It is another manifestation of racism, rampant in Australia. Racial attacks on Indian students have been recorded high in number in Melbourne, Victoria of Australia for last two to three years. Indian students studying in Melbourne are also high in number as compared with other cities in Australia. So, Victoria police are expected to be more sensitive towards racial issue that has been haunting the state. But, the Victorian police have proved otherwise.
Email Scandal
Top Victorian Police officials are caught in a sting operation conducted by an 
Australian newspaper “the Herald Sun,” joking about a video that showed an Indian passenger travelling on the roof a train being electrocuted when he was contacted with high-tension wire. The video was circulated by Victorian police officers joking, “It could be a way to fix Melbourne’s Indian student problem.”
The NDTV news web site reported on October 9, 2010 that some of the highest rankings officers had been implicated in the scandal that also involved pornographic material. At least fifteen officers will be dealt with disciplinary hearing in the coming weeks, Herald Sun report was quoted as saying by the NDTV news. The emails probed by Ethical Standards Department’s Operation Barrot contain pornographic, homophobic, racist and violent material.
Downplaying
After the Australian High Commissioner to India, Peter Varghese, was handed a demarche by the Indian foreign ministry on Saturday, he condemned the incident as “offensive and unacceptable.” But, he went on to say that the incident involved two police officers, neither of them senior were senior police officers. He added that he did not think we should tar the entire Victorian police with the action of two police officers.
This is nothing but trying to downplay the incident. The incident occurred in the very state where high numbers of Indian students are living and in which high number of racial attacks on Indian students had taken place. The Australian envoy pointed as unfortunate that the incident has detracted from the number of positive steps taken by Victorian police, referring the setting up of a round-the-clock help centre of Indian.
The Australia government had downplayed the Indian government’s travel advisory against travelling to Melbourne in view of risk of violence against Indians in first week of January 2010. The advisory was issued when an Indian graduate, Nitin Garg was stabbed to death in the city on January 2. The police denied racial motive but failed to confirm what prompted two 15-year old teenagers to kill Garg walking in the park. His belongings were left untouched proving robbery was not a motive.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Satish Chandra
India's nigger-slave service chiefs (like the Air Force Chief within the past couple days), ministers, etc. are constantly talking of threats from India's 'neighbors'. But the United States is EVERYBODY's neighbor. It has already invaded and occupied Afghanistan, a part of traditional India and will expand its occupation to the rest of the subcontinent.
Was Britain India's neighbor? I am India's expert in strategic defence and the father of India's strategic program, including the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan means the coast-to-coast destruction of the U.S. by India; see my blog titled 'Nuclear Supremacy For India Over U.S.' which can be found by a Yahoo search with the title for steps I have already taken for the nuclear destruction of New Delhi and then the coast-to-coast destruction of the U.S. and extermination of its population.
Russia and the U.S. are allies.
These are the enemies to destroy. All other enemies will be taken care of automatically.
Respect will be another result.
2 - Sekhar
"THE US IS EVERYBODY'S NEIGHBOR" Well said Satish sir, I've already visited your site and bookmarked it. Yes, you are right. Britain is not our neighbor but occupied India for more than 150 years. The same applies to the US.
As you said Indian rulers seem to be slaves (but not nigger-slaves, let us not make it "taken it granted" the other race as slaves.) serving the interests of imperialists from the US to Russia.
3 - Alan Kurtz
Sekhar (#2), now that you've gone on record as having visited and bookmarked Satish Chandra's web site, and expressed agreement with his comment #1 above, I hope you will do us the honor of confirming that you also endorse the following from that same web site:
"I have always held that India should use its nuclear weapons to wipe Israel from the face of the Earth."
Mr. Chandra advocates running all of India's nuclear reactors in the military mode in order to produce ten thousand thermonuclear warheads, which would give India enough "to destroy the territory of the United States from coast to coast, from New York to Los Angeles and everything in between and from Chicago to Houston and everything in between."
While said arsenal is being assembled, he proposes that as a deterrent to U.S. preemptive attacks, India's special forces should pre-position nuclear weapons in American cities. "This can be done in a matter of days and weeks," he advises, and "will serve beautifully."
