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Hate down under- how serious?

Recession in Australia may have contributed to the rise in attacks against the Indian students, but what about the role of a chauvinist Indian media!
Hardnews Bureau

The recent brutal attacks on Indian students in Australia have brought shame and embarrassment to the Australian government and grievously hurt its attempt to project itself as a multi-racial society. The ruling Labour party is under immense pressure following a worldwide condemnation and 24-hour bashing by the Indian media. Australian politicians have even requested the Indian media to act with restraint and wait till the Australian government brought these perpetrators to justice. However, Indian media, especially a daily newspaper and its news channel, in absence of any breaking news keeps looping the old footage and pictures to generate further hate amongst Indians towards Australians who are not aware of the ground realities in Down Under.  

India has second largest number of students in Australia and these attacks could affect Australia's $15 billion market for overseas students. Loss of this sum could mean disaster for Australia's recession impacted economy. Australian PM Rudd assured Prime Minster Manmohan Singh assuring him that the 97,000 Indian students in Australia were "welcome guests". Despite several assurances, the Indian media seems oblivious and continues its hate campaign against Australia. Hardnews learns that some PR agencies are also involved in hyping up this hate campaign. 

At a time when news reports should be balanced, the anchors on various news channels scream and shout as if a war has been waged against the country. They suppressed voices of guests who denied these attacks as solely racist and encouraged those who spat hatred. However, many Australian websites, newspapers and blogs have called these hate attacks as an outcome of recession rather than racism. This was confirmed by an Indian daily, The Hindu that carried an opinion piece on how these attacks have more to do with recession than racism.  

The report read: "The ongoing global recession has certainly hit Australia. The economy began to decline and unemployment rose to 8 per cent, an unusually high figure by developed country standards. The migrants not only sought permanent residency (PR) status but were available for all kinds of jobs. More than 50 per cent of the migrants are settled in cities such as Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra and their suburbs. They are hard working and take up even three jobs a day. This has certainly irked white Australians. Probably this is one of the reasons for the revival of racism." 

Australians, due to the economic slowdown are finding it difficult to adjust to this new reality. With the country's economy in dire straits and the purchasing power sliding down, Indian students with swanky cell phones, ipods, and expensive laptops become easy target for the unemployed locals. Most of the Indians who join Australian Universities come from affluent families and are not shy in flaunting their wealth.

 Similar hate crimes have visited other nationalities too! Even the Chinese have not been spared of such attacks. As a blogger pointed out a few days ago, conditions in India for the students are no better. Otherwise, how does one account for violent ragging and all kinds of crimes in our campuses? What contributes to the misery of these students is that Indian colleges provide extremely poor education. The big question is: where should the Indian student go?

 

 

Comments

To my mind large section of

June 13, 2009 by Guest, 1 year 11 weeks ago

To my mind, a large section of the Indian media is trying to blow the topic out of proportion. In pretty much all the acts of racism, as it’s proclaimed, something had been stolen from the victim. Perhaps, they are all pretty criminals pushed to crime by the growing recession. For once, can someone take an objective look before blowing it up?

Assaults are due to marginalisation, not race

June 8, 2009 by Guest, 1 year 12 weeks ago

For six years, it has been my privilege to teach large numbers of Indian students undertaking postgraduate education in Melbourne.
The isolated violent crimes of which some Indian students have been the victims recently are not "hate crimes" - they are crimes of opportunity, with (usually) young offenders taking advantage of those who they see as vulnerable, easy targets.
And that is the real problem - many Indian (and other international) students in Australia are marginalised. They are not participants in the mainstream of Australian society. Like others on the margins (the homeless, the elderly, the mentally ill), they are much more likely to be the victims of crime and exploitation.
Assaults are not the only serious issue - Indian students are also exploited economically (often by expat Indians living in Australia who underpay for jobs and over-charge for accommodation - I've heard some terrible tales from my students), and are more likely to be sexually harassed and to suffer depression.
The underlying reasons for this marginalisation are complex. Australia has built a multi-billion dollar education export industry on a very shaky foundation, without providing adequate infrastructure and support for students who are far from home and in an unfamiliar culture. There is little or no incentive for international students to integrate with locals.
But Indian students are often very poorly prepared for postgraduate study (compared to Australian students) not only academically, but also in terms of life experience, perspective and maturity. They also (from my observations) do little to familiarise themselves with their surroundings or with Australian culture. To my surprise and disappointment (especially as I teach in the marketing and communications area) they under-consume Australian media and seem often unaware of what is happening in Melbourne and Australia.
Given that the tragic assaults on a small number of Indian students were clearly isolated acts of violent crime perpetrated by individual criminals, it is very disturbing to see effigies of the Australian Prime Minister being burned in the streets of New Delhi, perhaps the most violent form of protest I can imagine.
These assaults are NOT sanctioned or encouraged by the Australian people or Government and to suggest otherwise is deplorable.

Hate-Ridden India

June 5, 2009 by Guest, 1 year 12 weeks ago

We have raised such a hue and cry about sporadic racist attacks against Indian students in Australia. But what about the assaults by our higher castes against our so-called lower castes that have been going on for centuries? When rich students are attacked in a foreign land the government and the media wakes up. However, the government and the media sleeps when the poor and so-called lower castes are oppressed. Our hypocrisy is not funny; its sickening.

Oswald Pereira

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