Suddenly Famous Beaches

Our beaches are suddenly famous around the world, for all the wrong reasons. Sixteen people were arrested on the first night of the race riots; and 11 more on Monday night. There will be more trouble, they said, this has been building for years. This is Maroubra; home of the famous Bra Boys. They held a meeting today with some members of a Lebanese gang, in an attempt to cool hot heads. They drove off in a spanking new Mercedes; I guess you don't get much change out of $250,000 for one of them. There were so many currents, it opened so many fissures. Here's some of the news from the Daily Telegraph: "An emergency session of NSW parliament will give Sydney police tough new powers to crack down on racial and mob violence, amid signs the city's race tensions are spreading to other states. A massive force of 450 highly-mobile police also patrolled Sydney streets on Tuesday night to try to prevent a third successive night of violence following Sunday's Cronulla race riot. Eight people were injured on Monday night as groups of Middle Eastern men in fast-moving convoys of cars roamed southern Sydney suburbs, trashing vehicles and shop fronts. In Maroubra, gangs on Monday night collected rocks and petrol bombs as they prepared to defend the beachside suburb."

The story got coverage around the world.

This story had been brewing for years. At least some commentators got it right. Did they never think these high immigration rates and headlong rush into multiculturalism would never cause serious social dislocation, would never threaten the host population? It all seems so obvious now. Tim Priest wrote today: "Of course, the usual claque of agenda-driven ethnic community leaders were quick to condemn the Cronulla incidents as un-Australian and racist. Never mind the multitude of racist attacks on young Australian men and women during the past decade, which have now manifested into full-blown racial retaliation."

All the right instincts, all the wrong reasons, he talked sideways to the orthodoxy and they didn't listen past their own strong views.

I've had a stomach bug and been laid low. The girl is up the country on holiodays with her mother and the boy is going on a school camp tomorrow. The Premier Morris Iemma has done media training. His voice has deepened, he is much firmer, he makes his point and keeps making it. Our point is to get through the month and have January off. And find some remote alcove off the Nullabor.