Aussie Flag banned at BDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[footyfreak]

Australian flag a 'gang colour'

EXCLUSIVE by Simon Benson and Kathy McCabe

January 22, 2007 12:16am
Article from: The Daily Telegraph



THE Australian flag has been banned from this year's Big Day Out in Sydney after organisers branded it a "gang colour" and symbol of hate.

Organisers of the Aussie rock festival at Homebush will confiscate any flag or bandana bearing the national symbol at the gate.

Labelling Sydney a hot bed of racism, producers of the Sydney Showground event said it will be the only city in the nationwide event to be subject to the draconian action.

Promoters have already moved the event from the traditional Australia Day gig to a day earlier to avoid nationalistic overtones.

Spooked by last year's event, which came only weeks after the Cronulla riots, organisers will outlaw flags being brandished as a "gang colour".

Prime Minister John Howard said the Big Day Out should be cancelled unless organisers reversed their decision to ban the flag. Big Day Out patrons were intimidated and harassed at the Sydney event on Australia Day 2006 by bigoted fans brandishing flags and demanding people pledge their allegiance.

Event producer Ken West said the use of flags last year after the Cronulla riots and recent clashes between Serb and Croatian fans at the Australian Open tennis had forced his hand.

"I didn't like the behaviour of last year and we have moved the event from Australia Day this year partly because of the way the flags were used," Mr West said.

"The Australian flag was being used as gang colours. It was racism disguised as patriotism and I'm not going to tolerate it.

"I am telling people not to bring flags - they are free to get them out at midnight on their way home when it is Australia Day."

Gangs use colours and symbols to distinguish them from rival groups.

Mr West added the ban was also in part trying to be respectful to the Aboriginal community, who view Australia Day as invasion day.

"This is about giving people the opportunity to think about it and what the flag means to them," he said.

Premier Morris Iemma reacted angrily to the ban, claiming the promotors should "reverse their decision immediately".

"If they pulled this on Independence Day in the US, imagine what would happen. It's just ridiculous," he said.

"It is a ridiculous decision and I never thought I'd see the day when a promoter would ask young Australian people to celebrate Australian artists but not identify with their national flag."

Mainstream headline act Jet have a black and white version of the flag as the backdrop for their set.

Frontman Nic Cester said they used this version to display their pride in being Australian.

"I can't tell anyone else what to do but we as a band are very proud to be Australian and we don't want to feel we are not allowed to feel proud because of the disgusting actions of people who don't represent Australia, in my mind," he said.

The ban will be announced on the Big Day Out website this week.

Security staff will not search bags specifically but will be told to stop people from wearing a flag or Australian bandana.

The Big Day Out will be the first event ever to ban the national symbol.

Total ********ing joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's our flag and we should be able to fly it where ever we want!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The whole place has gone totally ********ing mad!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SouthSwans]

this is the biggest disgrace in the history of australia.

 

[DaveW]

A bit heavy-handed by the organisers but ultimately it's their prerogative to set the conditions of entry.

The subsequent political grandstanding is far more loathsome than the actual decision.

 

[legitimatic]

I still wonder whether this means all other flags are legal?

 

[BomberGal]

For a second I thought it must be April 1.

They're joking right? How can anyone have the right to ban our flag?? Disgrace.

 

[camsmith]

???

DaveW is right, they have the right of conditions of entry.. but it doesn't mean its not wrong.

The Aussie flag ffs? Not some Hezbollah flag.. the Aussie one. What a shambles.

 

[NSWCROW]

Piss Weak

 

[Mr Magoo]

Great move, this will only get people a lot more angrier & fuel racism or hatred towards other cultures.

 

[Hanis]

Spread the word now - everyone going to BDO bring the Australian flag, hide it in your jocks, in your bag or in your mouth and then everyone at 6.00pm produce it on mass and wave and hold that f*cker up

FWIW I'm not a bogan just a proud Australian - this would never happen in any other country - shameful

 

[Plogs]

Slightly off topic but i have just come back from 2 weeks in Sydney. We stayed in the West for the first week & in Miranda for most of the second. Whilst in "The Shire", i noticed a large number of Australian flags outside homes, draped inside windows & even sticking out of cars. I asked my host if this was a recent thing & the said that it was always there but had doubled since "Cronulla".

 

[goalpie]

What would happen if guys had Australiam jocks on and women aussie flag bikinies. Would they rip them off. What a conundrum.

I think the BDO organisers have been smoking to much pot and their brains have turned into mushy peas.

 

[peternorth]

What would happen if guys had Australiam jocks on and women aussie flag bikinies. Would they rip them off. What a conundrum.

I think the BDO organisers have been smoking to much pot and their brains have turned into mushy peas.

i would hope so!

 

[Pessimistic]

Its a tough one but arent you all "thug lovers"

What is your solution to address the issue ? That you can't go to a public gathering and feel safe from thugs ?

They are every bit as bad as those at the tennis a week ago - worse as they re using a symbol which largely represents a mainly peaceful country.

 

[- PC -]

Mr West added the ban was also in part trying to be respectful to the Aboriginal community, who view Australia Day as invasion day.

But wait....

Promoters have already moved the event from the traditional Australia Day gig to a day earlier to avoid nationalistic overtones

So is Jan 25 also Invasion Day?

 

[Bifrost]

OK, who gives a ********? People drape this thing over themselves and run it up their flagpoles as if it actually means something.

It's a former British Navy flag with white stars.

