[spadival]

Originally Posted by finneyp

Clearly, Australian Police is turning a blind eye to these incidents, which is rampant in the past 2 - 3 years.

In this era of recession and budget deficits, Aussie Police has slowly become nothing more than a revenue collection agency collecting assorted fines for traffic violations etc (At least the revenue goes to the govt instead of individual pockets). This has made some suburbs very unsafe to venture at night, allowing anti socials to roam the streets looking for cheap thrills. This is by no means a widespread phenomenon - Majority of the suburbs are pretty safe for everyone including Indians.

I hope recent incidents have led to change in priorities at the highest level and lead to more boots on the ground, especially at night and around public transport users.

[DriverR]

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

But it pains me more when I see the so called responsible media acts very irresponsibly. I was watching an Indian news channel(Times now i think) yesterday and the anchor and another guest were making a mockery of news channel showing their pseudo jingoistic views about the issue. They very well know that it's very easy to manipulate a normal Indian person's emotion and they are playing with that.

I agree, I was watching the news and I could see that they are playing up to the sentiments of viewers. I switched channels in total disgust. One thing I've noticed. Being in a Communications role, I can understand how the use of certain words of phrases put in certain ways can alter or infer something you want. These are subtle but the subconscious impact is high. Most, if not all, news channels are expert at this. I see it in the way they word the news, the way they ask questions and the way they manage live guests.

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by 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?

TOI conveniently chose not to attach much importance to this fact in their report today. They stressed more on the fact that the protestors were attacked. Talk of media not stressing on what they choose to downplay.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by DriverR

Being in a Communications role, I can understand how the use of certain words of phrases put in certain ways can alter or infer something you want. These are subtle but the subconscious impact is high. Most, if not all, news channels are expert at this. I see it in the way they word the news, the way they ask questions and the way they manage live guests.

And none of ouor TV news readers can read anything in a soft tone. Everything is breaking or Just in or coming in or whatever. Is there any other kind of normal news these days ?

[kalpeshc]

Has someone read David Baldacci's 'The Whole Truth'? One of the main concept of the story was a domain called 'Perception Management'. In crude words it is about a mass temporary brainwash. Because of the role of the media in our current lives, it is quite feasible to manipulate the truth and present it to the masses in a well disguised and well organized way.

The book starts with a statement 'Why discover the truth when you can so easily create it?'

[kaushik_s]

Originally Posted by DriverR

I agree, I was watching the news and I could see that they are playing up to the sentiments of viewers. I switched channels in total disgust. One thing I've noticed. Being in a Communications role, I can understand how the use of certain words of phrases put in certain ways can alter or infer something you want. These are subtle but the subconscious impact is high. Most, if not all, news channels are expert at this. I see it in the way they word the news, the way they ask questions and the way they manage live guests.

Couldn't agree more with you, yes these guys are masters at manipulating the words and playing with sentiments of people. Many a times I've noticed that they'll change the word a little or insert another word in to someone's statement to give the whole thing a different meaning altogether. I'm so much disgusted to see this practice that I now always take any of their news with bucket load of salt. Actually the Australian guy was talking much more sense even after being instigated too much by Arnab and the other indian guest (who was that guy btw?). I felt it was very irrational/un-civilised behavior shown by the other indian guest as he was giving smirks and showing "I know all and I'm only right" attitude on that show. Sorry for going kind of off topic here but I felt that media is as much to blame for inflating the issue to such a proportion.

[Samir Taheer]

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

Couldn't agree more with you, yes these guys are masters at manipulating the words and playing with sentiments of people. Many a times I've noticed that they'll change the word a little or insert another word in to someone's statement to give the whole thing a different meaning altogether. I'm so much disgusted to see this practice that I now always take any of their news with bucket load of salt. Actually the Australian guy was talking much more sense even after being instigated too much by Arnab and the other indian guest (who was that guy btw?). I felt it was very irrational/un-civilised behavior shown by the other indian guest as he was giving smirks and showing "I know all and I'm only right" attitude on that show. Sorry for going kind of off topic here but I felt that media is as much to blame for inflating the issue to such a proportion.

Kaushik_S - You have a very valid point and probably not really off topic. Its this behaviour of 'I know all and I'm only right' that creates resentment. When that behaviour is carried out on the streets of another country its creates resentents amongst their masses. Dont get me wrong, most people that move from India to Australia, UK, USA, etc, are really well behaved, but then you have people that move around in groups of only Indians (even the africans and polish do this), behave badly and then instigate someone to react. Again i am not saying beating up someone until they are almost dead is right - its Totally wrong!!! But their is all ways two sides to a coin and the media shouldnt be biased.

