[aaggoswami]

I fully agree with Sameer Kapasi.
We cannot take extreme step or worse, come, sorry jump to conclusions.
I have many relatives and friends in Austrilia and not everywehre the things are ugly. Most of them have informed us that everything around them is peaceful and comfortable.

Coming back to topic of standing up agianst racism in general, forget Austrilia, there are more intense situations in India, namely in colleges in the form of ragging. I believe this is also form of racist behavior. Every year there are many many severe cases of ragging, most of them are so bad, I cannot disclose it here. How many times have we stood against these ? How many times have we tried to support the victims.
This is same against women at many places like work place. How many times have we actually raised an alarm or raised our vioice to solve these matters ?

The point I am trying to make is this :
Let us not generalize a thing or two and stand against racism in general. And not only one country or people and/or products of one country.

[spadival]

It is sad that some students hijacked the peace march and pelted stones at a railway station in Melbourne. Why this mentality of randomly destroying public/private property for no apparent reason?

[Samir Taheer]

pedrolourenco & others with the same opinions - You seem to have a really problem with the UK. Ive been living here for 9 years now and i've never had a problem - not at work or on the streets. I've got a mixed set of friends and live a very social life. I have to say, that seeing the way some people behave here, you really cant blame the natives for hating the imigrants. Ive been pulled over by the police and ive even been to the station when my car got broken into and not once have i had a problem with the attitude of people towards me. Its going to be difficult for alot of people to digest - but, its really the attitude that matters.The attitude of the people living in a county they werent born in.
Dont get me wrong!! I am not saying i have never had trouble, but its never been racist based. The English or Australians CERTAINLY dont go out of their way to target Indians - It really seems like the issue was you! There no point going on about how Indians are targeted when we do the same. Ive had friends hasseled in Pune - American and Europeon! What about Iranian students getting beaten up and hasseled? Does any one protect them?
And lastly about the Scarlet case, i had a friend working undercover and i totally belive him when he says it wasnt all her fault and that both parties have an equal share blame!

Originally Posted by LastActionHero

What about racism in our own country. North vs South, Bihari's vs Maharashtrians. I think we need to look within before we analyze others.

That is soo true. Ive had my car bumped here and the person gets out and says sorry. In Pune, some idiot swerves thru traffic hits my car and then plays the Shiv-Sena card. Telling me he owns the streets cause hes a 'proper' maharashtrian.

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Seriously we should really get off the back foot and stop crying blue murder. We're Indians. The whole world knows who we are and what we do. We make fun of ourselves and enjoy making fun of others.

Everyone from every country in the world gets stabbed. It may not be right, but I'm not going to stop drinking Coca Cola because of it. I have no time, I need to continue being Indian and progress as much as I can without worrying about uneducated, narrow-minded and uncultured racists.

Could'nt agree more!!! All the people here that say they dont buy American goods and stuff - please i hope youve stoped watch F1, Moto GP and every other television program that may boost the foreign economy!

Honetly guys, it happens to everyone every where! Italian students getting stabbed in London, British teachers being raped and never found in china, etc. I totally agree this sort of thing is wrong, but my point is - It happens to everyone, NOT just Indians.

[simply_sunny001]

I dont know why Indians are becoming the Soft targets.

Why cant they oppose or resist ? Its better to at least fight back.

Cos the more you think that you dont want to take any panga in a foreign land, it will only aggravate the problem and make you a coward.

In the Sarvan Kumar case, i was so surprised how can 2 teenagers beat the hell out of 4 adults. At least those 4 adults could save themselves.

Indian Students are not illegal immigrats there, they have paid a huge huge money for their Visa and paying huge fees to their universities and they have all rights.

They universities and economy will be doomed if indians stopped going there, still these things are happening.

And like some others also pointed "We cannot generalise the whole country due to some bad people mostly ill bred teenagers"

Its better to be safe and try to stay away from unwanted trouble but there is a limit.

And Indian Govt should also take a firm stand against the australian Govt not able to provide enough security to international students and ensure a peaceful environment.

[hemanthisgreat]

Originally Posted by simply_sunny001

In the Sarvan Kumar case, i was so surprised how can 2 teenagers beat the hell out of 4 adults. At least those 4 adults could save themselves.

That is not the sad part, there were 20 Indians in the party where these 4 people got beat up.

[aerohit]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

As a token way of protesting the treatment meted out to me in UK, I started boycotting all British and Australian products. Let us all join in this protest to show solidarity to our Indian brothers and sisters all over the world who are being vicitimised just because they are Indians.

I am with you. You can avoid SPAR supermarkets if you wish. If you dont feel safe with the policies of any country, dont go there or buy their products. Send them the pain indirectly. This is your personal opinion and no one can stop you from this. (although many Indians will pressure you against this, because many dont understand what "personal opinion" means, what "freedom of speech means", what "freedom of thought" means)

Originally Posted by abhi_krishna

So if the European countries & the US start doing the same for the treatment we met out to foreigner, India would not be the IT Giant it is today.

IT gaint? or outsourcing giant? Rememebr, its not because they love you, its because they want to cut costs. India remains poor because of unfair trade practicies abroad. No country likes to buy foreign products- Except Indians, Indians support foreign economies and keep buying foreign products, hence they themselves remain "average" or "poor" in one way or another, directly or indirectly for the rest of their lives, the cycle goes in circles..

