Not coming to Australia now :(

A double standard

INDIA'S External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna advocates drastic measures if attacks on Indians are not stopped. This is, at worst, mischievous, as hooligans in India do not need encouragement to burn properties of perceived enemies.

Mr Krishna's Government has done nothing of note to curb attacks on foreigners in India, particularly Goa. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently warned British tourists after yet another murder there.

Published figures show that in 2006, 111 Britons died of natural and unnatural causes in India. In Goa alone in 2007, 40 Britons died; in 2008, 50 died there. Often the blame is put on the so-called ''bad behaviour'' of foreigners in indulging in alcohol, drugs and late-night parties. Indian politicians should clean up their backyard first before educating others.

Sampath Kumar, Mornington



Action, not excuses

THE Indian Government should not resort to hyperbole and sabre-rattling in pandering to its constituents' demands. However, it is equally incumbent on thinking Australians to refrain from a knee-jerk presentation of India's horrendous crime or sectarian violence record as a justification or excuse to sit on our hands.

The progressive degeneration of law and order in Melbourne is an issue that the Victorian and Australian governments need to tackle. No amount of finger-pointing at India will resolve it. Instead, the momentum generated by the Indian media, student organisations and protests should be harnessed by local pressure groups to demand better policing of our streets.

Yashdeep Srivastava, Brunswick East

''It so happens that one of the victims is Indian … Melbourne is not the only city in the world where this happens. It also happens in Delhi and in Mumbai,'' Mr Crean said.
Australian Minister for Trade Simon Crean in India, September 2, 2009.

Australian Minister for Trade Simon Crean in India, September 2, 2009. Photo: Graham Crouch

''It's an unfortunate fact of life, but so far as the victim is concerned and his parents, our deepest sympathy for them and we're doing everything we can to track down the perpetrators.''

Asked about comments by his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna - who urged Australia to respond to the ''uncivilised brutal attack on innocent Indians'' - Mr Crean said he hoped ''wiser heads will prevail''.

Nitin Garg, 21, was stabbed on his way to work at a Hungry Jack's restaurant in West Footscray on Saturday night.

The killing has sparked renewed debate in India about the safety of Australia.

Mr Garg's uncle, Raj Kumar, said the Australian Government had failed to safeguard his nephew. ''Every time we were assured by your ministry . . they were protecting Indians, but they have failed in protecting Indians,'' Mr Kumar said.

Mr Crean conceded there could be economic repercussions from publicity in India over recent attacks, although it was not clear that a fall-off in applications from international students was related.

''We have been through this type of issue before … and from the Prime Minister down we have been talking with our Indian partners and reassuring them that this country doesn't condone nor do we believe that these are racially based attacks.''

Acting Premier Rob Hulls called on the Indian Government to show restraint in its response to the killing. Asked about suggestions India might issue warnings against travel to Australia, and especially Melbourne, Mr Hulls said: ''People should just show some restraint and allow the police to get on with the job of investigating this callous crime.''

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the attacks did not appear to be racist. ''I think it is a human tendency to see sinister aspects of things,'' he said. ''Obviously there's something horrible about any murder but I don't think we should readily conclude just because the victim is of a particular ethnic group that there is that racism unless there is some fairly strong evidence.''

Aman Singh, a family friend who had known the victim for six years, said Mr Garg had just completed his studies at Central Queensland University's Melbourne campus and was looking for a job in accounting when he was killed.

''He came here to get a good education,'' Mr Singh said. ''He would study, stay at home and spend time with his friends. He never did anything suspicious.''

His older brother Hanish had visited him in Melbourne just before Christmas. ''His brother and mother are distressed. His father died last year,'' said Mr Singh, a Melbourne resident who will take Mr Garg's body back to India.

The State Emergency Service yesterday conducted a line search of Cruickshank Park in Kingsville where Mr Garg was killed. This came after about 75 people attended a candlelight vigil at the park on Monday night. The ceremony was organised by the Footscray Church of Christ.

With PAUL AUSTIN, AAP

Canberra has been in damage-control mode for months " to little effect. Hundreds of students took to the streets of Sydney and Melbourne again on Sept. 3 to protest not just the earlier attacks but substandard private colleges and courses that market to South Asian students, as well as poor-quality housing, exploitative work conditions and the need for local benefits like travel concession cards which, they say, will improve safety. The protests were timed to coincide with Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's trip to India at the start of September, in which she aimed to calm the diplomatic waters, and a Senate inquiry into the welfare of international students. More demonstrations are likely when students head to the capital to air their grievances at an international student roundtable hosted by the government in Canberra on Sept. 14 and 15.

The attacks have sparked wide-ranging discussions on racism and discrimination in Australia, a nation still raw from the 2005 Cronulla race riots where thousands of Anglo-Australians engaged in violent clashes with Australian youth of Middle Eastern appearance at a well-known beach in Sydney's south. The country is also grappling with an upsurge of ultra-nationalism among some younger Australians. The issue facing South Asian students is far larger than a few isolated " and possibly opportunistic " attacks, says Unni, the Sydney coordinator of the Federation of Indian Students of Australia. The far bigger problem, he says, is the long-term systemic neglect of the welfare of foreign students in Australia, with too many students being treated as cash cows by indifferent government authorities and unscrupulous private-college operators.



Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1921482,00.html#ixzz0bn9kIMY9

The attacks have sparked wide-ranging discussions on racism and discrimination in Australia, a nation still raw from the 2005 Cronulla race riots where thousands of Anglo-Australians engaged in violent clashes with Australian youth of Middle Eastern appearance at a well-known beach in Sydney's south. The country is also grappling with an upsurge of ultra-nationalism among some younger Australians. The issue facing South Asian students is far larger than a few isolated " and possibly opportunistic " attacks, says Unni, the Sydney coordinator of the Federation of Indian Students of Australia. The far bigger problem, he says, is the long-term systemic neglect of the welfare of foreign students in Australia, with too many students being treated as cash cows by indifferent government authorities and unscrupulous private-college operators.

Expert declares Melbourne safe
Simon Lauder reported this story on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 08:08:00

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TONY EASTLEY: A spokesman for Acting Foreign Minister Simon Crean says the advisories for Indian students travelling to Australia are a matter for the Indian Government. He added that Melbourne has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world.

The Victorian Government says it doesn't want to respond to the Indian Government statement which singles out Melbourne as a street-crime hotspot.

A spokesman says it's a sensitive topic and the State Government doesn't want to add to what's already been said.

A criminologist says the way authorities have handled the reports of assaults on Indian students may have invited the extra scrutiny of Melbourne.

Dr Darren Palmer from Deakin University told AM's Simon Lauder the claims in the Indian Government's statement can't be verified.

DARREN PALMER: The level of detail which they've gone into in their analysis in the warning seems to be rather unusual and the findings, if you like, are questionable, at least in terms of the lack of detailed knowledge we have about trends in violent attacks against Indians in Australia.

SIMON LAUDER: Is there any evidence that the number of robberies and assaults in Melbourne has been on the rise in recent months as the statement says?

DARREN PALMER: No, there's not really that kind of strong evidence there and the kind of data that's collected is poor in terms of being able to identify racial indicators. Most Australian police forces do not record the race of the victims and offenders.

SIMON LAUDER: What are the dangers of putting out such a statement if the evidence isn't there to support the claims?

DARREN PALMER: I think you can do two things. One, it can cause unnecessary panic that you actually overstating the risk to such an extent that people dramatically change their behaviours, whether it's people wanting to come here as students or whether it's people who are here and how they behave.

On the other hand I guess there's a more basic message to it that people have to potentially change their behaviours in terms of protecting against victimisation. But you're on a dangerous path down there where you actually can start to blame the victims for the victimisation. So you've got a, if you like, tread very cautiously and not unnecessarily provoke fear.

SIMON LAUDER: The advice says that Indian students in Australia shouldn't travel alone at night, they shouldn't carry more cash than necessary and they shouldn't make it obvious that they're in possession of expensive items. Is there any evidence that particular ethnic groups flash around their wealth more than others?

DARREN PALMER: Again, I mean the evidence isn't there that these things in particular are making Indians victims for those kinds of behaviours. And again, I think if they are saying these things, they are kind of blaming the victim and it's not unique to Indians.

SIMON LAUDER: Is the fact that Melbourne has been singled out in this warning partly the fault of authorities here in Australia for making it about Melbourne and defending Melbourne in the first place rather than just tackling the issue?

DARREN PALMER: Yes. In relation to the latest case there was a quick attempt to come out and, if you like, defend Melbourne and Victoria and Australia's reputation and in a way that ups the ante. That puts it on the international stage automatically.

TONY EASTLEY: Criminologist Dr Darren Palmer from Deakin University speaking there with Simon Lauder.

Do we "pride ourselves" on not being racist? I certainly don't.

I was at a school the other day, dealing with a little fella of South American indigenous extraction. His school is a major melting pot...lots of Africans, Aboriginal Australian kids, Middle eastern kids etc etc.

One of his crimes was racist taunts against some Indian children....which he had got into with his Aboriginal mates.

Then he and they got into a massive rumble with a group of African kids...because tthe African kids were telling the Aboriginal kids that they weren't proper black people, they were just dirty!

Then all the boys appeared to unite to make a little Moslem refugee girl's life horrible by making explicit sexual statements to her (they all knew she would be especially distressed by this because she wears the veil.)


Mind you...to what extent that is racism (though my little fella, who had spent most of his life in Arab countries, had certainly been subjected to lots of it in schools there!) and to what extent it is creative use of colour and religion where glasses, chubbiness, freckles, being bad at sport etc. would previously have been used is a whole 'nother question!

That was the only time I can honestly recall having any serious reservations about multiculturalism.

I think it's hard to compare racism between countries.

I'd consider China and Japan (from direct experience) to be way more racist than Oz.

If I went by my friends, I'd say Oz is pretty low on the racism scale....but I know from years of client contact, and from being involved in anti-racist political activity, that there are lots of extremely racist, or at least xenophobic, people here.

Maybe I am too down on Oz? But I hate nationalism so much, I do try to maintain a very critical attitude. And I do see a lot of horrible attitudes out there.

I wasn't so aware of a new nationalism...is it a big thing?


Yeccch.

I think racism is no more or less endemic in Australia than any other country in the world and is born of and ignorance fear of the unknown.