“The Founding of Australia. By Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove, Jan. 26th 1788”, painted 1939, oil by Algernon Talmage R.A., State Library of New South Wales, [http://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110314617 ML 1222]
On January 26 this year, I am going to work. Thanks to the agreement (IBA) between my union and employer, workers have the option to forgo Australia Day as a holiday and choose another day off instead. The stipulation is that the chosen day must hold personal ‘significance.’ I found myself deliberating between Labour Day (not observed as a Public Holiday at my workplace) and commemorating February 18, 2007, when Melbourne Victory secured its first Championship.
Ultimately, I opted for Labour Day, finding the celebration of a significant achievement in the Labour movement more personally meaningful.
Australia Day, amidst discussions of being ‘woke’ and related debates, has become an annual recurrence, akin to debating the appropriateness of selling hot cross buns on New Year’s Day.
When I first arrived in Australia, Australia Day wasn’t a major affair but rather a day lost in the January School Holidays. It marked the end of the summery holiday period that commenced a few days before Christmas. People returned to work, and life resumed its normal rhythm, despite the lingering hot weather of February. The only memorable celebration was in 1988 during the Bicentennial Celebrations, as depicted in this cheerful and happy promotion
Celebration of a Nation
Watching this commercial again, everyone seemed genuinely happy. Despite including Aboriginal Australians, we now recognize that for many Indigenous people, the arrival of the first fleet was far from a joyous event.
While much has been said about the Aboriginal perspective on Australia Day (or Invasion Day), I’m reflecting on my own view of the day. Celebrating the founding of Australia on the day when the British established a penal colony in NSW feels somewhat peculiar. National days worldwide typically mark positive, unifying events.
Unfortunately, Australia Day has devolved into a cultural battleground, with right-wing commentators decrying any perceived ‘left-wing wokeness.’
While I understand the media’s pursuit of ratings through outrage, the issue arises when the alternative Prime Minister joins the fray, hoping to score votes. This insidious influence mirrors strategies from the Trump era in the USA, something Australia doesn’t truly need. But that, indeed, is another story.
One of the few Italian novels that has been successful in being known in the world of English speaking literature is ‘The Leopard’ or in Italian ‘Il Gattopardo’. The novel is set in the 1860s and tells the story of the decline of the Sicilian aristocracy during the period of Italian unification. The protagonist, Prince Fabrizio Salina, is a member of the old aristocracy and represents a way of life that is disappearing.
In recent months the A-League has given me a few ‘Gattopardo’ feelings. A slow decline that feels inexorable. The future of the A-League is uncertain, and many fans are disenchanted with the competition.
Perhaps the seeds of this apparent decline were already embedded in the commercial origins of the league and the lack of deep-rooted traditions that other Australian codes enjoy. The league was created in boardrooms, not in a pub or a meeting room with kindred enthusiastic spirits creating a team from the community. Fans invested emotional capital following the creation of new teams, but this bond was weakened when the league made decisions that demonstrated the illusion of belonging to the team or the competition. For example, selling the unique aspect of different cities hosting the Grand Final to Sydney for cash broke the bond between many fans and the A-League.
Furthermore, the A-League has struggled to compete with other codes for media attention, attendances, and ratings. Although football fans can criticize the imperialist hegemonic behavior of the AFL, the reality is that these two codes have deep-rooted traditions in the Australian sporting consciousness, and this is difficult to overcome. Foxtel found that football was no longer worth its investment and moved on to more “profitable” sports. The current broadcaster, Paramount+, doesn’t think there is much gain in investing more in the A-League. Even SBS, which championed football in the past, relegated the A-League to the Viceland channel when the ratings were not sufficient to show it on the main channel.
Fans started following A-League teams because they represented the cities they lived in, and because they believed in the sport of Association Football. However, without the deep-rooted traditions of other codes, the bonds fans have with A-League teams are not as strong and are often dependent on how the team makes them feel rather than the idea of the team belonging to them and their family and histories. Once the team stops being “fun,” once fans have other priorities such as having families, the bond weakens or breaks. If there are decisions that demonstrate that any emotional feeling of belonging to the team or the competition is ultimately an illusion, then disenchantment, apathy, and alienation occur. There is no “I hate this, but being a fan of ‘team x’ has been part of our family” connection. The A-League fan just moves away.
I really hope that the A-League can go through this period and survive. But while the commercial origins of the league, the lack of deep-rooted traditions, and the struggle to compete with other codes for media attention, attendances, and ratings have all contributed to this, the main issue is that the decision of moving the Grand Finals to Sydney showed to many fans that any sense of belonging to their teams or the competition was just an illusion. This is a betrayal that will be difficult to heal.
