Always Looking for a Fight
I had blogged about the Lebanese-Australian relations down under previously, and if you haven’t recently heard, Indians living in Australia have been experiencing what seemed to be racial violence towards them, but it appears that our fellow Lebanese have also decided to get in on the action:
About 200 Indian students on Monday night protested against perceived police apathy after two Indian men were attacked by ethnic Lebanese in the western Sydney suburb of Harris Park.
Wait a minute! Weren’t the Lebanese in the exact same position as the Indians a number of months back? And instead of sympathizing with their plight, we’ve finally decided to ‘integrate’ (I use the term ever so loosely) into Australian society and beat the crap out of them?!?
Protests in India against these acts may change in character, from burning an effigy of the Australian Prime Minister to possibly burning one of Saad Hariri.
Activists of Shiv Sena, a Hindu hardline group, burn an effigy of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in New Delhi during a protest against the recent attacks on Indian students in Australia. Photo: Reuters
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Comments
Hi Aussie, I’m just stating the facts. Racism exists in every country in the world and as a Lebanese, I do have the right to mock my own citizens – there’s no racism in that. My point is that there is a currently a racial flare up in Australia (whether brought on by the media or the people on the ground) which started between Indian nationals and ‘native’ Australians. According to current reports, one of these incidents might have been between Lebanese and Indians. What I am trying to figure out is what brought Lebanese-Austrialians into this issue. Was the attack by Lebanese just random violence by a random gang or is it somewhat connected to previous attacks?
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Just retired after spending 21 years working for, and doing business with, Lebanese-owned firms in Dubai. Nice blokes. Some degree of assimilation is the key wherever you are in the world.
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I agree. This is true for any nationality living in a foreign country. Once assimilation fails, I feel its quite ‘understandable’ that people might turn towards violence as they feel that their existence is threatened. Not an excuse, but finding an assimilation solution should be priority.
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But then, the Dubai Indian community I am (being of Indian origin)fully assimilated into, had a serious problem with my comfortable standing amongst the Lebanese.
Never had this problem during the years I spent in Malaysia and Singapore where there are significant populations of Malays, Chinese and Indians in addition to expats from all over the world.
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I’ve noticed that in Dubai, most people form cliques with others that they share a common background with, most often nationality. I don’t know why that is. Dubai being labeled as a melting pot of nationalities is quite far from the truth. Its more like oil and a water. If you give it a good mix, they do come together but once it settles, they drift apart.
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Right Jad, the UAE is unique. Must have something to do with the fact that expats form a large majority, larger than the rest of the GCC. Everyone’s insecure, so they stick within self-imposed boundaries dictated by country
of origin.
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what of the indian students who were attacked in melbourne, who were the nameless faceless people attacking indians in melbourne, i’ll wager not lebanese? find another way to spread racism. anyone with the sense given to goat would be able to see htrough it.