[ludz]

Hi I'm David Pesenti, a 17 year old year 12 student at Oxford Falls Grammar preparing a 6000 word thesis for Society and Culture. Basicly we needed to find a topic that relates to the Society and Culture Ciriculum and is of intrest to me. I have chosen Multiculturalism, the focus of my Thesis will be answering the question "How Multicultural are we (being Australian Society) realy?". Multiculturalism as defined by the Australian Government is "the philosophy, underlying Government policy and programs, that recognises, accepts, respects and celebrates our cultural diversity".

I wish to know whether in your day to day business you have ever encounted a situation within an institution (work, education, health care etc) that has, disrespectd, excluded, or inhibited in any way any of your Islamic cultural practices. For and example at work your boss doesn't let you pray 5 times a day, or you have difficuties gaining work leave to celebrate cultural holidays.

To keep the thesis balanced i need to know of success stories were within institutions you have expierenced situation were you believe your culture has been respected, accepted and recognized. For example through negotiations with boss you got to pray 5 times a day. (note: boss needs to be of different cultural background i.e. english).

If any of the above situation has ever happened to you please post within this forum a short description of the event an email adress or telephone number.

Thank You

David Pesenti

[La`Dee]

Hey David,

There have been many threads on these forums referring to this, unfortunately i can't seem to find much, the bottom link is all i could find, and you really have to skim through it to get a glimpse of what your searching for. I think adnan1980 had a few threads referring to this? Maybe you can help



http://forums.muslim...topic=6573&st=0

Quote

"How Multicultural are we (being Australian Society) realy?".

The term Multiculturalism encompasses many ideas. We are a Multicultural nation in the sense that a large proportion of the population come from various ethnicities. We are Multicultural in the sense that you could walk down to the corner shop and have a Falafel roll, or some Asian dish.. We are Multicultural in the sense that there are Multicultural "days/fairs" where one parades in their National costume

These examples are the very superficial elements of Multiculturalism, and unfortunately many of us are so drowned in this pleasant 'icing' that we tend to overlook instances which contradict the idea(s) of Multiculturalism.

Quote

I wish to know whether in your day to day business you have ever encounted a situation within an institution (work, education, health care etc) that has, disrespectd, excluded, or inhibited in any way any of your Islamic cultural practices. For and example at work your boss doesn't let you pray 5 times a day, or you have difficuties gaining work leave to celebrate cultural holidays.

I have not experienced anything major Alhumdulilah, but know of many who have. Many of those may be reading now. Insha`Allah you's could share your stories.

Goodluck

This post has been edited by La`Dee: 22 December 2004 - 12:06 AM

[ludz]

Thankyou La'Dee ,

I just forgot to add this at the bottom. If you know of anyone who could give me an "expert" opinion on this matter. Eg. A shiek (is that how you spell it?), or a candidate for a muslim party running for and level of governemnt, or a social activitst could you get them to read this post and get in contact with me via email at: the_one_and_only_ludz@optusnet.com.au

Thankyou!

[Astral]

Hi David,
I did a sociology subject earlier this year (in first sem) called "Migrant Nation: Culture & Identity". I will PM you some of the newspaper articles and secondary material that the lecturer provided us with.

(Just gotta find it now).

btw... a 17 year old doing a 6000 word thesis??! Are you kidding? Year 12 is over... or are you preparing for next year?

By the way... your name sounds awfully familiar.

[Astral]

Oh I see... Interesting.

[La`Dee]

ludz, on Dec 22 2004, 09:39 AM, said:

Thankyou La'Dee ,

I just forgot to add this at the bottom. If you know of anyone who could give me an "expert" opinion on this matter. Eg. A shiek (is that how you spell it?), or a candidate for a muslim party running for and level of governemnt, or a social activitst could you get them to read this post and get in contact with me via email at: the_one_and_only_ludz@optusnet.com.au

Thankyou!

We have quite a few experts here, not sure if they are reading, it would be great if they can contribute. I also have some research on your topic from a while back, it may be useful if i can find them

[ludz]

To answer Astral BTW,
Year 12 starts term 4 of your 12th year of school (kindy + year 11). And this thesis is due in 6 months! Just wanted to get the bulk out of the way. Also i want to commend you on your dectective work, or maybe i should give that credit to Google...

[La`Dee]

Quote

Year 12 starts term 4 of your 12th year of school (kindy + year 11). And this thesis is due in 6 months!

If only i was that committed in yr 12- actually i was for the 1st month or so Keep it up, you won't regret it

[Rob]

La`Dee, on Dec 23 2004, 12:14 AM, said:

If only i was that  committed in yr 12- actually i was for the 1st month or so Keep it up, you won't regret it

Rings so true for me too La'Dee!

[ludz]

No its good. I can put that somewhere in my thesis. Its great that you have expressed your opinion.

[Mowlana Vector]

One Super Supreme Multicultural Pizza, Hold the Tolerance, Thank U (Pdf, pg. 9)

(... and Take it away, Aber B) )


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[La`Dee]

If you're stuck for references relevant to your topic, PM me i found mine

[ludz]

Wow 280 views! but only 15 posts

HELP ME, the more the merrier

[La`Dee]

You may have already come across the Catch the Fire Ministries Vilification Case in the Media section. Incase you haven't here is the thread:
http://forums.muslim...?showtopic=3321

This post has been edited by La`Dee: 29 December 2004 - 07:54 PM

[ludz]

I was thinking of using this as a part of my thesis, but i dont know how much flak ill recieve from my school...it being christian and everything.

PS. I think that the you are right on this issue. Stupid, ignorant, right wing nut casses.

[La`Dee]

ludz, on Dec 29 2004, 08:34 PM, said:

I was thinking of using this as a part of my thesis, but i dont know how much flak ill recieve from my school...it being christian and everything.

I used to worry a bit when it came to assessments in highschool, especially in religion and when it came to Islam. I thought maybe i would get marked down for my views etc because it was a Catholic school and they "had to be discriminatory because i was the muslim" but i saw nothing of the sort .

If you feel confident in the way you intend to present your argument, don't hold back, i don't think the fact that you attend a Christian school will affect your overall mark for this assessment.

ludz said:

PS. I think that the you are right on this issue. Stupid, ignorant, right wing nut casses.

