Multiculturalism in Australia

in #politics8 years ago (edited)

**Note: this post may only be relevant to an Australian audience, or those interested in Australian politics.

I was going to write about how the return of Pauline Hanson into Australian politics makes my blood boil, you know pretty much assassinate her positions and her character. But then I thought to myself, 'what's the point?'. I guess there are too many personal memories that come to the surface when I remember the time she first came to prominence back in 1996. I was in Grade 3 at that time, about 10 years old and it brings back how unpleasant the social climate of that time could be. Instead I'll just write a little bit about how this thing called multiculturalism could... you know... actually be a good thing.

Multiculturalism?

Nobody ever said multiculturalism was an easy thing to pursue. Bring in different philosophies and cultures and you're bound to have some conflict. But the benefits of drawing from a rich, diverse pool of cultures by far outweighs any challenges it presents.

The benefits can be seen in both economic and social spheres. No one country, no matter how great it thinks it is, can survive in the modern world without pooling the resources of other nations. The fact of the matter is that some nations do particular things better than others. East Asian countries like Japan, Singapore, Korea and Hong Kong are ahead of the game especially when it comes to regulating financial technology. Silicon Valley in the United States does innovation online better than pretty much everybody else. Germany is renown for being top of the game in the automotive industry. In the arts, think about how many great composers moved and found their creativity in another nation away from their homeland. Think about what composers like Dvorak brought to the United States, a country much younger than those in Eastern Europe. And I'm sure I don't need to tell you foodies what diversity does for your tastebuds. We pool and trade resources and talents, whether they be people, ideas or physical commodities.

So how do isolationists like Pauline Hanson and her party still manage to find their way into the Senate?

I guess I've just always thought that opportunity shouldn't be limited by your race, place of birth or passport. These aren't such revolutionary ideas, but with all the fear and irrationality being spread around, it sometimes seems like they are.


Bring back Paul Keating :)


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This is great thinking and I like your thoughts. You should expound a little more on this. isolationism never works out well.

Thanks William. You're probably right, this is kind of an abstract, need to flesh out my thoughts more.

Nice @bryan-kho
Shot you an Upvote :)

Hey @bryan-kho

I voted for Pauline because multiculturalism has failed, it only works if the other cultures are inclusive. Does that make sense? For peace between cultures in tight proximity with each other each culture has to agree to allow the others. Islam is an exclusive culture. (#notallmuslims) The law of sharia does not give room for competition and around 87% of terrorist attacks are Islamic according to the public wiki listing (#Wikinotreality) Multi ethnic countries I'm fine with and most of Pualines supporters including Pauline herself would agree, nothing wrong with ethnicity but as soon as you are a part of an exclusive culture like islam that does not tolerate other cultures how can you expect us to tolerate it?

Hi Bryan, I'm a newbie here at Steemit. I was looking at your post and wondered how you made the sub-title word, Multiculturalism in such a large 'font' size compared to the rest of your article's smaller letters???

Hi there, I used the editor view when posting and changed it to Heading 2 (Medium). You can also use Markdown.

Like this

Here is guide:

https://guides.github.com/features/mastering-markdown/

Search for headers

Great comment - thanks! It´s also very insightful in the context of the now leaked Nauru Papers. I think Australia is kind of blind on the right eye.

Nice @bryan-kho
Shot you an Upvote :)

Nice @bryan-kho
Shot you an Upvote :)