. But  as a University student now I am dumbfounded that our Government response is to take from one education sector to benefit the other. It is called the ‘education system’ for a reason and taking from one part of it to help the other is a disappointing shortcut and one that will not equate to a better overall education program.

Recently Glyn Davis, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Melbourne, which is set to see $52 million dollars worth of cuts, assured students that “we are working to ensure that no cuts affect the quality of teaching and learning”. But we would be naive to take much comfort in these words. The shake up of university funding will affect students in a number of ways, with nearly all of them being negative.

One of the first direct changes to affect students will be increased class size. As budgets tighten the tutorials will become fewer and more packed with students. It is no secret that larger classes can lead to disengaged students and lower academic results. In a small class there is more individual attention and students grow to feel comfortable around one another. With larger classes it’s less likely for this to happen. No university students I know are excited about the prospect of bigger class sizes. Noel Jesik, a second year student at Melbourne voiced his frustration, “class sizes are already getting bigger, I sometimes just feel like a number and I’m not escaping that feeling in my tutorials”.

To date, the student movement against the Gonski reforms have been quiet. But speaking to students there is a sense that the impending changes are not sitting well with them. A commonly mentioned concern was that subjects that are deemed ‘un-popular’ and ‘unprofitable’ will be cut, limiting the diversity of subjects on offer.

One arts student, who wished not to be named said that, “What concerns me is the attitude towards subjects that are teaching skills that aren’t in current demand, if they take subjects we’re passionate about away then we won’t stand for it”.

Whilst it is unclear how Universities will handle tighter budgets, what is certain is that the Gonski plan will be targeting lower income students.

The Governments plan is to save 1.4 billion dollars by making recipients of the Start Up Scholarship, which helps in paying for university books and equipment, a loan to be paid back. Recipients of these scholarships are already those from low-income households who receive Centrelink support. If the scholarship becomes a loan it is estimated that the final debt of these financially disadvantaged students will have increased up to 37%.

Second year student and recipient of the bi-annual scholarship, Adeshola Ore said she spoke for many of her friends with the idea that “whilst it wont impact me short term, it makes me worry about my HECs and what it will look like after post-grad study”.

The greater financial burdens only increases the pressure on students to ‘get in right’ with their degree. There is little room for the ‘errors’ that the university years are famed for – “want to change your degree? Sure, we’re still charging you for the two years worth of scholarship money you used”. At a time so critical to ones future, students should feel flexible and un-burdened if they have a change of heart in their study plans. Instead, with no guarantee of a job post graduation, we’re concerned and worried about our ever-increasing debt before we’ve even left university.

I’m not proposing that University become free – as nice as that idea is. But why, when financial pressures on students are greater then ever, would our Government (Labor, no less) take away the small payment that makes it all slightly easier?

At the core of the Gonski report was that Australia should aspire to have a schooling system amongst the best in the world. But what we have here is a Government that is undervaluing universities. We cannot expect to have a world-class education system if we have mediocre universities. By targeting and dropping the level of their funding then our universities will slip. Research prospects will drop, the quality of education will drop and Australian students will continue to pay exorbitant amounts merely attend ‘a’ university.

Skye McDonald, from the University of New South Wales, put it concisely when she commented that “We have high standards of education in Australia and we really need to capitalize on that. Our young, talented students who have potential research careers, for them to go out and discover solutions to so many of life’s problems, they really need to be supported.”

The majority of student’s work towards going to University, it’s why we slug it out for 12 years at school. But with the Gonski reforms it is shaping up to be an unattractive and obscenely costly place.  It’s worth our government finding an alternative way to fund their school reforms, one that allows for both a great schooling and university system.

Students of this country deserve both.

Seven people, trapped in a Hotel, who don’t like each other. Lies, deceit, or just something to hide. Should make for a very entertaining evening…

“People in hotels are always polite, and put on a display of the best version of themselves. People also treat a hotel as their home, and a private space, when in fact the room is cleaned by strangers every day and everyone will inevitably leave and may never return” – Josiah Lulham.

Hotel is the “ambitious experiment” of writers Josiah Lulham and Clancy Moore.

