The temperature's rising and I expect to soon see photographs of effigies being burnt in the streets of Indian cities.
The old Crystal Ball is working well because today Reuters gives us this:
All major Aussie newspapers are running the photos so the climate is going to get worse in both countries, the extremists are jumping on the bandwagon, the real danger is an escalation of violence.
I tend to agree with the comments of Dr. Yadu Singh in Australia, reported in the Sydney Morning Herald.
The Indian media's coverage of the plight of Indian students in Australia has been "irresponsible" and could backfire on Indians who have lived here for years, a local community leader fears.
Yadu Singh, a Sydney cardiologist, has viewed with growing anger the pronouncements about Australia by the Indian press, after violence against Indian students in Sydney and Melbourne came under the spotlight last week.
Headlines such as "Australia, land of racists" have led to loud street protests in Australia and India, with an effigy of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd set alight in India.
Dr Singh, who heads a committee at the Indian consulate looking at Indian student issues, labelled the reporting "irresponsible".
"There is a problem with Indian media and Indian leadership - they can't assess a situation in a rational way," he said.
"It's the high competition in that industry. They all get on the bandwagon and say 'Oh racism', but it's not like that.
"Something like this happens and they think: 'The whole world is against us.' I mean, burning effigies of Kevin Rudd ... come on.
"This is not a racist country. Every country has one or two racists.
"When Australian [missionary] Graham Staines was burnt to death [by Hindu extremists in January 1999], did everyone call India racist? No."
Dr Singh believed Australians were "outraged with the way Indian media" was smearing the country.
He feared the outrage could mask the genuine issues faced by Indian students, who Dr Singh said were over-represented in robbery statistics in Melbourne and also faced exploitation by employers.
He also feared there could be a backlash against other Australians of Indian heritage, many of whom had lived here for years.
"I was at a function last night with other Indians [well-established in Australia] - other doctors and lawyers - we were all saying this game has to stop," Dr Singh said.
"We are not suffering. We are doing well in Australia."
Street muggings are deplorable, more so in my opinion when they're racially motivated. But so is whipping up hysteria just to increase newspaper sales or to further a political agenda.
Sydney Morning Herald report is here.
16 comments:
Could not agree more. Unfortunate incidents have happened which I hope will never be repeated however, Indian media is creating such a ruckus that one forgets that Australia itself is a Multi-racial country and an accepting one at that!
possibly there are two sides to this, among the indians:
the Indians who are already living in autralia, who want this to go away at any cost, so that they can get on with their life. they probably feel that it is their fault they immigrated, and they do not want to draw any attention to themselves, and just want to continue with their work and life. i am not sure they will really stand up for their rights. the ones who conducted the protests were in all probability the students who are not yet immigrants but on student visa there, and have some amount of pride and non compromising attitude to unfair treatment.
the second are the indians in india, 99.9% of whom have never seen australia, and this is a matter of national pride. for them the fate of some less than half million indians is not the real issue. if they will get hurt further is not the issue. for them the fact they have been picked upon by some white fanatics in australia is a matter of great rage. and they will make enough noise to ensure that there will be civil or uncivil fallouts. unfortunately. like you have some racists there, you have some here who take this as a personal affront.
coming to think of it, all this media melodrama did not start from thin air. it was fed by a series of incidents from across the sea. everyone is doing what they feel is justified.
Also found this:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/dont-believe-the-media-hype-racism-is-often-a-twoway-street-20090601-bsto.html?page=-1
Sorry about the long link - I'm too lzy to create a hyperlink!
Let's hope something happens at the t20 Cricket World Cup from this weekend that will distract the Indian media.
Dave, there's probably a factory somewhere already producing Ricky Ponting effigies ready for burning in the streets.
http://www.watoday.com.au/opinion/a-bruised-relationship-with-india-20090602-bu2e.html?page=1
"Stories which have a race edge tend to excite journalists in Australia. Not, however, on this occasion. Readers of The Age and, to a lesser extent, the Herald Sun would have been aware of a spate of attacks on Indians beginning about October, primarily in Melbourne's western suburbs. This led to the establishment of the Police-Indian Western Reference Group in January. At the time about 30 per cent of all victims in this area were men of Indian appearance.
