Multiculturism, what is it?

[aussie]

The American Dream?

Think something like this isn't happening? Scary, it is happening as you read
this...


We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his
thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration
over-population conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of
American's finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor by the name
of Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, "Mexifornia," explaining
how immigration - both legal and illegal - was destroying the entire state of
California. He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all
vestiges of The American Dream.


Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a
stunning speech on how to destroy America. The audience sat spellbound as he
described eight methods for the destruction of the United States. He said, If
you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let's
destroy America. It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived
the ravages of time Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise
and fall and that 'An autopsy of history would show that all great nations
commit suicide."


Here is how they do it," Lamm said:


"First, to destroy America, turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and
bicultural country." History shows that no nation can survive the tension,
conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is
a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a
society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this
way: "The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not
assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy." Canada, Belgium,
Malaysia, and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities
press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided.
Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques,
Bretons, and Corsicans."


Lamm went on: Second, to destroy America, "Invent 'multiculturalism' and
encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. I would make it an article of
belief that all cultures are equal. That there are no cultural differences. I
would make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are
due solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other
explanation is out of bounds.


Third, "We could make the United States a 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort.
The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in
the Atlantic Monthly recently: "The apparent success of our own multiethnic and
multi-cultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by
hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentricity and what it
meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold
us together." Lamm said, "I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own
language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad
bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups
living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans,
emphasizing their similarities."


"Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated.
I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic
to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate
from high school"


"My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and
business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity,
and I would establish the cult of 'Victimology.' I would get all minorities to
think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority I would start a
grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population."


"My sixth plan for America's downfall would include dual citizenship, and
promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would
stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly
engaged in hating each other - that is, when they are not killing each other. A.
diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent.
People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the
ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they
possessed a common language and literature; and they worshiped the same gods.
All Greece took part in the Olympic games. A common enemy, Persia, threatened
their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two
factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political
divisions. Greece fell. E. Pluribus Unum" -- >From many, one. In that historical
reality, if we put the emphasis on the 'pluribs'. instead of the 'Unum,' we will
balkanize America as surely as Kosovo."


"Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits; make it taboo to talk
about anything against the cult of 'diversity.' I would find a word similar to
'heretic' in the 16th century - that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking.
Words like 'racist' or 'xenophobe' halt discussion and debate. Having made
America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multi-culturism,
having the large foundations fund the doctrine of 'Victimology,' I would next
make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra:
That because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good. I
would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact
of millions of them."


In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence
followed. Finally he said,. "Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis's book
Mexifornia. His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America. If
you feel America. deserves to be destroyed, don't read that book."


There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above
every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that
everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly yet
pervasively across the United States today. Discussion is being suppressed. Over
100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national
cohesiveness. Barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are
growing as we celebrate 'diversity.' American jobs are vanishing into the Third
World as corporations create a Third World in. America - take note of California
and other states - to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is
reminiscent of George Orwell's book 1984." In that story, three slogans are
engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: "War is peace," "Freedom is
slavery," and "Ignorance is strength."


Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference
that our nation and the future of this great democracy is deeply in trouble and
worsening fast if we don't get this immigration monster stopped within three
years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its
path, especially The American Dream

[fusil]

Why do I get the feeling that Governor Lamm could have been talking about Australia?

Fusil.

[straightshooter]

Multiculturalism is one of this countries best attributes, just because a bunch of lebs go down to Bondi and don't know how to behave around women with not much clothes on is not a failure of multiculturalism, its a failure of the leb community to understand common law and our beach culture.

Not being too critical of the Lebs, they do seem to not understand the law and our culture and its seems many do not wish to make the effort, but are quite willing to inflict us with theirs.

Multiculturalism works, you just don't see it. Your using a limited single case to prove a point for all cultures (including Irish Convicts) not getting along.

We are all members of different cultures, not even the aborigines were the original Australians so if I buy your argument that Multiculturalism is a failure, than we should all go back to where we came from ? The reality is 99.99 % of the time all these cultures get along, the media just makes a big issue when they don't.

What really needs to be done is that we need to put the Muslim community under a microscope and re-design the laws such that these clowns either accept the way of life here or leave (or do some very serious jail time). Looking at their behaviour and the lack of condemnation by the local Muslims in Australia of recent events, they need to get re-education about what a free democracy is

[johnofmelb]

Quick, someone slap me! Didn't work, slap me again.

It's not working so I guess I'm going to have to agree with someone from the gunsafe collective (Ouch that hurts!)

Of course Multiculturalism works, it works every day millions of times over in this country.

I'm a fourth generation Australian of Irish/German ancestory.

When I buy petrol and a newspaper from the Indian bloke who runs the SevenEleven, and he laughs a my comment about upon going to work about "another day in paradise" Thats Multiculturalism at work.

When I pull into the carpark and tell the Muslim Chief Prison Officer "You've left your lights on you bloody goose" and he replies "Thanks and get stuffed" and we both laugh. Thats Multiculturalism at work.

When I enter my unit and get a handover from a bloke whose forefathers have hunted this land for thousands of years. Thats Multiculturalism at work.

