Australia is a country with strong cultural pressures to conform; Aussies are rewarded for fitting in rather than standing out in all areas except for athletics. It’s known as the tall poppy syndrome, as in the tall poppy gets mowed down. In the USA, there’s a different saying, one about squeaky wheels, and I’m glad to say that desis in Australia seem to be following the American model. 
This weekend, at least 2,000 Indians protested in Melbourne, blocking traffic on a busy street for almost 20 hours to protest the large number of crimes and assaults against Indians in the last year and the lack of police interest or response. The demonstrations started at Royal Melbourne Hospital where Sravan Kumar Theerthala was lying comotose after having been stabbed with a screwdriver at a party.
Latest available police figures say 1,447 people of Indian origin were robbed or assaulted in Victoria state in 2007-2008, although students from the country say they have risen since then. Many of the most serious cases occurred in the western suburbs of the state capital Melbourne, where police estimate Indians account for about 30 percent of all robbery and assault victims. [link]Police have denied any racial motivation, saying the students were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They have said the crimes were “opportunistic”, with Indian students seen as “soft targets”. [link]
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p>In addition to the protests in Melbourne, there was a strong diplomatic response. Manmohan Singh has called the Australian PM, and the Indian and Australian Foreign Ministers are holding talks on the matter. The diplomatic engagement was accompanied by a vigorous thapad by BigB who turned down a honorary doctorate offered by the Queensland University of Technology, saying “Under the prevailing circumstances I find it inappropriate at this juncture, to accept this decoration.”
This is a serious issue for Australia because it makes $15 billion (AU) from foreign students, 40% of whom come from India and China (90,000 Indian students and 130,000 Chinese students). Foreign students are the third largest export earner behind coal and iron ore.
Right now, news of these attacks has widespread coverage in India and both governments are threatening to discourage future students from coming to Australia. This is a credible threat, a few years ago the New Zealand government failed to take racist violence against Chinese students seriously and they lost all their Chinese students as a consequence.
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p>As a result of this escalation the Australian authorities have changed their tune considerably, and they are now bringing in the PM’s national security advisor to formulate policy:
Australia said Tuesday the former head of its elite Special Air Service (SAS) regiment will lead a task force examining attacks on Indian students … Duncan Lewis, now the government’s national security adviser, chaired the task force’s first meeting Tuesday and would coordinate Australia’s response to the assaults. [link]
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p>The government is also considering enacting hate crime legislation that would consider prejudicial motivation as a factor in sentencing.
I think it’s pretty sad that it took this much diplomatic pressure, and some outright hysteria by the Indian media, before the Australian authorities would take the issue seriously. That said, based on my experience with hate crimes in the USA, the copycat attacks (including vandalism of a Gurdwara on Monday and a slashing yesterday) should die down as soon as perpetrators realize that the government will be enforcing the law vigorously. I’ve got family in Australia, I’d like to feel that they’re safe.
Not that this kind of violence is ever rational, but what I don’t get is with all of the money these students bring into the economy, why hate on them? A few of mine friends form the Middle East who have gone over to Australia told me recently that they had to show a $250,000 bank account statement before they were granted visas. Additionally many Indians stay on and add their professional skills and experience to the economy. So with everything that’s being added to Australia by these folks, why the hate???
There is a strong class element here, the attackers aren’t the same people who see a benefit from having the Indian students around.
What I don’t understand is why the Australian government hasn’t been acting more vigorously to protect their revenue source, especially in the face of a recession.
I wonder what the demographics of the attackers are? I have read that there has been a lot of tension between white Australians and Lebanese-Australians. Is it possible that the Indian students are being caught up in this somehow (and if so, by what side)? Apparently the Lebanese street-gangs are quite ruthless.
So with everything that’s being added to Australia by these folks, why the hate???
Even if an immigrant community is successful, racists may still view them with contempt and suspicion just perhaps they look differently and have a different culture/religion. There’s no rhyme and reason in hate attacks I suppose.