EDIT: Maybe i should add that some acts may not always need a reason, but then these are carried out on all sorts of people. I think theres a difference between racisim and drunken unruly behaviour.

[pranava999]

Here is an interesting article that offers an Australian journo's broader perspective, in the Sydney Morning Herald. Thought it would make an interesting read,


In Australia, the word "racist" is invariably overused. However, at times, some ethnic groups are treated with a degree of insensitivity or indifference. This is the case with the disturbing number of attacks in Melbourne on young men of Indian descent.
In the early hours of yesterday, Victoria Police detained some 18 people involved in a protest at the corner of Flinders and Swanston streets in central Melbourne. Those detained, many of them Indian students studying here, were released. But one protester has been charged with a damage-to-property offence.
It is understandable why Victoria Police wanted to clear a busy intersection, and it appears that some protesters adopted an aggressive attitude. Even so, the police seem to have acted harshly. In attempting to break-up protesters who had linked arms, some blows by police were deflected onto faces and legs.
This would be understandable if Victoria Police in recent years had a reputation for breaking up unlawful gatherings. However, in November 2006 they initially took a benign and accommodating stance to the extreme left-wing, violence-prone demonstrators who attempted to stop the G20 meeting taking place.
In 2000, its police also took a softly-softly stance to leftist protesters who tried to physically disrupt an international business meeting in Melbourne. This suggests that the more violent a demonstration, the less likely it will be broken up.
The Police Commissioner, Simon Overland, who recently took over from Christine Nixon, attempted to play down yesterday's event and acknowledged the demonstrators had "made their point". Fair enough. Except that Overland has failed to acknowledge one of the reasons for the protesters' anger turns on the refusal of his colleagues to accept that race is a factor in the assaults.
On Friday Kieran Walshe, the Deputy Commissioner, told journalists that Indians were not being targeted because of race. He added: "We think it's more opportunistic, because they are a very passive and very quiet-natured people and they do carry valuable items such as iPods and mobile phones." This is true. But it's also true a number of victims of the recent assaults have said that race-based comments were directed against them during the attacks. Yet Walshe was silent on this issue.
Stories which have a race edge tend to excite journalists in Australia. Not, however, on this occasion. Readers of The Age and, to a lesser extent, the Herald Sun would have been aware of a spate of attacks on Indians beginning about October, primarily in Melbourne's western suburbs. This led to the establishment of the Police-Indian Western Reference Group in January. At the time about 30 per cent of all victims in this area were men of Indian appearance.
In fact, the number of Indian victims of assault in Melbourne over the past six months exceeds the total number of serious casualties in the Cronulla riots - and revenge attacks - of December 2005. Yet, until last week, there had been almost no coverage of this issue on the public broadcasters. The matter was all but ignored on such important ABC programs as AM, The World Today, PM, The 7.30 Report, Q&A, Lateline and Radio National's Breakfast, as well as SBS's World News Australia.
Even the Victorian Government has been surprisingly quiet on what sections of the Indian media have depicted as "curry bashing" incidents. The Premier, John Brumby, issued a media release last Friday following representations from India's high commissioner in Australia, Sujatha Singh. Better late than never, but still late.
The response to what could become a crisis in Indian-Australian relations has been more effectively handled federally. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, took the initiative by raising the matter with the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, when he called him recently to extend congratulations on the Congress Party's re-election. The Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has also spoken out strongly. But there is more work to be done in stabilising the relationship between the two countries, which have many common economic, democratic governance and security interests.
During my visit to India last September, it was evident that widespread resentment existed among the political and business classes about the Rudd Government's refusal to sell uranium to India. This extended to senior politicians in the Congress Party. Prior to its defeat in November 2007, the Howard government was examining ways to provide India with uranium, despite its refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. However, the Rudd Government has ruled out any such option due to the Labor Party's policy in this area.
Interviewed on Lateline on July 28 last year, the influential Indian commentator - and one-time United Nations player - Shashi Tharoor criticised Australia's policy on uranium exports. He made the important point that, unlike Australia, India does not enjoy the protection of the US nuclear umbrella. He also pointed out that, in living memory, India has fought wars with what are now two nuclear powers -- China and Pakistan.
Elsewhere, Tharoor has depicted Australia's policy in this area as a vestige of what he terms "apartheid".
It appears many influential Indians do not fully appreciate that the Rudd Government's position on uranium exports is determined in part by the Prime Minister's focus on observing United Nations treaties to the letter, and in part on upholding Labor policy and, in the process, keeping Labor's left-wing quiet.
Even so, the policy has annoyed the highest level of the Indian Government. And now many Indians are rightly concerned about ethnic-motivated crime in Australia.
It's time to focus on improving the relationship between Australia and India. A greater concentration by the Victorian authorities on crime, and more restrained policing, would help for starters.
Gerard Henderson is the executive director of the Sydney Institute.
Gerard Henderson

[pranava999]

Another Interesting read from the same Sydney Morning Herald online site.