When I go to watch the under nine netball team my daughter coaches, and over half the little girls in that team are not of British or European ancestory, Thats Multiculturalism at work.

Multiculturalism works every day in this country, millions of times over, but Multiculturalism is like me doing right. (When I do right - no-one remembers, when I do wroong - no one forgets.)

If only Multiculturalism working well was newsworthy.

[lennie]

johnofmelb said:

Quick, someone slap me! Didn't work, slap me again.

It's not working so I guess I'm going to have to agree with someone from the gunsafe collective (Ouch that hurts!)

Of course Multiculturalism works, it works every day millions of times over in this country.

I'm a fourth generation Australian of Irish/German ancestory.

When I buy petrol and a newspaper from the Indian bloke who runs the SevenEleven, and he laughs a my comment about upon going to work about "another day in paradise" Thats Multiculturalism at work.

When I pull into the carpark and tell the Muslim Chief Prison Officer "You've left your lights on you bloody goose" and he replies "Thanks and get stuffed" and we both laugh. Thats Multiculturalism at work.

When I enter my unit and get a handover from a bloke whose forefathers have hunted this land for thousands of years. Thats Multiculturalism at work.

When I go to watch the under nine netball team my daughter coaches, and over half the little girls in that team are not of British or European ancestory, Thats Multiculturalism at work.

Multiculturalism works every day in this country, millions of times over, but Multiculturalism is like me doing right. (When I do right - no-one remembers, when I do wroong - no one forgets.)

If only Multiculturalism working well was newsworthy.

Now, thats how it works.

[dobbie]

Australia is at risk of aborting itself out of existence and could become a Muslim country "within 50 years"

Danna Vale, a former minister and an MP with the governing Liberal Party, said the drug, known as RU486, could drastically reduce the country's native-born, largely European population. This is now legal

"I have read comments by a certain imam from the Lakemba mosque [in Sydney] who actually said that Australia is going to be a Muslim nation in 50 years' time," she said.

"I didn't believe him at the time, but when you actually look at the birth rate … we are aborting ourselves almost out of existence by 100,000 abortions a year. You multiply that by 50 years and that's five million potential Australians we won't have here."

The inflammatory remarks upset Australia's Muslim community, which is still reeling from December's race riots, when white and Lebanese gangs fought pitched battles in the Sydney beachside suburb of Cronulla.

Keysar Trad, head of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said Mrs Vale was trying to exploit people's ignorance of Islam. "It's just a cheap shot and it's very unfortunate," he said.

Mrs Vale's comments were also condemned by her own party, which is already divided over the abortion question.

The immigration minister, Amanda Vanstone, said the suggestion that people from Muslim countries might eventually outnumber native-born Australians was "completely ill-founded".

The opposition Labour Party described Mrs Vale's comments as "weird" and called on her to retract them.

Who is weirder?

[tommygun]

Pray that all abortion stop in Austrailia and everywhere

[lennie]

Believ it or not - The NSW Crimes Act 1900 makes Abortion illegal. It has never been ammended.

[apeman]

Perhaps for a year or so, laws should only be allowed to be repealed. God knows we don't need any more, but we pay people to write them

[rambler]

There is every reason to be extremely worried about a survey in Australia last week indicating that nearly half the population believes that Muslims and people from the Middle East do not belong in the country.
Many may not find a growing Islamophobia in Australia all that strange. After all, Australia is one of the few countries that has backed President George Bush’s policies on Iraq; it was where mosques were attacked in the aftermath of Sept. 11, and the government has pursued a persistently hard-line policy against asylum seekers, invariably Muslims. Nor can anyone forget the notorious Pauline Hanson, founder of the far-right One Nation party, whose extreme views on asylum seekers and indigenous Australians briefly tapped into a vein of national prejudice. Although her party’s popularity soon subsided after winning almost a quarter of the vote in Queensland in 1998, only this week she announced a return to political life a year after saying that she was giving it up. It has to be seen as another sign of the Australian pendulum swinging toward intolerance. She would not have decided to run for the New South Wales state parliament if she did not think that she had some chance of success.
Yet Muslims, specifically Afghans, are not new to Australia. The railway from Sydney and Adelaide to Alice Springs in the heart of Australia is known by all Australians as “The Ghan”, an affectionate reference to the Afghans and their camel trains who kept the town connected to the outside world until the coming of the railway in 1929. Many descendants of those early Afghan operators still live in Alice Springs, worship at the local mosque, and are as authentically Australian as anyone whose family has lived in Australia for 100 years.
So why the change? Why have Muslims come to be regarded with such suspicion in Australia? The academics who carried out the survey blame media misrepresentation of Muslims and Western antipathy toward Islam.
But why the misrepresentation in the first place? Why the antipathy? In fact, the general rule is that the media in the West panders to public opinion rather than leads it. It finds out what people think and then screams it back at them.
Before jumping to the conclusion that Australians are incorrigible bigots and Islamophobes, ask instead why they may have become so. Muslims have to accept some responsibility for this. Australia, along with the rest of the non-Muslim world, is not getting a true picture of Islam. It is getting an image corrupted and twisted by the hate and barbarism of fanatics. The Bali bombing in which 88 Australians died cannot but have damaged Australians’ attitudes toward Islam. If ever there was proof of the harm done to Islam by extremism, here it is. The high-profile gang rape case, too, which shocked Australia last year after revelations that the 14 youths of Lebanese extraction involved had boasted that they were Muslims targeting “Aussie pigs” did almost as much as much damage. Of course, we know that this is not Islam, but many Australians do not.
Something has to be done to change the Australians’ image of Islam. There is no point expecting them to do it. The responsibility belongs to Muslims alone. A true image of Islam has to be presented. That is the challenge. Condemnation is certainly not the answer. That will only make things worse

