trouble down under

For all of you who asked about what is happening in Australia right now I'll give you my take on it.

In a southern beach suburb of Sydney called Cronulla, racial tensions between young Lebanese men (from another suburb) and Cronulla locals have boiled over into a couple of incidents where property was damaged and some (not many) people were set upon by the mob.

Tensions towards 'people of middle eastern appearance' have been growing due to a few factors. There was a high profile rape case where several lebanese men raped a young girl. Also there was a few people from the southern suburb of Cronulla killed in the Bali bombings.

These young Lebanese men were born in Australia and are as Australian as I am. However, they look different and most of all they look like Arabs. It doesn't take much to see the ugly underbelly of a so-called civilised society and as far as I'm concerned the government and the media sets the agenda on this issue.

Its a complicated issue where the tensions have been building for some years with Cronulla being the only beach in Sydney that is on a train line enabling people from other suburbs (less advantaged) to have access to it. The Cronulla locals, (who are Anglo Celtic origin) have a reputation all of their own for resenting the influx of 'lebs' to 'their' beach. A lifeguard was bashed (supposedly by a Lebanese guy and this was when the locals said they were 'taking back their beach'. What happened next was just an ugly display of white Australian red necks. The only Lebanese that were there, a couple having their lunch, were set upon until police rescued them. There has been a huge police presence in the area for the past couple of days so things have quietened down but his weekend will the test. Hopefully it will be ok.

Local Muslim and Christian leader and even rival gangs from other suburbs have come out against the violence and denounced the behaviour of the ugly Australians that came out in force to 'reclaim their suburb' as well as the behaviour of the Lebanese men who retaliated by damaging property in adjoining suburbs.

But the most important underlying reason for the escalation of racial tensions in Australia is that we have a government that has refused to apologise for the genocide of our indigenous people. That culture, which refuses to acknowlege that we are all immigrants in this country, unless you are Aboriginal, has led to an ugly attitude which harks back to the bad old days of the white Australia policy.

I have hopes that the internet will bring about a true global village, break down racial and religious barriers and one day we will all be 'coffee coloured'.

By the way, Jewlz and I live on the Northern Beaches far away from 'the Shire'. (which is what the locals call their suburbs.)
The end.