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Mantas

SnowJapan Member
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Posts posted by Mantas

  1. Originally Posted By: arcadia
    Assimilation ........As a white Australian living in Japan I'm not sure how I should set about that. I read and speak the language but I don't think I'll ever be completely assimilated nor do I think I want to be.
    I have the greatest respect for anybody in Australia or elsewhere who is willing to completely assimilate as it means giving up a part of your cultural heritage.

    You wouldn't be able to anyway mate. Those barriers are enshrined in Japanese race laws.

    I don't think anyone expects the newly arrived immigrant to give up their cultural heritage. Only to put their set of values, language etc. second to the new country that they now call home. Failure to learn the new language, even to a basic level is a massive barrier to assimilation/integration and that's just from a practical point. Plenty of dead construction and factory worker's families can attest to that.
    Concealing one's face completely also not helpful if you want to communicate to your new fellow countrymen, especially if you are trying to be identified by a police officer. Some Australian immigrants are totally unwilling to part with even the smallest part of the culture of the country they just up and left.
    These aren't necessarily my opinions but I hear about these issues repeatedly.
  2. Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver
    any big city has the same plethora of around the world eats.....doesn't have any impact on how racist or discriminatory a place is

    I didn't say it did. Just a casual observation.

    I've lived and worked in the UK many times over the last 20 years. My wife and daughter are there now visiting family. I can tell you that the first time I've ever heard someone referred to as a nigger, other than on TV, was from a middle aged well educated English gent. Wogs, Paki's ect. were words used to describe lots of other undesirables, from loads of other people. It was fairly common to say these things. I went to a wedding where a guy got up and told a joke about black people stealing stuff in the workplace. I couldn't believe it!

    Now if I was to use this 'personal experience' to form an opinion on the level of racism in the UK, then I'd be way off the mark wouldn't I?
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    I have just spent the day in the lovely metropolis of Sydney (yes us country bumkins do venture there occasionally) and Jeez... how many flavours of race do you want to see?

    When looking for a bite to eat driving home through the suburbs, the choices were endless, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indian, Italian, Greek, Lebanese.... not that I like English/Aussie fair that much but I'd be hard pressed to find any if I did.

     

    BTW. I have a solution to the UK's Multicultural failure.

    Prince Harry needs to marry a Pakistani. I wouldn't put it past the plucky little bugger. wink

     

     

     

  4. Well I live in the countryside mate and I've never heard a rant like that before. I'm not surprised at all that you heard something like that in Sydney or Melbourne. The great 'melting pots'. Like you say, I think those opinions exist in every western country. Particularly in the UK. Where even the PM has wieghed in with the statement 'Multiculturalism has failed'.

    We haven't given up yet.

     

    From a personal perspective. One of my boy's mates is from Africa, he is jet black. He surfs, plays footy (he's bloody good too) and gets on well with everyone and he's family is well liked and well respected by the community. Why?

    Because they make an effort to assimilate. Not hide away in their little communities, unwilling to even learn how to speak the langauge of their fellow countrymen, let alone try and intergrate. (surfing and footy not actually neccessary)

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  5. Originally Posted By: bobby12
    Australia is massively under populated and it could really benefit by increasing immigration much more.


    Or is everywhere else massively overpopulated?

    Australia is one of the most culurally diverse countries in the world, I'm not surprised that you encountered some racism. Especially if your comparing it to life in Japan where, by design, cultural diversity is all but non-existanant. Hence the reason you'll never be offered the equal status as the Japanese.

    Don't confuse lack of enthusiasum for immigration with racism. We just don't want to share this place with anyone. razz
  6. It's all income tested. I'm guessing that the woman was self employed and a had a low income on paper.

     

    There are a few factors that prompted the goverment to change the cost of child care.

     

    Australia has a huge skills shortage and because women are now having babies in thier thirties, employers were losing skilled workers with 10-20 years experience.

     

    Also we have a negative population growth. One of the reasons why we have the highest annual intake of immigants, which brings it's own set of problems.

    ( I mean why would you import foriegn skill when it's already sitting at home drinking coffee and watching Oprah wink )

     

  7. My wife works in child care here in oz. it's very heavily subsidised by the government now, but it hasn't always been that way.

     

    Just the other day she told me about a nicely dressed women who moved from Sydney's northern beaches and drops off her daughter in a swanky BMW. She gets 100% rebate and pays about $10/day.

     

    Brits need to start making some noise about this. grandpa

  8. RADIATION !!!! We are all going to Die......

     

    I saw a doco on Chernobyl a little while ago. Although the initial event was pretty catastrophic with some 4000 people killed by the initial explosion and following radiation sickness, the ongoing effects on the population was very small.

    You have to remember it happened at the height of the soviet-U.S. arms race.

    The 'free' western media had a field day with it.

  9. That's right TB. First you have to remove the regime that has been oppressing any kind of move towards democracy.

    Sadly I have little faith that we will ever see a true democracy in places like Iraq. there has been no democracy there for the last 8 thousand years, I doubt a little U.S. lead razz-a-ma-tazz in the last 15 years will change anything.

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