Typical of that elitist Bolty to take potshots at the small business owners on Struggle Street, Marrickville from his coward’s castle in the oligopolistic Murdoch empire.

Seriously, the last people you’d expect to support free markets are the culture warriors.

The moment cheap bad Vietmanese action musicals become an item in demand among a big Anglo audience, they’ll change their signage themselves.

You don’t see the Thais, Viets, Koreans, Greeks or even the Frogs for that matter complaining about about the signage for English language book, music and movie stores in their cities.

Lost charm, coming soon to a video store near you.

But I do like the signs in Greek in Marrickville – I like painstakingly working out what they say, usually to find out it’s much the same in English, just written differently.

He may be channeling some old Greek/Italian talking points that he’s heard in his travels around the area. There is a lot of old Greek/Italian money and migrants in the ares and they may be feeling threatened by the new arrivals………..ironic.

While I haven’t done a comprehensive study, Geoff and Phil have it pretty much bang to rights – there are very few of these shops, most of them are selling non-english media, those that aren’t you can usually tell what they’re selling by window displays or – gasp! – going inside and having a look. This is a big red-herring put out by some dishonest and demagogic councillors (Victor Macri and Morris Hanna – Greek and Egyptian respectively) to get their dodgy antics viz. the recent mayoral sucession battle off the headlines.

Marrickville’s multicultural mix works awesomely, and it’s a pity to see Crs. Hanna and Macri lining up with Australia First and the Patriotik Yoof Leeg.

The day professional whiners like that have to get of their lily white colonialist arses and actually contribute something meaningful, positive and creative to this country will be stunning.

Aside from deriding stupid journalists… I was in Little Bourke St in Melbourne not long ago and the stuff in the Chinese shops was gorgeous. Little buddhas, crystal balls and some delightful “hello kitty” stuff that reminded me of the fyxo t-shirts… =D There was also a sign making mention of the need for Australian Chinese children to be taught about their cultural heritage, which I thought was great.