Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Things making me angry today:

Okay, it's really only one thing right now.

Recently a Muslim school plan in the outer Sydney suburb of Camden was rejected, causing a lot of outcry about racism (a pig's head was found staked to the potential site with nasty signs and a lot of residents showing terrible behaviour).

The council ended up rejecting it based on the apparent fact that the plans didn't meet requirements.

However! Now a Catholic school has applied for a similar school (but with Catholics of course :P ) and the president of the local residents group, Emil Sremchevich, who campaigned very loudly against the Muslim school, said that this new school application should be just fine because they're Catholics (before he even looked at the application).


"Why is that racist? Why is it discriminatory? It's very simple: people like some things but don't like other things. Some of us like blondes, some of us like brunettes. Some of us like Fords, some of us like Holdens. Why is it xenophobic just because I want to make a choice? If I want to like some people and not like other people, that's the nature of the beast."


ARGH. STUPID IGNORANT PEOPLE OMG.

Let's hope the council treats this application the same way as the Muslim school. Mob rules are not okay!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/catholics-welcome-muslims-not/2008/09/08/1220857456711.html

2 comments:

Catherine said...

I just realised I should probably give an argument as to why that statement by the president is so amazingly wrong.

1) This is *not* a preference thing. You wouldn't be able to discriminate against hiring someone for a job, or having a school if they had brown hair instead of blonde or drove a Ford instead of a Holden.

2) You are xenophobic, Mr. Sremchevich, because you don't want a group of people to do something in your area that isn't familiar to your own cultural and societal background. You fear them, their potential impact on your lifestyle, on your area.

xenophobia |ˈzɛnəˈfəʊbɪə|
noun
intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries

Add in "and cultures" at the end, and yeah, I'd say that's what you have. Along with an unhealthy dose of racism.

Anonymous said...

Damn! You posted that comment before I could say "Please explain?"!