ROOT CAUSES CONFUSED
Jeez, this whole "root causes" thing is getting complicated. It has often been alleged that the "root cause" of the 9/11 attacks was Muslims' perceived grievances related to US actions. But when Australians take action based on a perceived grievance against presumed Muslims, it's attributed to racism and media incitement:
Update: The root cause according to regular Antony Loewenstein commenter orang: Australia is "full of racist fucks".
Update II: Racism doesn't account for attacks on police and ambulance officers. Alcohol and yobbos, the perfect combination.
Update III: Lefty Gary Sauer-Thompson blames Bush:
Update V: Roving gangs have again smashed car windows in a Sydney suburb. Go here.
Sydney's Islamic community has blamed the violence at Cronulla Beach on what it calls racist and irresponsible sections of the media.The local community is upset because beating up volunteer lifesavers is neither acceptable nor a "common youth issue".
Three people have been arrested and three others assaulted in renewed violence as about 5,000 people converged on the south Sydney beach, some yelling racist chants directed towards the Lebanese community.
The beach was the scene of two violent incidents last week - an attack on two young lifeguards, reportedly by middle-eastern youths, on Sunday and a brawl later in the week in which youths turned on a media crew.
Authorities have been calling for calm since last week's attacks, which sparked calls for vigilante style retaliation on "middle eastern" gangs.
Islamic Friendship Association of Australia president Keysar Trad said the violence was "bound to happen" because of racist rhetoric on Sydney talk back radio throughout the week.
"Sections of the media took this issue far too far and one can only surmise that the way this issues was dealt with on talk back radio amounts to incitement," Mr Trad said.
He said the media turned a common youth issue into an issue of ethnicity.
Update: The root cause according to regular Antony Loewenstein commenter orang: Australia is "full of racist fucks".
Update II: Racism doesn't account for attacks on police and ambulance officers. Alcohol and yobbos, the perfect combination.
Update III: Lefty Gary Sauer-Thompson blames Bush:
The war on terrorism is the context for Cronulla.Update IV: Lefty Glen Fuller blames Howard's "reactionary nationalism".
Update V: Roving gangs have again smashed car windows in a Sydney suburb. Go here.
posted by Anonymous at 1:03 PM |
2 Comments:
The same people who ignore the precieved "root cause" and call Australians "racist fucks" are the same suspects who have been only to willing to identify the "root cause" of Arab led voilence against Jews and their institutions in Europe - pin pointing it all on the ARab--Israeli conflict and concluding that "the Jews only have themselves to blame"
Two things.
Firstly, I do not blame Howard. The riots are another example of reactionary nationalism. Example in the sense of the latest Falcon by Ford being another example of a Falcon. An earlier version is Hanson's One Nation.
Secondly, Howard is a brilliant politician in the sense that he can understand what is necessary to stay in power. However, staying in power is not the same thing as leading a country. I think he is incompetent as a national leader evidenced by his lack of tact and political grace dealing with Australian social problems, such as ethnic tensions.
btw, looking for 'root causes' is a suspect methodology. The complexities of causality are far too hard in the social realm to do anything except weakly gesture towards. On the other hand, finding patterns in particular articulations of identity, for example between One Nation's reactionary nationalism and that expressed onthe weekend through the riots, are very easy to find.
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