Update on the fall out from the riots in the Shire

Just re-reading my posting from the other week, and it might lean a little too far and sound like I was placing a lot of responsibility within the Lebanese community. Certainly these events don't happen in vacuums, but from the news I heard, there were way more problems innitiated from dissafected "white" guys than the Lebanese community running around spoiling for fights. The riots were being organized via text messaging, and the police set up road blocks and searches to control people traveling to the area just to start fights. Especially people traveling from outside the Shire just to make trouble, not necessarily the residents.

I know news is manufactured, but every single photo that appeared, and all the TV coverage were angry, often drunk, white guys spoiling for a fight. I have actually been quite impressed at how the community as a whole is handling itself going forward. Within the Shire (Cronulla Beach) Muslim, Christian, community and youth groups are all working very hard together to look at ways of building better bridges within the community. The leaders in the Lebanese community have been really active in looking for solutions, especially just being honest about acknowledging and working to control some of their youth that were involved in the debacle.

It's been tough for the community to bounce back - Cronulla has become synonymous with racial tension, cultural intolerance, what Aussies call "yabbos" (drunk, stupid, surly guys) and collective embarassment of poor behaviour. The Lebanese and Middle-Eastern families have come back to the beaches - but not to Cronulla, they have headed to other beaches where they feel safer. Business haven't seen the tourists of the locals flock back to the beach, which is one of the most popular, and even Bondi was quieter on Christmas day than it usually is. At the end of the day, there hasn't been a repeat and things seem to be quieting down for now.