I found something pretty appalling this week.

Do you remember the Cronulla riots? They were an embarrassment to this country and more specifically to Sydney. In general, Australia has a pretty good record for welcoming migrants from all over the world, who usually come here either for the opportunities or to escape oppression.

In most cases, people have found this country to be a haven, but unfortunately the swing towards Right-Wing thinking in world politics, led largely by the US, has created a nationalistic paranoia in Western countries. All the hype around terrorism, the Middle East and Islam has given uneducated nationalist yobbos an outlet for the dissatisfaction they feel with their own lives. “Lets blame the Arabs”.

Cronulla was just the result of years of tensions. Both “sides” have plenty to answer for, but it wouldn’t have happened without all the hype. This week I read that a board game has been released called Cronulla Monopoly where players play to “win back Australia”.

It was also this week that I read about a drunken football team who bashed a Jewish guy in Caulfield after yelling racial abuse at him and his kids out of the window of their bus.

Where is this all heading? It’s a serious question. I don’t understand what’s happening.

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I am always on the look out for interesting web2.0 apps, so when I saw this one (still in beta), I had to give it a try purely out of curiosity of the “photo/face scanning” technology. I can’t say that I am completely impressed with the results. Looks like I will have to get up to date with the Canto pop, J-pop and K-pop scene to find out who some of these guys are. You can check out my look-alike collage by clicking more. (more…)

I can’t help but be impressed with the major fashion houses coming to the party for iPod accessories. Ever since I saw Louis Vuitton’s effort for the nano, I couldn’t help being reminded of the ultimate accessory I saw. A few years ago, popular rapper 50 cent appeared on stage wearing a Gucci double holster. I felt this had to be the ultimate in cool fashion accessories. But I couldn’t help but wonder if somewhere along the line, a major fashion house would recognise the gap in the fashion handgun market. You go to all the trouble of making a gun holster (a double holster at that), so what’s stopping you from teaming with an arms maker for a fashion series for your brand conscious thug? Hence my effort above. Pretty amateurish, I know, but it still looks pretty damn cool, doesn’t it?

Seriously, nobody is going to argue with you over outside seating at your favourite café on Fitzroy Street if you’re toting one of these babies, right? Forget the dog that can fit in your handbag, ladies. Throw away your Armani sunglasses and your Gucci driving shoes. This has to be the ultimate fashion accessory for the style-conscious man.

Inspiration for the fashion handgun was drawn from Italian artist Antonio Riello’s exploration of weapons designed for women. I’d love to see his range of armoury for ladies, ‘designed to protect against urban dangers’ whilst remaining stylish. Personal safety doesn’t necessarily have to be ugly, even though a couple of those guns border on trashy…