Ditto

[ludz]

It would be funny if La'Dee didn't agree

[La`Dee]

ludz, on Dec 29 2004, 11:44 PM, said:

It would be funny if La'Dee didn't agree 

it would be a disaster actually

[Mowlana Vector]

FYI: Little Evidence of Racial Divide in Sydney: Study

[ludz]

Thank you very much for your help!

[allbymyself]

I thought there is a seperation between the definitions of religion and multiculturalism?

You are including Islam and the experiences of muslims in this thesis, but to do so would that not be defining Islam as a particulare race and culture?

[ludz]

Nice point

The islamic belief is a culture. According to the board of studies definition of "Culture" in the Society and Culture Syllabus.

"Culture generally refers to the values, arts, technology, laws and beliefs that bidn a society togeatther". From Heinemann Publishings' Society and Culture.

Very good point it made me think for a bit!

[Mowlana Vector]

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[Mowlana Vector]

Killing Multiculturalism
Insight, Forum (SBS TV)

For decades, multiculturalism has been synonymous with diversity and tolerance in Australia. But now it's under challenge. Some fear that by celebrating difference, Australia could become a nation of separate tribes. It's argued it's time to kill off multiculturalism and focus more on integration. Mark Latham is the latest politician to suggest a need to modernise multicultural policies, but what does that mean?

JENNY BROCKIE: Insight is joined by a range of Australians from diverse backgrounds, but first to Britain, where one of that country's leading supporters of ethnic diversity has stunned the nation by calling for an end to multiculturalism. Here's Alan Sunderland.

TREVOR PHILLIPS:

REPORTER, Alan Sunderland:

CROWD: UK, you will pay! UK, you will pay! Bin Laden on his way! Bin Laden on his way!

This isn't the Middle East. It's London's Regents Park on a mild spring afternoon.

DEMONSTRATOR: Now Tony Blair has been warned. Pull your troops out of Afghanistan. Pull your troops out of Iraq and if you do not pull your troops out, you will get bloodshed on the streets of London.

When militant Muslim demonstrators start burning the Union Jack on the streets of London, the rest of the nation gets nervous.

MAN: That's disgusting. I mean it doesn't serve any purposes. These guys don't represent me. They probably don't represent most Muslims in this country.

In the two and a half years since the September 11 attacks, more than 500 British Muslims have been detained under anti-terrorism legislation - most of them since released. Many in Britain now question whether multiculturalism and tolerance for diversity is binding their nation together or tearing it apart. A few weeks ago one of Britain's foremost defenders multiculturalism, weighed into the debate. His message - multiculturalism is no longer the right policy.

TREVOR PHILLIPS, CHAIR, COMMISSION FOR RACIAL EQUALITY: Essentially, what I think multiculturalism as opposed to the fact of a multicultural society has become, is no longer just the recognition of diversity in a society, and no longer the aim of integration. What it has become is a way, I think, of putting, particularly ethnic minorities, but everybody, really, in a little box which is marked 'white' or marked 'Asian', and what the institutions do, what government and, what private companies do, is say - as long as we recognise your difference, as long as we give you a cultural evening or a food festival, then you should be happy with that. Well, I'm not.

For many years, Britain's view of multiculturalism has been the same as Australia's, that is, by encouraging different ethnic communities to maintain their own cultures, traditions and languages, you build a tolerant, diverse and rich society. But now, Trevor Phillips disagrees.

TREVOR PHILLIPS: I don't think any amount of, you know, patting us on the head and saying, "We recognise your difference," is going to help us. Indeed, what tends to happen is, it essentially freezes us as foreigners.

Three years ago, Britain was shocked by a wave of riots involving whites and Asians, the first real sign of the divisions between Christians and Muslims. Trevor Phillips says his call to move on from multiculturalism is not just about the dangers of Islam, but he says there is a real risk that some young Muslims are being encouraged to believe they'll never be truly British, and multiculturalism isn't helping.

TREVOR PHILLIPS: Our aim is to give the British Muslim communities, and, indeed, everybody else, the space and the flexibility to develop what you might call the British Muslim identity. Of course, there's an international situation which makes that more difficult and that is the second point, that the rest of us have to be - how can I put it, considerate and thoughtful, and intelligent as we can be not to drive the vast majority of Muslims who want to be this thing called a British Muslim into the arms of extremists who say that because of what Britain's done internationally, you know, they will never allow Muslims to be truly British.

What that means in practice is that for British Muslims, Asians, the black community and everyone else, the new buzz word is not multiculturalism, but integration.

TREVOR PHILLIPS: Our job is to encourage good relations between communities and integration. And, therefore, we are clearly giving priority for our funds, public funds, to those organisations which set themselves up to encourage a sense of integration, to avoid conflict between different communities and, really, to try to find ways in which all the people who live here and stay here can find a common citizenship.

JENNY BROCKIE: Well, Brian Galligan, do you agree with Trevor Phillips, does multiculturalism encourage separateness?

BRIAN GALLIGAN, AUTHOR 'AUSTRALIAN CITIZENSHIP': I think we have a different situation here. I don't think we have quite those extremes, nor do I think that multiculturalism has been as strong as perhaps you and others have been suggesting. I think it has pretty much wilted and the fact that Mark Latham as well as John Howard now are saying that is evidence that it really - it's dying away.

JENNY BROCKIE: Now when you say it's wilted, what do you mean?

BRIAN GALLIGAN: Well, in a sense, Australia is not a multicultural country, if you look around, in any hard sense of the word, and nor ought it to be. I think most Australians have never accepted multiculturalism as a way of defining themselves. It has been rather a top down sort of a policy driven by a few.

JENNY BROCKIE: When you say it's not a multicultural society, what do you mean? How is it not a multicultural society?

BRIAN GALLIGAN: It's not a multicultural society in that Australia is not made up of separate and distinct groups with distinct cultures. To an extent in the first generation of migrants, particularly from non-English speaking background, there's a certain identity, but that very quickly disappears as they integrate, or largely disappears. That's not to say Australia has not changed beneficially in the process.

JENNY BROCKIE: Does multiculturalism or can it encourage ethnic communities in encouraging ethnic communities to maintain elements of their own culture sometimes do that at the expense of unity, do you think?

ABD MALAK, FEDERAL ETHNIC COMMUNITIES COUNCIL: I think where multiculturalism has been used and abused severely in Australia, especially in the talkback shows, the reality is what we understand about multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is basically Australian core value, which we all agree with and I assume everyone here will agree. We believe in the democratic system, the respect of the law, the freedom of speech, the freedom to live free from racists, the freedom to practice your religion. A third one, which is more important, the ability and opportunity to contribute to the Australian community, to give 100% of your ability for benefit of the whole community.

