Friday, February 26, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Dont destroy the relation
In a big bad world, the ranks of the free are few in number.
India is a natural Australian ally and close friend. We have much in common.
It is a democracy. It has demonstrated a consistent determination to stand up to China. Its development and transformation from a country overwhelmed by desperate poverty to a place of prosperity and innovation is one of the most exciting stories in the world today.
Australia should be part of that story. Our government and many Australian businesses are doing much to make that so.
And yet the Indian media and one irresponsible self-appointed Indian student spokesman Gautum Gupta is putting it all at risk by resorting to emotive and false attacks on the reputation of Australia and the people of Melbourne in particular.
Melbourne is widely regarded in Australia as our most cosmopolitan, inclusive and progressive city. And our safest.
That’s partly why so many international students came here in the first place.
And we’ve welcomed them and hoped that many would like it here and stay, injecting young, ambitious, can-do people into our great city. In many cases, they intend and we hope that they stay on and make a life here.
And that’s exactly what’s happened.
It’s to be celebrated.
And of course there are challenges.
FAKE STUDENTS
Not least of them is that many Indian students coming here come under false pretences.
They are not meant to come here to work. They are obliged to have sufficient funds to live in Australia for the period of their course of study.
But what actually happens is that many students borrow the funds that the Immigration Department require them to have in their bank account and return them once they’ve received their visa.
What actually happens is that many students from India have come here with the primary intention of working. For many, they’ll do the course because they have to and only then because it’s a path to permanent residency.
Whether that path to living in Australia is a legitimate one is probably a debate we need to have. If we’re going to sell the right to come here, we’d prefer an auction system. If we’re appalled by that idea, we should probably take a good look at export education to ensure it hasn’t become one big immigration scam, a kosher form of people smuggling.
As students tend to, they get unskilled jobs that don’t pay much. They often work late too. Often times, the pressure is on to work more than the permitted twenty hours a week to pay back the loans that got them here in the first place.
And that leads them to working late and getting around a city they don’t know well, late at night.
And a very small number of them get into trouble. Or get beaten up or mugged or worse.
It’s appalling and horrifying. But no more or less than the other violent crimes perpetrated here.
THE FACTS: MELBOURNE IS A VERY SAFE CITY
For all that Melbourne is a very safe city.
Monocle’s Most Liveable Cities Index includes attributes like:
safety/crime, international connectivity, climate/sunshine, quality of architecture, public transportation, tolerance, Environmental issues and access to nature, urban design, business conditions, pro active policy developments and medical care.
That index puts Melbourne in the Top Ten. Sydney a few steps behind at 13.
The Economist has Melbourne as the third most livable city in the world. Sydney at #8.
Low personal risk is a key criterion.
Mercer’s is another well regarded survey. It has Melbourne in the top twenty and Sydney above it at #9.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports Victoria has fewer assaults in Australia than any other state, including tranquil Tasmania.
India has more murders than any other country on Earth.
Even on a per capita basis, Indian has more than double the number of murders that occur in Australia.
And of course our level of reporting these crimes is considerably higher.
Those are the facts.
They don’t sit very comfortably with the false assertions of the Indian media that Melbourne is a violent and racist city.
BURNING OUR GOOD NAME
The sad case of apparent insurance fraudster Jaspreet Singh highlights the fact that the Indian media and government need to focus on facts and the truth before rushing to judgment and trashing Melbourne’s hard-earned reputation as a safe, tolerant and inclusive city.
He set fire to his own car hoping to claim it was a race-motivated attack on him.
Cunning idea. Perhaps he figured the insurer would quickly pay due to embarrassment.
But his execution was a little lacking, as he was caught on surveillance video buying petrol in a can and then managed to set himself a light leaving him singed.
His apparent lies should give everyone pause. Premier Brumby spoke for many Victorians yesterday when he said:
”I hope that there is some balance to the debate, some balance to the reporting in India, and certainly to date that balance hasn’t been there…”
The Federal Government has had enough too:
Government backbench senator David Feeney said the negative media coverage was not always justified.
“Sections of the Indian media are playing up the threat to Indian students in Australia in an irresponsible way,” Senator Feeney said.
Certainly there was no such balance coming from the self-appointed and dodgy spokesman of the Indian students (who is not actually a student) Gautum Gupta who said after Jaspreet Singh incident:
The incident sparked fear and fury among the city’s Indian population, with Gautum Gupta, a spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students in Australia, describing the alleged attack as ”most abhorrent … someone was burnt alive”.
Mr Gupta, speaking after a small group of Indian students gathered on the steps of Parliament House, said it was unclear if race had played a part in the incident, but urged ”all Victorians to [condemn] the minority of people who are racist and criminals … let them not win”.
”All we know is that there’s been another night of senseless violence on our streets … there were three attacks, one of them was [on an] Indian,” he said.
On another occasion Gupta claimed:
“that life is terrorizing for Indian students living in the country, as no state-level politician or the Indian Government have provided any assistance despite repeated attacks on the community.”
His credibility is left as singed as the unfortunate Mr Singh.
MELBOURNE LOVES MIGRANTS
The immigration debate in Australia is turning. And fast. The Liberals and Greens political party will go into the next election pledging to slash our immigration intake. It will be the first election fought on this issue in living memory.
For the most part, Liberals and Labor people from Melbourne are champions of immigration.
It’s certainly ironic that while all of that gets played out, very many Indians will be falsely led to the opposite conclusion by an irresponsible and deceitful Indian media and a government that seems strongly influenced by them. Added to the mix is the self-appointed student spokesman Gautum Gupta who has done much to besmirch the good name of Australia while conducting his own affairs in a highly questionable manner.
Drawing on the inspiration of Hillary Clinton and John Howard, we say back to them “If you don’t like it, don’t come here.” In Gupta’s case, we’d gladly facilitate his departure from the country he seems to hate so much with a one-way ticket to the hell-hole of his choosing.
Meanwhile international student visa applications to study at Australian universities continue to grow. Melbourne will continue to attract people to Australia’s most livable city long after the incendiary Indian press has raged on to engulf another undeserving victim.