When we think about cancel culture, our first response is to dismiss it as just another first world indulgence.
Which it is no doubt, but then I came across the following sentence in a media release about the state of play in Western Sydney: To really thrive, the West needs to be better understood by government.
And that’s when it dawned on me that cancel culture could actually be put to good use now and again.
And where better to start than with the meaningless and annoying Western Sydney.
It really, seriously must be kicked into the rubbish bin of history because its use is doing more harm than good for the people who apparently live there.
Here’s an example: the state government decides to relocate the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta, but spins it as a massive boost for culture in, you guessed it, Western Sydney.
What a joke.
Apart form anything else it is a total insult that “Western Sydney’’ gets the arts hand-me-downs from inner city Sydney, but I will leave it at that.
Let’s just say that the state government loves the term Western Sydney because if someone from Camden complains about the lack of support for the arts there they point to the Powerhouse Museum in Parramatta – you know, the alleged heart of Western Sydney.
The second point is how the media report news for a vast area that contains places like Windsor in the north west to Wollondilly Shire in the south west.
In between are places like Liverpool, Bankstown, Blacktown, Penrith and many others.
But if a news event takes place in one of those locations, it is reported as having happened in Western Sydney!
Another joke, but who could be bothered with the lowest common denominator approach to news employed by the TV, radio and print outlets, all of whom are based in Eastern Sydney – oops, sorry, meant Darling Harbour Ultimo, North Sydney or wherever their offices are located.
Now they know how we feel when a story that happens in Fairfield is reported to have occurred in Western bloody Sydney.
They two major political parties have entrenched this with a minister for Western Sydney and his or her shadow.
But you can’t expect too much from those two, whose intellect is in inverse order to how much they know about beating each other at elections.
And finally, absolutely nobody ever says Western Sydney, when asked where they live.
I rest my case, Your Honour.
Until people take ownership of the term western sydney, and are proud to tell others that this is where they are from, where they live, those in the east will always use it as a derogatory term to opress.
But really, those of use who live here know of all its highlights, great spots, and in all honesty, regardless of those in the east who think they have won the money lottery, there are plenty of “westies” doing quite well, and more often than not, much better than the eastern suburbs hoi polloi, than you very much.