Gideon Polya, “Politically correct racism in proto-Nazi White Australia”, MWC News, 5 January 2006.
Politically correct racism in proto-Nazi White Australia
Racism has been a major part of White Australia for over 2 centuries. Notwithstanding political correctness, anti-vilification laws and vehement Australian protests to the contrary, racism is still entrenched in White Australian society. White Australian racism is of 2 kinds, namely (1) crude, gutter and often violent racism of the kind exhibited by the thousands of young white racist thugs beating up Asians and Muslims at Sydney beaches several weeks ago; and (2) dominant, “politically correct racism” - PC racism - that has resulted in mainstream electoral support for continuing gross human rights abuse of Asians and Muslims both within Australia and overseas.
Historically, White Australia has had an appalling history of mass murder, dispossession and discrimination against non-Europeans: genocide of the Australian aborigines through violence and disease (between 1788 and 1900 the indigenous population dropped from about 1 million to 0.1 million); 19th century genocide of Pacific Islanders through violence, disease and slavery (about 1 million died); continuing participation in 2 centuries of horrendous, racist Anglo-American wars throughout the world (e.g. 1.0 million excess Korean deaths in the Korean War and 13.1 million excess Indo-Chinese deaths during the Indo-China War); the racist White Australia Policy (1901-1973); support for South African Minority Rule Apartheid; laws discriminating against indigenous Australians (who were not even “counted” until after a referendum in 1967); removal of tens of thousands of aboriginal children (the Stolen Generations) from their mothers (this ostensibly ceasing in about 1970); and horrendous excess deaths in custody of aboriginal Australians.
In the last 30 years explicitly racist views and actions were constrained by legislation, public education, increasing public tolerance of “foreigners” and the advance of “political correctness”. Nevertheless, the racism remains and indeed has been insidiously transmuted into “politically correct racism” that is hard to combat because it is DENIED and its horrendous consequences are almost comprehensively IGNORED.
Over the last 10 years, the dominantly racist White Australian electorate has repeatedly endorsed the following: the Gulf and Sanctions War against Iraq (1.8 million excess deaths); imprisonment without charge of thousands of adult and child Asian Muslim refugees; a surreptitious, politically correct racist political agenda directed at Asians and Muslims; the criminal invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan (post-invasion excess deaths and under-5 infant deaths now totalling 1.7 million and 2.1 million, respectively, in gross contravention of the Geneva Conventions); intrinsically racist and anti-Muslim Anti-Terror Laws that violate major international human rights conventions; a "New" White Australia Policy that (like the "old" White Australia Policy) secretly discriminates against non-Europeans by "executive interpretation" of "departmental regulations"; and continuing differential aboriginal mortality, currently amounting to about 6,000 avoidable deaths every year (i.e. equivalent to the death toll from 2 World Trade Center atrocities each year).
The “old” racism was decorated with explicit abuse directed at non-Europeans, horrendous violence and injustice, explicit discriminatory laws and public acceptance of explicit racist sentiments such as those expressed by former Immigration Minister and Leader of the Labor Opposition, Arthur Calwell: “Two wongs don’t make a white”, “We will not let the yellow hordes contaminate our golden shores” and “We can have a white Australia, we can have a black Australia, but a mongrel Australia is impossible”.
Expression of such racist sentiments would horrify many Australians today and indeed would be illegal in some jurisdictions (such as the state of Victoria in South East Australia). However, scratch the surface in Australia and you will encounter the most extraordinary, confidential, "implicitly" racist and bigoted views about Muslims from "ordinary people"- people who may well have good non-European or Muslim-origin friends and who wouldn't dream of explicitly supporting or indulging in racist abuse or racial discrimination. Indeed “moderate Muslims”, eager to establish their credentials as “true Australians” with “true Australian values” have a sorry track record of attacking their more “orthodox” co-religionists and linking them to criminal terrorists – while at the same time utterly IGNORING the horrendous civilian death toll in Coalition-occupied Iraq and Afghanistan.
