“I don’t know what TB means.” Nor do I and Ginx seems indisposed when it comes to explaining it." (Quote: TB)

I apologise. I was indisposed today. Gardening.

Jewels, TB stands for 'Thatchers Boy'. Perhaps some of us develop some affection for politicians (I know, I know,-but one has!!).

TB has an uxorious affection for Thatcher, referring to her as 'dearest Margaret'. Teeth curling stuff, but stuff I felt should not go unrewarded....
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Col are you and Leigh gonna start meeting for cawfee like you do/did with Boaz/PolyCarp? If so, will Leigh disappear too?

Posted by Fractelle, Thursday, 4 June 2009 11:36:01 AM

Sod it all! You beat me to it! It's so sweet to see. I think it's called male bonding. Awwwwwwwww!

Antonios, for the record, I'm a migrant. That however, is entirely irrelevant.

I didn't say Australia has no racism, I said I think that when looked at in perspective, Australia isn't a racist country. We've got damn reasonable migrant intakes, we've got a genuine multiculture (for all the complaints about how anglo-saxon Australia is, compare it to monocultural countries overseas and you'll see the different pretty quick) and with the exception of an ugly undercurrent which exists everywhere, we're a pretty accepting lot.

Actually, I don't see such huge polar differences of opinion in this thread, but maybe I'm being optimistic.

I think the similarities of opinion are being overshadowed by personality differences, rivalries and fringe arguments.

Firstly - I think we're agreed that the motives of these attacks tends to be money. These thugs are picking easy marks to mug.

But, I think we're also agreed that it's not acceptable, just because the attacks aren't race-hate. A broken jaw is a broken jaw.

So we can't criticise India for being up in arms. Imagine Australia's reaction if Australian students overseas were perceived as easy marks and mugged relentlessly, way out of proportion to the local population.

For a further example of media mischief, have a look at the Bigpond piece headed: “Haikerwal condemns attacks on India”

In the first paragraph, you will find that he did not condemn “attacks on India” (all the attacks were on Australia, remember) but attacks on Indian students. Don’t we all?

Dr Haikerwal, ex AMA president, was also attacked; but he doesn’t think that racism had anything to do with it, believing that “over-representation” of Indian student victims was because, “there are not many people on public transport when they are on trains after working, studying late at night”.
He also said, “'I believe the original motivation is around a violent culture so we need good deterrents in the court system.” That must stick in the craws of the self-haters who blame everything on ‘racism”.

TurnRightThenLeft,

Thank you for posting a reasonable opinion on a thread started by me. It’s nice to have one ‘adversary’ who thought about what I said and not what they think of me

TLTR“I didn't say Australia has no racism, I said I think that when looked at in perspective, Australia isn't a racist country.”

Whose perspective are you looking at it from? Not Antonios?
(grammar check on that, can I add an S like Antonios’s?)

L:“He also said, “'I believe the original motivation is around a violent culture so we need good deterrents in the court system.” That must stick in the craws of the self-haters who blame everything on ‘racism”.”

Leigh does this mean Aussie has a violent culture but it’s okay as long as the violence isn’t racially motivated?

New thread needed… which is worse, being violent or racially violent. Although TLTR said that bit about a broken jaw but it does make a difference to the victim, the Why of it would matter to the poor little slumdog.

Okay that one came from the Movie Slumdog Millionaire. I didn’t know any racial slurs for Indians from India.

I suspect much of what is classified under the name of racism
could more accurately be put under other headings.

A number of incidents to which I have been privy, make me wary. And, I will relate one.

In a previous incarnation I worked with a small (corporate) team. Among the staff were two girls (of European descent).
Now, when these girls met you in the work environment they showed the standard courtesies, but if they happened upon you outside of work they would invariable ignore you.They had acted this way towards me, and other staff, a number of times.It didn’t tick-me-off because they did their work well – and, I didn’t aspire to get too close to either of them socially.

However there was another team member , of Sri Lankan descent.
One day he encountered them outside of work and they did the normal –we look at you but pretend not to see you routine– with him .
He was quite peeved . He later relayed the incident to me and branded it a “racist act” , they had in his opinion rejected him because he was “black” and, no amount of explanation from me could convince him otherwise – it was I suspect, added to his dossier of “racist things I have experienced in OZ”.

But, there are two funny twists to this story.
The first : one of the girls had a Fijian Indian fiancé, who she later married.
And the other, married a Greek who wasn’t exactly lily white, either.
So it would be hard to sustain a charge of racism against either of them.

And the second : the Sri Lanka man had previously expressed the opinion that a certain ethnic group which lived in Sri Lanka were
of limited intelligence and would never amount to anything – he said such, without batting an eyelash .
So he was hardly a poster-boy for the anti-racism cause.

Jewely,
The Government has always told us of the 'enormous benefits' we gain from migration. So the studies show the polys lie, after developers the most that gain are the migrants themselves.

Sure we let Kiwis come and go as they please but I understood you were refering to living here and gaining citizenship. We are almost cousins to Kiwis, we even offered them to be a State of Aus, once and don't forget we allowed them to take a few possums. We even acknowledge that they can play rugby a bit. Still many do come here. My biggest whinge about Kiwis is that they talk funny, like fush and chups!

Seriously though, if we, or NZ, opened our borders to the world we would be inundated. There are billions of people that would love to come here and partake in our lifestyle and welfare systems.

No, the Poms sent the boys out here. We were part of the Empire then and did as we were told.