St. Kilda and Australian politics

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Another big weekend in OZ. I kicked it off with a John Butler Trio concert at festival hall. I left my camera at home but the show was really good. It had been sold out for a while but I just went down to see if any one had extra tickets. Luckily there was one bloke trying to sell one ticket out front so I got in with no dramas. If you haven't seen JBT think Ben Harper with slightly catchier songs. Since Butler is from Australia it was interesting to see the hometown hero in his element. The venue was interesting. 6,000 in attendance split between the floor and the stands (I was on the floor). He got slightly political mostly with images displayed behind him and then towards the end quoted MLK Jr. saying it was a crime to remain silent. John is currently speaking out against some legislation parliament is passing which affects the indigenous people of Australia. Apparently the indigenous people have no say in this act. I had no idea what legislation John Butler was speaking about and based on the crowd reaction I'm not sure anyone else did either. However being an election year, this seems like this is a pretty big issue down here, so I decided to research it a little.

History Lesson: If you don't know much about Australian politics, (I didn't either) there are two parties, The Liberals, and the Labor. The liberals most resemble the republican party; and the Labor, follow most Democratic platforms. Australia is based on the Westminister system with some American traits. Parliament really has the power; it is divided into two houses. Senate (76) and House of Representatives (150). To be Prime Minister you have to be the leader of the party that gets the most representives in the House. The current Prime Minister is John Howard with the liberal party which makes him a conservative (yeah I know that's backward but it's Australia). He reminds me a lot of our current president; he is in his 12th year (3 year terms, no limit as long as your party keeps voting you in as leader) , and losing popularity like Star Jones lost weight). Right now Howard and the liberal parliment just passed this act (The Northern Territory National Emergency Response) which will start to enforce laws against the aboriginals.

The indigenous people are the "native Australians" or aborigines who from what I gather mostly live in the middle of the country in small towns and are impoverished. The common belief is that they drink or use drugs more than other ethnic groups which leads to their economic state. (Although there are study's debating this issue on both sides) The real issue is some of the natives are getting into a lot of trouble. There are many reports of them abusing each other, and especially women and children. Seems like they want nothing to do with the Australian government and just want to drink and fight a lot. (I think the real problem is their kids aren’t going to school, cause they don't have to. Parents are pretty much against the government and don't encourage them to go. And basically any excuse not to go to school is a good excuse to a kid. So it seems like a vicious cycle.) People gererally want to help fix this problem but there is controversy about the best way to do it, and it really has become a political issue with hidden agendas.

Howard's point: John Howard came up with a plan to start throwing the parents in jail and send the kids to school, (but mostly just throw the parents in jail). He thinks the best way to deal problem is start punishing the offenders.

Butler's point: If you start throwing these people in jail, you'll start a revolt against Australian government since the natives really had no say on this issue. The kids will grow more angry and more concerned about avenging their families honor than going to school. He thinks the best way to deal with the problem is have some representative from the community get involved and the governemnt could fund some programs that will help the addicts and give aid to the abused.

This issue is really more than just how to help the native people. The act went through this month and the election is in November. Most people think they should have been working on a plan 10 years ago and the only reason things are happening now is because the Liberals know they are on a knife's edge of loosing power. This also is a step of federalism. Since Australia has only been united for about 100 years, most of the states and territories pretty much govern themselves. They all acted as independent colonies before and some want to keep federal politics out of the states. With this law the federal government is basically saying "the state can't handle their own problems so we are using our power to step in and save the day."

I don't know the answer and not trying to make an opinion just trying to get the facts down, and I thought it was interesting to hear Australian musicians think they have all the answers when it comes to politics, just like the states.

Enough on politics...
Saturday found me at the St. Kilda. After the zoo keeper told me there was a colony of penguins there I knew I had to go. St. Kilda is a suburb of Melbourne and just a 20 min. tram ride down south. It sits right on the bay and is going through an extreme beach renovation. It's a very diverse little community. Used to be very run down and dangerous to go there but a few years ago someone thought it'd be fun to live on the beach so they started fixing up some of the crumby houses and moved in. Others thought this was a good idea and just started a new trend to fix up houses and move in. This created quite a diverse little place with very wealthy trendy kids living right next to very poor just trying to make it kids. (Sound familiar?)

My first encounter with St. Kilda was Luna Park. A real hot spot for little roos. I heard a couple little guys on the tram speak of the place like it was Disneyland. One of them was explaining to another about a ride that goes round and round and up in the air and you don't fall down cause you are going so fast. Listening to him made me excited to see it myself! The bright face you walk into leads to an old fashion amusement park like Coney island (i think, never been there). There are about 6 rides in the whole place but the kids love it. Home of the scenic railway which is the oldest operational rollercoaster in the world! (it was out of service the day I went).

After my distraction with Luna Park, I went to find the penguins. I found the beach. Not much to talk about there but they are revamping it. I found this pier that had this little house or something at the end, and signs about penguin tours at the entrance. I knew I was close. I walked down passing fishermen on either side. As I got to the other side of the little house or something I saw a sign indicating that penguins call this place home and dogs aren't allowed. I was so excited! I the back side of the pier is just a wall of rocks that look volcanic (but I don't think there are any volcanoes around). I gathered that the little blue guys live in the rocks so I immediately started the hunt. It didn't take long to spot one hiding in a nest in between the rocks. There were two little boys with there aunt who spotted them with me. I took out my camera and shot a few shots but they really don't express how I felt when I saw my first wild penguin. As I learned last week it is "baby penguin season" so there are several nesting on there eggs right now which is what the ones I found were doing. As I was taping this guy started yelling at us to leave them alone. I quickly put away my camera and walked down the rocks to see what the problem was. I met this strange guy who seems to take a strong interest in the penguins or at least enjoys telling little blokes to get off the rocks. He explained that if you take a picture with the flash they get sick and will piss off leaving the eggs behind. He was very much wanting to preserve the natural habitat of the penguins at St. Kilda Pier and explained that I knew about the camera flash and was only videoing taping. He said that is good and that I should come back when the sun sets to see them come out of the rocks to go in the water. I was very grateful to meet this fellow and I thanked him for his service to the penguin society.

