Friday, February 24, 2006


So. This is Melbourne.

The first thought that struck me was that we had landed in some barren land in another dimension. In any other situation, the thought would’ve scared me senseless. I am, after all, a prone neurotic. This time, however, I had some 70 plus Malaysian students in the same boat, most of which I had known and lived with for nearly 2 years. So I felt that I was in good company, if nothing else.

The ride over to Carlton from the airport, in the bus, was memorable. We saw ranch houses everywhere. There was no specific house plan. There were only brick houses, square and dotted in messy neighbourhoods, and while they seemed ideally quaint at the moment to Sarah and I, I knew then and there that I would get bored sick of them, eventually. They were no marvels of architecture. And that first impression I got from the 20-minute trip over has somehow become metaphorical to my point of view of Australia, or rather, Melbourne, as a whole – interesting, but loses its novelty fast.

Our current abode is now YMCA’s College Square, situated on Lygon Street, and it seems that it shall be our living place for the next few years. The accommodation itself is nice, with a plain, functionalist décor that reminds you of a 2-storey hotel room, where you cook and lounge downstairs and live upstairs. It has become home, and in less than a week, we have fallen into routine. Homesickness is prone amongst us living in unit 5809, especially during quiet, late afternoons. Compared to Malaysia, the Australian TV Network is wicked boring. Their soap dramas are illogical, and too much like their American counterparts, to the extent that as one watches one particularly annoying character on channel Ten’s infamous Neighbours, one is reminded of The Bold and the Beautiful, which they also have on the very same channel. Of course, Neighbours is much tamer. It has a lousy theme song. It features plastic, self-obsessed caricatures of everyday humans. I must say, I smell plagiarism.

If I digress even further, my parents will think that I’ve been doing nothing but watch TV. But no. only one episode of Neighbours was enough for me to make the assumption. Any other repeats would have to be merely coincidental.

Lygon Street is wonderful to observe. Subang Jaya would be ideal, if it were to adopt the wonderful traffic management and town engineering that Carlton, Melbourne has. There are huge walkways for pedestrians; wide enough for the countless restaurants to open up proper tables along the sides, and still have enough space for 3 rows of people to stride down the path side by side. There is sufficient parking by the roads, and yet every road is still made up of 4 lanes, for both trams and cars. The trams are like really fast KTM Komuters, and is how we mostly journey to Brunswick, north of Carlton, for our supply of halal meat and pizzas.

The café scene is very tempting along Lygon Street. Granted, we can’t eat most of the things here, because they don't contain emulsifiers of plant origin, and as Muslims we can’t consume by-products of pigs or animals that have not been slaughtered in the Islamic way. It’s mainly for hygienic reasons. However, there is no shortage in halal food here, although it’s a farther distance from where we live. This is thanks to the amount of immigrants of Sudanese, Pakistani, Indonesian, Arabic and Lebanese origin, which I will some to later.

The most convenient place for Muslims is Sydney Road, in the Brunswick district, some 30 minutes north of Lygon by tram. It’s filled with halal restaurants, bakeries and pizzerias, as well as other miscellaneous things, such as Arabic jewellers, Islamic garment stores for women, and even Arab Bank. The prices are reasonable. The trick I have discovered to maintaining my sanity here is to prevent myself from converting everything to Malaysian ringgit. The prices here are just the same as back at home, as a quick walk around K-Mart or Big W (the local equivalents of Carrefour and Giant) will tell you. Only everything is worth 2.82 times more. Heh.

The district we live in centres around the University of Melbourne. It’s located in Parkville, in the heart of Carlton itself, and only a 7 minutes walk away from the Central Business District, which can be called the ibu negara of Melbourne city. The uni is rather like a tourist attraction; like a small town, only more eclectic and diverse than the actual town itself. Like Kangaroo Kelly, our host for the Science Faculty tour around campus grounds, said, “We are young, and we are angry, and you will see a lot of that around here.” And we do.

Australian university students are very active in extra-curricular activities. In fact, it is what defines them as people. You can see many disinterested people lounging around, wanting to have a good time, and on the other end of the spectra that is UniMelb’s students, you find politically-active students who are aware, knowledgeable, passionate, and yes, angry. The Socialist Alternative Society’s booths have been everywhere throughout orientation, handing us pamphlets inviting us to brainstorm for the Troops Out of Iraq rally on March 17th. Hooked, the union of students actively campaigning for fair trade, sell lots of cheap alternatives to products of cheap Third-World labour. I got ‘Free Palestine” and ‘Make Poverty History’ badges from the respective booths. The Melbourne University’s Islamic Society (MUIS) has been handing out free DVDs and books, with the aim to further educate non-Muslims about Islam. Their slogan is simple: the translation to the shahaadah, which is “There is no God deserving of worship except Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

All this activism is very inspiring. It shows how, if we really want to fight for it, we can make a change in the world. If socialists and environmentalists attempt to make a difference, then why can’t we, as Muslims, try to do the same? MUIS has played a key role in UniMelb’s student union, in keeping the interests of the Muslim society a key priority in the university. It is its own support system. The people there aren’t judgemental. They do not force you into anything you are not ready for. But their dedication and faith towards Islam is brilliant. They are proud to be Muslims. That is how they define themselves.

They do not need to stop shaving their underarms (trust me, amongst unionists, this seems to be the common practise) or lose faith in democracy altogether. They merely fight for what they believe in.

So despite the bad press of the Westerners in general, there are many things we can learn from them, such as common courtesy. People say ‘sorry, my fault’ all the time, no matter if you’re the one who bumped into them and stepped on their foot. Everyone asks and is expected to lend a helping hand to complete strangers shamelessly. Muslims utter the salaam, “Assalamu’alaikum” at first glance. People here fight for their principles and their beliefs. They fight to defend justice, and while they may not be a pragmatic lot, they’ve got a whole lot of heart.

So. This is Melbourne.

this has been a rant by Syazwina Saw at 4:51 pm

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