Googling By Numbers

The Australian Open has arrived. And I’m Australian. So I can’t possibly pass up an opportunity blog about this tennis extravaganza.

There’s only one problem. I know nothing about tennis… actually that’s a lie. I know a bit about tennis but it’s mostly about what the players are wearing and how sexy the men are.

But don’t be afraid blog reader (I know you are). Lack of knowledge about a subject has never stopped me from before and I refuse to let it now.

You may not know but I have been to the Australian Open several times. I have the autographs to prove it.

One time Andy Roddick picked up a ball I dropped. He didn’t sign it though… Another time Rafael Nadal walked straight past me followed by a massive entourage… didn’t get his autograph either.

But it’s not about that. Really.

Spurred on by the shock second round loss of James Blake against Juan Martin Del Potro (6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 5-7, 6-3, 10-8), I thought I’d blog about the Open’s biggest scandal… although I think it’s received little international attention.

Tennis Hoons. That’s right, we Australians couldn’t think of a more bogan name to describe the ‘thugs’ who descend on the Open every year.

This year they set off flares, made the Nazi salute, spat, swore, started fights, punched a ohotographer and were generally annoying (I’ve included a link to an Australian newspaper for all the salacious details if you interested- after all the punched photographer works for them).

Interesting? Yes. Bloggable? No.

That’s right, while I’m not at all for tennis brutality, I don’t want to go all grumpy, self-righteous hag on your arse. These youth of today… etc,etc

No, what’s got my goat is the Australian media, who somehow deduced that these hooligans were ALL Croatians. How they did that, I’ll never know.

Yes, some of them we wearing Croatian tops. Doesn’t necessarily make them Croatians. But what annoys me is that most of them were wearing nondescript hoodies!!!! How can you tell they were Croatian?

And to make matters worse. An Australian-Croatian leader comes out and tries to say how unjust the equation: hood + hooligan = Croatian and she gets branded a delusion nut job.

I’m sorry but we Aussies really need to watch ourselves. We have committed way too many racist acts in the past to go around branding hooligans willy nilly.

Are we trying to come off as the world’s most racist nation?

I think a little more sensitivity from our media and our government and from all those angry bogans who love attacking minorities is in order.

There was no need to identify the race of these hooligans, Croatian or not. We’re all Australians and it should stay that way.

Every time the Australian Open comes around and people misbehave we brand them Croatians. Enough’s enough.