Saturday, March 4, 2006

Nearly half a million people packed into Sydney’s “Golden Mile” on Saturday night to applaud the city’s 28th annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. Parade organisers estimated the crowd at over 450,000. They lined Oxford St – along the parade’s route – in Sydney’s unofficial gay district, cheering the 6,000 participants and 120 floats.

The Mardi Gras event was the culmination of a month of gay-pride festivities. Many parade participants adopted the theme of the film Brokeback Mountain. The parade was led as usual by the motorcycle group, Dykes on Bikes. Amongst the frivolity and colour, onlookers saw “Kate Moss dancers” snorting ‘cocaine’, and the gun-wielding – apparently gay-friendly – Dick Cheney. A lampoon of Prime Minister John Howard – a pirate ship carrying “Captain Crook” was also featured.

A Mardi Gras participant, Filipino Fyljoy Volefdico, 25, said: “I think within Australia there is really a lot of culture and it’s great when the whole community comes together and celebrates it.”

Jay Lynch, who met his partner at the event two years ago, said: “It has become a meeting ground for gays from around the world and as discrimination continues it’s important we can connect on this level, and continually redefine what it means to the community.”

Chair of the New Mardi Gras board, Marcus Bourget, said the event is about providing a powerful voice for the lesbian and gay community. Describing the parade as “a great Aussie tradition”, Bourget said he was proud of the event. “We’ve run a fairly sophisticated marketing campaign this year, which has led to gradual growth internationally,” he said.

Newcastle woman Donna Newella said Mardi Gras had become many things to many people, “It is not just about gays and lesbians,” she said. “It’s about all different issues that have arisen,” she said “freedom of speech, being able to represent one’s identity and being able to put a political point across.”

The first Mardi Gras took place on June 24, 1978 as a protest against a ban on homosexuality in Australia. It began as an improvised street party following a gay-rights rally. However when a city official interrupted the festivities, things turned ugly. On that night there were 53 arrests and many allegations of police brutality. Homosexuality was later decriminalised in Australia in 1984.

Local businesses realise the economic importance of the event, which is a huge money-spinner, they say. Visitors to Sydney for last year’s Mardi Gras contributed an estimated $46 million to the State’s economy. Organisers say about 6000 international visitors, the majority from Britain and the USA, attended this year’s event.

“We came all the way from America to see this,” Mrs Phyllis Drucker 67, from Los Angeles, said. “We were told it’s the best in the world, and we’re going to have a ball.”

A float entitled “Love Between the Flags” highlighted the need for racial harmony and cultural acceptance following last year’s Cronulla riots. Creative director Graham Browning said the theme of the parade, “I believe”, aimed to reflect political and social issues. The NSW Police service, with 45 members also marched in the parade.

Mardi Gras parade chief Deborah Cheetham, an internationally renowned soprano, rejected suggestions the parade was passe. “Maybe we’re just in that period of transition. It’s not tired,” said Cheetham, who led the parade with her partner and 14-year-old daughter. “There will always be a need for Mardi Gras.”

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the parade was a celebration of Sydney’s diversity. “When you’re a child the thing that really excites you is either Christmas or the Royal Easter Show and I think as an adult Mardi Gras is the only equivalent,” Ms Moore told reporters.

“I didn’t want to miss any of this,” said 17-year-old Jennifer Mackay from outer Sydney, who arrived with three friends 10 hours before the start.

“It’s like Christmas for the gay and lesbian community,” said the parade’s creative director, Graeme Browning.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

While this wasn’t Interview with the Vampire, getting a live interview with Jimmy Wales of the Wikimedia Foundation is requiring more work and planning than ever. Four contributors to four different Wikinews language editions (with Swedish, Netherlands, and Polish) arranged to interview “Jimbo” in the Wikinews IRC channel, squeezed in before interviews with a periodical and a cable news source.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

A spokesperson stated on Monday that UK television company ITV have been fined A$3000 (about US$2591 or £1663) for cruelty to animals in an incident on programme “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!“, where two celebrities killed and ate a rat.

The incident involved actor Stuart Manning and television chef Gino D’Acampo, who went on to win the ninth series of the programme, which was broadcast in 2009. Inside the jungle, having been reduced to rations of beans and rice, the two celebrities caught a rat before killing it and then cooking it, to give the beans and rice “more protein”, before eating the rat, which contestant and actor George Hamilton described as “actually quite nice”. Inside the programme’s video diary room, at the time of the recording of it, Gino D’Acampo said: “I saw one of these rats running around. I got a knife, I got its throat, I picked it up.”

RSPCA Australia had stated that performing an act like this on television was “not acceptable”. Initially, Manning and D’Acampo were charged for animal cruelty. However, their charges were dropped when ITV made the confession that production staff had allowed the celebrities to carry out the act of killing the rat. After a court trial in Sydney, Australia, ITV got a fine of A$3000. The company also had to pay costs of A$2500 (US$2192 or £1396).

An ITV spokesperson said that “ITV has apologised for the mistake which led to this incident. The production was unaware that killing a rat could be an offence, criminal or otherwise in New South Wales, and accepts that further inquiries should have been made. This was an oversight and we have since thoroughly reviewed our procedures and are putting in place a comprehensive training programme to ensure that this does not happen in future series.”

Sunday, November 27, 2011

The death toll from yesterday’s suspension bridge collapse on the Indonesian island of Borneo has risen from three to four, with a six-month-old baby among the dead. Search and rescue teams continue to look for survivors in the Mahakam River.

The initial death toll was raised at first to five, but was revised back down to four. The number of wounded rose from at least seventeen to at least nineteen, but Monsters and Critics offers a figure as high as 39 injured; Indonesia Today yesterday suggested the actual figure was 100 hospitalised. Roughly 40 people remain missing at the scene in East Kalimantan’s Kutai Kartanegara district, where “Kalimantan’s Golden Gate Bridge” linked the towns of Tenggarong and Samarinda.

At least three cars, several motorbikes, and at least one public bus all fell into the Mahakam River. Another car was left overturned and balanced upon wreckage over the water. State-owned builders PT Hutama Karya completed the bridge about a decade ago in the image of California’s Golden Gate Bridge, and it is now reported it was under repair at the time of the failure. New information suggests a cable on the 720-metre structure failed as workers dealt with it; six of the repair crew are among the missing.

National police representative Boy Rafly Amar said “It is believed that some victims are still in the river. There are two buses in the river and efforts are under way to lift them.” He said 39 were rescued with 20 still in hospital. Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih visited survivors in Parikesit Hospital and promised them medical treatment at government expense.

“It happened so fast, only about 30 seconds,” according to National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Nugoroho. National search and rescue head Daryatmo said Monday will see cranes attempt to move debris.

The president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has sent three ministers to the site to investigate the accident, while Bambang Widaryatmo, head of East Kalimantan’s police, promised “parties found to be negligent will be prosecuted”. The government has promised a replacement ferry service. The river is closed to boats as rescue operations continue, and a 22-strong team has been dispatched from the national police, comprising six forensics experts, five disaster victim identification specialists, and eleven investigators. They are there to augment the East Kalimantan Police.

Some people swam ashore after falling, with the aftermath filled with screams. 40-year-old Adam Nur describes breaking free from a car and swimming 300 metres with one arm after his other arm was injured in the fall. Syakrani, 24, says he survived by clinging to empty plastic containers when he fell from the bridge after leaving his truck to investigate a traffic jam. “The authorities should have closed the bridge if it was under repair,” he said.