Satish Chandra has no position in the Indian government and no popular base in that country. Although born in India in 1944, he came to the U.S. at age 22 and is a legal permanent resident here, living in what he calls "enforced exile" in Buffalo, NY.
But he openly scorns the Indian government and believes no popular base is necessary. "I have said what will be done to destroy the United States from coast to coast and exterminate its entire population. No one in India has the ability to think of this or bring it about. But this is what justice requires and this is what will be done. All the others have to do is obey India's legitimate ruler because they neither have the knowledge, nor intelligence nor courage nor character to do anything on their own. With nuclear weapons, a very few people can bring this about, that is, a very few people need to obey."
And to avoid any confusion as to whom they must obey, he adds: "They can only obey India's legitimate ruler, which is myself."
Sekhar, do you personally recognize Satish Chandra as India's legitimate ruler and pledge to obey him? Will you assist him in his plan to destroy the United States from coast to coast?
4 - Sekhar
Hi Alan, I agree with Satish only when he says the US is everybody's neighbor. I bookmarked his site to know what he is up to by reading his blog, which I didn't do yet, due to time problem. I've read the same type of comment from him on some other article written on a website (I can't recall it now), visited briefly his site and bookmarked it to read it later.
On his blog he depicted himself as father of some technology for India. Such depiction made me lose urgency of reading his blog again, and postponed it. But, I thought of visiting his blog again sometime later to know what his views are.
These coast-to-coast extermination is nothing but stupidity. Nobody can agree with it. No one can even think about it. Depicting himself as legitimate ruler of India is something an extreme hallucination. I didn't think his website contained such idiosyncrasy.
But, frankly, I liked his sentence "the US is everybody's neighbor." It is an universal fact, particularly after its invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
5 - Alan Kurtz
Sekhar (#4), with respect, I think yours is a one-sided view when you say "the U.S. is everybody's neighbor." It may seem so from India's vantage, being nearby Afghanistan and relatively close to Iraq. But from my vantage in the USA, I have the opposite impression.
Mexico and Canada are our neighbors. America's overseas wars are very much foreign affairs. Much of the thinking that went into invading each of those countries can be crudely but accurately summarized as "Better we fight them there than here." By them we mean terrorists such as al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Iraqi insurgents, et al. And by here, of course, we mean the American homeland.
To me, the idea that the USA is "everybody's neighbor" is geographically false and metaphorically farfetched. We purposely fight in distant lands to keep the threat of global terrorism at arm's length. Since 9/11, that strategy has worked out well, although the cost in lives of our fallen warriors and the drain on our treasury has been enormous.
You may see us as your enemy, Sekhar, but the word neighbor simply does not apply.
6 - Ruvy
"I have always held that India should use its nuclear weapons to wipe Israel from the face of the Earth."
Another Jew-hater. Nu? What else is new under the sun? So long as this not-overbright hallucinatory megalomaniac cannot threaten us he can be suffered to live....
I won't go into the alternatives. It is not necessary.
7 - Sekhar
Alan, What you tell is nothing new. It is the pretext that wash shown by America to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. The contention "Better we fight them there than here," seems convincing for immediate look, but it doesn't reflect the facts.
For your information, I didn't say and will not say that the US is our enemy. The US imperialism is the enemy to people of the world including of the US. It was the US imperialism that created global financial crisis throwing world people into the quagmire of credit crunch, job cuts, unemployment and education crisis by resorting to greedy financial business practices.
You have to understand that the interests of the US ruling elites are different from that of the people of the US. The interests of the US people have nothing to do with the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. Rooting out WMDs in Iraq and installing democratic regime were said as the reasons for Iraq invasion. Have they achieved it? The invaders Bush and Blair themselves admitted they knew WMDs were not there in Iraq even before the invasion, after loss of several lives of Iraqi people.
