Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Van Thanh Rudd
Van Thanh Rudd's recent protest concerning Australia was given much publicity yesterday in the Indian press.
The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's nephew, who is part Vietnamese, was fined for offensive behaviour after dressing in a Ku Klux Klan costume to protest against racism at a demonstration outside the Australia Open tennis championship.
IMO: Van Thanh Rudd has probably suffered less than most from racism than many others. In Australia, scholars, academics and the 'young British Artist' types of Private Eye - a category into which he'd probably fall, actually seem to have suffered relatively little from racism at any time in the recent past in Australia. The people who did suffer most, in my opinion, were ordinary middle and low income Australian persons of obvious mixed blood, who often suffered more from their own full blood white Australian relatives than anyone else. Indian students are often poor and since they may well also be intellectual snobs, they could catch a little of the brunt of the wrath created by their supposed alllies. I don't know if the KKK uniform stunt helps anyone - and of course many Vietnamese were on Australia's side during the Vietnam war, which Australia probably could have won anyway if it had had to go it alone - obviously using plenty of nukes - but the Rupert Murdoch types doubtless made more money by kowtowing to China. Australia has always been mildly smug and irritating, but that is not one sided. The smugness and irritatingness have been mutual to many of all sides and Australia can be made to look more of a problem country than it is. The cult of wearing a black singlet whilst you wash your own Ferrari, whilst never fully implemented, has never appealed to me personally. Besides, I certainly cannot afford a new Ferrari, and have always left black singlets to the dunny man, whom Ferrari owners probably never meet. But such people as Van Thanh Rudd may well be a problem, rather than a potential asset, to India. Be all that as it may, India needs fissile materials - especially for peaceful purposes - to allow its nationals to survive in a dignified way.
Mr Rudd said the Australian Government had participated in racism. "In this country, you could not get away with locking up more than 1000 innocent whites, but that is exactly what is happening to Tamil and Afghani refugees. It's racism pure and simple." He said Australia was funding the Sri Lankan regime from which Tamil refugees were fleeing.
IMO: That is probably how it is, and I tend to blame the Australian government rather more than the Australian people. Now the problem, to a certain extent, is with the Delhi government as well, who obviously are funding Sri Lanka also, because they need to try to avoid too much Chinese involvement in Sri Lanka, and because of almost the certainly unjustified desire for Delhi vengeance against the Tamil people. The Gandhis, from Varun to Sonia, also seem too smug. This cannot help Indian politics. The Indian Express concluded that "In the opinion of the LSE and SOAS faculty and officials the report quoted, this meant Varun Gandhi's degree, for example was not from their institutions". India Today reported that Varun had studied abroad, failing to complete a law degree at the University of Durham, where he lived off an allowance of £1,500 a month.
The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's nephew, who is part Vietnamese, was fined for offensive behaviour after dressing in a Ku Klux Klan costume to protest against racism at a demonstration outside the Australia Open tennis championship.
IMO: Van Thanh Rudd has probably suffered less than most from racism than many others. In Australia, scholars, academics and the 'young British Artist' types of Private Eye - a category into which he'd probably fall, actually seem to have suffered relatively little from racism at any time in the recent past in Australia. The people who did suffer most, in my opinion, were ordinary middle and low income Australian persons of obvious mixed blood, who often suffered more from their own full blood white Australian relatives than anyone else. Indian students are often poor and since they may well also be intellectual snobs, they could catch a little of the brunt of the wrath created by their supposed alllies. I don't know if the KKK uniform stunt helps anyone - and of course many Vietnamese were on Australia's side during the Vietnam war, which Australia probably could have won anyway if it had had to go it alone - obviously using plenty of nukes - but the Rupert Murdoch types doubtless made more money by kowtowing to China. Australia has always been mildly smug and irritating, but that is not one sided. The smugness and irritatingness have been mutual to many of all sides and Australia can be made to look more of a problem country than it is. The cult of wearing a black singlet whilst you wash your own Ferrari, whilst never fully implemented, has never appealed to me personally. Besides, I certainly cannot afford a new Ferrari, and have always left black singlets to the dunny man, whom Ferrari owners probably never meet. But such people as Van Thanh Rudd may well be a problem, rather than a potential asset, to India. Be all that as it may, India needs fissile materials - especially for peaceful purposes - to allow its nationals to survive in a dignified way.
Mr Rudd said the Australian Government had participated in racism. "In this country, you could not get away with locking up more than 1000 innocent whites, but that is exactly what is happening to Tamil and Afghani refugees. It's racism pure and simple." He said Australia was funding the Sri Lankan regime from which Tamil refugees were fleeing.
IMO: That is probably how it is, and I tend to blame the Australian government rather more than the Australian people. Now the problem, to a certain extent, is with the Delhi government as well, who obviously are funding Sri Lanka also, because they need to try to avoid too much Chinese involvement in Sri Lanka, and because of almost the certainly unjustified desire for Delhi vengeance against the Tamil people. The Gandhis, from Varun to Sonia, also seem too smug. This cannot help Indian politics. The Indian Express concluded that "In the opinion of the LSE and SOAS faculty and officials the report quoted, this meant Varun Gandhi's degree, for example was not from their institutions". India Today reported that Varun had studied abroad, failing to complete a law degree at the University of Durham, where he lived off an allowance of £1,500 a month.
# posted by uv : 4:59 PM
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