In fact, the number of Indian victims of assault in Melbourne over the past six months exceeds the total number of serious casualties in the Cronulla riots - and revenge attacks - of December 2005. Yet, until last week, there had been almost no coverage of this issue on the public broadcasters. The matter was all but ignored on such important ABC programs as AM, The World Today, PM, The 7.30 Report, Q&A, Lateline and Radio National's Breakfast, as well as SBS's World News Australia.
Even the Victorian Government has been surprisingly quiet on what sections of the Indian media have depicted as "curry bashing" incidents. The Premier, John Brumby, issued a media release last Friday following representations from India's high commissioner in Australia, Sujatha Singh. Better late than never, but still late."
Dr Singh is correct, I couldn't agree with him more!. This sort of unfortunate stuff happens everywhere, and most people who've travelled and lived elsewhere know so.
Indian leadership is bunch of conniving folk . Indian media is F*****g JOKE, quite desperately hoping to ape media in the United States (the likes of FOX news and any other that's 'provocatively entertaining'). Often, it's funny most Indians cry racism, when Indians are perhaps the single most openly racist people on the planet to their own kind. Indian caste system to those unconscionable 'skin lightening' creams or the ways how most communities from the North look down upon communities from the South and tensions amongst religious sect. You shall see these in the UAE as well.
I hope they see reason and come into some sort of sensibility. Oz is a tolerant multi racial nation.
i am quite amazed how all people find any opportunity like this to bash india. india definitely is no paragon of racial or caste equity, as is well documented. everyone jumps to point out how missionaries got killed in india. this was done by some fanatics in the rural outback,where they hear their own religion dragged in the mud,pointedly told that they need to convert from hinduism to have any chance of making it to heaven, and how everything about their religion is rubbish. this is told to 700 million hindus, printed material to this extent is also circulated. and over years, one missionary gets lynched.
now imagine, hindus or muslims move into western rural areas, and tell them christian faith is all rubbish, make fun of their religion, and publish material to this extent. or christians do this in saudi arabia or uae, saying islam got it all worn, convert or you will have a terrible life. make fun of their gods. we will see what happens there too.
it is easy to sit in your ivory towers, and criticise a place and its people with absolutely no knowledge of how much tolerance goes in , before it breaks with some hoodlums. no justification, just pointing facts.
now to get back to my point, rosh, are u by any chance saying, that just because indians have these problems back in india, they deserve nothing better in any other country? they have no right to raise their voice against anything even when they are legally there in australia, or in US like you? maybe they got there to escape the problems back home, and in your enlightened vision they deserve no equality just because they come from a place like this?
how would you treat islamic people from saudi, where all other religions are even a bible is banned? people like you will say, if in US, all saudi's should be banned from having a koran, or praying. Is that what US should stand for? have a heart.and a brain.
and are saying by any chance, sunnis love shiites and bahai's, and catholics love and cherish protestants across the world? why talk of caste and colour in india alone. talk about it in france, america, middle east. different places, different names,that's all.
"i am quite amazed how all people find any opportunity like this to bash india."
And I'm NEVER AMAZED when someone makes a statement like the above!
"now to get back to my point, rosh, are u by any chance saying, that just because Indians have these problems back in india, they deserve nothing better in any other country?"
Of course not. I'm part Indian, who was raised in the UAE. Growing up I've had Indian friends and still do (mostly those born & raised in the GCC) However, I never dealt with Indians (the ones fresh from India) until I started work.. From my experiences, most Indians treat their own kind discriminatorily to any other, especially whilst in a foreign nation, be it in the UAE or the United States. I could list several professional and social instances, which seem are quite 'embedded' in the general Indian psyche. And quite honestly, I'm not sure why they do this to one another. What's quite surprising is that I've hardly seen Indians who've moved to the GCC or to the US a whilst back, practice similar ways?
Hence, perhaps you (and they) need to look within to see part of the problem.
The post was about sensationalistic irrational bozos in the Indian media.
