I can't sleep

There are many things that keep me awake at night. Girls, Grant Morrison, an utter inability to relax my mind, Australia, ice skating accidents and the list goes on... and on... and you get the picture. The worst part about not being able to sleep for me? Is that I still get tired which makes the not being able to solve that by sleeping part all the more frustrating.

I have long been disturbed by the direction in which my fair country is headed. It really started to get to me once the government began to give up any pretence of actually listening to the voters. That was a bad day. And being in Shizuoka drowning my sorrows on election night in 2004? That was another bad one.

For reasons I won't discuss here, largely due to limited attention span, we have a man known to the Australian public as 'Jihad Jack'. Most people don't even know his real name. Here is a man with alleged terrorist connections that is no longer allowed out of the house in the middle of the night, because we all know that evil schemes are invariably concocted after midnight. There is a list of people he is no longer allowed contact with. In addition he's also wearing a tracking device. This execution of last year's control orders sets a dangerous precedent for our society as a whole but also points the way towards the establishment of a regime where "if you're not with us, you're against us". And is you're not with us, we'll fucking well lock you up in your house. I'm not here to debate the legal ramifications of this. I'm not learned enough, nor am I smart enough to do so. However, the increasingly sinister form of racism and scaremongering that is taking a hold of this country IS up for debate.

Television, Internet, Newspapers are all telling us about how "Jihad Jack" got off. I guess it depends on whether you define the infringement of your civil liberites as "getting off". But c'mon. "Jihad Jack". I'm as aware as anyone that a nice juicy hook will bump you up in the ratings or maintain your status as the No1 newspaper in the state/country. But does our media really need to fuel the fear and hatred that should be the antithesis of a multicultural society? I used to be really proud to tell people I was Australian when I first started travelling overseas. Sure, we had a past. But now we pretty much lived happily side by side (remember I live in the idyllic Melbourne so I can't speak for other parts of Australia). These days I'm ashamed of what we have become and scared of where we may go.

Since I was on my media teaching round a month or so ago I have begun to actively watch Australian commercial television. I'm a media teacher, I need to know what they're feeding us. What has shocked me in this time is the amount of racism that has crept in to homegrown content. Watch any of Channel 10's more recent attempts at comedy for a taste. Perhaps I just wasn't paying attention, but I swear it wasn't like this years ago. Even at the height of One Nation's "power" commercial networks weren't covertly promoting racism. But it's a different world now I guess. And when world governments tell us to be afraid we damn well better fucking be afraid. And what better way than by using the most powerful medium available? Suckers, those of us with half a brain know the only true power is through a broadband connection - but then that's another debate.

My brother in law was over on the weekend. He told me about the tram he was taking recently up Glenferrie Rd. There were probably about twenty people onboard and an Indian guy with a beard was standing just near bro-in-law. He was having some frantic argument with the driver of the tram and seemed to be making a real commotion. Bro-in-law rolls his eyes and turns the iPod up. He then noticed that at the next stop, about fifteen people got off the tram and stood at the stop waiting for the next tram. Sure, seeing someone go off their head in public is never nice. The guy was likely a tosser. But what were these people thinking?! Because this man had a beard and was not as white as the Bulla skifields that he was going to suddenly reveal a bomb and destroy an entire tram!? Say what you will, this scenario would never have played out ten years ago.

So it's now time for me to stand down from my soapbox, stop beating my "Australia is becoming really terrifyingly racist, how horrible" drum and maybe go to bed. I have written this post before. I'm tired, fuck off, it's ok that I repeat myself.

Oh yeah, and I read WE3 recently. I've been reading a LOT of Morrison stuff in the past month and I just have to have to have to see that as an animated or even CGI film. Maybe send the production to Japan though because they are hardcore enough to leave the basic premise intact rather than turning the film into a cutesy furry animal Disney style pic.