owlrigh

Twenty-two rapes occur in Airlie every week. That's twenty more than what occurred monthly on the university campus I used to attend. That's more than what occurs at Schoolies' Week. I am sure it raises the Australian national average all by itself.

Yet you wouldn't think it were so if you were to go for a stroll down Shute Harbour Road -- it's all happy younglings and bright fashion stores and fast food outlets. Then, nestled in amongst these, you see where the hubbub of youth congregate come sundown: the nightclubs.

When I went to university you couldn't go to the toilet without finding stickers in the cubicles advertising you to be careful at night. They would go on to implore you to use the campus guides for women after sundown, or to use the campus shuttle buses where offerred. All for your safety -- and with no mention anywhere, on campus or without, of the attacks on women. Or even of the systematic abuse endemic to the colleges. The options were there, but they didn't tell you why.

( It's oh so quiet. )