1) In Australia, Councils are much smaller than in Brittain. My Council, for example, is only about fifty thousand households. Our "state" level of government, the middle teir, means that the councils have to be fairly small and powerless. So yes, we do get loonies, and whole-council-sackings from time to time.
2) Sydney in particular, is very prone to the development of ghettos. Most people who migrate to Australia go to Sydney, and in particular, they seek out an enclave of people who speak their own language. So there are a number of very specific ethnic suburbs. People obviously fear that a school of this size is a significant draw-card, and perhaps enough to change the local demographic.
There are plans to build a Hindu school in our area. We are totally, vehemently, against it! Not for 'Johnny Foreigner' reasons, but because we live in a very cosmopolitan area and my sons all went to school with children from every race and religion (and none), and as a result are totally knowledgeable and accepting about all their friends cultures and beliefs. Now suddenly everyone wants to segregate! How can that be beneficial? :-(
Well, minority groups like that spend most of their time in a world where most of the people are the majority, so really, it's not like they're not mixing with other cultures - it's just one place where they'd be not-a-minority, which I can see being really useful to them.
We from majority cultures will just have to deal with their refusal to spend *all* their time outside their own homes educating us on multiculturalism.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-26 11:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-26 12:02 pm (UTC)1) In Australia, Councils are much smaller than in Brittain. My Council, for example, is only about fifty thousand households. Our "state" level of government, the middle teir, means that the councils have to be fairly small and powerless. So yes, we do get loonies, and whole-council-sackings from time to time.
2) Sydney in particular, is very prone to the development of ghettos. Most people who migrate to Australia go to Sydney, and in particular, they seek out an enclave of people who speak their own language. So there are a number of very specific ethnic suburbs. People obviously fear that a school of this size is a significant draw-card, and perhaps enough to change the local demographic.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-26 08:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-27 01:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-26 05:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-27 08:57 am (UTC)Elaine xx
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-27 10:44 pm (UTC)We from majority cultures will just have to deal with their refusal to spend *all* their time outside their own homes educating us on multiculturalism.