When did Australia stop being the lucky country?

It seems that every morning of late, I turn on the news and hear of some new racially-motivated crime that's taken place in Australia. Bashings, muggings, gang violence, murder. In the last week, we've had two Indian nationals murdered on Australian shores for no other reason than the colour of their skin. Disgusting. But despite the truly vile nature of these hate crimes, Australian police are refusing to acknowledge that these crimes are racially-motivated. There's no evidence to support such a claim. I'm sorry, is there evidence to suggest that these crimes weren't racially-motivated? Furthermore, if these crimes aren't racially-motivated, does that mean that Australians are now being murdered just for daring to walk down a public street? How is that not news?

What a joke.

Anyway, since these crimes aren't racially-motivated, the Australian media has mounted its high horse and taken offence to a cartoon published in an Indian daily newspaper. This is the cartoon in question:

*pause for lolz*

As you can, it's actually pretty clever and funny.

Obviously, I don't like my country being portrayed as some KKK backwater, but what do people expect when we're murdering people just for being different?

God, I'm different.

How long is it going to be before somebody turns up dead outside a gay bar? Will it be me? Should I not kiss another boy in public for fear of copping a knife between the shoulder blades? And if, god forbid, it happens; will you turn on the morning news and be told this crime wasn't sexually-motivated?

What a sad, sad world we live in.

Anyway, in other news, I went to a music festival yesterday.

It went like this:

Music, alcohol, boppers, alcohol, poppers, alcohol, boppers, alcohol, music, alcohol.

Just like any other festival, basically.

The music was good (check out Empire of the Sun, if you haven't already), the alcohol was over-priced (but good), the boppers were annoying... and the poppers? Well, that was a bit of a sad story. There was a boy, rather cute, someone who I know through friends, definitely gay, and delightfully single. Anyway, I'm there in the crowd, going through the will-I-or-won't-I debate in my head, and then he's suddenly got a bottle held up to his nose.

Damn it.

I have no real issue with drugs, per-se. I mean, I like gay sex, so I'm hardly going to judge other peoples' lifestyle choices. But still, my default attitude is pretty much don't ask, don't tell. Pop, smoke or snort anything you like, just don't drag me into it. So anyway, I didn't want to get caught up in someone else's court case, so I aborted that mission before it even really started.

Again, damn it.

And now for another community service announcement:

Carrying people on your shoulders. It's bad. This is what my shoulders look like this morning:

Messy.

I carried my friend Ben for a couple of songs. That guy needs to eat more, seriously. I carried his girlfriend for a couple of songs, too. I reckon, between the two of them, they'd still weigh less than I do. And trust me, I don't weigh that much.

98 kilos.

215 pounds.

15 stone.

3457 ounces.

Whatever.

Most of it's muscle.

Anyway, this other girl wanted to get up there, so I picked her up and carried her. Bad idea. Not only was she heavier, but f**k she was violent. Moving everywhere. She was wearing shorts with zippers and buttons and shit all over them, too. That's why my shoulders are all messed up today. My hip is pretty messy, too. I felt a bit of sharp pain while I was carrying the random girl last night, but I didn't think any more of it at the time. Bad idea. Let's just say, once the adrenaline and alcohol started wearing off last night, I couldn't walk. Even now, I'm laying in bed and there's a shooting pain travelling down my leg. Think I might have to go back to the doctor about it.

That'll f**k up my holidays just nicely, won't it?

(I'm on annual leave until the 27th)

I promise to do some writing while I'm off work! Hopefully I'll get a new chapter out in the next few days. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see.

I just got invited to join a Facebook group, too. You're in Australia, SPEAK ENGLISH. Who creates these things, honestly?

The funny thing is, I was invited by a bloke who went on an overseas holiday last July. Does he not understand irony? It's not like he learnt Thai in between drinking and groping ladyboys.

What a tossbag.

Actually, now I think about, he was probably the bloke who murdered those Indian nationals.

Ah well, at least he's not a racist.

Peace