Having been in Australia for 16 years, it never ceases to amaze me how time and time again racists and “pundits” would crawl out of their collective cesspool and spout ridiculous and alarmist statements based on flimsy stats or evidence. The most recent being the professor from Macquarie University. So I thought what better way of countering all these rednecks than by using the facts from our government – woops, sorry … “your” government.

The following are stats from the 2001 census done by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Birthplace:

• 13,629,685 people (72.6%) – Australian-born

Of those born overseas, the top three countries of birth:

• United Kingdom: 1,036,245 (5.5%)
• New Zealand: 355,765 (1.9%)
• Italy: 218,718 (1.2%)

Top three ancestries:

• Australian: 6,739,594 people (35.9%)
• English: 6,358,880 people (33.9%)
• Irish: 1,919,727 people (10.2%)

Languages spoken at home:

• English as the only language: 15,013,965 people (80.0%)

Most common languages other than English:

• Chinese languages: 401,357 (2.1%)
• Italian 353,605 (1.9%)
• Greek 263,717 (1.4%)

Religion:

• Christianity: 68%
• Other: 4.9%
• None: 15.5%
• Not stated: 11.7%

A snapshot of source countries of arrivals July 2001 – June 2002:

• 21.5% Europe, USSR, North America
• 78.5% Oceania, ME/North Africa, S/Central America, Carribean, Africa

Racists and right-wingers in recent times have always use that last bit of information to say that the country is being overrun by non-whites (note: Oceania includes New Zealand). But once that is placed in context with the other stats, it paints a completely different picture.

For all the hysteria, English is still the most widely spoken language by a huge margin. The top ancestries of the population are European and Australian in nature. 68% of the population claims Christianity as their religion while a majority of the remainder do not have one.

Whatever your thoughts about political-correctness, facts are facts. Australia has changed since its birth as a country in 1901 and will continue to change. But as we can see from the stats, Australia is still Australia only with a lot more different colours and flavours added since 1901. Instead of fearing a dilution of what constitutes “Australian”, think of it as continually improving upon a time-tested and ageless recipe.

Technorati tags: anti-racism, multiculturalism, Australia

First of all, I’d like to say to Curtis that I value your readership and I hope you don’t think us all the same. Likewise I enjoy your two blogs: the one about your job in the advertising field – Media Outsider, and the other one that gives your insights into the US military – Curtis the Marine.

I felt a bit uneasy about what Kenny did to you. I would like to think that he did it in jest. “Su Ku Kia” is a slang which literally means “quarter penis”. I thought of it as an attempt at extreme irony by Kenny in answering your request for a Chinese translation to “8-inch penis”, which you also made in jest. Hey I got it when I first saw it, and I assumed that if you’ve had known what it really meant, you would get it too.

Nonetheless, his post has brought out the uglier Asians as I’d like to call them – ppl who are no better than the white racists that I despise so much. To you ppl, reality check time: do you think that by laughing at Curtis for being nicknamed a “Su Ku Kia” would make you feel better about yourselves? Asian dicks are smaller, get over it.

I’ve emailed Kenny and I saw that he has left a comment on your blog. Like I’ve said, it’s purely in jest.

UPDATE 31st July 2005:

Oh, yeah—I guess I exaggerated a little. How would you say “SEVEN-inch penis”?

Classic comeback Curtis.

Just read Blinkymummy’s post about the indignation that homosexuals feel in Singapore. Though Singapore may not be the most liberal country in the world, there are worse places to be born a homosexual. In any case if you stop to think about it, aren’t there bigger things to worry about?

I’ll try to present an attempt at both sides of the argument. Firstly, to the heterosexuals: Gays and lesbians are people who prefer to have sex with the same sex. That’s it. That’s one measely aspect of a person’s character. Beyond that, they are like all of us: there are the good, the bad, and there are the mediocre. So don’t get your knickers in a twist – they are not going to bring about the end of the world.