Has the US installed democratic government in Iraq? Now the Iraq is reeling under sectarian violence with no government working at all. Elections held but the people do not know who is ruling them. This is the democracy the US imperialism wanted to install in Iraq. They wanted resources of Iraq. Until then it was the US that supplied WMDs, arms and ammunition to Iraq, supporting it's war with neighboring Iran. You can supply Iraq to fight against its neighbor but Iraq should not protect its oil resources for the sake of its own people. Can this be a foreign policy for any civilized country? Where are we man? In the paleolithic age?
Here, neighbor means not geographical. It means the US interferes in every country's internal affairs for the sake of the interests of the US imperialism. I don't know what you understand when I say "the US imperialism." Without understanding that, there will be nothing left for me to talk to you for even argument sake at least. Why the US set up hundreds of bases all over the world?
Terrorism is the latest subject. But the US army bases have been existing all over the world since the end of the WW-II. America is operating military base in Japan's Okinawa against the wishes of Japanese people? Are the Japanese terrorists? Have the Japanese people asked the US to set up military bases after the WW-II? It was there because the US imperialist forces need their interests to be protected in the region.
Who sponsored Laden to fight against Russian forces in Afghanistan? Who helped Taliban raise against Afghan war lords? Who aided rebellions in Latin American countries? It was the US who created all these people. You create terrorists to fight against others, but, when they turn to yourself you invade the countries killing thousands of innocent civilians with the pretext of fighting terrorism. And you think it is a part of foreign policy, and you support it! Come on Alan, be human before being a citizen. Without being a good human you cannot be a good citizen.
The US imperialism has been under tremendous pressure of economic crisis for a long time. It wants markets for its finance capital to be utilized again as capital in the hunt for profits. There arises the need of occupying more markets and resources to enable itself to come out of the crisis.
Terrorism, WMDs, rebellions, communist threat... all these are just tools for use in defending its uncivilized invasions. Again, mind you! The people of the US have nothing to do with the invasions conducted by the US imperialist state. They are also one of the sufferers of the exploitative policies of the US ruling class people.
It seems you did not understand the concept of being everybody's neighbor.
8 - Alan Kurtz
Sekhar (#7), I'm relieved to hear that you don't believe the U.S. is your enemy. But you let the American people too easily off the hook. Your notion that there is in my country an all-powerful "ruling class," which victimizes everyone in the world including Americans, is unrecognizable to me. It sounds like some Marxist construct out of the mid-19th century.
As an American, I accept responsibility for what you call U.S. "imperialism" (another archaic concept). I hold my countrymen equally responsible. There are no "ruling elites" beyond our control. There are simply politicians and businessmen who make stupendously misguided decisions. That is part of our past, our present, and our future as a nation.
Many of us Americans are doing the best we can to overcome the stupidities of our leaders. But I for one distrust foreigners who blame the problems within their own corrupt, discriminatory and ineptly run countries on "Yankee imperialism." The USA isn't holding back India from becoming a modern-day center of enlightenment and exemplar of social progress. Indian culture is preventing those happy developments by itself.
9 - Sekhar
Alan, it seems we have differences in seeing things. Assumption of facts in one's own way makes a lot of difference in seeing things or 'perspectives.' But remember, there can only be one way in which one should see the things as a perspective. I mean, there should be only one perspective which is correct.
There is a world 'imperialism' even before the Marxism came into existence. If you call it now some Marxist construct out of the mid-19th century, what then was it called?
You cannot simply defend the invasions and killings of the US by a thesis "better..." Now, we are witnessing two invasions and their results, but there were many such known and unknown invasions and interferences from the US governments after WW-II. I mean to say about the interferences of the CIA by "unknown".
If you want to take facts mentioned by be as 'Marxism', let it be. But, if you accept them as facts, and they lead to some 'ism' why should we worry that it is some 'archaic'? Let us not reject facts because they lead to some ism.
Well, as per my knowledge, Marxism did not stop evolving in mid-19th century. It extended as Leninism into 20th century and it was applied as 'Mao thought' according to the specific conditions of China in mid-20th century. My continuous observations, readings and studies helped me acquire knowledge of some isms one of which is 'Marxism'. I am not projecting myself as pundit of isms, but giving a clue of my perceptional thinking.
One thing I understood in my little experience is that the dynamics of the developments of the society -economical, political and sociological- do not depend on one's wishes or recognitions. They have their own way of evolving into being. If we try to mould them into what we wish to see, they will not. They proceed in their way irrespective of one's wishes.
The process continues, the only thing we can do is to find what is that process, if we want to get into the stream in scientific way.
10 - STM
Sekhar, [Edited]. Racism isn't rampant in Australia.
It's something that's been hyped up in the Indian media and has no basis in fact.
The attempt has been to assume that white anglo-saxon Australians have been out bashing, killing and robbing Indians - when in fact on that particular score there have been a couple of isolated incidents.
Most of the serious crimes committed against Indians in Australia have been committed by Indians themselves or by gangs of ethnic and refugee background - mainly in Melbourne.
The latter is important, because Australia goes to great lengths NOT to foster racial divisiveness by NOT reporting that fact. It doesn't keep records of the race background of the attackers, or those charged over the crimes, for that very reason. If you've arrived in Australia as a refugee or an immigrant and you now have Australian citizenship, your racial background isn't an issue in statistics kept by police, who treat these as crime issues, not race issues.
However, the notion that gangs of anglo-saxon Australians are going around on a crime spree aimed at Indians is so far from the truth, it's not funny. And it has no basis in fact.
On the reporting in India of three major cases: One notable murder; the killing of a child, and an attack in which a man had "petrol thrown on him" and set alight have all resulted in charges being laid against Indian nationals themselves.
The petrol attack - another that made headlines across India amid accusations of Aussie racists - was an alleged attempt by an Indian national to gain insurance money by setting a car alight and which went horribly wrong. He told the police that a gang of Aussies had done it to him.
Found to be a gross untruth.
The most recent - about six months ago - is the killing of the Indian child, for which an Indian national living in the same house was charged with manslaughter about a week later after a proper investigation by police. Unfortunately - or fortunately - in Australia, police are required to prepare a proper brief of evidence capable of holding up in court before laying charges, and some investigations can take months or years.
No one knows who killed Nitin Gargh (or if the police have an idea, they're not telling so their investigation isn't ruined) but the three other terrible crimes reported in the Indian media and first said to be race-based have resulted in charges against Indian nationals. Why not wait for the truth to out on Nitin's killing before making any judgement?
Unfortunately, these things get reported hysterically and one-sidedly in the Indian media. It has infuriated Australians because while there is a grain of truth in it - you will always find a small core of racists anywhere, even in India - most of what's been reported is absolute rubbish.
Many of the real cases have been simply opportunistic crimes. Young Indians working late at night in rough, crime riddled areas to support their studies are, of course, targets of opportunity for muggers and gangs. You walk around with an iPod at 4am in a bad part of town, and you've a chance for a mugging no matter what colour you are.
However, what the Indian press doesn't report is the high number of other Australian residents - people of Anglo-Celtic, European, Asian, middle-eastern background - getting bashed and robbed in these areas too.
All these stories then get carried in the Indian press, then when the truth comes out, it hardly sees the light of day - so Indians read the bad bit, but not the truth, and are left to form their own opinions.
If it's all race based, how come the many Sri Lankans, say, or Pakistanis, living in Oz aren't getting bashed and robbed. Do you think the muggers walk up and ask them first whether they're Indians?
Don't think so. It should also be pointed out that when police officers say that Indians have been over-represented in crime statistics in certain areas and for certain types of crime, there's a bit of reading between the lines to be done as well.
If you claim to be the victim of crime in Australia, you are able to apply for cash compensation immediately through the state governments. The amounts vary, but they are not to be sneered at. I think in Victoria you can claim about $4000 as a first up payment.
I have been told that while most claimants are genuine, there has been plenty of milking of that system to gain benefit.
I also say that without having been in this country for a decent period of time and seen the truth for themselves, no Indian can make a judgement about racism based on what they've read in the Indian press or heard on the train to work or discussed around the dinner table because it's mostly hysterically whipped up rubbish.
I notice since the Australian government toughened up the student visa rules - the old Bachelor of Permanent Residency - there's been a lot less whingeing and virtually no claims of victimisation.
