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The Forum > Article Comments > (Don't) dare to be different > Comments

(Don't) dare to be different : Comments

By Georgina Dimopoulos, published 25/10/2006

The basic premise of multiculturalism appears paradoxical - feel free to celebrate diversity … just don’t dare to be different!

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Nothing in the media here yet,but the word I get from England is that the two British National Party officials charged with "inciting racial hatred" have been aquitted of all charges. This after two court cases. I would not be surprized if the government makes further appeal. As with what they did to Pauline Hanson here, one object is to bleed the finances of the persecuted.

This is a blow for Labour's Multicultural and "open door" immigration policies and the BBC was shown to be completely biased in their news stories.

The Poms really have made a mess of their society and this decission should help the BNP vote in forthcoming elections.

But it may be a little late to make Britton a decent society again.
Posted by Banjo, Saturday, 11 November 2006 9:49:31 AM
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Amen Banjo

A decent society is one where the citizens are in control of it, and hence their own destiny.

The Lambing Flat riots were partly caused by the Diggers suddenly realizing that their cultural identity hinged on a British treaty with China, rather than the wishes of the Australians here.

Chinese society is quite decent.. European society is quite decent, but they are all different. Put both together in similar numbers... 'fireworks'.

RACISM TEST (continued)
I'm waiting for Sofs response here.. ^_-
More.. if we have an "Im proud to be Italian/Greek/Serb/French/Scottish/English/Welsh" view.... and we then cite all manner of cultural/racial acheivement on which our 'pride' is based... how do we react when suddenly some Jew comes along and says "Ah..but 'WE' have xyx number of Nobel Prize winners" and blah blah :)

Or..some Russian or some other of any kind who we realize had a few more cultural 'points' than us....

This is why I totally believe 'ethnic/cultural/racial' pride is shallow and dangerous. Its as meaningful as 'Fastest gun in the West'.. which is true until someone faster comes along.

Australia...is Australia... and we should be producing 'Australians'...not 'greek/italian/Jewish/Chinese/Pakistani'Australians.

Be 'AUSTRALIAN' first..and let your ethnicity be a humble and unassuming afterthought.
Posted by BOAZ_David, Monday, 13 November 2006 7:01:44 AM
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Boaz: Can't you see the hypocrisy of your post? Don't you see Australians are ethnic too (see the dictionary)? What of the Indigenous peoples?

If a person is the sum of their actions, then aren't we as a society the sum of the nation that immigrants have built. Don't you think that the various attributes and histories enrichens our muticultural nation? I do.

I think you are wrong David to claim that pride in one's heritage is shallow and dangerous. And it only becomes racist if we start ordering people to be "Australian first" based on something other than our beginnings.

I think you can be, for instance, a Greek Australian and celebrate your culture and be a primarily Australian. Indeed, it is this diversity that makes us so Asutralian. Are you seriously suggesting that the Greeks not hold their Greek festivals etc.? That is Australia.

The different cultural and historical attributes are what makes us Australian. For somemone to deny their history and even their racial origins is up and up ethnocentricism and perhaps even racism David. It is even denying our Australian history.

I think most people - and, especially the level-headed, well-written posts of those who have some pride in their heritage -can tell the difference between jingoism, patriotism, racism and plain old humble respect for the positive achievements of our foremothers and fathers.

Thanks for directing me to the passage in Judges. I think that the Bible, especially the Old Testament, must be read in light of the Golden Rule. I think this Rule governs all other passages. For me it is the King - the best and most high authority in the Bible. It also points to importance of the individual as the one with the ultimate responsibilty for his or her choices
Posted by ronnie peters, Monday, 13 November 2006 6:38:49 PM
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Ronnie...
this is a fascinating discussion.

I find that your comment 'denial of ones racial background=Ethnocentrism' ? :) man.. its the other way around.. *slap* (I just read Judges again 0_- )
Seriously.. ethno-centrism is where we see everything in terms of our own ethnicity.

My objective is to free us from our 'ethnic' baggage, and simply be 'Australians'... that in fact includes the rich divesity you mention.

I think the main area we are not quite in accord with is the idea of 'Australian-ness'. For me.. it emerges in the 2nd stanza of McKella's poem...in specific contrast to the first...

