My two pence on curry bashing

Friends and relatives from all quarters have been enquiring about our well being, owing to the recent attacks in Ozzie land. Loads of exasperated status messages, headlines all over OZ and Indian media, bloggers at their emotional best, frantic tweets over the cyber space, and my personal encounters with racism in Sydney, has got me thinking.

I was at our local mall looking at hair pins and clips. I saw a white woman try on one of the hair products, so I thought it was ok to try on. I was about to do it and that’s when a woman standing near by came rushing saying- ‘you are not allowed to try it on---its for health reasons, not because you are a …you know’ (this was 6 months back). I was so dumbstruck that I simply bought the hair pin and walked away with tears welled up. It was a stupid thing to do- why did I walk away?  I should have taken the issue head on. I didn't have to be rude or create a scene, but I certainly should have solicited an apology. These instances are very common here. I have faced similar accounts at other places too. Racist behaviour is rampant in Australia, just that it is understated and restrained. And more than that, it goes unreported. The issue is burning now because it took a violent, nasty  turn, else it would have remained obscure for more years to come.

The most irking thing about the whole issue is how some of us are quick to point a finger and say, things are equally bad back home in India, with the MNS and so on. But that’s not the point at all. There is racism everywhere- we are all racists in some way or the other. Tell me, didn’t you ever mock at your south Indian neighbor's curd rice habits? And don’t tell me you never almost spat at the  Hindi speaking guy in Tamil Nadu. You might also have been the one to have rejected an  otherwise nice alliance that came your way, because she/he was ‘dark’. But just because we have prejudices ourselves doesn't  justify a boy getting stabbed with a screwdriver. And just because we have issues to tackle ourselves back home, we should shut up and not vice our antipathy for what’s happening here??  Joe Pinto  articulates it just right, he says- please resist racism of any kind.

Please for goodness’ sake stop saying India is equally bad, so we have no right to preach what's happening Down Under. It sounds stupid and ignorant. We were equally ashamed and enraged at what happened when the MNS beat up Biharis and non Maharashtrians, and the media gave it equal amount of importance, as it is giving to the issue here. In fact the media is right in going over board reporting the cases from oz – if we as a nation don’t show that we care for our fellow citizens abroad, who will?

Over the years Australia has seen a huge leap in Indian student enrolment in universities and most of the students opt for  Permanent Residency. One of the many factors for students coming to Australia for further studies, apart from competitive fee structures in comparison to US/UK universities (which is a very big deal in these times – think of the ROI), was safety.  The ‘Australian Way’, as the locals often quote, referring to their laid back, friendly, chilled out attitude, was what attracted people a great deal. but may be all that is changing after all. Too bad. Too bad for the government, too bad for the country’s economy.

I certainly don’t understand local rights – local rights to jobs? Indians are equally jobless here, in the downturn. And if they think Indians have been taking away jobs that are rightfully theirs I’d like to contest here- why were Indians given those jobs at the first place? With arms wide open the Australian government took in people, in heaps, to help nourish the Australian economy. Do these little minded idiots even realize that their Government has time and again recognized and commended efforts of  Indian diaspora to the Australian economy? Do they even know under their Government's ‘Skilled Migration Program' (06-07) over 15,000 professionals migrated seeking PR? I don’t think the Government needed to do that if the country was self sufficient on the ‘skilled labor’ scale. And if these dimwits have an issue they should take it up with the government, and also may be take university education a little more seriously.

These ill informed obtuse heads are a shame to their own country.  We are here on a short stay- and we still think this is a country with a great attitude- a happy nation. And not all of that will change with these attacks, because Australia is indeed a beautiful country with lovely warm people, but for these ignorant set of hoodwinks. 

We must raise our voices, and get Kevin’s government to do a lot lot more than just verbal assurance and set up police reference groups who make suggestions that are as racist as the ones they are fighting against, sample this – stop speaking in your native language! Now what was that?