In the US Asians were needed to fill the engineering and doctor shortage in this country. That didn’t stop the “dot busters” in NJ and attacks like the one on Vincent Chin (I think that was his name).
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=fb6e6f8adfc2a362319644eef783b649
Of course rob can be expected to come in with some Muslim-bashing link in every thread. Just a quick note: the link he posted about Lebanese in Australia is from “research” by the Mackenzie Institute, a neoconservative think tank, similar in spirit to the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Bush supported Heritage Foundation in America. these are the same think tanks behind war on terror and Mid East policies.
Why is this troll — rob — allowed to flit from thread to thread spreading Muslim hate? He does this in just about every thread. This post has nothing to do with Lebanese or Arabs, and yet he finds some way to come in and throw out his right-wing, deranged venom, and yet, Pardesi Gori, who is on the same level as rob, is permanently banned. Is it because PG bashed Indians-Hindus and rob bashes Muslims, the latter being more welcome?
GRRR–give me a break. Now it’s “Muslim-bashing” to note that Australia has a severe problem with Lebanese gangs and to wonder whether they might be involved in the crimes that are the topic of this blog? What, we’re supposed to put our heads in the sand and pretend it’s still the days of “White Australia” so the attackers must all be sunburned Brits? I don’t think you could afford to feel that way if you were walking down the street in West Melbourne. Truth hurts, huh?
Ah. Guilt by association.
Now if rob was really being a wingnut he’d suggest that it’s Australia’s restrictive gun control laws that make the crime happen.
Rob — my understanding is that it is White Australians who are the attackers. The news accounts make no reference, but I think the student body protesting would have mentioned it. Instead, they’re talking about Australian racism, and how nobody should come to the country, which is consistent with violence by the majority group.
In addition, there are very few Lebanese Australians, less than 1% of the overall population, even fewer than the number of Indians in the country.
if you are offended by the term “muslim bashing”, we can call your speculation just plain idiocy when all reports say that white australians are involved.
Desis need to join the Australian police force. Or form their own volunteer patrol.
A friend had e-mailed me this article from the Times of India, which mentions both a student “beaten . . . by a group that asked me to leave their country saying Australia was only for white people” and another student “who was attacked by Lebanese youths” and it mentions that “students say that they have been harassed by Lebanese groups as well,” which is what prompted me to wonder about what the breakdown is, demographically, of the attackers. . . .
Rob – read my amended comment above. Australia is overwhelmingly white, and some of these attacks are accompanied by racist statements of the sort that are unlikely to come from somebody non-white.
Also:
Australia is still very very white.
Desi Police – many of these attacks are against students, who are out at night because they’re working a late shift. You can’t join the police as a foreign student, and these students are kind of busy making ends meet …
It’s really becoming a “meme” in the right-wing blogosphere/press that the attackers are frequently (way disproportionately to their % of the population!) Lebanese gangs and/or Africans (primarily Somali). E.g.,:
Obviously there seem to be white racist attackers as well, as in one of the attacks I quoted in the Times of India piece above.
Actually, from what I read in the news, I also had the impression that the attacks were mostly perpetrated by other immigrates and non-whites.
Why doesn’t somebody email the Indian students federation of Australia and ask them?
Not the student. The other, older desis. I mean they should form some sort of patrol group or something. Have a number any desi student can call on his or her cell phone when they are surrounded by a pack of wolves and have the Desi patrol show up with lathis.
Or they should form a group that works in conjunction with police.
Something needs to be done.
Here’s an Australian editorial which presumes that the attacks are being done by other white Australians:
Again, I don’t have any direct information about the attackers beyond that, nor their percentages if there is variation in their race.
Where is melbourne desi, who used to comment here earlier? Perhaps he or any other Aussie-desi could chime in, with theri perspective?
For purposes of the census aren’t Middle Easterners classified as caucasian (White)?