[johnofmelb]

Rambler,

People are people, islamic/christian, black/white/brindle, someone who's family have lived here for 150yrs/someone who arrived yesterday makes not one bit of difference.

No race, no creed, no colour, no ethnic origin has a monopoly on doing good or evil. Those who blew up Paddy's Bar and the Sarri Club in Bali were out and out mongrels. Even if they had been born in Australia to a christian family and gone to the best school money could buy, they'd still have turned out a***holes. The Muslim Lebanise who were responsible for those gang rapes in Sydney would have still been cowardly thugs even if their names had been Murphy.

The laziest bastard I've ever worked with was a Turkish Muslim, the second laziest was a Catholic.

Among my close mates are three who's forefathers came out from England or Ireland for the Goldrush, another who's father came from Sweden in the late sixties, an Italian or three, a least one Maltese, and a bloke who's forefathers have hunted this land for over forty thousand years.

Why can't we all stop seeing race or creed or colour and start seeing people?

[phill]

Rambler

Your theory is correct in a perfect world but perfect it is not. I was watching a program on SBS TV today which was spoken in Arabic and had no subtitles. It would have been both nice and indeed interesting to know what was being said. To me though it is just another method of the people from these Middle Eastern countries marginalising themselves and that is what should be stopped. If they are in an English speaking country at least have the decency of allowing the people of that nation to understand what is being said.

[aussie]

TEEN EXECUTES FATHER'S KILLER UNDER ISLAMIC LAW
May 2, 2006

A Somali teenager killed a man convicted by an Islamic court of murdering
his father in what is believed to be Mogadishu's first public execution under
Sharia Islamic law in a decade.

At a heavily attended event ordered and supervised by the court,
16-year-old Mohamed Moalim approached the condemned man, Omar Hussein,
who was hooded and tied to a pole, and stabbed him to death, witnesses said.

A crowd of several hundred watched as Moalim repeatedly knifed Hussein in
the chest, neck and head in accordance with the court's ruling that found him
guilty of murdering the boy's father two months previously, they said.

"My father's killer is now gone," Moalim calmly told AFP at the conclusion of
the open-air execution in Mogadishu's south-central Bermuda neighborhood.

Moalim's relatives said both they and Hussein's family had accepted the verdict
of the court, which was hailed by Islamic spiritual leaders in Bermuda as just and
a sign that order was being restored to the lawless capital.

"Islam is the only solace to overcome the difficulties we are facing,"
said Sheikh Ibrahim Mohamed Nur, an imam. "The justice of Allah has been
implemented and there is no better justice than what Allah recommended."
"The public is aware in Bermuda from today on that killers won't go unpunished
as they did in the past," he told reporters at Agence France Presse.

But others, including some from Hussein's extended family who complained
they had not had a chance to pay compensation to Moalim's relatives and possibly
head off the execution, expressed concern.

"Our man was not given justice," said Ismail Haji Hassan. "You cannot stop
violence by another sort of violence," said a young bystander who gave his name
only as Mohamoud.

(Source: Agence France Presse)

[angryjoe]

Aahh yes, the utopian dream of the multi-theists... Culture is one hard thing to pin a label on. Religion on the other hand is somewhat easier.

The funny thing is that the afore-mentioned gangs of lebanese thugs think they have an innate right to be in Oz.... how many weak administrations must we look back on to blame for this???

I used to think Johnny Howard and Phillip Ruddock were a bit *over the top* in the treatment of asylum seekers... now I wonder if that state of mind was not somewhat visionary....

The first step I think is to meet such cultural/religion-based aggression towards Australians to be met with feirce resistance from the streets through to parliament.

"we will fight them on the beaches....."

Sound familiar???

If certain minority groups in society wish to use violence and intimidation as hard currency, let our politicians, police and peers meet and exceed said mentality, re-educate them on the good old saw of *might is right*... after a while these obnoxious few might even give *integration* rather than segregation an honest go... 'cause it would sure beat hell outta getting shipped back to whichever war zone they escaped from in the first place.

Act now while you still can, preserve Australia as a haven for *all* people, don't let it turn into nothing more than an extension of the middle east with daily killings and islamic law.. god knows it's been a disaster everywhere else.

[cardigan]

Multicultural War in TIMOR

Cardigan said at Aussieseek Australian Messageboards

Multiculturism obviously works well in a country where the host is strong
and outnumbers all other ethnic groups.... like Australia, the UK, Canada
SA or the USA.

Timor Leste is divided along east-west ethnic lines, and the country's army and police reflect the division. Most of the sacked soldiers came from the west.

