Aussie Values: Save us the embarrassement!

Re: # 22
Harimau, most of those who arrived on the Tampa were found to be genuine refugees and have been settled in Australia, NZ and other countries. I found it interesting that they didn`t want to live in Indonesia, though!
To the author-Interestingly, Egon Kisch had a dictation test in Scottish Gaelic-it could be done in any European language!

#22 Mian Harimau

Xenophobia and racism are close relatives.

The two are blood relatives.

At the end of the day, they both seek blood.

Also, most xenophobiacs and racists use words to portray themselves as superpatriots - they rarely convey their true intents honestly!

There are few self-proclaimed bigots out there!

VERY few!

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I have often found it difficult to understand what pollies mean by Australian values. When pressed, they often talk of mateship and giving everyone a fair go but I think in an ideal world those are just human values. As is respect for women, which is also mentioned. No society in the world accepts that it does not respect women, not even the Taliban in Afghanistan, so I think they need to be more specific. Not to mention the fact that Australians can be just as misogynistic as anyone else.
I think that Australia under John Howard has become a selfish country and that concerns about terrorism have just tapped into pre-existing racism. Who can forget the way people on board the Tampa were not allowed to enter the country; when the September 11 attacks happened soon after, Howard said that they were a perfect example of why he had not allowed the refugees on board the Tampa to enter Australia. 5 years on, there has been no apology to them, or to the parents accused to throwing their children overboard. The message was quite clearly that foreigners with no papers couldn`t be trusted enough to even be processed on Australian soil. How does this not feed into xenophobia?Pauline Hanson`s beliefs have now become mainstream, with even the Labor party unable to stand up for migrants.

saeed,

.... nice article and good luck with your efforts .......... unfortunately, racism is not going away any time in the next couple of thousand years .......

#18 Arjun2

Yaar, your quarter seems all messed up - just like many of your arguments!

Now, here is what a REAL quarter looks like!



I bet now you are wondering what a REAL argument looks like.

Easy, just go read my #1, #5, and #14 all over again!

#14 by bjkumar on October 11, 2006 4:46pm PT

Here`s a quarter..call someone who gives a paki`s rear...

The only ones who need to be embarrassed by Australian policy are the so-called ``moderate`` Muslims who ought to recognize that Australia is merely trying to weed out suicide bombers.

But if the author is representative of the ``moderate Muslim`` community, I am afraid we are in trouble when the jihadis show up. Heck, we will be in trouble when non-practicing Muslims show up!

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The Australian Minister for Immigration is supposed to have remarked (back in the 1920s) when he was asked to justify the White Australia policy, ``Because two Wongs don`t make a White``.

Ama Arjun,

Many times you say correct things in exposing the bad deeds of the Jihadis.

But when you start generalizing wholesale communities, you make a mistake and nobody believes you any more - so you undo some of your own legitimate efforts!

Just my personal opinion!

Yaaran,

What a FEW people do must never be allowed to reflect on the whole community! That is the standard that we try to use in India (not always very successfully) – and we need to follow the same standards elsewhere.

Wholesale generalization is wrong, wrong, wrong!!!

Australians need to learn from the past mistakes (usually the fifty years ago mistakes or earlier (and thankfully mostly no more being repeated now)) of such countries as USA, UK, etc. in mistreating their minorities – be they linguistic or religion-wise or racial minorities! Such mistreatment always makes the country WEAKER - never stronger!

PS:

I personally don’t think desis will have any problem under a Hispanic majority California. For one thing, the vast number of Hispanics feel very much like the non-Hispanic Americans. Secondly, Spanish is a very easy language to learn for Hindi speaker types. The complexion is also not that different!!

Kulharee #8

`` Are Aussies still mourning the death of the Croc Hunter? What a silly country going bananas over an accidental death of a circus boy. There are other more important things going on in the world. ``

Steve Irwin was good at what he did. Maybe he is the best Aussies have to offer ?

bjkumar #5

`` Arjun, the author makes legitimate issues regarding ``language`` tests being used for advancing the agenda of racists. The same was accomplished in the post civil-war US south to keep blacks disenfranchised - it was called ``literary`` test. The Supreme Court eventually held it illegal! ``

We will see how much desis like California when it is being run by Hispanics immigrants couple of generations from now.

The author needs to explain why Australia has to let in Pakistani refugees given the poor record of Pakistani immigrants in United Kingdom - Daniel Peral killers, Subway bombers etc.

I just glanced thru the website of the author.

Saeed Khan Sahib, you are doing a good deed. Best of luck to you.