BRIAN GALLIGAN: That's all very true, but it has nothing to do with different cultures. All that he has said is true. It's about democratic values and so on. I think you would have to put in some underlying cultural basis to it. All of those values have nothing to do with different cultures.

JENNY BROCKIE: When you say in your writing that it's hollowing out, as you put it, what it means to be an Australian citizen, this idea of multiculturalism, what do you mean? What evidence is there for that?

BRIAN GALLIGAN: Well, I think the evidence that most Australians realise, that there is a basic unity, even though it's a plurality within Australian culture which is based around the common English language, living in a distinct island continent, having particular traditions of history, art and so on.

JENNY BROCKIE: You're saying that is being hollowed out by a policy of multiculturalism?

BRIAN GALLIGAN: Well, it's not being recognised by a policy of multiculturalism.

ABD MALAK: But that's not multiculturalism.

DR TANVEER AHMED, PSYCHIATRIC REGISTRAR: I think what Mr Malak was describing is probably what we consider citizenship, Australian citizen, rather than what we'd refer to as multiculturalism. Having said that, I think listening to Professor Galligan, I think we are all innately more multicultural as individuals. I'm a Bangladeshi Australian Muslim on the verge of burping my Thai meal, and that's probably a common experience.

JENNY BROCKIE: Please don't share that with us, Tanveer.

DR TANVEER AHMED: Having said that, for me, I think multiculturalism feels like a sort of multicoloured cardigan to me. It feels a bit old and staid, and almost implies like the Balkanisation of the suburbs. I think a lot of the debate comes postwar on terror and post... I think we live in a time where we're all questioning identity. For me words like 'pluralist' or 'internationalist' have more meaning but to be internationalist, I think the Indian leader Nehru said "I'm an internationalist, because I'm so securely rooted." And that's probably what a lot of the debate is today.

JENNY BROCKIE: The cutting edge of a lot of this is about where you draw that line between hanging on to aspects of a culture you might bring with you to Australia and absorbing Australian culture. Now Helen Hughes, what is wrong with people hanging on to aspects of their culture when they come to Australia?

HELEN HUGHES, CENTRE FOR INDEPENDENT STUDIES: Well each person can only do so much in one lifetime and I think our first responsibility is to Australian culture, which has a good history, an interesting history, and makes for the sort of society that we enjoy. Fortunately, most immigrants have been so sensible that they have never taken multiculturalism seriously.

JENNY BROCKIE: What is it you object to about multiculturalism?

HELEN HUGHES: If multiculturalism tells you that don't have to turn English.

JENNY BROCKIE: Turn English, or learn English?

HELEN HUGHES: Learn English - you don't have to learn English.

ABD MALAK: But that's not true, that's not correct.

HELEN HUGHES: Everybody has to learn English it's the national language.

ABD MALAK: We agree with you.

HELEN HUGHES: Alright. Well I do not think... I'm just one person. I was born in Czechoslovakia. My parents were refugees, and being refugees, they wanted to go back to their own country to fix it. When they couldn't do that, they decided to become Australian, which meant that they spoke English, found out about Australian culture...

JENNY BROCKIE: Are you suggesting other people aren't doing that?

HELEN HUGHES: No, I'm suggesting that that's what most people do, and in a sense, we found on the Fitzgerald committee that multiculturalism is the cult of small groups of people who maintain ethnic differences, but who have no resonance with the rest of the community.

JENNY BROCKIE: Is that other people think multiculturalism is? Yes.

GREG NOBLE, CENTRE FOR CULTURAL RESEARCH, UWS: What really worries me, we are setting up a very simple opposition between some ideal of an integrated nation, and a kind of a dystopian vision of these kind of tribalised communities. Neither of those is true.

JENNY BROCKIE: But that's the fear, isn't it? There's a fear about tribes. There's a fear.

GREG NOBLE: There is a fear amongst some people. By and large, people just get on and live their lives and live them in very complex worlds in Australia and they move happily between different groups or communities, or whatever you want to call them. And most migrants and their children quite happily participate fairly well in the mainstream institutions of Australian society, and yet, also keep attachments to their forms of cultural identity. We shouldn't oppose those things. People manage to keep them together at the same time.

JENNY BROCKIE: Andrew?

ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ, SOCIOLOGIST, UTS: I think one of the things that multiculturalism has done is actually created a generation of people who are competent in operating in a number of different cultures. I think what has happened in recent years and I found Mark Latham's comments that Australia is fundamentally a Christian nation really quite offensive. Australia was founded as a secular nation. There may be a majority of Christians, but that doesn't make Australia a Christian nation. What we have to face up to is that there are people in this country who would like to remove the capacity of people to follow different ways of being in the world. Those ways of being are not threatening. If you look, for instance, at many of the major critics of multiculturalism, and Professor Galligan is one and there are many others. Many of them come out of an Irish/Australian background. They've reached a point of being brought into the Australian elites. One of the biggest ethnic conflicts in Australia for a long time was the conflict between the Protestants and the Irish Catholics. That was really resolved in the middle part of the last century, and I think there was a period immediately after that when many of the other communities said, "Well we want our cultures recognised in the same way that the Irish have affected Australian culture. So do we." I think what we are getting now is this enormous resistance to the idea that anyone other than the migrants should actually have to change. That's not an issue. It's not an issue they should have to worry about.

JENNY BROCKIE: Brian, is that right? Is this all coming from an Irish Catholic background?

BRIAN GALLIGAN: I come from the partly Irish Catholic background, but really, Australian fourth generation, Australian and British. My younger sister is married to a Palestinian Arab, as I was telling my colleague here before, my eldest niece is married to a Muslim from Indonesia. I think this is all nonsense. I don't see why there can't be tolerance amongst Australians and all of the good things which people point to don't necessarily come from multiculturalism. They're there. Multiculturalism I think came in as a policy - more as a welfare thing - and a decent policy to help people from non-English speaking background who needed help and it also has promoted diversity and I'm all in favour of that. But what I'm saying is that, in fact, multiple cultures don't continue in Australia. People do become integrated over generations. I would hope they would be more diverse.

JENNY BROCKIE: Couldn't you argue then that it has been a success if what you're saying is that Australia is working.

BRIAN GALLIGAN: But that's not necessarily because of multiculturalism. That's only to say Australia is working.