To the homosexuals: so what if Singapore does not let you hold a party? I know that it’s been allowed over the years but you’ve survived this long and this far that I’m sure you’d realise that the party is also only one aspect of your lifestyle. You’re still allowed to hold events and such – just not the parties. As for the publications, worse come to worse you’ve got the Net. You still have your freedom of voice. Hey if you want to console yourself, be glad that you weren’t born just across the Johor Strait. I can assure you that you guys got it better than your brethren in Malaysia. Party? What party?!

And to put everything into perspective, I saw Moby Beng’s comment and went on to see his post about the simple life that cats and dogs lead. It’s so poignant. Yes, humans are sentient beings and our intelligence prevents us from living truly simple lives but there’s a lot to be learnt from animals who are easily contented. And there’s no hatred based on trivial matters such as skin colour, sexual orientation, social class and religion.

So I don’t have a car this weekend, and possibly the next weekend as well. This is because the rear suspensions were f**ked, and once those are fixed I gotta send it to the spoiler shop to get the front bumper replaced.

Anyway the point of this post is this: I do have other means of transport but I lost the mood to socialise and to go out for possibly the next few weekends. I think I can attribute this to me being a typical Capricorn. Anything that disturbs my usual rhythm just unsettles me completely. That and the fact that I’m anxious about how much all this is gonna cost me, which is another reason I don’t feel like spending on frivilous activities right now. I’ve already paid for new tyres, and I know how much the replacement front bumper costs but I don’t yet know how damaged the rear suspensions are and how much bleeding I’d have to do to cover it.

I’m not claiming all this on insurance because of not wanting to lose my NCB (I already pay too much as it is!) and also I can choose how and where I would do the repairs if I go it myself. But knowing that almost my entire pay for the next month will be gone because of this little accident just doesn’t sit well with me. It’s not that I don’t have savings or I won’t have money for food. It’s not that at all – I’ll live but it feels like a chunk of my spirit got ripped out of me when I hit that kerb. Damn it.

All I feel like doing now is stay at home, be with my family, and rot my brain in front of the TV and the net. And this – blogging. My tenious grip on the health of my nerves relies on it. Without an outlet, I think I’d lose it completely and curl into a ball under the blankets.

Listening to more of Mr. Brown’s podcasts did alleviate the mood a little.

Ok as I’ve said, I’m homebound and I’m bored. So I ventured far into bloggerland and dug up some sh*t. First there’s Ahmad in Taiwan who gives cutting political and cultural insights into Singapore. And through his site I found out about Mr. Brown’s podcast site. I know lah, I should have found out about this long ago being a Brown fan but bloody hell, I never see the link on his site ok!?

The first series (part 1, part 2, part 3) I downloaded has Mr. Miyagi and Mr. Brown talking cock about all kinds of sh*t. A partial list of topics:

1. HK vs. Sg bloggers
2. Singaporean celebrities having babies
3. bah-kut-teh in Geylang and the “chickens” there
4. ingderneck porn
5. picking up girls in China using lousy Mandarin
6. Vitalis vs. Code 10 vs. Brylcream
7. NKF celeb stunts
8. Learning Mandarin – something something something…
9. Girlie bars in Bangkok
10. Singaporean public announcements
11. Being a Mandarin DJ

I laughed so hard I nearly needed diapers. Enjoy hor? (If you know some Mandarin and Hokkien, it’s even better. )

The problem with my car is worse than at first thought. I’ll be without wheels for a while – except for the next working week when I’ll be borrowing my brother’s car, I’m essentially homebound. Hmm, maybe it’s a good thing that I don’t go out. I can save some money for a change. I may kill the boredom by writing more here. Expect some weird mindless rants.

Would sir like to partake in some ape’s snot???

How about some monster juice??? Hahahaahhaha……

On the other hand, these Szechuan Siu-Mais by the Chinese Iron Chef look mighty tempting.