The reaction within the community was as predictable as it was disappointing. Hundreds outraged residents crammed into the local community centre to “voice their concerns”. The leaders of the opposition to the plan insisted they weren’t racist and that they are simply concerned about the lack of community consultation and a strain on local services.

“I don’t think our anger has anything to do with race,” Ms Pitts said.

She said that even if the new arrivals were born and bred in Melbourne, the town would still protest against the strain on local services.

People at the public protest suggest otherwise.

The meeting on Thursday turned ugly with some in the crowd shouting anti-Muslim slogans as an Immigration Department official fielded questions about plans to transfer the families with their children to Woodside.

Cant we call a spade a spade? It seems that when a protest is clearly racially motivated politicians and commentators do anything to avoid the obvious. The unpleasant truth is that there is a section of our community that is outright hostile to certain races and religion. The “strain on the community” line was a furphy, the asylum seekers will be in low security detention so will not have general access to the community. Health and other basic services will be provided in the centre to prevent the locals being forced to see strange brown looking people in their community. The children will be enrolled in local schools, but the commonwealth will provide extra funds to make up for this.

And do you really think you would see a similar level of opposition if it were announced that the barracks was going to be used to house defence personal of a similar number? Of course not. Even though defence housing would put a greater strain on the community because they wouldnt be locked in a low security prison. This is entirely based on xenophobia.

So no members of Woodside, you don’t get to complain about a lack of courtesy by the government for not consulting when you have shown a complete lack of courtesy on your part. You don’t get to freely abuse and threaten immigration officials, shout racial slogans in public and fear monger about the terrible things a couple of hundred women and children will somehow do to your community and THEN complain that you are the ones that have been treated unfairly.

We know that relations socials and economic have changed greatly over the couple of decades, and nowhere more so than in those states formerly behind the Iron Curtain. The push toward what Australia’s PM calls ‘neoliberalism’ – namely, the alliance between government and capital against workers – has occurred everywhere, but has arguably been most ruthlessly pursued in many of the ex-communist states.

Maggie Thatcher, one of the leading practitioners of neoliberalism, famously quipped that ‘there is no such thing as society’. Perhaps she is being proven correct, in that societies have teetered on the brink of collapse directly in proportion to what geographer David Harvey calls ‘the commodification of everything’. Harvey argues that ‘the destruction of forms of social solidarity … leaves a gaping hole in the social order’, for which the ‘inevitable response is to reconstruct social solidarities’ leads to a revival of nationalism, fascism, and ‘authoritarian populism’. This blowback is the corollary of universal freedom of enterprise.

It is apropos of economic turmoil and social collapse that I bring you this story from Bulgaria, concerning a 23-year old Sydney man named Jock Palfreeman. The media has given Palfreeman’s situation little coverage, but The Daily Telegraph had this story:

The former The King’s School student was arrested on Friday in Sofia after allegedly fatally stabbing Andrei Monov, 20, the the son of a prominent local psychotherapist, in a street brawl.

Palfreeman – who claimed in court to being employed by the British army – is also accused of attempting to murder Antoan Zahariev, 19, during the same attack.

According to a police statement, Palfreeman admitted stabbing the two Bulgarian men but insisted it was in self-defence.

Palfreeman said that while he had been carrying a knife at the time, he only pulled it out to defend himself and two other friends from a group of football hooligans who were attacking another man.

What separates this case from the many involving Australians who run amok overseas is the suggestion that Palfreeman is facing a kangaroo court. Contra the claims of Bulgarian prosecutors, there is another side to the story:

In December 2007, Jock witnessed the gang attacking two men of Roma ethnicity in Sofia. Jock went to the aid of the Roma men, putting himself in the middle of the attack. The Roma men were able to escape, but the gang continued their vicious attack on Jock. Following the fight, one member of the gang was killed and another injured.

Jock was refused bail, and has been in the infamous Sofia Central Prison for nearly two years awaiting a verdict. He will give his final plea on Wednesday, 2nd December 2009, and can expect a verdict on the 3rd December.

Jock’s trial has been repeatedly delayed due to witnesses, court officials and even members of the judging panel failing to attend scheduled court dates without notice. Three consecutive court dates were aborted after 30 minutes due to missing medical and technical experts.