The sacked officers complained of poor working conditions and pay, but also of ethnic discrimination by eastern commanders

"Easy availability of guns, both nationally and regionally,
has made crime so violent.

The increased presence of modern weapons facilitates the ability of opportunists in the political arena to instigate armed violence for political gain. Similarly, the spread of sophisticated weapons makes it easier for groups under attack to arm themselves in what they portray as self-defence.

Discrimination is a root cause of human rights violations. By dehumanizing people, it paves the way for the worst atrocities. In every region, nationalist, ethnic, religious and racial conflicts have led to genocidal or widespread killing of people solely because of who they are. Whole groups of people are branded "the other" by virtue of their identity. Bonds of solidarity and community are severed along identity lines. "Difference" is manipulated to encourage division and hatred. "Differences", which should be celebrated and encouraged to enrich all our lives and cultures become "reasons" which some political and religious leaders use to vilify those they see as weak and scapegoat those least able to defend themselves. By so doing they create a climate where human rights violations are legitimized and ordinary people suffer the most terrible consequences.

Discrimination takes many forms. Around the world people are denied equal rights to housing, work, education and credit because they are from the "wrong" social group. All too often discrimination is violent. Perhaps it is the street children who are beaten by police in Bangladesh or "socially cleansed" in Guatemala simply because they are seen as an easy target and a convenient scapegoat. Or the black man walking peacefully down the street in Germany at night who is picked up by police and beaten. Or the family in Myanmar who is forcibly relocated from their village under threat of death because of their ethnic origin. Or the vagrants who are shot dead in Colombia's streets by police-backed "death squads" because they are considered "disposables". The list is endless.

Discrimination must be fought not only because it is itself a violation of human rights, but because whenever it raises its ugly head all the human rights of all of us are threatened.

Discrimination: a root cause of human rights violations
Discrimination is an attack on the very notion of human rights. It systematically denies certain people or groups their civil, political, social, economic or cultural rights for no other reason than who they are or what they believe. It is therefore an attack on the fundamental principle underlying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: that human rights are everyone's birthright and apply to all without distinction.

The genocide in Rwanda and the massive occurrence of rape in Bosnia Herzegovina are perhaps the starkest examples of how distinctions based on ethnicity, religion and gender can be manipulated and inflamed by political leaders with horrific results. In Kosovo today, it appears that the lessons of those dark periods have not been learned. Through control of the major part of the media the Serbian authorities have been able to exacerbate anti-Albanian feeling amongst much of the Serbian population so that violations of the basic human rights of ethnic Albanians are largely ignored or even justified. At the time of writing, Kosovo appeared to be on the brink of a human rights disaster.

When governments and political leaders promote discrimination against sections of their population to further their own aims, they are giving the green light not just to state agents but to ordinary citizens to inflict suffering on others. But they are also lighting a fuse that can at any moment explode into mass human rights violations. In Indonesia, for example, ethnic-Chinese Indonesians have persistently been scapegoated. During the social unrest which hit Indonesia in 1998, ethnic-Chinese Indonesians were attacked and abused. Dozens of women reported they were raped. Some elements in the authorities may have fueled the attacks by blaming ethnic Chinese Indonesians for the economic crisis. During riots in May, the military did not prevent ethnic Chinese being the targets of attack by fellow Indonesians. In response to a widespread outcry the government has established an unprecedented investigation into these reports.

Not only do governments fuel discrimination or fail to protect their citizens, they also institutionalize discrimination by enshrining it in law. Where laws treat people differently according to their gender, race, sexual orientation or social class, people can end up behind bars solely because of their identity. More often, discrimination is part of the application or enforcement of law.

Below we look at three areas of identity-based discrimination which affect the daily lives of billions of people. They are not the only forms of discriminition, they are illustrative of the damage discrimination causes. All are outlawed by human rights standards drawn up by the international community after the Second World War. Then, in the wake of genocidal violence against people in Europe solely on the basis of their identity, prominent among them Jews, gypsies and homosexuals, the world said "Never Again". Out of despair was born hope with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, founded on the principle that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights". Discrimination strikes at the heart of this principle, constantly gnawing away at the core of human rights and leading to widespread suffering and misery.

Race and ethnic origin
In virtually every country of the world, certain racial or ethnic groups are portrayed by the state and its institutions as inferior to the majority or to the dominant group. In some they are the butt of newspaper jokes, describing them as stupid. In others they are demonized as inherently violent and prone to crime. In many they are denied some or all of their social, economic, political, civil and cultural rights. They may be refused passports, or banned from speaking their language, or excluded from jobs and education, or forced to live in designated areas. In all cases, such institutionalized discrimination leads to other widespread human rights abuses.

In the USA, for example, racial minorities bear the brunt of police brutality. Commenting on the case of a black teenager shot by police in Indianapolis, Indiana, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People reported:

Police officers have increasingly come to rely on race as the primary indicator of both
suspicious conduct and dangerousness. There can be no other explanation for why a police officer would consider shooting a sixteen-year-old on a bicycle. One cannot even fathom the same thing happening to a white youth. A black teenager pedalling rapidly is fleeing crime. A white teenager pedalling at the same speed is feeling the freedom of youth".