This original play features 7 scenes each given to 7 different directors to direct independently. Hotel explores the lives of the 7 characters residing within the one hotel, with a bold twist; each night the order of performances is rearranged, creating a new experience and narrative for each new audience.

Lulham, one of the show’s creators and writers, explains that initially, Hotel came from a structural idea. It was backstage during a production of History Boys in 2012 that Lulham and Moore began thinking about “a show in which scene order was randomised… where we could involve the work of a different director for each scene, 
”we settled upon a hotel because it’s in interesting transitory space.”

Each character in Hotel is exceptionally detailed, with intricate back-stories and seemingly insurmountable dilemmas. Hotel exposes the people underneath their polite and charming exteriors, the people behind the faked “Hellos” and smiles in the lobby. Moore and Lulham’s characters, all have something “bubbling underneath that they don’t want to anyone else to know – something they’re running from, something they themselves don’t wish to acknowledge.”

Moore states that because of the randomised order of the performances, there are “5040 different permutations of the show”. Hotel has a second week of residency at The University of Melbourne’s Guild Theatre, from the 29^th May – 1^st of July.

STARRING: Remy Chadwick, Alexander Thom, Brendan McDougall, Bonnie Leigh-Dodds, Kathryn White, Leech King and Rohan Byrne

DIRECTORS: Sara ‘Tabitha’ Catchpole, Justin Nott, Shannon Lougnane, Alice Dawes, Benjamin Sheen, Casey Bradley, and Isabella Vadiveloo.

TICKETS:

$20 – Adult

$15 – Concession

For booking information, please visit:

http://www.trybooking.com/Booking/BookingEventSummary.aspx?eid=49721

http://hotelbyuntilmonstrous.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/events/182023248621483/?directed_target_id=0

This is it. After months of speculation and debate, the new Xbox has been revealed. Not the Xbox 720. Not the Xbox Infinity. It is simply the Xbox One.

The Xbox One. (Image from xbox.com/en-AU/xboxone)

In the worldwide reveal on 21 May 2013, President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft and the head of Xbox, Don Mattrick, said that their goal is to create an “all-in-one” system. The new Xbox boasts several new features; it now has kinect enabled voice commands, dubbed “instant switching”, allowing the user to switch between applications seamlessly by simply saying the commands “Xbox, watch TV”, or “Xbox play game”. Users will now also be able to navigate their home screens by using simple hand gestures akin to swiping on a smartphone or tablet.

The user interface (UI) has also been upgraded, with manual logins phased out, and “snap mode” introduced, allowing the user to multi-task on the console. There’s even the introduction of the “Trending” tab that enables users to view the recent activity of their friends.

This improved interactivity and communication with the console will no doubt allow users to experience Microsoft’s vision of an all-in-one entertainment system.

But what about us hardcore gamers? What about the main purpose of the console – playing video games?

If we talk about hardware, the specs of the Xbox One are quite similar to the PlayStation 4 (PS4) that was first announced in February this year. Both possess a decent 8GB of RAM, as well as Blu-ray/DVD combo drives for games and other media. They are also now both running on x86 PC architecture, which means easier development across the board for games launched on multiple platforms. This is good news for developers and players alike.

Still, there are some issues that haven’t been addressed since the announcement.

Many people are wary of how both Sony and Microsoft are dealing with the second hand game market. While Sony has stated that used games will not be blocked, Microsoft needs to tread carefully as they haven’t declared anything official with regard to the second-hand market. The last thing gamers want is to be stripped of the choice of buying pre-owned games due to them being locked to one console.

The new Xbox One is also missing something most gamers want: backwards compatibility. The Xbox 360 console has the ability to play games intended for the first generation Xbox, so this piece of news will be seen as a loss of functionality, especially with gamers heavily invested in the current system. Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) purchases are also non-transferrable to the Xbox One. Meanwhile, Sony intends to use the Gaikai cloud service for the PS4 to allow users to stream and play previous generation games on the console. This is seen as an improvement from the PS3 which had limited to no backwards compatibility depending on when you bought one.

