A Bully By Any Other Name

...Is Still A Bully

Just look at that yobbo clutching his flag will you? A tattoo on his bare chest, the look of ecstatic longing and adolescent hostility, the very image of rebel without a clue. The very flower of Australian Youth. ....*ugh*

The rush of politicians who suddenly have a media splash to make is pretty disgusting. They've all lined up to get their 15minutes of free airtime strutting their patriotic colours by plumping for the flag. If somebody actually gets hurt at the BDO because some flag-wrapped hooligan takes this as a signal, it will be the BDO organisers who would be held responsible; not the crappy pollies lining themselves up trying to look like honorable men. Vomit bags, anybody?

In turn, the organisers have 'backed down' (what ever that may mean because they never actually banned the flag - They just asked for restraint). So for once we can see politicians of all colours and creeds for what they are: media sluts without self-restraint. Really folks, this is a truly disgusting turn of events.

Faced with a withering assault from state and federal politicians, event management said founder Ken West had been misrepresented and was only "encouraging" people not to bring flags to Thursday's Sydney leg, for safety reasons.
However, as the organisers back-pedalled, one Australian act on the Big Day Out bill and many fans reported concerns about an outbreak of flag-waving hooliganism at the 2006 Sydney Big Day Out, held soon after the Cronulla riots. One group of men was reported to have marched around demanding people kiss the flag or be punched.

Callers to youth radio network Triple J were divided on the issue yesterday, with some supporting a ban and many saying such a move would make the flag the preserve of the red-neck rump.

Organisers still urged fans to leave flags at home. "In recent times, there has been an increased incidence of flags brandished inconsiderately and this has led to increased tension," they said. "Our only goal in discouraging this activity at the Big Day Out is to ensure that our patrons are not subjected to or inconvenienced by this behaviour."

Mr Howard, however, would not let the issue go. "The proposition that the display of the Australian flag should ever be banned anywhere in Australia is offensive and it will be to millions of Australians," he said.

Shannon Kennedy - aka Ozi Batla, from popular local act The Herd - said he was disturbed to see a huge increase in the number of Australian flags at last year's Sydney event.

"Obviously, you can't ban the flag," Kennedy said. "However, it was a worry to see the flag being misused by violent hoods last year and if these politicians could see the behaviour of some of these people wrapped in Australian flags they'd be disgusted and ashamed."

So today, the politicians are probably feeling mighty proud for their handiwork. These are the same politicians who sent troops to Iraq, who create concentration camps for Illegal Immigrants, who won't bother reading the prosecution's case for David Hicks, and won't sign the Kyoto Protocol, or insist on Anti-Sedition Laws or create conditions whereby citizens can get wrongfully deported, but ban the flag? No way!
The same politicans who waste public money and make croney-appointments and dig useless tunnels and build costly freeways that always seem to gouge the public purse. But with an election coming up, would they eschew a cheap shot? No Way!

What's really stupid on top of all of this is the idiotic sight of a teenager walking around with an Australian flag around his body like some cape. You'd think (and I certainly do) that act alone is more disrespectful to those who fought under it.
What they really should be doing is just draft every kid who turns up to the BDO wrapped in the flag, straight into the Army, hand them an assault rifle and send them to Iraq. You know, make them put their money and body and lives where their mouths are. Make them prove their cheap claims to patriotism.

"I Don't Believe Australia Is A Racist Country"

It really gives me the creeps when politicians in Canberra kind of puff their chests and say this line.

As I've posted before, in a legal sense, Australiaa isn't. It says so clearly in laws that protect people from vilifaction. But those laws are relatively new. By comparison, Australia did have the White Australia Policy until 1967. Wikipedia in fact lists the end as 1982!

The White Australia Policy refers to a range of legislative Acts of the Australian Parliament which all but excluded Non-European immigration into Australia. The three key Acts which are the Immigration Restriction Act (1901), the Pacific Island Labourers Act (1901) and the Naturalisation Act (1903). The term "White Australia" emerged in the 1890's as an ideal to strengthen racial homogeneity and the overwhelmingly European character of the population. The Federation of Australian colonies in 1901 made the realisation of the White Australia Policy possible. Previously to this the six Australian colonies had to implement separate and at times inconsistent legislation. Australian Federation made it possible for the Australian Parliament to enact legislation which covered the entire continent. While the "White Australia Policy" was usually regarded as a policy of immigration restriction, or exclusion, the deportation of thousands of Melenesian people from Queensland before 1907 was also considered an important aspect of the initial policy.
Discriminatory immigration policies were gradually removed between the end of World War II and 1982 with racially discriminatory aspects of the Migration Act officially overturned in 1973.
In contemporary Australian public and academic discourses, the term 'White Australia Policy' is commonly used to refer to the conception of Australia in ethno-nationalistic terms.

Aborigines were not legally considered citizens until after the 1967 referendum. So for at least 2/3rds of the 20th Century and over 50% of its history since Federation, Australia was comfortably a racist by its own laws. A lot of these polticians were born in a time when racist laws and poilicies were accepted and laregly unquestioned.

That includes you, Mr Rudd, who happens to be a Queenslander, so you'll have to pardon me if I exercie my prejudice and won't exactly believe your credentials of not being a racist. Not until you come out swinging hard against the racists who do live in our society. Instead I read your pronouncement more as an indication of your own bland hypocrisy. Which is all the more repugnant to me because you'd rather get that red neck vote than stand for something worthy. Why even run for office as a progressive?

Mr Howard too has said this line. The problem I have is that when he says it, he says it mincingly. He doesn't proudly declare it to the world. He sort of says it like he secretly wishes it still were. And rightfully the neighboring countries are suspicious of Australia. Year after year, you look at what the government actually does and look at the outcomes and you can only shake your head. How could the world not think it? The Pacific Solution? Does he even know what that sounds like?

"I don't believe Australia is a racist country" sounds like they're hoping. Wishing. Praying that Australia doesn't get found out for its true colours. And it is this very uncertainty in the phrase that opens the door or the jack-booted rednecks to come marhcing in, wrapped in their flags.
Which, quite clearly, they think is quite okay.