Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Margo: “A friend opined that the sniffer dogs take care of dope, the mellower, and E, the happy pill, leaving alcohol, the aggressive drug in large doses, to rule the roost. Strange world.”

Yep, if you want to mitigate violence ban alcohol at these functions and turn a blind eye to the mellow stuff. Any cop will tell you rave parties and the like where E rules the roost are violence free. Any cop will also tell you most violent crime happens within close vicinity of pubs. Tonight’s news gave a prime example where three lads were violently stabbed just down the road from the Mosman Hotel. The lads and the perpetrators had just left the pub. I would bet London to a brick that Nicholas Cowdry (NSW Director of Public Prosecutions) would agree.

But alcohol is our drug of choice; it is very Australian to get pissed as many of our sporting “heroes” do on a regular basis. We advertise the poison and target the young with new varieties of alcohol based lolly water. We also quite often offer it to our under aged kids claiming we have to teach them to drink responsibly. I wonder whether those parents would also teach their kids how to smoke responsibly or shoot up responsibly etc.

Now, mix alcohol with our flag and we have a very potent mix.

Anyway all this flag shit has been a convenient distraction from the real issues we should be addressing. The media know it will create a frenzy as do our pollies who have all been caught out fiddling while this planet burns. Bread, circuses and Big Brother for all.

Now that I have had my 2 cents worth I think it is time to do something useful, like go the Pub for a nice cold beer (and a big fat joint).

Margo - I have just read your discourse in toto - after I submitted my own opinions.  Not a good policy eh?.

Some may say that I am too nationalistic, but the points you make can perhaps influence the opinions of an old Sailor because they are based on facts and indisputable logic.

I would like to repeat your submission of May 15, 2003.

Without a personal refusal, that's what I will do.

Cheers Ern G.

C Parsons: "Interesting to note there was a huge backlash against the flag ban..."

Yes, and from what I could gather the augmented police presence seemed to work a treat in minimising any trouble.

They also arrested a few dozen young folk who were 'rebelling' against the narcotics laws.

Fortunately, nice forms of revolt are encouraged in our society, and not-nice ones actively discouraged.

Margo: A friend opined that the sniffer dogs take care of dope, the mellower, and E, the happy pill, leaving alcohol, the aggressive drug in large doses, to rule the roost. Strange world.

Jenny, agree with you fully on this one. Keyser struggles with the denials but plods on.

CP, for a second there.... And NO.

Enough 2 Party barracking.

Jenny Hume: "Note how the Mufti, Sheik Hilaly likes to be interviewed with the Aussie flag in front of him, or is often seen waving it for the media's benefit."

He's a man for all seasons, isn't he?

As was widely advertised previously, Ol' Sheik Rattle 'N' Roll Hilaly was on the Seven network last night pleading the "mistranslation" and "context" memes, the standard devices employed to excuse racist, threatening and misogynist remarks whenever they get caught going across cultural boundaries.

The most frank revelation by the Mufti was him telling interviewer Anna Coren that the "uncovered meat" metaphor he so infamously employed  wasn't supposed to have been heard outside the Mosque, so therefore presumably non-Muslim Australian women shouldn't take offense.

This is the "context" thing again, a sort of all-round excuse for moral ambiguity and purposeful duplicity when it comes to inadvertent overlap between what sociologist Irving Goffman would have called the Sheik's 'backstage' and 'frontstage' presentations.

In other words, the Sheik is actually working at creating a wedge between people he can speak to comfortably inside the Mosque, versus the rest of us whom he'd much sooner keep in the dark about his role in the community.

For our benefit he waves the flag and preaches acceptance.

For his other audiences though, whether here or in Egypt or elswhere, he preaches another entirely different set of messages.

Keysar Trad had to translate some of the time for the Sheik during last night's interview. I feel really sorry for him having to act as a spin doctor for the Sheik, but ultimately its for that community to decide whether he stays or goes.

My bet is that he stays, and that others like him will flourish in his shadow.

Jacob A. Stam: "Begs the question: Just what is the product?"

The immigration policy.

Interesting to note there was a huge backlash against the flag ban at Big Day Out with many, many more Australian flags visible this year than in previous years.

The ban was most likely perceived as an act of repression and hundreds of young people revolted against that.

C Parsons: "In marketing parlance, this is called 'repositioning' the product."

Begs the question: Just what is the product?

No doubt it's as much about public perception as about any product or social good any particular ministry may output. Some public servants with whom I'm acquainted hold their primary product to be servicing the needs of their minister(s).

If one looks back to 1997, when the former Department of Industrial Relations was 'repositioned' as the Department of Workplace Relations and Small Business, it appears the 'message' was something along the lines that the interests of small business and employees are one and the same.

Similarly, I've always wondered what is signified by the Federal Government's policy directive, around the same time, that official letterhead bear the heading Australian Government, in place of the traditional Commonwealth of Australia.

As for multiculturalism, probably its loss of appeal in some key sections is down to the fact that it's just too darned Al Grassby. Too Labor. And sooo 70s.

Jacob A. Stam: "The Federal Government ups the ante by rebadging the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, now to be known as the Department of Immigration and Citizenship."

