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For Education. I am shocked as I thought Australia is a civilised society.

Amid racial attacks on Indian students in Australia, cricketer Harbhajan Singh's cousin on Saturday alleged that an Australian taxi
driver has killed his son in Melbourne and thrown the body on a railway track.

Harbhajan's cousin Jagjit Singh claimed that his 26-year-old son Upkar Singh Babbal, who went to Australia in 2004 to pursue a course in hospitality management, was killed in a racist attack in Melbourne on May 7.

Singh said as per the statements of Babbal's friends in Australia, he was killed by an Australian taxi driver who threw his body on the railway track in Melbourne.

He also demanded a probe by the Indian government into the death of his son, saying Babbal had informed him a number of times about the alleged discrimination against Indian students in Australia.

Babbal's body was sent by the Indian boys, who were known to him, after the Australian police refused to conduct a postmortem on his body, Singh said.

"We were informed by the Australian Police that Babbal had committed suicide," Singh said, adding that he tried to know about the entire incident but no one had informed him properly.

In a fresh attack targeting Indians in Australia, a student suffered up to 30% burns after a suspected petrol bomb was hurled at him in
his home in Sydney. ( Watch )

According to local newspaper for Indian community, South Asia Times, 25-year-old Rajesh Kumar was quickly covered by a blanket by his flatmate after the attack yesterday, an act which saved him from further injuries.

Kumar was sitting on his bed in the front room of his rented house when an unknown person threw what neighbours say was a small petrol bomb through his window. The explosion and subsequent fire left Kumar with burns to a third of his body.

The latest attack came as Shravan Kumar, a 25-year-old student from Andhra Pradesh, was fighting for life in a hospital here after being stabbed by a screwdriver by a group of teens in a weekend attack that also left three of his friends injured. Doctors have said they were not very optimistic about Kumar's recovery.

Another student Baljinder Singh, stabbed by two attackers with a screwdriver early this week, has been released from hospital today.

A New South Wales Fire Brigades spokesman said Rajesh Kumar's flatmate Arminder Singh did the right thing when he grabbed a blanket and threw it over his friend, helping to extinguish the flames.

"He was crying, on fire. He lay down on the ground and I put the blanket on him," Singh said adding "I told him everything was going to be OK. He was asking: 'Is my face OK?"

Singh, 33, said he was halfway between the laundry and kitchen when he heard the sound of smashing glass and his friend screaming. He and another flatmate, Chander Mohan, said they saw Kumar run out of his bedroom and out the front door with his back and arms on fire.

Singh and Mohan said the attack was terrifying. "We could not sleep, we could not eat all night," Singh said.

They had moved into the house with Kumar and two other flatmates in February but were moving out again as soon as possible, Mohan said.

He said Kumar had no enemies and had not been in any trouble. "We don't know why," Mohan said.

Singh said he had been robbed on the street three times in the past two months.

This is copy and paste, but just wanted parents to make informed decision before sending your kids to Australia. I have studied in Uk and never faced any discrimination, thus seeing this has really disturbed me.

In one of Australia's worst outbursts of racial violence, thousands of drunken white youths attacked police and people they believed were of Arab descent at a Sydney beach, angered by reports that Lebanese youths had assaulted two lifeguards.

Young men of Arab descent retaliated in several Sydney suburbs, fighting with police and smashing 40 cars with sticks and bats, police said. Thirty-one people were injured and 16 were arrested in hours of violence Sunday.

The city was calm Monday, and police formed a strike force to track down the instigators, some of whom were believed to be from white supremacist groups. Police said they were also seeking an Arab man who allegedly stabbed a white man in the back.

Prime Minister John Howard condemned the violence, but said he did not believe racism was widespread in Australia.

"Attacking people on the basis of their race, their appearance, their ethnicity, is totally unacceptable and should be repudiated by all Australians irrespective of their own background and their politics," Howard said.

But he added: "I'm not going to put a general tag (of) racism on the Australian community."

Australia has long prided itself on accepting wave after wave of immigrants — from Italians and Greeks after World War II to families fleeing political strife in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. In the last census in 2001, nearly a quarter of Australia's 20 million people said they were born overseas.

However, tensions between youngsters of Arabic descent and white Australians have been rising in recent years, largely because of anti-Muslim sentiment fueled by the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States and deadly bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed 88 Australians in October 2002.

About 300,000 Muslims live in Australia, the majority in large cities.

