Peter and the Sheik

Suddenly, the cause of the Cronulla riots has been made clear to all of us, thanks to Mr Peter Costello.

(http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sheik-falls-on-his-sword/2006/10/30/1162056926607.html)

It's all the fault of Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly.

Those beer-swilling drunks, can-throwing blondes and harrassers of young women of Middle Eastern appearances were all stirred by him.

And it was partly Paul Keating's fault too for letting him in twenty years ago. Anyone would have guessed what the Sheik was going to do in October 2006.

The cause of all our troubles are obvious. Especially when the Federal Elections are just round the corner and the polls are looking bad.

Sheikh Hilali

Three letters to think about regarding recent comments by Sheikh Hilali:

If Sheik Hilaly is saying that men are little better than animals, have no control over their basic urges and are at risk of violating others, surely it is they who should stay at home in their rooms.

Gillian Whalley Marrickville

Why he must go

DEAR Sheikh Hilali. As a young Muslim woman, I have had to deal with the ubiquitous news reports that misquote Islam. I avoid trying to "make people understand" because I find reassurance in the belief that negative comments come from those who do not understand Islam. However, I am deeply angered by your views, on one level because they are out of touch with even the most Neanderthal society; on another because they come from a man holding a high position. How sad that you used your platform to preach these ideas. How useless that you hid behind the Arabic language and used a translator to give a different meaning to your words. Those who speak Arabic cringed at this disgusting ploy. Muslims face enough discrimination and misunderstanding. They need positive role models. You are not such a leader, and must resign immediately.
Fatima Abdullatif, Balwyn North

Rape's sad facts

SHEIKH Hilali, I recently completed a subject, Crime and Gender, as part of my law degree. It taught me that most people in Australia agree with you about rape. Even "free" Western democracies blame victims for the attacks. This is evident in the statistics (only one in 10 rapes is reported, only 2 per cent of reported rapes result in conviction). Perhaps you don't know that most females who are raped are aged 10 to 24, with most aged under 14. These young girls do not have big breasts in low-cut tops, they are not pieces of meat on display. Rape is a crime of power. Victims are chosen, based not on how attractive they are but on how easy the attack will be. I suggest you don't talk about things you do not understand.
Elizabeth Gharghori, Ferntree Gully

Water

Front page in the Sydney Morning Herald today was the rather alarming statement that consumption of water in Australia was more than 1.2 million cubic metres per head population.

Fortunately there was a mistake. It should be 1.2 million cubic litres of water. (see Australian Bureau of Statistics www.abs.gov.au , search for water consumption).

By coincidence, we received our Sydney Water bill today. We are always somewhat self concious by our lack of participation in the water saving exercise being encouraged by right-minded people. We do not reuse our laundry water and do not have a water tank for our garden. A quick calculation revealed that our usage was 110 kilolitres per head last year, which turned out to be the average household water use.

Importantly, the figures show that household use is only 10% of the total water use. If the authorities want to get over the current serious drought, they should be looking elsewhere. Even if we can drastically cut down water usage in the households, we would make only a small dent in the total water consumption.

Education and Election Swings

My friend Bruce Mills analysed the results of ANU's Australian Election Study 2004 and found a whole lot of interesting correlations regarding demography and voting patterns in the last Federal Elections.

One particularly interesting conclusion was that of the 20 most-educated seats, 14 swung to Labor whereas of the 20 least educated seats, only 2 swung to Labor.

Perhaps it explains why the Howard government is reluctant to spend on education.

Cronulla Aftermath

It's too easy to be negative and critical, we see it everywhere including elsewhere in this blog.

Today I have been impressed by the front page article in, of all places, the tabloid Daily Telegraph, on the progress Cronulla and the surf club in particular, have made since last December's riots. Significantly, the surf club has recruited and trained life guards of Middle Eastern background.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20576331-5006009,00.html

Coincidentally, few hours later, I heard on the radio an interview of a Lebanese lady regarding a service in memory of lives lost and sufferings of the Lebanese people in the recent war. The lady organiser commented that they have received numerous messages of condolence including, she pointedly added, one from the Cronulla Surf Club.

Goodonya!