April 2009

Silence was broken one night by sirens and the whirring of a low flying helicopter. The police chopper, with searchlights blazing, honed in on the lake-front park lands at Wattle Grove.

I grabbed my Police scanner and camera and went to see what was unfolding. The police chatter on the scanners told me the guy they were chasing was last seen in the lake waters and a mention of the nearby shopping centre.

Moving closer, I noticed a person creeping from the bird island bushes and into its murky waters.  Click, click, I had the shot, but the drama was far from over…

Continue reading "When a photographer has to get involved in an arrest" »

DEATH is often depicted in Mexico as an ever-present and humanised force, in the form of a skeletal woman with nicknames such as The Bald One, The Skinny One, The Weeping Woman and, creepiest of all, The Fancy Lady.

The country’s pre-Colombian traditions and its bloody modern history provide a good foundation for a death cult. The Mexican Revolution claimed at least 1.4 million lives between 1910 and 1917. The official toll from the 1985 Mexico City earthquake is 10,000; Mexicans say it’s more than 30,000. Since January last year, the number of drug-related murders stands at 7337 - not all murders, just drug murders.

A lot of them aren’t routine shootings. One guy nicknamed El Pozolero, The Stew-Maker, was arrested last year for boiling down the bodies of more than 100 rival cartel members in vats of acid.

Continue reading "The fatal calling card of Mexico’s fancy lady" »

KELLIE from Hi-5 has always been a favourite at our place. The kids also seem to like her. But at the risk of sounding like the Reverend Fred Nile, I’m a bit disappointed with her semi-clad efforts on the pages of Ralph.

Not angry. Not suggesting the photos should be banned, nor pretending that I didn’t have a discreet squizz at them like many other dads. Not questioning her right as a 34-year-old woman to engage in some entry-level eroticism to avoid being pigeon-holed as a cheesy children’s entertainer. Just annoyed that I might find myself having a conversation with our six-year-old daughter which begins: “Dad, isn’t that Kellie from Hi-5?”

The woman shouldn’t be crucified for doing what she did and the reaction from family groups and feminists to her shoot has been over the top.

Women’s Forum Australia spokeswoman Melinda Tankard Reist described the photos as an “abuse of her position with tens of thousands of little girls looking up to her”, as if from here to eternity Kel should be quarantined to a life of G-rated entertainment despite no longer being a member of the children’s group. But Tankard Reist was on the money when she said the problem was that Kel’s appearance on the cover was “particularly problematic because magazines like Ralph are on shop shelves at kiddy eye level”.

Continue reading "Dad, isn’t that Kellie from Hi-5? What’s she wearing?" »

The question of whether Kevin Rudd is a rude, ill-tempered sook is a valid one, there’s another issue that deserves some examination. How hard is it to get the bloke a cup of tea?

Continue reading "Goodbye. Now can someone get me a f***ing cup of tea?" »

SOMEWHERE in a cave in Afghanistan, a guy has just got home after a hard day’s jihad, cracked an ice-cold tube of something halal, and is laughing himself silly watching Australia’s Funniest Home Videos.

Not the normal program, where parents deliberately place their toddlers in front of the swing in a bid to win the Sony camcorder.

But the 6pm Sydney news from Monday night, where one of the biggest cities in the southern hemisphere shuddered to a halt because a few power cables cacked themselves and shut down two sub-stations.

And despite our alleged possession of a world’s best practice city-wide warning system, nothing was done to activate it - and, more importantly, nor could it have been. It’s not like we’re not prepared. The authorities have helpfully armed the nation with fridge magnets.

Continue reading "The Joker would have been proud of Sydney’s dark night" »