Similar institutionalized racism in Australia results in disproportionately high rates of incarceration and deaths in custody for Aborigines. A 1997 Federal Government report showed that between mid-1995 and mid-1996 Aborigines were 29 times more likely to die in prison than other Australians.

In Western Europe too, ethnic minorities have often been victims of abuse by police and prison officers, including in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. 1997 reports by the UN Human Rights Committee made several references to such patterns of abuse. In relation to France it stressed that the risk of ill-treatment by police was "much greater in the case of foreigners and immigrants." In relation to Spain it said that allegations of torture and ill-treatment by police "appeared to reveal signs of racial discrimination". Japan is one of many other countries where AI has found that foreign nationals are vulnerable to ill-treatment in prisons and detention centres.

Members of the Roma ethnic group are singled out for abuses in several European countries, including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia and the Ukraine. In Hungary, five police officers arresting nine Roma in February 1997 allegedly called them "stinking Gypsies". One of the detainees was beaten until he vomited blood and lost consciousness.

Across the world there is a vast but largely unrecognized war being waged against ethnic groups. Just a few of many possible examples show the global extent of this war. In Burundi, attacks by armed opposition groups on Tutsi civilians are countered by widespread reprisal attacks by the security forces on the majority Hutu population. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, thousands of Hutu refugees were killed as the group led by Laurent-Desiré Kabila took power. In Equatorial Guinea, members of the Bubi ethnic group have frequently faced arbitrary arrest, as have members of the Oromo ethnic group in Ethiopia. In Israel, Palestinians continue to suffer administrative detention, torture and ill-treatment, and killings at checkpoints by the security forces. In Macedonia, ethnic Albanians and Roma are more likely to suffer torture and ill-treatment by police. In the civil wars in the collapsed state of Somalia, minority communities have been particular victims of killings, rape and looting by clan faction militias.

The discrimination faced by indigenous people has led to the extermination of whole communities in some countries, and in several places it is still the root cause of widespread abuses. In Honduras, for example, indigenous people demanding their land rights are killed by police during peaceful protests. In Malaysia, members of the Dayak Iban indigenous community have been detained and ill-treated by police, also in connection with land disputes. In Guatemala, discrimination and lack of respect for the basic humanity of some 70% of its population -- its indigenous peoples -- permeates every aspect of society and was a major factor motivating, "explaining" and justifying the wholesale massacres of indigenous peoples during Guatemala's "dirty war." Today, even though a formal peace has been declared, discrimination excludes most Guatemalan indigenous peoples from most aspects of national life, including political participation and education. It means that they are over-represented amongst the prison population; and are not represented in their native tongues either in criminal trials where they are the defendants or in proceedings in which they attempt to give testimony to end the impunity of those responsible for gross abuses of the past. They can also expect to be major targets of all "anti-crime" measures, including the death penalty.

Elsewhere, indigenous communities who have suffered abuses in the past because of discrimination are finding that the same prejudices are preventing relatives from receiving justice. Relatives of 14 Ticuna Indians massacred more than 10 years ago in Brazil, for example, have faced countless delays in their search for justice and are still waiting. The 14 men, women and children were gunned down in 28 March 1988 at Capacete Creek, just outside the officially demarcated São Leopoldo Indigenous Area in Amazonas state. They were attacked by settlers, allegedly employed by a local timber merchant who was in dispute with the Indians over ownership of land. Many other Indians suffered human rights violations in the area at that time in the context of land disputes, and they too have yet to see their attackers brought to justice.

DISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF GENDER

Discrimination against women is deadly. More women and girls die each day from various forms of gender-based discrimination and violence than from any other type of human rights abuse. Every year, gender discrimination results into millions of women being genitally mutilated, battered to death, burned alive, denied their legal rights, and bought and sold in international trade in slaves for domestic and sexual purposes. In every continent, discrimination leads to countless women being raped or held as sexual slaves by soldiers engaged in armed conflict. Every day discrimination leads to women being stripped naked, sexually humiliated and raped by state agents. Every day it leads to women refugees being forced to exchange sexual favours for the right to cross borders or obtain ration cards. And every minute, discrimination leads to women suffering domestic violence.

The Preamble of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) states that discrimination against women violates the principle of equality of rights and respect for human dignity, amounts to an obstacle to women's participation on equal terms with men, in the political, social, economic and cultural life of their countries and hampers the growth of the prosperity of society and the family. Yet, throughout the world, women and girls are subjected to discriminatory treatments which are politically-grounded and politically-motivated and result in women's human rights violations.

In a number of countries, discrimination against women is enshrined and enforced through domestic laws. For instance, women and girls may be imprisoned or physically restricted on the basis of laws that target women only or they may face harsher punishment than men do for a similar offenses. They may also be the victims of unfair trials arising from discriminatory rules of evidence enshrined in law. In a number of cases, the methods of enforcement of these discriminatory laws and punishments for violating them may amount to torture.

In Afghanistan, for instance, tens of thousands of women are physically restricted to their home under Taleban edicts which ban women from seeking employment, education or leaving home unaccompanied by a male relative. In 1997 Taleban guards beat hundreds of women in detention centres or public places for defying the edicts.

