Tuesday, December 30, 2008

2008 Retrospective - 31st December, 2008

Yes.. another year has passed, during which Orange Ribbon celebrated our 10th anniversary.

The program was originally started by Kim Benton and Shanton Change around July, 1998, and they were joined by Allan Smales a year later in 1999. Allan is still with the team, but both Kim and Shanton have long since moved on.

But 2008 not only saw the programs' 10th anniversary, but we also had 52 wonderful programs, covering a myriad of topics, people, cultures, nationalities, religions, and sexualities. (Gay, lesbian, bisexula, and transgendered.)

On this weeks program we look back at the year that was, and Allan & Hugh will present some edited highlights from interviews we have done during the year. The program will be spilt up into four major topic areas.
These will be:



  1. Religion: How our guests have been influenced, affected, indoctrinated, and otherwise been forced to question their sexuality because of the stringent rules of various religions.

  2. War and civil unrest: Some of our guests were not brought up in peaceful civil environments such as we have here in Australia. So we will include a couple of brief excerpts of our guests stories about living in a war zone, or in a country enfdangered by civil unrest.

  3. Some funny moments: We are not always serious on Orange Ribbon, and there have been a myriad of funny moments during the year. In this section we will present some funny moments extrtacted from the various 2008 interviews.
  4. Miscellaneous: This will cover a variety of topics from a guest who had a gangster father, an intercultural couple who have a surrogate son as part of their family, and an HIV Positive chinese guy who has first diagnosed in 1987 at the tender age of 19... plus other topics as well, depending upon how we go for time.

So please join Allan and Hugh this New Years Eve (31st December) from 7pm to hear some of the interview segments you heard (or missed...) earlier in 2008.

And from the Orange Ribbon team... we wish you a happy, peaceful, and prosperous 2009. We thank you for your support during 2008, and hope that you will stay with us during the coming year.

Monday, December 22, 2008

A Canadian white Christmas..? (24th December, 2008)

Yes... a Canadian White Christmas. For most of us here in Australia the entire idea of a white Christmas is more than a little foreign to us, even though we have had the images foisted on us over the years by means of Christmas cards, movies, picture books, Christmas carols etc.

However, on this weeks program (24th December, 2008) Hugh and Allan will be having a discussion with Michael, who is Canadian, and who will be able to describe to we mere mortals what it is really like to be brought up with white Christmases as being a normal part of life.

But the talk won't ALL be about a white Christmas. Michael will also tell us a little about his life in Canada, his family life, parents divorce when he was just two years old, what it was subsequently like growing up in a single-parent family, and why he decided to move to Australia.

Join Hugh and Allan this coming Wednesday evening (yes... it's Christmas Eve...) at 7:00pm to hear Michael's story... on Orange Ribbon... JOY's only multicultural gay & lesbian radio program.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

This weeks program - 17th December, 2008

With the recent departure of Ash from the team, and with both Ka Fam and Aline away for the next few weeks on holidays, Allan and Hugh will be running the program for the next three weeks.

And a reminder to all Orange Ribbon listeners... over the past few years we have used the last program of the year to present a retrospective and recap of the years discussions and interviews. For this year, the Orange Ribbon retrospective will be presented on New Years Eve, 31st December. So put it in your diary now... and join Allan and Hugh New on Years Eve (before you go out and celebrate...) for our 2008 retrospective

However, for the more immediate, this coming weeks program (17th December). Allan and Hugh be talking to Somesh who originally comes from India. They will discuss his home life in India and his school-boy dream of moving to Australia to live. He will talk about that ultimate ultimate move, love, happiness, and then getting depressed to the point of almost returning home to India.

So join the team from Orange Ribbon at 7:00pm this coming Wednesday evening (17th December) for another interesting life story.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

On tonight's program (10th December, 2008)

Earlier this evening Aline, Hugh and Allan had a phone chat with Dom Agius in London, who recently won a photographic competition run by Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) intended to celebrate Positive Living on World Aids Day earlier this month. Dom is a photographer, DJ, and music producer. He was born in England but spentsome of his childhood in Tanzania, among other places.

He has also spent some time in Melbourne and involved in some exhibitions and DJ work here.





Here is the resulting GSK promotion highlighting Dom's photograph, the subject in the photo being his real-life husband, and partner of 17 years.








In the second half of the program Aline, Hugh and Allan discuss multiculturalism, Orange Ribbon background, history and objectives, and why they are each involved in presenting a weekly gay & lesbian multicultural program. In this segment, suggestions were also invited from listeners for possible future topics of discussion, possible interview candidates, and with the recenty moving on of Ash from the team, even a possible oin-air candidate to assist in putting together the program each week.

If you have suggestions, comments, or other topic ideas, please send them to the team at orangeribbon@joy.org.au

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Farewell to Ash

Some sad news... we are losing Ash.

Ash(ish) joined the Orange Ribbon team in 2006 after the program had been in recesss for a year. Both he and Ka Fam were initially trained by Allan, and introduced to program presentation on JOY with a 3-month stint on a Sunday-morning international music program called Launchpad, which ran from June to August, 2006. During this time Allan also introduced Ash to studio panel operations and he soon became a competent studio panel operator as well.

Then at the end of August, 2006, a revamped Orange Ribbon hit the airwaves again, and Ash has been a membert of the team since that date.

However, while Ash has been taking a recent break due to a visit from India by his family, he has now decided to take a break from Orange Ribbon altogether, so we will no longer have him working with us.

Thanks Ash for your work, and good luck for your future plans and activities. We will miss you.

Monday, December 1, 2008

A former Singaporean science teacher this week - 3rd Dec. 2008

In September, 2007, a very popular Singaporean science teacher rocketed to public prominence as a result of him "outing" himself via his internet blog. The furore generated in Singapore as a result of that public outing resulted in him taking down his blog again almost immediately, followed by he and his school being placed under immense stress as the various bigots and religious zealots vented their anger and annoyance.

Otto Fong had been a very popular, yet somewhat unusual, science teacher for another reason. Apart from his fascination with science from a very young age, he was also an extremely competent artist and cartoonist. During his teaching years he started using comics in the classroom to help him in teaching science, and to help make science more interesting and easier to learn for his students. As a result he has published books of comics, and books that teach science using his comic art.

And of course he still maintains his blog, and you can check out his blog for a fascinating read, and to see innumerable examples of his cartooning capabilities.

This week on Orange Ribbon we will be chatting with this wonderfully fascinating former science teacher, who has now taken up comics as a full-time career. Please join Hugh and Allan as they chat with Otto Fong, this coming Wednesday (3rd December) between 7:00-8:00pm on JOY 94.9FM