The gem of the city seems to be Aucland street an very eclectic walk able place to get a cake, a record, or fresh um..supplies. This is what I think San Francisco looks like. Lots of cafe's and over priced boutiques, and people. Lots and lots of people with dogs. Everyone seems to have a dog in St.Kilda. (If I was going to open up a store it would be rent-a-pet. I would rent dogs for a day just so you can fit in with everyone else.)

So I still had a few hours to kill before the sun would set; luckily I stumbled upon a city league footy game. St. Kilda city vs. the Visitors. I've tried to learn the rules by watching the games on tv. From what I gather it is a mix between soccer, rugby, volleyball, basketball, and a hint of American football. It is leading up to the finals right now so everyone is a footy fanatic. The game I watched was a local sports league. Basically people just sign up to play and form teams. Some of the players even get paid! That's right paid to play for a city league sports team. They have sponsors and sell hotdogs and cokes and make money it's serious. Anyway the game was fun to watch but not as fun as listening to the fans. The fans are crazy. And during the breaks basically everyone watching just goes out to the field and starts playing around. One little guy asked me to watch his car key whilst he goes out to play. I have no idea where he got a car key he was only like 8 years old but I gladly took it and left while he wasn't looking.

Just kidding I held on to it and he came back to collect it just like he said he would. So after the game...oh St. Kilda lost by the way I don't know how they keep score but I think they lost by a couple hundred points. So after the game I went back to find the penguins.

It was 5:30 and the sun had begun to set. I found a few just stirring around in the rocks but none were getting out. I met up with this guy from Sweden that seemed to be there for the same reason except he had a much bigger camera than me. He is living in Melbourne for a year and just wanted to take some pictures of wild penguins. We found one on the other side just poking around. I took video of him and he took some really sweet pictures. (He had a special camera without a sharp flash so no penguins were harmed during the taking of his photos. The little blue guy grew quite a crowd as we were filming him. He was a bit shy but determined to make it to the other side of the pier so he hopped around until he made it to the top of the walkway, but then went back to his home. I was ecstatic to see my little friend hop around on the rocks. I hope you enjoy the video.

After my penguin encounter I figured it was time to call it a night and made it back to my apt. I had to get some work done on Sunday but made it to church on Sunday night. It was a crazy church. It's called Planetshakers and meets at 3:45 and 6:00 on Sunday nights. It's definitely a Pentecostal church which is cool but man it was nuts. A whole hour an a half just on praise and worship. There was a guest pastor from the States that had an amazing sermon. Seriously it was really good. Story about Philemon and Onesimus. If you haven't read the book of Philemon in a while you should it's a great story.

Okay so that was the end of my weekend. Today I went up to a town called Shepparton about 2 hours north. It's a nice little town. I got to see my first wild kangaroo but he was really tired and was taking a nap on the side of the road.

until next time.

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Photos

Luna Park
Eat Me. What kid wouldn't want to go here. An amusement park for all ages (6-12).

Railway
The Scenic Railway looks like fun if it wern't closed. Note the woman on the left I think she had too many funnal cakes before geting on the spin-spin-spin ride.

Indy 500
Think these kids know where Indy is?

Mixed Business
I thought this store was funny not sure why just did.

Me at beach
Do I look cool?

Boat
There are lots of boats in the marina most are bigger than this but this one looks fun. (what would you do on a boat this size in the ocean....)

Skyline
Melbourne Skyline from the bay

Penguin tour
You really don't need a tour. The penguins are for everyone.

Not a penguin
It's just a regular bird but this is where the penguins live.

Penguin hiding
I see you. Here's a penguin sitting on his nest.

Out for the night
Here's a fun little one hoping around the rocks. (I didn't use my flash so the pictures not very clear but I'll send out a link to the guy's website who took really good pictures.

Holy Sheet!
What a great name for a bedding store. (the next bed bath and beyond?)

Acland Street
They get quite creative with the shops down here. I think this was a tanning salon.

Footy
This is what a footy game looks like.

Final Score
St. Kilda City 1,210 Vistors 1,710. It was close.

Comments

[Chris Gliori]

Footy Rules
Hey Mason, I am definitely jealous and would give anything to switch places with you right now. Glad to hear you attended a footy game. I thought I would offer some clarification on the footy score. The ACTUAL score is the number listed on the bottom so the final score was a little closer 82-112. There are 2 ways to score in footy. A 6 pointer and a 1 pointer. There are 2 sets of goal posts (like the field goal posts in American football but starting from the ground with no crossbar). If you get the ball through the narrow posts, its worth 6 points. If it goes through the wide posts, it's worth 1. The top score numbers list how many 6 pointers and how many 1 pointers. So the visitors had 17 - 6 pointers and 10 - 1 pointers for a total score of 112. Hope that helps understand the game a bit more!