On 14/12/05 8:31 AM, "Jill Jones" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> And just now I have received the most disturbing piece of spam diatribe
> - full of hate and, apart from anything else, claiming that the current
> Premier of NSW is of Lebanese background. He's from Italian background.
>
> ANZAC spirit indeed. Hideous.
>
> J
>
Hi Jill
It's awful getting stuff like that in the inbox. It's like being poisoned.
My son Josh is in Year 12 next year, and has just been made a prefect at his
school (he is, fittingly enough, Arts Prefect). The school captain is this
charming young man called Shan. He is, as the current euphemism runs, "of
Middle Eastern appearance", since he hails from Syria. And I find myself
worrying for this gentle young man ... Also thinking of being at Newport
Station late one night earlier this year, where there were half a dozen boys
(about 14/15 years old or so) sitting quietly and talking together. They
were of "MEA". And this drunken old fart wearing, I kid you not, a faded and
torn pale blue tank top, started abusing them - "You're not Aussies, you
fucking wogs, why don't you go home," etc etc. When one of them said, quite
rightly, and in an impeccably Australian accent, "but we're not bothering
you, what have we done?" it only prompted more abuse. I noted that this
brave examplar of Aussie nationalism was careful to pick on the very young,
who were unlikely to hit him. I wonder how many incidents like that occur
every day? And how they're increasing in the current atmosphere of tacit
permissiveness? - after all, Howard doesn't want to alienate the One Nation
vote that has kept him in power the past few elections - the cynical
inadequacies of his responses to the riots are absolute proof of that. And
how do those young men end up responding?
I worry enough about my sons; Josh is entering the time when young men are
most likely to be beaten up by other men; and he has a bit of a mouth on him
and is apt to mock the stupid and violent and sexist. Though he assures me
that he is sensible. I accept that's he's more sensible than perhaps most 17
year olds, but still. Violence happens, when it happens, very quickly. Being
half Greek, he probably looks a little woggish too. You can't help
wondering, and hoping that he runs fast enough.
I've also encountered Lebanese testosterone-fueled racism and sexism; no
worse and no better than the "Australian" kind. But I have to say, in
Melbourne, it is not at all the majority of my experiences here. This is
where the hate speech thing is so worrying, because it ends up being, as in
fact it's intended to be, self-fulfilling.
Best
A
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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