 IT
STARTS AGAIN
On December 11, in Australia, 5000 Australians, most of them drunk and wrapped in
Australian flags, attacked a number of people of Middle Eastern origin. This shameful
action took place because a man who appeared to be of Lebanese origin had attacked two
lifeguards a week before. After the events on the 11th, Middle Eastern immigrants reacted
with violence of their own, injuring seven racists and eleven police officers.
At the time this column was being written, there were plans for the New South Wales state
parliament to meet on December 15 in order to put in place the necessary measures to
prevent similar events in the future. They were proposing to change the law by increasing
the penalties for such attacks and providing the police with additional powers to deal
with them.
This attack reminded me of the recent events in France. Australia, like France and many
other countries, has a large number of immigrants within its borders. Nearly a quarter of
its citizens were born overseas. It had seemed that people who were not of Australian
origin but had Australian citizenship were able to live in harmony there.
In fact, I myself am one of those Australians with origins from another country. Both of
my parents are Turkish, but I was born in Australia, and so the law allowed me to have
Australian citizenship. Eighteen years ago (oops, I'm getting older), my family decided to
return to Turkey. I was only five and a half years old, so I hadn't noticed any racist
acts. Maybe it was because I was raised in an academic environment, but I never heard my
parents say that they had had difficulties being accepted. This was also perhaps because,
as I mentioned before, many Aussies are not of Australian origin.
And, is this really important? After all, most countries around the world don't have
populations from a single origin. We're talking about finding a way to get rid of the
boundaries, to globalize, but we're still fighting about what our origins are.
Just think, what's the first thing that you notice when you first meet a person? For most
of us, it's the color of their skin, and their accent when they speak. Yes, these are the
characteristics that are obvious to your eyes and ears, but it's discrimination. We never
try to see what's inside people, or give them credit for their acts.
I think that in order to stop this type of behavior, people must educate themselves and
find a way to put aside their prejudices. This could be done by trying to meet people from
other cultures and understand their customs, by doing research on the internet, by
learning new languages, and so forth.
Maybe if people become more broadminded in their attitudes toward other cultures, these
racist activities will end, and, hopefully, humanity will be able to unite in order to
build a better future for ourselves and our families. Have a nice, open-minded week.
Sıla Türkü Kural (EE/III)
turku@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
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