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The Forum > General Discussion > Rudd reply insult?

Rudd reply insult?

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Did I hear correctly. Did Rudd just insult India and China in his budget reply?

Rudd used as an example, ostensibly to show how poor he believed tertiary education in Australia has become, the fact that both India and China had more PhD students graduate last year than Australia.

Is he saying that we should think Australia has been performing badly when then only example he can use is that countries that have close to 1,000 million people (India) and more (China), as opposd to Australia's 22 million, had more PhD students than Australia? Why does Kevin think we should be ashamed? Is he suggesting we should be ashamed because these countries are examples of backwardness (sic) filled with poor students and masses of poorly educated people?

I hope China and India did not take offense at him suggesting we should be ashamed because they had more PhD students than us. If anything I thought it was a huge pat on the back for Australia's education sector (tertiary in particular)!

I watched the Budget reply hoping for something exciting from Rudd. Nothing much that we haven't heard before. He keeps on saying that the present economic conditions are the result of a mining boom that cannot last, despite many of AUstralia's foremost economists disagreeing with this premise. However, his biggest new announcement was his investment into trade training. He made the comment that anyone who is trying to get renovations done at the moment would realise how scarce tradesmen are. This is true!

Rudd says the mining boom cannot last but he seems to believe that the building boom and the need for more tradesmen will continue to last. Don't you just love entrenched political positions?

Yes, we do need tradesmen right now, but I can remember when the local papers were filled with qualified tradesmen offering their services as 'handyman' and at a pittance just to get by.

I actually think Rudd's trade training ideas are very good but I don't think you can build a nation on them.
Posted by Janus333, Thursday, 10 May 2007 8:48:58 PM
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I don't know what you were listening to, but if you read the speech:

http://www.smh.com.au/pdf/ruddreply.pdf

I don't see anything in there that insults China or India, or even mentions them in the context of Australia nor our education sector.
Posted by Bugsy, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:26:29 AM
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I dare say that sinophile Rudd is more obsessed with Asia than Paul Keating was. Don't worry Janus333, Rudd will ensure the complete enmeshment of Australia province with the mainland. Beijing will gladly welcome another nation into the Sinosphere, especially as the "yang guizi" (foreign devils) residing in Australia province are a relatively docile bunch.
Posted by Oligarch, Friday, 11 May 2007 1:41:02 AM
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What a ridiculous discussion. And people should be delighted Australia is developing closer ties with Asia, as it will insulate Australia from the inevitable American economic recession. Much as you might hate asian people, there is nothing you can do about it without sealing Australia's fate economically.
Posted by Steel, Friday, 11 May 2007 1:48:19 AM
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Steel, no need to presumptuously jump to wildly inaccurate conclusions and engage in puerile ad hominem attacks. My hyperbolic post was aimed at drawing attention to Rudd's Sinophilia. No need to feign indignation.

As for the "foreign devils" reference, perhaps you should learn some Mandarin.

"The Chinese sense of their own self-importance is strongly reflected throughout the text, and in his introductory remarks Sang Ye explains that in nearly all the interviews the interviewees referred to Australians as devils (guizi) or foreign devils (yang guizi) or used the slightly more polite form ‘foreigners’ (laowai or waiguoren). Sang Ye suggests that those interviewed were apparently oblivious to the fact that in Australia they may be the ones considered to be foreigners."

http://www.api-network.com/main/index.php?apply=scholars&webpage=default&flexedit=&flex_password=&menu_label=&menuID=homely&menubox=&scholar=135
Posted by Oligarch, Friday, 11 May 2007 2:41:01 AM
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Janus333

"China graduated half a million scientists and engineers."
"India graduated more PhDs than we can imagine."

I think you need a hearing aid.
Posted by ruawake, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:53:58 PM
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