TAFE student Karol Lansang, from the Philippines, has launched a campaign for travel concessions for international students.
"For the past 19 years, international students have been denied equitable access to travel concessions,'' she said.
"It is discriminatory because they are only allowed to work 20 hours a week but have to pay heaps more in fees, and we have to pay ordinary rent." ...
Transport Minister John Watkins said NSW had the most generous transport concession scheme in the country and that the Government gave concessions to those most in need.
"Full-fee paying overseas tertiary students are not eligible for half-fare concessions because, in order to obtain the relevant visa to study in Australia, they have indicated that they have sufficient funds to cover their living expenses,'' he said.
Similar restrictions applied for Commonwealth benefits, such as Medicare ...
Well, last time I checked, discrimination between citizens and non-citizens was the definition of a country. But that's what you get with mass immigration: the sentiment for non-citizens becomes so strong that your country ceases to exist. That's why immigration is a tap that can't be turned off, and why nations are sucked into monstrous borderless unions like the EU.
A country's border can only be maintained if it's people value their distinguishing race and culture, and regulate immigration so those qualities are not diluted. Dilution is death for a nation: whether by permanent immigration, temporary labour, or foreign students.
BLACKTOWN'S Hindu community has called for a boycott of Mike Myers' new film The Love Guru.
They say the movie, which is scheduled for a nationwide release on Thursday, July 10, goes too far at making fun of the Hindu faith.
Sajana Nand, president of the Australian Hindu Multicultural Association, said he believed a comedy should make people laugh but not at the expense of ridiculing faith or spreading misinformation.
"It's us today but could be your community tomorrow,'' he said ...
"We support free speech,'' he said. "But our faith is sacred and attempts at belittling it has hurt the devotees ...
American Hindu leader Rajan Zed, who has called for a boycott in the US, said the antics of Myers' character, Guru Pitka, mocked the institution of guru ...
"Any attempt by an individual or an organisation to make a mockery of a guru shouldn't go unchallenged,'' he said.
"Based on the information I have got, I would strongly urge a nationwide boycott of the movie."
Mr Nand said he would call on the Film Classification Board to review the suitability of the fun ...
The Love Guru - Trailer
I'm speechless, so I'll leave this to Mike Meyer's good friend Garth ...
Garth Algar: Did you ever see that "Twilight Zone" where the guy signed a contract and they cut out his tongue and put it in a jar and it wouldn't die, it just grew and pulsated and gave birth to baby tongues? Pretty cool, huh?
Success of Boer war general anthem raises question of identity of Afrikaners Feb 26, 2007, Guardian:
The question goes out, and the response is always the same.
"I'm proud of my language and culture. Are you?" Bok van Blerk demands of the emotionally charged crowd.
Up goes the cheer, and then comes the song - an Afrikaans folk number about a Boer war general that has become a sensation in South Africa as an anthem for young whites who say they are tired of being made to feel guilty about the apartheid past.
The song, De La Rey, has swept into rugby matches and pubs where Afrikaners belt out its plea for the old Boer general to come back and lead. Many stand with a hand over their heart as they sing the lyrics about a "nation that will rise up again" as if it were a national anthem.
Delarey Song - with English subtitles
Delarey Song - Why the outcry, Beloved country - Part 1
Part 2
Quotes from video:
"We don't necessarily need a leader, we just need to revive our culture, everyone fall back on their culture. You know we are Afrikaners, we all have a bit of pride in ourselves."
"People are fed up with crime, people are fed up with corruption, they feel besieged, many things in South Africa are wrong."
"People feel uncertain - they're afraid, they feel disempowered, that explains the deep emotions."
"People don't sing about lying in trenches, but the current situation in S.A."
"The only call to arms there is for cultural revolution."
"Metaphorically speaking, we have to take up arms to preserve our Afrikaans culture."
"We're part of this rainbow nation but we're one of the colours, and we're raising our hand to say 'listen, we are here'."
"I never want a war again like the Anglo-Boer war."
Bok says it's not about war, but about pride. "I just hope that people will realise it doesn't matter who or what you are: Tswana, Zulu, Sotho, English or Afrikaner, take pride in who you are, it gives you backbone and direction in life."
Guardian, continued ...
Bok van Blerk characterises De La Rey as a stand against historic guilt.
"Young Afrikaners are tired of having the apartheid guilt trip shoved down their throats. This song makes them proud of their heritage," he said ...
The song has been portrayed in the Afrikaans press as a rallying cry for leadership which evaporated with the end of apartheid in 1994. The Afrikaner writer, Rian Malan, said the emotional impact of De La Rey caught everyone by surprise but reflects a deep-seated feeling among many whites that they do not belong in South Africa any more. Hundreds of thousands have decamped to London, Sydney and other foreign cities.
"Afrikaners were so vilified in the latter years of apartheid and they were so relieved at it ending that they just kept their heads down and put up with any shit for the first 10 years of the democratic experiment," he said.
"Afrikaners don't know where they fit in. The ANC and the comfortable class of Afrikaners have been very good at managing the Afrikaner problem. They lulled the rightwing with talk of a "volkstat" (homeland) some day. It's been very skilfully managed. The Afrikaans press carries some of the blame because they ignored the painful issues, they bought into the rainbow nation myth, they didn't rock the ideological boat."
But resentment has grown over affirmative action programmes in favour of non-whites which some Afrikaners see as a new form of apartheid.
There is also bitterness at the marginalisation of Afrikaans as a language by the state even though it is the most widely spoken in South Africa, and a perception that the government is attempting to eradicate Afrikaner culture by changing the names of roads, airports and cities, particularly Pretoria ...
Bok van Blerk ... earlier this month he performed before an audience in Afrikaner-only "Orania", a village that its residents hope will form the nucleus of a white homeland ...
"We don't necessarily need a leader, we just need to revive our culture". That is what whites need to do foremost, find songs to sing, rediscover or redefine our culture, find a way to unify the old-fashioned way. Unity will be the most vital ingredient to preserve our place in a world that many whites feel "that they do not belong ... any more". Orania, the search for a white safe-haven amidst a failing post-white nation, could be the beginning of similar movements wherever whites live.
This is exactly the shift Westerners need to make. For a long time, the neutrality strand of liberalism has set a different tone ...
We can be better than neutral. We can identify positively with our own culture; we can defend its value as a real entity and not just as a personal sentiment; and we can admire those who show themselves to be most connected to their own ethnic culture and who represent it at its best.
1/07/2008, Blacktown Sun:
