To state it upfront, I agree the racist attacks in Australia were tragic, more so for the student who is battling for his life.
But the way our media has been projecting the issue and demonizing every Australian is quite ridiculous. I hope everyone does realize that all it takes for 4 attacks is 10 odd idiots. No more.
The victim’s kin states :
Australians call themselves a developed nation, but have no humanity.
which is understandable considering the trauma they are going through.
But Mr. Bachchan returned an honorary degree from an Australian university stating :
.. my conscience does not permit me to accept this decoration from a country that perpetrates such indignity to my fellow countrymen.
It is not the country that is perpetrating the attacks. In all fairness, had he accepted the award, we know exactly which leaders would go for his throat the next day. So in a sense, I do not judge him either.
But the audacity with which we are demonizing the country and demanding protection for students is just ridiculous. Here’s a quick summary :
Every year during the railway exams, you do know that a certain political and its cousin beat up students as a yearly ritual, like karwa chauth and dassera, right ?
You do remember the ragging cases that cost many lives, very recently, right ?
You do remember how foreigners are treated in India right ? Assuming they aren’t molested or harasssed, they are at the very least looted by the rickshaw wala the moment they land in India with their melanin and stuff.
So I sincerely request everyone to stop judging all the Aussies and preaching.
Update : CNNIBN hosts a debate Face the Nation: Down under and downright racist?. I did not see that coming.
13 comments
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May 30, 2009 at 4:17 am
csm2mk
it must be the John Howard era… thanks for sharing your thoughts
May 30, 2009 at 9:07 am
hari
yes. the media is so vulgar nowadays. If this was a Gulf nation we would probably think that the poor worker there deserved it?
May 30, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Pranav Peshwe
> But the audacity with which we are demonizing the country and demanding protection for students is just ridiculous.
I do not think so. India sure has had its share of non-ideal behaviour internally. But that does not mean that we should not protest about fellow Indians being beat (almost)to death in Australia. Foreigners not being treated ideally in India does not mean that Indian citizens abroad do not have the right to be treated well.
Racism and causing physical harm to foreigners should be protested heavily as it is being done today, even if our own country is not without it. Making a big hue and cry about Australia will definitely wake up the law & order enforcers there and make a difference to the Indians living in Australia.
May 30, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Deepak Iyer
@Pranav : You are missing the point. If you go through the post, my first problem is with demonizing every Australian and Australia as a country. Like I mentioned, all it takes is 10 idiots for 4 attacks. Period.
Secondly, would we care equally if some menial worker would undergo the same treatment in say Dubai. There are lots of such cases, but we don’t really care equally. Any guesses why ?
Thirdly, and most importantly, this is just our way of ignoring our problems. When you say that foreign countries are bad and racist as a generic statement, we tend to not just mask, but ignore the problems we have. Would say Mr. Bachchan refuse an honour of the Indian government because an Indian student was killed in India ?
Why is only this news lapped up so eagerly by everyone ? Do we have any comparable reaction when eve-teasing occurs ?
In my honest opinion, which should sum up the discussion, inspite of all attacks, a female student would even today feel far more safer and prefer to be in Australia than India.
May 30, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Pranav Peshwe
>my first problem is with demonizing every Australian and Australia as a country. Like I mentioned, all it takes is 10 idiots for 4 attacks. Period.
This is a common political and media tactic, nothing new. Aren’t Pakistan and Afghanistan said to be ‘terrorist nations’ even though everybody knows that millions of people living there are entirely innocent. The problem is how do we effectively perfectly target those 10 idiots ? Instead, target the nation(the govt that is), that is easy and known to work and it worked in this case too.
> Secondly, would we care equally if some menial worker would undergo the same treatment in say Dubai. There are lots of such cases, but we don’t really care equally. Any guesses why ?
Ideally we should. We(as a nation) definitely don’t care equally about everyone, but again, that is the way of the world. A student is valued (for lack of a better word) more than a menial worker. Shoes must have been thrown thousands of times at US citizens and soldiers, but only the one thrown at Bush was highlighted. Wasn’t this inequality ? Inequality is an accepted fact. Perfectly equal treatment for all is an impossible to achieve ideality, like a zero friction machine.
