Australia has a long history of racism. In fact from 1901 to 1975, they were openly racial and would allow only whites to emigrate into their country. They even imposed a kind of housing tax on Chinese people, which one can think of as similar to the Jajia tax that the Taliban is levying from the Sikhs in Pakistan. The only difference is the Taliban is discriminating on the basis of religion, the Astralians were discriminating on the basis of race.
Here is a quote from the father of racism in Australia, Alfred Deakin who was their Prime Minister, regarding Chinese and Japanese:
It is not the bad qualities, but the good qualities of these alien races that make them so dangerous to us. It is their inexhaustible energy, their power of applying themselves to new tasks, their endurance and low standard of living that make them such competitors.
We cannot also forget Pauline Hanson, the Australian politician, who in 2007 fought the election on a white Australia plank. She even formed a political party for this. It shows that there is a deep sympathy in the white Australians for such a cause, which was sensed by the astute politician.
The truth is, racism is deeply ingrained in the white Australians, even though they make a sham of being multi-cultural because it suits them. But the wolf hiding within the sheep-skin sometimes becomes visible as in the case of recent incidents. Every cricket match the Australian team plays is marred by one or two racist remarks or gestures.
Another sobering instance of their racism is the way the Australian police cooked up charges on the Indian doctor Muhammad Haneef from Bangalore of being a terrorist and even deported him from Australia. They later had to eat their words.
According to one report in the Times of India, there have been 1,447 incidents of violence against Indians in the last 12 months in Melbourne, which works out to 4 incidents per day.
This by no means is a sporadic case. There could be a calculated move to drive away Indians from Australia, and if we don't play our cards wisely, we could be having another Uganda on our hands.
08 June 2009
Australia has a long history of racism
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