JENNY BROCKIE: So in practical terms, what does that mean in terms of policy and things like funding, because that's the cutting edge of all of this, is how does it translate into political action, for example, if we abandon multiculturalism, do we abandon those programs like teaching migrants English, or SBS.

BRIAN GALLIGAN: No, they're all good and we should, in fact - I think we should spend more on those things, to the extent that people from non-English speaking background migrants have disabilities in coping, then they ought to be - money ought to be spent there.

MAN: But where are the policies you make reference to on the ground. I mean, you look at multiculturalism and you look at ethnic communities, or cultural communities. Where are those policies? It doesn't happen in health, it doesn't happen in housing, it doesn't happen in the welfare areas. It's not there. There is so much mainstreaming of community services that everyone has to be the same. I work for service organisations, I sit on the committees and I see the same policies coming through, it is very, very, very whiter shade of pale.

JENNY BROCKIE: Joe Wakim, I know that you've actually shifted your views a bit on some of this, haven't you, since you were involved in settlement services in the '70s. Why?

JOE WAKIM, FORMER MULTICULTURAL COMMISSIONER: I think I have been more critical of multiculturalism as an absolutism, as we mentioned before is some sort of division between two sections of Australia. I became fairly cynical when involved with the funding of so-called ethnic organisations. I felt that they were pandering to a very pathetic stereotype, a very decorative group that is there to please and dance and cook for. And a lot of the metaphors used for the ethnic groups were always very gastronomic, you know, they were a fruit salad, they were a pizza, they were a melting pot. I just found those things very disconcerting.

JENNY BROCKIE: Why? Why?

JOE WAKIM: Well, because they're not. They're human beings and they are equal to everybody else. They're not something you eat. I think the transition for me that I have seen is that ethnics have gone through a major evolution from someone who was different to someone that was demonised. I think it has also gone through another evolution, and that is that they were something that was very yum, they were associated with good food. And as we saw in the previous video, now they're something that's yuck, something that's threatening, something that could divide. So I've been very disillusioned, I suppose, with the way multiculturalism has been practised. I salute the fact that it evolved, because it replaced something which was far worse, and that was monoculturalism - and I dread to see that the end of multiculturalism means the beginning of racism, or the end of multiculturalism means going back.

JENNY BROCKIE: Does it mean going back, Helen Hughes, is that what you want?

HELEN HUGHES: No, because we've never been there. I think that what you're taking a very Polly-Annish sort of attitude and everybody around here is, as if there were no real conflicts between cultures and there are real conflicts that were illustrated in the clip, and that are illustrated in some aspects of Australian life. Now, for example, Australia has a great tradition of equality for women. We're one of the first to have votes for women. We have fought hard for the rights of women, rights of women in Parliament and so on, but there are some cultures, which are opposed to the rights of women, which don't give women equal rights. This is the sort of cultural conflict I think that multiculturalism encourages.

JENNY BROCKIE: How are you suggesting that that be best addressed then?

HELEN HUGHES: Through integration. And this in the major ways, newcomers have to adjust to the Australian culture and not vice versa.

JENNY BROCKIE: Sofia Dedes, up the back.

SOFIA DEDES, 'WOGLIFE' CONTRIBUTOR: Some of these other cultures who don't perhaps have the same values upon women as we do, they're not based on culture, they're based on religion. It's very different, and part of the whole Western liberal democracy thing is that, you know, we have separated religion and the State and a lot of other places haven't.

JENNY BROCKIE: George, yes.

GEORGE MEGALOGENIS, AUTHOR 'FAULTLINES': Can we just drill down a bit. When we have a go at multiculturalism, what we're really having a go at is a few ethnic politicians that tell me, for instance, I'm more Greek than I am Australian. The majority of the Australian population, including the immigrant population, and the children of those immigrants pay very little attention to ethnic politicians. In fact, they are just disengaged from ethnic politicians as they are from Australian politicians, generally.

JENNY BROCKIE: That's pretty disengaged.

GEORGE MEGALOGENIS: Can we steer this conversation to people and can we also steer this conversation to what is and isn't working. I would like to somebody to identify what they think the problem is between people in Australia, rather than somebody seeking a $5,000 grant for an ethnic folk dance. That's the softest of straw men in the Australian political debate today. In fact, that debate was over 20 years ago. It's a bit disappointing here tonight that we want to have that debate again. Show me that people aren't getting on and let's have a debate about that.

JENNY BROCKIE: Antoinette, tell me about your life as an Australian. Do you relate to the term multiculturalism, for example?

ANTOINETTE CHIHA, JOURNALIST: I'm not sure that I've actually ever come to terms with what it means. I know that I'm an Australian and growing up multiculturalism was the buzz word, as it continues to be, but it got to a point where I felt I was being handicapped because of the term 'multiculturalism' and despite the fact that I tried to... I do identify as an Australian, I felt that the political correctness surrounding multiculturalism that my background and heritage had to be continually celebrated and spoken about, that people led me to question my own identity. I'm continually asked what country I'm really from, despite the fact that I identify as an Australian. Continually people are astonished at the fact that I'm a journalist and I am a writer, because coming from a non-English speaking background, I must have had extreme difficulties with language.

JENNY BROCKIE: What sort of things do people say to you?

ANTOINETTE CHIHA: I was a 4 Unit English student at a selective high school, and my 4 Unit English teacher asked me if I needed non-English... English as a Second Language support. I worked at a country newspaper where I was continually referred to, by the staff members as a 'new Australian'. It was used to handicap me and to limit my capabilities.

JENNY BROCKIE: Chris, you've set up a website called WogLife. What sort of things do people register on that website in relation to identity. How will people responding to this sort of discussion?

CHRIS ZISSIADIS, EDITOR, "WOGLIFE" The site, as suggested, is geared towards young multicultural Australians let's say, or as we like to call them, wogs, because that's what they like to call themselves. The issue of identity is incredibly complex. When I first started the site, I thought it was going to be fairly simple, we're going to talk about what it means to be a wog to you, what problems you have encountered in your life, but there's just - the level of confusion within younger Australians about who they are and how or how the Government doesn't or does support them or how society in general accepts them or helps them achieve something in life, I mean, I wake up in the morning and I don't think, "What am I going to do today that's multicultural." I don't think, "Am I being multicultural, am I being multiethnic, multiracial."

JENNY BROCKIE: What's your background?

