Disengagement from Reality
It is interesting to read the Australian PM, John Howard, say that he does not "believe the average Australian is a racist" when 75% of his countrymen disagreed with his Dec 11 statement of "I do not accept there is underlying racism in this country".
I do wonder if these politicians are just trying to be diplomatic or they are totally disengaged from reality. Almost all of my friends who had travelled to Australia before had voiced that they experienced varying degrees of racism. And to think that they were there only as students or tourists, not even permanent residents of the nation, staying for only a very short term.
Being an Asian in Australian means you stand out. By skin colour, by features, by culture, by beliefs, you are different and you are not home. No matter how Australia tries to position itself, Australia is geographically not part of Asia and it has not yet come to terms with how to interact with the Asia continent.
Even with its best efforts to link up with Asia, the underlying intentions to date are economic at best.
I do wonder if these politicians are just trying to be diplomatic or they are totally disengaged from reality. Almost all of my friends who had travelled to Australia before had voiced that they experienced varying degrees of racism. And to think that they were there only as students or tourists, not even permanent residents of the nation, staying for only a very short term.
Being an Asian in Australian means you stand out. By skin colour, by features, by culture, by beliefs, you are different and you are not home. No matter how Australia tries to position itself, Australia is geographically not part of Asia and it has not yet come to terms with how to interact with the Asia continent.
Even with its best efforts to link up with Asia, the underlying intentions to date are economic at best.
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