It's been a while since I was in Australia, but I think when push comes to shove, in the end, the larger part of Australian society won't stand for it.
I returned to the US in July 05, after about 18 months in Aus. Time spent was between Sydney and Canberra. Sydney crimes gave me the impression of crimes in any large city anywhere in the world. Canberra was almost no major crime (thefts/burglaries etc but not much beyond that).
Back in the 90's when I lived in NZ, I spent a fair amount of time on periodic trips to Aus - those days the unions were "kinda owned" by Italian-Australians - Construction, trucking, garbage services...
This time I did not find that to be the case.
My guess is, Australian are trying to make up their own "melting pot", and going thru the pain of that process. Even now, we in the US have a level of difficulty with that notion.
Finally, I would agree with John Howard : "these rioters are criminals, and should be treated and prosecuted as such". Like him, I dont believe what we heard is Terrorism. |