In marketing parlance, this is called "repositioning" the product. The Federal Government's high volume, cheap labour immigration policy is not at risk, but my guess is that research has shown the term "multiculturalism" has lost its appeal for a lot of folk.

Additional pressure for a name change has come from pro-immigration lobbyists, including Stepan Kerkyasharian, Chairperson and CEO of The Community Relations Commission.

"Complaining about references ‘to the “multicultural community”, as if multicultural meant separate and non-Anglo Saxon,’ Kerkyasharian has declared support for proposed legislation that will change the name of the Ethnic Affairs Commission of NSW to the Community Relations Commission"

Ross Chippendale: "C Parsons, seen any videos today? Did you like it?"

It's not the first race hate video to have gone into production, is it?

Ross Chippendale: "Jay, do you have shares in any airlines?"

Nope. I have more respect for my money. If Warren Buffet cannot win with an airline what chance do I have? Just thinking about the amount of things that can go wrong makes me feel slightly ill.  If I owned Qantas I would be selling. Find a mug silly enough to role up with the equivalent of junk bonds and it is come in spinner. History always repeats.

Remember when Webdiary was going to sell T-shirts? Tim Blair said the proposed design looked like "Goth Puke", which was probably the most astute thing he ever said. I suggested a lotus flower as a symbol of Webdiary. Am I not far-sighted? Nobody ever listens.

Seems the CEFA blog is not going ahead - something I had an intution about since last year but only found out about yesterday. Oh well, all the leaves that are green turn to brown. Now what's a boy to do? All I have is Webdiary in which I no longer believe.

Yup, here's an American flag flying at Woodstock. And then there was Hendrix performing the Star Spangled Banner.

Meanwhle avid self-publicist Harold Scruby, the founder, president, chief executive officer and perhaps entire membership of both the Pedestrian Council of Australia and Ausflag organisations, has been quoted in his local newspaper describing the Australian flag as provocative, divisive and used to "promote hatred and acts of violence"  (Manly Daily, p16, Wednesday 14 January 2007),
 
Mr Scruby, who lives in posh Pittwater on Sydney's upmarket Northern Beaches, says he wants to replace the existing Australian flag with another design that is "truly Australian."
 
"There is absolutely no doubt the Australian flag can be a provocative and divisive symbol," the completely Scruby told journalist Rebecca Woolley.  "That is why many of the participants in the Cronulla riots used it as a device symbolising the notion that those of British decent were the real Australians and all others were newcomers and of lesser status." 

(This idea should not to be confused with Sheik al Hilaly's claim that Lebanese Muslims are more deserving of Australian citizenship than the descendants of convicts.)

"The evidence suggests that the current flag...has been used to promote hatred and acts of violence," said the utter Scruby.
 
Here are some of Scruby's suggested alternatives - this dating from 1986, this grotesque from 1993, and this even worse concept from the same year - despite his own advice about red and blue not being seen without white in between (though that was in the context of not including the Aboriginal Earth Colours on the flag in place of the Union Jack).  And then these - including a desecrated Aboriginal Earth Colours flag.

Precisely why any of these would be less "provocative, divisive and hateful" is anyone's guess.  The heavy use of Red, White and Blue strikes me as particularly Anglo-centric.

Hey? Are Eureka Southern Cross flags banned at Big Day Out? What about Coca Cola logos?

Comments to burn, so to speak.

C Parsons, seen any videos today? Did you like it?

The minority Lebanese are disgusting and no political correctness can hide that any longer. They will be at BDO if they can get in. No doubt about that. Perhaps the organisers can download the faces from the video and stick them on the wall, Cronulla too. Not perhaps, should.

BDO's decision is even more rational and to the point after that video came to light. Of course that will create more Aussies looking for someone to bash. Hope desperately there are real vets there too to help those being attacked if such people do get in, sans flag of course.

Again, politically incorrect perhaps but I've had more than enough of Aussies being open while minority racial groups who hate our country plan violence. JWH will be asking the relevant authority to follow this one up and I couldn't agree more with that. These people should live where they want, Lebanon where they fit right in. There's about 20,000 other Aussies living there currently too. Mostly for family, I'd say, but they can't change what's been going on for centuries.

I say arrest the video contributors, revoke their citizenship and deport them. They are not Aussies in my opinion, never will be and I don't want them in the city I was born in or my country. Treason still a crime?

Jay, do you have shares in any airlines? I'd be happy to short sell if so. By the by your wealth comment is worth commenting on. Again it is just Jay who mentioned this, no one else. Au naturel. 

I repeat my offer on the MP thread mate. Do good for once, for Australia regardless of Party allegience. You can do it, we won't gloat, too much anyway.

You are also welcome to have a bo peep at some policy doc for the tiny group we have kicked off but no shenannigans will be tolerated. your criticism would be welcome as it would likely confirm we are on track and maybe you can be constructive. Au natural mon frere.

Enough 2 Party barracking.

