Hi David,

Strange, I haven't seen any academic or even self-styled intellectual refer to him/herself as 'scholarly'. There's something exonymic about it :)

In due course, Misopinionated will demand that you present your qualifications (while, of course, having no way, like all of us, of presenting his/her own, which leaves him/her in the clear while able to happily diminish others).

I suspect that he/she is a village idiot but one living on the outskirts of a town or city with a university campus, and he/she has fortuitously picked up an old copy of the local student newspaper, with a lot of big words in it. So he/she sits on his/her wall and shouts curses as passers-by. But nothing can be done, because he is the mayor's son (or daughter).

On a more important note, I'm happy to note that the wonderful Tom Lehrer is still going strong at 92 :)

Joe

Mr O, I have found that most first time visitors to Australia are surprised to find we are a multi cultural country. I have been informed a number of times by Americans who have never visited here that I should not comment on race politics because I live in an all white country where Aboriginals have been exterminated.

Jimmy,

Long may it be so. Dipping into nineteenth century South Australian history, I was surprised at how many Africans, West Indians and African-Americans, as well as Chinese, Malays and 'Afghans' (i.e. Marathis, Sindis, Baluchis, Sikhs, etc.) were working all over the province.

Quite a few married Aboriginal people, including a West Indian woman who married an Aboriginal bloke from up the Murray. The 'last member of the Adelaide Tribe', Evaritchi, married a West Indian bloke named Savage, born in Adelaide in 1852.

So yes, Australia has always been multicultural, like pretty much every other country in the world. Yes, even including Japan. We're all Mongrel Mob.

Joe

LOUDmouth,

It's a shame you were never able to qualify for university entry because I'm sure you would have enjoyed doing a degree.

jimmy2shoes,

Yes, that's the point I was making.

One first time visitor from the Philippines asked me "Where are all the white people?" They think of Australia as being European and they are generally quite disappointed when they visit Sydney because they reckon they could have gone to Singapore or Hong Kong for the same experience.

Misopinionated,

You're right, I did enjoy it. The last time, 20-25 years ago, I was surrounded by these wonderful Asian students, from every country, even China, as well as a few Africans.

You should try it, it might broaden your understandings of our world :)

Oops, I thought sociology was supposed to do that ? Never mind :(

Joe