My sense of what’s going on is that the police/press are being very PC and not publicizing the ethnicity of the attackers, which is causing most people to assume that they’re overwhelmingly white (as is the population at large), while in fact there’s a shocking amount of Somali/Sudanese/Lebanese gang involvement in the attacks (there definitely appear to be racist white attackers as well, but they seem disproportionately uninvolved).
You can see commenter #9 being misled in just this way–he calls my initial question “idiocy” because “all reports say that white australians are involved.” In fact, as Ennis correctly noted in comment #8 most reports (tellingly, I think) omit mention of the race/ethnicity of the attackers. This leads #9 to make a logical leap into falsehood, which then prompts his unsubstantiated attack on my attempt to get at the truth of the matter.
According to this, Sravan Kumar Theerthala’s attackers were white. Unfortunately, it’s not an Australian source, and the writer could just be making it up.
Have a look at the youtube video of Sourabh Sharma’s beating. The attackers don’t look like Brits to me!
Apparently they were of various ethnicies, and there is a video floating around. Linky Excerpt
There also seems to be some truth to the Lebanese gangster angle linky
Excerpt
Where is Melbourne Desi??
oops,
First linky http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25578055-5000117,00.html
yep, must be the famous lebanese community – lebs to you, of course – from china, vietnam etc. truthseekers ftw!
I didn’t know anything more than that Times of India piece when I first posted, but a little googling reveals:
The Australian police sound like they’re the Harvard faculty or something–give me a break!
It’s very interesting – so many Australians travel to the US and Canada and Europe and are very open minded and into different cultures.
Yet back home, they had a nationalist government which would send gunships to meet refugees. The whole country can’t think this way, but they do also have issues with the old macho tough guy culture and shortages of women in some places (or shortages of men).
We seem to be getting sidetracked with regards to who is committing the crimes – regardless, the government should have done something sooner. And swastikas in a Sikh temple are not subtle in terms of who the attackers were.
They seem to be a country in transition with a lot of immigration and not dealing with it very well. If that number above stating the number of Indians attacked is true, that is just crazy.
and
Notice how the themes seems to be that if the attackers are, then they are “racist” and “white supremist” but if they are not white, they are simply “hooligans” and “criminals”, but not racist or supremist.
Question:
Are there not any racists and “supremists” amongst non-white peoples?
Dizzy, you’re mixing two different attacks: Theerthala’s and Sharma’s.
From what you’re showing me, some of these attacks seem to be criminal attacks designed to rob the Indians. Others, like the firebombing or the vandalism of the Gurdwara, are straight up racist attacks with no intent to rob. In both cases, it seems the local community is asking for a more vigorous response.
no, only supremacists.
The local community has a different view.
Aussie Indians fear backlash as homeland hysteria grows over student assaults
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25584046-2702,00.html
How long before we get to see a bollywood movie in which the male lead goes to Oz to study, gets attacked by a gang of white locals, the lead thug’s sister falls for the boy. later they sing a song, and convince Aussies and Indians to love one another….
Whoever the attackers are I hope this stops soon. When I saw the video of the train attack my heart sank. The idea of a volunteer Indian police force is interesting. Not that I condone this kind of thing, but I was thinking how in other places such as the UK, Canada, and even the US when series of attacks occur in the South Asian community South Asian youth gangs have been formed as a form of defense. I don’t think that this will happen in Australia as the victims are not immigrants but people on student visas, and are focused on studying not on that sort of thing.
it would be nice to know exactly where the attacks were taking place. I remember many late nights during my semester abroad at Melbourne Uni where I nightly (and drunkenly) walked past vast subsidized apt. buildings filled with people from north africa, the middle east and south asia. Never once was I mugged, menaced or otherwise threatened. Seemed like the safest large city that i’ve been to.
