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Aus_JD

Listed below are comments made by Aus_JD between Wednesday, 8th July 2009 and Wednesday, 14th October 2009.

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Is Australia unusually racist? 2:27pm on 14 Oct 2009 Iftikhar_Ahmad said: "In Sydney, Muslims were refused to build a Muslim school, because of a protest by the residents. Yet a year later, permission was given for the building of a Catholic school and no protests from the residents. This clrearly shows the blatant hypocrisy, double standards and racism. Christians oppose Muslim schools in western countries yet build their own religious schools."

Unless it was a private catholic school(rare) then it would have been approved as a part of the State Education system.

Your statement clearly shows that you know nothing of the state education system in Australia yet feel free to make a broad based statement on it. (You are in education right?)

Catholic Schools are exactly one half of the State school system. You have to go back in history but basically the Catholic church offered to fund a great deal of State Eduction after all religious groups (read Christian) were rather aggressively "locked" out by the man who helped create the Public School system (a rabid atheist), from the old national schools system used before Federation. When the government realised they couldn't afford it the Catholic Church was back in.

So rather than "This clrearly shows the blatant hypocrisy, double standards and racism." it actually shows the depth of your ignorance and your willingness to slander something that you have absolutely no comprehension of. Some might even call it a bigoted attack on Christianity.
Is Australia unusually racist? 1:53pm on 14 Oct 2009 Iftikhar_Ahmad (posts 23 and 24) said:
1)"Muslims have the right to educate their children in an environment that suits their culture."
I agree. In a country founded on the ideals of Islam go for it. In other countries, I must ask what constitutes "their culture"?
To me you preach segregation.

2)"This notion of "integration", actually means "assimilation", by which people generally really mean "be more like me". That is not multiculturalism."
Absolutely! Multiculturalism is a crock and in my opinion doesn't work.

Greek and Italian immigrants to Australian shores came here under the white Australia policy. Their skin colour and religion were the only things familiar to white Australians. Almost every other aspect of their cultures were strange. They had to integrate as they had no choice.

Did they lose their cultural heritage, history and sense of self?. No. Australian Greek and Italian families exist in a large, fully integrated and social cohesive group.

Did they enrich Australia with many customs we have since taken a liking to? Yes. Widows in black. Scary fathers with strange dating customs. A strange love of this weird round ball game. The food and the laid back lifestyle that goes with it!

Did they change the current social fabric for the benefit of themselves and native born Australians. Yes.

All this was achieved without "multiculturalism" and instead used assimilation as the model. And guess what? It worked.

Now with "Multiculturalism" we have exactly that. Areas of this city (Sydney) that are a Microcosm of the worlds ill's. Suburbs actually divided along ethnic lines.

Why do some people have this driving need to not upset anyone? All countries should be strong enough to say, "You are welcome to come and join us as a citizen, but we do things this way. Like it or go somewhere else"
Is Australia unusually racist? 1:28pm on 14 Oct 2009 No Nick we're not unusually racist at all.

Just the usual racism around here mate. Not much of it left though......
Is Australia needy for acclaim? 12:47pm on 14 Oct 2009 Mutikonka, your post highlights why many Australians may seem needy to you for recognition. You have just down played an Australian's acheivments in winning the Nobel Prize and what's worse, you tried to co-opt those same achievements for the UK with "was awarded to a Californian who had a PhD from Cambridge."

FYI Elizabeth Blackburn is a dual Australian and US citizen who currently resides in California. She was born and raised in Tasmania. Educated in Melbourne, then with her Masters of Science in hand went to study for her PhD at Cambridge which she received. Just how do you think she was able to go to there in the first place? Maybe her entirely Australian education (up until that point) got her there? Why neglect to mention she received her B.Sc. and M.Sc at Melbourne University? Aren't they just as important as her PhD? She couldn't have gotten where she is with out either of them?

Not needy mutikonka, just an admission of the whole truth would be nice. A lie by omission is still a lie.
The great fly-over problem 05:42am on 08 Jul 2009 StickJackal - Please think about your comment. If only there was a simple way of fixing things, as you suggest. Do you really think Australia should just adopt the policies of New Zealand because they obviously work, as shown in your various examples?
In order to do that wouldnt we need a Time Machine? You see the Maori have this little thing called the treaty of Waitangi that they fought and bled for. In New Zealand the Maori fought you Brits and eventually forced you to sign the treaty. Now for a while the Maori were humoured, not really treated properly, but the awareness of the treaty never went away. From the start of White settlement in NZ there has been a very strong organised, militant native population, determined to hold on to what is theirs.
In Australia there was no organised opposition great enough to effect white settlement. You Brits even proclaimed the place Terra Nullus! From the very start of White Settlement you Brits have been ignoring aboriginals and have treated them as, well, Fauna. That's it. You simply wiped out thousands and thousands! Whole nations and peoples ceased to exist. When we became a (white)nation, we simply did what Mum had taught us, and continued UK policy towards aboriginals.
That's the massive difference between Australia and New Zealand. The UK forged ahead, for over 110 years, then The Commonwealth of Australia for over 60 years, where native issues were barely even noticed, let alone discussed or even seen as a white mans problem.
The situation in New Zealand is different because of the Maori wars. Native issues remained a prominent, if ignored by colonial governments, issue for years. Much more native culture was taken up by the white people in New Zealand, than native culture taken up by white men in Australia. Maori also make up a significantly larger proportion of the NZ population as well.
It's chalk and cheese my fiend.
I've also noticed the level of racism in Perth is insane compared to the rest of the country, even sleepy conservative Adelaide isn't so bad (it's not good though). Maybe the high level of UK and S.A. white ex-pats has something to do with that?
Australia still needs to confront the underlying offensive attitude of, "Aboriginals (ad a second "b" then delete everything after the "o" and that is how it is pronounced in almost all of Oz - pejorative) are no good bludgers who just get welfare then waste it." It is a theme constantly bombarding Australians through various sensationalist, news outlets and Current Affairs programs
No body wants to give aboriginals a break. Most White Australians wouldn't even know that the majority of aboriginals are quite integrated into white Australia, or quite competent at managing their lives like everyone else. Most simply believe that all aboriginals live in the outback doing nothing but....taking our tax money and wasting it sniffing petrol and drinking alcohol.
It is a sad, sad state of affairs.

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