happy australia day?

this is the ugly face of nationalism that seems to me to be on the rise in australia. let no one confuse nationalism with patriotism. let no one confuse nationalism with a love for one's country. nationalism is nothing more than an excuse for cowards to bully and belittle those who are different. nationalism is what swept through germany in the 1930's and ultimately provided the conditions necessary for the holocaust in which millions of jews, gypsies, homosexuals, political dissidents and mentally disabled people were slaughtered.

i hate that the flag of my country and the constellation on it are being used as symbols of hate and bigotry. i hate that the slogan 'love it or leave' have come to mean that if you don't embrace xenophobia you don't have a place in our nation. i hate that others will look at us through the stained glass these reprehensible creatures have thrown up. 

the scum who have disgraced our national day through their mindless barbarism cannot be allowed to win. it's time to reclaim the symbols of our country as representations of the true meaning of what it is to be australian. to be australian is to be tolerant and to give everyone a fair go. it's to embrace people based on their character. it's to value the freedom to be oneself. driving a ute with an aussie flag on it doesn't make you more or less australian than the next person... and it sure as hell doesn't make you superior in any way. for many years i drove a holden panel van and you'd often hear ac/dc blaring from it as i drove by with the back up but that's not what made me a true blue aussie. nor is it my southern cross tattoo. it's my attitude and beliefs that have been shaped by this nation that make me fair dinkum. it's that i'll be mates with anyone from any racial background if they're decent people that makes me fair dinkum. it's that i love this country and desperately want it to reach the heights and glory it's capable of. it's that i despair that these narrow-minded xenophobes and trying to tear us down from within.

it's time for all fair dinkum aussies to stand up and be counted. it's time for us to repudiate hatred, bigotry and divisiveness. it's time to give the bigots the message that we don't support them. i've started by reclaiming the 'love it or leave' slogan. australia is a multicultural, tolerant society. LOVE IT OR LEAVE!

yes we can

well, it's only about half an hour now until barack obama is inaugurated as the new president of the usa and george bush jnr heads back to texas and provides a village somewhere with an idiot. i'm going to be very tired tomorrow but it's worth it to see a piece of history in the making. obama has an unbelievably difficult job ahead of him and i hope people give him the time and resources needed to do it. already he's gone a long way towards repairing america's destroyed international reputation. the future's looking brighter already.

sign o' the times

perth was once a safe town. i remember as a kid we'd sleep out the back on a hot night without any concerns. i don't know how we've managed to sink so far in such a short time. last week in mandurah a cowardly scumbag broke into the home of a 69 year old man in mandurah and killed him in is sleep. that's right.. he didn't even have the guts to face the old bloke awake but chose to murder him when he was at his most defenseless. it's disgraceful that we're reached the point where old age pensioners are not only attacked in their homes but attacked in their sleep. i can only hope the cops catch the animal that did this and put him away for a long time

POSTSCRIPT:

this story was reported in today's (21/01/09) west australian newspaper on page 13!! this demonstrates what i was saying in regards to how far we've sunk. an old man is brutally murdered in his sleep and it only rates a small mention far from the front page. disgraceful!

a good weekend

i've had a really nice weekend and sadly it's drawing to a close. on friday night i went out with bree, megan and vera to the cracovia club for some delicious polish food and beer. i had a hankering for some placki but you need to order that ahead so i had pierogi which was as tasty as always and washed it down with a bottle of okocim beer. 

yesterday i had a refreshing sleep in and popped up to the shops for a while. megan and vera came over in the evening and we walked down to scarborough beach for fish & chips and a swim. even though it wasn't a particularly warm day the water was still lovely. there's really nothing like being able to walk down to the beach and i'm lucky to have such lovely beaches a short walk from my front door. 

today we had one of our regular family get togethers down at matilda bay. it's so relaxing and enjoyable to spend an afternoon with cousins, uncles and aunty where we can sit around on the edge of our beautiful river and catch up with one another over some rather tasty food. i also (finally) got to meet my newest second cousin, cuba, who i've been told oinks occassionally. 

now i'm sitting around with a gentle breeze wafting through my unit watching some tele and feeling quite satisfied. i really don't feel like having to get up in the morning to go to work but am still thankful that i'm fortunate enough to be employed in these tough times. obviously there's things in my life i could complain about but what's the point when there's so much to appreciate?

jb hi-fi innaloo suck

ok, it's time for a whinge. i popped into jb hi-fi on scarborough beach road today to buy a new ipod fm transmitter after my other one got pinched from my car. i selected the one i wanted (which cost $90) and lined up to pay. my first gripe was that even though there were a lot of people lined up, a number of checkouts were closed... no huge problem and quite common in shops these days. what really pissed me off was that i'd been lined up for a while when they decided to just close the checkout i was queued for... with half a dozen people still in the queue!!! i was so disgusted by this extremely poor customer service that rather than join the end of another lengthy queue i put the product down and walked out of the store. i know that losing the sale from one person won't worry them but hopefully others will see this and avoid the place like the plague. it's time to refuse to put up with poor customer service.

my thoughts on the present israel/hamas situation

it's not often that i agree with george bush jnr but i believe his comments on the current breakdown of the peace between israel and hamas are spot on. people can throw up all the red herrings they like but the indisputable fact is that hamas chose to breach the peace agreement through their constant rocket attacks on israel and it's their own despicable actions that are directly responsible for israel's retaliation.

i also find the reporting by the western media to be largley inflamatory, irresponsible and blatantly biased against israel. we never hear about the attacks by hamas yet as soon as israel retaliate it becomes front page news which gives people who don't care to follow events the impression that israel's attacks have just come out of the blue. 

the situation in the middle east is horrific and i feel deep sorrow for the innocent civilian victims on both sides but there's no point for international diplomats to now start calling for attacks to stop. these calls should have been made a long time ago when hamas first broke the peace agreement and should have continued with every hamas attack. they've left it far too late with israel now well within their rights to protect their citizens from the scumbags on the other side of the border. i know that if one of our neighbours was constantly launching rocket attacks on australia i'd expect our government to strike back and protect us. to deny israel the same right would be nothing more than hypocritical.

2008 JJJ hottest 100

and here we are again.. voting for our favourite songs of the past year. i lodged my votes yesterday and will find out in a few weeks how many make the final list. i managed to listen to a lot of JJJ in the early part of the year but unfortunately as the year went on the work radio ended up being tuned into other stations. for this reason a large number of my songs were on high rotation earlier in the year. despite my limited exposure, i still found it very hard to cull my shortlist to 10 songs. the ones i finally voted for are:

Anti-Flag - Bright Lights Of America

Cloud Control - Vintage Books

Cut Copy - Lights and Music

Gyroscope - 1981

Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor

MGMT - Time To Pretend

N.E.R.D. - Everyone Nose

Stars - Take Me To The Riot

VHS or Beta - Can't Believe A Single Word

Yael Naim - New Soul

looking back at the final 10 demonstrates my rather strong penchant for pop music. we'll soon find out whether JJJ listeners share that taste.

EDIT: the results are in and i dropped back this year with only four of the songs i voted for making the top 100. they were: Lights and Music (#15), Time To Pretend (#18), Ready For The Floor (#69) and 1981 (#85).