There has also been limited news on console exclusive game launches on both ends. The tech demos shown during the presentations display a glimpse of what the next generation can do, with highly polished graphics being the focus. All this doesn’t seem very impressive, as graphics only take you so far. The only thing left to do is to wait for Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) to hit on 11 June, for more game-centric news to be delivered.

For now, one thing is certain – it is not clear which console “wins”. The PS4 has not been revealed yet, with only a teaser that was just released before the Xbox One’s launch; clearly a diversionary tactic. Both consoles are scheduled to be released later on in the year with no fixed date, and pricing has not yet been confirmed. My guess is that it will be out in time for Christmas.

Let’s just hope that Sony and Microsoft iron out any issues by the eventual launch date. If all else fails, there’s always the good ol’ PC.

State of Origin II 2012 | Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“So you’re wearing Cooper Cronk’s Queensland jersey… Wait I’m confused, doesn’t he play for Melbourne?” – The average Victorian.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are approaching my favourite time of the year. State of Origin. But, by some cruel twist of fate, many Victorians are confused by the concept, just as I was a few years ago. That’s why, as a relatively recent convert, I’m here to help.

So what is it exactly?
State of Origin (SOO) is an annual three-game battle between New South Wales and Queensland, and it is one of Australia’s greatest displays of professional sport. The Blues versus the Maroons. The Cockroaches versus the Cane Toads. It is a rivalry with roots over 30 years old. Being selected to play in a SOO jersey is a prestigious honour, bestowed upon only the best performers at club level. As of late 2012, players are only eligible for selection for either states’ squads if they lived in that state before their 13^th birthday, or alternatively if their father played for that state.

What’s so great about it?
Quite simply, it is brilliant entertainment. The referees let far more slide in SOO than they do at club level, and it works. In games as emotionally charged as these, strict on-field regulation would be a nightmare. This is the one time a year fans get to see league as it should be played – raw, hard, passionate, and with more guts and grit than even finals footy can offer.

Why Blues fans hate…
Greg Inglis? There is some grey area as to whether Inglis should be playing for NSW or QLD, and given his insane talent, there are thousands of Blues fans that are infinitely bitter about the fact that he wears the Maroon jersey. Inglis moved to Queensland when he was 16, so if his selection were to fall under the newly abridged eligibility rules, GI would be wearing Blue.

Billy Slater? Billy tends to get away with a fair bit on the field, so people from NSW generally aren’t a fan. For the most part though, he’s hated because he’s ridiculously good. In fact, quite frankly he’s the best in the business – and how are you supposed to compete with that?

Queensland in general? Because they win. A lot. They’ve won seven series in a row, and are expected to win their eighth consecutive series this year. In fact, Maroons fans like to point out that there has never been a Facebook status dedicated to a NSW Origin series win, because when NSW last won a series, Facebook didn’t even exist. Ouch.

Why Maroons fans hate…
Jarryd Hayne? Whenever Jarryd does something good in a game, the media headlines are cringe-worthy variations of  “The Hayne Plane”. Many people think Hayne is too big for his boots. In all fairness, he is a talented player, but he is frustratingly inconsistent.  And modesty never killed anybody.

The Stewart Brothers?* Ah, there is a lot of colourful language I could use to talk about Brett and Glenn Stewart. Very colourful, biased language. Instead, I will leave you with this video, and you can decide for yourself what you think about them. *Please note: Neither of the Stewarts were selected for Game I. Shame.

New South Wales in general? Because they play dirty. Real dirty. And it works for them.

The beauty of being from Victoria…
You get to choose whichever state you’d like. Technically, my roots lie in NSW, but my rugby league commitment thus far has been to Melbourne Storm so I struggle to cheer against Slater, Cam Smith, Inglis and Cronk in the Queensland side.

At the very least, it’s a great opportunity to head down to the pub on three Wednesday nights a year with some mates, drink, and yell at a television. Extra points if you can turn it into a drinking game. And really, what true Aussie doesn’t enjoy doing that? The more you watch it, the more you’ll get it, and the more you’ll love it. The feeling in a SOO game is very easy to get caught up in.