Three minutes’ stroll from where I live is a charming trio of late Victorian mini mansions – you know the style: two storeys, and a tower, generally centrally positioned. The middle of these three houses has (until recently) for the last two and a bit decades been inhabited by a family of ardent vexillologists, who – so the story goes – installed a flagpole at the top of their tower soon after their arrival. They delighted my life by flying the appropriate flag on the national day of many countries. They had a “Happy Birthday” flag, which they would hoist on the occasion of the anniversary of a family member or close friend. They also had a Jolly Roger, which would regularly fly whenever the teenage and, later, young adults, of the household were in command of the ship.

The house was recently sold; I think settlement took place shortly before New Year. However, it looks as though the flags were part of the deal: I have still seen the Jolly Roger, and long may it flutter.

One of the more delightful stories associated with this house and family has to do with the visit of a Welsh choir to Melbourne. The visit coincided with St. David’s Day, and naturally my neighbours were flying the Welsh flag. Some homesick choristers, driving round the suburbs, noticed; knocked on the door, and were promptly welcomed as belated and unexpected guests to a dinner party.

What am I trying to say in this somewhat rambling post? A flag is – obviously – a symbol; however, it can (and should) be used in a way to be a welcoming rather than an exclusionary symbol. (Just be warned, however, when it’s the Jolly Roger – though at least you should be aware of what you might be encountering.)

Great neighbours. Wish I’d met them. Suspect, however, that the new ones are continuing the spirit.

Late last year I wore an Aboriginal flag T-shirt to a function at a community legal centre at which I volunteer. I was asked (amongst many others) to make a short speech about what I do there, which I ad-libbed and in which I somehow managed to quote Auden. Graham West MP was there and so was the Steven Chaytor MP, before his recent downfall (Pat Farmer MP was in parliament, and so I was unable either to horrify him or to thank him for his assistance with one of the centre's clients). 

Chaytor shook my hand and told me it was well said. I didn't otherwise speak to him but he seemed pretty spruce, pretty energetic. I have no opinion on his guilt or innocence and doubt his appeal will succeed, as an appeal court is not going to overturn an issue of fact, as his case seems to rest on. But still it makes me sad. If Debnam was not so pathetic I would vote for the state Liberal party; NSW Labor is a mess. There is nothing wrong with Iemma, in the way that there was so much wrong with Carr, but there is nothing particularly good about him.

Perhaps it is bad form to wear an Indigenous flag when you are in no way Aboriginal. I am sure some would be pleased and others would object. I don't know, I have my own reasons for wearing it. Certain Aboriginal beliefs have been a comfort to me, at various times. I think as John Lennon said, when it comes down to it you can't please everyone, so screw it.

The signs have been ominous.

The points of differentiation between the two political behemoths have waned inexorably.

The vying for Aussie valyooz points reached fever pitch over the flag burning ‘banning’ at the Sydney Big Day Out event.

The Federal Government ups the ante by rebadging the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, now to be known as the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

Sorry, folks, but no more snappy one liners about “DIMA and dimmer”; however, even Howard Huggers are smirking about who’s going to be the new “DIC head”. Tee hee.

The Prime Minister has declared that the change of name “expresses the desire and the aspiration, and that is that people who come to this country, who emigrate, immigrants, become Australians.”

We await the Government’s impending announcement that migrant/guest workers will no longer be welcome in Australia. Or alternatively, that they and all visitors from abroad will be expected to register for Australian Citizenship before they go home.

The Muftim of Blair predictably trumpets jubilantly that multiculturalism is dead.

Senator Andrew Bartlett predictably complains bitterly that HoWARd is “imposing a mono-cultural vision on the reality of a modern multicultural Australia.”

Yep. It’s going to be that kind of election.

Looks like the NSW opposition leader is winning the pissing contest.  A ban on bans.  Compulsory flag flying. 

Can Iemma go one better?  Why not make it compulsory for every Australian home to fly the flag?  And if you don't you're not only un-Australian - the horror - but you get issued with an on-the-spot fine.  Or even better, you have to do community service, like putting up more flag poles.

Is it just me or is the silliest beat-up we've seen for some time?

Hello Margo!

Why not simply ban the use of the flag for any purpose except flying from a fixed flagpole?

How can wearing a flag, or a garment made from a flag be showing 'respect for the flag'?

Better yet, return the damned thing to its original purpose, to show the troops that their leader was out there in front, leading them into battle! Now, if we could only persuade our politicians to go along with that!

Guess the other question is, is there any necessity for a flag in the modern world?  I certainly wouldn’t miss them!

Richard Tonkin I think the kind of typecasting that Jay (who I'm now thinking may have had musical aspirations?)

Not unless there was ever a place for tone deaf lead singers I did not. Did know a guy once who wrote a number one hit for a certain latin singer. Not sure if the royalty cheques still flood in! Not sure if they ever did!

Richard Tonkin, let's just say I wrote a little tongue in cheek. The snakes are now sports agents are they not? Was hearing soccer players being called the new rock stars not long ago. And looking at Beckham and his 300 odd mill that ain't chump change. Ten or fifteen percent of that action would do quite nicely thank you very much.

Soccer a great game. The only one without skates a white boy can play in the US and still win at. Wonder if they will ban the Union Jack at the games?

What about Islamic headscarves fashioned from an Australian flag? (The NY Times photography after 9/11 showed Muslim women with American flags to construct their Hijab).

