Grendel, I consider myself truly lucky to be an Australian. I love my country and understand that you do too. I cannot listen to the Australian anthem without getting a lump in my throat, especially the part that says:

For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair.

I think the difference between you and I is that I'd like everyone to share the freedoms we enjoy. When I hear of women and children being raped and slaughtered I'd like to bring them to safety. I'm not sre if you have children, but can you imagine how horrifying it would be to have them starve to death or blown to pieces in front of you? That's a daily reality for so many people - how can we blame them for wanting a better life in our great country? What do we lose by sharing what we have in abundance?

We can celebrate diversity without it affecting harmony. How do you expect someone to integrate effectively when they're discriminated against because of their appearance?

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Yes under assimilation or integration but not under Multiculti AA.  The studies have shown that to be a false promise.  Anecdotally, those of us at the multiculti coalface know this to be untrue.

Do you discriminate?  I don't?  My friends don't?  Do yours?  Again you bring up a furphy.  IMO Australia is one of the most tolerant and non-racist countries in the world.

But under Multiculti our society is under threat and the cracks grow bigger every day.

Multiculti is not an integrationist or assimilationist policy H.

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Do you ever wonder that maybe, according to you, if people do tend to fasten onto things that you consider so superficial like appearence (as if if race was just that), there could be a deeper, underlying reason for why they do this?

I agree with Grendel at the same time; White societies have historically always been the most tolerant, Australia included. I've read somewhere that White people may have the weakest sense of group-identity out of all the major population groups while at the same time possess the strongest individualist streak. I find it funny that people talk about racism as if it was a prevaling orthodoxy espoused by the highest offices and government officials here, yet at the same time, we're the only people who construct byzantine (and obviously discriminatory) "anti-discrimination" legislation, inundate ourselves with third-worlders and act like their presence here is an enrichment, panegyrize the nearly non-existent achievements of certain other groups at every possible opportunity and flagellate ourselves as intrinsically wicked. I don't see Nigerians, Malaysians or Mexicans doing any of this.

Malaysia is an Islamic state, in that Islam is the official religion of the country. Religious freedom is allowed there.

I agree that muslims form enclaves and it's less than ideal, but I also know it's - at least in part - a defence mechanism. If you want to understand muslims, interact with them. I'd be willing to bet they'd embrace your friendship.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Apr 17^th, 2010 at 11:57am:

To rephrase...

How does encouraging otherness advance the cause of national unity?

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Stack up all the non-European societies that have made support for things like pluralism, diversity and multiculturalism, mass-immigration, anti-discrimination, the social and material progression of the outgroup (regardless of how hostile) and homosexual rights so strongly, official policy or even articles of religious faith, vs the European and European derived ones that have, over the last one hundred years. It isn't hard after doing this to support my assertion.