You have bought in to the bullshit whipped up in India by the press.
The unfortunate effect of all that has been to create a problem among Australians in regard to how they view Indians where none existed previously. While we're now wary of Indians (Indian Indians that is, not Australians of Indian background, so there goes the race argument), unlike Indians we still haven't resorted to besmirching an entire nation for the erroneous views or actions of a few.
Once, Indians were much loved in this country, especially because of the links through sport and the Commonwealth. Indians have changed that by accusing us of being racists.
It's interesting to go on to the websites of major Indian newspapers like Times of India and The Hindu, and to see the comments of Indians actually brought up or living in Australia who are also pointing out that the whole thing is rubbish and that the tiny amount of intolerance to others shown by a very small hardcore of Australians against immigration generally is far outweighed by the opposite - a culture of tolerance and compassion that extends to everyone, no matter their colour or religious background.
Unfortunately, people like Sekhar who have access to the internet and the intellectual tools to put something half readable together are adding to the problem and the distortions.
Besmirching a whole nation because of the actions of a few - or, even worse, the actions of your own people - has put a different light on our view of Indians - in India, not here.
It's also incumbent upon anyone writing pieces like this that are purported to be fact to contain all the facts.
You lost me at the very first sentence, Sekhar.
It was at that point that I realised everything else would be bullshit.
And for some reason, many Indians buying in to this seem blind to the racism and violence exercised in their own country, which is far worse than anything you'll see in Australia.
And don't get me started on the gap between rich and poor, or the caste system which, despite protections guaranteed in the Indian constitution, hasn't changed much for centuries.
Perhaps Indians should address the REAL problems in their own house before they start making up rubbish about others.
And Sekhar, before you reply - if you are going to - please read the comment in its entirety.
11 - STM
[Edited]
My bet is that Sekhar's never lived here and thus doesn't have a clue as to what this country is like and what is really going on - or not going on - in this country with regard to this issue.
As to Nitin's killing. Charges have been laid against a 15-year-old. Nothing is proven beyond a reasonable doubt until the verdict is reached but the police have a solid case after a lengthy and thorough investigation.
Under Australian law, the teenager cannot be identified as he is a minor, so there can be no speculation publicly as to the teenager's racial background as it might serve to identify him. However, police have said it is clear how the death happened but do not believe there is a racial element.
Sekhar should wait until the case is finished before making judgements.
Also, Sekhar forgets to mention that Indian nationals have been involved in migration scams in Australia, run by Indians, designed to give them permanent residency. In many cases, that has involved scam colleges and courses, for instance cooking courses at "colleges" that have been a front and actually have no cooking facilities and where you just get your name ticked off on the attendance register every day and are awarded a pass (after payment of money, of course).
The government has since cracked down on this but it's well known that these scams have led to crimes themselves. Other scams have involved employers of Indian nationality paying illegal and sub-standard wages to Indians studying or hoping for a visa.
There is a lot more to this than meets the eye of the average Indian getting his information in Delhi or Chennai.
And if Sekhar is affronted by me [Edited] asking him to check his facts, then I'd ask him to imagine how I feel when he writes that Australians are racists.
Clearly, I am not. But because I have blond hair and blue eyes and white skin and I'm Australian, that will be enough for Sekhar to believe I am if his writing is anything to go by.
He has it so wrong, it's ridiculous.
And unfortunately, he's fanning the fires of hate by subscribing to this rubbish.
12 - STM
And the real reason the number of students coming to Australia from India to study is the government has tightened the visa restrictions. You can't now come here and study hairdressing or cooking in a scam course and make that the basis for permanent residency in Australia. It's interesting to note that the prime movers in many of these study/permanent visa scams being shut down were the students themselves, who were angry that they were being ripped off by their own people.
Genuine students can still get in.
And I still believe that Sekhar would be better employed cleaning house in his own country, which is well documented as being one of the most discriminatory, intolerant, and violent on this planet - whatever the good intentions of its good citizens and its government.
I always believe in applying the where would you rather test.
