Performances, prize giveaways and children’s entertainment are lined up for the morning, together with a cooking demonstration from celebrity chef Michael Moore. Mix 101.1FM’s DJs will also be hosting their radio show live from the venue.

He is also best known for his odd, accented English and walking to meetings – one will often find the Lord Mayor brisk-walking across the CBD to a meeting. (On a sidenote: Why not you tell us about your experiences bumping into The Man?)

Candidates for the position have already been lining up… But no one else seem to be as interesting as to be able to equal the line ‘John So is my Bro’.

Links:
ABC News – Melbourne Mayor Steps Down: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/01/2379026.htm
Wikipedia – John So: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_So

Is it not just the least bit terrifying how accidents like these are just waiting to happen?

And hearing people getting “car-doored” is a once-a-month thing here. My friend was the latest victim – he found the door of a pickup smack in front of him one second before he ran into it, flipped over the door, and landed on the asphalt of the tram tracks. The driver of the pickup was apologetic, but I don’t think he is entirely to blame – the roads ought to be better managed in the first place.

Maybe cyclists should be protesting nude outside Flinders Street Station next.

Port Melbourne / South Melbourne / St. Kilda / Brighton beach? Nope.

The Melbourne City Council is considering converting a stretch of the Yarra Bank (reportedly on the East-side of Swanston Street) into a temporary beach for an annual ‘Summer Party’ of sorts.

Really ambitious. But a tad bit congested, no?

ABC article: Plans for a city beach

Personally, it amuses me to watch cars getting speed-trapped when they try to beat the amber/red along the Victoria St./Swanston St. junction. Anyone also noticed that the Department of Justice is sited on that junction? (And its address is 444 Swanston St. – in most Chinese dialects, that is death repeated three times.)

Link to Cameras Cut Crashes website.

Let us consider this winter.
What is up with the state of everything recently? (And I am being rhetorical here.)

Qantas had its THIRD unscheduled, unplanned landing. Sure, so they have never had a good job keeping to schedule (“We are having issues with the in-flight entertainment systems…”), but this is just pushing it a step too far.

Starbucks is massively downsizing (not that I actually care). Other major organisations are cutting jobs and shutting down factories.

Truckies went on strike (how rare is that?).

Alleged racist attack on an Asian in the CBD. By Asians. More unreported, but observed violence involving Asians in the inner city.

ANOTHER body found in the Yarra River.

Optus fouling up (and you only knew just when you really needed to make that call).

Unemployment goes up. Traffic bogs down. Services clogs out. Premier blames the migrants. (What, did you expect something else?)

So, seriously – is this simply the winter blues, or are we having a really bad one?

The Age, today, painted a fresh new outlook for Parkville. According to a RACV analysis of police statistics and census numbers, Parkville came in at the Burglary Chart tops with a burglary rate of one in every 15 homes.

So, considering the calmness (boredom) and the activity (burglary), who would be wanting to live at Parkville? Something has to be wrong – current residents, feel free to correct me.

See The Age article here.

Until I looked out my window.

And realised all I could see… was… wait – I could not actually see anything.

On the right was the junction of Swanston Street and Queensberry Street. I swore there are buildings on the sides and somewhere up the front.

The adults just stare. They do not look too apologetic, which hints that they are part of the problem here – probably thinking, ‘More foreigners… they’ll go by; who cares?’ (Very mildly – I give them much benefit of the doubt here.) Unfortunately, this one happens to be a Metblogs author about to publicly disgrace you.

I do not think racism is a major issue in Melbourne. The Indian community seem to disagree, of course.

Recent communication with the media from the community describe Australia as a generally racist country. The Federation of Indian Students of Australia (FISA) made a statement earlier this month expressing their concern that ‘racist attacks were increasing’.

The Indian press now even places particular focus on Melbourne’s racist attitude, suggesting Melbourne to be the epicentre of Australia’s racism and warning students that it is no longer safe.

Gautum Gupta, from FISA, also offered a more rational analysis to The Age, and described the recent development of racism the result of the discomfort with an influx of Indians into the country, shifting the gaze away from the Chinese and on to the Indians.

Not everyone agrees that the recent incidences are racial, however, and the recent attacks involving Indian students can also be accounted to being race-neutral. The Australian Federation of International Students (AFIS), for example, accounts the attacks to bad timing and advises international students to take stronger safety precautions. Students are encouraged to seek AFIS for help shall they face difficulties during their stay in Australia.

AFIS is also organising a free event titled, ‘m²s² – Money, Migration, Safety, Study‘ on June 1st 2008, to address the most pressing issues facing current and fresh international students. The event will feature seminars from the Victorian Police, Department of Immigration and Citizenship and the Victorian Tenancy Union amongst other presenters, and is heavily supported by the City of Melbourne.

A great effort has been committed to recognise Melbourne’s increasing professional immigrant workforce and international student market.

No, I personally believe that Melbourne is not entirely racist. Tiny pockets of unfriendly people do exist (eg. trashy Port Melbourne family), but as a whole, we are generally doing very well – albeit milking our foreign students for all their worth.

To that particular family, I say: Up yours, bogans.