CHRIS ZISSIADIS: Well my parents were both born in Greece. I was born here. You just get up and live your life. You don't do it to spite the Government, you don't do it to spite your parents, you don't do it to impress the Government, or impress your parents, you just get up there and do whatever you want to do.

JENNY BROCKIE: Well, some people do.

CHRIS ZISSIADIS: Well, occasionally. The issues is integration, as we've said, but the two problems I have with that is, what are we supposed to integrate to, or with, and why does it only apply to non-English speaking or non-Anglo Australians?

JENNY BROCKIE: That's a good question, actually, we'll get back to that in a second. Gina, just tell me about your story. You juggled a mixed heritage, indigenous and Greek. You are now a hip hop artist and an actor. What do you think of the whole idea of multiculturalism, and what do you relate to?

GINA CHRISANTHOPOULOS, HIP-HOP ARTIST: I don't know, it's a weird one, because growing up, I have a similar story. I grew up in an area - in Mildura, which in my days, there wasn't many other people around. I was the only Koori kid running around with my brothers and sisters in an all-white school. Racism was pretty bad then so it was kind of confusing. More like the stereotypes would knock you back and kind of go, "Oh, I'm not an indigenous person because I might get accused of being an alcoholic or sniffing petrol," and for years I denied my Aboriginal heritage because of everybody else's stereotypes. I think this country is so confused, it needs to focus on one thing. I don't care what anyone says, there is still an unfinished war in this country that needs to be dealt with. That's the first step we need to take. Whether anyone recognises that or agrees to it, well, that's my opinion.

JENNY BROCKIE: So that's the part of your heritage you feel very strongly about, your Aboriginal heritage?

GINA CHRISANTHOPOULOS: I was brought up proud, Greek and Aboriginal. To me, they're both very strong cultures and they go way back. So, I think - I don't know, I'm living in Australia, so my problem is my indigenous heritage.

JENNY BROCKIE: George, you're a journalist who has coined this term 'Generation W'. Who is Generation or what is Generation W?

GEORGE MEGALOGENIS: Generation W is a way to get around the phoney debate about who Gen X is - 20- or 30-something Australians today, who are the sort of energisers of social change in Australia, and sort of the most qualified workers in our open economy, I drilled down the data for the last couple of years and I was quite pleasantly surprised by the results. The two groups in our population, who have outperformed all others in their peer group are women generally, in their 20s and 30s. When we talk about crisis and masculinity, what we are really talking about, the flip side of that is the success of women. And the children of non-English speaking immigrants have outperformed even the children of immigrants of an English-speaking background. Now, what's that telling you, that the second generation has something to prove. Now, I call them Gen W, obviously, because the experience of women and the experience of the wogs is, you know, coincidental, but it's a very important part of what's, I think, confusing people in older Australia as well. When you look around and Hoges is no longer your pin-up boy for old Australia and you see successful women or successful kids of immigrants, the question you ask yourself is do I recognise this country? But these people are the new middle class, and they're the new mainstream. They're doing pretty well. They call them Australians too, per chance. I mean that's quite extraordinary when you think about the people who are driving the change and then we have a debate at the 50- and 60-something level about multiculturalism, I tune out, to be honest, when I'm told by people 20, 30, 40 years my age what the life I'm living is about.

JENNY BROCKIE: Helen, do you fall into that category?

HELEN HUGHES: I think what this conversation shows is that multiculturalism has been extremely damaging, because people around me are totally confused and very few people can say that they're Australian and why they're Australian, because they don't have knowledge of Australian history, Australian culture, Australian literature, so they're confused.

JENNY BROCKIE: Antoinette?

ANTOINETTE CHIHA: I think it's more important when we look at the multicultural debate, and I have to disagree with Helen, who earlier whispered to me that I didn't know anything about culture, you've really got to bring it down to the 20s and 30s, because we are the face, apparently, of multicultural Australia. We are the future of Australia. You have to take it out of the academic, out of the academic world and out of the text books, it's my life and it's the lives of many other people here that shape multiculturalism and shape Australia, and we're going to continue to shape the face of Australia.

JENNY BROCKIE: The lady here.

WOMAN: Hi. I'm a little older than you, I'm first generation, and I'd have to disagree that you're the face of multiculturalism, because as I was growing up, that's when multiculturalism really hit. I was completely ghettoed in my upbringing. Look, I don't think I ever understood the idea of multiculturalism, except for that my parents came out, my name got Anglicised, they cut down their last name and we ate boring food. If that's what multiculturalism isn't, then, yea to multiculturalism, but then I grow up and I leave - I do some study and I now work in the disability field. I don't quite understand these terms whether to be multicultural is different to multiculturalism, but still I believe there are still groups of people who come from other cultures, who have different belief systems who need specific support for specific things.

JENNY BROCKIE: Adnan, yes, at the back.

ADNAN AL-GHAZAL, IRAQI COMMUNITY, SHEPPARTON: The lady at the front line mentioned things about integration and as far as I believe and according to my personal experience, as a migrant, every single one of them, they try to show as much as they can. They try to make as much as they can in order to integrate themselves in their wider community. That's what they can do. Why we have to forget about the heavy heritage they came with. The cultural heritage and as well the religious heritage they came with? Let's just disregard the first generation, why cannot we use them just as an investment and the profit will be the second generation. The second generation, as far as I believe and as far as we experience among other Iraqi community -

JENNY BROCKIE: This is in Shepparton?

ADNAN AL-GHAZAL: Even in general, specifically in Shepparton and in Australia in general, they speak better English than their mother language, as well, they consider themselves more Australian than Iraqis.

JENNY BROCKIE: Anne McCamish, you're the Mayor of Greater Shepparton. What has been the experience in Shepparton, because you have a large migrant population and a significant indigenous population as well?

CR ANNE McCAMISH, MAYOR SHEPPARTON: I think what is important to note, is that we... I've spent the last two days trying to work out what I think multiculturalism is, because it's not a concept I spend any time thinking about. When I describe Shepparton, I describe a diverse society and community, and it's based... its differences are based as much on class and income and education as anything else. I hear some implications here that the last wave of people to come in are obviously the Iraqis, and that because they bring with them a Muslim religion, that the two go together, but we, for many, many, many years have had Albanians and Turks and they are both Muslim communities. I don't think that religion is going to be the obstacle.

JENNY BROCKIE: Helen, when you talk about integration and you said earlier you thought integration was the key to all this, integration to what? What is it you want people to integrate towards? And what do you think of as Australia? What does that represent?

