I never thought I’d see the day when there were not ONE but TWO independent cinema operators in Canberra. The Zeccola family’s decision to expand to Canberra is a very good one, in my opinion. Dendy doesn’t have the capacity to show a lot of independent and foreign films, as well as host film festivals. And there is more than enough demand for these services in Canberra. With the ongoing development of New Acton, it will make this area even more of a hotspot. And finally, a proper home for the Italian Film Festival in Canberra, which has often struggled to find local support (the Zeccola family and Palace founded the festival and continue to run it in Australia). I cannot wait.

Though it may lead to the ultimate Canberra #firstworldproblem - which funky, hipster, independently owned cinema will I frequent this evening?

Locanda at Rydges Lakeside is doing an Italian Food Festival during February. Today is the first time I have seen any kind of publicity on it, via OutInCanberra. Apparently the cuisine they are celebrating in the first week (last week presumably) is Northern Italian cuisine, and they are exploring regional fare as the month progresses.  I found this out from their facebook page. It’s hard to work out what is going on, but I will investigate further and report back. Their official announcement on it, via the Rydges website, is scant on detail.

Another event coming up is the Southern Highland Wines Italian festival on Canberra Day long weekend. They are having a dinner of Italian food and wine on the Saturday evening (March 12) and then a market type day long festival ‘do on the Sunday (March 13). More info is availble here.

It’s nice to see the commercial side embracing Italian culture, rather than it all coming from cultural organisations.

Yet again I’m enraged that such racist and hate-filled debate continues. Liberal MPs are against halal butchers apparently, because they will lead to Australia becoming full of ethnic enclaves.

Does this mean that the way Italians started curing meat in Australia back in the 50s and 60s has destroyed our way of life? I’m quite sure that the Liberal MPs in question, former Howard Minister Kevin Andrews among them, enjoy some delicious prosciutto on a focaccia just like the next person.

When will we learn the lessons of our young nation’s history and the lessons of history more generally, and stop scapegoating the ethnic group du jour? It’s a pattern that a nation state develops. Defining an ‘other’. Right now it is muslims, radical islam, or people of ‘middle eastern appearance’ - whatever that means. It used to be a number of others, our indigenous population, Italians, Greeks, Vietnamese ‘boat people’, the Macedonians that came during different wars.

The only way to prevent the development of ‘ethnic enclaves’ that the Libs are apparently so scared of is to actually form a dialogue with people of diverse cultural backgrounds and have a national multicultural policy that encourages diversity, and essentially, allows people the freedom to pursue religion, cultural interests, their language and heritage within Australian society, not apart from it.

Many of you might think - Luisa, it’s just an article… it’s just a few backbenchers talking crap. It isn’t significant. Well. Though it might not be a significant issue now, it all feeds into it. As long as people hold these views, Australia becomes less of a socially inclusive society. How did the Cronulla riots happen? How did it actually get to the point of people taking to the streets? Consecutive speeches, articles and rhetoric coming from the Government at the time which created a space where people think it is REASONABLE and NORMAL to protest against the mere existence of a ‘group’ of people on their beaches.

It’s a human rights issue. Rant over.

ELSEWHERE: The dirty little secret of assimilationists