"Arab Australians have had to cope with vilification, racism, abuse and fear of a racial backlash for a number of years, but these riots will take that fear to a new level," said Roland Jabbour, chairman of the Australian Arabic Council.

The riots apparently began after rumors circulated that youths of Lebanese descent were responsible for an attack last weekend on two lifeguards at Cronulla Beach. Police said the assault was not believed to be racially motivated.

Police had increased the number of officers patrolling the beach in the Sydney suburb on Sunday after cell phone text messages urged people to gather there to retaliate for the attack.

Police said more than 5,000 white youths, some wrapped in Australian flags and chanting racist slurs, fought with police, attacked people they believed to be of Arab descent and assaulted a pair of paramedics trying to help people escape the riot.

Police fought back with batons and pepper spray.

Many of the youths had been drinking heavily, police said.

One white teenager had the words "We grew here, you flew here" painted on his back. Someone had written "100 percent Aussie pride" in the sand. TV broadcasts showed a group of young women attacking another woman, whose ethnicity was not clear.

The violence shocked this city of 4 million which prides itself on being a cultural melting pot.

"What we have seen yesterday is something I thought I would never see in Australia and perhaps we have not seen in Australia in any of our life times and that is a mass call to violence based on race," Community Relations Commission chairman Stepan Kerkyasharian told Sky News.

"Our disgrace," said a front page headline in Sydney's Daily Telegraph. Below was a picture of white youths attacking a man who appeared to be of Arab descent on a train in Cronulla.

Keysar Trad, a prominent member of Sydney's Lebanese community, said he had spoken to one victim who was released from the hospital Monday and was urging for calm.

"He doesn't want any retaliation by anybody from a Middle Eastern background," Trad said. "He wants everyone to allow the rule of law to take its course, leave it to the police and he said he holds no grudges against anyone."

Morris Iemma, the premier of New South Wales state, said police would use video images and photographs to track down the instigators. "Let's be very clear, the police will be unrelenting in their fight against these thugs and hooligans," he said.

Cronulla, one of the few beaches in Sydney that is easily accessible by train, is often visited by youngsters from poorer suburbs, many of them of Arab descent. Residents accuse the youths of traveling in gangs and sometimes intimidating other beachgoers.

Cronulla is several miles south of iconic Sydney beaches like Bondi and is not a popular destination for foreign tourists.

Aborigines rioted in the Sydney neighborhood of Redfern in February 2004 after blaming police for the death of a 17-year-old boy. Forty police were wounded, eight of them hospitalized, in a nine-hour street battle with residents.

Crazy $hit! When will a little common sense prevail?

Common sense? That's wishful thinking I presume. These things are part of life, just as we breath air or eat. Not everybody uses his/her brain properly or has the same abilities as others. It's a fact of life. Of course, my opinion only.

The third 'cut and paste' is years old! John Howard isn't even in power anymore!

Although these actions are horrific and uncalled for, I have to be blunt and to the point and say that given Australia's super tough immigration laws and how hard they make it for people to move there, and the upfront 'Live our way or don't come at all' message. It's pretty obvious that many Aussies are intolerant of people of other nationalities and backgrounds. They don't want people going to their country.

When I visited a few years ago, I barely saw anyone of any other colour other than white, any other nationality etc.

And people are surprised by these things?

Makes you wonder.

Choc, you got to be kidding me. Seriously lady, just do a simple google search and you will realise how many expats have made Australia their home.

Australia always had a high number of Asian population, including Arabs. Lebs went to Australia years back after their civil war.

Only in certain parts of the large cities, in the suburbs it's white mans land.

Sure there's lots of Lebanese, Greeks etc. But it's well known Australia is very tough to get into. If you have a skill/trade great if not, forget it.

Plus WG, and I don't mind that I'm the only one the guts to say it, the reason so many Brits and other Europeans are moving to Oz is to get away from the immigration problem in their own countries. I know for a fact that's exactly the reason why most people I know have emigrated there.

Chocoholic wrote:Plus WG, and I don't mind that I'm the only one the guts to say it, the reason so many Brits and other Europeans are moving to Oz is to get away from the immigration problem in their own countries. I know for a fact that's exactly the reason why most people I know have emigrated there.

Totally comply with what you say.
There is an urgent need to revamp immigration policies. So much that has not been accounted for. You see it don't matter what scholars and great human rights activists say. Ultimately it boils down to adaptability and feasibility.
One of the future problems immigration officers will be confronted with is demographic dividends. While the natives in many parts of Europe are fast becoming an aging workforce, the immigrants will be young, freshly educated and brimming with energy. That is bound to create friction amongst natives anywhere. It has to be seen how those issues are addressed.