HELEN HUGHES: I think of Australia as having a history that goes back to prehistoric times, but where the last 200 years have been very important, and the last 50 years have been very important, so that we have integrated a lot of migrants from different countries, but what is uniquely about Australian is our land, the way it influences things, the way the population settled, the high degree of urbanisation, and yet the yearning for the country, but I talk to people, they haven't read any Australian literature, they don't know Australian composers, except the pop bands.

JENNY BROCKIE: When you say you talk to people? People in general?

HELEN HUGHES: People in general. And I think the reason a whole generation has missed out on Australian culture and Australian education, Australian education and Australian politics, is that multiculturalism has superseded it in schools, in the media. So I think that multiculturalism as a concept has been a real problem in the integration into an Australian culture.

JENNY BROCKIE: There's a lot of people want to comment on that. Joe, yes.

JOE WAKIM: I have to disagree with that. I have actually done a lot of work on curriculum in school. I think quite the opposite is the problem. Particularly my own education, we had a hell of a lot of education about, you know, the last 200 years and a little bit before that, but one of the problems, one of the things that led to the other 'ism', which is 'racism', is lack of education about the diversity around the world, particularly with Arab and Muslim and Middle Eastern, there is bugger all education about the history and contributions of that civilisation to the rest of the world.

JENNY BROCKIE: Tanveer?

DR TANVEER AHMED: First of all, I think we need to define that culture is what defines belief systems, rituals and it is the right prism through which we study behaviour. Two, that it's not a static entity it is a dynamic system and we're all borrowing from... they're all feeding into it, whether it be Anglo Irish, Aboriginal, Lebanese, Indian, it's hardly a static entity. When we talk about Australian identity, it's not a static entity. Especially for second generation, say, children of immigrants, for me, the drover looking across the outback, it's not a myth or image that I can relate to, unfortunately, so it makes it difficult. Having that said, having said that, I think, Helen, you still - this is on the backdrop of war and terror. Ultimately, the vast majority of second generation Australians do extremely well, they juggle all these different identities. They perform very well at school and they go on to be fantastic members of the community, but we do need to argue a point and I see it in my work in psychiatry. There is a point where mutually exclusive systems - there are lots of children growing up in mutually exclusive ideologies. I know Helen called it some gender - I wouldn't called it gender - there's a point where it reaches where you have one system of individualism, secularism, and gender, say - call it equality, but at the other end, we have collectivism, religious commitment and gender role differentiation. This is what some children will be getting taught at home.

JENNY BROCKIE: So they're getting those two inputs?

DR TANVEER AHMED: They're getting it, and I've seen it in my work. Again, this is a tiny subset. There is no question, that this is tiny, tiny subset, where people are finding it very difficult to marry mutually exclusive entities and we see mentally ill adolescents and people in their 20s, who... who are torn. They've called that dud studies. You showed Britain earlier. They shown studies in Britain and they have called it compartmentalisation. It was a very difficult thing to resolve as adults, and it was something that was talked about with - at the end of the day, we have to argue, how do kids who grow up, like myself, who came here four or five years old, grow up in the West - again, it's a tiny subset - but what makes a child who grows up here suddenly want to say join an extremist group and attack the country they have grown up in? It is an important point.

JENNY BROCKIE: What do you think the answer to that question is? What is it do you think that makes people want to do that?

DR TANVEER AHMED: I can't answer that. We need to recognise that race is an issue here. I think it is naive for people like Greg Noble to say things like the gang rape - again, I need to clarify that it's a tiny, tiny subset of the community. But it's silly to think there was no racial element there. There was a racial element.

ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ: But the issue is, the vast majority of the people we're talking about do not commit rapes, do not go mad, do not turn into crazy jihadists, don't become extremely Orthodox Jews, that's my background and Helen's. Most of us do not do that. Most of us operate quite effectively between cultures. It can be difficult, it can be heavy. The Jewish community has a long history of joking about exactly these issues.

JENNY BROCKIE: But excepting that, excepting what you're saying

ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ: Who draws the line, Jenny? You asked where should the line be drawn, I'm saying who draws the line. That's really the critical question.

JENNY BROCKIE: No, just before we leave that, Greg, I'll come to you in a minute. Before we leave that, I suppose the point I'm interested in that Tanveer is making, is that given that most people do not fall into these categories we are talking about, but there are some who do and there is a fear in the broader community about the creation of separate tribes, or whatever, how do we deal with those things?

ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ: Absolutely. Let's take an example, a different example. Over the last few months, Australia has been rocked by sex scandals in rugby league and to some extent in Australian football. In the case of the Sydney Bulldogs team, all of whom were under suspicion for behaving in grossly sexist ways, most of whom were not Muslim - in fact, all except one were not Muslim - the only person who was deemed to be totally without any suspicion was the Muslim member. He was the one that the police recognised from the outset was unlikely to engage in rape, unlikely to get drunk, unlikely to behave in socially unacceptable ways. The people who were likely to behave in ways that Australian community would be offended by were Anglo Australian boys, young men coming out of the core culture. Now, I don't think we're talking about integration into that culture. I don't think anyone wants to see the next generation of Australians turn into those sorts of louts that behave in those sorts of ways.

JENNY BROCKIE: Greg.

GREG NOBLE: Tolerance - you rose the question of tolerance before. In this kind of bourgeois fantasy of a gentle and loving Australian culture that Helen has offered, the assumption is that all the bad things happen from one side to the other. All the transgressions come from one side to another. The interesting thing about Australia is that we have this sort of central paradox. Most migrants who come to Australia, and their children, say that Australia is a very tolerant place, a very tolerant place. Yet, on the other hand, I have recently done some research on experiences of Arab-speaking and Muslim-background people and their daily experiences of social incivility, they constantly experience, on almost a daily basis many - some groups - high levels of harassment on the streets, name calling, hijab-tugging and so on and so forth. The intolerance there comes not from the men of their own community who are supposed to be sexist, but largely Anglo men.

JENNY BROCKIE: Afifa, tell what has happened to you recently.

AFIFA SAAD: Oh, yes, recently I was playing a game of soccer, I have been playing five and a half years and the referee didn't allow me to play with it on. It's like, what's going on? I always play with it on. There's no issue with myself, my team-mates, with the opposition, it doesn't really affect my performance. It doesn't harm anyone. You know, it was just a total shock to me. The referee, who was very experienced in officiating soccer and very high up there in the hierarchy and he didn't accept me. I see that as a lack of knowledge. I think he was very stupid to comment on that.