Why doesn’t Victoria have a team though?
Just as the roots of AFL are in Victoria, the roots of Australian Rugby League are in New South Wales and Queensland. Victoria currently has just two NRL players to their name, Mahe Fonua and Young Tonumaipea – and Tonumaipea is yet to make his first-grade debut. If the ARL continue to invest in the Victorian system, we’re half a chance of having one in the next few decades (assuming Queensland and New South Wales will be up for the challenge which will be another argument entirely).

Every three years a SOO game is played in Melbourne, always drawing an impressive crowd. If you get on board now, you have two whole series to get your head around it before being blown away by SOO live and in the flesh.

If you wander down the St. Kilda esplanade on a Sunday afternoon you’re likely to stumble upon a stall called Ginkoh Jewellery. And if you’re jewellery obsessed like me, then you’ll want to stop and start trying on everything on display. From delicately cast spider earrings to chunky silver gargoyle rings, this quirky and unique jewellery might just provide that statement piece you’ve always wanted.

Ginkoh is the brainchild of metal smith jeweller, Steph Hocking who can be found on a Sunday tending the St Kilda stall with partner, Tim. Having always been a tinkerer of sorts, playing around with metal in her Dad’s shed and patiently repairing broken bits and bobs, she finally chose to do a metal smith course in 2008. And it has grown from there.

Hocking works out of her small Anglesea studio at the end of the garden and has slowly but surely started to build her dream into a business. Although she laughs, and tells me that now its winter she’s had to get a casual job “’cos it gets too cold out there, goddamit!!”

But the freezing coastal temperature doesn’t stop her. “I just love the process of making jewellery,” she says. And it shows! Each piece is crafted with real intricacy and care – little silver dragonfly pendants that still retain the lines on their wings or a ‘ute’ ring just like a perfect miniature replica of the iconic Australian car.

She hands me a beautiful coin locket made from an old penny and her eyes light up as she explains how it works. “I’m all about the mechanism and the hinging,” she says, twisting the penny and revealing a little chamber underneath. “These are definitely my favourite pieces at the moment. I just really enjoy the process of making them. And they’re recycled.”

There are many other examples of how she loves to reuse and repurpose objects, but recycling is not the focus. The philosophy of Ginkoh jewellery is ‘handmade’.

“Everything is different. No two things are ever the same.” She tells me. And this is because her passion is in the process. She loves the intricacy of metal smith jewellery design, lost wax casting, bench-work and etching. Hocking casts tiny insects, crabs and spiders and with painstaking care turns them into exquisite wearable items. “I’ve always been very patient, though. I would sit there for ages untangling all my Mum’s necklaces when I was younger,” she says with a smile.

- picture of the casts before they have been set in silver.

Both her patience and her ‘handmade’ philosophy are evident in all the pieces, but especially so in some of the figurative sculpture work like minutely detailed faces of silver gargoyles that look up at you with a smirk which is a testament to Hocking’s ethos and ability.

This handmade process is also winning her some seriously creative commissions, such as a gavel pendant for a recent law degree graduate. “It’s about unique pieces for unique people. People with strong personalities who want to wear something that represents who they are.” She envisages celebrities like SBS presenter Lee Lin Chin or singer, Pink wearing her pieces – two strong female characters whose punky edge sort of sums up Hocking herself. She has most certainly placed her jewellery outside of the mainstream. She’s not just another pop up shop, ‘hip-steria’ Melbourne scene trend, just passing through; instead she’s chosen to “chase a different animal”.

Hocking is much more at home at the craft markets where she can talk to the Sunday strollers and take inspiration from the people she meets there. “People often walk up and just want to have a chat” – which she loves.

Melbourne Storm: Playing for Everything | Picture: Quinn Rooney | Source: Getty Images

Well what do you know, it turns out that the Melbourne Storm are human after all. By the looks of the recent media frenzy after two consecutive losses and a draw, you’d think they had never seen Storm lose a game of footy in their lives.

It’s rather amusing to see the media’s reaction when Melbourne lose consecutive games. Everyone freaks out. One of the most amusing things is how much emphasis people place on losing the top spot of the premiership ladder. Being at the top can be as much of a curse as it is a blessing. After all, when you’re at the top, the only way is down.

