John Macarthur would be proud !

When the Camden council blocked the building of a Muslim school in the fringe of the town, it inspired one hate activist Kate McCulloch to say that the well known Camden pioneer of the wool industry John Macarthur, would have been proud of them.

Well, she was wrong as far as the Macarthur descendants are concerned. They wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald of 31 May, 2008 :

“In two places in Saturday's Herald, Kate McCulloch was quoted as saying "The Macarthurs will be proud of us" ("Am I the new Pauline Hanson? I hope so", May 31-June 1). We write as direct descendants of John and Elizabeth's daughter Mary Isabella.

No one can say what their reaction would have been. But we can say that they were first-generation Australians who sought to continue to honour their cultural heritage in a new place and valued education for their children.

We can't know what Elizabeth and John would have thought, but we do know that Mrs McCulloch's racism is not representative of our own views and we like to think it would not have been representative of the Macarthurs either.

Hugh Finlay and Kate, James, Georgina and Isabella Macneil Woy Woy”

Descendants of John Macarthur, we take our hats off to you all !

Tibet and the Olympics

Over the past weeks the mass media have reported extensively about the protests that were disrupting the Olympic Torch relay in Paris, London and San Francisco. The reports were overwhelming sympathetic to the Tibetan dissidents' cause. Unfortunately there have been little if any analysis of the facts surrounding the issue. (for an alternate view, see Stockwell's http://members.tripod.com/~journeyeast/myth_and_reality.html )

On Sunday 14 Apr 2008 thousands demonstrated in Sydney in protest against the media and in support of Tibet as an integral part of China. Perhaps confirming the claim of bias, the Sydney Morning Herald did not report the event, while the Australian Chinese Daily devoted an entire front page to it. Instead, the SMH had a lengthy article on the blog anger, an event largely ignored previously, perhaps only attracted to it after Singapare PM Lee Hsien Loong's recent speech on the subject. (http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/pdf/20080411/PMLEESPEECH.pdf)

Multiculturalism Anyone?

Former Labor leader Mark Latham commented in his regular column in the Australian Financial Review recently that racism was behind the objections to the building of a mosque in Camden in western Sydney.

A reader commented quite curtly and perhaps cryptically (8 Apr 2008) -

Not an original comment and certainly not a constructive one. If so, what is the next step? As Kay rightly put it, (9 April 2008)

Perhaps Layton is one of those who does not want it to work.

Howard's Legacy?

A group of aboriginal youths was asked to leave a backpacker hotel in Alice Springs because of the colour of their skins. Apparently the excuse was that there was complaints from “Asian tourists”. Strange that tourists going to central Australia would object to facing real life aborigines.

Australians are known for their ability to stand up and speak out and even defy world opinion, such as with Kyoto and the refugees issue. Why is it when asked to commit as racist act the person responsible is so quick to comply? Well trained by John Howard, perhaps ?