Juan Arciniegas – Managing Director at 777 Partners, Josh Wander -Managing Partner/Co-Founder at 777 and Andres Blazquez who has become the 777 representative at Genoa FC with a ‘777’ Genoa shirt.
Doom and gloom among Melbourne Victory fans. And why not? When the World Cup finished we were all on top of the world. A great Socceroo campaign and ready to go. Then disaster happened. The APL announced the grand finals for Sydney thing, and thugs exploited the discontent to get their jollies by invading the pitch and assaulting a player, causing a series of penalties and bans. Then we find out that Melbourne Victory is in a very precarious financial position. Talk about when it rains it pours.
While members and fans were told that everything was hunky dory it is evident now that it wasn’t for some time. When 777 Partners got involved in Melbourne Victory there was hardly a murmur among the fan base. It was seen as a good thing especially after the sad passing of club director and major shareholder, Mario Biasin. The difference of what it was believed to have happened with the 777 involvement is reflected in the first paragraphs of two articles both co-written by Vince Rugari in the Channel 9 press. The first one written on 5/10/2022 stating “Melbourne Victory have secured their financial future after the death of former director Mario Biasin, with an American private investment firm adding the A-Leagues club to its growing network of teams across Europe and South America.” And the second written on 1/1/2023 stating “Melbourne Victory lost $6.7 million and was in deep financial trouble just months before it struck a deal that could hand control of the club to a US private equity investor within five years.”
What really alarmed fans was what that second article outlined: “The private equity investor was given the option to own up to 70 per cent of the club within five years through an investment of up to $30 million, the documents show. After four or five years, 777 Partners also had the right to walk away from Victory and be repaid the $30 million at a compounding interest rate of 10 per cent a year. The deal would also give it a preferential position over existing shareholders if Victory was liquidated.”
Basically, to be blunt, 777 Partners have Melbourne Victory by the short and curlies.
777 Partners on a soccer spending spree
As an Italian born the links between Melbourne Victory, 777 and Genoa pricked my interest.
One thing that is noticeable is that 777 went hard in getting involved with football clubs worldwide last year. In just a few months it either got partial or total control of very famous teams.
777 Partners has already been present in European football since 2018, when it took over 6% of Sevilla. However last year they went for the kill wanting to take over the club. Shareholders of the club blocked plans by 777 to oust its board and its Chairman Jose Castro and all board members but failed to line up the support needed at a public meeting of shareholders.
In March 2022, 777 Partners acquired full ownership of Belgian top-flight soccer club Standard Liège
In November 2022 it acquired a 64.7% controlling stake in Bundesliga club Hertha Berlin, a deal which could potentially be largest investment from a foreign company in a German soccer club.
In February 2022 it acquited a 70% stake in Brazilian soccer club Vasco de Gama
The reason behind for this sudden acquisition spree is unknown. However, some business analysts say this is related to 777 Partners’ having the airline sector is at the center of their strategy. It is no coincidence that the headquarters are on the nineteenth floor of 66 Brickell, a skyscraper in Miami famous for being the home of the airlines. Recently, the fund purchased 24 Boeing 737-8 Max (with another 60 booked), with the strategy of leasing the aircraft to airlines, with particular attention to those aiming for low cost.
Andalusia and Seville are tourist destinations par excellence, while in Genoa the focus will be on developing the Cristoforo Colombo airport, with the ambition of making it the gateway for those comes from the Atlantic. And Melbourne Victory? The shirt sponsor of the team is Bonza airlines. A new low cost budget airline funded and backed by 777 Partners. The airline hoped to have planes in the sky, but the company’s take-off date is unclear as it is still navigating regulatory approvals with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to obtain its Air Operator’s Certificate.
Is 777 there for the money, not for the football?
One thing is certain. 777 Partners is not a charity. If the Melbourne Victory deal goes pear shape they’d be out of there as quickly as a plane out of Canberra on a Friday night before a long weekend. But they are not totally disinterested in football. In Genoa as their ‘football man’ they installed the Argentinian Gustavo Mascardi, who, according to the Gazzetta dello Sport discovered a few talents. The last was Paulo Dybala, but going back in time there are many other excellent names, from Montero to Crespo, Veron, Asprilla, Salas, Cordoba and Burdisso: the best of South America brought to Italy.
The future of Melbourne Victory
There is plenty of doom and gloom among Melbourne Victory supporters at the moment which is not surprising. How 777 will behave towards the Victory will determine its survival. If they are in for the quick buck and a liquidation under extremely generous terms then it is doomed. But if, how it seems to be overseas, they want a successful team to work in tandem with their aviation interests then perhaps 777 may be the unlikely saviour out of this mess.