Josephine Tovey - June 3, 2009


INDIAN students in Sydney say that although they may not have been targets of racial violence themselves, recent incidents are fuelling fear among them and their families.
"I'm feeling very scared now," said one Indian student, Sanket, 21, who lives in Campbelltown but attends a university in the city.
"I'm getting calls from my parents asking 'Are you safe?' and insisting I come back.
"There are many of my friends going back to India now just because of this incident. They all feel they are not secure."
But most of the students the Herald spoke to yesterday said they had never felt victimised because of their race.
Instead, they said it was their circumstances, such as working late and travelling long distances on public transport to the outer suburbs, that made them targets for muggings and violence.
"Most of my friends live in western Sydney," said Arijit Banarji, who is studying at the University of Sydney. "Most of them also work late at night at KFC or 7-Eleven … It's an international students issue, not just Indian students."
But some overseas students said they felt unwelcome here.
Maynard Huynh, president of the Vietnamese Student Association at the University of NSW, said he recently saw graffiti near the university that said 'Foreign students out'.
"I was on the bus coming to uni recently and saw this sign near Moore Park. I was pretty worried about that."
Dr Yadu Singh, the co-ordinator of the Community Committee on Indian Students' Issues, said the Indian media had exaggerated the racism problem.
"We are worried that the violence is getting over-the-top attention while there are many other issues that are being ignored."
The lack of affordable accommodation near campuses, exploitative employers and lack of regulation of private training colleges were more pressing issues, he said.
Sanket said more could be done by police and government to make students safer.
"Nowadays I travel with
a group of my friends. There should be more patrols,
on trains, more police
at night."
with Tim Elliot
Students are targets but not victims

[spadival]

Consumer boycott threat over attacks on Indians | The Australian

As emotions continued to run high yesterday, a spokesman for India's hardline Hindu nationalist party, Shiv Sena, told The Australian it would be considering a boycott at its next party meeting.
...
...
On Monday Shiv Sena members and student protesters burnt effigies of the Prime Minister (of Australia) outside the high commission.
...

Maybe North Indians should boycotting products from Mumbai because they were specifically targeted and beaten up in Mumbai?

[Exhaust_Note]

2 Articles in time today;'s edition of TOI:
1. Punjab University arranges lunch to send peace message across to the OZ

2. "Gujratis" unite to protest against the voilence in OZ

Why? Why Gujratis in particular? Do they think they are a separate entity from India w.r.t Australians? This is exactly what irks me and gives the world a chance to mis-treat us. Are e people behind the propaganda not be biased on geography/ state?

This has been spoken about earlier too, but since they are still at it, I thought of bringing it up.

[Exhaust_Note]

Originally Posted by spadival

Consumer boycott threat over attacks on Indians | The Australian

Maybe North Indians should boycotting products from Mumbai because they were specifically targeted and beaten up in Mumbai?

OT: As long as we keep presenting Indians as Gujratis, Maharashtrians, South Indians, North Indians and the like, all the outsiders have to do is just scrape the wound we ourselves inflict on us.

Just as the caste bane was being cleaned this state/geography level discrimination started (about 2-3 years back). Why do I feel these rifts are politically motivated for vote banks?

Old adage: United we stand, Divided we fall (additions: and get thrashed in almost every aspect)

I noticed that from the days of introducing the Decimal and Mr. J C Bose, to Mr. Mittal, Sania and V Anand, we have always excelled individually, never as a nation or a team.

[vivekiny2k]

Whos says caste bane has been cleaned?

I posted this on my blog which was saved as a draft for a long time. I was shunned after contacting an owner who did not mention this in his ad, but asked the first thing on contacting him.

[Exhaust_Note]

@vivekiny2k: Agreed it is not abolished. I was referring to the fact that it is not as widespread in all strata of our society as it was till a few years earlier. By the way, I have noticed this kind of thing among Indian Landlords in UAE also.
Now that you mention this, on second thoughts, I feel it is not cleaned up as much as it seems (to some extent yes). It might be just that the media has come across other more juicy topics.

[dwaraka]

When we have so much of racism within ourselves, we can't talk about it elsewhere. As long as one human being starts recognising other one as his own equal in all rights, racism will continue.

When brits ruled the country, we were their slaves and treated very badly. At the same we Indians were divided over the casts and creed and even now the system is not changed. Racism is in our blood.

Let's be global citizens instead of country, region, etc.