Re: Graham Staines. Please, correct me here, however, I don't recall media in Oz slandering India as 'The land of cold murderers'? The Ozzies didn't come into India for protests and clash with law enforcement. Whilst in a foreign country (particularly as a student) respect the laws and tolerance boundaries as a whole. Make an effort to realize an entire nation cannot be slandered racists for the actions of an unfortunate few. I'm guessing the Indian students moved to Oz for a better education, tolerance and future to what they have in India. If so, learn the ways in Oz, Appreciate the opportunity, and practice the level of tolerance and resilience I know most Indians have in them.
first of all, some thought the missionaires had no business doing conversion in india by offering money and bribes, and insulting local religion to the extent of publishing trashy stuff. hence the aussies had no moral grounds to come to clash with indian police. if they had come to india to study, or work, i dont think they would've got lynched.no justification of murder, criminal acts were punished.
now let us bash the chinese diaspora, sitting in our ovory immigrant towers. maybe it is because the chinese insisted on eating only chinese food :-)
China joins India, wants Australia to ensure students' safety
4 Jun 2009, 1205 hrs
MELBOURNE: China has joined India in raising concerns over a spate of attacks on foreign students in Australia, asking Canberra to provide better
protection to ensure their "legitimate rights".
In the wake a recent surge in violence on Indian students here, Chinese embassy counsellor Liu Jin said his government was actively intervening to ensure safety of their nationals.
"There are over 130,000 Chinese students in Australia. They have on the whole had good study and living environment, but attacks on Chinese students also occurred in recent years," Liu told the 'Sydney Morning Herald'.
"first of all, some thought the missionaries had no business doing conversion in india by offering money and bribes, and insulting local religion to the extent of publishing trashy stuff."
Jeez! And I thought India was a democracy with Christian Citizens. Are you saying if someone were to preach the good of a religion to you, you'd rather burn them alive? And I don't believe The Staines, insulted any religion. I know people who still work as missionaries in the North, and some of them knew the Staines. They NEVER insulted anybody. Shame on you!
Again, you seem to be missing the whole point to this post. The post was about Indian media sensationalism. It has NOTHING to do with Ivory towers, the Chinese or what have you. Criminal unprovoked assaults on anybody, anywhere should go punished by local law enforcement. I think Oz shall do a better job at it, then India. You're quite atypical of the general Indian psyche. You fail to see the issue for what it is, and love rolling over to play the victim.
i see the issue for what it is, and just wanted to make the point that your perspective as a non indian for all practical purposes is not what a typical indian sees. i am atypical, better that than the gulf brought up i am indian but dont want to be indian confused mindset.
Indian media has lots of issues. that comes with freedom and democracy. they do it for business. and they also get criticised enough for it.but give me that any day, than the emasculated, castrated media that you call gulf news and khaleej times that have to report every sneeze of you know who.
i pointed out that there is a difference between preaching the good word, and insulting another one in its land, and bribing people to convert.nobody said staines did what you claimed, insulted another religion. you are now being atypical :-) he represents a genre that is doing that, and he just happened to be at the wrong place at wrong time and ran into crazy hoodlums. as for democracy and freedom of practise, conversion, wish you had raised these issues while you were in the middle east rather than sit somewhere else and point fingers at some struggling third world democracy. shame indeed on fighting wars with the weak democracy, and not with the strong dictatorship.
"i see the issue for what it is,"
Sorry, I don't think you do.
"and just wanted to make the point that your perspective as a non indian for all practical purposes is not what a typical indian sees."
Seriously,it's incredibly silly you make that statement. It's got nothing to being Indian or Non-Indian (common sensibilities than anything else). That said, I've said it never ceases to amaze, how Indians treat their own shabby at home, yet paint an entire foreign nation red due to unfortunate actions of few miscreants. No law abiding, tolerant Ozzie implied, what has happened is acceptable and that includes Indian Ozzies.
"i am atypical, better that than the gulf brought up i am indian but dont want to be indian confused mindset"
Says a lot about what you think you know, and the reality. I'm proud of my mom's Indian heritage (dad's not Indian or Asian). I'm more proud of my mom's parents, the ways of life in the 40's, 50's or the 60's and the culture that prevailed. I see pictures of maternal grandparents days and truly wish I could've experienced the India, the people and the ways of life, when thing were so much more true to life and real.
"..castrated media that you call gulf news and khaleej times that have to report every sneeze of you know who."
People do 'castrate' the UAE local media. We're aware the media is joke and beyond. There's an inherent mechanism (call it a 6th sense) to read between the lines and/or accept the exact opposite to what GN & KT have published.