Melbourne Victory is no North Queensland Fury or Gold Coast United. It is an A-League foundation club which has been very successful and has one of the biggest (and in certain years the biggest) membership and fans in the whole competition. Its demise would hit hard at the A-League’s image and reputation.
Looking the buying strategy of 777 Partners they don’t want to be just a minor shareholder but be the owner of the joint (hence the Seville dispute). The way Melbourne Victory is at the moment they can name the date of when the current club management is going to be ousted. In the scheme of things 777 bought Vasco de Gama for USD $138 million, Genoa for 150 million Euros I guess buying Hertha Berlin wouldn’t have been cheap. Up to 30 AUD millions for Victory is relatively a minor investment. Victory may survive. If it will remain the same team as it is now, or whether it may have a Melbourne Hearts – Melbourne City type of transformation is yet to be seen.
The decision by the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) to sell the grand final hosting rights of the A-League Men, A-League Women and E-League to Destination NSW thus playing the grand finals in Sydney for the next three years caused an absolute shit storm among football fans. But the outrage is not only because of the location of a grand final. It goes deep in the issues that Australian Association Football has faced for decades.
“If you’re not living in Sydney, you’re really just camping out.”
Once the dictum that “If you’re not living in Sydney, you’re really just camping out.” was erroneously attributed to Paul Keating. But for many A League fans (especially those not from Sydney) it seems this might have been said by the APL when it decided to assign the next three A-Leagues grand finals to Sydney.
The reaction was overwhelmingly negative, in some cases visceral. Reading twitter some who are not into Australian soccer, but in other codes/sport were surprised by the reaction. The issue here is that assigning the grand final to Sydney is not the only issue. It is yet another demonstration of the divergence of the A League and its fans.
Building affinity to an entity
When the A-League was created from the ashes of the NSL, most teams were created brand new. Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC were teams which had no links. The A League was created, and soccer fans were asked, if they supported the code, to come and support them.
Unlike NSL teams, these brand new entities had no emotional connections apart from being connected to the city where potential fans lived or grew up. But fans did arrive and started supporting these new teams. These fans affiliated with them as representing their city, but the emotional connection was also created by the establishment of organised supporters group. Chanting, choreography, flags and banners and marching and travelling together created that bond that could transcend just supporting a team and this took effort and a lot of emotional involvement among fans. And why? Because the underlying common factor was that these fans wanted to create the type of support seen around the world. Through supporting their A-League team they wanted to create and share the same excitement seen in cities like Rome or Buenos Aires.
The curse of not being a ‘football nation’
It always appear to me that at the root of most of the problems that face Australian soccer originate from one thing: That Association Football is not the main code and has to compete with the behemoths of the AFL and NRL.
Active fans have been constantly under attack over the years because of a mainstream sporting and police culture that repeatedly fails to understand that supporting an Association Football team is not the same as a cheer squad in the AFL or whatever they have in the NRL. It’s loud, unified and yes intimidating because it has to be. This doesn’t mean that the young people who do this at the ground are going to tip into a riot. Active fans are often featured in promotions, but when the media got stuck into fans for often just misdemeanors and said why the soccer fans are like AFL/NRL ones, those who control football, either at national or club level instead of defending the fans scuttled scared and muttered ‘it will not happen again’ and impose even more restrictions on the fans where now the atmosphere – which was hailed as one of the big differences in sport experience on Australia – is a shade of what it used to be. But more importantly many fans felt a sense of betrayal. After all they were who invested a huge emotional capital in establishing an emotional attachment to what is ultimately an artificial creation, they chanted, jumped, created banners and travelled interstate and this how they got treated.
The other curse of not being the main code and competing against bigger and codes that attracts more attention is that those running the A-League feel that somehow hey need to follow what they do. Having ‘more behaved’ crowds is an example, but the other is what has happened with this grand final fiasco. Other codes have their Grand Final in one city, so why not the A-League? But also the desire by football management to ‘match’ the AFL and NRL or even surpassing them. It’s a futile exercise. Maybe with James Johnson as an exception (so far) it is surprising how soccer senior administration think that copying the other two main codes is the key to success, when in fact is the uniqueness of football that is its greatest selling asset.
As the failure of being defended by the football organisations when unjustly attacked in the media, this Grand Final decision out of the blue is yet another demonstration they don’t really count. They can be used at props to make videos look good, but they are used as another marketing tool. No wonder there are plans of walkouts or boycotts. It’s the only weapon active fans have. So the head honchos want the atmosphere to sell their ‘product’? Well let’s see how you go without the fans.
Is this serious?
