G'day Banjo,

Yeah, don't worry, we all read more than we respond to on OLO, and often, I'm sure, we agree with someone but don't acknowledge it.

Maybe the great thing about Australian law is that it doesn't actually recognise 'culture' or its 'rights': as long as people observe the law, and thereby honour the formal equality of men and women, etc., then they can do what they like, eat what they like, speak whatever language they like, even send their kids to segregated schools provided it operates in accordance with Education Department requirements and abides by curriculum guidelines.

But I'm horrified if what you write is true, that " .... we ignore FGM and forced marriages but prosecute others for holding cockfights. Roosters apparently have more rights than little girls."

I certainly hope that the relevant authorities are coming down hard on anybody employing such barbaric practices, FGM, forced marriages, honour killing, just as we abhor domestic violence and child abuse. Jesus, why does abuse so often involve women and children, and favour men ? Makes you want to turn feminist. I wonder what feminists are doing about these sorts of things, the abuse of their sisters, these days.

Or the brutal treatment of roosters, dogs, dugongs and turtles: again, the law shold take precedence over any BS 'cultural' imperatives.

And in regard to the killing of protected animals like dugongs and turtles and their lucrative commercial exploitation, using power-boats and spear-guns, as someone wrote recently to the Editor of The Australian, 'Why weren't we told about these traditional cultural practices in school ?'

Another job for Henry Reynolds :)

Cheers,

Joe

Joe,
Believe me, I cannot find one single prosecution for FGM related offence, yet some hospitals in our cities have specialist units to treat post FGM problems. The practice is so entrenched that girls that had it done to them, years ago here, are now having their own daughters done. Medical personel do not have to report it and known incidences of FGM are not recorded. Known forced marriages are not recorded either. Perhaps when a little girl dies some action will be taken.

I do not want to get too far off topic so I will say no more, but it is a cultural practice that we chose to ignore.

As for the report of the 'focus group' in relation to the centenary Anzac commemorations, that should be 'culturally sensitive and inclusive'. I see that as attempt to further erode our traditional culture.

We obviously have different notions of what an Australian Culture is. I am just a little more comfortable with the idea that it isn't a 'strictly Anglo-Saxon one and the rest be buggered.'

Pre the 1970s the prevailing 'Aussie Culture' many seem so fond of remembering saw the thousands of our returned indigenous soldiers denied access to RSLs.

Many had to lie and say they were of Indian extraction just to sign up to fight. Many had their wages withheld and not forwarded to their families, found they were ineligible for war pensions, and dissuaded from marching on ANZAC day. More than a few of them returned to find their children removed.

It was a shame only recently acknowledged in 2006 by the then RSL National President Bill Crews who said that the ignoring of Aboriginal soldiers was a blight on Australia's history. The organization now sponsors an indigenous scholarship.

Definately a product of a fixation on a single culture by the majority, one that I at least am glad to see the back of.

That is not to say we don't still see glimmers. It is hard to forget the time those who felt a culture of Ockerism was appropriate at ANZAC Cove of all places, complete with the touting of one Johnny Farnham for a concert. Luckily wiser heads prevailed and instead we had giant screens and speakers belting out the Bee Gees "Staying Alive" across the graves of our fallen. Young Australians passed out and sleeping it off among the headstones and huge piles of rubbish left over the site. Good grief! 

Makes you think just how accommodating the Turkish people are to other cultures and their commemorations/celebrations. Here the youth of the invaders come and act like that on their soil within a bugle call of their own dead yet we are still invited back. Makes the comments by certain posters here quite shameful in my opinion.

Perhaps the 'culture trumpeters' from both sides of this debate should just butt out and leave our armed service personnel to be honoured and remembered on ANZAC day.

csteel sorry if I am wrong
But any research of your post history in my view will support a view I have gained of you.
You appear to me, to be on tip toe but challenging the view ANZAC is part of our heritage.
from that post history,you supported very strongly,the Muslim convert who in my view acted badly in lieing about police,and always leap to support middle eastern folk.
Now some of those folk are remembered on ANZAC day, some fought along side us.
I ask what are your views? why are you highlighting DIFFERENCE?
This thread was always a stupid trouble provoking thing!
But it is my view, no insult intended,you could have written it.
We need inclusiveness not devisions.
If it is your view this day is other than that can you say it openly not hints?
Never fear the truth, but be watchful always of those who have less regard for it.

SEND OLD MEN TO WAR
By Johnny Choate ~ Myrtle Point, Oregon

If I could, I'd enlist today and help my country track down those responsible for killing thousands of innocent people in New York City and Washington, DC,

but I'm over 50 now and the Armed Forces say I'm too old to track down terrorists. You can't be older than 35 to join the military.

They've got the whole thing backwards.!

Instead of sending 18-year-olds off to fight, they ought to take us old guys. You shouldn't be able to join until you're at least 35.!*!

For starters:
Researchers say 18-year-olds think about sex every 10 seconds. Old guys only think about sex a couple of times a day, leaving us more that 28,000 additional seconds per day to concentrate on the enemy.
Young guys haven't lived long enough to be cranky, and a cranky soldier is a dangerous soldier. If we can't kill the enemy we'll complain them into submission. "My back hurts!" "I'm hungry!" "Where's the remote control?"

An 18-year-old hasn't had a legal beer yet and you shouldn't go to war until you're at least old enough to legally drink. An average old guy, on the other hand, has consumed 126,000 gallons of beer by the time he's 35 and a jaunt through the desert heat with a backpack and M-60 would do wonders for the old beer belly.

An 18-year-old doesn't like to get up before 10 a.m.
Old guys get up early every morning to pee.

If old guys are captured we couldn't spill the beans because we'd probably forget where we put them.

In fact, name, rank, and serial number
would be a real brainteaser.

then it gets really funny
http://www.militarywisdom.net/page2.html

yet i think it is serious
if our leaders want war
LEAD FROM THE FRONT

no one under 48..EVER

Boot camp would actually be easier for old guys.
We're used to getting screamed and yelled at
and we actually like soft food.

We've also developed a deep appreciation for guns and rifles.
We like them almost better than naps.

They could lighten up on the obstacle course however.
I've been in combat and didn't see a single 20-foot wall with rope hanging over the side,!

nor did I ever do any pushups
after completing basic training.

I can hear the Drill Sergeant now, .."Get down and give me… uh …one."

And the running part is kind of a waste of energy.
I've never seen anyone outrun a bullet.

An 18-year-old has the whole world ahead of him.!

He's still learning to shave,..to actually carry on a conversation, and to wear pants without the top of his butt crack showing and his boxer shorts sticking out.!

He still hasn't figured out that a pierced tongue catches food particles, and that a 400-watt speaker in the back seat of a Honda Accord can rupture an eardrum -

all great reasons to keep our sons at home
to learn a little more about life..before sending them off to possible death.

Let us old guys track down those dirty rotten cowards
who attacked our hearts..The last thing the enemy would want to see right now is a couple of million old farts..*with attitudes.


Rules of Engagement

US Marine Corps Rules:

1.Be courteous to everyone,..friendly to no one.
2.Decide to be aggressive enough,..quickly enough.
3...Have a plan...*

4. Have a back-up plan, because the first one probably won't work.
5. Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
6. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun whose caliber does not start with at least a "4."
7. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.

oops 666 words
best chop it in half...lol