Vanestone and Beazely sniffing the same substance?
September 16th 2006 05:22
What a weird week it has been. The great xenophobia auction is on in earnest.
Beazely kicks it off with the idea of having all visitors to Australia be they tourists or immigrants signing a pledege to respect Australian Values and some how linking it to the "War on Terrorism".
This single act has shown that Beazely has no faith in being able to win a campaign on good policy but in a desperate attempt to show himself as relevant to the electorate will stoop down to the "dog whistle" politics of the conservatives.
Then Amanda Vanstone weighs in with a spray at the Labor Party for its attack on foreign workers coming to the country with no grasp of the english language. She pointed to the fact that non-english speaking countries workers were being singled out and that most foreign workers come from the U.K..
Now forgiven me if I'm mistaken but this is from the same person who singles out refugee's for overstaying visas but fails to acknowledge that its U.K. tourist who are the single biggest overstayers of visas. This is from the same government who is telling us that people need to be able to speak english to get on here.
Lets not forget Howard's singling out of a small group of Muslims as not wanting to speak english.
It has been my observations that in the first generation of immigrants there are some who do not attempt to learn the english language. These are often the elderly, disadvantaged and those who may have been traumatised by the move. Not to forget that many immigrants to Australia to free themselves from oppressive regimes and while they are glad to have moved it's often a forced move due to circumstances beyond their control.
However I find the children of most of these first generation immigrants never reluctant to speak english and usually strive to learn it. Just like the Europeans and Asians who have come to this country their initial years on arrival are greeted by claims of not assimilating.
These things take time. John Howard himself congratulated the Greek community for its integration in to Australian society. I have only to think back to my growing up in the seventies to know how Greeks were accused of not speaking english and only mixing in their own circles. Now they are an accepted grouping in Australia. If we single out groups of people, particularly one based on a religion, we will ostracise them, making them feel singled out.
This is not a healthy way to address a problem. We all know what a caged animal does when it feels cornered.
It is time for all our Leaders to explain just what it is they are seeking to do? Or is it just to easy to jump up and down about so-called issues like this to make people forget about the bigger picture problems we have such as Health, Climate,Water and infrastructure.
Beazely kicks it off with the idea of having all visitors to Australia be they tourists or immigrants signing a pledege to respect Australian Values and some how linking it to the "War on Terrorism".
This single act has shown that Beazely has no faith in being able to win a campaign on good policy but in a desperate attempt to show himself as relevant to the electorate will stoop down to the "dog whistle" politics of the conservatives.
Then Amanda Vanstone weighs in with a spray at the Labor Party for its attack on foreign workers coming to the country with no grasp of the english language. She pointed to the fact that non-english speaking countries workers were being singled out and that most foreign workers come from the U.K..
Now forgiven me if I'm mistaken but this is from the same person who singles out refugee's for overstaying visas but fails to acknowledge that its U.K. tourist who are the single biggest overstayers of visas. This is from the same government who is telling us that people need to be able to speak english to get on here.
Lets not forget Howard's singling out of a small group of Muslims as not wanting to speak english.
It has been my observations that in the first generation of immigrants there are some who do not attempt to learn the english language. These are often the elderly, disadvantaged and those who may have been traumatised by the move. Not to forget that many immigrants to Australia to free themselves from oppressive regimes and while they are glad to have moved it's often a forced move due to circumstances beyond their control.
However I find the children of most of these first generation immigrants never reluctant to speak english and usually strive to learn it. Just like the Europeans and Asians who have come to this country their initial years on arrival are greeted by claims of not assimilating.
These things take time. John Howard himself congratulated the Greek community for its integration in to Australian society. I have only to think back to my growing up in the seventies to know how Greeks were accused of not speaking english and only mixing in their own circles. Now they are an accepted grouping in Australia. If we single out groups of people, particularly one based on a religion, we will ostracise them, making them feel singled out.
This is not a healthy way to address a problem. We all know what a caged animal does when it feels cornered.
It is time for all our Leaders to explain just what it is they are seeking to do? Or is it just to easy to jump up and down about so-called issues like this to make people forget about the bigger picture problems we have such as Health, Climate,Water and infrastructure.
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