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Wednesday 13th August 1997
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In case you think that Thailand is the picture of a society where racism plays no role in the community and even amongst the authorities, think again... the on-line Bangkok Post article "Fanciful accomplishments" has this word of advice to Australian visitors:
"FOREIGNERS are well-advised to avoid walking in front of the CP Building (Silom, opposite Patpong). Bang Rak's finest have set up a small yellow booth on the sidewalk and non-local passers-by are waved over by the fuzz therein to pay 2,000 baht "littering" fines. Thais are ignored. Any comment would be superfluous."
In case you are wondering 2000 baht is about Au$100.
The Au$1.35 billion loan to Thailand by the Australian government also had sugar cane farmers up in arms as they said that the money could be used to boost the Thai's sugar industry - Australia's major competitor in the region.
"Like Australia, Thailand exports most of its sugar to world markets", Harry Bonanno (Canegrowers chairman) said, "Unlike us, it does so with strong government support and subsidies from the 25% of sugar sold to the domestic market at highly inflated prices."
Senator Mal Colston, it is claimed, used hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer points from parliamentary trips to fly family and friends around the world.
Frequent flyer points given to senators and members of Parliament are, under a Federal Government directive, supposed to be used for business-related trips - in Colston's case it is alleged that they were used by his son Doug, his fiancee, Alison Cleary, and a relative to fly business class to Europe and back last year.
Also in court was Liberal senator Noel Crichton-Browne who faces charges of defrauding the Commonwealth when he allegedly took a female companion to Norfolk Island in 1996. He had claimed for travel for his wife Esther - allegedly not the woman who accompanied him on the trip.
Both Colston and Crichton-Browne have denied the charges... the cases are set to be heard late next month.
Making the news.
Hansonites target Jim
Politicians are an extraordinary paranoid bunch (can't imagine why) and the following cautionary tale will do nothing to lower the anxiety levels among ALP types....
Brisbane Lord Mayor Jim Soorley left his bailiwick briefly last Sunday (sic), to attend a fundraiser for a local ALP branch in the adjoining municipality of Redcliffe.
Despite pre-publicity that Soorley and partner Mary would be there, only 80 people attended, including party stalwarts such as local member Ray Hollis, nearby politician Linda Lavarch and her spouse, former federal attorney general Michael Lavarch.
The guests of honour were greeted by six members of the Redcliffe Pauline Hanson One Nation party protesting and handing out conspiracy-laced brochures to the Laborites.
We learnt all this from an Internet news service which churns out a daily dose of information, puffery for Hanson and other associated material.
The bulletin, which includes photographs of the event, says Soorley spent most of his address berating Hanson, saying "she was the most evil woman on Earth" and the "hatred could be seen in her eyes".
Hollis was among the curious and approached the interloper to "subtly interrogate" him. There is a photo of Hollis with the note:
Be very afraid.
The Hansonite agent provocateur, who didn't identify himself, aroused "a high degree of suspicion" among the local crowd.
"Hollis was a nice enough fellow and very kindly posed for me".
Oh, the irony of it all! This is what they get to see...
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! I'm sure I was not the only reader of News of the Day to be shocked that somebody with an Australian National University (Canberra) email address exhibited such bad spelling and grammar, and as well used such abusive and intemperate language. Hardly the hallmark of a scholar.
He sneered at Mrs Hanson for her lack of tertiary education (such tolerance and respect for a fellow female citizen!). So what's the excuse for his sentence, 'Ms Hanson has no idea the amount or strength of bias and bigotry that Aboriginies [sic] and other non-white peoples in our society.' Sorry to tell you Paul, but there's no VERB in the sentence, so what on earth are you trying to say? And the word is 'aborigines' not 'aboriginies'. Who's uneducated?
The poor man has no insight that the only hate in Australia is emanating from his own heart and from all those who think as he does. His venom and rage are pure projection: he infantily hates anybody who doesn't think as he does. This Clayton's 'toleration' - where one group harangues another about toleration without ever practising it themselves - seems to be Australia's crowning multicultural achievement. Quite frankly I prefer the dinkum variety - the old Australian sense of a fair go. I'm sure Hanson supporters in the main don't hate him, but rather feel sorry for his anguish as demonstrated in his intemperate and sometimes incoherent language, and his refusal to critically read what Mrs Hanson has actually said.
The poor man cannot even see that Mrs Hanson herself is on record as agreeing with his sentiment, 'Who really cares if the person who is working next to us is of another race?'
Nobody does, Paul, that's the point of One Australia. Mrs Hanson just believes that assimilation is superior to multiculturalism as a social policy, and many Australians, including many migrants agree. In a democracy both sides should be entitled to peacefully express their views on this matter. Mrs Hanson employed a Thai woman called Lily in her shop. Thai Lily declared on page one of the Australian newspaper this year that Mrs Hanson was not a racist. Why would Mrs Hanson employ a Thai woman if she were prejudiced against Asians? Some prejudice! I think I prefer the Hanson sort of 'prejudice' to the Cummins sort of 'tolerance' anyday.
Mr Cummins sarcastically accuses Hanson supporters of being 'educated' by the media, but they could equally charge him with being 'educated' by the pathetic coterie of Australia's self-styled elites who, in their response to the so-called 'Hanson phenomenon', have collectively proven themselves to be incapable of original thought. The very fact that there has been NO variation on the-masses-need-an-outlet-for-their-insecurity theme, to my mind proves our intellectuals' shallowness, incompetence and sheer bone laziness.
