Australian "Race Riots"

[frilly]

I'm finding very little to make me proud of being an Australian these days...

quote]

 

i agree with everything else you said but i somehow wonder if this "being proud" thing isnt a big problem in itself. I also was born and raised in australia and i remember as the "proud to be australian" campaign first started. even then i thought why? why are they spending so much money on ad campaigns saying proud to be australian? it could have been an attempt to reach all people regardless of colour, background, religion or gender and say "appreciate and be proud of australias diversity (as beawulf said) - but it wasnt. even then i remember feeling a touch nauseous and thinking how dangerous the campaign could prove to be.

 

meanwhile ive been pretty much all over the world - lived in different countries - speak three languages fluently and have noticed pretty much the same tendency all over. "proud to be this" or "proud to be that".

 

why cant we just be proud to be alive and open to diversity and change?

and no - i am not a born again - lol

just sharing my thoughts.

cheers frilly

 

[subspatial]

yeh.. obviously nobody noticed my sarcasm before to..

.. (as Picard would say:) "...Quell the hysteria..."

 

It seems that one small brawl on a beach in Cronulla CAN turn into a National Riot for people in fear (or drunk)..

 

...as this poll has turned into a heavy debate (slanging match).

 

[thedrtim]

Possibly time to begin a new thread then?

 

How about we tackle IR?

[Beawulf]

i agree with everything else you said but i somehow wonder if this "being proud" thing isnt a big problem in itself. I also was born and raised in australia and i remember as the "proud to be australian" campaign first started. even then i thought why? why are they spending so much money on ad campaigns saying proud to be australian? it could have been an attempt to reach all people regardless of colour' date=' background, religion or gender and say "appreciate and be proud of australias diversity (as beawulf said) - but it wasnt. even then i remember feeling a touch nauseous and thinking how dangerous the campaign could prove to be.[/quote']

 

The camapaigns I remember as a child were about Australia's multiculturalism and how the diversity gives us a national identity. But that was probably around the time the world expo was in Brisbane so I dont know how widespread it was. I'd like to see my tax money going to this sort of campaign again instead of the paranoia hotline, or the multimillion dollar campaign to make getting screwed by your boss sound appealing.

 

 

 

for those who have forgotten the rules:

 

4. Please be kind and curtious in your responses

 

feel free to attack ideas, but not people.

[thedrtim]

What would we do without the terror hotline? Think of all of those devestating terrorist attacks that have been averted by the tireless workers at the hotline call centre. Like that time somebody................ or that other time that ummm ....the people.......okay so screw the terror hotline.

 

As for getting screwed by your boss, well I work for Jodhi Mears / Packer at Tigerlily so my boss can shag me senseless each and every single day of the damn week and you won't hear a word of complaint pass my lips. In fact if she stopped paying me all together and just xxxxxxx me all day, I would be like a pig in the proverbial.

 

MOD NOTE: Family site. Please re-read the posting rules!

 

 

[gathererhade]

Hmmm.

As someone who has seen this kind of thing happen in Cronulla for the last 30 years or so, the root cause is not racism but tribalism - ie the same stupidity that gives you UK soccer riots, etc. Unfortunately, the fact that the problems over the last few years have been associated with one racial group makes it look like it’s based in racism.

 

Many (until, well, maybe not so many...) years ago, the element that was victimised on Cronulla's beaches were "Westies". These were people (usually kids) who lived in the Western suburbs of Sydney and came to Cronulla to surf. The abuse they received from the locals had nothing to do with race, just that outsiders were using their beaches and riding their waves.

 

Unfortunately, you get an unruly mob and it can be hijacked (as was correctly pointed out above), as it appears to have been in this case, by racists. With the current worldwide situation with terrorism, it's a really easy thing to do as many are already on edge about people from the Middle East.

 

Then there is the press. Honestly, how many people would have turned up to the first riot if the press hadn’t announced a text message was going around calling for people to go there on the day? I suspect a lot less, and certainly a lot less racist agitators. Those press reports were more effective than a relayed text message could ever be. And the press position that it was completely racist was an oversimplification that also just inflames things. I heard some commentators get very aggressive if it was suggested that racism wasn’t the primary trigger. They had made up their mind that it was racism, and therefore that is what it HAD to be. Only one step away from the papers making the news.

 

Since the riots, we have had a few press articles with some of the idiots involved apologising, and saying they were caught up in the moment - whether that is true or not will be seen in the coming weeks, I guess. What needs to be done is to hit the ringleaders & it will all die down, as appears is now happening.

 

That said, as far as the people of almost any country in the world pointing to another and crying "racist", I can only say "Pot, Kettle, Black!" It's a stupid point to make as virtually every country has a past they would rather forget.

Be constructive - look for solutions. Finger pointing never achieves anything. Except more resentment, which leads to unrest, which leads to…

[thedrtim]

Then there is the press. Honestly, how many people would have turned up to the first riot if the press hadn’t announced a text message was going around calling for people to go there on the day? I suspect a lot less, and certainly a lot less racist agitators.

 

Since the riots, we have had a few press articles with some of the idiots involved apologising, and saying they were caught up in the moment - whether that is true or not will be seen in the coming weeks, I guess. What needs to be done is to hit the ringleaders & it will all die down, as appears is now happening.

 

Good point. I remember that sometime not too long after the school shooting at Colombine, a blanket ban was placed on the reporting of similar events and their incidence dropped to almost zero. The media, although it plays a part in the dissemination of information must be careful to not act as a publicity machine for things., It might also help if they confined themselves to the reporting facts and not opinions or one sided, rhetorical propoganda.

 

And with the fourth estate in mind, lets all pause for a moment and remember the man that was Kerry Packer. I s'pose there are only so many body parts you can buy from your pilot before the whole thing gives up the ghost.

 

I can't wait to see the garbage pour forth as the media play "Lets all pretend he was a nice man for a while". At least for as long as it takes us to start smiling when we remember he wasn't really very nice at all.

[Bia]

too right' date=' whole country is stolen from there rightful owners, If anyone has a right to riot, its the abos, not the racists colonial convicts.[/quote']

A child born 100's of years later has no choice in his or her "Home"

 

Life sucks and is not fair......get used to it.

:)

[Antipodean]

too right' date=' whole country is stolen from there rightful owners, If anyone has a right to riot, its the abos, not the racists colonial convicts.[/quote']

A child born 100's of years later has no choice in his or her "Home"

 

Life sucks and is not fair......get used to it.

:)

 

 

 

I think you're missing the point - namely that being white doesn't give you special ownership of this land, that those biggotted cronulla folk have no right to any action that excludes any other people or ethnicities.

 

 

In any case, sure things are not always fair in life, but the point is to do something about it. Injustice should be acknowledged. Crimes should be remembered, or we are doomed to repeat them.

 

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." (Edmund Burke)

[mateya]

In any case' date=' sure things are not always fair in life, but the point is to do something about it. Injustice should be acknowledged. Crimes should be remembered, or we are doomed to repeat them.[/quote']

 

I remember there was a quote about that - what was it? cant remember.. something about doomed to repeat mistakes.. bummer, cant remember this one.

[Bia]

I think you're missing the point - namely that being white doesn't give you special ownership of this land, that those biggotted cronulla folk have no right to any action that excludes any other people or ethnicities.

 

I see....you're correct.

:)

 

[gathererhade]

being white doesn't give you special ownership of this land, that those biggotted cronulla folk have no right to any action that excludes any other people or ethnicities.

 

 

Fair point, but can I ask, under what circumstances (if any) do you consider ANYONE has 'special ownership of this land', and/or has a 'right to any action that excludes any other people or ethnicities'?