Victoria is a great state to live in. We have Melbourne, the most European city outside of Europe. The cultural heartbeat of Australia. We have hosted the Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games and surely we’d have to be the centre of the Australian football universe if the World Cup came down under. We have an inept government (who doesn’t???) riding the coattails of the previous government’s success and foresight. And now, we have a great idea.

For decades, Melbourne’s west has been a breeding ground for crime. Sneered upon by those on the other side of the shipping ports in their mansions of affluence. Drugs have been a particularly sore spot when it comes to life in the west. In two days time, Project Reduction will begin in the City of Maribyrnong, a 31 sq kilometer area encompassing nine suburbs. The aim of Project Reduction is to make this area a drug-free zone. So how do you achieve that? Easy.

The idea is to not allow known or convicted drug dealers and addicts into the area unless they have business (that one’s funny in itself) or relatives in the area. Actually, that sounds like my passport idea for people from the outer suburbs to come into the inner suburbs. But back to the (sur)real world, if known addicts/convicted drug criminals do enter the area without a valid reason, they face possible jail time. But there seems to be a catch: this project is being aimed at offenders who are not residents of the area. So I guess that means local drug dealers are cool to go about their daily business, right?

So where do we think all the dealers and addicts will go? Perhaps they’ll just give away their heinous lifestyle because they can no longer score in such a cool location. Or perhaps they’ll just go away so we can comfortably enjoy our lattes on a Saturday morning. Even better, how about we just send them to another state (there’s plenty of room in the outback and they’d fit right in with all the chromers), or even another country. Maybe we could start a campaign called ‘Adopt a Smackie’?

Fact of the matter is this: there will always be a drug problem in any city if it is not tackled head on with continued rehabilitation services. Decriminalisation will never be the answer, nor will tolerance of the problem through safe ’shooting galleries’. Project Reduction will only serve to shift Melbourne’s drug problem into other parts of the city or force addicts further underground, which will only serve to further push addicts away from corrective services. The Washington Post had an interesting take on rehabilitation within the US justice system.

Hehehe!!!!!!!

Much like Reginald Rose’s “12 Angry Men” where a disserting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the rest of the jury that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court, the Socceroos slowly managed to convince the world that the case for Australian football is no laughing matter. We have arrived and despite a young history, a previously troubled national competition and an unlucky mistake from the referee, there is no doubt the Socceroos should be afforded the respect of all Aussies and World football for their display of heart in this morning’s game against a European giant.

Like a nosebleed you didn’t really need, Australia beats to a bothersome frustration this morning…Ah well, what do you do? The World Cup Blog poses an interesting question that most of our Aussie readers may care to answer: “Are the Referees Ruining the World Cup?”

Nonetheless, as Guus said himself “…but overall when the emotion goes down, we can be very proud of what this team has achieved in the last four games.”