Dear Shocker,

You ask who am I quoting?

The quote I gave was taken from the book -
"The Changing Australians: A Social History."
It was a required text for year twelve high school
students. My son lent it to me.

As for Indentured labour - which you claim was not
"slave labour." Well, almost - the early conditions for migrant
settlement were inadequate. There was no family accomodation
in many places to which contract workers were sent.
Men had to live in tents or tin huts,
in the most primitive conditions.
Their wives and children remained in holding camps for
long periods and often a long distance away from their
husbands' and fathers' work places. Marriages suffered, and the
psychological scars of forced separations have remained for
life.

However, there's no question about the immigrants economic
impact. These same migrants could have accomplished a great
deal more if the Australian authorities had made full use of
their skills and knowledge instead of treating them all as
unskilled labour. Nevertheless, their economic contribution
was significant at a time when Australia needed it most.

As for your suggestion of their becoming "homeless beggars"
if left to their own devices? Well, there again - as history
has shown - that after completion of their two-year contracts,
many newcomers established building companies, new factories,
retail shops, service and repair centres, skating rinks,
tailor shops and even a complete town (Eucla). Many others
became self-employed in small business and in all kinds
of trades.

Australia was not the only country to suffer loss of lives
during World War II. The country of my parents - Lithuania,
lost its sovereignty when Russia occupied the country on
15 June 1940. Another foreign takeover, namely the
German occupation, followed from mid-1941 to 1944. Then,
Russia came back to rule again for another 46 years.
Lithuanian's independence was finally restored on 11th March
1990. Demographic evidence has estimated that, between 1940
and 1959, ruthless German and Russian rulers were
responsible for the deaths of 683,185
citizens of Lithuania or 22.17 per cent
of Lithuania's pre-war population

Changing Australians, eh?

That title kinda gives away the agenda of the author.

"Australians" didn't change much at all for nearly 2 centuries.
And never asked to change.

"Their wives and children remained in holding camps"

With food, clothing and shelter provided.
Hell on Earth!

"as history has shown - that after completion of their two-year contracts, many newcomers established building companies, etc"

Yes, *after*.

Fresh off the boat/plane with *no* English skills and no helping hand in any way from the government, would they have achieved the same results?

"independence was finally restored on 11th March 1990"

Hooray!
Now you can go back.

And why did the Soviet Union collapse?
It wasn't just politics was it?
It was ethnicity.

Lithuania = Lithuanians
Ukraine = Ukranians
Uzbekistan = Uzbeks
Kazakhstan = Kazakhs
Belarus = Belarusians
Azerbaijan = Azerbaijanis
Georgia = Georgians
Tajikistan = Tajiks
Moldova = Moldovans
Kyrgyzstan = Kyrgyz
Turkmenistan = Turkmens
Armenia = Armenians
Latvia = Latvians
Estonia = Estonians

Australia = every and any ethnicity on Earth?

Those are not just political nationalities, they are ETHNIC groups and those are their historical homelands.

"Australians" are an ethnic group too and this (not England) is our homeland.
But we must share it with *all* other ethnic groups?

Why is the "independence" of these ethnic groups something to celebrate, but any hint of a similar self-interested autonomy by Australians is condemned and forbidden as "racist" and "evil"?

The Soviet Union, like Yugoslavia, was a "multicultural" experiment that could never work, like all such experiments.

Our experiment will fail too.
It just a matter of when and how catastrophic.

Shockadelic,
We're trying to get morons to understand, just keep in mind we're in for a hard slog.
We do have one distinct Australian ethnic group evolved now, the left-winged Insipians.

I can see that I have made a huge
mistake in trying to inter-act with you
gentlemen (for want of a better word).

My comments have drawn such venom and
ignorance from you. You both need history
lessons - but I've not the inclination to
give them to you or to continue any
further discussions.. Suffice to say - that
you gentlemen belong in a museum -
(certainly not in politie or civilised
society or on any discussion forum).

You both need history
lessons
Foxy,
No, you need foresight lessons !

@Foxy, Tuesday, 5 August 2014 12:57:05 AM

Violin accompaniment for Foxy please.

Honestly, you are forever claiming the victim status that Lithuanian Australians have never claimed themselves.

Nor do Australian Lithuanians trash their fellow Australians as you do.

It is exasperating where you continue to recycle the same old jaundiced view of Australia despite many patient posters having gone to considerable pains to correct your wrong claims and to try to get you to be a little balanced.

You continually harp on alleged 'discrimination' affecting immediate post-WW2 migration (the Lituanians were among the first to be given sanctuary from their horrid camps in Europe). It is been explained to you many times before that during WW2 Australia was converted into a war economy, a production machine to feed and rescue Europe. The recovery post-WW2 was traumatic for locals, returning Diggers and for migrants. However that and more has been explained so many times previously.

You say you are a graduate librarian who probably has worked as a public bureaucrat for decades. Librarians are very well paid and work in airconditioned offices. Much better pay and conditions, totally safe, than the (male) construction subbies who I engage. Hugely better than farm workers who raise families.

You have travelled widely, are married to an architect and from what you have said previously, life's luxuries are not beyond you, and you lead a comfortable life. You personally drive a GMH limo that is the length of a cricket pitch and doubtless as a bureaucrat on a jolly goo screw with beaut super you would also have had a guvvy car to ride.

Again, those happy Lithuanians who came to Australia are not whinging and they probably don't even put their birthplace first when describing themselves.

You probably have already been receiving the benefits of affirmative action in employment because you are a woman and you grew up in a migrant household.

So, could there be an end to your stirring and assumed victimhood as a girl child of migrants?