I have often wanted to ask non-English speaking patients how it is that they cant speak our language yet know all about our emergency services and are able to access them quite frequently. They all manage to understand the word pension card and medicare.
I wonder how long I would last in their country if I never learnt the language. I would deem that as plain rudeness on my behalf. So why do we accept it in the country? Is this political correctness gone mad?
I wonder how long I would last in their country if I never learnt the language. I would deem that as plain rudeness on my behalf. So why do we accept it in the country? Is this political correctness gone mad?
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Not quite. This is multiculturalism gone mad. We are falling over ourselves to preserve and protect the cultures of immigrants, regardless of the cost. So embroiled are we in this wasteful and misguided crusade that we have become blind to the detrimental effect all this has on our own culture.
Oh yes, Australia has a culture. But the PC, thought-policing, multiculturalist extremists won't like its description. It has a Western, Christian and altogether British heritage. It values the common good, the rule of law, and the separation of powers. It is the spirit of Federation. It is ANZAC. It is "fair go", "fair dinkum", and "too bloody right". It is "Jack's your aunty". It is banding together and affirming with one voice that they are NOT shrimps we throw on the barbie, they're bloody prawns, and they're rarely barbecued. It is mateship. It's the Man from Snowy River and the land of sweeping plains. It's struggle against adversity, forging a strong society through toil against the elements in the toughest and most unforgiving natural environment in the world. It is bushfires, dingos and surf life savers. It is Sydney vs Melbourne, the Maroons vs the Blues, and Country vs City. It's "don't give the pollies an inch". It's Australia, and Tasmania too, if we remember.
Of course, that has nothing to do with China Town, Vietnamatta, and the Auburn Mosque. And the feeling is mutual. Immigrants form their own communities, pushing others out. They employ their own and look after their own. Money goes into them, but not out, except overseas to their countries of origin. They are giant parasitic colonies, absorbing public money and influencing the vote. In our rush to help them preserve their cultures, we have encouraged them to disenfranchise themselves from greater society. To speak their own language in preference to English. To hold their cultural festivals, and maintain the absurd perpetuation of these rituals in an alien context.
Then you have the problem that we have disempowered ourselves. We cannot point out deficiencies in their cultures, which are manifold. We cannot offend their religious views, even if the majority of us think them abhorrent. We must stand in line while they waste public time and money resolving their intercultural disputes in our courts, as was the case with the Greeks and Macedonians some years ago. We must endure their bad driving, instead of admitting that we have a higher standard of driving than many of their countries of origin, so they need to be targeted with education and training that addresses the specific deficiencies of that country.
I think it's time we defended the Australian culture at least as vigorously as we defend everyone else's.
LB
This sort of thing can happen with a welfare state and high immigration intake. Immigrants arrive and can get along very well in a large enough community that speaks their own language.
And then there's an outcry when an overloaded, termite-ridden 'vessel' (for want of a better description for a delapidated death trap) smashes to smitherines in the rough Australian seas. Lindsay, you're onto it here.
See, I'm a trained Indonesian teacher, so I am sympathetic to the Indonesian cause. What I am not sympathetic towards, are two irresponsible governments (namely Australia and Indonesia) who refuse to stop this from happening. It is not Australia's responsibility to take on whatever Indonesia cannot manage. I learned Indonesian because I wanted to show Indonesians I appreciate them enough to speak to them in their heart language. One could propose, without too much subsequent derision I'm sure, that it would not be so difficult for other nations to do the same when they venture here. I'm all for the citizenship test!
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