Visit West Papua! Honest Government Ad (Patreon)

Dear Patrons - here's the latest Honest Government Ad your generous support has made possible!

West Papua was at the top of requested topics, both by Patrons and general audience, so I'm stoked to have made it before the end of 2018. Coz if there’s one thing I really get a kick out of, it’s being able to respond to demand for specific topics. 

I started working on this video more than a year ago when, after we made the Visit Hawai’i video, a local West Papuan by the name of Ronny Kareni contacted me offering to help me cover the troubles going on in his own land. I took time to research this topic in between making other HGAs, and to have the important conversations with both West Papuans and Indonesians, to understand how to respectfully tackle this heavy and delicate topic. 

And here’s an interesting observation: I was half-expecting this video to draw out a mob of angry Indonesians. And indeed if you look, there are heaps of Indonesians in the YouTube comment section. But surprisingly, many of these are positive and receptive to acknowledging the past and the treatment of West Papuans by Indonesia. Sure, some disagree with the message. But I'm impressed with the overall tenor of the Indonesian response. 

I very much doubt if we could expect a similar reaction from Australians when discussing our own colonial history here!

Anyway, I am now officially rambling – so if you want to skip straight to the video, just scroll down and you'll find the links! Otherwise, read on.

So, as I said I've been meaning to make this video for over 1 year. Part of the reason why it took me so long was that I couldn’t think of a way to engage it from an Australian perspective. Yes, I could’ve made it an Indonesian Government Ad. And I would have loved to do that. But finding an Indonesian actor to do it, and writing it with locals would’ve entailed a whole other level of cost, research and collaboration, for which I don't yet have the resources. 

This is however one of my long-term goals for the future of this series - to produce Honest Government Ads from the perspective of countries other than the English-speaking ones I'm familiar with - to write them in collaboration with peeps from those places – and to have actors from the corresponding nationality host them. 

And speaking of goals... 

We are only a bee's dick away from reaching the major 1000 Patron milestone! (*omgface*)

When I started making Honest Government Ads back in 2016 I didn't think I'd reach this milestone, but look - here we are. Once we get there, I'm going to set out to hire the right person to assist me with research and writing, so we can cover more topics. I want to hire someone with proven analytical skills, preferably someone with a postgraduate degree, eg an MA or PhD (like me) in history, sociology/politics or related humanities. Coz I'm sure you all agree: expanding the team should not mean sacrificing ANY quality of the Honest Government Ad series - which has built a reputation for being well-researched, factual and bs-conspiracy free.

Of course good skills come at a price! But thanks to the regular monthly support we now have here on Patreon, I will soon be able to realistically afford this. I’m not sure how long it will take me to find the right person. I’m not going to rush it. But I do hope that sometime before mid 2019, this will be a reality. 

Ok folks, thanks for reading another one of my long-ass Patron posts. I don’t tend to share these kind of details with the general audience, as I prefer to keep it in the family. After all, you’re the people who make it possible for ANY OF THIS TO EVEN HAPPEN.

In other family news:

Next week Lucy and I are taking our baby Luca to see his grandmother (my Mother) in Cape Town, who as some of you might know, is not well. We don’t know if she’ll be able to recognize us this time, but we are going anyway with the best of hopes in our heart.

So I’ll be back with a special video and update before the end of December. Until then, take care of yourselves and stay awesome!

Giordano & team-family

VIDEO LINKS:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjU8R8oj328 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thejuicemedia/videos/348912169217547

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thejuicemedia/status/1066650033066409985