I was in Australia late last year. I had a great time. People were so nice and helpful. I loved my kangaroo fillet and pizza. Australia has some of the best food I've ever had even better than the fresh foods of Latin America and that's saying a lot.

Yet I'm white but then I'm often mistaken as non-white. Either way...whatever they thought I was..... I didn't experience racism or other prejudice.

I read a few years ago that the right wing nationalist party had a lot of support, with a lady in charge, although not enough to get into power. Is the country becoming more facist? I really don't know, just asking, as I have no knowledge on this at all. Looks a real shame though.

Went to Brisbane a few years back and loved it, homely honest people, straight as a die.

These events are absolutely shocking and clearly a lot of the attacks are racially motivated which is even more ing. I will say that a few of the attacks are just thugs mugging people who look like easy targets, but I couldn't believe the one with the firebomb. What the hell is wrong with some people?

Is Australia racist? Kinda. We went through a big 'lets keep saying how multicultural we are' phase a few years ago and it sort of looked like an attempt to block out the fact that quite a few Aussie are racist. Then it boiled over in the Cronulla race riots where a huge number of very drunk wankers started running around beating up Lebanese. Idiots, and very shameful for Australia.

But not all of Australia is like that. I grew up in Darwin which is very multicultural (lots of Chinese, Greeks, Italian, Vietnamese, Indons, Timorese). But that's not to say that racism doesn't exist there.

I think a large number of Aussies are racist against the native Aboriginal people. Mainly because they have been kicked around so much by the Government over the years (we're trying to change that now) that they are so messed up socially that all most Aussies see of Aboriginal people is the bum on the street asking for change. Sensible people realise that there are deep rooted reasons for the predicament of the Aboriginal people, but idiots ignore this and use the drunk bum as evidence for them being lesser people. Classic bigot stuff.

All of this was not helped by our last Government, under John Howard. He was a conservative man who believed that locking up refugees in desert detention camps was a reasonable way to deter desperate people from getting in a boat and trying to come here illegally. He also had a bunch of conservative ministers who were more than willing to do his bidding and not speak out themselves. Even when mistakes were clearly made the Government always tried to save face and never admit when they were wrong. I hate this man so much and I think he put Australia back 20 years with his policies.

I think Australians need to man-up and stop repeating that we are not racist to everyone and start looking more at the causes of racism and try to reduce it. I don't think we are more racist that other western countries, but we certainly have work to do.

The funny stupidity of the situation is how racism changes over the years. We had a big influx of Italians and Greeks come over after the second world war, and they copped a lot of racism. Then the Vietnamese and Cambodians came over after the Vietnam war, and they copped it too, but they also got it from the Greeks and Italians who were now integrated into the community.

Then the Lebanese came over after their war, and it was the white aussies, greeks and asians giving them hassle. Now we have the Africans coming over, and they are getting hassled. Madness, why can't people look at the situation and realised that it's just because they are new, not because of where they come from. In 20 years, the African Australians are going to be complaining about the xxxxx people and how they don't fit in. ha!

To sum up, please don't judge all Australians based on these few idiots. Most Australians are nice, honest people who would be appalled by these stories.
Yes we have our problems but hopefully our newish Government will take up the challenge and start doing something to make sure everyone can live in peace and respect each other.

Chocoholic wrote:The third 'cut and paste' is years old! John Howard isn't even in power anymore!

Although these actions are horrific and uncalled for, I have to be blunt and to the point and say that given Australia's super tough immigration laws and how hard they make it for people to move there, and the upfront 'Live our way or don't come at all' message. It's pretty obvious that many Aussies are intolerant of people of other nationalities and backgrounds. They don't want people going to their country.

When I visited a few years ago, I barely saw anyone of any other colour other than white, any other nationality etc.

And people are surprised by these things?

Makes you wonder.

Is Australia really that hard to get into? I was not sure so I pulled up some stats. We took in 173K migrants in 2008, and as you say, most of them were skilled.

I personally think that the 13K humanitarian number (refugees) is too low. But what I'm more concerned about is the 1650 New Zealanders that we let in. Bloody Kiwis

As unemployment is rising now you're going to see it get even harder to get in. I think they have already cut the skilled migration in some areas by 20K or so.



