Dear Banjo,

I commend you for your concern about FGM, honour killings,
child brides, and other harmful traditional practices being brought
into this country - and practiced among certain minority
communities - even though these practices do not really
effect the majority of fellow Australians personally.
Yet here you are
obviously concerned about the well being of people you wish
to keep out of this country. Bravo.

But - Perhaps what you should be
doing is encouraging them to come - so that at least their
children will have a chance to be brought up in a free-er
country and be given a chance to drop these brutal traditions -
seeing as they are illegal here.
They are illegal, and do violate our laws.

However, as you point
out - our law enforcement agencies are not always
successful in preventing these practices. So that
shows that - just
having laws is of course not enough to stop many
of these practices.

The prevention (as with domestic violence) requires a
range of strategies at multiple levels of the social order.
What may possibly help would be things like -
programs in schools, and among youth (to let them know
what their rights are in this country), media campaigns,
and - intervention amongst particular groups.

This is certainly not something that will be stopped over night.
But, it is something that we do need to persevere with -
obviously.
And give the next generations a chance for a better and
free-er life, away from the old constraints and teachings
of antiquated and harmful traditional practices.

Look at it this way -
At least in this country - the younger generation stands
a better chance at life than they would have had under the
system from which their families are fleeing.
And by increasing our intake of these people our country
would be making a more meaningful contribution to eradicating
the many harmful tradition practices that are currently found
in certain countries around the globe.

"One of the problems we have had with muslims is that they will not compromise to fit in, it has to be their way at all times."

I disagree. Many Australian's have a set mindset of some nature and won't change - ever. I would state, that's what makes Australia very good in nature - but it can also be a challenge - and this is what can scare some people from recognising good quality cultural activity in Australia.

Being vegetarian I believe certain things, that the majority of Australian's won't - being consumers of meat. Only around 2-5% of Australia's population are vegetarian.

Also what needs to be taken into consideration, is when we discuss multiculturalism we don't confuse that with religion or the Muslim element alone. We need to try and recognise all individuals and groups have undertaken activity of some nature and believe in something and have views or policies somewhere.

No views or policies on some matters do exist - but many do not know about these. Many Christian churches (and other religions) for example have no policy on vegetarianism - but are very "pro life" elsewhere.

At the event I went to, I was able to learn more about the cultures of another country - this was educational, seeing Cornish Bards, with their use of language and music throughout the event.

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~kevrenor/bards09.jpg

With the above in mind, I always question why some people are so suspicious of others they have never met - or truly and deeply do not know. They may wish to find out - but does this mean facing up to a form of truth, they cannot do?

I'm not suggesting that would be easy.

Yuyutsu,

You obviously didn't get a better offer then or since.

I agree with you that we have lost of lot of individual freedom, initiative and privacy over the years and especially during Labor administrations.

That is fine by authoritarian Labor and fine too by those who are swinging from the taxpayer's teat, employed (govt, NGO or private consultancy), or as welfare dependents.

Over the years I have become struck by the number of people who sacrifice independence of thought and act for the Nanny State that supports them and tells them what to do.

I am on the lookout for better possibilities for myself and family, as are many others like myself and my family who have done a lot of work and living in other countries. Timing is also a factor.

Foxy,
You said, "Yet here you are
obviously concerned about the well being of people you wish
to keep out of this country. Bravo".

You have that wrong. I am not particularly concerned about the well being of people in other countries. What happens in other countries is their business. I am concerned about immigrants bringing in and practicing cultures that are detrimental to us and our society.

I recognize that some cultural practices are difficult to stop and that is why I advocate stopping entry of persons where it has been shown to us that they cannot/will not curtail alien aspects of their old culture. FGM is a good example of this as the perpetrators of this crime simply thumb their noses at our laws. Some alien practices have continued here for 3-4 generations as it is ingrained right from the cradle. Further each new arrival refreshes the old alien ways.

Various strategies can be used to try an reduce the incidence of alien cultural practices, but the first and foremost is to demonstrate that we are serious about law enforcement and thus prosecute those that break the laws. Stiff penalties will soon let pending immigrants know that we will not tolerate the alien practices.

Natham,
Obviously you have a very child like view of what multiculturalism encompasses and no explanation will allow you to see the alien aspects of it, so no further discussion is warranted.

Yuyutsu,
If the stoning of females for adultery and honour killings are the only alien cultural practices that you object to then we have nothing further to discuss. There are many alien cultural aspects that I do not believe we (Australia) should tolerate.

Dear Banjo,

What you are suggesting does not make any sense.
You are pre-judging people simply because they
belong to a certain group - and thereby you are
assuming that they will practice the many harmful
traditional practices that some may practice in their
cultures. If we ban anyone suspected of these
practices - because they may or may not do
something wrong - we'd not allow anyone into this country.

We've had "alien" cultures coming here for decades -
not all of them take part in FGM, stoning (never heard of
that in Australia), child brides, sex-trade, slave
labour, male genital mutilation, foot-binding,
breast enhancements, tattoing, head-shaving, body-piercing,
domestic violence, child sexual abuse, incest, kidnapping,
violence, murder, drug-trafficking, and the list goes on.
The ones that do practice these illegal acts - should
face the full force of the law.

Anyway, you've been on and on about this for ages.
And as SteeleRedux pointed out to you sometime ago -
you keep on beating the same old drum and the skin is wearing
a bit thin.