Bought John Lennon and Simon & Garfunkel cds today. I missed music in France but not TV. I couldn't even bring myself to watch the news last night. Christ, how do you people live with yourselves?

David Curry: "I think context has to be acknowledged as a critical factor in determining the meaning of an Australian flag.  It’s basic semiotics."

Well, if the organisers of Big Day Out feel that their particular context implicitly transforms the Australian flag into a fascist banner, what does that tell you about Big Day Out?

Maybe they should host a torch-light rally instead, if they're thinking that way.

Then if someone comes dressed up as Lady Liberty, she can carry a torch, but not the tablet with Emma Lazarus's "Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." poem on it. She'll have to leave that at the gate.

Excuse me, but if the context in question entails "a drunk skinhead wearing the Australian flag around his shoulders" pushing through "a crowd  of Australians of Lebanese or Asian origin" then the problem is, clearly, the organisers have chosen to admit some stupid neo-Nazi skinhead to the venue.

David Curry, so all flags should be banned from the event, not just the Australian one?

Perhaps local councils can look into charging a "tax" for any business flying a flag outside an Australian one? All flags bar Australian flags should be banned from all sporting events. People should always know their station in life when they are here. See how silly this all gets? But that is the left for you. Not leaders; just mediocre.

Ross Chippendale, a lot of people are nervous flying to begin with. I imagine a person wanting to make political statements does not help matters. The MO for these clowns is to normally drink the bar dry and give everyone around them the shits with their "life stories". A simple and understood pattern in flying history. Yep, I would have banned him from the flight.

Margo: No footballers on flights if Jay was CEO. 

 Ross Chippendale The flag wrapping is of course Howard's wedge but Rudd actually beat him to the political punch and removed the issue as Howard's re- wedge. To the detriment of BDO music fans. Try again JWH.

If he (Rudd) keeps beating the "wedge" people might start getting him mixed up with the other guy. A walking talking moblie advertisment so to speak.

How any person could be silly enough to think you could ban your own national flag is beyond me. It seems to me wearing it has become some what of a trend. Those young uns would be wise to remember to vote Liberal.

That is if they would like a job, low interest rates, low inflation and living in a future stable society. All with the added bonus of having a flag respected. As Jay tells all young uns, voting Labor only proves your as dumb as a box of rocks.

And don't go looking for big bucks in the entertainment industry. Waiting tables just does not pay that well.

Ross Chippendale: "C Parsons, the man you refer to wears a correctly labelled T shirt. Bush is indeed the leading terrorist with flagging support."

The man's name is Allen Jasson and he completely gave his game away this morning in a live interview on Seven's Today news programme. It really went off the rails.

Firstly, the shirt, which Mr Jasson was wearing on camera, is not what you may have been led to believe.

The words "The world's #1 terrorist" don't have equal weight in the design, nor does the image of George Bush.

While the word 'TERRORIST' is emblazzoned in bright red, ultra-bold caps across the full width of the shirt front, the other words are hardly visible, being much smaller and reversed white against a light-to-medium grey background., as is the image of George Bush 

So, the main impetus of the design is to announce the word 'TERRORIST' in big, bright letters.

Just what you want on an aeroplane. Don't you think?

Mr Jasson admitted this morning that he had agreed to not wear the shirt on the QANTAS plane on the way out to Australia.

And that he made a deliberate point of confronting cabin crew with the shirt on the plane at the start of the return journey.

He even admitted being surprised that nobody stopped him from getting on the plane with the shirt. And acknowledged that he then deliberately "stirred up" QANTAS staff by "challenging them" with his "right" to wear the shirt.

Lovely. But so utterly typical.

The QANTAS staff then asked him, doubtless to the relief of his  fellow passengers, to get off the plane.

Speaking this morning in an edgy, high-pitched voice on network television , Mr Jasson launched into a prepared monologue about how he and other like him were being "censored", and how George Bush is the "real terrorist".

In fact, on all the international media coverage I have seen of his stunt, ranging from Fox News to the London Times, as well as various network broadcast media in Australia and the press, Mr Jasson has insisted that he is being "censored" and "repressed".

Along with "millions of others" whom he insists are "just like" him.

Googling his name as a whole term uncovered 743 hits covering his labored, self-serving stunt.

But he's right. There are millions just like him. And after this morning's effort, I really hope he does go ahead and sue QANTAS.

Suggested further reading: 'Culture of Complaint', Robert Hughes, Oxford University Press, 1991.

Richard Tonkin: "I think Big Day out should go the other way, go out and buy a truckload of flags, put them up, invite everyone to wear or bring one."

Undoubtedly something like that would have been a better idea.

I mean, would we ban the Australian flag at multicultural fairs because it might be "provocative"?

Why not ban the flag on Anzac Day? And at international sporting events?

Margo: Heh Jay, [Big Day Out is] a private event. One can take it or leave it - you got a problem with that?

Is Big Day Out more - or less - "private" than QANTAS?

Margo – hi, I think you’ve really nailed what’s happened to the Australian flag and to Australia's patriotism. 