The only time i saw a person get assaulted, it was an Aussie singing unkind things about “Poms” in a house full of them.
and yes Ennis, i also have many relatives in australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, etc.), and they have reported no vast cultural pressure to conform. OZ is, however, a country with a very large bump in the center of their income distribution curve–doing the same things as other people was more a function of having the same amount of money than anything so nebulous as what you describe.
People who visit Melbourne will rightly get the impression that there are many people of Lebanese origin. Virtually all of my friends there were Lebanese Orthodox Christians (sorry rob, your limp revenge fantasies will have to wait for awhile). It’s a big cosmopolitan city.
Sorry, mon ami, the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (i.e., pro-Syrian Nazi), whose thugs beat up Hitch, are Lebanese Orthodox Christians. The “good guys” in Lebanon (such as they are?!) are the Maronites. If you see some of those youtube videos of the Lebanese gangs in Oz, well. . . . they’re pretty far down the “great chain of being.”
Nayagan – you misunderstand my remarks. I’m not saying that desis will feel a strong pressure to assimilate, or that Australia isn’t multi-cultural, I’m saying that Australia is more of a consensus oriented society and less of an individualistic one, so blocking traffic for a day is a bigger deal there than it is in the USA. I learned about the tall poppy syndrome from my white Australian friends who brought it up in trying to explain the critical differences between the Australian and American national character.
where is melbourne desi – here I am 😉 Sorry for the late posting. Just been swamped with heaps of stuff. Thank you for blogging on this aspect. As one of the long time posters on this site there are a few facts that have been dropped out
1) many of the attackers are not native whites. they are asian / lebanese / african – often immigrants. So when the police keep claiming that racism is not a factor they are not always spinning it. The previous commissioner had touchy feely approach towards policing and the judges are equally soft. Why that is so a different debate. 2) The Police in Melbourne just cant be bothered especially not with crimes being committed against immigrants in the West. a good friends works in Vic Police (in IT) and she had some horror stories to tell. Experience of friends who have been assaulted is the same. The Police dont care and the protesters needed to focus on that aspect. the Police force is mono cultural and often come from lower class backgrounds and often tend to uneducated.
3) The average middle class Australian is not racist but I cant say the same for the toffs of Toorak or the bogans of werribee.
4) the fellows who bashed sourabh sharma are being hauled to childrens court coz they are 16!!! The same with those who killed a chinese Ph D student when they went ‘curry bashing’.
Lebanese gangs are a major problem in Sydney – not in Melbourne. Currently African gangs are a serious issue in Melbourne. The incompetent Police refuse to acknowledge it coz they dont want to be racist!!! The previous weekend a good samaritan (luke mitchell) was stabbed to death and the cops could not stop the killers from leaving the country.
I travel on the werribee (one where sourabh sharma was bashed) line daily and have travelled at night as well. Dole bludgers ( australian term for welfare bums) abound in the west especially footscray / sunshine / st albans where most of the attacks have taken place. More comments later. 🙂
incredible
Just throwing in another explanation of tall poppy syndrome which may be a bit clearer (it’s an Antipodean thing … and English, I’ve discovered). It’s not about assimilation or ‘fitting in’ – it’s about not standing out (trust me completely different things) and knowing what your station is.
Can’t comment too much on the story itself – I’ve been mostly out of NZ for the last two years and my angst with this country has nothing to do with race but everything to do with distance. Good to see activism happening. If you keep quiet, nothing gets done whatever country you’re in.
Give Melbourne Desi a break, he’ll be here soon enough – it’s the morning in these parts …
the trouble is not the laws – tis the sentencing. Lenient judges dont go well with good law and order.
no mate, you have not . Please read carefully. I said many – not all -. Many attackers are whites with aussie pride and “Fuck off we are full” on their arms / cars. Many folks dont realize that Melbourne has a big community of southern europeans (1st 2nd 3rd gen). The racist attacks come from long term residents whose only understanding of black people are dole bludging abos.
