Liverpool Football Club in Indonesia

It is surprising that Indonesia has not produced more home-grown football or soccer talent. There are plenty of footballers out there who have some Indonesian blood pumping through their veins. Yet, there are not a lot of footballers who have been born and raised in Indonesia who have gone on to successful world-class football careers. This is surprising when one considers that Indonesia is a country of some 240 million people and there are plenty who are avid football fans.

This may soon change, but soon being relative of course, as the Liverpool Football Club has indicated that it is going to enhance its presence in Asia, and Indonesia is where they are going to start this expansion. The growth phase will include the establishment of a permanent football academy. The Liverpool International Football Academy is part of the youth development section of the Liverpool FC.

Ian Rush, a Liverpool legend, has been in Jakarta in 2010 to conduct a football clinic. There is another clinic underway throughout this week and next. It is expected that the football academy could be up and running as soon as May 2011.

A permanent training and development facility based in Indonesia will ensure that there will be quite a few locally-born Indonesian youngsters getting the opportunity to show their wares to all and sundry. This may lead to Indonesians getting the chance to play football with Liverpool in the English Premier League and maybe other clubs throughout Europe. This is a really positive development for Indonesian football.

There are a lot of Indonesian youths under the age of eighteen. So, in terms of sheer numbers, the possibility of unearthing a global star is a very real one.

If soccer is truly the world game, then an Indonesian star or two on the world stage will truly reflect this claim.

Soccer & Dreams of Greatness -- Bebe & Manchester United...

It is always uplifting to read, or hear, a story that is rags to riches. So, the story of Tiago Manuel Dias Correia, or Bebe as he is known to his fans, being signed by Manchester United is one of those feel good stories.

Bebe was a homeless street child whose skills with a soccer (football for you purists out there) ball saw him play some amateur and third division soccer in Portugal.

Bebe has been signed for a handsome 7.4 million pounds. This bodes well for a pretty decent salary (even if he spends most of his time just warming the reserves bench.

Hopefully, Bebe comes good and lives up to the potential and the hype. If nothing else it will make a good movie. Kind of reminds me of that movie where the kid gets plucked out of obscurity and plays for Newcastle in the English Premier League; Goal: The Dream Begins.

Well, it is soccer time...I am off to watch Arsenal and Liverpool do battle in round one of the EPL.

Good night all.

Priests, Children, Grooming, Chatting, and Sex...

Robert Fuller, a 54-year-old Catholic priest, has been arrested and refused bail for allegedly attempting to groom a child under 16 for sex. Fuller is the parish priest at Liverpool. The long story short is that police masquerading as a 13-year-old girl had a series of 25 sexually explicit chats, on Yahoo7, with Fuller during July and August, where it is alleged that Fuller tried to lure the "non-existent" girl to a meeting for the purposes of having sex with her.

Strangely enough, Fuller expressed during one of the chats that he was a little worried about getting into trouble because of the girls age. However, according to the "facts" that the police have tendered to the court this did not stop Fuller from turning on his web cam and masturbating during one of the chats with the police officer from the Child Exploitation Internet Unit of the Sex Crimes Squad. All the while the priest was masturbating he was allegedly encouraging the girl to masturbate as well.

All involved, the Magistrate, the Police Prosecutor, and the Defence lawyer all concede that the case is a solid one.

I am guessing that the image above is not a web cam capture of the priest flogging himself silly.

Look, if two consenting adults want to have a bit of a chat and it is on topics that might pique the sexual interest of both and they find other associated activities get them to where they want to be, then so be it. However, where adults target children for sexual activity, then there is a line that is clearly crossed and these adults must feel the full force of the law.

This is certainly a WTF moment. Like, Father Fuller WTF were you thinking!

Facebook, Football, and Marriage...

It seems that people seem to think that they can flirt and cheat on Facebook and other social networking sites without being caught out, eventually. This is stupid! As it turns out a dispute about whether Manchester United or Liverpool is the better football team has ended up in the Manchester United fan being framed by his Liverpool counterparts and their Facebook interactions uploaded and displayed for the world to see.