Despite all the travails, crowds going up and down and recently COVID, the A-League has survived, but some fear this may be the last straw. Even senior journalist are fearing the future of the competition
Always thought the ‘A-League is dead’ chat was OTT, dramatic, people wanting it to fail. Never imagined they’d make a decision this poor, though, and persist with it through this sort of reaction. Can’t see the comp surviving the damage, which hasn’t even really started yet.
As I have explained before fans invested a lot of emotional capital in following team which was created relatively recently. This is where traditional teams like South Melbourne or Sydney United who were part of the NSL and now play in the states’ based NPL have an advantage, as they have had the time to create those strong connection that go through generations, and also (something that was seen as a minus when the A-League was formed) they have been created through a community (whether Italian, Greek or Croatian) that creates strong bonds.
Samantha Lewis wrote an article asking whether this is the A-League “European Super League” moment.
this feels like the #ALeagues own "European Super League" moment. so what can – or should – be done about it?
It will all depend on how strong those bonds A-League fans have established with their teams are. In Europe – as with those traditional teams in Australia that I mentioned above – fans also have associated attachments of generations and long traditions that most A-League teams don’t have. It remain to be seen if the bonds attaching A-League teams to their fans are strong enough to withstand this latest betrayal.
I find threads on twitter about how people experienced their COVID infection a bit boring. Yes there is the cough then the headache etc. etc. Some gets it worse than others I guess that’s no different than other infections I guess.
One of the things that irritate me is when people with agendas use their own experience and project it. From those who say ‘It was like a cold…what people are afraid of’..to “It was the worse experience of my life fuck the mild, it wasn’t mild at all’. I am no expert but I suspect that our genetics, vaccine situations etc. determine how a virus will affect us. Is a bit like the vaccine. For some it knocks them out for a day or so while for others hardly anything. So this is my experience. It doesn’t mean that my body is better or worse, weaker of stronger, is what it is.
I had much worse (boomer alert)
Being old means that as a child I went through a series of childhood infections because there weren’t vaccines then. So I did measles, mumps, and chickenpox. I think I also think I had rubella (my sister had it). I also remember I had something that involved lots of pain in my ear and fever up to the high 30’s
I also contracted the Hong Kong Flu in 1968 when I was 7. And that was also a pandemic. I remember my ears whistling because of the fever. The last flu I remember catching was in 1983 where I was almost passing out when I had to get out of bed.
I also had worse symptoms for bog standard colds.
Tiredness and fever
With Omicron my nose remained normal, no dripping etc. I also had no headache. The two main symptoms were the ‘spicy cough’ and feeling fatigued after a routine task (such as hanging out the washing) and a bit of fever (the highest it got was 38.8)
Can’t smell my farts or anyone else’s
The thing about having the whole household with COVID is that we have we have all lost the capacity to smell farts. Our own and each other. On one hand that a same (about smelling mine) but also I am now able to let fluffy off the chain with happy abandon instead of using the ‘deep seat technique’ or other methods when watching TV. Of course it’s the same for other members of my family but no smell no tell.
Things taste different
I didn’t lose any sense of taste, but I gave noticed a change. One thing is that I had a slight bitter taste in my mouth all the time. Then the bitter taste was enhanced in certain things, for instance both tea and coffee tasted much more bitter. At the height of the symptoms I had to abandon a cup of tea it was so bitter. Also the level of sweetness decreased. I am happy to report that my sense of taste is returning to normality.
So there you have it. I did have mild symptoms and attribute that to the fact that I had my two Astra Zeneca shots and a booster on Christmas’ Eve. The drive all the way to South Morang was worth it. Try to get your third dose if you haven’t already ASAP!
Article 20 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.”
Of course, as yesterday’s demonstration was not something I agreed with I wasn’t there. The information I got was from Twitter, which is a very unreliable.
Twitter is a very binary way of discussing opinion or ideas, and the opinions on the Victorian Premier is probably one of the best examples. For the most part there is the ‘IStandByDan’ camp which believes Dan Andrews is fantastic and its supporters attribute to him almost a deity standard, or ‘SackDan’ where the Premier is evil incarnate and an Aussie version of Augusto Pinochet.
Yes, you can disagree or criticise Dan Andrews and still want him as a Premier
Something happened somewhere when being critical of a political party or figure meant you were on the opposite side or a traitor. I attribute this to two factors. One is the advent of social media where people started getting information within their own bubbles, and in the Anglosphere of the UK, Australia and the USA the very partisan anti left campaign from the Murdoch media.
Let me hasten to add that I have no issue with Murdoch running this line. He owns the papers and TV stations and he can do what he likes. However this has tainted the political discussion in the sense that non biased media has been influenced by Murdoch’s media narratives and this is a particular problem in Australia where in many cases Murdoch’ media is all there is.