In Egypt men may be excused for killing their wives if they find them in the act of adultery. Women who kill adulterous husbands, however, face the death penalty. In Sudan, women who fail to follow the strict dress laws risk arrest and flogging. While in Iran, women who do not follow the dress code risk being harassed and beaten up by self-styled vigilante groups set up to enforce it. In Pakistan, the Zina Ordinance effectively provides for the imprisonment of women solely on the grounds of gender by allowing victims of rape to be imprisoned on charges of zina (extramarital sexual intercourse). It also prescribes cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments for women and discriminates against girls.

Discrimination against women also results in gender-specific forms of abuse. In Turkey women face forced virginity tests as a form of punishment or humiliation. In many countries, women are routinely stripped, threatened with sexual violence or raped in custody. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, women and girls have been raped, beaten on their breasts and otherwise ill-treated by security forces of the government of Laurent-Desiré Kabila.

In yet many other countries, gender discrimination is grounded on the imposition of discriminatory social, cultural, or religious norms, and the absence of protection afforded by the state authorities to women and girls. Such gender discrimination and gender-based forms of human rights violations is likely to occur in the family or the community.

The scale of physical and mental suffering these abuses cause women is hard to comprehend. According to the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, more than a million infant girls die each year because they are born female. In India, around 4,000 women reportedly die each year in disputes involving dowries. More than 130 million women are suffering serious, even life-threatening, injuries throughout their adult lives because of female genital mutilation, a practice occurring in around 20 countries in Africa, parts of Asia, Middle East, and on a smaller scale in other regions. FGM is perhaps one of the most dramatic illustrations of discrimination and violence against women, and is one of many abuses rooted in women's social and economic powerlessness.

Often enough, women and girls will also encounter gender-based discrimination as a consequence of the human rights violations they have suffered. Women and girls may face a number of gender-specific discrimination in terms of getting access to adequate and gender-specific medical remedies. Furthermore, when and if adequate legal remedies exist, discrimination may deter or obstruct women's recourse to these remedies, such as: illiteracy, community pressures to refrain from reporting or seeking redress for certain abuses, lack of economic resources, etc. At a social level, women and girls may be further victimised and endure stigma, ostracism, or divorce. If a woman is declared unfit for marriage as a result of rape, she will also face severe economic and social obstacles to her livelihood.

Sexual orientation
In countries all over the world, men and women are harassed, abducted, imprisoned, tortured, even murdered for their sexual identity or orientation. Gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people - anyone who does not adhere to the dictates of what is portrayed as "normal" sexuality - may be subject to persecution by officials of the state or by private individuals whose actions go totally unpunished. To a greater extent than sexism and racism, homophobia is legitimized almost everywhere in the world by laws which criminalize homosexuality or otherwise discriminate against sexual minorities and deny them equal protection of the law. The Chechen Republic-Ichkeriya, which recently introduced Islamic traditional law into judicial practice, outlaws "anal sexual intercourse between a man and a woman or a man and a man" in Article 148 of the new Sharia Criminal Code. For first and second offences, the punishment is caning. A third conviction leads to the death penalty. In the USA several states have discriminatory sodomy laws, which provide penalties of imprisonment for consensual sexual acts between people of the same sex. In Jamaica too, consensual sexual acts between adult men in private is a criminal offence under Sections 76-82 of the Offences against the Person Act, and can be punished by up to 10 years' imprisonment with hard labour.

Such laws reinforce popular prejudices and increase the dangers faced by homosexuals. In Jamaica, for example, 16 prisoners were killed and 40 injured in disturbances at St Catherine's District Prison and Kingston's General Penitentiary in August 1997. The disturbances started after guards walked out in protest at the Commissioner of Correction's announcement of his intention to distribute condoms to guards and prisoners in an effort to control the spread of HIV/AIDS. Among those killed were prisoners targeted because they were homosexuals.

In Argentina members of sexual minorities have been targeted for ill-treatment and torture by police in Buenos Aires and the provincial cities of Rosario and Mendoza. For example, Adriana Cortes, a transsexual woman, was arrested in Mendoza in February 1997. She was reportedly induced to have sex with a police officer in exchange for pain relief medication. She filed a complaint and the officer was transferred, but no other action was taken.

In the UK, seven men from Bolton were convicted in 1998 under laws which discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, criminalizing behaviour which would not be an offence for heterosexuals. They were convicted of "gross indecency" and "buggery" for activities that took place in private in the home of one of the defendants, and sentenced to suspended prison sentences. The UK government undertook to take measures to equalize the age of consent between homosexuals and heterosexuals following a ruling of the European Commission. Following the defeat of legislation to equalize the age of consent in July 1998, the Government undertook to try again in the autumn.

