May 03 2012
Newcastle, Australia As my pal Rabih (over at SkyscraperCity) perfectly pointed out: “it’s been a busy 24 hours for bigots in Newcastle, Australia news rooms“. Speaking at a Hunter Valley Research Foundation function at state Parliament yesterday, Infrastructure NSW chairman and former Liberal premier Nick Greiner issued a blunt assessment of the central business district …
Mar 08 2012
New South Wales, Australia The Sutherland Shire Council has pulled the plug on its twice-yearly cleanup service after issues with broken-down trucks and reduced staff numbers left many streets inundated with unwanted junk: The council resolved at a meeting on Monday to replace the biannual rubbish pick-up with a twice-yearly ‘‘on-call’’ collection. [...] The change …
Jan 23 2012
The Lebanese Immigrant Statue (apparently there are 12 around the world) has been defaced in a park in Australia: A $60,000 Preston statue celebrating Lebanese immigration has been defaced with racist and sexually gratuitous graffiti. The statue, unveiled at Preston’s Ray Bramham Gardens in November, pays homage to the “thousands of Lebanese migrants that have …
Jul 17 2011
Fireworks are great fun to watch but, according to Rodger Dee, alderman at the Darwin City Council in Australia, when they get too loud, things end up like Beirut: One council member has compared cracker night to a “war zone”. [...] Alderman Rodger Dee told a meeting on Tuesday he was in favour of crackers. “But this …
Jun 27 2011
A follow-up on the previous post, I emailed the author of the article, Paul Millar, following antissa’s suggestion and here is a copy of the email I sent to him: Dear Paul, Thank you for shedding light on what “downtown Beirut” looks like – we Lebanese bloggers have found your latest article very fascinating. So much so that I’ve …
