After a weekend of race-related clashes on Cronulla beach in Sydney, Australian Prime Minister weighed in with his important contribution : “Keep up the Christmas decorations,” declaring a need to keep our countries shopping malls covered with Christian tinsel. In all of the media coverage surrounding the sad events, a debate about what it means to be a ‘real Australian’ has emerged, generally referring to caucasians or Mediterraneans born here or there, and it seems striking that no-one seems to have considered looking at the Aboriginal perspective on this at the same time. The Queen of the empire will be out to Oz in March for the Commonwealth Games, so no doubt there will be plenty more letters to editors and talkback radio complaints about people using terrorist technologies like SMS and email to gather at this time. One site ( www.blackgst.com) already suggests a few changes to the Goods & Services Tax ( Genocide to end, Sovereignty acknowledged, Treaty to be made) and promises an Indigenous Gathering and Convergence of Supporters at Melbourne, March, 2006.
tags: cronulla, commonwealth, australia