Originally Posted by zaks

This is one classic example of how Indians can be manipulated.
Just one injured/dead person is like a flame and throw in some suspicion and doubt to act as petrol and viola! step back and watch the people go literally mad and kill and maim their fellow citizens and burn themselves and others.

This is how we have been ruled so far ...

Unfortunately, too much diversity is bad, very bad. As I said earlier, when a kite goes down 50 Indians run for the kite, eventually destroying the kite (with good intentions)

[Sha]

Originally Posted by iceman91

guys there are two sides to evrey story.
I have been in Melbourne for a while and came back and I have not faced any racism, Yes I have seen racism there and 90% of the time it is Indians who wwere being racist.

I have also seen racism towards Indians, but I would like to say that it is provoked a lot of time.
racism exists even in India, why is this not being addressed?

perfectly said. Even i stayed in Australia and studied for about 4+ years i did not face any racism from australian.
From my experience it's our attidue and how can we understand there culture is must.
issues like stealing are made racism issue.

[Raj1008]

I have never been to Australia but I have heard that they are very nasty there. One opinion coming from a guy who moved from Dubai, so thats saying a lot! Personally having lived in alot of places and would say Dubai is pretty racist. India would be more communal or uneducated, wouldnt classify it as racist. Treating white people badly is because of lack of culture or exporsure. Heck they even try to pull a fast on me every now and then when I am in India.

Funnily there was an article recently on how Indians face discrimnation from other Indians in Canada. They felt that they owe Indians some hardship because they had gone through it. Desi News - Feb 09

And frankly Indians are soft targets because most dont stand up for themselves. Has anyone heard of racism against a Chinese?

[Aditya]

Originally Posted by Raj1008

India would be more communal or uneducated, wouldnt classify it as racist. Treating white people badly is because of lack of culture or exporsure. Heck they even try to pull a fast on me every now and then when I am in India.

This is in India. I had been to a hotel, owned and run by Indians (year 2000 or 2001, I don't remember clearly) which had an area specially reserved for whites only. My uncle happened to be their banker, so they dared not say a word to me as I roamed around with my nose up. If this is not racism, what is it?

[Raj1008]

Reverse racism, colonial baggage Read the article, its very interesting. Heck I think I have faced that even in Cafe Leopold.

[mustang89]

Originally Posted by spadival

So if posting on an online forum and resolving to boycott oz products is your idea of "standing up", the world would be a better place with so little effort. The only person on this thread who can legitimately claim to have stood up for the oz cause is Takumi-San. He got up from his a#$ and took part in a Peace March thru Melbourne.

Some of us were merely pointing out the futility of pointing fingers at an entire nation and boycotting their products. If you want to continue "standing up" like that, be my guest.

oh thanks bro.did u ever read the word boycott in all my posts?please point that to me if i did so.and if i said that entire australian nation is like that?
please read the posts carefully before posting.
and if my efforts have been worthless then please tell me yours if you think they are commendable!i will definitely learn from them and be of more use in this entire scenario.
posting regret on an online forum is definitely more useful than just pointing fingers on your own countrymen.

[Raj1008]

Luckily for me its easy to boycott all of Australian products, I hate Fosters lol

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by aerohit

You can avoid SPAR supermarkets if you wish.

Umm.. but SPAR is a Dutch chain of supermarkets. Nothing to do with the UK or Australia.

[spadival]

Originally Posted by mustang89

oh thanks bro.did u ever read the word boycott in all my posts?please point that to me if i did so.and if i said that entire australian nation is like that?
please read the posts carefully before posting.
and if my efforts have been worthless then please tell me yours if you think they are commendable!i will definitely learn from them and be of more use in this entire scenario.

First of all, thanks for clarifying that you were merely expressing regret and not standing up for your countrymen. Because to me, those two are entirely different things. So far, I have been implicit about my contribution. But I will explicitly state that my contribution towards changing the situation on the ground has been ZERO. Now, Can you please enlighten us as to how do you propose that we contribute by concrete measures other than boycotting or expressing regret?

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Umm.. but SPAR is a Dutch chain of supermarkets. Nothing to do with the UK or Australia.

LOL.. But do you remember the phrase "An apple a day keeps the doctor away". Well, "An Australian apple a day will definitely keep Aerohit & Co away". So remember (not) to buy Australian apples on your next visit to the fruit market.

[esteem_lover]

I read through these pages with a lot of pain. I do not know why we react so mindlessly to this. Yes, there have been more than fair share of racist attacks/common mugging on a few Indians. Thanks to our glorious media (Who keep repeating a 3 second clipping for 3 hours or more), they have successfully instigated most of us. I suggest some of these people to switch of their news channels & try to put what has happened to some real perspective.

Trains have been burnt yesterday in our own country for no real reason. There are famous political parties/leaders who preach racism. An Australian died in his hotel room yesterday. What have we done to our poor lower caste brethren who are subjected to torture beyond our urban minds' imagination ?

I have very close relatives/friends in Melbourne/Sydney, I assure you they do not live in fear like it is portrayed here. Law enforcement in these cities are excellent & the perpetrators will be brought to justice.