"We are all Australians and we should never forget that."
I attended a large anti-racism rally today in Sydney. It was an opportunity for people of various ethnic backgrounds, gender, sexual orientation, Jewish, white, black, Asian, Middle Eastern, indigenous and convict stock to stand proudly together and call for calm, understanding, tolerance and belief in multiculturalism.
For a news report, see here. For more photos, see here and here.
Around 3000 people gathered in Sydney's centre to hear various speakers - young and old, students and activists, white and dark - articulate how the recent mob violence in Sydney does not represent more than a small minority of Australians. We then wandered down to Belmore Park for a more relaxed gathering.
The state and federal government were blamed for stirring up racial divisions and the media was accused of benefiting from the fall-out. 2GB radio was particularly targeted and the baiting of presenter Alan Jones.
But racial tensions cannot be solely blamed on governments or the media. This is a much more complex issue and requires greater understanding between Australia's ethnic groups. The stereotyping must stop. And so must the calls to end multiculturalism, usually based on little more than preserving an antiquated and utopian view of Australian identity. All groups - including Lebanese youth and Howard's suburban "battlers" - need to realise that Australia's past is nothing to which we want to return.
Today was a celebration and a wake-up call. I was proud to be Australian.
I attended a large anti-racism rally today in Sydney. It was an opportunity for people of various ethnic backgrounds, gender, sexual orientation, Jewish, white, black, Asian, Middle Eastern, indigenous and convict stock to stand proudly together and call for calm, understanding, tolerance and belief in multiculturalism.
For a news report, see here. For more photos, see here and here.
Around 3000 people gathered in Sydney's centre to hear various speakers - young and old, students and activists, white and dark - articulate how the recent mob violence in Sydney does not represent more than a small minority of Australians. We then wandered down to Belmore Park for a more relaxed gathering.
The state and federal government were blamed for stirring up racial divisions and the media was accused of benefiting from the fall-out. 2GB radio was particularly targeted and the baiting of presenter Alan Jones.
But racial tensions cannot be solely blamed on governments or the media. This is a much more complex issue and requires greater understanding between Australia's ethnic groups. The stereotyping must stop. And so must the calls to end multiculturalism, usually based on little more than preserving an antiquated and utopian view of Australian identity. All groups - including Lebanese youth and Howard's suburban "battlers" - need to realise that Australia's past is nothing to which we want to return.
Today was a celebration and a wake-up call. I was proud to be Australian.
6 Comments:
Antony, great to meet you yesterday.
Hope we can get you on board with the formal complaints to DPP & ACMA about the Parrot.
You sure get your share of racist nutbag morons around here. Anyone who thinks that one or two imams griping about brown people being ill-treated in Australia is worse than neo-nazis with petrol bombs and police scanners really should self-immolate.
Shab, you're talking about bad behaviour on the part of an extraordinarily small number of people out of the millions of brown people in this land.
I can point out equally bad behaviour- and in MUCH greater numbers- from Anglos. And the Anglos absolutely win hands down when it comes to hatemongering.
http://machinegunkeyboard.com/?p=173
Further to that, no Islamic hatemonger has access to the ears of 17% of the Australian population every weekday. Jonesy sure does.
If you want to tapdance around with numbers, at least you should have some good ones. Check the Australian Bureau of Crime Statistics.
Sexual assault is TWICE as prevalent per capita in northern NSW than in Bankstown- and there's much fewer brown people in the population up there.
http://machinegunkeyboard.com/?p=166
Cut the crap. There's entrenched racist attitudes in some mental midgets in Australia. There's no excuse for it. There's even less cause to excuse Jonesy & Wilshire enciting this normally idle racist sentiment into petrol bombs. Don't even try. To apologise for this garbage is every bit as bad as doing it.
I reckon 2GB should pay for a whole hell of lot of auto glass.
I'll ask the same question here as I did at Darp's place without any sarcasm or shit stirring.
What was achieved? Beside the usual "rent a rally" folks no-one turned up.
What was achieved?
Can I safely send my 15 year old daughter to the beach today now?
By the way, I'd be willing to lay a small wager that the idiot formerly known as neoleftychick is probably the same idiot, or a close friend of, the idiot formerly known as Mushtaq Omar. Same modus operandi all the way. Troll around saying stupid things to see if you can get another idiot to agree with you then denounce them as an idiot. Clever stuff eh!
I might be wrong. It could just be a new idiot.
Get a grip. How am I better than Nazis? I'll let your slow brain work that out for yourself.
Mushtaq, I did say it might not be you. It was your style though!
Weezil, if you are going to leave links as references then they probably shouldn't be links to your own writings. I even tried to follow the link in your linked reference but it comes up as an error. Do these figures you quote take into account percentage of population?
Back to my original question which no-one has answered... what was acheived by yesterdays rally and can I now send my young daughter to the beach in safety?
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