However when you are being teased mercilessly, and occasionally being physically abused because of your hair colour, it’s kind of difficult to remember the perks.

(Did I mention that red heads are more sensitive to pain? We bleed more, and are more likely to have reactions to things like injections and allergies).

One of my least favourite of the insults is the word ‘ranga’. For anyone unfamilar with the term, it’s short for orangutan. For anyone still not making the connection, organutans are also red heads.

Being called a ranga isn’t just your every day ginger insult. There are plenty of words to describe red heads and the vast majority aren’t very nice, but the difference with ranga is the implication that red heads haven’t evolved. That we are like orangutans. That we are a different species.

Angela Mary Claire (not pictured)

We have learned that groups can reclaim words that have previously been used against them. Queer, dyke, fag, nigger, and now slut, have all been reclaimed and are now used by the people they used to be used against.

But for words to be reclaimed they have to be taken back by the people they were used against. The general population can’t just decide all of a sudden when a term is no longer an insult and is only being used in jest. I can’t just start calling my Italian workmate a dirty wog with the disclaimer that it’s all in fun. A word can’t go from insult to general use without something in the middle. Thankyou, but I will decide when I will stop being offended by the term ‘ranga’.

So no, raising money with an International Ranga Day and asking kids to wear red clothes and wigs is not okay. The fact it’s a fundraiser for orangutans, in my eyes, makes it worse not better. There would be plenty of people out there who had never realised where the word ‘ranga’ orginated. They have now.

Having “four eyes for Fred Hollows Day” wouldn’t be okay, so why is this?It’s endorsed name calling. And next time a red haired kid is being teased for being different, who are they going to ask for help? It’s just been publicly acknowledged that they are different. And if you think that red haired kids don’t get bullied for their haircolour, I have a scar on my face that says otherwise.

Teasing your friends is a lot different to singling out a group of kids at a school. My friends know that they can tease me about my hair and that I’m fine with it, but they also know where the line is. I tease them as well, about anything I can make up. I’m prone to crossing the line. But I wouldn’t tell kids that it’s okay to use those words.

So think back to highschool and remember the name you were called that you hated the most. Everyone has one. You might have been a jock, or gay, or the only Asian kid, or short, or tall, or fat, or skinny, or too white, or too dark, or have braces, or glasses, or maybe your mum taught at the school, or you were clever, or not clever, or bad at sports, or your parents had divorced, or you were the weird kid, or maybe you wet yourself in grade one and no-one’s let you forget it.

Now imagine that the teachers said it was okay to use those words, and for one day everyone was going to dress just like you. To raise money for monkeys.

That are just like you.

However, people who don’t understand the potential applications of social media are missing the power it holds in times of crisis. The obvious example at the moment being the QLD Floods.

Through social media, people are coordinating rescue efforts and donating time and money in a way that could never be organised through traditional media. A quick look at the amazing Meshel Laurie’s twitter account (@Meshel_Laurie) shows how one person can coordinate information and pass it on to a huge audience.

Using Twitter, she has coordinated rescue efforts for stranded horses, relayed information on available stables and land as well as alerted people to organisations that require volunteers including the Fairfield RSPCA who were inundated with volunteer foster carers for animals.

Sometimes people are the best.

People are using social media to relay information from areas where other lines of communication are down, for example Caboolture and Morayfield where phone lines are down. Offers of assistance are being relayed in these areas through a Facebook group Caboolture Shire and Surrounding Suburbs Floods. It’s because of Facebook that I know that cut off members of my own family are okay despite having no phones and being surrounded by floodwaters.

Information on supplies and road closures is also being relayed through Twitter and Facebook, with many people volunteering boats and trucks to get supplies to those in need.

These kinds of efforts are possible because of people who know how to use social media. More often than not, social media is used to share pictures of cats and that video of the little girl crying over Tony Blair’s retirement. However, sometimes it proves to be invaluable. Everyone has at least one friend that doesn’t “get” Twitter. Next time they give you an earful about what a waste of time it is, show them the below picture.

Social media was used to coordinate the rescue of 18 little guys like these from a paddock near Caboolture. They would have drowned otherwise.