Estimated Resident Population of Australia (as at 30 June 2008) 21 374 000

.....Australia-born population (2006 census) 14 072 949
.....Overseas-born population (2006 census) 4 416 029
..........Major English Speaking Countries (MESC) 1 675 320
..........Non-English Speaking Countries (NESC) 2 740 709
.....Natural increase 145 495
.....Net Overseas Migration (NOM) 213 461

Migration
.....Permanent migrants 173 294
..........Migration program 158 630
...............Skill Stream 108 540
...............Family Stream 49 870
...............Special Eligibility 220
..........New Zealand citizens 1650
..........Humanitarian 13 014

Thanks for the very frank open comments Captain. Like many places, a small but loud minority willing to take nasty action make big headlines. I'm sure most people there are appalled as you say. Also it's interesting what you say about previous waves of immigrants becoming racist themselves. Unfortunately maybe that's one of the worse side effects of immigrants actually being successfully integrated into the culture of a country and feeling at home there?

If Australia put up the barriers to more immigration during the economic problems I don't blame them.

p.s. what happened against the Kiwis at Murrayfield today? You guys didn't turn up!

guess the brits and aussies are alike when it comes to racism

"An Englishman, an Irishman and an Australian walk into a bar.
The barman says, "Is this some kind of bloody joke?"

rudeboy wrote:guess the brits and aussies are alike when it comes to racism

"An Englishman, an Irishman and an Australian walk into a bar.
The barman says, "Is this some kind of bloody joke?"

I don't get it. Is the barman from Pakistan?

puppypup wrote:

rudeboy wrote:guess the brits and aussies are alike when it comes to racism

"An Englishman, an Irishman and an Australian walk into a bar.
The barman says, "Is this some kind of bloody joke?"

I don't get it. Is the barman from Pakistan?

saw the video of the beating up on the news. I dont know how the authorities can term too many attacks in a short period anything but racist. It is embarassing for the govt to make irresponsible statements. I hear a lot of blogs have come up in australia against asians now. If they are spewing hate, Australia is one dangerous place to be for Asians....

rudeboy wrote:guess the brits and aussies are alike when it comes to racism

Yep that's right, no other nationality has racists.

Jerk.

It is some shocking stuff, but what surprised me was how the Western media pushed this under the carpet. I knew the media was censored, but to this extent is not right. Its only now that BBC has started to report this. Then I checked for some other instances and realised that media did not cover that as well.

Maybe people who have faced this attack need to do a check for themselves on similar lines. Is this an attack directed by some thugs towards all and maybe one nationality suffered more, but they were not alone? Just like Indians, not all aussies can be labelled as x or y. There are good and bad in all countries. The Australian govt. has to accept the blame as they invited various nationalities without education the incoming immigrants or its citizens about multi cultural. They just threw everybody in the pot without realising the consequences. It would help if the various embassies actually conducted sessions to educate immigrants or students on Australian culture and style of living. This will help bridge the gap and people coming to Australia will be able to mix well.

worldguy wrote:It is some shocking stuff, but what surprised me was how the Western media pushed this under the carpet. I knew the media was censored, but to this extent is not right. Its only now that BBC has started to report this. Then I checked for some other instances and realised that media did not cover that as well.

A bit of a blanket statement with no backup information. Which media are censored?

BBC online from 2008:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7641158.stm
Australian racism 'still serious'

Guardian online from 2003:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2003/jan/20/cricket
Wake up Australia, racism is a problem

NY Times online from 2005:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/inter ... ralia.html
Australia Asks if Racism Was Behind Riots on a Beach



Where is the censorship? You are a bit blinkered by your prejudices about 'western media' I think mate. As are many people here.

Yeah, I think looking for a conspiracy is a bit much, but the blame lies much more with the government and not the media. (obviously the blame also lies with the racist ****heads making trouble too)

I follow the Aussie media very closely and I can assure you that this latest story about Indian students being attacked has been reported in great depth for months. The riots in Cronulla was one of the biggest news stories of the year and people still talk about it regularly.

It's much more the government refusing to admit there is a problem. For some reason they think that admitting there are racist people in Australia will cause the sky to fall in or something.

All forms of discrimination are caused by ignorance; education and openness is clearly the answer.

I will add here that Australia has some very tough Anti Racial Vilification laws (anti racism laws) and which can even carry a jail sentence. Some bloke in Perth the other day got charged with them for making hate speeches about Jews on youtube. If you are charged with an offence and it is determined to be racially motivated then you are in very big trouble.

