International:

I have been thinking long and hard over the letter we received yesterday from Steve. I found the contents quite shocking but could, from personal experience, relate to them.

Surely, there is no nation in the world that holds "racism" in greater horror than does Australia. Compared to other kinds of offenses, it is thought to be somehow more reprehensible. The press and public have become so used to tales of murder, rape, robbery, and arson, that any but the most spectacular crimes are shrugged off as part of the inevitable texture of Australian life. "Racism" is never shrugged off. For example, since Pauline Hanson suggested in her maiden speech to Parliament that Australia was "in danger of being swamped by Asians".. the media has referred to this statement, out of context, continually as proof that she is a racist.

Racism is, indeed, the national obsession. Universities are on full alert for it, newspapers and politicians denounce it, churches preach against it, Australia is said to be racked with it, but just what is racism?

Dictionaries are not much help in understanding what is meant by the word. They usually define it as the belief that one's own ethnic stock is superior to others, or as the belief that culture and behavior are rooted in race. When Australians speak of racism they mean a great deal more than this. Nevertheless, the dictionary definition of racism is a clue to understanding what Australians do mean.

The logical consequences of this are clear. Since we are required to believe that the only explanation for non-English failure is racism, every time an Aborigine is poor, commits a crime, goes on welfare, or takes drugs, white society stands accused of yet another act of racism. All failure or misbehavior by Aborigines is standing proof that white society is riddled with hatred and bigotry. For precisely so long as they fail to succeed in life at exactly the same level as whites, whites will be, by definition, thwarting and oppressing them. This obligatory pattern of thinking leads to strange conclusions. First of all, racism is a sin that is thought to be committed almost exclusively by white people. Just yesterday a correspondent told us how a private school party was invaded by 8 or 9 Aborigines who set about beating up both white teenage girls and boys... even breaking into a locked room so as to to be able to achieve this aim..... yet this is somehow acceptable and is unlikely to be reported in the national media... imagine if the reverse had occured.

Although some Asian and liberal whites concede that they can, perhaps, be racist, they invariably add that they have been forced into it as self-defense because of centuries of white oppression. What appears to be racism is so understandable and forgivable that it hardly deserves the name. Thus, whether or not an act is called racism depends on the race of the racist. What would surely be called racism when done by whites is thought to be normal when done by anyone else. Surely the reverse is also true.

Think of those innocent teenage children from Newcastle who tonight wonder why they could be so blatantly assaulted.... a terrifying experience which will be turned around by the "politically correct" in our society as another example of how white Australia has to pay for their past sins.

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Personal trivia, from the global office:

Yesterday we went canoeing down the river, and then enjoyed a bar-b-que with our neighbours. The pic of the Internet kid was taken on the previous evening at the excellent Colleges Crossing Cafe.

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