Cronulla Debacle

No worries Thomas. Let’s discuss.

Been down on the rigs here in the Middle East in complete and absolute incommunicado for the past 4 days….I’m fully boned up on my fresh Arabic lessons thanks to my Muslim buddies and ready to translate back to English anything that you need…

What event are you talking about ?? Was it big enough to make the headlines outside of Oz ??

What happened in Cronulla ??

Thomas,

“Need proof, the crowd on Sunday turned up angry with beers and protest signs. Pretty pointless if the opposing team had turned up. They would have bars knives and guns.”

Thats a bit harsh, the majority of people from what I’ve heard of the thousands that turned up where very well behaved and were simply being patriotic and pushing the point that we are a multi national country and we should all get on and not have to be subject to the violance that occurred the previous weekend.

I bet there are heaps of people that were at Cronulla peacefully, and will be horrified that there face has appeared in papers and such and will now be associated with the violance that followed.

Most people are not capable of taking things into there own hands, whether it be for good or bad, MOST people are just onlookers. Most people at Cronulla and within the rest of the Shire are good, non violent people who are just as horrified by the antics as everyone else.

The crowd at Cronulla did not turned up armed. And they did not turn up to destroy their own propery.

I agree that alcohol became a factor, and I agree that there are racists, and idiots that take things a bit to far. But most people are good people.

I’m a Shire boy (but not as proud of it as I used to be).

Mal

Getting out of your comfort zone, can help you become comfortable

It’s a good ole fashioned turf war. Been brewing for ages. Yes, there was an incident the previous week that was a catalyst, but there would have been other incidents over the years and both sides would have alternately been at fault.
Locals in all beachside suburbs inevitably feel like owners of their beaches – their rates contribute to their upkeep. Problem is people from less affluent inland suburbs are drawn to the beach, and often they travel in groups. Then when they are at the beach they sometimes behave in ways that upset the locals. One complaint from the locals at Cronulla is that the ‘Lebs’ come and play soccer on the beach instead of lolling about basting themselves with oil.
Sure, the visitors sometimes behave badly (or differently), but locals can also behave badly – I had a bad experience at Maroubra beach last year and they were definitely locals.
Deep down, most of us are racist, even if we don’t think we are. Comments like this are unconsciously racist:

Then there was this comment:

Well, in today’s Sydney Morning Herald there is a quote from a local. He said he was inside his house and he heard shouting outside either Monday or Tuesday night:

“We just grabbed anything, baseball bats, kitchen knives and ran out.”

I don’t think that guy was just putting the garbage out.

Turf wars at Sydney beaches have been going on sporadically since the 60s. With Sydney’s population increasing, there will be increased pressure on the beaches. And that pressure will come from people in predominantly ethnic suburbs – the coastal suburbs tend to be more Anglo.
Scott

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I feel it is already wrong that people call each other as Lebanese, Aussie,or Asian, especially in this topic.
I prefer not to be called “Asian” because I am a Japanese and not a Chinese or Korean.
But normally people call us “Asian” and think we are all same.
My son says, “My mum is a Japanese and my father is a Chinese, but I am an Australian.”
How about people from Europe?
They look like so called “Aussie”, but they can be a Spanish, German, Italian, etc.
When I travel to other countries and when people ask me “where are you from?
” I say, “I’m from Australia.”
When people ask my son “what nationality are you?”, can’t he just say “Australian”?
Does he have to explain the whole bunch of family history? His dad is already mixed with Taiwanese, Malaysian, and others I don’t even know.
I am really confused with this nationality topics.

Interesting read!

From what little I picked up from the TV news, every-one beat up on every-one else! Yet you tell a very different story!

Here in Perth it seems as though my fellow Perthites are going on the same “all-out” bash some-one spree.

makes you wonder how much responsibility the news has to take in their efforts to tell us what is going on and thereby inflaming the situation. Of corse, they’re only telling us what is going on! Yeah, rrrrright!

Cheers
C@34

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to always try something one more time.
– Thomas Edison

This is exactly what I have been saying for ages. People living in Australia who never get out into the big bad world don’t realise how insignificant Australians and everything to do with Australia really is.

In general Australians are very proud of who we are and what we are blessed with (culture / climate / environment etc) and don’t take too kindly being shoved in the category of irrelevancy. We are in most respects, and just have to get the tickets off ourselves. We really do have an inflated view of ourselves on the world stage.

One of the old US gents I work with said our entire country has an economy 1/6th of one of his states, and a total population of about a 1/3rd of one of his states, and they have 50 of them. I said yes that’s true, and just the way we like it.

Where I live and work…it’s extremely dangerous to be pidgeon holed as an American, and I am constantly reminding the locals, despite my looks, that I am not an American. It doesn’t work though, I look and act like an American to the local Muslim lads, and therefore may as well be one in their eyes.

What I’ve found works that breaks down the barriers between the two cultures – which are massively apart from one another – is to be receptive to their culture. I need to be ‘cos I’m in their patch. I’m quickly learning their language and respect most of their local traditions – although I would never expose my wife and girls to it.

We’ve got ex-pat white women from Unicef and Red Cross etc here working, but the local Imams think they are a joke and treat them as such. Nice enough ladies, but way out of their depth. After one or two years of trying to impose their Western standards on the local women, they give up and go back to wherever they came from.

The one thing I never do is judge their culture and traditions with my Western standards. It will never work – and I’ve found it makes no sense to do so.

What I expect when I come back to Australia is for the same courtesy to be extended. It appears that expectation is not being met.

nazzysmith0153,
It is just that I am worried for my sons, that’s all.
I read a news that a 19-year-old boy was bashed because of how he looked (lebanese), even though he argued that he is an Australian, too.
I know there are lots of, lots of wonderful Australian people (well, who are the Australian now?) but we, as an Asian, encounter some unpleasant experiences sometimes and that makes me worried for my sons.
There was a writing on a toilet door saying “Asians! Go back to your own country!”. (and someone replyed “You first.”)
Well, I can go back. But my children have no where else to go back.
When my friend’s little girl was playing with an “Aussie” little girl in a pool and the “Aussie” mum shouted “don’t play with asian girl!”. Even though the little girl looks like an “Aussie” as her dad is an “Aussie”.
An “Aussie” lady pointed at me on a train and started giving out a speech about how asians are invading Australia.
There are more.
My sons have to go through this sort of experiences because of how they look, and that breaks my heart sometimes.