Further disadvantaged: the role of social origin and economic status
Discrimination of the kind illustrated above is of course compounded by other factors, in particular socio-economic status. The majority of women most at risk of human rights violations are those from the poorest and most vulnerable or marginalized groups in society. They are indigenous women, ethnic minority women, women in immigrant communities, homeless women or refugee women. Women from the lowest castes or dalits in India, for example, face systemic discrimination and disadvantage. They have restricted access to education, live in segregated areas, work in poorly paid and socially stigmatized trades, and form the majority of landless bonded labour. Police often collude with landlords in abuses against dalit communities. Dalits are illegally detained and tortured, and the victims usually lack the means or influence to defend themselves or seek redress. Nisha Devi, for instance, an 18-year-old dalit woman, was partially stripped and beaten in 1997 by police officers who were looking for a male relative. There were numerous witnesses and Nisha Devi reported the assault the following day. It took police two weeks to file a report and local police subsequently pressured her and her family to withdraw the complaint.

Women migrant workers in many countries face discrimination or are disadvantaged because of their economic status and their vulnerability as foreigners as well as gender and ethnic origin. Nieves, a Filipina married mother of two, was working in Saudi Arabia. Like many other foreign nationals working in the Gulf, her lack of understanding of Arabic, her status as a migrant worker and her sex meant she was vulnerable to abuse. Nieves went to a restaurant in November 1992 with a married couple and another woman to celebrate a birthday. The married man met a colleague and asked him to join them at the table. All of them were arrested by the religious police and Nieves was accused of prostitution. When the police could not persuade her to confess, they asked her to sign what they said was a "release order". It was written in Arabic which she could not read. Instead of being released, she was detained in Malaz Prison. When she went to court it transpired that she had signed a "confession". She was convicted on the basis of the "confession" and received 60 lashes and 25 days' imprisonment.

Combating discrimination
All around the world people are fighting against the poison of discrimination and prejudice. Large movements have grown up to combat racism, sexism and homophobia, or to defend the rights of other disadvantaged ethnic or social groups. Sometimes these victories have been gained at great personal cost to the activists involved.

Kalpana Chakma, a tribal women's rights activist in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, allegedly "disappeared" in June 1996. Her whereabouts remain unknown. Irene Fernandez, the head of a woman's non-governmental organization in Malaysia, who campaigned against ill-treatment, sexual abuse and denial of medical care in camps for detained migrant workers, faces imprisonment after she was charged with sedition and publishing "false news". Her trial is continuing. In Mexico, five Indian community leaders were detained in March 1997 by state police and then tortured by being beaten, burned and subjected to mock executions before being released without charge days later.

All those who are risking their lives and security to combat discrimination need and deserve our support. Through their efforts at national or international level greater attention has been given to the need to combat discrimination and make real the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that everyone is entitled to all rights of any kind. International standards aimed at eliminating racial, religious and gender-based discrimination were adopted by the UN in the 1960s and 70s. More recently, sexual orientation has increasingly been recognized as a prohibited basis for discrimination in international human rights standards.

Governments have a responsibility to ensure that law and practice conforms to international standards, however ultimately discrimination will only end when all individuals make a personal commitment to make the rights enshrined in the UDHR a reality in the world - for everyone.

[lennie]

Gee Cardi

I don't know where you nicked the article from but at least something else is happening in that head of yours apart from Guns. You only mentioned the word Gun once, have you changed your breakfast cereal or something. On the subject of South Africa though, they still have problems there. If it had not have been for ex-Kiwi Prime Minister David Lange though the problems probably would not have changed much. Lange put the wind right up the Boer's when he was successful in implimenting an International Trade Ban on SA through the UN which lasted for 8 years until they had to back down and address Apartheid.

Thats the type of stand that makes them sit up and take notice. Hit them in the back pocket nerve. Lange got the 'Noble Peace Prize' for his efforts.

[usenetfeed]

Stan Says

Multicultural War in TIMOR


'Discrimination: a root cause of human rights violations'...etc. (snipped)


Discrimination is self protective mechanism of life. A basic animal
response to danger.


'Social Scientists' have made the study of it into an Industry in the last
fifty years. They regard religion as useless but their own belief in
outlawing a basic human response as a necessary TRUTH.


Animals will always seek to protect their own at the expense of others.
Trying to engineer ot out of the animal condition is a waste of time. But
it makes money for some to write about how it 'ought' to be done.


Australia will have to fork out money forever now it turns out that
Timorese are not a cohesive people after all. Just as the same problem is
being built in Australia by introducing Muslims into the community like
cane-toads. The end result wil be horrendous.

[ppyenews]

The end result for Australia is hopefully, 'Harmony'. It is however taking alot of disharmony to get it. Acceptance is the key but how do you get it?

[zassy]

Disguised?

For those who are not aware, some posters on messageboards
using a number of nics attacking multiculturism, are a
known white supremacist collective with connections
to American KKK pro gun sites and European Neo Nazis, and who uses
Internet and newsgroups to solicit for members who support
their racist hate filled progun and nationalistic agendas.

This group is believed to have connections to the notorious
Gun enthsiast Jack van Tongeren from WA who is presently
serving a prison sentence for race hate acts and one count of possessing a firearm, and four counts of possessing unlicensed pistols ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_van_Tongeren

www.fightdemback.com/archive/people/jvt/

For more information on race hate groups in Australia
and New Zealand and for support, please contact
FIGHTDEMBACK.

www.fightdemback.com/

If you are offended please say so

What are the laws in Australia regarding racial hatred and the Internet.

www.netalert.net.au/01595-What-are-the-laws-in-Australia-regar...

