A furore is developing down under. The organisers of the country's biggest music festival, The Big Day Out, have banned the display of Australian flags at their upcoming Sydney concert. This has created outrage from both sides of politics and has led to bills outlawing restrictions on displaying the flag and desecration. The rock concert organisers took this step after last years race riots at Cronulla beach in Sydney's south, where 1000's of young Australians with Anglo-Celtic heritage picketed the suburb to prevent other young Australians of Middle Eastern background from visiting the beach. This triggered days of revenge attacks and a huge national embarrassment. Many of the people at the beach that day prominently displayed Australian flags and paraphernalia(see photo) as if to say "We are Australians, you are not". There has been a subtle but growing sense of nationalism amongst Australia's young which certainly wasn't around when I was a teenager. It's getting a little scary. This is in part due to a very conservative government and events like the Bali bombing.
I'm proud to be Australian but as a Republican (anti Monarchy not Pro Bush) am not a fan of a flag that has a large Union Jack in the corner. Strangely I would never think to take any flag to a concert, a sporting event perhaps but a concert? Unless of course the said concert was a Kiss concert then perhaps a Kiss army flag would be appropriate. Perhaps...
23.1.07
Black Flag!
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3 comments:
yeah and what about the new name for dept of immigration and MULTI-Cultural affairs being changed to deptarment of immigration and CITIZENSHIP...big brother has left the building and is running the country..
on a lighter note we're winning the cricket (aren't we?)shiit.
I am with you, Seb. Who cares ...? Well I am sure that the BDO organisers are really pleased with the MASSIVE amount of free coverage that they have received.
Do you REALLY have a Kiss Army flag? I am so jealous!
Yes I'm with you guys. i don't actually own a Kiss Flag but if I was going to buy a flag, that would be up there. i wanted to buy a Eureka stockade flag in ballarat but the missus wouldn't allow it. that's another flag that has been hijacked by people. The Stockade was one of the first multi cultural events in Australia's history. There is an African flag that has a AK-47 on it. That's pretty rad.
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