JENNY BROCKIE: April, are Muslims having a more difficult time at the moment, or are Australians reacting differently to Muslim migrants, to other migrant groups in the community?

APRIL PHAM, VIETNAMESE WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION: Definitely. I think it would be foolish for us to think that racism is not in existence in Australia at the moment. In actual fact, it is really high on the agenda, we have seen politicians manipulate race to win elections, as with the last election. I am quite curios to know where this whole debate around 'multiculturalism' has stemmed out as well. I think in terms of the Muslim community's experience, I think that Muslim women, because they're so visible as a sign of difference, they have been bearing the brunt of the racial vilification that's happening on our streets on a daily basis, and we need to really acknowledge, you know, how accepting we are as a community, that actually allows those things to happen.

JENNY BROCKIE: Brian?

BRIAN GALLIGAN: I think we have to keep a sense of history in perspective. If you go back, you will find Italians and Greeks in the immediate postwar years were vilified in all sorts of unreasonable ways. They were considered more dangerous to use knives and so on, even though the best research and the Government commissioned research showed they weren't, they were more law-abiding, but in a sense, that's, unfortunately, an aspect of every wave of generation of migrants - if they're different, they will get that. The other thing is one can't take examples like the rugby league team and relate it much back to culture in my view. I just think that's a silly take.

APRIL PHAM: But we do when that happened with those boys in Bankstown.

BRIAN GALLIGAN: I think it's a mistake to do it either way.

JENNY BROCKIE: What does cause that, Brian, if it is not culture, what is it?

ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ: Isn't rugby league at the heart of Australian culture?

BRIAN GALLIGAN: Well, it's rugby league culture.

JENNY BROCKIE: Football is at the heart of Australian culture.

BRIAN GALLIGAN: I think it's something to do with rugby league culture and the particular... It's not necessarily an Anglo thing or a non-Arab thing.

WOMAN: More women are raped on a daily basis.

JENNY BROCKIE: One at a time. Greg. I'll give you a go in a minute.

GREG NOBLE: Here we have a classic example of you exclude all the bad things from the ideal you want to have about the thing that you cherish most. You can't do that. Culture is this very complex negotiated conflictual process in itself.

JENNY BROCKIE: But can I put to you - are you excluding some of the things that Tanveer mentioned in the way that you look at things? Tanveer is talking about direct conflict between two sets of cultural values and seeing the consequence of that as a doctor.

DR TANVEER AHMED: We also have to knowledge that there are families, and I see it in my own community, there are still families - and there are usually parents who don't necessarily engage strongly with the Australian community who will see themselves here solely as economic migrants, they are here to get their kids an education, but tightly maintain their mythic sort of memory of an older culture. This affects their kids. So when you talk about - of course, racism isn't limited to Australians, it is not limited to any group, but talking about, say, the Lebanese gang rape thing, and again, I don't know the individuals, but I certainly see parents who will feed their kids that white women - if they're showing their legs, etc, they have different values and they will be more sexually promiscuous.

GREG NOBLE: He's extrapolating from one series of incidents to a whole community.

JENNY BROCKIE: Well he's extrapolating from his experience as a doctor, are you not?

DR TANVEER AHMED: Absolutely.

ABD MALAK: How many clients do you have? I work health for the last 20 years I haven't seen these people you are talking about.

JENNY BROCKIE: I think he did make the point it's a tiny subset –

ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ: It's a tiny subset of deeply disturbed human beings, who, in the public vision are labelled by their culture. What we're talking about, the people who are in severe crisis, and they exhibit that crisis in all sorts of ways.

JENNY BROCKIE: Is it also partly coming up because of the current climate, because of the climate surrounding terrorism, fears of cultural and religious difference, fears of conflict and so on. Is that why we're having this debate at the moment? George.

GEORGE MEGALOGENIS: This is episodic, though. If we had this conversation 15 years ago, if would been about the inability to absorb Asian immigration. John Howard had a crack at that topic in 1988 and subsequently in an interview with me just a couple of years ago, he described Chinese and Vietnamese Australians as the new Greeks and Italians, they were his choice of words. Now, 15 years is a pretty good snapshot of how quickly it works in Australia, in our corporate memory, in the sort of time that a lot of us can cast back on, by the time Pauline Hanson turned up in 1996 saying, "We're in danger of being swamped by Asians", John Howard wasn't going to fly that kite again, because he had already changed his position. I'm still challenging people here today to explain to me why Muslim Australians are more difficult to absorb than any wave that came before them.

JENNY BROCKIE: Tanveer?

DR TANVEER AHMED: I think there is a difference between Islam and integration, because if you are a devout Muslim, you are suspicious of national identity, it's not something you should - it is virtually taught. It is not something you should really want to aspire to. A wider do debate could be - what is the future of nationalism? In a lot of people would talk about things like the EU as being a future where you balance the tribal, the national and the regional as the future of identity. This debate is going on all over the world. In essence, nationalism is a force, it is a declining force.

JENNY BROCKIE: You're talking about translating the debate into something more generic. Walleed, what do you think when you hear Mark Latham, for example talk about the need for government to modernise its multicultural policies to reflect the changing reality of Australia?

WALEED ALY, ISLAMIC COUNCIL OF VICTORIA: My first thought is I'm not really sure what he means. I think all this debate has illustrated is, there is a lot of argument over a word. The problem is, words are symbols. They don't have inherent meaning, they just mean whatever we want them to mean. Growing up, multiculturalism was something that - in a sense, it was something protective for me as someone who came from an ethnic minority. The fact that we were continually told we had a multicultural society made racism harder to persist with. Whether or not that's still the case, I don't know. If it's no longer the case, then perhaps there is some need for modernisation, or whatever. Personally, I don't think the word has lost that resonance.

JENNY BROCKIE: So you're worried about losing the word might open the door to racism?

WALEED ALY: I think there is a danger, particularly with integration. I don't have any objections to integration per se, but I do have concerns about the way in which that word can be used. We've spoken at length here about integrating to what? That's precisely the point. If integration becomes the buzz word, then what it means is it will end up being conflated with assimilation. That's my real worry. Certainly, I think there is a real problem with that having. Sorry, the dangers that that will cause will be quite profound. If you look within the Muslim community at the moment, and I can tell you that, because I'm heavily involved with it, one of the greatest problems of unrest within the Muslim community and one of the greatest causes of social problems that's going to occur between the Muslim community and the wider community is a feeling of not being welcomed and a feeling of not belonging. That will only be exacerbated by this idea that you have to be essentially some white European from the 1950s or you have to subscribe to some set of values, which you probably subscribe to anyway, but now you are being told you cannot be this certain way, you have to be this certain way, resistance grows larger. That can be a real problem.