A few thoughts:

When I went to the US in 1990 I was immediately struck by how nationalistic Americans were compared to Australians.  There was a huge issue at the time over Roseanne Barr’s in-character and out-of-tune rendition of The Star Spangled Banner at the opening of a baseball game or something.  People wanted to lynch her for apparently disrespecting the country.  I found the outrcy bizarre.  There was also, I recall, legislation in the offing to ban flag burning (don’t know if it got up). 

When I came back I remember thinking that one of the things I really liked about Australia was that we were not a nationalistic people.  We were patriotic – cheered like mad when our athletes competed - but we were uncomfortable with jingoism.  We weren’t into flag-waving exercises.  We mumbled the national anthem and didn't even know the second verse.  I liked that, because I think nationalism – the ‘love it or leave it’, ‘my country right or wrong’ attitude – is inherently dangerous.  History bears this out time and time again. 

Now Australia is much closer to the America I saw in 1990.  Under Howard dissenters have frequently been shouted down – by Howard himself as much as anybody else – as ‘un-Australian’.  Dissent is unpatriotic, apparently. 

Worse, the Howard Government’s racist slander of asylum seekers - usually delivered in front of the Australian flag - and the insidious undermining of the concept of multiculturalism (by which I mean the acceptance – celebration, ideally - of other cultures within the dominant white culture of British origin) has made patriotism synonymous with xenophobia.  

And as I said before, it’s no longer patriotism, it’s nationalism. 

So I agree with you Margo when you say that the flag is no longer a symbol of unity.  Between Howard’s politics of fear and division, Hanson’s white Australia policies, and the Cronulla riots, the flag has for me become associated with prejudice and xenophobia.  As a result, when I see a house with a flag flying I wonder about their attitude to non-white Australians.  That’s probably not fair, but that’s what’s happened for me. 

I liked Richard Tonkin’s suggestion of handing flags out to everybody at the Big Day Out, but then I think it becomes a patriotic pissing contest, and Howard and Iemma are always going to win because they’re the ones on TV and in the papers.  They’re the ones setting the agenda. 

(But it raises an interesting issue: how do we reclaim the flag from the politics of division and exclusion?  I don't think it can happen under this Government.)

And what do think would be the reaction at The Big Day Out of a racist skinhead if he saw a Lebanese man – or an Asian, or an Indian, or an Ethiopian - wearing the Australian flag?

Margo: Hi David. Maybe there's something about living in Canberra that makes us so, well, "minority" in what we reckon about stuff like this. I find this flagwaving, face painting thing tasteless and a little intimidating. I mean, why? Anyone know when the trend really took off? Was it Hansonism? I remember One Nation supporters planting the flag in their front yards, and that was the first time I saw that trend. I thought it was partly an assertion of identity from people who felt they'd been marginalised from Australian life, and partly a response to the Keating era's push to change the flag. These issues so often go back to the Keating Prime Ministership. He gave Howard so much ammo to shoot.

Speaking of Cartier-Bresson, when I went to the foundation they had very few of his work up because they had another exhibition by American photographer Bruce Davidson. He had taken photos of the American civil rights movement, including shots of Malcolm X, but mostly just ordinary black people and how they lived.

At the top of the stairs I stumbled upon a group of what I assume were film/photography students who were watching one of Davidson's short films. It was the most extraordinary piece of documentary film I have ever seen. It was about the poverty class in America - who knows when, it could have been any time - who live just above homelessness by scavenging hunks of steel and cashing them in. At first I assumed the father was black, as the exhibition has been about black people, until I realised it was just that his face was so covered in grease and grime from spending all day in a junkyard, that he looked black. The film just examined his daily life and finally, after the daughter expressed a desire to, they all went for a trip to the statue of liberty. It did not appear to have any particular symbolic significance to them, but, though there was no commentary, you could sense Davidson's astonishment at it. Perhaps the mere act of recording it reveals the importance you place in something.

Paris itself has its own, smaller statue of liberty, built my American immigrants, on a bridge not far from the Eiffel Tower. I went to see it because it had been filmed in Polanski's Frantic and it was quite surreal. The one and only thing that surprised me about Paris, apart from a railway station named "Stalingrad", was that there were so many places named after American presidents - Kennedy, Roosevelt, Wilson, more than I can recall. There was even an Ave de New York.

I learned recently that the red, white and blue of the French flag was actually taken from the American revolutionaries, where I had assumed that it had originated in France. I am struggling to find any clear significance for the colours, in what I have read, even though my assumption had been that they symbolised liberty, equality, fraternity, etc. Those three words are written on most of the official buildings in Paris (without the original, 'or death!'), including the Palais de Justice, which despite the name is just a collection of courtrooms rather than a palace. When I went inside I found a whole lot of (what appeared to be) art students sitting around the place, sketching portions of the building. Most courthouses inspire a sense of terror but that is not really possible when there are young people there simply to sketch the architecture.

Good item Margo, so many points and so many Jay's, already.

Flags should stay where they belong, on a flagpole. Unless of course people think they are flagpoles themselves. Oh, and at schools who get paid a few Howard bucks for raising the flag and flagpole.

BDO's decision is based on their history, last year. A history of violence associated with Jones driven "patriotism".

