Australia continues its drift to the right with the latest outrageously racist piece of legislation, meant to stop child abuse by aborigines. Like “stopping terror” in the USA or “why don’t we name it after Ataturk?” in Turkey, once the words “stopping child abuse” are mentioned all rational debate stops. That and the fact that Australia is one of those countries where politics are controlled by the hick from the sticks voters means this piece of legislation doesn’t surprise me at all. But it is still completely wrong.
If the Australian politicians and voters really cared about child abuse that much they would agree on restrictions on alcohol for everyone, but what are the chances of WASP Aussies voting for something that makes it harder from them to fill their fridge with cold tinnies? So much more convenient to vote for something that only affects someone else…
Once you start this kind of racial profiling, it is difficult to know where to stop. Should the Japanese police learn that white British and Australian English teachers are involved in more cases of fighting between themselves, leaving bars without paying, stealing bikes to get home from the station and shouting of sports chants than the average salaryman, it is only a matter of time until restrictions are put on caucasians buying beer at the konbini. And should they also learn that said teachers are spreading STD, that could only be the start…
Again with the word “racist” – forget any reasoned analysis, forget looking beyond the headlines, just scream an emotive label and pat yourself on the back for your “tolerance”.
Liberals like you just look the other way. Instead of confronting, say, black crime and Islamic supremacism in the UK head-on, you scream “Racist!” at anyone who dares to speak out or do anything about it. It’s funny, too, how your pet minority groups – who you claim to understand and accept so much – are the biggest victims of your head-in-the-sand approach. Yes, the disaster zone that is the UK is well worth emulating.
Have you ever been to an Aboriginal community in Australia? No, I didn’t think so. They’re hell on earth. Only a heartless fool would sit at his computer and denounce the urgently-needed action that might actually give Aborigines a shot at life without the horrific violence, sexual abuse and despair caused by drug and alcohol abuse that is so rampant in their communities. Go ahead, call us names. But I’ll tell you now that anyone who prefers that Aborigines suffer in the name of “tolerance” is the real racist.
You think we’re all right-wing hicks. If that means a commonsense approach to problems and not a liberal, wishy-washy “love conquers all” one, then guilty as charged.
Enjoy the UK while it lasts. 4000 emigrants a week out of the UK can’t be wrong.
I don’t want to get into this question too much, as this site that is mainly about teaching and/ or Japan. Also, our positions are so far apart that it is unlikely we will ever convince each other of anything (nothing you have said has changed my view at all, and I am sure you would say the same) and as this is an old post I am sure no-one else is reading. Also, since I wrote this the International Herald Tribune have published several articles saying more or less the same thing much more knowledgeably and eloquently than I ever could.
One point, though. Although my natural political position is “socialist searching for something to believe in”, I think you will find that I lay into the PC left wingers at least as much as right wingers on this site. For one thing, you rarely meet a right-wing English teacher…
Well, I tried to leave it there at the one point but I just couldn’t let it lie…
The idea that “liberals” (the use of which as an insult shows your political position and closed mind straight away- I have never used “conservative” as an insult) refuse to confront problems like black crime, Aboriginal alcoholism or Islamic fundamentalism is ridiculous. Obviously none of the efforts by the Labour party in the UK or the Tories before them have managed to eliminate black crime, but trying to tackle the problem with poverty reduction, equal opportunities etc. can in no way be said to be “looking the other way” any more than increasing stop and search by a racist police force is. The question is which policies or combination of policies will effective. And that means looking at the root problems as well as what can be done in the short term.
To find that root cause and what to do about it. look around the world at the common problems of unemployment, despair, dropping out of school and alcoholism of aboriginal communities in the Americas, Hokkaido, Australia etc. Is the problem that they are being allowed to do what they like by “wishy washy liberals”? Or is it that they have lost their position and purpose in life and don’t feel like they belong in the place that their country has become? And how does pointing out to the Aboriginies again that they are not good enough to be treated like white people (like they were not good enough to own land or bring up their own children not so long ago) solve that problem?
The reason why the present Australian government is not interested in finding out and tackling those root causes, is that this decision has nothing to do with child abuse, it has everything to do with making up the popularity with the white voters that he has lost by still being best friends with Dubya. Another proof of this is that if drugs are as much a problem as alcohol legal restrictions obviously don’t work and the whole thing is window dressing. And the reason why he can get away with pushing Aborigines around just for a bit of publicity is because it only affects a group of people that nobody has anything to gain by sticking up for.
Let’s imagine for a minute that the community that had a problem with alcohol and so social problems (or visa versa perhaps) made worse by a genetic inability to take their drink was Japanese Australians. Could the Australian government even think about such a move, or would they soon find themselves made to back down by the Japanese government?
Or perhaps we can imagine people of British ancestry having a less than healthy relationship with alcohol- would they think for even a second about restricting use of beer for the majority of their electoral support this close to an election?
Moving back towards the language teaching/ living abroad topic that this blog was meant to be about before I got distracted, can you imagine if the country where you live, say Japan or China, decided to target in any way one racial group, for example your own. Aids tests only for white people? Pre-visa police checks only for Latinos? I think not…
Hi Alex,
Actually, I’m in China at the moment and all foreigners are subject to annual AIDS tests. Personally, I’m not opposed to it. It seems like a reasonable step to protecting public health – not the only one they could take, sure, but it’s a start.
Just a quick note about the Aborigines (I hear you on the “Japanese topics” thing). My main beef with the liberal set is that they’re all too quick to scream “racism” when somebody wants to take tough and urgently-needed action. They prefer name-calling to action. And having lived near an Aboriginal community at one stage, I can tell you that action is long overdue. You argue that the Aborigines feel a pointlessness to life that manifests itself in drug and alcohol abuse, but I honestly believe that it’s the other way around – that if Aborigines, who started alcohol abuse for fun at a young age, were to dry out, there might be a chance for them to learn a trade, get a job, and get healthy.
I agree that this is a political stunt, but I reckon the chance is here, let’s grab it with both hands. Now, while it might be a case of the white man telling Aborigines what to do, the fact is that Aborigines themselves – especially the elders and the women – have been demanding this sort of action for years. It’s been the bleeding heart white liberals (I apologise for hurling that at you as an insult) who have consistently prevented it.
Again, if doing this makes us a bunch of racists, then guilty as charged.
Cheers,
Ben Thirlway
PS: I’ll believe what the International Herald Tribune has to say about it when their reporter actually stays in a typical Aboriginal community for any period of time.