Antonia Feitz
Subject: Comments on Australian News of the Day
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am a tradesman, I left school at 16 and went on to complete my indenture, do post trade training, have worked here and overseas and still study at TAFE to keep my knowledge current. I am not university educated and have no desire to be. I am (I believe) well informed and politically aware.
Mr Paul Cummins, like most of the 'educated idiots' needs to pull his head out of the clouds and realise that approx 70% of people do not go to university, most get out into the real world and find out life is not economic models and easy to interpret theories.
A university education is no guarantee of employment, and no guarantee of a political opinion either. I have opinions, strong ones and am I to assume due to my lack of formal education, that these opinions are somehow of less worth than his?
I DO care who is living next door to me if my tax dollar is subsidising their welfare, language class, medical care etc when they have made no contribution. They should be able to stand on their own two feet, as should we all.
Before you(PC) tell me what a bigot I am, read on. My neighbours are from Thailand and are the nicest folks you would meet. They speak English fluently, therefore not requiring interpreters wherever they go. They are hardworking, therefore not bludging on an overburdened welfare system. They are proud citizens too. The list goes on.
PC, your bleeding heart drivel is a load of rot, I'll vote ONE NATION at the next Federal election and State if I can. If that makes me an uneducated bigot, well so be it. You can contribute to this country without a degree, believe it or not.
PS I believe from a recent survey, more than 40% of WA uni graduates in 1996 are still unemployed, the majority being degrees in visual and/or performing arts. It is sad to see these people out of work, but their degrees haven't helped them.
Are their political opinions worth more than mine though?
Subject: GWB and One Nation party issues
I am a young female Australian. Both of my parents were born here, however, my paternal grandfather was born in Italy. When he arrived in Australia, he got a job cutting cane and was persecuted mercilessly due to his race. My father felt the need to deny his heritage due to these racial taunts. Now, being Italian is not a big issue for racists, the current flavour of the month is Asian persecution. My point is, it doesn't matter if the person is Italian, Asian or Aboriginal, it all boils down to race. Racism has always been prevalent and, unfortunately, due to Pauline Hanson's efforts, it will remain so. I do not blame Pauline Hanson herself for this, rather, the people who listen to her and believe her, and the media for giving her exposure that her beliefs do not warrant. I applaud her right to free speech, I just think she is wrong!
Please put this in the hate mail, even though it is not obscene.
Thanks
Our response:
Hi,
You misunderstand.
Pauline Hanson stands for equality for all Australians irrespective of ethnic background. You cannot get more un-racist than this.
The "racist tag" is a media creation.
Please look at Making the News.
and thank you for your feedback which is not hate mail it is just sad... I apologise for the hard times that your parents went through.
Subject: Huntington and Hanson
In the interests of public debate, perhaps you'd allow me to publish an
excerpt from "The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order"
by Samuel Huntington (Simon and Schuster, 1996). He wrote the following
about the US, but the parallels with Australia are striking.
"Historically American national identity has been defined culturally by the
heritage of Western civilisation, and politically by the principles of the
American Creed on which Americans overwhelmingly agree: liberty, democracy,
individualism, equality before the law, constitutionalism, private
property. In the late twentieth century both components of American
identity have come under concentrated and sustained onslaught from a small
but influential number of intellectuals and publicists. In the name of
multiculturalism they have attacked the identification of the United States
with Western civilisation, denied the existence of a common American
culture, and promoted racial, ethnic, and other subnational identities and
groupings. They have denounced, in the words of one of their reports, the
'systematic bias toward European culture and its derivatives' in education
and "the dominance of the European-American monocultural perspective." The
multiculturalists are ...'very often ethnocentric separatists who see
little in the Western heritage other than Western crimes.' Their 'mood is
one of divesting Americans of the sinful European inheritance and seeking
redemptive infusions from non-Western cultures.'
...The contrast with the past is striking. The Founding Fathers saw
diversity as a reality and as a problem: hence the national motto, 'e
pluribus unum' [from many, one], chosen by .. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas
Jefferson and John Adams. Later political leaders ... made the promotion of
national unity their central responsibility. 'The one absolutely certain
way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its
continuing as a nation at all', warned Theodore Roosevelt, 'would be to
permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.' In the 1990s,
however, the leaders of the United States have not only permitted that, but
assiduously promoted the diversity rather than the unity of the people they
govern."
Sound familiar? In Australia, almost every critic of Pauline Hanson -
whether an academic, journalist, churchman, actor, columnist, writer,
politician - has churned out nothing more than variations on the following
theme: people are attracted to her because they are fearful, anxious,
insecure, etc. In other words her supporters are all gullible,
simple-minded folk who emote, but are incapable of thinking.
In the light of Huntington's ideas, I'd like to propose an alternative
explanation which at least has the virtue of being different. I think Mrs
Hanson's critics belong to the black-armband school of history. They are
contemptuous of Australian culture and the Australian achievement. They are
the ones calling for apologies for our history. They are the ones eroding
our culture by their insistence of group rights over individual equality
before the law. In contrast, Mrs Hanson's supporters appear to be
patriotic. They love Australia and want it to prosper - hence her
popularity with many migrants who of course have benefited from the truly
tolerant old Australian culture of a 'fair go.'
Antonia Feitz
"You have to do some dramatic things to increase productivity" Macfarlane said, "I do not see that monetary policy is placing any constraint on growth.
"I am strongly of the view that these lower interest rates are a substantial benefit to Australian business."
However, Macfarlane concluded, that productivity now needed to be increased - as interest rates would not be lowered any further in the short term.
Have a good one..
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