The dominant, majority “politically correct racism” is well illustrated by recent racist outrages in Australia. Thus thousands of racist white youths ran amok on Sydney beaches before Christmas, assaulting and terrorizing Asians and Muslims. While the Australian Government denied any racism, an overwhelming majority of Australians when polled thought otherwise. Some media were strongly criticized for encouraging the violence through their reportage and commentary. “Politically correct” Australia agonized over “Australia’s shame”.
More recently, South African cricketers on Tour in Australia have been subject to racist abuse during cricket matches before and after Christmas (see: here). The South African cricketers have been racially abused during ALL the matches played since the First Test in Perth when they were continually abused by the epithets "kaffir" and "kaffir boetie" (Apartheid-era South African terms of abuse for “indigenous Africans” and for “white people friendly with indigenous Africans”). Police did nothing at the Perth Test Match because they did not know what these words meant. However, at the Second Test in Melbourne just after Christmas, the authorities were alerted but the same racist abuse was hurled at South African cricketers. Now the Third Test in Sydney has been interrupted because of racist, white thugs racially abusing South African cricketers. These events have prompted headlines such as that of the Age (Melbourne): “Sydney's shame: racial abuse interrupts Test match” (see: here).
Australia has a "public face" of “political correctness” and “non-racism” and any public figure who indulges in explicit racism courts political oblivion. Similarly, a disproportionately high indigenous aboriginal representation in top-level Australian Rules Football and Cathy Freeman’s Gold medal in the 400 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics are used as arguments against endemic racism in Australia. Most Australians would vigorously deny being racists. NEVERTHELESS, the simple comparison given below provides PROOF of entrenched racism in White Australia.
A major media story in recent weeks has been about Australian opposition to Japanese killing whales in Antarctic waters south of Australia as part of their annual catch of 1,000 whales. While Australians and Australian media have been incensed by Japanese killing 1,000 whales ANNUALLY, Australian media have resolutely refused to report the DAILY toll of over 1,000 under-5 year old infants in Coalition-occupied Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the latest UNICEF report (January 2006), in 2004 the under-5 infant mortality was 122,000 in Occupied Iraq, 359,000 in Occupied Afghanistan and 1,000 in the occupying country Australia (noting that in 2004 the populations of these countries were 28.1 million, 28.6 million and 19.9 million, respectively)(see: here). About 1,300 under-5 year old infants will have died in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan on Christmas Day alone, 0.5 million will die in the coming year and 1.7 million have died post-invasion due to non-provision by the US-led Coalition of life-preserving requisites demanded by the Geneva Conventions (see: here). Indeed a detailed, formal complaint has been sent to the International Criminal Court charging the Coalition with war crimes in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan (see Countercurrents, 21 December 2005)
Australian (and Anglo-American) mainstream media will simply NOT report horrendous Coalition war crimes against helpless infants and their mothers. This example simply demonstrates a deliberate placement of MUSLIM INFANTS as comprehensively below WHALES in the Australian scheme of things – comprehensive, deliberate and egregious RACISM by any reasonable standard.
What should decent people do about racist White Australia? If racist fans keep up the abuse, the South African cricketers may think twice about returning. If thousands of racist thugs insist on beating up Asian and Muslims on Sydney beaches, one imagines Asian and Muslim tourists will keep away. However the horrendous Australia-complicit Coalition war crimes in the Occupied Iraqi and afghan Territories and their non-reportage by the cowardly, unethical, holocaust-denying and racist mainstream mass media of White Australia demand resolute international action of the kind taken against the racist Apartheid regime in South Africa.
Decent people should act ETHICALLY and AVOID any business, social or sporting activities with COMPLICIT people, corporations and organizations of ALL countries of the US-led Coalition that continues to be involved in criminal wars, mass murder, mass infanticide and passive genocide. Some 300,000 overseas students come to study at Australian universities each year at a cost of about $6 billion dollars in fees. Why should Asian and Muslim students study in Australia when it is complicit in the Coalition mass murder of 0.5 million Asian and Muslim infants each year?
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Dr Gideon Polya, a contributing editor to MWC News Magazine, published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003), and is currently writing a book on global mortality ---