More importantly, crucial evidence proving Jock’s innocence has been either carelessly or deliberately destroyed. For example, CCTV footage showing the gang’s assault on the Roma men and then on Jock was initially deleted due to police recklessness. When Jock’s defense was able to retrieve it using a computer expert, the entire computer mysteriously exploded destroying the footage, again in police “care”.

The stories of the gang members and other witnesses have been changed repeatedly since the initial statements. The gang members initially confirmed Jock’s version of events, but have since changed their statements to deny even the existence of the Roma men. They claim that Jock, a young Australian in a foreign country, simply attacked a gang of 16 men alone without a motive. Their initial statements have been blocked from court by the prosecutor. Initially, ten Bulgarian Police Officers supported Jock’s version of events. To date, eight of these have changed their stories to fit with the statements of the gang. Throughout the entire case, Jock’s statement has remained exactly the same.

It is impossible for me to verify the claims above. What I do know is that they are plausible. Firstly, Bulgaria, like a number of other ex-communist countries, currently has a major problem with racism, and has seen a rise in violent, proto-fascist activity. Secondly, Bulgarian authorities are widely believed to be corrupt — the EU has questioned ‘the independence and accountability of the judicial system’.

What this case highlights are the very real problems –- corruption, racism, and violence –- that still plague much of the world, particularly where a sleazy version of free enterprise has replaced a creaky version of communism. So far, the Australian media has not been as interested in Palfreeman as some other Australians incarcerated overseas (with occasional exceptions). He lacks the tabloid fascination of Schapelle Corby and her family -– he’ll never get a gig on the front cover of Ralph. Unlike David Hicks, he is not an international symbol of that recent US paradox -– suspending ‘human rights’ and democracy in the name of human rights and democracy. He may yet, however, turn out to be a victim of corruption, and a casualty of neo-fascism, and his story ought to be told. Rising nationalism and justice systems tilted in favour of the wealthy and connected may be more pronounced in Eastern Europe than elsewhere, but they are problems everywhere, including Australia.

Palfreeman’s fate will be determined on December 2nd, next week. More information on this matter can be found hereand here.

Today, such a man is Sam Watson, deputy director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit at the University of Queensland.

Mr. Watson implores us all to realise …

THIS BISCUIT WILL GAS YOUR BABY.

This biscuit will rape your mother, sodomise your wife, gouge the eyes from the nodding head of your old, gray papa and inject the veins of your first born with a mixture of dishwashing liquid and food dye.

This is one evil motherfucking biscuit.

It will skin your dog, flay your cat, and throw your goldfish into the compost heap.

This is the biscuit that other biscuits fear to share a tin with.

It will blow up bridges, drain harbours, bring down tall buildings and kill off the stock exchange with one bite.

This is the Bernie Madoff of biscuit bastardry.

This biscuit will invade Poland.

At the peak of its deranged megalomania, this biscuit will imagine it’s a full size Weston’s Wagon Wheel and roll into Russia.

Who will stop this biscuit?

Who will stand with Mr. Watson and, in trenches dug deep, fight alongside this brave and outspoken warrior for justice in his fearless quest to bring about an end to the evils of Biscuitism once and for all?

…

…

We did think of asking the ANZACS, but they crumbled. As usual.

Fucking losers.

The left-wing MSM is ablaze with the news of the apparent racial conotations of the  “You’ll Love Coles Creole Biscuits”. For those confused, like your beloved Internet mole, some university guy was around to clear everything up:

“The word Creole comes from a period when people’s humanity was measured by the amount of white blood they had in their bloodstream. This is the same kind of thought that underpinned horrific regimes like the Nazis,” Mr Watson said.

Of course. The same kind of thought that lead to “horrific regimes” also concocted a form of biscuit, beloved by the elderly. Is there anything Hitler isn’t capable of? It’s a wonder Mr. Watson hasn’t shone his investigative torch on exactly where the precious metal in “You’ll Love Coles Gold Bullion” comes from.

Remember – everytime your children take a bite of these biscuits, they’re supporting Nazism! Coles have been raising a generation of little Hitlers behind your back! Is it merely a coincidence that this has arisen only a week after the BNP’s Nick Griffin appeared on the BBC?

And while we’re at it, has Mr. Watson considered the feelings of the Allen’s Retro Party Mix mascot?

This fellow is a member of the same brutal regime that lead to the proliferation of disco music – a far worse crime.