Rod, at 21:52 on Mar 06 1996, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

BG> Also, several years ago, my parents took in a Japanese
BG> exchange student for 12 months, and I that's basically
BG> when I became fascinated with the cultures of other countries.

RS> Yeah, must admit the Indians did come up with the most imaginative
RS> solution to the surplus mother in law problem, make her climb onto
RS> the funeral pyre with hubby, whether she wants to go or not.

An absolutely top idea IMO.

RS> I'd love to know how the hell you get that sort of thing going.

Down boy.  :)

BG> Oh, my brother also spent 2 years living in both
BG> France and Nepal, and he's not a racist either (in
BG> fact, he now works with the Dept of Aboriginal Affairs).

RS> So did Charlie Perkins, one of our most flagrant racists |-)

True, a valid point.  :)

BG> It'd be interesting to hear Rod's POV re this subject, given that he lives 
BG> in a city which is predominatly inhabited by people of European (and more
BG> specifically, Italian and Sicilian) origin.  What say you, Rod?

RS> Its weird actually, the biggest problem is actually between the wogs and
RS> the coons would you believe ?  Particularly with teenagers. There have
RS> been been full scale brawls at the local show on more than one occasion.

Are these racially motivated, or just kids letting off steam?

RS> Its certainly true that there is a considerable amount of
RS> separation, particularly at the level of social clubs, but
RS> there are still a hell of a lot of italians in the leagues
RS> club, and lots of non wogs in the predominantly wog clubs too.

You still don't appear to have total integration, even after all this time.

RS> In some ways its more obvious in the retirement villages, separate.

Presumably these are the oldies who came here in the '40s and '50s, and
because of the extreme racism at that time, didn't integrate at all?

RS> Tho there are heaps of people of my generation who
RS> have married the other group, including my next door
RS> neighbour. Mostly the kids of the actual immigrants.

Do you think that this might simply be due to the sheer numbers of
Europeans migrants or their descendants in the Riverina area in general
though?

RS> Some are rather weird, lots of wog Joveys for example.

Bet that upset the local Roman Catholic priest.  :)

RS> Its also a very generational thing, there are damned few people
RS> of my generation who are overtly racist in the sense of refusing
RS> to have anything to do with say an asian person. There there is
RS> some of that. At one time the non asian employees of Telecom would
RS> even just hangup on an asian that they came across when calling
RS> internally in Telecom, to an asian employee of telecom. Tho there
RS> are lots of wogs in telecom too.

Interesting.  Must ask Poe about Cowra too, as there are a hell of a lot of
people of Asian origins there too, although I suppose that nowadays, most
of those would have been born in Australia anyway. 

RS> In some ways its even more noticeable in the immigrants, plenty
RS> of poms are rabid about germans, dutch sneer at wogs etc.

The 2 things I hate the most:  Racism, and the Dutch.

Regards, Bill

--- Msgedsq/2 3.20