Finding Cronulla
Some food for thought in response to the shocking race riots that have erupted in Sydney the past few days.
It’s hard to know what to think about what’s happening in Syndey. Having never lived there, it’s difficult to pick what the local atmosphere and political climate was like before the events of the past few days. It does seem to be very different to Perth and Melbourne though. These are both cities which, although they certainly do have areas which are predominately settled by people of a certain ethnic background, they are never overwhelmingly so. As far as know, there’s nowhere that could be described as an ethnic enclave, somewhere you would feel unsafe walking around as white Australian. After reading articles like the above it seems this is in stark contrast to Sydney where people are drawing comparisons between parts of the city and the no-go zones of inner-suburban Paris.
I just find it hard to imagine something like that kicking off in Perth, even on an alcohol fuelled holiday like Australia day. The climate isn’t there. Is it? I guess have been away for several years and perhaps things have changed. The incessant fear our media loves to push, our increasingly US-centric view of the world and local communities becoming increasingly frustrated at gang-related crime could all be factors. Factors I can see being important turning things around.
There was an incident here a few months back where an Aussie guy got completely pissed in a club, left early in the morning and decided it would be funny to walk around hassling homeless guys and then throw a bike in front of a garbage truck doing its rounds. It was all caught on camera and at one stage, one of the guys winding him up encouraged him to, “Do it for Australia.” That just made me feel wholly uncomfortable, frustrated and embarrassed and annoyed all at once, and that’s exactly how I felt when I was watching this on the news over the weekend. I don’t want this to be the country I’m going back to.
Posted in Oz on Tuesday December 13, 2005.
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#2· Bron
1071 days agoIt’s bizarre. Disturbing. That pack instinct people can get caught up in, whether it’s joining a queue (even if you’re not sure it’s the right one, or don’t know what it’s for at all), or going on strike over the potential cancellation of a high school ball (...and then feeling compelled to chase a Coke truck down the street!), or something as ugly as this. It makes us look like a troop of primitive monkeys.
#3· surtr
1070 days agowhat about Australia ‘patriots’ getting pissed and shagging each other in public in Turkey to celebrate Anzac Day?
as for ‘ethnic enclaves’ – none in melbourne? cough? I used to live in this really weird suburb in Sydney where everyone was white. often I felt pretty endangered (especially after the verbal assaults). there was this weird religion in this huge temple called ‘Hillsong’ nearby too. god, I’m glad I moved out into ‘normal’ Australia. now I live in the GC and we just get schoolies every year!
#4· Nick
1070 days agoIt is fucking disgusting. The Daily Yomiuri, of all papers, had a photo in it on Tuesday I think, of a muscle-bound fuckstick beating a Middle Eastern guy in the back with slack-jawed, beer-toting yokels surrounding him. It made me literally sick and I hate that person more than anyone else in the world right now. It’s shameful, nothing more.
What I am intersted in, is whether anyone has seen anything that seems like a reason for the mob’s actions? I read something about how some Moslems had yelled at girls to stop dressing so licensiously and stop drinking, but is that all?
Do tell.
#5· Dan
1070 days agoI found a comment by dabido over on Buckaroo Banzai that seems to sum up the history of the situation pretty well:
“The riots were retalitation for the Muslims attacking Aussies on the beach the week before. Including them bashing three lifeguards.
But, as someone who used to live at Cronulla, I can tell you the problem has existed for more than twenty odd years. I went to school at Woolooware (where the Muslims stabbed that guy the other night – neighbourhood suburb to Cronulla) and later I lived at Cronulla for some time.
I blogged slightly about it, without mention race or religions yesterday – but, seems you’ve mentioned the religion I’ll explain it all for people who haven’t lived in the area. For years now Lebanese Muslim teenage/young adult males have been going down to the Cronulla beach area and harassing people.
The harrassment comes in the form of them bashing people, threatening girls who wear bikini’s with rape and torture and just basically starting fights.
These gangs really are a minority of the over all Muslim/Lebanese community, which is why I didn’t mention race or religion on my site, as I didn’t want it to reflect on their community.
Anyway, I’ve had lots of friends either robbed, threatened with being bashed, or threatened to be raped by those gangs. Whenever the police were asked to arrest these thugs or anything, what generally happened was a great deal of apathy, or even the victims being told to ‘Just go home’. As one police office claimed, it’s not their job to uphold the law, it’s there job to keep the peace (which basically goes back to Government policy). I think it was a lack of police prescence and a lack of action by the local Government which has resulted in this. The general consensus was for them to ignore the issue. Now I think their chickens have come home to roost.
The fact that we talked about it in our General Studies class in 1982 shows that it’s been around a very long time.
Cronulla also has a bit of a strang wealth demographic. The South Cronulla area has mansions costing millions and is generally considered a good area – North Crounlla (dare I say it, but where I lived for a while), is normally the residence of yobbo’s and surfers who don’t have great disposible income. The reasons I eventually moved from there was because I got tired of the drunken parties and stuff.
So if they looked like a bunch of drunken yobbo’s on TV, it’s because they probably ARE. It was normal to see groups of young guys walking around with slabs of VB over their shoulders on Friday or Saturday nights.
I’m a bit surprised at the reprisals occurring around Brighton-Le-Sands area, as the nightclubs there are a normal hangout of the Lebanese – but, maybe it was just convenient for them. Maroubra also received a reprisal attack by them.
These guys are basically coming from the Lakemba area, where the shut the police station down, as the gangs were firing shots at them all the time. So the police gave up and shut the station down. A friend I worked with had a brother who was a firefighter, and he worked in the Lakemba area – they have to put out several cars each night which these gangs set fire to.
When I lived in Roselands (suburb next to Lakemba) the gangs used to break into all the cars and steal stuff. I had it happen to my car (which is why I don’t have a DVD player in my car). I had to wait a few hours for the police, as the closest Police station was in Campsie. It’s also near to Beverley Hills, which is where some guys from one of these gangs kidnapped and raped some Caucasian girls for not being Muslim.
[Which also explains some of the tensions which are occurring].
My personal opinion is they need to increase some spending and get some police back into the Lakemba area rather than ignoring the gang issue. They also need to start actually arresting people.
The problem is now moving too, the news this morning said that there were some racial attacks here in Perth. It’s a shame that such a small minority of racists are making a bad name for Australia, but the Government seems to be falling right into their hands by constantly ignoring issues like the Lakemba gangs and stuff.”
#1· Dan
1071 days agoPolice probe attack on Perth family. Wow, really not good.