If you ask any Indian living in this country if they'd rather go back to India to live the way it is currently, they would almost to a man or woman answer "no".
They have better lives in Australia, which is a genuine first-world democracy with transparency in both government and law and legislation that protects the vulnerable.
India cannot be put into that category yet.
In another 100 years maybe, but not yet.
I wonder sometimes whether embarrassment over much of that is a motivating factor in the mad rush to judgement by Indians in regard to this.
And like I say, the Indian media has whipped Indians into a frenzy and created a problem where none existed beyond a high-crime rate in the inner-city neighbourhoods of Melbourne.
The blanket accusations of racism against Australians by Indians (outside of Australia) have angered a people who previously had a soft spot for Indians and who regarded Indians as brethren.
13 - STM
Here's a pretty damn good commentary on the whole issue, written by an Australian of Indian background.
I'd suggest to Sekhar that he gives it a good read.
14 - STM
"The Indian government’s travel advisory against travelling to Melbourne in view of risk of violence against Indians in first week of January 2010".
What the Indian government also actually says, after acknowledging that these might be random acts of violence often feulled by alcohol and drugs: "Do not travel alone late at night. If you are travelling alone, make sure that you have checked out your route carefully and that you keep to well-lit, populated areas as far as possible, make sure that someone knows where you are going and at what time you are expected to return."
I will agree with Sekhar on one thing, though. Some attacks - and a small minority - are obviously of a racist nature. As the writer above states, there are idiots everywhere. It's interesting that in Sydney, where anyone of any description takes their lives into their own hands walking around certain areas late at night, there hasn't been the same kind of finger-pointing.
What has really infuriated me here is the blanket accusation of Aussie racism, which is not supported by facts here but by anecdotal evidence masquerading as truth - and the hysteria and venom with which it is delivered.
15 - Sekhar
STM, [edited]. Did you observe that your comments #13, 14 and 16 are filled with India bashing. You have concentrated responding to my first sentence of my article. I am in doubt whether you have read the entire article. If you have read, you might have written something about police email scandal of solving Indian students problem with electrocuting. By the way, why Indian students became a problem in Victoria?
You have to know that the first sentence of my article is not mine actually. It was quoted from the UN special rapporteur. I have added a link to a news item posted on my blog. The news item was actually carried in Yahoo news. I tried to add link to the original news item, but it was not there. So, I've place link to my blog.
STM, why didn't you mention even a bit about email scandal and the UN rapporteur in your four comments? I am not inclined to call you a fool, though you have come to hasty conclusion that I made a blanket accusation of Aussie racism. The UN rapporteur mentioned that the racism is entrenched in Australia, pointing out displacement and alienation of indigenous Australian races.
Also, I've read news and articles about racist attacks on Indians on international news sites like BBC and Reuters. And Indian news papers also published news reports about some attacks being non-racial. They published what Australian authorities said, what police said and how political leaders responded. I've picked up only the common points of number of news reports on different news sites, national and international.
I'm aware that some attacks are non-racial. Did I conclude Nitin's murder was racially motivated? No. I just said Nitin's belongings were not robbed and doubted what could be the reason. No doubt, I pointed one of my finger towards racial motive, but did not conclude. My other fingers are left pointing to nothing, leaving an 80% chance for other motives. You say people are charged after thorough investigations and police said already two teenagers were charged. The police said they were under tremendous pressure from their authorities in the case. Do you observe the contradiction here?
Oz's previous PM Kevin Rudd himself acknowledged some attacks are racially motivated after denying it for a long time whenever attack occurred. You also acknowledged the same in your comment (#16), maybe after reading the entire article.
STM, once again I want to tell you that my comments on racism in Oz are not my own, but extracted from the UN report. I quoted Herald Sun, which is not Indian. I do not say that the entire Oz people are racial. I wrote only about certain incidents in Melbourne and Victoria. You must know that there are many books about racism in Australia.
My sincere advice to you is start commenting after reading entire article. I think you can not scold people as you wish, with hasty conclusions. You have every right to contradict with me but you have no right to scold me. Do you agree with it? Mind you! I did not scold anybody in my article.
