Bennie
1) “We've got quite a few generations who grew up with it and who actually like learning about other cultures and peoples and customs“
What does that prove- zilch!
Studying culture/history is not MC !
( I like studying history, cultures & languages too!)

2) And you don’t have to “ shut the airports“ to stifle MC - JUST TWO SIMPLE STEPS:
i) Make MC pay its own bills - then stand back & watch the stampede as the hangers-on, realising there are no more free lunches, desert…&
ii) Remove the escape clause -built into the MC infrastructure - which allows people/groups to attribute their own individual or the groups lack of comparative performance to discrimination.

3) Australia may not be England but we are certainly on the slippery slope…
The main difference is -our MC nurtured/inspired bombers weren’t successful -England’s were -but we’ve always got next time eh!

Frank
Lets not beat around the bush.
Of course Blair is not likely to say MC is abolished forthwith -the party is other!
But note his use of the word “integrate”.
I can remember just a few short years ago, all talk of integration was deemed racism & at odds with MC …
It’s the thin edge of wedge Frank!

PS Frank -please watch your tongue, I noted you used the word “PORKIES”.Now, a culturally sensitive person like yourself should know that pigs are strickily taboo with certain cultures- SO PLEASE -lets not offend !

(Disclaimer -the use of Roman numerals in the above does not signify support for MC)

Can one advice how to change "ten Australian multiculturalisms" on normal human life somewhere in "a melting pot"?

MichaelK,
a melting pot society is still multicultural. It isn't governed by multiculturalism. Australia is multicultural and is governed by cultural influence as is government lobbied under cultural banners. We don't do what's best for Australia. We do what's best for that particular culture that screams the loudest at that moment. After that it's down to all the special interest groups. Australian political savvy can be best described by the old saw, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease". And there's only so much grease. Somebodies got to suffer or do with out. Which means victim status becomes very desirable. Which means being a victim becomes desirable. So we have become a nation of victims.
It's wrong to say Australia doesn't have a culture. Multiculturalism has given us the culture of the whinging special interest society.
Squeek, squeeeek, squeeeeeeeek.

Horus,

You say: ‘Of course Blair is not likely to say MC is abolished forthwith…’ I ask why? If Multiculturalism is so unpopular in Britain as you and your shadow, Banjo, say it is, why wouldn’t he get rid of it?

Maybe he read the BBC poll (6 August 2005)? The majority (62%) of British people think Multiculturalism makes Britain a better place (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4137990.stm ). As one commentator said: ‘Those who thought it fashionable to bash multiculturalism should think again.’

You claim that Tony Blair’s use of the word ‘integrate’ signifies his real intention to abolish Multiculturalism. Rubbish! Multiculturalism has always encouraged new arrivals to integrate with mainstream institutions and services. Here are Blair own words:

‘…Multicultural Britain was never supposed to be a celebration of division; but of diversity. The purpose was to allow people to live harmoniously together, despite their difference; not to make their difference an encouragement to discord. The values that nurtured it were those of solidarity, of coming together, of peaceful co-existence. The right to be in a multicultural society was always, always implicitly balanced by a duty to integrate, to be part of Britain, to be British and Asian, British and black, British and white. Those whites who support the BNP's policy of separate races and those Muslims who shun integration into British society both contradict the fundamental values that define Britain today: tolerance, solidarity across the racial and religious divide, equality for all and between all.

‘So it is not that we need to dispense with multicultural Britain. On the contrary we should continue celebrating it. But we need - in the face of the challenge to our values - to re-assert also the duty to integrate, to stress what we hold in common and to say: these are the shared boundaries within which we all are obliged to live, precisely in order to preserve our right to our own different faiths, races and creeds.’

Multiculturalism encourages integration, and discourages separatism.

On the allegedly offensive word ‘porkies’: do you think I should have used the plain word ‘lies’?

Banjo what would be the point of removing the mechanism where Australians can help other new Australians? Is it the social security costs? Sure, we can let them pay their own bills. We could ask every interest group - arts councils, libraries, swimming pools, community centres, whoever it is that decides to spend millions on fireworks over the city on NYE, you name it - to pay their own bills. But we don't. Is there really a need to explain why?

Is it just foreigners? How many have you spoken to that have dictated to you what they want? If you're thinking of the talking heads on TT, and you think they're representative, you'd believe their articles on miracle diets too.

Ah, discrimination. It depends on who shouts it first, and loudest. MC contains no escape clause. The governemnt's MC policy is less than a page long. If you read it you will see there is no provision for any discretion in matters of law. And the next guy who claims discrimination will do it regardless of official government policy. Why let it needle you? There are plenty of Australians who cite discrimintation to the point that it has no practical meaning.

'Integration' is all very nice but how to achieve that if immigrants don't have the opportunity to learn the language, get a qualification, have a place to live etc? Not everyone has the wherewithal to survive without help. I'm happy for my taxes to go towards that. I'd sooner see parliament make do with a lot less, than see those who need it go without.



"Can you just see things like poligomy, dog meat and dolphins,whales being consumed, FGM common place, cockfights and bullfights held every Saturday, firearms carried openly in public." ?

Nope.

Bennie that was a great post. I wrote a long post answering some of the comments directed at me, but wiped it. I'm getting so tired of saying that Australian citizens who are proud of their heritage are not hellbent on destroying the culture of the country they've sworn allegiance to. It is because of the very essence of Australia that the majority of immigrants chose Australia.

As Bennie said, money is spent on many interests on behalf of groups. Some of them we agree with wholeheartedly, others we don't. We are being told ad nauseam how fabulous our economy is and what a huge surplus we have, but it isn't exactly being used to uplift or improve services to the Australian citizenry or to develop a vibrant art industry is it? Why is it that all Australia's talent goes O/S?

If there is indeed a disappearance of Australianims, and I actually think so, don't blame MC. Blame the commercial media, the drastic funding cuts to the ABC and the poverty stricken Australian film making industry. In European countries local Films and TV production are heavily subsidised, because nobody can commercially compete with the American entertainment industry. I would love to see 70% Australian content on TV and more Australian movies. Generally I find them better and more entertaining than the American tripe we get flooded with.