"i pointed out that there is a difference between preaching the good word, and insulting another one in its land, and bribing people to convert.nobody said staines did what you claimed, insulted another religion. you are now being atypical :-)"
WOW! you're so full of it. Here's what you wrote in CONTEXT to the Staines, - "first of all, some thought the missionaires had no business doing conversion in india by offering money and bribes, and insulting local religion to the extent of publishing trashy stuff."
"he represents a genre that is doing that, and he just happened to be at the wrong place at wrong time and ran into crazy hoodlums"
Perhaps true. However, neither the majority of Oz citizens, nor, the Oz media had headliners calling India, a land of cold murderers! And that's the point to this freaking post!
"..as for democracy and freedom of practice, conversion, wish you had raised these issues while you were in the middle east ....and not with the strong dictatorship."
And here you go (again) digressing from the point to this post - throw in 'Ivory towers' syndromes, democracy v/s dictatorship, rich v/s poor and what else have you. Is that what like you love to do best - digress (or burry) thoughts when faced with facts & issues.
And what has all this to do with indians getting bashed now? actually nothing :-) except that at every step i am sick of hearing Indians hate indians, and missionaries getting lynched. Read below a small snippet about the real history of missionary activities in India. Yeah, I know, they are not aussies, it was 500 yrs back etc :-). It is amazing how a world that perpetrated these on poor countries now stand up and take ownership over angelhood.
THE GOA INQUISITION was the office of the Inquisition acting in the Indian state of Goa and the rest of the Portuguese empire in Asia. It was established in 1560, briefly suppressed from 1774-1778, and finally abolished in 1812.[1]
The Inquisition was established to punish relapsed New Christians – Jews and Muslims who converted to Catholicism, as well as their descendants – who were now suspected of practicing their ancestral religion in secret. In Goa, the Inquisition also turned its attention to Indian converts from Hinduism or Islam who were thought to have returned to their original ways. In addition, the Inquisition prosecuted non-converts who broke prohibitions against the observance of Hindu or Muslim rites or interfered with Portuguese attempts to convert non-Christians to Catholicism.[2] While its ostensible aim was to preserve the Catholic faith, the Inquisition was used against Indian Catholics and Hindus as an instrument of social control, as well as a method of confiscating victims' property and enriching the Inquisitors.[3]
Most of the Goa Inquisition's records were destroyed after its abolition in 1812, and it is thus impossible to know the exact number of the Inquisition's victims. Based on the records that survive, H. P. Salomon and I. S. D. Sassoon state that between the Inquisition's beginning in 1561 and its temporary abolition in 1774, some 16,202 persons were brought to trial by the Inquisition. Of this number, it is known that 57 were sentenced to death and executed in person; another 64 were burned in effigy. Others were subjected to lesser punishments or penanced, but the fate of many of the Inquisition's victims is unknown.[4]
In Europe, the Goa Inquisition became notorious for its cruelty and use of torture, and the French philosopher Voltaire wrote "Goa is sadly famous for its inquisition, which is contrary to humanity as much as to commerce. The Portuguese monks deluded us into believing that the Indian populace was worshiping The Devil, while it is they who served him."
" It is amazing how a world that perpetrated these on poor countries now stand up and take ownership over angelhood."
Agreed. However, it is the past, and perpetuated by those whose ways & thoughts were different. At some point, we as human beings need to come together, set aside most differences from the past for a truly peaceful future. Religion is exactly that - religion. The end objective of any religion is peace, compassion, love and understanding toward another being.
Re: this post: personal opinion - the Indian media and most of those Indian students could have taken the high road - similar to some of the Gandhi ways. I'd believe they'd be applauded for displaying resilience, patience and compassion which perhaps is quite abundant in most Indians. Quite honestly it's perplexing, to watch the clownish media, make complete ass of themselves whilst encouraging the young (and the restless) to partake in silly shenanigans. I'd think Gandhi, who, many of you are proud of, be rolling in his grave.
Back in the days, mom used switch into Indian channels, now and then. Things felt quite "Indian" or so I believe. Today, it's asinine garbage entertainment, similar to some Western Media. Indian media seem desperate to ape the West. I believe most of the above comes from an ill perceived Western ways of life and the MTV culture. There's much good in the Western ways, however, Indians for the most part seem to view things through a misguided preconceived mindset. I hope the silly storm dies down. I hope those who perpetuated crime are bought to justice and the victims vindicated.
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