16 - STM
Sekhar, some of the comments you have written in this story ARE PLAINLY your own. Simply, they are a disgrace.
I have mentioned earlier that some of the attacks have been racist, but a small number. There are idiots everywhere.
And the reason I didn't mention the email "scandal" or the UN report is that if the UN had half an extra collective brain cell, it'd be dangerous, and nothing that police officers say in private surprises me. The one thing that stands out in that email story, however, is that the police are actually doing something about it and publicly admitting it instead of sweeping it under the carpet.
There are anti-hate laws in this country that apply to police officers just the same as anyone else.
Everyone knows that many indigenous Australians have suffered over the years. The mark of a mature country is trying to make good its wrongs and acknowledging them. Governments have tried everything in that regard, from all kinds of social justice policies to throwing money at the issue.
However, the other side of the coin is that many aborigines say they DO feel included in Australian society, so there's always two sides.
The thing is, though, I don't think anyone thought that Australia even had an "Indian student problem" until the Indian media, and then many Indians generally, were whipped into a climate of hysteria.
That's when people in this country started to think the Indian students might actually be a problem... and that thinking is the result of a problem created where none previously existed.
It's created much anger and a climate of wariness about Indians, who until a couple of years ago we considered to be close brethren. I guess you can choose your friends and let 'em go, but not your family.
I suggest you read the comment from the Indian-Australian that I've posted. However, I've also spent many hours arguing the toss on this on ToI's website and others in India, and most of the time I've felt like I'm bashing my head against a brick wall, so I don't expect anything different here.
It's my view that violence, religious intolerance, crimes against women, the caste system and the gap between the wealthy, the middle classes and the urban and rural poor in India is far more of a problem in terms of bigotry and lack of compassion than anything currently happening in Australia.
Perhaps you should get your priorities right Sekhar and work towards getting your own house cleaned up before you start noticing other people's grime.
The other aspect to this Sekhar, and not having lived here you couldn't understand, is that Australia is no longer an anglo-celtic society.
One in every four Australians was born somewhere else - and from all corners of the globe.
They are of all colours, races, and creeds and like the Indian-Australian commentator says above, most have been made to feel welcome.
Don't buy into the rubbish you read in the Indian press.
Much of it is sensationalist nonsense. The trouble is, it has created a rift between our countries that might never heal.
Indians might be angry, but the way the blanket accusations have been thrown around has infuriated most Australians.
That includes many of your own countrymen and women who have chosen to live in this country, too.
If they really felt they were in danger here at the hands of hordes of white anglo-saxon Aussies, they'd have packed up - along with all the folks from south-east Asia, China, Africa, the Americas, the Pacific Islands, southern Europe, etc - and left eons ago... which they haven't done. Or don't you see the sense in that most rational of arguments?
17 - Sekhar
STM, kindly stop using terms like fool, disgrace etc. Also kindly stop bashing something naming it Indian or Australian. Such things never make a viable argument for healthy discussion.
You keep giving judgements on every person, institution and nation instead of discussing issues. Your construct of 'Indian student problem' is not in concurrence with social dynamics, at least in general, as I know (not every Indian). Your generalization of Indians' feeling about few Australians' racism is baseless. I can say 99.99% of Indians here not at all worried about racist feelings of few Australians. They have many things to worry about.
I've discussed an issue that is reported as supposedly racial in the media (not only Indian but also international). It is wise for us to limit our discussion to that issue, under this article. Your commenting goes beyond that, referencing other Indian problems and advising me to correct my priorities and to clean up my own house etc..., as if Australia doesn't possess such problems.
As per my knowledge, every country on this planet has problem of it's own in particular and some common problems of the world in general. The nature of particularity and generality may vary from country to country depending upon their cultural and historical evolution. Economic disparities flame up such problems due to unequal development models. We cannot go on discussing every problem, everywhere, and one cannot ask writers to correct priorities simply because what writers discussed is unacceptable to him.
I wrote in my previous response that I had read the news on Indian and international news websites as well. You still advise me not to buy something from Indian press.