Unfortunately, for the Manchester United fan his wife was able to follow the whole "affair" and decided to end the marriage. The Manchester United fan, Stuart Slann, drove some nine hours and 600km to rendezvous with a mystery woman named Emma that he had arranged to meet through Facebook. Emma, though was the figment of the rival Liverpool fans imagination and was designed from the outset to be a sting.

And stung Stuart was, game and marriage over.

The moral of this story ...

You can work it out!

Another Islamic School, Another Protest Planned

I have always thought that Australia was a multicultural society, a tolerant society, a society who valued and respected hard work, a society that embraced diversity. Perhaps this is the eternal optimist in me, the part of me that always wants to see the best in people and places. Some might even be tempted to be cynical and suggest that I am in denial. A denial of how things really are.

I am proud to be Australian! Always have been and always will be. That does not mean I have to agree with what other Australians do and neither does it mean they speak on my behalf.

After the racially driven anti-Islamic school ruckus in Camden some months ago there is more trouble brewing, this time in Austral, a suburb within the Liverpool City Council area. Some might argue that the Camden decision was purely a zoning and environmental suitability issue and the fact that the development proposal was from the Quranic Society was irrelevant. The footage that played out on the TV and commentary in the media would suggest that religion had everything to do with the ultimate decision even though it might have been packaged some other way.

These tensions are about to be reignited as a company called ASFA has lodged a development proposal with the Liverpool City Council to build a joint primary school and high school facility to be known as Qaadari College. The student capacity is expected to be no more than 600 pupils. I am not sure that there are any requirements that you have to be a Muslim to enrol or that you have to agree to become a Muslim to enrol.

In comparison, I teach at a few universities in Indonesia, one of which was established by a Christian family and maintains a Christian philosophy. I have noticed some Muslim faces in the crowd, those wearing the Jilbab or Hijab, so the policy is clearly not one of exclusion or inclusion based on religion. So, if this were to be the case with Qaadari College would this make any difference? Would it make any difference if the development proposal was from a group wanting to build a 600 pupil college to be known as St Paul's College?

The residents near the proposed school say that it would not matter. There only concern is that a 600-pupil school will destroy the serenity they currently enjoy and upset the peacefulness of the area. I am guessing the peacefulness here is not some Zen Buddhist approach to life. Maybe the concern is that if it is a Muslim school then there are sure to be the obligatory call to prayer. So, maybe this is what will disturb the peace?

If this is true then so be it. However, even if it is true then the agenda is seemingly just about to be hijacked by those keen to promote and highlight the ills of a multicultural Australia and those that are keen to use such development applications to promote an anti-immigration platform and the value of maintaining an Anglo-Celtic-European-white heritage. If you want to check out the thought patterns of these individuals then register at australianidentity.net and have a read for yourself. You cannot get on without registering first.

There you will find these little pearls of wisdom:

"Multiculturalism means never having to go overseas to find an enemy."
- Anonymous

If this does not tell you what these people are about then you do not understand the subtlety of the sledge hammer. The above is the signature of someone known as Casapound. I do not know whether this is important but Casapound is a "Hero Member". I suppose the site sets out how one becomes a hero member but I have not gotten that far into the site to find out.

My guess is that those opposed to the development proposal will be organizing themselves through sites such as this one and others. Is this the beginning of a return to the past, a reinventing of the White Australia policy, an immigration policy reliant on the color of your skin and not on your ability to contribute to the Australian community? If it is then this is a scary prospect.

My concern is that these proposals are not being considered on merit but rather on the basis or fear and intimidation. For me, fear and intimidation is not the Australian way, or at least it should not be in 2008.

I want my kids to grow up in an Australia that is tolerant of the great diversity that we have.

These are things for me to ponder.

Postscript...

You do not have to register to browse on the Australian Identity site. I did have to register to leave a comment.