This has polarised the debate no end. Even a mild criticism of a Labor figure puts you from any social media lefty in the anti-ALP pro Murdoch camp.
I remember in the 80’s and 90’s when I was a member of the ALP that party members and supporters would be quite critical of the Hawke/Keating governments and here in Victoria of the Cain government. This was seen as part and parcel of the democratic process.
Personally I think that the Andrews Government mishandled the Hotel Quarantine in March 2020 which was a major cause of the second wave and subsequent lockdowns in that year.
And after reading opinions from lawyers that know much more about the law than me. Such as William Partlett Associate Professor, The University of Melbourne or from a group of eminent QCs I can see that there are issues with the Bill, and people have every right to be concerned and demonstrate against it.
The problem with open demonstrations. You get everything
One thing that it must be kept in mind is that open demonstrations will attract all types of people. And this is especially the case in a demonstration like the one yesterday. Probably the majority wanted to peacefully demonstrate against the Bill. But then there were people who had a visceral hate towards Andrews. Or people who are against mandates. I remember when I attended left causes demonstrations that the media, or people against the cause would pick up someone with an extreme view, or someone who wanted to be violent. It is important that we on the left don’t make the same mistake. A couple of idiots with a prop with nooses is not an indication of what the majority of people there may be feeling. Apparently one of the speakers started chanting “hang Dan Andrews” and no one followed him and went back to the “sack Dan Andrews’ chant.
Overall I agree with what Paul Zauch tweeted to me yesterday during an exchange
I’m sure there are anti-vaxers, probably some Q supporters & maybe one or two looking to overthrow the single world government headed by shape shifting lizards but that said, I feel the majority are concerned about the new bill. The numbers seem too large to suggest otherwise.
One of the claims that is repeatedly repeated by those against the proposed the proposed bill is that it would introduce a dictatorship style government in Victoria. There hasn’t been a dictatorship past and present that hasn’t been compared to Victoria by those who are against Dan Andrews. North Korea, China, Nazi Germany and the latest is from Peta Credlin about a ‘Latin American dictatorship’. This stuff is patently absurd and I think it shows a lack of historical knowledge. We don’t have the Sturmabteilung, to intimidate his political opponents with violence or Victorians been prevented from accessing the internet or international mobile phone services or people being thrown alive from planes. There is no Enabling Act of 1933. Emergency powers enacted during the pandemic were part of legislation passed through a parliamentary process. And even the current bill is likely to be amended in the Legislative Council – as it should – showing that the democratic system where the Legislative Council acts as the house of review is working as intended. Dan Andrews will go to the polls and the people of Victoria will decide whether they want him back or want the Opposition to form government
And on a related matter on this, while as I said before there are issues with the Bill that need to be addressed the misinformation about the Bill abounds such as this one below
Unless Dan declares a pandemic and suspends the election. Read the bill.
When it only needs a bit of searching to find out this is not true.
As the Vic. govt prepared to introduce new pandemic laws, claims appeared that the bill would allow the Premier to declare a pandemic without reason, or force “permanent lockdowns”.
While I do agree that most people yesterday were law abiding citizens expressing their democratic right to protest against a proposed bill in parliament there are also more sinister undercurrents.
The organised far right have been a major factor in these rallies against vaccine mandates etc. It has been proven that far right groups communicate through the encrypted messaging app Telegram and one of the largest channels behind the anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne is called “Melbourne Freedom Rally”.
So the risk here is that a legitimate grievance or disagreement can be used by far rights groups to piggy back and embolden their message. This is evident in some of the participants speeches, and some of the chants and some of the signs.
While, as I said before, this maybe a minority in yesterday’s protest, it is a factor that can’t and shouldn’t be ignored.
The issue is that so far those that agree with the Government measures are not going to gather in mass and demonstrate because it would go against the idea of gathering in large groups when there is COVID in the community.
However, the ‘Campaign Against Racism & Fascism‘ has organised a demonstration next week. Despite being a group that comes from a political party much more on the left that I am, I agree with their slogan: ‘Pro-Vax, Pro-Union, Anti-Fascist’. I am definitely pro vax, definitely pro union, and I was born in the country that invented fascism (fascism is an Italian word) that suffered and struggled to get rid of it. I grew up in Italy where anyone who upheld democratic values was an anti-fascist, including Catholics who later formed the Christian Democrats.
However it seems that the demonstration is turning from a Pro-Vax, Pro-Health measures one into a more anti-fascist one. Again as I said before the vast majority of people would be ‘anti-fascist’, however I am wary joining a demonstration that is not focused on the issues of vaccination and health, and maybe could have the potential for confrontation, considering there will be another anti-Bill/mandate protest in another part of the CBD.