Does it look like the club is in a state of panic? Nope. In fact, last week the team went Go-karting. The week before, they had a game of golf. And while journalists and rugby league experts try to pick apart every aspect of Storm’s last two games to work out what went wrong, and what they need to do to fix it, I’m going to stress the importance of this team bonding. Team bonding is the sugar that will help the medicine go down.

On the field, the boys have been looking tired. Tired and uninspired. They need to find their spark again, and they need to find it with each other. Will they be able to do that doing running drills every day at Gosch’s Paddock? Unlikely. Will it miraculously happen while they’re lifting weights? Probably not. Quite simply, Storm need to have some fun again.

After their infamously gruelling pre-season and the February World Club Challenge in London, it’s no wonder they’re a bit flat at Round 10. They’d be looking ahead and seeing the arduous Origin period creeping up, during which they’ll temporarily lose a chunk of their leadership team to representative sides. Beyond that they’d be seeing another seven rounds of football games – before finals.

Prior to the Round 8 loss to the Canberra Raiders, Storm hadn’t lost an official match since 27^th July. After 9 months without a loss, they just need that raw hunger for a win again. They need to really, really want it.

If it were up to me to find a way to inspire them, I would take the team back to 2010. The year of the salary cap scandal revelation. The year that they weren’t allowed to compete for competition points. They still had to play every week, but if they won, it would be technically for “nothing”. For an entire season, Storm had to find something else to play for.

They played for the fans that stuck by them. They played for their pride. They played because the game was still important to them. But above all else, they played for each other. Because playing to support the men beside them was the only way they would be able to get through that season in one piece. When you think about it, they were really playing for everything.

By default, Melbourne Storm got the wooden spoon that year. But seeing that playing group dig deep every week and find reasons to win, other than for premiership points – that was the most inspired I have ever been by a sporting team. It was the proudest I have been to be a member of the club. That show of inspiration, pride and mateship is what I would remind them of now.

This is a club that, despite everything that has been thrown at them, have consistently been hailed the best in the league.

While I realise they are far from playing their best footy, why anyone would be rattled by Storm losing two measly games will continue to baffle me. They’ve come back from much, much worse.

New Zealander Marco Rojas has had a stellar season, scoring 15 goals in 27 appearances, and was highly instrumental in Melbourne Victory’s top 4 finish. He has scooped up nearly every major award: the Johnny Warren player of the year, the A-league young player of the year, and the Melbourne Victory player of the year award. He is currently on his way to Vfb Stuttgart, one of the top teams in Germany. It is a massive step up from a very mediocre A-league to European football, which is played at a much higher standard. This is another player added to the growing trend of A-league players being exported to Europe for all the wrong reasons.

Marco Rojas is Vfb Stuttgart’s newest signing (Image from bundesligafootball.co.uk)

While Australia is not the best environment for developing world class footballers, sending young talents to Europe creates major problems. Firstly, it can be worse for their development to join a club where they are unlikely to play. Secondly, it is not beneficial for them to play at a standard that is too high or too low compared with the A-league.

The premiership champions, the Central Coast Mariners, are the best example of this mismanagement. Tomas Rogic, a 20-year old attacking midfielder, was in stellar form earlier in the season. He ripped up the opposition with his silky skills and was a driving influence in the Mariners’ rise to the top of the table. But as soon as the January transfer window came, the Mariners succumbed to transfer interests and sold him to Celtic in Glasgow, Scotland.

Scottish football is not renowned for being the most stylish brand of football, but it is highly physical, much like English football. Many doubted whether it matched Rogic’s playing style, which is a game based on tricks and flicks rather than hard running and physical dominance. Since his arrival in Scotland, Rogic has played in only two games.

Rogic has struggled to play regularly at Celtic (Image from: dailymail.co.uk)

Back in Australia, the Mariners’ fortunes took a turn after his sale, and their previous dominance faded as they finished second in the league. They still managed to recuperate enough to win the premiership, however. Had Rogic stayed, they may have performed better in the league. His game would have improved, perhaps not by an enormous amount, but more than he would get sitting on a bench in Glasgow.

