Potato_potato

No one said there wasn't.

Please read what I typed, not what you "think" I typed. Please respond to what is typed not what you "wanted" to be typed.

esperanza

That's quite an interesting article.

I think sometimes people (perhaps especially the british) have become so politically correct that they consider it racist to mention any difference between people of different races. I used to teach slavery, and remember children claiming that it was racist to call people black, etc.
What about theories that black people make better long distance runners? Or SE asian people do not metabolise alcohol as effectively as Europeans? (I use those terms to signify ethnicity rather than nationality)

I think a lot of people would accept that in general men are more likely to be good at challenges involving strength, women are more likely to show strength in communication.

Highlighting observed differences between people does not have to be -ist.

(NB I am absolutely not supporting any generalisations of overall racial superiority by any one race)

Potato_potato

You've hit the nail on the head there.

And of course you also have the know it alls on forums like this. Say the sky is blue and there will be some keyboard warrior on the end of his computer trying to argue that it's yellow. Happens all the time.

Potato_potato

Maybe I should have used that disclaimer too.

Next they'll ban the cane in school and wonder why the kids run wild. Oh wait a minute...

bigAPE

Moi ? Nah.. I'm just a small rabbit wearing sunglasses

hawkshaw

Please do not patronise me by manipulating my words to suit your own agenda.

I do not take offence at being called a Pommy, and if I wish to refer to myself as a b***d, that's my prerogative. I may call myself a lucky one too at times. My wife has always called me her Pommy man. Am I supposed to find offence in that too?

As for banter, I can give back as good as or better than I receive and have never met any hostility from Australians when doing so.

I do not and would not have friends who are ignorant and racist, Australian or otherwise, and I consider your remark offensive. Not one of the opinions I was reporting had I heard from anyone I would class as a friend.

I witnessed far worse racism over my many, many years in the UK than I have ever seen here. Close to home too, as a daughter of mine happens to be married to a great guy who is English born of Indian parents. He is highly educated, has a non-regional accent but as soon as certain types of people see the colour of his skin, well you can imagine how they react.

Possums

really, you will never moan about anything here? wow let us know how you manage it.

Amazulu

I'm not part of your spat with P_P and I don't totally agree with what he says, so will not get involved. But I fail to see that colonisation of Australia 'denied so many opportunities' to the Aboriginies. Yes, there has been many wrongs done to Aboriginies in the past but they have also been afforded many opportunities as well. A whole heap of money has been thrown at them and it continues to this day. That most of them have chosen to piss this away is their problem and they have no-one else but themselves to blame.

Hutch

Figures -you just spout half-arsed racist bollocks dressed up as facts.

Hunsletlad

It's not a matter of "disliking" immigrants - it's a common feature all over the world - an outsider is distrusted until he/she assimilates. Kiwis are targetted, so are Samoans, Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Pakistanis etc. and of course Pommies.

I don't see any difference to what I perceive to be an English trait - hate all foreigners ( including Scots and Irish and even Welsh ) I reckon the British have detested the French forever - but still have a grudging respect for the Germans - go figure.

Poms over here cop quite a few jibes, but it's changed since the 60's, when some were just plain nasty, to more of a friendly challenge to patriotism, especially when sport is concerned.

Unless you are exceptionally thin-skinned then it's not an issue.

(Disregard the load of wankers and drunks who take the opportunity to reply to your thread by insulting each other and pretending to help)

Les

Potato_potato

Go and take your happy pills.

Banksia

Oh? Alan Ramsay is a senior columnist who writes for the Sydney Morning Herald. His last column http://tinyurl.com/ypog72 in quoting Xavier Herbert a now well known author he wrote in part:

"There were some terrible stories. One particular thing, in the Kimberleys. The pearling industry was established in Broome and the pearlers used to go up into the Kimberley country and steal the young [Aboriginal] gins to work as pearl divers. Of course, they used to rape them, too, and when they got too pregnant they'd chuck them overboard.

"Stockmen used to go out for a 'gin spree', too. They'd run the blacks down and take the young girls [who'd] sit down and fill their fannies with sand. The people in London, they didn't believe it. They just said, 'What a bloody awful thing, you haven't got a nice person in it.' I said there weren't any 'in that country', and they said, well, 'What about yourself?' and I said, 'I'm the biggest gin rooter around. The only thing was, I was more observant than the other blokes.' "

jond

I agree a terrible episode in our past, but that is what it is, the past.

I refuse to apologize for something that happened 150 years before I was born, next I will have to say sorry for the things my Great Grandfather did when he served in the army in India in the early 1900s or what my Father did in WW2.

History is just that, history we hopefully learn from it and then move on.

John

Amazulu

Yes, I agree. The government has nothing to apologise for.

Time to move on.

renth

This is a good piece:

A NEWLY-elected federal Liberal MP says circumstances still exist for some indigenous children to be taken from their parents.

http://www.news.com.au/comments/0,23...14-421,00.html

Comment 7 is pretty spot on

"What the stolen generation never talk about is what their lives would have been like if they had remained with their mothers in their communities. So many had a chance at decent education, education, love and support. Yes they didnt have their mothers there, but they didnt die from the grog, petrol sniffing. They had a chance. Some many children -- indigenous and non indigenous would benefit from NOT being with mum right now..."