It will be alright in the long run
The pandemic has created an extraordinary situation that have seen political shifts unknown in this living memory. But Australia has been there before. Conscription in the first world war. The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-20. The rise of the National Guard in the 30s. The Communist referendum in the 50’s. And everytime after the crisis subsided the nation was able to re-establish it’s natural dynamic equilibrium. And I expect to be so again. Every crisis does change each one of us and the nation as a whole. How this pandemic has done so it too early to tell. It will be up to historians in the next few decades to determine.
Following the Italian national team is for me a relaxing experience. Of course I want them to win. But if they win or lose does not carry much of an emotional load. As an Italian born I am happy the Azzurri are in the final of the Euros. But not having Optus I am not going to wake up and brave the cold to watch the game live somewhere. Will probably listen to the final stages on the the Italian radio on the web. I am not nervous or anything like that. And won’t be upset if Italy doesn’t win. While this would be a totally different story with the Australian national team. Why is that?
Italy, football and me. ‘It’s complicated’
My relationship with football, especially in the Italian context is as Facebook would say ‘complicated’. When I was a child in Italy I had conflicting emotions about it. It was everywhere (like it is now) it was a major source of conversation among children and adults alike. My father (like his father) was a life member of AC Milan. He would recount tales of when as a young men he would travel with the team in away games and help shovel snow on the pitch before the game.
I was hopeless at it. I was a fat child with no sporting prowess whatsoever. I do remember playing in the courtyard below when I was a young child of 6 or 7, but when it became more serious and kids actually wanted to win, rather than have fun I stopped going, stayed in my bedroom and listened to the children below acting out their competitive streak.
Still, football had an important part in my life. Especially in relating with my father. I still remember when he took me two or three times at San Siro which I still remember as one of the best things in my childhood. Or listening to ‘Il Calcio minuto per minuto’ when Milan was beaten in the last match of the season by its hoodoo team Verona to lose the scudetto. My father almost threw the transistor through the window.
Or watching that amazing Germany Italy match at the 1970 World Cup with a portable black and white TV in front of a caravan during a summer holiday.
Coming to Australia
Instead I feel much more anxious with a Socceroo match. Why? Probably because football had a significance to me and tied me to family and my childhood, I used it as a link. When I go to a football match I somehow feel a connection to my late father and to those moments in San Siro or listening to the radio (I still love listening to football on the radio, whether from Italy of in Australia). And that connection is created by a sport which is often belittled in this country. And the National Team somehow signify that link.
I know that football in Italy whether it wins or loses in the EURO final will always be passionately followed by the population. Italy didn’t qualify for the World Cup and just a few years later in the the EURO final. This is not the situation in Australia. I came to Australia in 1974 and by the time I got interested in the Socceroos qualification in 1982 I didn’t realise that I had to go through five agonising qualification failures. When Italy fails qualifying for a World Cup there is general astonishment and sadness. In Australia football fans had to suffer taunting from other Australians ‘sport fans’.
So in bocca al lupo Italy. But when September comes and the Socceroos are playing the first match is when the butterflies will start.
There is no surprise that COVID is the main topic of conversation on Twitter at least. It’s not a nice place. We have some Victorians being arseholes with their schadenfreude about Sydney having an outbreak.
Just because there were some NSW people being arseholes to us Victorians when we were in the midst of our peak last year it doesn’t mean that the same level of idiocy. Victorians, and Melbournians especially copped plenty last year. This was amplified by commentators/journalists who gave a serve to the Victorian government. I commented on this last year and Tom Cowie describes best in his article:
Meanwhile, up in Sydney, a city which appeared to believe it would never have to shut down like Melbourne, the entire metropolitan area is poised to grind to a halt due to a growing COVID-19 outbreak.
Victorians have copped plenty from interstate over our handling of the pandemic, an experience that is reflected in the different views on what is unfolding in NSW.
One thing I’ve noticed on twitter is that a few Sydney people were – with very good reason – peeved (or worse) at the petty comments coming from Melbourne.
I think Sydney people may not have realised that there were quite a few Sydney people on social media taunting Melbourne when Victorian Health put up the increasing numbers of infected people and those who didn’t make it last year with their ‘Golden Standards’ GIFs and the like. Again. It doesn’t mean that Victorians should retaliate at that level, but it is understandable that some sort of resentment was built up. Especially when Melbourne was locked up with no end in sight. Which brings me to..
