An Insight into Australian Culture

Here is a video that Morgan found about the Cronulla riots and I think it's really interesting. My friend Lillian is agitated with the way some people are using the flag right now and how it is being used to divide and 'other' people.

There is violence in this video so be aware. Anyway, take a look.

Biggest and Best

So one of my odd hobbies here in Australia is taking pictures of things Australians claim are the biggest or the best. Perhaps it is being on the underside of the earth from the countries that they see themselves the most like (ie: other white, western countries). There does not appear to be a lot of checking these claims or updating of signs once erected.



So the two signs here are two of my favourites. One is from the laundrette near my house, which claims to be the biggest in Australia. I asked them if it was verified and the owner told me, "just look, it's really big." Fair enough, it is big.



The other one is from the "World's Tallest Tree". My friend Lillian showed me this sign. The tree is no longer there, it got chopped down, but they left the sign.

What is this?

So yesterday it was so hot here. My brain is melting, so I apologize to those I have made odd comments too. I'm Canadian, this heat is too much.

Anyway, yesterday Sylvia, Bamboo and I went to the beach and we saw this thing. What is it? A jellyfish?

I Can't Believe this Guy

So you probably all heard about John Howard's (Australian Prime Minister) latest comments, just in case here's a highlight from February 13th's Age (the daily paper in Melbourne)

"On Sunday, Mr Howard was asked to comment on a pledge by US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama that if elected president, he would withdraw all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008.

Mr Howard said: "If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but for the Democrats."

Can you believe it? Linking a US Presidential candidate with al-Qaeda and then linking that with Iraq! Even now, the US hasn't the courtesy to tell him that their intelligence was wrong, and that the 'terrorists' weren't from Iraq. Here is a picture of him with George Bush looking scared and pretending to be multicultural.

So this bothers me, Howard trying to draw these links but it's sort of their thing; making weird connections, not bothering to correct them, and hoping that no one notices.

But the part that really, really bugs me is what Alexander Downer (Australian Foreign Minister) said:

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer seems particularly obtuse on this point, saying it was "entirely appropriate" for the Government "to express its views in a free world."

What a lie. You can't say whatever you want here. They have sedition laws. People all over the place are scared to say what they think, especially international students, indigenous people, immigrants, refugees, asylum seekersand anyone else not with citizenship and even some of those so basically most people.

So John Howard can go around slandering people in another country but anyone in Australia had better not do it to him here. Free world my ass. Just ask David Hicks.

Howard is a Nut

This is a picture of Stephen Harper (Canadian Prime Minister) and John Howard (Australian Prime Minister) loving each other up. Howard went to Canada in 2006 to address parliment and my Member of Parliment in Canada, Denise Savoie, did not stick around. Below is an an article from the Sydney Morning Herald on January 25th, entitled "PM in Gaffe over elite Aussie's origins" that shows she was right and isn't paid enough to listen to him.

Prime Minister John Howard blundered when he wrongly assumed a high-achieving Asian Australian was born overseas.
Hosting a reception at his Canberra residence for Australian of the Year candidates, Mr Howard asked mathematician Professor Terence Tao about his origins.
"When did you come to Australia?" Mr Howard is heard to ask Prof Tao in television footage.
When his guest failed to catch the question, the prime minister said: "What part of the world were you born?"
"I was born in Adelaide," Prof Tao replied.
The 31-year-old South Australian teaches at the University of California in Los Angeles and last year won the world's most prestigious mathematics prize, the Fields Medal.
The son of Chinese parents who emigrated from Hong Kong, Prof Tao was a child prodigy who obtained his first university degree at age 16.

I think this sort of speaks for itself. On a side, yet related note, I was out with a friend of mine who is from Africa and this man walked over to us and asked where she was from. I asked him why he didn't ask me where I was from. Anyway, that particular conversation didn't really head anywhere pleasant. But you get the idea, white people = from here, non-white = far away lands (except for indigenous people but that's a story for another day).

But on a positive note Elton John did say "Up yours" to Howard over his anti-gay marriage views on the Seven Network. There could be difficult times ahead for the Howard/Harper love affair.

Cricket and the 'Mexican' Wave

Last night, I went to my first cricket game. I went with a friend of mine who use to play cricket professionally. I was surprised at how similar it is to baseball (which is the only sport that I know).

There were many young people there wearing their Cronulla flags and sombreros. Here is a picture of one such person. As you can see there were also many security guards and police there.

One reason for the police state is because the 'Mexican' wave has been banned. I am not convinced that it is different than the regular wave that occurs at most sporting events, but apparently people were getting injured by people throwing objects. So every time the wave started the above sign would be flashed on the jumbo-tron and the police would escort the perceived starters of the wave from the stadium. Other people would yell "bullshit" and point, but there weren't any unarrests happening. It is important to note that most people (including myself, although not my escort) would join in.

It's fascinating that in such a sports obsessed culture people are not more outraged about not being able to do the wave at sporting events. THE bloody WAVE, all it is is standing up and sitting down in unison.

There is such a backlash in this country against any collective action, it's nuts.