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terryfrost at 08:08pm on 13/03/2006
terryfrost at 08:08pm on 13/03/2006Living in Melbourne and working on the other side of the CBD is a nightmare right now. Apparently every country ever crushed by Britain (except the Germany and Argentina) has sent their jocks of both genders to where I live. Even those countries that can't feed their populations.
So roads are blocked, the SAS does night maneuvers over the suburb where I live, flying Blackhawks at 100 metre altitudes at 10 pm, hundreds of thousands of tourists who can't read maps will be asking everyone else for directions, getting a seat in a restaurant will be impossible for the next fortnight and to top it off, Friday is St. Patrick's Day and so the drunken mick population will expand exponentially. People with games tickets will get to use the public transport for free, while those of us who financed it in the first place have to pay.
And what do I get for this fortnight of hassles? Zero with the rim removed. I have no interest in sport unless it involves AFL teams, mega doses of amphetamines and freshly whetted chainsaws or Uma Thurman mud-wrestling Julianne Moore.
I think that these Games are an elaboration on the good old Roman concept of bread and circuses and that they stir up ugly doses of mindless nationalism and crypto-racism Flag waving isn't my favourite think. (I do have a Welsh flag here at home for two reasons: to celebrate my ethnic heritage and because it has a cool red dragon on it.) I remember white thugs on Cronulla Beach wrapping themselves in Australian flags while they beat up anyone who looked like they were of middle eastern origin. The atheist, the anarchist and the extropian in me shudder at the neolithic memes behind this whole fortnight of jingoism and idolatry.
So roads are blocked, the SAS does night maneuvers over the suburb where I live, flying Blackhawks at 100 metre altitudes at 10 pm, hundreds of thousands of tourists who can't read maps will be asking everyone else for directions, getting a seat in a restaurant will be impossible for the next fortnight and to top it off, Friday is St. Patrick's Day and so the drunken mick population will expand exponentially. People with games tickets will get to use the public transport for free, while those of us who financed it in the first place have to pay.
And what do I get for this fortnight of hassles? Zero with the rim removed. I have no interest in sport unless it involves AFL teams, mega doses of amphetamines and freshly whetted chainsaws or Uma Thurman mud-wrestling Julianne Moore.
I think that these Games are an elaboration on the good old Roman concept of bread and circuses and that they stir up ugly doses of mindless nationalism and crypto-racism Flag waving isn't my favourite think. (I do have a Welsh flag here at home for two reasons: to celebrate my ethnic heritage and because it has a cool red dragon on it.) I remember white thugs on Cronulla Beach wrapping themselves in Australian flags while they beat up anyone who looked like they were of middle eastern origin. The atheist, the anarchist and the extropian in me shudder at the neolithic memes behind this whole fortnight of jingoism and idolatry.
cranky
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