>inspite of all attacks, a female student would even today feel far more safer and prefer to be in Australia than India.
Might be true. What these people are doing is – they are trying to make Australia even safer and it should not hurt that female.
May 30, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Deepak Iyer
@Pranav :
1. Of course it was going to work. But my point is that this whole thing is just a diversion tactic. The same thing could have been achieved with even more effect without the huge outcry. Now, with all the demonizing and warcry, I won’t be surprised if there is even more backlash down under from idiots. You have to account for that too.
2. I can give this to you. Fairness isn’t always there. But it helps sometimes to avoid going after the smaller problems when there are bigger ones lurking around.
For all the debate, an average Indian would now believe that an average Australian is a racist fundamentalist. That is incorrect and if there was just one reason for the post, this was it.
June 1, 2009 at 3:14 am
aditya
After any such issue our media basically jumps on to “racist bandwagon…”
I mean whatever happened in Aus can be termed as racist attacks but recently there was an article in toi about “racist attitude” of Air france and many of indian passengers left stranded.
What was so racist about that?The fact of the matter is that no govt can allow u to stay in their country without valid visas .i agree that indian passengers were made to wait for 10 hrs and that it was a bad experience for them. But then thats the way work is done in france … they ll take ages to get things done.. but thats it. i dont see a racist angle in this whole saga….
June 1, 2009 at 9:22 pm
alltalkandnoaction
I am sad at the fate of the affected people…
However, just makes me wonder…
Haven’t UPites & Biharis been beaten up by the Marathi Maanoos too?
Are we any different?
June 1, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Deepak Iyer
@ATANA : As much as that logic comes intuitively, I wanted to stay away from it as the people who perpetrate the above ideology are not the same as the victims.
To answer your question, we are no different. As the post suggests, we are probably worse. It is just that with racism, we have the moral high-ground because we aren’t white. News channels are essentially riding on this wave of moral high-groundedness (if that word exists).
Basically, the problem and its solution are almost independent of the media frenzy. In fact, it could just make matters worse, both in India (against foreigners) and in Australia (against Indians) if the media doesn’t shut up and stick to asking relevant questions.
June 9, 2009 at 4:24 am
Amit
When were Aussies not racists?
Aussies dont even belong to Australia except Abroginals.Whether its their abusive cricket team or these local hooligans… its better these low level aussi hooligans educate themselves and get eligible for jobs rather than looting students.These students are a BIG SOURCE of Aussi economy.
About police… in many incidents the police also didnt help and said slurs against Indians and protected their criminals wandering in the streets.
Also when they say Indians work in ‘less money’ here is an EYE OPENER to all the poor racist white aussies…
In US about 40% Indians have masters degree which is 5 times the local average.Also Indians are richest ethnic group even better than whites.
Indians are just 1% in US but own 50% of all economy lodges and 35% of all hotels.Also about upto 30% of all high tech jobs in US has Indians.
Also worlds 90% PC runs on a Chip invented by an Indian so was worlds first and most popular email system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_American
Aussies should remember that they are not the NATIVES of australia and have no right to look down to immigrants.The white aussies are IMMIGRANTS themselves.
So in total these attacks just shows the inability and jealousy.These aussies are still living in colonial hangover and sense of false supremacy.The early they wake up the better they are.
Education is Australia’s third largest export industry worth more than AU$16 billion a year, with about AU $2 billion coming from Indian students.Also AUS earns millions through Bollywood movies…
……. the problem is that these aussies want a one side influx of money and too scared to give anything.
June 16, 2009 at 6:45 am
Bhaaratiya
Read this to know that why do I support racist attacks on Indians in Australia
http://www.englishandindia.blogspot.com/
June 16, 2009 at 6:48 am
Bhaaratiya
So In US about 40% Indians have masters degree which is 5 times the local average.Also Indians are richest ethnic group even better than whites. Really.
Look at this
World’s 1/3rd illiterates are in India, and also the 1/3rd poor and hungry people.
Indians work better only under other and above point only indicates that. Better you Indians call back the British to further develop this country.
June 16, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Deepak Iyer
@Bhaartiya : Honestly, your arguments make no sense whatsoever in supporting your views that the attacks were right.
And your views would make no sense no most people either.
Sorry, but my 2 cents.