THAT Jon Faine article
I sincerely hope no one gets sick and no one dies, but gee their two-week lockdown will prick their self-righteous balloon and put an end to the condescending nonsense that has been raining down on Victorians for months, writes Jon Faine | OPINION https://t.co/Ef74iLIk8B
Ex ABC Melbourne broadcaster Jon Faine wrote an article that raised a few heckles, especially in NSW.
The quote in the tweet I don’t think reflected the overall tone of the article. Faine is an humanist atheist, but there is a bit of being in a confessional there. “Forgive Me Father For I Have Sinned” in having some thoughts that are nasty but can’t help being in your head. I had them myself. Faine goes through those and outlines them and then realises that they are wrong. Perhaps more than a confessional is Gestalt psychology. Our whole being that is much greater than the parts that make up the individual. Our ‘bad thoughts’ are part of us. Recognise them and reject them.
Australia Felix….Heremiticus
In 1836 the Thomas Mitchell dubbed the lush pasture in parts of western Victoria he explored ‘Australia Felix’. (Implications of him being a PR man ‘selling’ Australia to the British and the consequent dispossession of the original inhabitants is something that needs to be noted here). But I would add another latin adjective ‘ heremiticus ‘ remote and secluded.
If there is one thing that Australians like are borders. And it seems like that this is across the political divide. From what I have observed on social media some people who railed against both the Liberal and Labor parties for border restrictions against asylum seekers are quite happy to advocate to slam their state borders to fellow Australians when there are a few COVID cases appearing. But worse is supporting Australians coming home. I can see how this can be dressed up by blaming Scott Morrison for not building purpose built quarantine stations or botching the vaccination, but the lack of empathy in some of the comments is not too far away from those right wingers who are happy thatwe have closed our borders to asylum seekers in the not too distant past.
People who can’t see their families are suffering out there. One example is Jill Stark who regularly tweets about her feelings of being prevented seeing her family in Scotland and how that affects her mental health.
I’m tired of outbreaks. I’m tired of border closures. I’m tired of armchair experts and the tedious blame game. I’m tired of not being able to plan a single thing and living in a state of constant alert. I’m tired of missing my family. I’m tired of being tired. Just so over it.😴
I’ve set myself a deadline of the end of the year. If there is no clear roadmap to international borders opening by then I will have to make plans to leave Australia permanently. I can’t be separated from my family much longer. How many others are wrestling with these decisions?
But we know from the way this country treats asylum seekers that locking people out and turning Australia into an island fortress is a vote winner. Both major parties are beholden to this insular, cold-hearted, myopic brand of nationalism. You get what you vote for.
Now for something different. Ange Postecoglou. From feather duster to rooster
Fortunately football is something I can turn to to get a break from all the COVID stuff. One of the biggest events in the last few weeks was the appointment of Ange Postecoglou to Celtic. Of course it’s a great appointment for an Australian coach,and I think most football people in Australia wants him to succeed. Maybe because of Ange, but also because there is a bit of the reputation of Australian football riding on this. When Postecoglou was appointed there was quite a bit of ‘What an Australian would know about football?’ So if he fails it would confirm this prejudice and probably would be bad news for any future Australian that would like to coach in Europe.
Social media is waxing lyrical about Ange and how good he’s going to be for Celtic. But I remember a time when Ange’s name was riled as the coach of the Socceroos. When in 2016 and 2017 Australia was having draws with Thailand and struggling against other Asian teams. The infamous ‘three at the back’ comments and plenty of commentators were advocating his sacking.
To be fair it's a mess and the players think we are against them ! Who told them that I wonder ! Toxic crap for me !
I am no football expert but Ange’s track record is that he’s done very well with teams he can coach day in day out where he can adopt his way of playing. I really hope he does well at Celtic.
Melbourne Victory fans boo and let their feelings known to the players
I my 20s I decided to get into personal growth and part of that was going to group therapy. At one time a participant of the group was a middle aged man. He was going trough a rough patch because his wife left him. Apart from the breakdown of the relationship, what really hurt him was that he had no inkling that his wife was going to leave. It came totally out of the blue and adding to this was that she planned to leave for some time and when she told him she already had a place to stay and all the stuff moved – he had no idea.
One of the clues that the psychologist took was that this man thought that the relationship actually got better because they stopped arguing. The psychologist said to him that when his wife stopped arguing that’s when the relationship was over.
The psychologist went on to say that when a couple argue (or any two people in any kind of relationship) that means that there still involvement. That is the parties care enough to argue. It is not the best communication, but at least is communication. When one of the parties stops caring then it is decided that it is not worth arguing. The other person may be as well be a stranger. There is no desire for any emotional involvement.
Relationship are not only with other human beings. We have relationships with all sorts of things, our work, our house, our car etc.