. . . wow
just. . . wooooooooow
To trolls who dont understand the dynamics of assault in Melbourne
1) Skips and Micks (Australians with a anglo celtic heritage) commit assaults and beat up desis. 2) African reffos commit assaults and beat up desis. 3) Non Anglo Australians and other immigrants – very few assault desis.
Two big culprits then. The lack of response from the instruments of law and order is the frustration
“One thing I have experienced is that given the opportunity the black will readily assault the Desi but hardly touch the white. Why is that?”
Care to back that up with statistics? What part of the world are you talking about?
Brunswick and Carlton blocks 🙂 I dont know how many years ago it was but over the last two years the crime has spiked both anecdotally and statistically. thank you christine nixon for data fudging 🙂 Melbourne is no longer safe as it used to be. Although it is still safer than NY or LA (not that it means much). It is not as safe as Mumbai especially on public transport. I am saddened. Desis including students need to fight back – we are too passive. A bottle of acid and can of keroense works very well.
the FISA needs to get australian spokesperons – I could not understand half of what the chap was saying on radio!!
These sorts of predators are cowardly by nature. They go after people who they are sure will not fight back. One guy with a can of mace, for instance, isn’t going to do much to a gang of 4 people aside from pissing off the 3 friends of the guy he just maced.
The other alternative is counter-violence, and while it’s unproductive and only leads to escalation, especially where gangs are involved, the authorities will need to now that that’s what they will have on their hands if they don’t do a better job on law and order.
“Sorry, mon ami, the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (i.e., pro-Syrian Nazi), whose thugs beat up Hitch, are Lebanese Orthodox Christians. The “good guys” in Lebanon (such as they are?!) are the Maronites. If you see some of those youtube videos of the Lebanese gangs in Oz, well. . . . they’re pretty far down the “great chain of being”
Oh, so it’s also Arabs that get your goat. As in Lebanon, so will Cronulla I see. I’ll make sure to tell the Michaels and Halas i left behind to check themselves into the local station for future crimes stemming from intrinsic violence.
Do you run when you see the united colors of Benetton? Either that or a fresh set of Depends, i’m not sure which is more appropriate.
are you talking about the 1400 odd indians attacked. If anything that is less than the actual. Victorian Police refuse to take on complaints – one needs to beg and threaten before they will take a complaint from a desi. As far as the institutions are concerned one desi getting beat up is no big deal. And other immigrants beating up desis is just brushed off. The former head of the Australian Medical Association was beaten to an inch of his life last year in Williamstown ( among melbourne’s richest suburbs) – he still has not fully recovered. to me this is home – i am not leaving. I am pissed off that the cops are worse than the indian ones!!!
I live in Melbourne, so far the only stories I have heard about attackers being black have come from the murdoch-owned right-wing tabloid.
The conflict between anglo and lebanese gangs was very much a sydney thing, sydney being geographically much more segregated along class and race lines than melbourne is. I think that pointing the finger at the lebanese is something of a red herring.
I think the cause of this is sort of economic, international students here are charged really exorbitant fees and a lot of students are pressured into taking several jobs to cover their expenses. You will see desi students in any fast food chain, petrol station, supermarket etc. (this isn’t some Apu stereotype, its based on my own observation). These are the jobs that at one time would have been the preserve of ‘lower socio-economic’ anglo-australians – the very same ones who I think are behind these attacks. The pressure for jobs, made worse by the recession, is more of a cause than any latent racism amongst australians.
hi to a fellow melburnian. well my network gives me a very different picture. You see this is the problem with anecdotes rather than statistics. The Police could easily talk about who did what when and why. Shutting down Flinders Street is the last resort. I have lived in camberwell and surrey hills – posh suburbs but I have been faced with kids looking for a fight in the tram on riversdale road. Law and order is an issue across melbourne especially post 10 pm…
I disagree. If I am going down I am taking one along with me. But that is an individual decision.