If you can donate anything to the Flood Appeal, please do www.qld.gov.au/floods

I would be considered by lots of people in my hometown to be a “fag loving, lefty communist”. I am a pretty typical liberal 26 year old. (Please note, I mean liberal in the actual sense of the word, not the political party.) However when it comes to causes, I am what I would call a “casual protester”. This shouldn’t be interpreted to mean that I only have a casual interest in particular causes, instead that I am unwilling to align myself with many organisations and as a result this has lead to a sketchy attendance record for protests, including those related to issues that I hold strong opinions on. If I had a protest report card it would probably read :

“Angela would benefit from more regular attendance. If she concentrated half as much on the presented material as she does socialising with other protesters, she could go far. Does not apply herself, ie has never made or carried a sign.”

I went to this one. It rained.

My concern is not with the issues themselves, rather the method in which groups choose to make their point. Currently, I am most infuriated with a couple of animal rights groups. I am reaching saturation point with these groups, probably because of their attack campaigns over Christmas.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with almost all of their points. It’s the tactics and angles I have a real issue with, and I really think their approaches are disadvantageous to their cause. Do I think that animal rights might be in a far better state if smarter tactics were deployed? Yes, I think they probably would be.

So what am I talking about? Well, for example encouraging the general public to become vegan is like asking them for a million bucks when you’d be lucky to score ten dollars. Realistically, the vast majority of people are never going to become vegan, and by making unreasonable requests you are at the same time labeling yourself an unreasonable group.

Some Babe-on-Babe action.

Baby steps are required for real change. Many of these organisations have very dedicated (if not occasionally misguided and overzealous) members, as well as quite substantial funding. Imagine if every dollar and every man hour spent on encouraging a very unwilling majority was redirected and used to educate the public on how to shop for organic and cruelty free food? Encouraging people to buy free range bacon is a completely reasonable and achievable goal. Once you’ve conquered that mountain, then perhaps try for Meat Free Mondays.

You’ve got to get kids to eat vegetables by offering them a few peas at a time. You don’t lock them in a Birds Eye processing plant and expect them to come out the other side thanking you for showing them the light. By aiming too high, these groups are missing the majority of their audience on the way up. Tell me how to shop for organic food, I’ll listen. Tell me to stop eating meat, I’ll tell you to eat shit that I hear what you’re saying, and I respect your opinion. But no.

This meal is bullshit.

My other issue with animal rights groups is the misdirection of their protests. For example, as far as I am aware (and correct me if I am wrong) but the majority, if not all, pet shop owners have zero law making power. They aren’t running pet shops during the day and banning semi-automatic weapons by night. So why are animal rights groups protesting at pet shops?

Well, we know why they are protesting. They are protesting the sale of farmed domestic pets and inhumane conditions in the shops themselves. However that isn’t what the average Joe see’s when confronted with a group of pamphlet waving, dread sporting hippies in front of a shop. He see’s an attack on small business, and a group of self righteous lefty wankers making a scene.

Pet shops aren’t going to cease the sale of farmed animals because an animal rights group picketed their shop and handed out leaflet after leaflet to an unwilling public (leaflets that are destined to end up on the ground around the corner, but that’s another issue). They will stop, however, when the law says they have to stop. So instead of picketing, what could they do? How do you draw attention to an issue that no-one cares about?

Oh wait, that’s right. Everyone cares because everyone fucking loves puppies and kitties. How do I know that everyone loses their shit over the small furry variety of cute?

Oh, that's right.

So how do you reach an audience and educate them on an issue that can be illustrated with lolcats? Well for starters, you don’t alienate your audience, and that is what happens with these protests. Instead, get your most straightlaced and well spoken representative, put him in a suit and make friends with some journalists. Do a press conference somewhere appropriate, like outside a pet shop parliament house. Turn yourself into a group that your friendly MP can actually side with, rather than one they will cross the street to avoid.

Also, cut these off. It's over.

So many of the people that volunteer their time and donate their money to these groups have a level of dedication that I can only imagine possessing, but it’s being wasted by badly organised and badly conceived campaigns. If you’ve ever NOT gone to a protest, not because you didn’t strongly support the cause, but because you didn’t want to be associated with the organisers, then you understand what I’m saying.

Uh, that's okay guys. You go on ahead without me.

Now I already know that a lot of people aren’t going to agree with any of this, and the kind of abusive comments I am expecting are what make the internet go around. But please, at least consider cutting off the dreads. I know I’m right about that bit.

Oh, yummers!

Last thing: Why is it veg-etarian but ve-gan? Why isn’t it pronounced veg-an? This is a serious question.