This is my city – get off the streets!

Melbourne was recently voted the world’s most livable city.

Mayor Robert Doyle wants to keep it that way.

Unfortunately the BDS movement and the #occupy protestors are getting in the way by exercising their right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.

Now the mayor has had enough

HT Mike Stutchbury via Twitter

I live in hope that the free speech fundamentalists might now start using their vast media power to get behind these plucky protest groups.

Olympic coverage I like

I posted earlier today about my household’s boycott of the Olympics; the cats are down with that.

But, I am interested in news from China, particularly stuff that just won’t go away and continues to prove embarrassing to the regime.

I’m sorry for the family of Hugh McCutcheon, but this is insane.

Tragedy struck the New Zealand-born coach of the United States men’s Olympic volleyball team in Beijing when his father-in-law was murdered in an attack in Beijing.

Olympic murder attack survivor still critical

An Australian journalist was also attacked in a separate incident, but not hurt.

But wait there’s more;

Deadly explosions rock restive Chinese province

Threats, detention and KFC for protestors

And my favourite by the Herald reporter in Beijing, Paul Lewis.

A hotel in the city has been closed down and all the guests moved out because a pro-Tibet group held a protest there a couple of days ago. Good on you Paul, stay away from the stadia and give us more of this – the real story of Beijing 2008.

Beijing’s Hotel G has just become Hotel Gone – closed down by Chinese security, maybe for the period of the Games, maybe indefinitely.

Its crime: a room was used for a Free Tibet protest.

The abrupt closure shows how some people and businesses in China live on a knife edge even today, and also demonstrates how ingenious and stealthy dissidents have to be to avoid being “disappeared”.

Hotel’s last orders

Paul Lewis Beijing blog

Boycott Beijing Olympics coverage

I’ve decided (in fact, Moac convinced me) that our household is going to be Olympics-free for the next 14 days. I didn’t watch the opening ceremony; I don’t care about the rowing, soccer, swimming, horse riding or any other shit.

I’m with the rebels of Xinjiang and the Falun Gong. China has a repressive regime, a crap record on human rights and it’s not right that the rest of the world is in thrall to these gangsters.

I’m going to join the blogring boycott too. I found out about it from this dedicated blog: Boycott 2008 Olympics

I’m not going to watch TV1 for the next two weeks, I won’t be catching any highlights shows on skysport and I won’t be reading about the medal count etc in the newspapers, I will be turning off Morning Report when they cross to Beijing for sport stories.

The fun and games in South Ossetia are much more interesting and important.