The flag wrapping is of course Howard's wedge but Rudd actually beat him to the political punch and removed the issue as Howard's re- wedge. To the detriment of BDO music fans. Try again JWH.

I remember too, concerts where music was the priority. Stones in Sydney, only issue then was screaming from young ladies but it didn't hurt the magic which remains with me today. A day out with Big Brother, mine. Loved the Stones and was suitably awed watching and trying to listen. Brian was there, leader of the music direction before.... Best music they ever did although I collected right through anyway.

There was Tshirt wrapping there, music oriented. Loyalty to one's fave rave.

I dislike the flag waving today intensely but there are those who have such rights, not flag waving as such, rather respect for the service they gave and give their entire lives. Not going to BDO though I would guess. Although their presence would bring a modicum of decency to the day. Young flag wavers back off real quick in the face of Vets with their own need for respect.

Vets. Even RSl being also a Vets group. I would have thought they would be the only groups to object reasonably to this issue. Silly me but perhaps the media driven Howard frenzy isn't reasonable (lightly). Well written in that regard Ernest William.

Political opportunity at the expense of young music goers who the organiser's are trying to protect. Yes other cities had quiet BDO's or their version but they didn't have Jones or Cronulla either.

What might Howard achieve with his reappearance from taxpayer funded hols in WA? Well a lot more Labor voters would seem likely so that's a good thing.

There's also the contradiction of other nations flags being waved. Mainly at sporting events with the inevitable results, violence and importing of their country of heritage's troubles. Wonderful but also out of control. They live here, leave all flags at home and be Aussies.

C Parsons, the man you refer to wears a correctly labelled T shirt. Bush is indeed the leading terrorist with flagging support. The US is after all the only nation to use the overwhelming power of science to date and seems ready to push the button from the Atomic Clock perspective. Such a person is likely to have only a Billy Bunter comic in his pocket or an IPOD.

Question the Muslim clothing first mate.

Our way of life has changed due to Bush's "war on terrorism". Your hammer and sickle may see yourself being followed but only by older ASIO operatives. Enjoy.

Jane, as good as the NT flag is, it's taken. We have a flag, history has created it and we keep it. Unless we move to one with Golden Arches to reflect our deputy sherrif's allegiance.

Margo, did Howard appear last night? I missed it as there was news on. Fox News, a daily chuckle. Funny hour for me. Pays to know the entertainment although dangerously so as directed by Rupert.

And welcome. Clearly Jay has been hovering for some time. Pity his wings still work. flutter, flutter.

Margo: Hi Ross, and welcome back to Webdiary. Yep, Howard  was there with bells on, daring the NSW Govt to cancel the concert. He was deeply offended, etc etc, as were all partiotic Australians, etc etc. Political correctness gone mad, etc etc. All the usual rad buttons. He was salivating during the interview, I thought, but then, I'm a bit biased when it comes to honest john. So was Pauline Hanson, who Seven chose as the other tape interview.

Margo, I am indeed "up and down" and right now I am uncertain which way is up and which way is down. I suspect that, having crossed the globe just recently and travelled forward in time, my up is perhaps different to your down. But it is more than just jet-lag - I have much to think about. I think perhaps I am going through my Yoko Ono phase even if my particular Yoko has now long left for Germany and whom I shall never hear of again.

Stuck on a Korean Air flight from Paris to Seoul, I was listening to John Lennon for most of the way, which was illuminating, and I often wept. Apart from, of course, "Imagine", my favourite songs were "Oh Yoko", "Jealous guy", "God", "Give me some truth" and "Woman is the nigger of the world". In "God" he sings of all the things in which he does not believe, including the Beatles. "I used to be the dream-weaver but then I was reborn. I used to be the Walrus but now I'm John.."

I would not bother to praise or criticise Webdiary if I did not at least care a little about it.

Margo: Indeed, Solomon. Hope you have a good year, Solomon. The zeitgeist is a changing. 

National flags are essentially weapons.

What other raison d'etre do they have but to clump one set of people together in order to fight another set of similarly-clumped people?

What other kind of nation-wide endeavour requires a flag?

Healthcare? Communication? Water-policy?

Margo: Heh Jay, it's a private event. One can take it or leave it - you got a problem with that?

Unfortunately it is not. It is held on government owned land. I do not know what the contract is, but I am sure certain requirements would have to be meet.

Don't meet the requirements find another place to play. Simple and to the point. The NSW government is so weak, cash strapped and gutless they would never make a decision like that any way.

A good music festival should always follow the basic rules from the book of Jay:

1. All the performers outside of the main act get heartily ripped off by teams of "management" incurring all sorts of outrageous costs (which come out of their fee) along the way. The very savvy amoungst them may break even on the gig. For the rest the "costs" are just added on plus interest for the next gig etc.

This is a coming of age initiation. Welcome to the entertainment industry so to speak. It has the added bonus of getting most of the potential "talent" ready for their future life of selling industrial real estate or similar.

2. The young uns get heartily ripped off. This takes the form after tickets including everthing from food, drink, merchandise through to darker things such as drugs. This teaches them nothing toward their future lives, unfortunately parents usually wear the costs.

