G’day
It’s 9:50pm Monday night here and I’m sending this while I still have
some Internet.

Trip has been good so far. Though, a bit rushed. We’ve had early
mornings every day, bar one!

Jakarta was good, and although rushed, got to meet up with ricky and jimmy.

Yogya started very badly with an awful night train from Jakarta
(arriving at 5am)! It only got worse as we were stuffed around by the
Ibis hotel. For one, they refused to believe that we’d pre-paid our
rooms & that rate incl breakfast. “Can u prove you paid? Did you check
your visa account statement?”
:-O

Yogya got off to a bad start, and as we only checked in at 12:30pm,
that day was wasted!
Today, we went to borobodur (Buddhist temple) and then to Prambanan Hindu shrines. They were both great. We took ajir’s old flatmate,
Bangkit, with us and his almost girlfriend

Tomorrow (Tues), we are on the 6 am flight to Makassar, Sulawesi. That means 4am breaky, and in a taxi quick smart to get to airport! Ugh.

We haven’t organised Sulawesi (tana Toraja) trip yet, so who knows
what will happen. I think we’re all sure that a night bus is out of
the question!!

Next weekend I’m off to Sumatra to visit Ajir. This may involve a 6hr
motorbike ride across Sumatra to see his family also!! My bum might
regret that decision.

Ciao. Gotta get to sleep!

Scotty.

“The tradition of noticing 26 January began early in the nineteenth century with Sydney almanacs referring to First Landing Day or Foundation Day. That was the day in 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip, commander of the First Fleet of eleven convict ships from Great Britain and the first governor of New South Wales, arrived at Sydney Cove. The raising of the Union Jack there symbolised British occupation of the eastern half of the continent claimed by Captain James Cook on 22 August in 1770.
Aboriginal Australians have continued to feel excluded from what has long been a British pioneering settler celebration, symbolised by the raising of the Union Jack and later the Australian flag which bears the British flag. Debate over the date and nature of Australia Day continues as the National Australia Day Council seeks to meet the challenge of making 26 January a day all Australians can accept and enjoy.”
(more history text/info by clicking here)

While today may well be the day that we ‘remember’ that the Brits invaded this land and started a long history of killing the black fellas, it is hopefully also a day of celebrating this nation as a whole; a nation full of all sorts of people.

H a p p y A u s t r a l i a D a y e v e r y o n e !

I was going to turn this into a podcast, but thought it was too hard.
So, have you heard the controversy over the Aussie KFC ad that has been labelled “racist” in America?

Watch the video below, and see what you think…

So there you have it. If you are watching the cricket (a game goes for 3-5 days!), and you’re stuck in the opposition crowd – get a bucket of KFC and everyone will be happy. “The KFC crowd pleaser”, right…? Simple enough?
well, not if you are American it seems. The land of the free (or should that be obsessed with division), equates everything to being racist. Chicken, black people = racist. Go figure! Honestly, this is what drives me mental. The constant need to make everything racist, to create division. Watch the clip below to see what these commentators have to say…

1) There is NO stereotype in Australia of black fellas and chicken.
2) the ad is featuring West Indies cricket fans, not Africaaaan Americaaans.
3) the white guy is not superior cause he’s sitting in the crowd; he is in the OPPOSITION supporters area.
4) if they knew anything about cricket, they’d know that the same thing is happening in the ‘Aussie area’ where the cheering, jumping, drunk, white yobbos are.
5) there have been KFC ads about NZ, Aussies, Poms (UK), Sth Africans, Indians and Pakistanis.
Y’all need to get an education, and pull your shelterred heads outta your own Yankee asses. Maybe catch a plane somewhere, OR, watch some TV/DVD on another country/culture. Outside of America, the whole world is not obsessed with creating division and labelling people/things to try to sound ‘PC’, but actually just creating more “difference”.

That’s my rant of 2010. Sadly, the people that read this blog are NOT the people that need to hear or think about it. Oh well.

I love this pic. For every annoying ‘P.C.’ greeting of “happy hooooolidayyyys” I get, I wanna scream. :-O
Thank goodness, that Australia has not yet adopted this annoying phrase. Even though we do steal most American phrases, I think this one is safe – for now. No, not because Aussies are at all religious, in fact Australia is very secular, but because “holidays” is what you do when you…. (need I say it?)…. go on a holiday!
e.g. to the coast, overseas, out back, etc. A holiday is a holiday, it is not a generic period of time, or religious festival, or national day/celebration.

So please, I beg you, if you are greeting anyone outside of the USA at this time of year, just say “Merry Christmas”. That is what the time of year is, and that is why we get the time off work. If you are so offended by it being a ‘Christian’ celebration, then move to Saudi Arabia – I am sure you will not have to deal with it there.

I might add here, that I have no issue with saying ‘happy Chinese new year’, ‘happy Diwali’, or ‘happy Ramadan’ etc. Even though I don’t celebrate them (or believe in them), doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

big THANX to everyone for birthday wishes today.
it’s been a sad, boring, & stressful day. (remembering my brother, work, and Uni assessment due tonight). And i haven’t even begun to think about turning FORTY! :-O

*breaking news* ~ V. moot emailed to Vienna at 12:04am. Yes, 4 minutes late. We just might be out of the competition. crap.

Thanks everyone for the early birthday wishes! My bones are creaking, and hair greying, as the day approaches.

I am trying to live like I am “in my 30s” for a few more days however. Oh, but the damn stress of Vis Moot is stopping that…
I got 21 emails this morning alone, from team members and Professor, on our Jurisdictional issue. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. And, I really don’t understand what they’re saying.

look for a podcast… on the other side of 40!

* the way I’m going, I’ll settle for just about any ‘worm’ – Indonesia/African, or not. :-O