JENNY BROCKIE: Brian?

BRIAN GALLIGAN: I don't think the Muslim community are that different from anybody else. I think there's a lot of cultural overlays which, you know, will probably drop away as the community - as older generation, Lebanese and so on, have been in Australia, and I think that, you know, singling them out to say they're special, I just think is doing them a disservice.

CHRIS ZISSIADIS: That's what continues.

BRIAN GALLIGAN: They're the most recent immigration wave.

CHRIS ZISSIADIS: I'm talking about children of people who have come from a Greek or Italian background. Two of my friends - I was born in Australia - I don't have any kids myself, but my friends' children were born here and they are reverting back to Greek culture. It's quite common for them to aspire to things that are Greek, speak the language better than their parents do, listen to the music, you know, be interested in that culture, rather than look for a culture within Australia, and I think that's a tragedy.

BRIAN GALLIGAN: I think that's a bit suspicious.

CHRIS ZISSIADIS: It might be suspicious, but it's happening. It's very common, and that disappoints me, because we have an opportunity to move forward.

GREG NOBLE: It's partly a response to the experience of fear.

CHRIS ZISSIADIS: That's right and what has generated that, I think it is a big issue and is part of this issue of identity and being told that you've got to assimilate and be told that from your parents, but not being told what it is that you're supposed to be. Not being told these values, and saying, you got to look at - know history and things like that, that's looking backwards, that's not looking forwards.

JENNY BROCKIE: We are going to have to wrap up, I'm afraid. I guess it is getting back down to this word multiculturialsm and whether it is a force for good or a negative force. A final comment from you, Abd Malak.

ABD MALAK: I do strongly believe it is force for good. It is force for unity, if you look at the Australian history for the last 50 years or 30 years, we never had the problem they're having overseas, we never have the difficulty that England is having, we have a very successful economy, because we utilise our diverse language and our diverse skills, we have a very successful partnership. You need only to go to the local neighbourhood and see how people are getting together how they live together. We really need to look to the big picture, not to the small number of, what you call - of people who fall off the road, which happens all the time.

JENNY BROCKIE: And a quick word from you Brian Galligan. Why is this word such a problem?

BRIAN GALLIGAN: I think multiculturalism is largely a non-issue now. I think that Australian people have never really adopted it they've moved beyond it, the politicians have moved beyond it and I think that, it's just dying on its feet. So I'm not terribly opposed to, I just don't think it's that real and it does distort some of our public institutions like our definitions of citizenship.

JENNY BROCKIE: We are going to have to leave it there, I'm afraid. We are completely out of time and I would like to thank you all very much for joining Insight for tonight.
===============================================

FURTHER READING

Ahmad Elrich, Muslim Olyroo

Force Gets A Role Model

A History of Islam in Australia

Call of Islam: Australian Muslims

Allah In Suburbia

Encounters With Islam

Islam In Australia

Approaching September 11

101 Questions About Muslims & Islam

Muslims In The West - Coexistence Or Conflict?

Fear and Fascination: The Other In Religion

Muslims In the West: Europe's Silent Revolution

Little Evidence of Racial Divide in Sydney: Study

Islam: "Fastest Growing Faith In Australia"

Where Do You Come From?

What Is Your Cultural Background?



I'm Not Racist, But ...

Being A True Aussie, Multicultural Australia

My Granny Is Seizing Power!

Action Alert: David Oldfield Vs Muslim Immigration

Muslims Join Christians in Christmas Festivities

Report on Media, Islam and Race

The War on Terror: Australian Media Representations of Arabs & Muslims

Aust Media & Portrayal of Muslims

Not Without My Prejudice

Is Multiculturalism Dead In Australia?

Myth 101: "There Are No Refugees In Australian Detention Centres"

Ethnic Caging In A Multicultural Nation

Borderphobias: The Politics of Insecurity Post-9/11

The Other Australians

Australia's Cultural Diversity

Against Paranoid Nationalism: Searching For Hope In A Shrinking Society

[Mowlana Vector]

1 Mintue Message: How to End Racism

[Mowlana Vector]

Quote

Australia's Multiculturalism: Time For Assessment and Renewal

...

In fact, of course, terrorist acts against innocent people are contrary to the teaching of true Islam with its Golden Rule and its mandatory injunction of “True Charity” . To the extent that they enjoy the support of some rogue Islamic extremists, it is no more justifiable to treat all followers of Islam with disaffection and distrust because of them than it would be to treat all Christians similarly because of terrorist violence and killings by Catholics and Protestants over the years in Ireland and other parts of the world.

In recent times, I personally have had considerable contact with the leaders of Islam in Australia. For example, in the last six months, I was, on one happy occasion, privileged to open Canberra’s new Islamic Centre while, on another tragically sad one, as outgoing Chair of CARE Australia, I welcomed representatives of Islam in Australia to a private ecumenical memorial service after the murder in Iraq of CARE Australia’s much loved Country Director, Margaret Hassan.

There is no doubt at all in my mind, nor was there any in Margaret’s after a lifetime of direct personal experience and contact, that the most effective opponents of terrorism by those falsely purporting to act in the name of Islam are the leaders and followers of true Islam. That means that, from Australia’s point of view, one of the most effective defences against the evil of such terrorism is the type of informed and reasoned dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims which multiculturalism, with its underlying mutual respect and acceptance, makes possible.

Moreover, it is that multiculturalism which is best calculated to prevent the development in Australia of the sort of environment of disconnection, disadvantage and perceived injustice which is most calculated to give rise to dangerous disaffection and resentment on the part of our Muslim fellow Australians, particularly the young.

Quite apart from our own self interest, those policies and attitudes seem to me to be unfortunate in that they reflect a weakening of our sense of shared humanity and humane values and a loss of true perspective. In so far as values are concerned, I venture the thought that all but the inhumane would ordinarily recognize what the Pope has described as a “duty to welcome” fellow human beings who come knocking in desperate need. In so far as loss of perspective is concerned, let me illustrate the point by a contrast.

...

READ the speech in full  here ...


SEE ALSO
Being a True Aussie