So don't look for OMG WESTERN MEDIA CONSPIRACY here. It's just racist people being racist, and when they catch these people they will throw the book at them.

You missed my point speedy. What I am trying to say is that the media did not cover it initially, but they also did not cover similar stories that happened elsewhere as it was not perceived to be big enough.

It also highlighted that what I initially felt, was different from the actual reality. Thus, the Indian students are not the only ones being targetted and in general the crime is becoming a bigger problem in Australia. I read on various blogs on how even white were attacked in the night. There are certain areas in Australia that need to be avoided, like in any other country. Maybe there is more to this, than just being a racial attack.

worldguy wrote:You missed my point speedy. What I am trying to say is that the media did not cover it initially, but they also did not cover similar stories that happened elsewhere as it was not perceived to be big enough.

And I'm telling you they did. The Aussie riots were covered extensively all around the world.

When I heard of these latest attacks on Indian students my initial reaction was "Wow, more attacks, what is going on in Melbourne" because I have been hearing about it in the media for a long time.

Right now the Australian politicians and high up police are being smashed by the media because of their failure to acknowledge these issues. You can fault Australia for a lot, but our media is one of the freest in the world. We even a TV show that specifically scrutinise the media itself. It's called Media Watch.

The few times I've heard of media bias being an issue was when Kerry Packer died. He was a billionaire media owner and there were concerns that some papers and tv shows were being too nice to him after he died because he owned lots of media outlets. But the very fact that I read about these issues IN THE MEDIA means I don't think we have too much to worry about.

So forget about the media, attack the government. That's what I do. Most of my blog is about how stupid the Australian Government is being.

worldguy wrote:You missed my point speedy. What I am trying to say is that the media did not cover it initially, but they also did not cover similar stories that happened elsewhere as it was not perceived to be big enough.

It also highlighted that what I initially felt, was different from the actual reality. Thus, the Indian students are not the only ones being targetted and in general the crime is becoming a bigger problem in Australia. I read on various blogs on how even white were attacked in the night. There are certain areas in Australia that need to be avoided, like in any other country. Maybe there is more to this, than just being a racial attack.

As the Captain says, I don't think any media anywhere has ignored this, even if it was 'not big enough' as you suggested (which would be far from being censorship anyway).

I'm only really coming back again to say that of course the Australian press also is 'western' despite its geographical location (the Captain has said 'western' himself in relation to the Aussie press ). No point being made, just amuses me; small things and small minds, etc.

Hey, if you go west far enough, everyone is western.

you got that right, but does that also mean we're eastern....?

I've been reading about these attacks in the media and I've come away a little confused.
50,000 Indian students in Melbourne alone. A handful have fallen prey to outrageous racially motivated attacks. The perpetrators I presume are arrested.
So what is the hue and cry about. Read blogs before the incident everyone was fine with Melbourne. Things were OK! Then the incident takes place, it becomes a political issue in India and the next thing you know tens of thousands are vilifying the Oz.
There was a huge Indian rally in Melbourne yesterday. None of the speakers had any apparent problems prior to the attacks. They had issues with the media not highlighting the issue enough. In fact that was their main plank.Ridiculous!
This IS A ONE OFF INCIDENT. 50,000 live peacefully year round why the noise?
Send a 100 whites to India and 10 will come back raped. You don't see massive protests and rallies then. Because everyone realizes that a few miscreants cannot hold an entire community liable. When a crime against a foreign national happens in India and justice is so hard to come by, Indian foreign minister always use the population card. We are a billion people, few are damaging the good name of our society blah blah. Then the cops will come out with a statement maligning the victims character.
Just a few weeks back a Russian teen was found raped and murdered in Goa. Few months prior to that a German teen and few months prior to that A Brit teen was gang raped and murdered. There are countless incidents.
This is nothing but politicization. Indians see that they are so many of them and they take recourse in their huge numbers.
The incident need to be condemned, but straining the image of a beautiful country like Australia over one incident? Is uncalled for.
I condemn the incidents, I also condemn the uncivil Indian protests. I will say this, there is an issue which has to be tackled. There has to be a constructive way out of this!

puppypup wrote:

rudeboy wrote:guess the brits and aussies are alike when it comes to racism

"An Englishman, an Irishman and an Australian walk into a bar.
The barman says, "Is this some kind of bloody joke?"

I don't get it. Is the barman from Pakistan?

u r philipino so i dont blame u