Well, Wizofaust, the amount of melanin in a person’s skin and their physical appearance appears to be an excellent guide as to what culture they identify with. I don’t know of any white people who claim aboriginal culture as their own culture. Nor would any black African claim that Eskimo culture was their culture. How many Chinese identify their culture as black African? Do American Indians call Pakistani culture their own culture?

My culture is that of the white European prots, and I would point out to you that immigrants from those societies assimilate very well with each other without forming ghettoes with high levels of criminal behaviour or welfare dependency. We do not have a problem with Danes being offensive to women on Sydney’s beaches. There is no German ghetto noted for being the heroin capital of Australia. Teachers in Sydney’s “troubled” South West do not fear that Norwegian pupils will be violent and abusive to them. Nightclubs in Sydney are not banning French patrons because they are a consistent source of violence. British nationals are not noted for drive by killings or shooting up police stations. Irish people do not murder their daughters for refusing to marry their cousins. Dutch people do not perform illegal genital mutilation of their daughters. Scots leaders in Australia don’t call Aussie girls “cat meat” and imply that they deserve to be raped.

Some idea of ethnic crime differentials can be obtained by looking at US figures. The yanks don’t have a problem with identifying prison inmates by their race, like Australia does. Imprisonment rates for African Americans in 1993 was 1,947 per 100,000 people. For Hispanics it was 529. For “non Hispanic whites” (which includes Lebanese and native Americans) it was 306. But for Japanese Americans it was only 36.

It sure looks to me like there is a very strong cultural factor in crime rates, Wizofaust.

Conclusion? Danish, German, French, Norwegians, British, Irish, and Dutch people consistently make very good migrants while people from other cultures can be a real pain in the butt. Some much more than others.

CJ Morgan “Um, Col you old dog - notions like "British ancestral stock"

For Australian “ethnic mix”, I am merely stating the bleeding obvious.

If you think it is different then argue how and I will be happy to shred whatever you fancifully claim.

Rainier” Oh no, his sense of British class status would not allow him to be placed with the ‘commoners’.”

If I were so enamored with “British Class Status” I would have chosen to stay where I could entrench myself in such.

Instead I chose to migrate to Australia.

One wonders what “choices” the likes of you have ever made?

Probably nothing beyond polishing up your limited social skills when an opportunity arose to move into some “dead-mans shoes” in academia, or was it "affirmative action"?

As for “Its always a never ending source of amusement for me to discover that those who are embracing the uncertainties of globalism are those most despised by those who hang on to those old western narratives”

Well if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.

Certainly when I compare the stability of the “institutions” which Australia acquired from Britain and compare that to say,

South and Central American nations, little the Portuguese or Spanish contributed as “stable” ever existed.

The French authored the Vietnam war,
the Belgians were tyrants in Africa, the Germans no better.
The Italians claim to a place in the sun fell with the stupid invasion of Ethiopia.
I suppose we could laud it on the Danes for their conquest of Greenland.

The Chinese have demonstrated their colonial expertise in Tibet.
The Russians managed to violate eastern Europe in a way that challenged Hitlers’ bestiality,

to say nothing of Japans benevolence in Manchuria

and of course,

Indonesia’s excellent record in attempting the colonization of East Timor.

“globalism”, was espoused by Trotsky (and keep getting trawled up time after time by the insecure malcontents, as basis to excuse their own shortcomings) and even Stalin had the measure of him.

All envious drivel from someone who doubtless, awakes every day to face the deficiencies of his own ethnic origins.

Rainier

The irony is that both Redneck and Wizofaus believe that a specific racial and cultural mixture are the basis of a superior civilisation. They only disagree on the ideal formula.

All I care about is the mundane consequences of high immigration, like housing affordability, infrastructure shortfalls, environmental degradation, homelessness and the national debt. I dont see these things as specifically race related.

Maybe the bleeding hearts could become trendsetters by inviting the destitute into their homes? It would be a nice change from telling everyone else to show more compassion.

James Sinnamon, a.k.a. daggett, cacofonix, Olduvai et al says: "I think, for your part you will have to make up your mind whether you are genuinely aggrieved at my allegedly unfair alleged use of sock puppetry"

Note that James doesn't actually deny his nefarious sock puppetry. I believe that in some places this kind of logic is called 'plausible deniability'. I really detest this kind of dishonesty, which is why I've persisted in getting James to expose his shameful tactics. The rest of us are limited to two posts per thread per day in this forum, but James thinks that he's entitled to more of a voice than the rest of us. He's an IT pro so he can fool this site with different IP addresses, and in his mind if it can't be proven it's OK.

Personally, in this knowledge I have to regard James' arguments and evidence as inherently suspect, particularly in light of the supposed "Gore Vidal" quotation that began my examination of James' posts to this forum, and what turns out to be an array of sock puppets. I think that any forum reader with a brain has worked out what's going on here by now anyway.

This is a shame, really - because I concur with James that Australia probably needs to limit its immmigration on ecological grounds. However we appear to differ in that I have asserted that so-called 'race' should not a criterion for deciding who is allowed to migrate to Australia. I gather that James/daggett/cacofonix/Olduvai/et al differs on this, but for some reason he doesn't seem to want talk about it.

Perhaps he's distracted by some sort of identity crisis?

Col Rouge/Alf Garnett: "...the deficiencies of his own ethnic origins".

I can't imagine why anybody'd think you're a racist misanthrope. However, given that you and I seem to have almost exactly the same "ethnic origins", I don't supppose it would be impertinent for me to suggest that some other factor/s are at play here?

Divergence, no, what I said was that it has only ever been a noisy minority clamouring for migrants to stay out, or that immigration is destroying Australia. I'll happily accept that more than half of all Australians have some concern that our immigration level is probably too high. But it's not a vote changer at this point. If the powers that be don't reduce immigration sooner or later, it will become a vote changer, as it has in other nations.

Redneck, we already agree that some cultures are more likely to harbour values that are hostile to Australian laws and principles. But tell me, if you had to rank the following in order of their likelihood of causing a problem with Australia's social cohesion and cultural identity, how would you go:

1. A well-educated Iraqi who is a lapsed Muslim, and largely irreligious
2. A poorly-educated fundamentalist white Christian who believes in using violence against abortion clinics and homosexuals
3. A (black) Sudanese moderate/liberal Christian
4. An Indonesian Buddhist
5. A well-educated, English-speaking Indian Hindu
6. A poorly-educated, non-English speaking Indian fundamentalist Muslim
7. A Croatian fundamentalist Muslim
8. A well-educated, irreligious Vietnamese

...well, you get the idea. Just because there is a vague correlation between skin-colour/appearance and cultural background does not that the former can be used as an accurate guide to the latter.

Further, when Italians and Greeks first started migrating here, they *did* form ghettos and gangs. 10-15 years ago, most Chinese lived in areas with high concentrations of Chinese: they are now slowly dispersing throughout the community, and in another 20 years there will be probably be little evidence of once-Chinese-dominated areas, much like Lygon St in Melbourne is about the last remnant of an Italian "ghetto". I see little reason to believe that Muslim and Sudanese ghettos are not likely to go the same way eventually, provided that they are ostracised by the rest of society.

Oops, above should end "provided they are NOT ostracized by the rest of society".

Oh and Fester, I don't see how you can conclude I believe "a specific racial and cultural mixture are the basis of a superior civilisation". I certainly don't believe race per se is relevant. As far as culture goes, then yes, I believe there are certain cultural values that are worth fighting for, most of them included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which a vast majority of UN member countries voted to support.