Dear Joe,

No nation will give up its sovereignty to any
international body. It is interesting to note as
Tim Soutphommasane, former Race Dsicrimination
Commissioner, pointed out, "Of the top 10 overseas
birthplaces of Australians five are countries in
Asia: China, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, and
Malaysia. China and India now represent the two
largest source countries for immigrants for Australia".

Times have certainly changed over the years.

Hi Foxy,

Australia is always going to be where it is, near Asian countries, and always with its own government, as they will have theirs. People have been coming to Australia for 50,000 years now, and more recently, from a couple of hundred countries.

Of course, some groups - especially refugees - have difficulties integrating themselves into Australian life (refugees, after all, would on the whole rather be living in peace back in their home countries, so they have to make the best of a second-chance job).

But on the whole, every group is making its distinctive contribution. I look forward to far more Sudanese women in our basketball and netball teams, Sudanese rucks in the AFL and Indian-Australians in our cricket trasms. I was in hospital last week with gout (yes, it's the red wine) and fell in love with countless Chinese, Thai, Filipino and Indian health staff. Where would we be without such wonderful people ?

So I'm totally confident that our successful migration policy will continue to enrich our political and cultural life. Long may it continue.

So, Misop, if you're ever in Adelaide, let me know and you can come around and kiss my arse.

Foulmouth

Dear Joe,

You've put it so beautifully.

Thank You.

I trust that you're feeling much better now?

Australia is now an Asian nation-state as a consequence of the Asianization process (aka Australian Multiculturalism) during the Great Asianization Period (1980-2020) in Australian history.

The aim of Asianization was to create a national landscape that mirrors the ethnic and cultural structures that mark the Asian mainland.

This has been achieved. We now have disparate communities in our cities, which account for 85% of the national population, that are spatially separated mainly along lines of race, ethnicity, language and religion. But they come together for economic exchange under a rubric of Australianness.

This is what I mean when I say they mirror Greater Asia.

If Australia is to function successfully as an Asian nation-state then its peoples need to accept an Asian identity that is inclusive of ongoing cultural disparities.

It seems a contradiction but then isn't being Asian a contradiction if we say all Asians are Asian when in fact they are separated by many characteristics.

Mr O,

Australia is not an Asian-state. And never will be.

The western influences in Australia are so deeply
ingrained. Australia will never be a truly Asian
country.

And those of Asian ancestry, just like those of
Lebanese, Greek, or any other ethnic group -( certainly
their children) - will (and have) become "Australianized".
It's always been so and always will be.

What our governments have always done has been to
maintain strong ties with other western nations while
continuing to maintain better relations with Asian
countries. However Australia has and will continue
to maintain its sovereignty.

Misopinionated,

Sorry to piss on your parade, but Asians, by any definition, make up a small minority of the Australian population, and come from much more than fifty different backgrounds. They may often all look the same to you and your pig-ignorant bar-fly mates, but even amongst what you might call 'Chinese', there would be Hakka, Hokkien, Siewchow, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Szechuanese, Uighur, Taiwanese, Mongol, etc. Not to mention Filipino-Chinese, Vietnamese-Chinese, Cambodian-Chinese, etc., etc.

Some have ancestors who moved here two hundred years ago, certainly 170 years ago for the mining, and some have been here since 1989 and Tiananmen. You really do need to get out more and listen.

In Australia's future, I don't think any particular ethnic group is ever going to be the most populous again, like English-Australians may like to think. They were probably always outnumbered by Irish, Scots and Welsh anyway. No, our future will be made up of our two hundred-plus nationalities and ethnic groups, not to mention, hundreds of different Indigenous groups, all inter-marrying, producing the most beautiful children in the world.

So ethnic dominance is gone forever; ethnic diversity is our destiny now. Wish I was fifty years younger :)

Joe