Thursday, November 11, 2004
"I have been with the Army taking their photos since Vietnam. I have never, ever, seen any racism."
Says self-evident fucktard, Townsville-based photographer Richard Fraley (the photo that he took is here).
More surprising – until you know the Townsville context, that is – is that local federal MP Peter Lindsay appears to utterly take photographer Fraley’s word for it:
Mr Lindsay said the photographer responsible was adamant there was no racism involved. "It was just a fun thing before the troops went overseas."
And if perchance the photographer’s word isn’t good enough, MP Lindsay offers a version of the “What goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas” defence:
But it's the spirit of thing that out in the general community, nobody would even turn a hair at. You go to a buck's party and you see that sort of thing done and as long as it's understood in the context that it was taken, people don't take offence.
Err, I think that the (presumably) heterosexual Lindsay is confusing gay sexual horseplay (= buck's party hijinks) with acts of racist humiliation. Which sort of confusion in Townsville, you’ve got to understand, is actually quite common.
Townsville, as well as being “probably the most racist town in Australia” (among towns of more than token size, the “probably” is most assuredly redundant), is also the gay-hate capital of Australia (again, with the possible exception of an outback hamlet or two).
Oh, and as is usually the way with such things, the city’s mostly un-prosecuted gay-bashers, uncaught defacers of Eddie Mabo’s grave, and at-large evildoers of so much more appear to enjoy police, military and political protection to the top. The mock-KKK photo was apparently done at the urging of older, senior officers (surprise, surprise), officers who have been already exonerated at an army inquiry (ditto). Meanwhile, check out MP Peter Lindsay’s official biography – the little smarmball was a tropical-strength proto-Silvio Berlusconi for more than a decade before entering parliament in 1996 – sitting on Townsville’s council from 1985, while all along boss of the city’s (at-the-time only, I’m assuming) television station.
Says self-evident fucktard, Townsville-based photographer Richard Fraley (the photo that he took is here).
More surprising – until you know the Townsville context, that is – is that local federal MP Peter Lindsay appears to utterly take photographer Fraley’s word for it:
Mr Lindsay said the photographer responsible was adamant there was no racism involved. "It was just a fun thing before the troops went overseas."
And if perchance the photographer’s word isn’t good enough, MP Lindsay offers a version of the “What goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas” defence:
But it's the spirit of thing that out in the general community, nobody would even turn a hair at. You go to a buck's party and you see that sort of thing done and as long as it's understood in the context that it was taken, people don't take offence.
Err, I think that the (presumably) heterosexual Lindsay is confusing gay sexual horseplay (= buck's party hijinks) with acts of racist humiliation. Which sort of confusion in Townsville, you’ve got to understand, is actually quite common.
Townsville, as well as being “probably the most racist town in Australia” (among towns of more than token size, the “probably” is most assuredly redundant), is also the gay-hate capital of Australia (again, with the possible exception of an outback hamlet or two).
Oh, and as is usually the way with such things, the city’s mostly un-prosecuted gay-bashers, uncaught defacers of Eddie Mabo’s grave, and at-large evildoers of so much more appear to enjoy police, military and political protection to the top. The mock-KKK photo was apparently done at the urging of older, senior officers (surprise, surprise), officers who have been already exonerated at an army inquiry (ditto). Meanwhile, check out MP Peter Lindsay’s official biography – the little smarmball was a tropical-strength proto-Silvio Berlusconi for more than a decade before entering parliament in 1996 – sitting on Townsville’s council from 1985, while all along boss of the city’s (at-the-time only, I’m assuming) television station.
