About

Welcome to Sikamikanico Blogs, home on the web for politics, social issues and mirth by me, Nico Bell.

I'm a Newcastle bred, Sydney based policy wonk, disability and LGBTQ+ advocate, social commentator and freelance writer, tea drinker and sloppy dresser (I blame the fact I'm a really weird bra size. Also, I've got the widest feet you've ever seen. Really! They're bizarre. Like flippers). Following a long, pointless career in jobs both corporate and cruddy, I graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Social Policy in 2018, and have been faffing about with a Master of Human Services Leadership on and off for the past few years.

I'm a moderate radical democratic socialist. Yes, that's a thing. My focus issues are economic justice and inequality, women's and children's rights, disability, queer liberation and socialist democracy. We need to overthrow neoliberalism and create a new socio-economic system that respects human dignity and guarantees everyone a basic set of human rights. In the mean time, respect people's pronouns. I'm currently working on research into LGTBQ people with disability - and that's apart from the new degree I'm about to start, because I enjoy pain apparently.

I'm a doting aunt, the adoring owner of two adolescent girl cats - oh, and I have a pretty nice kid myself, the smart, sassy and incredibly sweet tweenager Mr G. 

For the purposes of disclosure, I've been a Greens member for several years. They're like family - we have our ups and downs, and I certainly don't agree with them about everything but I feel their agenda is the closest match in the mainstream political sphere to the values I hold dear.

I've been on Blogger since 2004, originally at the now-retired Xander and Nico Pod (though I've moved some of the less-heinous content over here) and now at Sikamikanico Blogs since 2011. Either way there's tonnes of archives there to wade through.

Stuff I've written has been published in Opus, the University of Newcastle student paper; Crikey; the online Wall Street Journal; No Fibs, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple, New Matilda and the Down Under Feminists Blog Carnival. I've also been interviewed on radio including ABC Sydney 702, ABC Newcastle 1233 and 2SER; and for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers. I've got a great face for radio.