It does though lead to a lifetime of yoof stories which can one day be shared with the future kiddies and possibly the grand kiddies. The music, drugs and everything else getting "better" with every passing year.

3. The promotors walk away all happy like with a bag full of filthy lucre. Enabling them to send their kiddies to that "special school", invest in real estate on the coast (perhaps sold by a previous performer) and take that first class holiday through Europe they have always dreamed about.

Pretty easy, simple, and understandable. So why the f### during a election year would they want to start making political statements? Who would be so stupid as to put themselves in a postion where the only possible result can be a public flaying? And some of these people are quiet well off and actually quiet respected. They for all intents and purposes have "made it".

And that dear readers is why Australia is known as the "lucky country". Thanks for bringing the term up, Solomon.

Margo, that passage is spot on (christ it's good to have you around again).  Eureka created a self-perpetuating ideal, and is embedded within the Australian subconsciousness forever.

I'm with Jenny on the Flag Of The Southern Cross.We used to fly a Eureka from our pub in the eighties.  After years of battling the cultural assumptions, we gave up and pulled her down (she's still in the stained glass though)   As I said there's two of them flying in the bar tonight..   I'd like to see it on the roof sooner than later.

Margo, you're right about BDO's intentions being well-met but misguided.  The trouble is that that the potential for bad things to happen at the event has now increased substanitially.  It would perhaps have been more discreet to keep the profile of the situation more low-key and deal with the matter from an internal security level. 

In the same way that tensions can be eased by opening the port bottle, I'd give everyone who walked into the BDO an aussie flag in their hand.  Trust me, it would work (I think).

Margo: Hiya Richard. Nice solution.

How delicious.   Sorry Margo your dating is wrong as is the conclusion you draw from it.   Strangely enough the Flag is somewhat one of my hobbyhorses.    I shall elucidate after a trip to the Library tomorrow.   

Meanwhile, check this kiddies.

Margo: Look forward to the correction, Malcolm.

Hi Margo. I guess what the yobbos could do to the Aussie flag is what the BLF and those extremist right wingers did to the Eureka flag which to me is the most beautiful of any flag in the world. It got so tainted by that lot no one would even contemplate it as our national flag after that. But maybe it will make a comeback one day. Over the Eureka museum in Ballarat it is in the form of a huge sail, reminding us not only that it was in Ballarat that Australian democracy got its kickstart, but that many of our ancestors arrived here on the big ships. It can be seen from several angles and is absolutely stunning.

Note how the Mufti, Sheik Hilaly likes to be interviewed with the Aussie flag in front of him, or is often seen waving it for the media's benefit.  No different to those yobbos really. He probably doesn't even know what the stars represent, and they probably don't either. 

Then again, no one objected, other than a few olympic bureaucrats when Kathy Freeman draped herself in the Aboriginal flag for her victory run.

Maybe its all just a storm in a teacup.  Cheers. BTW That book by Kylie Tennant was called Honey Flow, and was about travelling bee keepers in Queensland. I have it somewhere I know and will find it.

Margo: Hi Jenny. My Mum would love that book; her partner, recently deceased, was a bee keeper in his retirement. On Eureka and the Southern Cross flag, the TT cameraman wanted some shots of me reading something. No newspapers around - yeah! - so they rummaged around Mum's bookshelves and found The Australian Heroes, by Geoffrey Dutton. The book opened at 'The Men of Eureka" (you know, the anniversary John Howard pretends doesn't exist):

Undoubtedly the men of Eureka have been manipulated by radicals and belilttled by reactionaries, but they survive triumphantly as symbols of individual Australian democray. They are also a hundred years ahead of their time in being so Australian and yet so polyethnic.

It's a pity all this has flared up at such an advanced stage of preparations for the event. Because if I was Ken West et al, I would be seriously considering cancelling the Big Day Out - or at least postponing for a month or so.

I'd cite, as justification, political inteerference by the highest elected officials in the land. Political interference, specifically, in the prerogative of the event's organisers to take whatever lawful measures they consider necessary to ensure the safety and enjoyment of concert-goers.

Then I'd handball to the Prime Minister the odium of explaining to young music fans why they didn't get their Big Day Out.

As it stands, the event will probably proceed, and the escalation of the issue of the flag almost guarantees that the event will be like a lightning rod to the very troublemakers the organisers were wishing to neutralise.

I ask, in all seriousness, what enterprise would tolerate such interference by Big Government in its operational arrangements?

Oops, silly me ... employees and employers already have that in the WorkChoices legislation.

Damn! Scuttled my own argument!

Margo: Yep, never talk to the Tele eh? Its hypocritical, self-serving wrath will snuff you out every time.  

Photography, especially photojournalism, has become one of my passions and I made a special point of visiting the Cartier-Bresson foundation whilst in Paris, where I bought a print of his famous picture of the railway station at Saint-Lazare. His theory of the decisive moment is a force that has been used and misused by photographers ever since, but at its best it has an essential elegance to it.