It seems the Mariners haven’t learnt their lesson. Two more young stars, goalkeeper Matt Ryan and striker Bernie Ibini are under speculation as they head to France to train with Lille. Their fates are also questionable if they are signed by Lille. Having won the French title in recent seasons and featuring in the UEFA Champions League, it is doubtful whether even the stars of the A-league can break into such a professional European outfit.

Many young Australian talents have struggled to adapt to European football in the past. Nathan Burns left Adelaide for AEK Athens after a successful 2008 season, but was quickly relegated to the bench. Soon afterwards he was loaned out to a lower tier side. He never regularly featured for the first team, and was sold to a South Korean team in 2012. Mitch Langerak, a top goalkeeping talent with Melbourne Victory in 2010, has also been frustrated after his move to German giants Borussia Dortmund, only featuring in 6 games since. Neither feature regularly in the Socceroos.

Nathan Burns struggled at AEK Athens (image from: foxsportsasia.com)

Of course, there have been success stories. Robbie Kruse is a perfect example, moving to Fortuna Dusseldorf from Melbourne Victory in 2011. At the time, Dusseldorf were 10th in the 2 Bundesliga, but managed to achieve promotion to the Bundesliga for the 2012-13 season. In this season, Kruse has continued his rise, making 8 assists and scoring 4 goals. At the end of the season, he will go to the German powerhouse, Bayer Leverkusen. The key in Kruse’s success was the team he transferred to.

When he moved there, Dusseldorf was ready to develop him as a player and feature him regularly. They were playing at a similar standard to the A-League in the 2. Bundesliga. This season, they were promoted to the world class Bundesliga, a perfect progression for Kruse. He was saved a lot of pandering around waiting for his chance, and the supportive environment helped him to make a quick transition. He is now one of the core members of the Socceroos squad.

In contrast, Nathan Burns moved to a country and league with a poor reputation for nurturing young talent. Mitch Langerak went to a team with great youth development, but had to step up from the mediocre A-league into the top team in Germany.

A-league clubs and players need to understand that sending players to Europe just for the sake of doing it may not be beneficial for the player’s development or the team’s situation. Clubs should take player and team profit into greater consideration. Selling half-baked players into the ferocious, world-class football environment of Europe will only send them backwards.

Life for a 1920s provincial housewife is often depicted as a life of routine and excruciating boredom. Much the same can be said for the experience that is seeing Therese Desqueyroux at the cinema. Even the normally astute and stiff lipped art-house movie goes –the sort who remain seated throughout the rolling of the credits – were restless throughout and made a beeline for the exit when it was all, finally, over.

It is true that French period films are not to everyone’s taste.  But this film commanded attention well before it premiered, given the unique set of circumstances surrounding its production. Not only is it based on one of France’s most treasured literature works, Francois Mauriac’s 1926 novel, Therese Desqueyroux, but the films renowned French director, Claude Miller died shortly before the films completion. The death, the subject matter and the fact that it stars French sweetheart Audrey Tautou as the anti-hero, all made it one of the most hyped French films of 2012.

Unfortunately, like so many films, the reality fails to live up to the hype.

Set amongst the idyllic pine plantation of South West France we are first introduced to the free spirited, feminist and strong-willed Therese.  Despite her progressive upbringing and views, Therese agrees and even looks positively towards marrying the wealthy, hard-headed catholic and pine plantation owner, Bernard Desqueyroux (Giles Lellouche). Marriage, she hopes, will ‘help sort out all the thoughts in my head’.

But on their wedding night, Therese lays motionless and vacant beneath her husband. Already her thoughts are ‘wondering’ elsewhere.

Soon a baby arrives and the reality of being a wife and a mother begin to pull on her sense of freedom. She grows to resent her husband despite his loving disposition towards her. She is remarkably distant from her child who she sees as her ultimate entrapment. At one point in the film her baby cries from its cott and Therese remains seated, looking in the opposite direction, cracking nuts.

Therese’s restlessness comes to ahead when Therese’s long time friend and Bernard’s sister, Anne, embarks on a romance with a young Jewish Frenchman. The young man, a supposed tuberculosis sufferer, lives the free life style that Therese desires. The passion Anne and her lover share begins to irk Therese and her subsequent intervention ends their romance and pushes Therese towards finding her own sense of ‘freedom’ again.

