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OT: Human Rights Framework 2-May-2010 At 5:44:27 PM Hendo

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>Apart from my general disbelief that this is happening at all, these aren't
>aspects of Australian culture.

Well I can tell you that it is happening to me, or if you don’t accept that, I feel like it is happening to me. It makes perfect sense to me that the asian people around here would like their own community, but so do I and I feel like I should not just sit back and let it go (but probably will anyway). I don’t see why I should prefer them over me. And no it isn’t all me vs them there is some blending but a lot of the time it does feel that way.

I remember I once went into an asian restaurant to meet an asian friend. The signage was all in Chinese but I had been described which one it was. I arrived and my friend was not there so I sat at a table. The woman working there was obviously a bit distressed and nervous because she couldn’t speak English so she basically just nervously handed me the menu, all of which was in Chinese. She knew that I obviously was not going to be able to make any real choice. While I wasn’t made to feel unwelcome and the woman tried to be nice, the restaurant was obviously aimed at Chinese and I certainly didn’t feel welcome and she clearly would have preferred not to have to deal with me (I don’t think because she hates me or anything like that, but because it is difficult). This is a bit of an extreme example and doesn’t represent all situations but it gives some indication.

> Just to pull out some Ozzie cliches, isn't
>australian culture supposed to be about "mateship" and "fair go"? Would
>that make us usurping our own culture by rejecting and judging other people
>for their race or ethnicity?

I can’t really describe what my culture is because it is all very complicated, probably full of contradictions etc but everyone has one and it is implicit in your way of life, thoughts, actions, memories etc etc

>The greatest number of "illegals" in australia are british visa overstayers.
> Which makes us most like to be "replace and confined" and all our jobs
>stolen by british backpackers. Funnily enough, I don't here people complaining
>about that much.

If they want to they can probably assimilate easily, fit in much better and don’t stand out so there isn’t so much problem.

>There is also a difference between appropriate and sensitive choices based
>on certain characteristics and racism. There are good reasons behind employing
>women in women's refuges, aboriginals in aboriginal coops and people who
>at least speak the language and have some knowledge of the culture that
>a population comes from when working with that group. It's like we employ
>people with medical degrees to be doctors.

Exactly, things are not black and white but grey that is/was my point. As regards human rights imagine if you had a law making it illegal to treat people of different races or sex differently under any circumstances. If you took that to the letter of the law there would be all sorts of problems. Medical treatment can be different depending on sex/race but if you were to stick to that hard and fast, doctors would not be allowed to use different treatments. This is just one example. How would you loosen it to 'certain circumstances'?