THE PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG IS TO ELICIT SUPPORT THAT WILL END THE TRAVESTY CALLED “SCHOOLIES”. IF YOU ARE A SCHOOLIES SUPPORTER, GO AWAY…. AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE!
I have put the word “SCHOOLIES” in parenthesis because the application of trendy names somehow lends legitimacy to acts of horror and gradually through the media we all slowly become immune and accepting. As an example I would proffer a few recent headlines… “DAD BRUTALLY KILLS CHILDREN”. This was not a ‘Dad’ this was a murderous monster who hacked up three of his own children with a machete. “Dad brutally kills children” just doesn’t deliver the right message, which is three innocent children aged 5 to 11, literally hacked to pieces, dismembered and left to bleed to death in the most nightmarish fashion while their “DAD” chased their two siblings around the house slashing at them. “MAN GLASSED IN BAR”. Let’s tell it like it is. Some drunken moron actually picked up a glass and jammed it into another human being’s face, severing major facial nerves, tearing out an eye, occasioning major facial reconstruction and plastic surgery to leave the victim with a lesser chance of evoking a gag response whenever he or she goes out in public.
Now this may seem off topic and a bit extreme, but there is a point.
While I may use the term one or two more times, lets tell it like it is. “FORTY OR FIFTY THOUSAND SCHOOL LEAVERS ARRIVE ON THE GOLD COAST EVERY YEAR IN NOVEMBER, A GOOD PERCENTAGE OF WHOM (MALE & FEMALE) ARE INTENT ON NOTHING MORE THAN GETTING SERIOUSLY DRUNK, SHAGGING EVERYTHING THAT MOVES AND SMASHING EVERYTHING THAT DOESN’T WHILST SCREAMING LIKE DEMENTED BANSHEES AND TERRORIZING THE LOCALS.
Okay… so as I write this it’s 11am on Saturday 28 November and we, the permanent residents of Surfers Paradise, take a small breather before the next onslaught of “Schoolies” invades our very lives. As I look out my window I see the poor residents that live at ground level scrubbing graffitti, picking broken glass and other trash off their lawns and trying to avoid stepping in any human excrement and vomit that’s been left in their gardens. Those that live in apartments get the small reprieve of being able to open their doors and windows and take a breather from the obscene behavior and foul language that has been the norm for the past week and will most likely start again late this afternoon. They can also watch the constant train of vehicles arriving as parents arrive to take their little angels home, but more about the parents later.
Here I need also address the issue of ‘schoolies’ versus ‘toolies’ (another neat little label). You know what… I don’t care to discriminate. There are two issues here. Firstly the official sanctioning of a giant drunken party for the first lot will always attract the second lot. Secondly it is not just this second lot of morons that causes the problems. I accept without reservation that there are thousands of school leavers who come here, party responsibly, have a drink or two, blow off a bit of steam and go home without causing any problems. However I will recount my own experience of living in an inner Surfers apartment building for the past week. On Friday last (20/11) I called the lift at about 4.00pm. It was full of charming ‘boys & girls’, all of them with an alcoholic drink in their hand and all either inebriated (or pretending to be). I took my place in the lift and said nothing. One of these little charmers decided to be brave and obnoxious. On the return trip in the lift I was joined by another group of inebriates bearing alcohol, who announced they were busy visiting every apartment on every floor to announce their arrival and organise parties. The music, shouting and obscenities was in full swing by 7.00pm when the vacant block and the streets nearby began to fill with P plated cars, vans, wagons and utes and the street party got into full swing. Frequent visits by the police (and apparent arrests) failed to dent the revelry and it continued right through till last night. I trust the clean-up going on out there now is not in vain and that the new lot don’t start the whole thing up again tonight.
By Monday night we had given up. It was impossible to sleep in our own home and impossible to leave it without being subjected to a gauntlet of bravado and belligerence. The beach that we maintain with our rates, regularly walk to and swim at, is barricaded off for half a kilometre and the trip to either end of the barricades for a swim is made less than pleasant by the obnoxious drunken cretins that feel obliged to provoke you or worse, befriend you.
We packed up and left for the remainder of the week only to return last night to find the building in turmoil, the building managers totally strung out and the balconies full of drunken teenagers competing with each other to see who can swear the loudest. I have witnessed the state of a few of the apartments here and I’m led to wonder why any unit owner would gamble the couple of dollars extra profit from schoolies against the potential damage to their properties.
We have witnessed drunken teenagers sleeping it off in gutters, on lawns and in gardens, drug deals, arrests, people vomiting, defecating and urinating in public, ambulances coming and going, elderly residents bullied etc. etc. .. and that’s just in our street!
SO NOW LET’S GET DOWN TO THE POINT OF THIS BLOG WITH A FEW SIMPLE QUESTIONS.
1. How can any local, state or federal government or for that manner any civilised western society condone, and even promote, what goes on here?
2. Who profits from this event?
3. Who is schoolies.com and how do they profit from this fiasco?
4. Who pays for the damage to private and public property?
5. Who pays for the extra policing?
6. Who pays for the extra infrastructure services?
7. Is there an increase in public hospital, ambulance and casualty services and if so who pays for that?
If the answer to 4 through 7 is Gold Coast ratepayers then let us ask the Gold Coast City Council for a breakdown on the additional costs and en-mass withhold an equivalent proportion from our rates payments. I rarely agree with the Lord Mayor, but yesterday I saw him interviewed and I agree with everything he said. Okay Ron, we’ll put pressure on your revenue, you put pressure on our abysmal under-performing state government to step in and stop this fiasco.
It is my belief that this fiasco has harmed the Gold Coast irreparably and we as ratepayers should now step up and be counted. If by some miracle it is allowed to continue we need to see some serious debate and some clear justification. We need to know that the ratepayers and taxpayers of the Gold Coast are neither supporting nor footing the bill. We need to have a system where ANYBODY who profits from this are 100% liable for costs and damages. We need a system where no building or apartment should accept school leavers without their parents signing damages guarantees. Maybe this will stop them sending their little darlings into my town to make my life a misery. If parents coming up for school leaving age doubt the validity of my words, then next year, book yourself into an apartment block that accepts schoolies and spend a week in my shoes on the streets of Surfers.
Have a look at page 3 of today’s Gold Coast Bulletin. This is the reality of “Schoolies”!
I would like to take the time to thank and congratulate those ex-students who came here and behaved like human beings. If you have younger siblings I should like you to talk to them and your parents about the true nature of the event.
I AM SEEKING AS MANY COMMENTS AS POSSIBLE WITH A VIEW TO PUTTING AN END TO “SCHOOLIES”.
PLEASE VOICE YOUR OPINION.
