If you are new to tDA first up welcome, welcome, welcome 🙂
Secondly, apologies for a couple of reasons:
1) I recently had to completely delete and reinstall the blog due to malware and viruses and have been slow, to say the least, restoring the theme and backend stuff that made the blog sparkle. Rest assured, I am slow but steady in getting there.
2) If you have left a comment in the last couple of months, sorry. I logged in to find more than 900 comments that have yet to be approved. If any of my crew – you know yourselves – wish to help me as I go through these comments, shoot me a mail ( what a weird expression if ever we use one) and I appreciate your help.
3) Mwangi is not dead 🙂 I am still very much alive and still a resident of Australia. If you have any questions or anything you want to know my contacts are all over.
4) I am working on the theme and the backend….promise 🙂
5) I don’t like spell checking. I simply love to write 🙂
B blesd and bles othaz,
Mwangi
I stumbled across this blog by accident looking up Australian Racism.(TM). Being Indian and having wrestled with identity and the pronounced negative stereotypes about people who look like me(all 1 billion of us) has been exhausting. I firmly beleive that raceis irrelelvant for the future i.e. we are individuals first. However being constantly viewed through the ‘race prism’ has stimulated a wider interest in the concepts of race and the similarities that binds us. Long story short, love the blog, love the honest nature of it and the self-effacing humour therein. Looking forward to read some more.
@monkeyduke: Thanks for the kind thoughts and welcome to tDA 🙂
Wow, I can not believe that I have only just stumbled upon your site now. It’s so refreshing to hear your experiences, good and bad and funny, from such a personal perspective. I also live in Melb- in the south east to be exact – and have a keen interest in learning about and understanding the ways we feel about ethnicity, culture, identity and how the hell we all manage (or not) to mash it all together in one place. In the near future I am hoping to work with migrants and from what I’ve read so far this blog has been amazing, as the African communities are very significant here.
@Mella: Always glad to be of service 🙂
Hi Monkey Dude,
As a born Australian I’d like to share my opinion on what you wrote. There’s nothing more inspiring than meeting an immigrant with a sense of themselves, it doesn’t matter where they are from. I also love meeting immigrants who show that they’ve observed the cultural norms, and they respect the intricacies of the culture.
People can still be who they are and respect the culture of whatever land they’re in. If they feel they can’t be themselves to a reasonable extent, then they shouldn’t be in that land (for example I wouldn’t feel like myself in iraq)
As someone who gets cabs nearly every day and for many years (a job where indian drivers have increased a great deal over the last ten years, and from other lands too) I would say that there needs to be caution taken by immigrants to display humility in whichever job they’re in. During this time I’ve experienced wonderful drivers, though a great deal of others who don’t clean the cab, don’t listen (and don’t acknowledge that they don’t understand you, they just ignore you – so rude!) drive dangerously (sometimes even on the wrong side of the road)) drive dangerously cutting people off on the road. Insurance claims have gone up so much in this time that the cab company is having trouble getting insurance.
I got a driver the other night who cut in front of someone to pick me up, then talked on his mobile, and when I said please say bye to your friend he said “f&*^ off” hung up and laughed about it. Firstly in Australia, it’s impolite to swear in front of females. This is relaxed now, but you never do it in a service industry. It shows complete disrespect.
None of these behaviours are amusing. Unfortunately, cab driving is a service industry which means that they are on display. For every time a cab driver does not understand this, or the culture of respect, they reinforce an opinion that gets stronger and stronger of what the culture is about. Like football players have a reputation for wild nights, or house wives a reputation for not being ambitious. Neither will be true all the time.
I have worked side by side many wonderful gentle funny indian people in IT (but note these people may be in offices and not have an impact on a range of people every day)
Let me say that I have had wonderful african and indian cab drivers who have lit up my day with happiness and take pride in what they do. They too stand out more than a born Australian for being inspiring and courageous.
When I travel I am aware that I am representing the country I am from. If you’re different, it’s sometimes unfortunate that some oversights may stand out more than someone from that country (even if there are many rude people from the country itself)So it’s fair to say that you need to be careful and don’t try and be bold or cool or behave rudely to women, who are equal here.
I think in any country, people view immigrants as guests to some extent, and they need to be a little guarded and very observant of the country’s values, otherwise the people in that country feel they’re being taken advantage of. This includes hygiene (wear an antiperspirant every day boys and girls!)Always wear fresh, clean clothes, and don’t think that because you are in a Western culture that you are suddenly cool and free and nothing matters.
Australia may appear to have little culture but there are underlying important cultural values that need to be observed. When they are, over time, the respect and welcoming flows tenfold.
So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it.
Great
Thank you so much