I've written articles on this platform on Indian problems, attitudes of Indian rulers towards those problems. If you want to judge me, you will need to read them also. Or you can visit my blog linked to my name in comments. Even then you can not go on judging countries and international institutions.
You can judge other countries and institutions, but will not accept healthy discussion on a single article that mentioned a single problem in Australia. Is it fair?
Yes, the way you respond or comment, obviously end up as bashing a brick wall. Please do not come into any discussion expecting something acceptable to you. It's not possible within a few conversations. It may be possible in rare cases when perspectives of the people in discussion happen to be the same. But we've to try. That's why and how we are connected through technology. We are not connected for bashing each others' priorities and perspectives.
There is always plenty of chances of not knowing facts because I do not reside in Australia. But, does it mean that I should not rely on news reports irrespective of which country they belong to? Before the spread of internet, only BBC, CNN and likes were only the sources for other countries' people. Many people relied on them for news abroad.
Do you suggest one should reside in a country before reading a news report of that country? Your arguments go nowhere.
If you choose to continue scolding people and countries, I will choose my priorities of whether to respond or not. Because I don't respect a tradition of bashing and scolding. I'm sorry to say that.
18 - Mother
Stan is painting the patriotic utopian portrait of the particular country/group/team he has haphazardly happened to have been born into, as if they are somehow different from other humans.
You can't really argue with patriots--no matter which 'best' country, team, gang, group they identify with. They think group identity and being better than someone else is important and they are very proud of that. They cannot let truth in.
19 - Cindy
forgot the name change
20 - Dr Dreadful
Cindy, have you ever visited Australia?
I have.
The place really is much as Stan describes, honestly.
21 - Cindy
Sekhar,
You may be interested in this excerpt of Marimba Ani's book Yurugu - An African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior
Within the nature of European culture there exists a statement of value or of "moral" behavior that has no meaning for the members of that culture. I call this the "rhetorical ethic;" it is of great importance for the understanding of the dynamics of the culture.
From: The Author's description of her book:
This study of Europe is an intentionally aggressive polemic. It is an assault upon the European paradigm; a repudiation of its essence. It is initiated with the intention of contributing to the process of demystification necessary for those of us who would liberate ourselves from European intellectual imperialism.
"Europe's political domination of Africa and much of the "non-European" world has been accompanied by a relentless cultural and psychological rape and by devastating economic exploitation. But what has compelled me to write this book is the conviction that beneath this deadly onslaught lies a stultifying intellectual mystification that prevents Europe's political victims from thinking in a manner that would lead to authentic self-determination.
To be fair, it's not like Stan came up with the 'habit'.
Until it is understood, commonly by all people, that we who belong to cultures which have colonized other peoples are ourselves effected in our ability to understand the world through the lens of the other and the effect that our privilege has on the other is invisible to us.
22 - roger nowosielski
The salient though invisible dimension of racism.
23 - Cindy
Dr.D,
I have listened to others who've been their Dr.D. For sure I listened to a woman who lives there, the sister of, now deceased, best friend.
And it is not that I doubt your veracity Dr.D, only your ability to be more than a human being. We tend to see what we are looking for, in other words.
I look at the marginalized povs to hear the story that is not evident.
Why should I think that someone visiting my town would see old people locked away in nursing homes, or black men locked away in prisons, or poor people immigrants sleeping in crowed houses doing really crappy jobs for next to nothing? I wouldn't think that. I would think they figure everyone here is happy. It's such a lovely place.
24 - Cindy
23 I never finished that last sentence, just add this to the last sentence:
...we understand nothing but our own propaganda.
25 - Cindy
Dr.D,
If you don't try to see it you won't. It takes looking at the world in a new way. It takes effort. By the very nature of what I am describing it is not evident but craftily hidden.
Colonized peoples know what I am saying, though. Throughout the entire world, no matter what race, there is a similar vein evident in the materials they write in attempts at being heard and which are largely ignored by the main cultures, and this includes the culture of women, and the culture of children (you might have a shot by remembering back).
But, I have to say that starting out as a white, middle-class male is not the easiest place from which to begin.