Stern:>someone once said to Voltaire, 'Life is hard.' To which is replied: 'Compared with what?' I suppose perceptions of a “racist Australia” are only relevant when we ask – compared to what?<

Well put Stern, thank you. I have spent extended periods abroad due to my work, so you get to know the nuances and prejudices of a culture after a couple of years of living in it. We are at the bottom of the racist scale from my observation; we are as welcoming as the best I have experienced abroad.

Regarding the Anglo and European heritage amongst us who have adopted the PC mandate as their ethos. I have observed that they usually accept that Australia is a racist country as a matter of course, but I have also found that their only experience of other cultures comes from personal perception through second hand media input or a bit of tourist time. As you perceptively recounted" compared to what".

Repeat my earlier post....Australians, and the north-west Europeans in general, i.e. Anglo's, and the Scandanavian type countries, France, Germany....are the LEAST, repeat, LEAST racist cultures on earth.

There is no argument about it. Laws on the books say it all in non-western countries. Particular ethnicities are kept out of certain jobs (here they are given job BECAUSE of ethnicity in some cases - affirmative action - a paternalistic, patronising and very racist policy.

Those who really think we are racist need to look at how our neighbours treat asylum seekers.

As I said earlier, India actually shoots on sight.

Did you get that? Shoots to kill, on sight.

No questions.

But we are evil for how we treat them. What those who think this are revealling, without even knowing it because its so deeply entrenched in their minds, that THEY are racist.

Why?

Because they must expect less of Indians, or any of our neighbours which are all far worse than us.

You actually have private citizens in places like South Africa that rounded up Zimbabweans fleeing the racist trash policies of Mugabe (took away white land, no white farmers, blacks starve...he thought that one out didn't he!) and burnt them alive.

Alive!

Yet our 'rednecks' who just don't want any more non-westerners because non-westerners are extremely insular, tribal, and yes, dare I say it, homophobic, misogynstic, and racist (in general, there are always a few who go against the normal cultural values of their cultures - like Ayaan Hirsi Ali for example - CJ MORGAN should read her book because she comments about how female genital mutilation affects Somali Muslim women - yet CJ just equates it with male circumcision - that is disgusting, and misogynistic towards women)...

...
Australian-Australians (of all colours and creeds) are sick of the violent crime to that comes with asylum seeker cultures.

We can't hate asylum seekers because their value systems are violent, tribal, and totally antithetical to western notions of human rights (as opposed to tribal rights).

But we can stop letting the rich ones in. The party that does this will win the election because Aussies are against tribalism and racism and don't like reading about ethnic gangs (think about how racist it is to hang out in a pack of those just because they are of the same race!

It's not possible to comprehend for enlightened cultures who value individualism.

Europe is waking up because they have more of them, and the more you have, the more problems as the evidence shows.

And when they run affairs, like they do in the countries they dominate, you have nothing but violent hellholes.

We don't want that here.

I'm not sure where the author is coming from. Racism these days has no meaning, it can virtually mean anything to anyone. However having working for a global IT company which sent on assignments all over the world I can only say that the 3rd world countries treated me totally differently. US, Canada, and Europe were the best places to work in, especially if you dealt with the native population. India, Thailand, China, Iraq, Indonesia and Malaysia is where I really felt uncomfortable due to ingrained xenophobia. I guess there is a reason why they're fleeing their home countries to live amongst the racists, but the racists are not really wanting to live their cosmopolitan countries? I suggest the author stays in China where he feels comfortable and he will see how cosmopolitan the Chinese really are. I think the Australian immigration programs should definitely favor people from similar cultural backgrounds, ie Judo-Christian Western European. In the coming decades there will be lots of Europeans fleeing their multi-cultural utopia. I also don't understand why we need immigration for economic reasons? Downward pressure on wages is the only visible economic indicator, apart from that you actually waste more money on immigration programs, integration, crime and corruption problems.

"As I said earlier, India actually shoots on sight.

Did you get that? Shoots to kill, on sight.

No questions."
_____________________________

Holy Ganesh!! You'd better be careful how you sail down the Ganges then!

While “shooting on sight” is over stating things.
I have no doubt that Indian border security might be a little more trigger happy than your average western bleeding heart ensconced in suburbia might desire.

But then , if some of those bleeding hearts had had to put up with this , in their major city--more than once:
http://vodpod.com/watch/2502509-secrets-of-the-dead-mumbai-massacre-pbs
and similar, every second day, in their border regions.
They mightn’t be so tolerant and forgiving, either !

( multiculturalism gone sour!)