Cronulla - wtf?
Wonder how many blogs have been written on this topic over the past few weeks?
Even up here, where more of the news channels seem to be cable USA and/or BBC World Service, there was plenty of reporting about the other weekend in and around Cronulla... very bizarre.
Whenever the family used to go to Sydney, we'd swim at Cronulla beach there - and the grandparents/parents all grew up somewhere around that Sutherland Shire. The Mall there wasn't anything to rave about, but always an ice-cream to be had. The pictures from the other weekend were therefore, of course, a bit surreal.
When the mates in Melb emailed me about it - I initially said "surely it's not 000's, that's just a beat-up yah??". Apparenltly not so.
The random chatting at the yacht-ee up about it over a few SP's included people recounting little stories about the Moubra boys (or whatever they're called) n stuff, and some general Alan Jones ear-bashing. I'm always up for some AJ knocking-: all these late middle-aged white-bred fear-inciting shock-jock peoples are easy targets of the chardonnay sippers (and vice versa)... but they also rate heavily in Sydney. W*nkers.
Totally, totally non-PC, but one Aussie mate here in Lae put it something like this:
Him: "You know how you go through Thailand or Amsterdam or anywhere, and you see the Aussie or UK total yobs idiots having a big drinking session and making knobs of themselves??
Me: Well... Yah of course. Same as everywhere.
Him: "Yeah, well they're the step up from the drinking groups most of us never got into in the west of Sydney or the south of Melbourne - like the Cranbourne boys, or the Westies in Syd - those you saw o/s actually got up and _travelled_ overseas"
I don't know how accurate (or useful) that sort of pegging is, but I know I spent most of my hours in the inner-city of Melbourne, and that everywhere else we went for raves and/or pub nights and/or birthdays was a very, very, very different scene.
Not as diffferent as the Lae Yacht Club, but different. But enough random rambling on that subject. Hope it's not in the world-news again this week!
Even up here, where more of the news channels seem to be cable USA and/or BBC World Service, there was plenty of reporting about the other weekend in and around Cronulla... very bizarre.
Whenever the family used to go to Sydney, we'd swim at Cronulla beach there - and the grandparents/parents all grew up somewhere around that Sutherland Shire. The Mall there wasn't anything to rave about, but always an ice-cream to be had. The pictures from the other weekend were therefore, of course, a bit surreal.
When the mates in Melb emailed me about it - I initially said "surely it's not 000's, that's just a beat-up yah??". Apparenltly not so.
The random chatting at the yacht-ee up about it over a few SP's included people recounting little stories about the Moubra boys (or whatever they're called) n stuff, and some general Alan Jones ear-bashing. I'm always up for some AJ knocking-: all these late middle-aged white-bred fear-inciting shock-jock peoples are easy targets of the chardonnay sippers (and vice versa)... but they also rate heavily in Sydney. W*nkers.
Totally, totally non-PC, but one Aussie mate here in Lae put it something like this:
Him: "You know how you go through Thailand or Amsterdam or anywhere, and you see the Aussie or UK total yobs idiots having a big drinking session and making knobs of themselves??
Me: Well... Yah of course. Same as everywhere.
Him: "Yeah, well they're the step up from the drinking groups most of us never got into in the west of Sydney or the south of Melbourne - like the Cranbourne boys, or the Westies in Syd - those you saw o/s actually got up and _travelled_ overseas"
I don't know how accurate (or useful) that sort of pegging is, but I know I spent most of my hours in the inner-city of Melbourne, and that everywhere else we went for raves and/or pub nights and/or birthdays was a very, very, very different scene.
Not as diffferent as the Lae Yacht Club, but different. But enough random rambling on that subject. Hope it's not in the world-news again this week!
posted by Naaaaath at 3:33 pm
1 Comments:
Oh it's definitely bad Nath...
I'm not sure it's just that we hang out in a different scene - I think that Melbourne is also a really different city...I'm not sure that Melbourne has an equivalent of the Bra Boys (the Maroubra Boys)?? I can't think of an area in Melbourne that's like Maroubra/Cronulla or Lakemba (the Muslim area, where the mosque was attacked). Cronulla's always been a symbolic site, as has Lakemba...I can't think of an area in Melbourne that's basically Muslims-only (make that conservative-Muslim-only).
Mind you, I don't really want to focus on the race/ethnic/symbolic elements - I think it gives these drunken louts more cred than they're worth. As one blogger said: "They are criminals. They should be prosecuted. They are not a symbol of anything except people who are unwilling to behave in a civilised manner in accordance with the rules of society."
Bec M
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