Her way out of the stifling provincial lifestyle presents itself and Therese takes her opportunities calculatingly and deceptively.

By this stage there is something extremely jarring about Therese’s character. Her sullenness, her passiveness, and her potentially deadly behavior is fully realized but never entirely justified.  And this is the major flaw with the film.

In the novel, Therese is given some sort of excuse for her behavior. She is married to the epitome of the vulgar husband and her in-laws are simply horrid. If we were reading the novel then we would feel that Therese’s situation was desperate.  Consequently, we would feel something for her actions – some might even understand them. Above all, sympathy, to some degree would be felt for Therese.

But such a feeling is never to be found in Miller’s film. Instead, Miller illustrates a husband who loves his wife, but one who probably spends too much time hunting.  It is hardly justification for Therese’s actions and she consequently comes across as fragrantly selfish and narcissistic – a character almost impossible to feel anything for.

Now it is not just that the central character is made so much more dislikable in the film then the book, but the film as a whole simply fails to captivate. There are more landscape shots of pine forests than the cumulative age of the patrons in art house cinema. The film feels like 3 hours, instead of two, mostly thanks to the music composers. The dialogue Audrey Taotou spits out is always so stern and disapproving – And that just breaks your heart if you are someone who will perpetually see her as ‘Amelie’.

But the biggest tragedy with this film is that Therese Desqueyroux had the potential to speak to contemporary audiences. It had the potential to be great and not join the list of mediocre foreign period films (it is now indefinitely on that list). The novel still sells thousands of copies a year in France alone. It’s the nuances of relationships; their complexities, pressures, difficulties and the forgiveness that can arise out of the most unforgivable of circumstances that make the story a classic. This is what the novel delivers and why it is still read. And it is all of those things that this film fails to present convincingly.

Unless you are an Audrey Tautou fan or desperate to work on your French language skills, then save yourself the cost of admission.

Therese Desqueyroux is now showing at Cinema Nova, Melbourne.

The controversial Bahraini figure, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, was recently voted as President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). He was linked with the so-called player purge in 2011, orchestrating the arrests and torturing of pro-democracy supporters. Despite widespread protests from human rights groups, Sheikh Salman was allowed to stand for the position of AFC President, with the backing of various factions including the Asian Olympic Committee. When interviewed by SBS on The World Game Monday last week, he challenged his accusers to produce evidence about these rumours.

Sheikh Salman, shown here shaking hands with Sepp Blatter, was voted in despite the controversy (image from: aljazeera.com)

This is one of many controversies in soccer administrations.

In 2011, Qatar won the bid for the 2022 World Cup in acrimonious circumstances. A Middle Eastern nation of under 2 million inhabitants, it was a surprise winner, both shocking and enraging the football planet. Bids from the favourites, USA and Australia, were beaten comfortably. The victory was linked to the Qatari Mohammed bin Hamman, a FIFA board member and AFC President at the time, who was alleged to play a role in negotiating bribes.

Australia’s bid was disappointingly ruled out in the first round of voting, despite much optimism beforehand. The optimism was replaced by cynicism. Many accused FIFA board members of succumbing to greed; Australia’s bid was promised over 10 votes in the first round –there was much optimism that the bid would be successful. In the first round it only received one.

Soon afterwards, during the 2011 FIFA elections, President Sepp Blatter was re-elected for a 5th time amid much controversy. His main rival, bin Hamman, had been the favourite for the position, but withdrew from the candidacy with charges from the FIFA ethics committee. Blatter was alleged to have prior knowledge of the bribery, but ran unopposed nonetheless. He is now in his 15th straight year as FIFA President.

President Sepp Blatter making an address (Image from: aljazeera.com)

It remains to be seen whether Sheikh Salman will follow bin Hamman’s path into controversy. However, his background and the recent controversies are not promising signs. While the next World Cup in Brazil shapes up promisingly, the following World Cup in Qatar is unlikely to attract much attention for the beautiful game.

Soccer politics still resemble an oligarchy of corruption that is barely contained. As long as this continues, the beautiful game will be further blemished by its leadership.