A few years ago I was preparing my post-grad dissertation on Population Trends and Migration Patterns in one of the biggest European metropolis.
As one of the experts in Ethnical Minorities from South-East Asia and the Indian Sub-continent, my professor was asked to deploy a certain amount of her students to review the old census forms and come up with a proposal that would have (if successful) identified more efficiently the key differences of the extremely variegated population of that city.
It was a project that took a couple of years to be completed, ironically we realised that in order to come up with a proper list of questions we would have had to test numerous "mini" censuses on our own.
We knew what the results would have shown but we had some difficulty in finding the right questions that would have brought out the most truthful results.
It was fun.
No, seriously! It was FUN!
Well, at least I had a great time, maybe because I'm curious, but I think it's fascinating to get to know so many details about the lives of so many strangers, where they come from, how they live, what their goals are etc...
That's why when I heard there was going to be a census here in Sydney I was actually excited!
I couldn't wait to read the questions and by this try and understand what this country is interested in knowing about myself.
Well, apparently this country doesn't care if I have pets, if I use the council's facilities, if I use private health care or public, if I read books or newspapers, if I have any living relative, if I use the public transport other than to go to work, if I am part of any club, society, party, circle of friends, if I do charity other than working as a volunteer, if I know how to swim, if I can read, how many hours I spend at home in a week, if I've been overseas, what my wishes for the future are.
What this country DOES care about is: my job,my job's title, my job's mansions, my job's address, my yearly income, how do I go to work, how many cars do I own.
I might be wrong but this looks more like a pre-screening for the application of the carbon-tax than an actual census.
Vital questions are completely left out and there seems to be a sort of an obsession on a citizen's taxable items.
Honestly I think we might just make a copy of our tax return forms and send that one as census!
As one of the experts in Ethnical Minorities from South-East Asia and the Indian Sub-continent, my professor was asked to deploy a certain amount of her students to review the old census forms and come up with a proposal that would have (if successful) identified more efficiently the key differences of the extremely variegated population of that city.
It was a project that took a couple of years to be completed, ironically we realised that in order to come up with a proper list of questions we would have had to test numerous "mini" censuses on our own.
We knew what the results would have shown but we had some difficulty in finding the right questions that would have brought out the most truthful results.
It was fun.
No, seriously! It was FUN!
Well, at least I had a great time, maybe because I'm curious, but I think it's fascinating to get to know so many details about the lives of so many strangers, where they come from, how they live, what their goals are etc...
That's why when I heard there was going to be a census here in Sydney I was actually excited!
I couldn't wait to read the questions and by this try and understand what this country is interested in knowing about myself.
Well, apparently this country doesn't care if I have pets, if I use the council's facilities, if I use private health care or public, if I read books or newspapers, if I have any living relative, if I use the public transport other than to go to work, if I am part of any club, society, party, circle of friends, if I do charity other than working as a volunteer, if I know how to swim, if I can read, how many hours I spend at home in a week, if I've been overseas, what my wishes for the future are.
What this country DOES care about is: my job,my job's title, my job's mansions, my job's address, my yearly income, how do I go to work, how many cars do I own.
I might be wrong but this looks more like a pre-screening for the application of the carbon-tax than an actual census.
Vital questions are completely left out and there seems to be a sort of an obsession on a citizen's taxable items.
Honestly I think we might just make a copy of our tax return forms and send that one as census!
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