And of course we have a relationship with a sport team we follow. Otherwise how irrational would be to get excited, happy or sad, euphoric or gutted because of 10 men running on grass trying to kick or head a ball in a wooden structure with a net behind it.
The team we follow needs to have some meaning. It could be because it represents the city we were born or live or our family lived or were born there. It could be because we have formed a social network around it. It could be because we started following it as children on TV and we became attached to it.
So while I do agree that calling players names is unwarranted, I think that a fan that comes to games and take the trouble to boo the team and perhaps even worse, is a better fan than those who say on social media that they stopped caring for the team and stopped going to the games.
The relationship here is important and goes to the heart of what A League teams represent. Do fans follow a team because it has meaning for them in some ways, or purely to entertain? In the former the fan feels some sort of belonging to a team. They want to help the team by being there, by supporting the team in some way. So the relationship is outwards. In the latter, the fan wants to be entertained and feel good. So it’s no wonder if a team loses every week, and badly that these fans stop supporting the team. They support a team to feel good, not bad. The relationship is inwards.
And this is the argument some of the supporters of community teams throw against A-League teams by describing them as just franchises. Concocted teams formed without any community underpinning. And they do have a point. Teams such as South Melbourne, Melbourne Knights etc. may be predominantly based on one community group, but it is a community which has rich emotional links attached to them, something A-League teams do not have as much.
So, perhaps we can see anger against the team as a good sign. The empty chairs and the non membership renewals are the things that Melbourne Victory needs to be worried about.
I am not a good troller in social media. But when I heard that Craig Kelly’s Facebook sites was one which had the highest ratings I had to go in there and give a big ‘don’t recommend’ and a negative comment.
Didn’t get many negative replies (seen in screenshot above, I could have been a smart arse with Daniel and asked him who the hell miss information was and whether she has met her). But one thing that I did notice in the replies is that what Kelly was doing was putting up peer-reviewed articles, and they were therefore scientifically accurate. As an academic librarian this was a challenge. Is this true? I Craig Kelly after all putting up papers that are ignored because they go against the dominant paradigm?
I always talk to students all the time about evaluating information. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) has a very good infographic about identifying fake news
The thing is that when some say ‘peer reviewed’ there needs to be more examination of the documents themselves. So let’s take the latest issue that Craig Kelly has taken on. Invermectin.
He cites opinions from doctors from the MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF RIO GRANDE do NORTE. Not a peer reviewed study. Just opinion from some doctors. I found that a study did find that this drug ‘could an important role in reducing Covid-19 deaths. This article was published in the Rio Times in January 22 and it specifically states that is not yet Peer reviewed.
Then he cites these studies from an article in infobae, a news website that was created in Argentina in 2002 by businessman Daniel Hada. This article is from ”Alliance for Critical Care of COVID-19 on the Frontline’ I searched for this study on Google Scholar unsuccessfully. But I followed the link and got me here https://www.researchgate.net/…/348230894_Ivermectin…. That is not a peer reviewed article. It’s a report from ‘The evidence-based medicine Consultancy Ltd.’ I searched for the authors on Google Scholar and while they were there, theat article was not part of their list.
When I searched Google Scholar for anything on Invermectin I always came back to a study done by Monash University scientists that found ivermectin inhibited the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in a laboratory setting – which is not the same as testing the drug on humans or animals.https://www.sciencedirect.com/…/pii/S0166354220302011.(article about it from Monash here https://www.monash.edu/…/Lab-experiments-show-anti…) Ivermectin is a vetenerary drug and here it is stated NOT self-medicate with Ivermectin and do NOT use Ivermectin intended for animals. The article from Monash also states that (a) whilst shown to be effective in the lab environment, Ivermectin cannot be used in humans for COVID-19 until further testing and clinical trials have been completed to establish the effectiveness of the drug at levels safe for human dosing. (b) that the potential use of Ivermectin to combat COVID-19 remains unproven, and depends on pre-clinical testing and clinical trials to progress the work.
And here lies the irresponsibility of Craig Kelly (and others of his ilk). He doesn’t read the small print. He just pick and chooses the bits that fits his ideology. And the irresponsibility is that people may will start buying up ivermectin out of desperation. As an example, despite a majority of evidence showing hydroxychloroquine is not an effective COVID-19 treatment, there was a rush on that drug earlier this year in the USA after President Donald Trump called it a cure. That depleted supply for those who needed the medication to treat lupus and other conditions. In March, an Arizona couple attempted to self-medicate and took chloroquine phosphate, an additive used to clean fish tanks that is also an ingredient in hydroxychloroquine. The woman became gravely ill and the man died.
So consider the sources, read beyond, check the author and see if there are any supporting sources.
The accidental Australian 