It is so non-distinctive and so steeped in nothing in paticular that I can't believe intelligent people get ra-ra about it. I can understand the rednecks of Cronulla and West Sydney (who drove to Cronulla) getting ra-ra about it - they're morons.

Australia is a beautiful part of the world and not because of some 2nd-hand piece of cloth. Men and women fought and died for the people of this country - not for some 2nd-hand peice of cloth.

Here's what the Bulltein Magazine had to say about the flag in 1901 around the flag's inception and I believe this still holds very true today:

a staled réchauffé of the British flag, with no artistic virtue, no national significance... Minds move slowly: and Australia is still Britain's little boy. What more natural than that he should accept his father's cut-down garments, – lacking the power to protest, and only dimly realising his will. That bastard flag is a true symbol of the bastard state of Australian opinion.

People need to stop being so precious about the ********ing flag and start being precious about what really makes this place great.

 

[MightyFighting]

Why would you bring a flag to a music event anyway?

 

[footyfreak]

OK, who gives a ********? People drape this thing over themselves and run it up their flagpoles as if it actually means something.

It's a former British Navy flag with white stars.

It is so non-distinctive and so steeped in nothing in paticular that I can't believe intelligent people get ra-ra about it. I can understand the rednecks of Cronulla and West Sydney (who drove to Cronulla) getting ra-ra about it - they're morons.

Australia is a beautiful part of the world and not because of some 2nd-hand piece of cloth. Men and women fought and died for the people of this country - not for some 2nd-hand peice of cloth.

Here's what the Bulltein Magazine had to say about the flag in 1901 around the flag's inception and I believe this still holds very true today:

People need to stop being so precious about the ********ing flag and start being precious about what really makes this place great.

See i think that it is you that has so badly missed the whole point of the flag. I don't give a crap whats on it. I don't care that it has strong British colonial overtones. It doesn't matter. It is our countries flag. It is the strongest symbol one has of saying "I am an Australian", or "i am an American" or "I am an Italian" or whatever!!!!!!

Why do you think people fly their countires flags all over the world??? Coz it identifies them as an Aussie or a German or Chinese etc. You don't think there are people from other countries that think their flag could have been better designed??

But that doesn't matter now, it's done and nations have been built around, gone to war with and celebrated with their particular flag. It's not what's on it, it's what it identifies and represents, and that is something worth being very precious about!!!!!!!!!

 

[Bifrost]

See i think that it is you that has so badly missed the whole point of the flag. I don't give a crap whats on it. I don't care that it has strong British colonial overtones. It doesn't matter. It is our countries flag. It is the strongest symbol one has of saying "I am an Australian", or "i am an American" or "I am an Italian" or whatever!!!!!!

Why do you think people fly their countires flags all over the world??? Coz it identifies them as an Aussie or a German or Chinese etc. You don't think there are people from other countries that think their flag could have been better designed??

But that doesn't matter now, it's done and nations have been built around, gone to war with and celebrated with their particular flag. It's not what's on it, it's what it identifies and represents, and that is something worth being very precious about!!!!!!!!!

And what glorious advances in human society have been brought about by nationalism? How many diseases have been cured by devotion to national flags? How many lives have been saved by nationalistic fervor?

Oh hang on - that's right, nationalism is what has precipitated pretty much every war in Europe since the rise of Napoleon. Nationalism is what pushed the Japanese into a war frenzy in 1942. Nationalism has never been at a more potenet level in the USA than it is right now.

Blind, unthinking devotion to one's country and flag and this "we are the best" attitude has never and will never contribute anything to the world aside from further division between people and inciting greater hatred.


PS: Thanks for the exclamation marks, I was running short.

 

[mantis]

What if someone took a flag & decided to burn it at the concert, it's their property after all?

 

[WA ROO]

It has started

 

[carntheroos4eva]

See i think that it is you that has so badly missed the whole point of the flag. I don't give a crap whats on it. I don't care that it has strong British colonial overtones. It doesn't matter. It is our countries flag. It is the strongest symbol one has of saying "I am an Australian", or "i am an American" or "I am an Italian" or whatever!!!!!!

Why do you think people fly their countires flags all over the world??? Coz it identifies them as an Aussie or a German or Chinese etc. You don't think there are people from other countries that think their flag could have been better designed??

But that doesn't matter now, it's done and nations have been built around, gone to war with and celebrated with their particular flag. It's not what's on it, it's what it identifies and represents, and that is something worth being very precious about!!!!!!!!!

I think you and many others don't see the whole point on why the flag was banned in the first place. There is no need to take that flag to a concert especially if your main aim is to piss the other patrons off whilst you are there.

 

[Scratcher Gillespie]

As I said on another board, settle down princesses, it's not being banned, just discouraged (Whateevr the hell that means).

Although thanks to some shoddy journalism, we can now expect a knob-end crowd of drunken bogans to parade around as if carrying the flag actually means something.

 

[cowboy18]

What about a New Zealand flag and liquid paper?

 

[Faithful Hawk]

What if someone took a flag & decided to burn it at the concert, it's their property after all?

Is actually illegal regardless if it is your property or not, why don't you try doing it in a public place and find out for yourself.

I personally feel it is another minor issue being blown out of proportion by the stupid ****ing media. People have the right to carry the flag but for the right reasons, what the promoters of the bdo are trying to discourge are the moron minority who use the australian flag to agtagonise others who they see as unaustralian. Who are they (moron minority)to judge people, if this minority was to stay away from such great events then australia would be a better place for it.

 

[skilts]

Is actually illegal regardless if it is your property or not, why don't you try doing it in a public place and find out for yourself.

And which law does it break?