Could you have a look at this and make a comment ?

here is a link.
http://www.anointedlinks.com/my_country.html

On the 'Greek festivals'.....I'm of 2 minds on that. I don't even see the need for 'Scottish' festivals. (and I'm part Scot) or 'English'... all they do is underline 'we' and 'you' rather than 'we/us/together'. I don't think banning either ethnic associations or ethnic festivals would work, but a gradual discouragement coupled with a gradual but active encouragement of 'Australian-ness' would possibly solve this. I don't believe it is 'racist' to promote national unity, on the contrary, it appears to my current thinking that it is racist to emphasize ones own ethnic heritage. But that kind of racism is quite benign. It would become more overt and serious in a time of 'crisis'. Note the final event in Judges ? "They each went to their own clan". (I suspect in disgust at the terrible events they had witnessed and participated in)

Its probably my Christian faith which sets me free from ethnic heritage, as I've realized that we are 'one body though many parts'
different, yet one.
Perhaps thats a good note to finish on... (with a link of course)
Romans 12:3 ff
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=52&chapter=12&version=31
also
1 Corinthians 12:14 ff
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=53&chapter=12&version=31
cheers
Posted by BOAZ_David, Tuesday, 14 November 2006 7:03:19 AM
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I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

David. Consider these lines in conjunction with the final lines of Dorathea McKellar’s poem.

All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

I think the poem is expressing the difficulty she has of articulating her great love for Australia. “I know but cannot share it.”

She is, I think, expressing the “otherness” that the French Jewish philosopher (just mentioning his origins and religion to help with your perspective) Jacques Levinas interrogated. (Difficult reading).

Put it this way David, as men, we cannot know the feelings of women in certain aspects of our humanity. The female will always be Other in certain ways.

The most undeniable Other is death. We cannot truly know death, we can know of and have faith about it but we cannot know. When we see death or come close we are alerted to our own mortality but still there is an unbridgeable gap between, as the philosophers like to say, the signified (death) and the signifier (the word or our limited understanding of death).

Back to DM’s poem – she is trying to bridge this gap between her knowing and the perspective of others. This love is very individual but it does not mean that others can not feel similar love.

It is only natural for an immigrant born overseas to have “homing thoughts”. If we can understand DM’s love, we can use this knowledge to try to understand and immigrant’s feelings. The Golden Rule.

Now the difference between a recent immigrant and the generations that follow is more to do with creating a relationship with their new home.

“All you who have not loved her,
you will not understand.”

Love grows from appreciation of another’s virtues.

Romans 12 is wisdom with a capital “W”. I Corinthians 12:14 ff tells me that the differences in individual parts of a whole are important in respect of creating a unified working whole.
Posted by ronnie peters, Tuesday, 14 November 2006 11:14:13 AM
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Hi Ronnie
well... I think that about does it. I can't fault your last post or disagree with it.

Your comments about Romans 12 are appreciated, and that is my own position. Different, yet one.

As long as our differences are always viewed in the context of the whole (Australian) then I don't see any reason to argue with them.
After all, if a nose cannot exist apart from its attachment to and reliance on, the body, and thats all I ask. Its that connection.
Body first.. individual 'difference' second.

Then, we are all pushing in the same direction, but with different tools. How poor we would be without yummy asian foods, or those of various other cultures. Customs which are seen to be worthwhile will also rub off on others.

I use as an example a tram trip I made a while back. The passengers were mixed ethnically. It was around Burwood area (Melbourne) and I'd say 50% Asian/Chinese, mostly girls (must have been a girls school in the area.. aah..yes there is PLC) and the others were Anglo/Aussie types.
The Asian girls were polite, warm hearted, innocent looking.
The small group of Anglo Aussie chics within my view were 'feisty, arrogant,self absorbed and loud'.

I know we can't generalize overall, but it did stand out. This says something about our family values etc. Chinese culture is not about subjugated women either.. its quite matriarchal. Mothers are often tyrants. (about education etc)

On that trip I also encountered some Asian boys who I astounded after I overheard one of them speaking in Indonesian, by yapping at them in Indo :) They were stunned. I had to ask how come they (as ethnic chinese) were using 'Indonesian' in Australia when talking to each other.
Then there was another.. a girl who looked very ethnically 'malay' to me, and as she passed to get off the tram, I spoke in Malay to her, she looked like she had seen a ghost :) (malay and indo are very similar)

Anyway... great to have some interesting and studied dialogue.
cheers.
Posted by BOAZ_David, Wednesday, 15 November 2006 7:06:03 AM
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