Tim it is sickening to hear of your experience. I have no doubt it is a regular event in our secular society. We are becoming more and more selfish and it is being encouraged by pathetic judges who rarely give out punishment that fits the crime. It actually starts with pathetically weak parenting where children receive little to no discipline and rarely receive consequences for bullying and bad behaviour. We have lost our moral compass as we have departed from Christian values. I also have no doubt that such bullies would do the same if the victims were African (if they were smaller) or even elderly people.

I hope you achieve some good in your quest other than raise up another group of people with victim mentalities. We already have enough of those and generally they end up feeling justified in causing more trouble than what has come to them. Hopefully one day we will vote in a Government who is willing to listen to the people of Australia rather than suck up to the failed dogmas of the UN.

runner makes a good point. We have become too lenient in the Courts. All nations are racist to some extent some moreso than others. I think Australia is pretty good by comparison based on my travels.

I would be wary of using a dishevelled person (begging for money) and a skinhead as indicative of the average Australian. Most people I know are not racist and get a bit tired of the casual accusations of a racist Australia bandied about lately. And the potential, as runner pointed out, of a growing victim mentality.

I think we become defensive (I do) when the implications are that it is white anglo/European Australians alone that are guilty of racism and the attacks against Indian students (for example) when it has been clearly shown that a large majority of these attacks are from other minorities with their own set of problems and issues.

The experience you had on the train was I imagine more than just unpleasant.

The map idea sounds good but it could be misused. How many attacks have to occur before an area is blacklisted and how does one prove it was racially based? Wouldn't it be better to highlight danger areas in terms of the growing trend of violence against all innocent victims regardless of race.

As for the police. Police have to go by the evidence they cannot just make an unubustantiated statement about racial motivations if the evidence does not support it. If there is evidence that attacks are racially based then they must be dealt with and perhaps more education is needed about what it means to be a secular and multicultural nation. Minority groups that may not embrace secularism may need more education about our system of justice, the Constitution and the division of State and Church.

Best of happiness with upcoming nuptials.

Tim, this is a great article and I applaud you for taking a stance. I'll try and help in anyway that I can. I think you speak for the moral majority in this country of every race who are sick and tired of being hassled or seeing the appalling behaviour of thugs, hooligans and low-lifes. We need to take a stand of those people - who really are life's losers - will take over our country.

Savvas, Tim and any other person in this country can marry whoever they like from whatever ethnic group they like. I'm sure that most of the Anglo-Australian girls will get married too .... relax champ, is something on your mind?! ;-) Just kidding.

The Missus, do you actually have any evidence to back up those claims? particularly the one about the shopping mall? The Bosnians, Serbs and Croats issue was understandable given the intensity of the civil war in the 1990's. Ditto the Sinhalese and Tamils ... in fact during the 25 year civil war the only major clash if that was a few isolated incidents in Australia at the time the war ended. Otherwise the vast majority of the people from these ethnic groups are
upstanding Australians. I emphasise the fact that they are Australians. Again, deal with it or move on.

Also, the"ethnic" train guards were mostly older Sikh, Anglo, or other Indian guys in Sydney. I doubt that many or any of these men were ever involved in any youth violence?!

Tim, don't feel bad about saying nothing. I did the same thing when a group of similar trash were grafitting a train. Only one old lady complained. The rest of the carriage was too scared to intervene

The first character in Tim Watt’s story was an unpleasant and ignorant character. So was the person who opined that ““I hate how this (I had to remove the profanity, Tim did not racist this country is sometimes”.

To deal with the first one: how dare he ask strangers for money but, more importantly, how dare he harass a group of Asians for not speaking English; they could have been tourists without any English. My wife and I, both mono-lingual, have never been insulted in such a way using public transport as tourists in a non-English speaking country.

The second person made an utterance about “this racist country”. How dare he or she decide that Australia is a ‘racist country’ just because of one lout, and another who agreed with him, in one instance?

Tim Watts himself is not much chop, either. Having identified himself as someone who claims to be “…“not backwards in coming forwards”, he was too frightened to do anything about the harassment: he sat “fuming” next to his Asian fiancée. What a hero she must seem in her eyes! Of course, his really wanting to call someone a (name I had to remove as a profanity even though it was a quote from Tim's article) probably wouldn’t be the right way to about putting the aggressor in his place and protecting the victims. Rightly, he thought he might get his head punched by calling such a nasty person a (the same name again)

Had he acted properly, Tim might have found he could influence the boofhead by not being and thinking as aggressively as the boofhead.

The only person who came out looking good in this situation was the woman who hugged the crying girl.

The writer goes on to blame the police and everybody else for racist attacks. But, what right does Tim have to do this, when he could have done something about the particular instance that he reports, but didn’t?

Don’t tell other people what to do Tim, unless you are prepared to do your bit.

Leigh, I've been around situations on trains where I've wanted to speak up but all things considered silence at the time seemed the lesser evil. Situation's which at the time were verbal but which appeared to have the potential to quickly become physical. Silence can deny the aggressor the "justification" they need to take it to the next level.

I'm left with mixed feelings from those experiences. I'd feel better about myself if I'd stood up to be counted but am also left with the knowledge that doing so could easily have added to the problem and would be unlikely to have changed the attitudes of the aggressors.

I think that if it ever came to the situation where physical violence was occurring I'd step up but I while it remains verbal it's not such a clear call. I don't want to be the one who gives someone the excuse they feel they need.

The situation's I've seen have generally involved alcohol or what appears to be mental illness. Some have have a clear racial element but those have been from people who appear to be from minority racial groups expressing views about others from different racial groups and have as far as I could tell involved alcohol. All have had the appearance of social and economic disadvantage being a significant factor.

R0bert

David

I never said the transit police were ethnic. They were mainly white or closer enough to it. Not the issue if you can read at all. Like Singapore, when you have cultural clashes day in, day out you need to become a police state to deal with that. Sydney has become very much over policed. As someone who was there in the 80's and then again late 90's early 2000 is is glaringly obvious the town has sunk.

And no I will not simply get over it, same as the Indian students who have faced the same dysfunction in our suburbs are not going to simply get over it. Same as the girls on the Camberwell train will probably not simply just get over it. Who does it make happy? Nobody. The immigrants who are a cultural fit will obviously contribute a lot more but more importantly be far happier in their lives because of it. Australians already present will have fewer cultural clashes.

Saying just get over is mindless and intellectualy barren. People simply do not just get over it. Perhaps you shoud get over thinking we are a nice rosy tolerant society. How much proof is required?, I it s not he case.

The wealthy like it because they are quarantined from it and make money from it. People in lower socio-economic circumtsance undergo the greatest upheavel for not only zero economic benefit but need to compete for job that are often, almost usually under legal rates. Normal night rate I would say could be $8/hr. Then the rich do not even tip! Oh no we paying a living wage in Australia, we do not have to tip. Really people live in la la land and perhaps they should get over that!