I always explain a photograph, if it is unaltered, as both a fact and a construct. It is a fact that Pauline Hanson did wear the flag and agree to have her picture taken, though the idea was not her own. Many, many photographs in newspapers are staged like this and I don't think they are by necessity dishonest - there is nothing that suggests to me that draping herself in the Australian flag was in any way inconsistent with who Pauline perceived(s) herself to be. Had she spontaneously decided to drape herself in the flag and had it caught on film it might indeed have been "the decisive moment", where the essential truth of the situation came through in a single image, though in its own way the very manufactured nature of the actual photograph contains its own truths about Pauline.

However I think that flags themselves are vulgar when used in photographs as symbols and was careful to avoid taking any shots with the French flag, except where the shot made it necessary, like on a building, such as the Palais de Justice. It is a little different when the issue itself is the flag and nationalism and I would expect photos of Big Day Out to accurately record what people were wearing, given the recommendations by the organiser.

I was only ever at BDO once, in 2000, when NIN, RHCP and Foo Fighters played. I vividly remember the Chilli Peppers had to stop mid-show because the crowds up the front were getting too rowdy, which shows what veterans they are - it was the following year that the girl was crushed to death at a Limp Bizkit concert. I think safety is a concern at such a major event and moving it away from Australia Day was a good idea.

I am doubtful whether the banning/discouragement of the Australian flag is going to have any major effect on the actual perpetrators of anti-social behaviour, who, almost by definition, are likely to ignore the request, perhaps as an act of rebellion. It might be useful to give security directions to request people tone down their nationalistic enthusiasm, here and there, in an attempt to diffuse a situation before it arises. Banning liquor would be the most effective, least popular and most unlikely method of encouraging safety, when you consider that alternative rock is now inextricably, coitally, locked into corporate marketing of alcohol to young people. Another would be to reduce the crowds - but heaven forbid that basic OH&S requirements get in the way of the rhythms of the cash registers.

The right-wing (and for that matter left-wing, if you are still under the illusion that the ALP is left-wing) response has of course been laughable and not worth taking seriously. I know we are at war (a fact which, though it never touches us, I am careful always to remember) but it all reminds me too much of history. I don't know what, in these peoples' eyes, the flag is supposed to symbolise. All flags to me symbolise the same thing: territorialism. I am not sure if "national unity" is mean to be inclusive of all those within, or exclusive of all those without, but it appears to only serve the latter function by the current crop of public figures - hell, of all public figures, at all times. "National unity" is a puzzlingly meaningless concept, when not centred around a set of ideals.

At least Keating got us to debate what it is our flag stands for. I have spent a few nights discussing constitutional law and geopolitics with South Americans in Paris hostels and it only deepened my republicanism and desire for a revision of the rights protections in the federal Constitution - though making me keenly aware, also, that it is really economics that is at the back of political freedom and whilst some South American countries have political and constitutional systems of which we should be jealous (imagine the right to health and education guaranteed by law, as in the Colombian constitution). Without a sound economy the system means nothing. Poorer countries look up to us for our success (like Argentina, who sees our history as similar but the outcomes as divergent), based on our wealth and stability, not the inherent virtue of our political system. Of what are we so proud, except our wealth, from lands we stole or offshore oil we acquired to shut our eyes to conquest? I think Donald Horne, R.I.P, was right to call us the “Lucky Country" - meaning merely that we are a lucky country.

These past few days have been like the Webdiary I have missed. All credit, nevertheless, to those who kept the flame burning bright enough for it to re-emerge, if only for a moment.

Margo: Hi Solomon. You're an up and down sort of bloke, aren't you. Three cheers to Webdiary for hanging in there. I'm still proud of it. 

As an aside, I am not sure who administers the venue of the BDO? Perhaps these people could withdraw their support for it? At least make this year the final one.

Once events start making political statements it is time to move on anyway. It is probably time for new events organised by new faces.

Yep, piss em off I say. Time for a clean out.

Margo: Heh Jay, it's a private event. One can take it or leave it - you got a problem with that? Apparently the State Govt owns the grounds, and Howard said on TT the NSW Govt should piss them off. You agree, yes? Big time censorship - the new political correctness playing real rough. As rough as those councils which banned One Nation meetings at their venues all those years ago when the old, dead political correctness was at the end of its reign. And I don't reckon the organisers were making a political statement, actually. They were trying to ensure a good day without fights, in a misguided way, to be sure. I mean, announcing it to the Tele?! It's certainly been all politics since, though.

Youth of every generation has always had its rallying symbols. Usually the symbol that pisses off the oldies the most and sets them apart from them. I think they have found it.

The real story here is that the Big Day Out organizers got old and for youth joined an alien species. Not to worry: it happens to the best of us eventually. The cycle of life, I am afraid.

I always have a giggle when I read some baby boomer complaining about youth not protesting the way "we" did. Perhaps that "we" did protest is the reason they do not?

There will be flags aplenty at this function. The organizers have now made it a certainty.

This is all beside the point. The real issue is that our flag is bloody awful to look at. And depressing. Navy is soooo not our colour!

Politics aside, give us a new flag with the aesthetic pizzazz of Indigenous Australia or the Northern Territory or Canada or New Guinea or any of the hundred and ninety or so countries that are at least sensitive to the fact that a lot of people have to look at it.

This Australian does not rejoice.

Margo: Hi Jane. Are you new to Webdiary? If so, welcome.