AUSTRALIA'S RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ACT 1975

scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/0/47/top.htm

AUSTRALIA'S RACIAL HATRED ACT 1995

scaletext.law.gov.au/html/comact/9/4573/top.htm

[lennie]

NZ swears in new G-G

By New Zealand correspondent Peter Lewis

New Zealand's 19th Governor-General Anand Satyanand has been sworn in at a special ceremony in Wellington.

The ceremony outside the gates of Parliament saw Mr Satyanand become the first New Zealander of Asian heritage to hold the position.

Prime Minister Helen Clarke says the appointment reflects the diversity of contemporary New Zealand society.

Mr Satyanand replaces Dame Silvia Cartwright as the Queen's representative in New Zealand.

NZ has been aware of the benefits of cultural diversity for a long time now and look at this for advancement.

[keith]

Greens Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Spokes person, Senator Kerry Nettle, today welcomed Liberal back bencher Petro Georgiou's critique of his government's attack on Multiculturalism.
"The Greens welcome Petro Georgiou's criticism of the government's discussion paper on citizenship which echo the criticisms The Greens have been making," Senator Nettle said.
"I have called on the Prime Minister and Mr Robb to show us the evidence to justify the need to overhaul citizenship processes and in particular their blame of the Muslim community but have seen no such explanation.
"The liberal heartlands in the north shore of Sydney and the leafy suburbs of Melbourne are uncomfortable about their party playing the race card which is reflected in increasing support for The Greens.
"If John Howard takes his party to the next election on a platform of division he will lose.
"Multiculturalism is an ongoing project which Australia has been massively successful at and there is no compelling reason for a change in policy.
"The Greens will continue to celebrate the fact of Multiculturalism while the Prime Minister continues to bury his head in the sand."
Contact - Jon Edwards 0428 213 146

[lennie]

keith said:

Greens Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Spokes person, Senator Kerry Nettle, today welcomed Liberal back bencher Petro Georgiou's critique of his government's attack on Multiculturalism.
"The Greens welcome Petro Georgiou's criticism of the government's discussion paper on citizenship which echo the criticisms The Greens have been making," Senator Nettle said.
"I have called on the Prime Minister and Mr Robb to show us the evidence to justify the need to overhaul citizenship processes and in particular their blame of the Muslim community but have seen no such explanation.
"The liberal heartlands in the north shore of Sydney and the leafy suburbs of Melbourne are uncomfortable about their party playing the race card which is reflected in increasing support for The Greens.
"If John Howard takes his party to the next election on a platform of division he will lose.
"Multiculturalism is an ongoing project which Australia has been massively successful at and there is no compelling reason for a change in policy.
"The Greens will continue to celebrate the fact of Multiculturalism while the Prime Minister continues to bury his head in the sand."
Contact - Jon Edwards 0428 213 146

This is a complete return to the idealism of the era of the "White Australia" Policy. Prime Minister Howard is showing ongoing tendencies towards being on a "Power Trip". I'm beginning to have visions of him on his next campaign singing "they'll do it my way".

[Flash]

Fewer volunteers in migrant suburbs



Adele Horin
February 11, 2008


MIGRANTS from non-English speaking countries are less likely to be volunteers than Australian-born people or migrants from English-speaking nations, a new study shows.

Ethnically diverse neighbourhoods have lower levels of volunteering - even among their Australian-born residents.

The study, by Ernest Healy, senior research fellow at the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University, challenges the notion that ethnic diversity leads to a stronger, more cohesive society.

"When you create societies from mixed backgrounds it may not lead to overt violence … but to something scarier, a withdrawal from the civic sphere," Dr Healy said, "a feeling of less connectedness."

Using levels of volunteering as an indicator of social cohesion, the study shows that suburbs with a high degree of ethnic diversity have markedly lower rates of volunteering than more homogenous localities.

The study, based on 2006 census data for Melbourne, shows migrants from non-English speaking countries are less likely to be volunteers than Australian-born or people from English-speaking countries, even when their income and age are similar. Length of residence in Australia makes little difference, and nor does citizenship, but English proficiency has a small impact. About 18 per cent of Australian-born middle-income earners aged 25-64 were volunteers, for example, but only 13 per cent of those from non-English speaking countries.

But in ethnically diverse areas, both the Australian-born residents and the migrants from non-English speaking countries are less likely to volunteer than their counterparts in the more homogenous neighbourhoods.

Dr Healy said the results were likely to be similar for Sydney.

He said it would be wrong to conclude migrants from non-English speaking countries were unfriendly and uncaring and less altruistic than Australian-born people. It was likely their altruism was directed to friends, families and neighbours, not through organised civic, sporting, and welfare organisations.

However, altruism directed through formal groups represented a "commitment to the broader social good".

The findings appear to support research by Robert Puttnam, of Harvard University, that ethnic diversity can hasten a withdrawal from "collective life".

Dr Healy said the assumption multiculturalism would automatically lead to strong cohesive communities without government assistance may have been naive.

[efm]

the Definition of Multiculturalism is AUSTRALIA