Australia Day - kiss the flag

Acts of violence which use our flag as their emblem may not be common, but they are certainly designed to send a message to non-Anglo groups in our community about who belongs and who doesn’t. It’s a message which determines who gets to feel safe and who lives with fear.

A set of waves approached and the group of surfers dispersed. While I was disgusted at some of the comments made, I was also stoked at the healthy form of the debate. I couldn’t help thinking that the young surfers were being true to the flag at that moment, using it to enact a form of democracy.

By simply framing the issues of Cronulla and the BDO as issues of law and order our politicians have once again missed the point. They have failed to listen to Australian youth’s concerns about a deeper set of social, political, and cultural problems that are besetting them at this time - questions of globalisation, transnational terrorism, deregulation of industries, and multiculturalism.

The organisers of the BDO are doing better than the politicians. They have responded to concerns from their patrons’ real concerns about safety stemming from last year. The organisers also paid attention to Australian youth’s concerns about Aboriginal rights, and changed the date so as not to offend Indigenous Australians sadness at the fact that Australia Day also implicitly commemorates their colonisation. Perhaps, rather than trying to score cheap political points by having a go at the BDO organisers and their patrons, Australia’s politicians could use Australia Day to try listening to them.