By Meg From Down Under

I don't interpret social relationships exactly like Meg does, but she is THERE, and that counts for something. Posted with her permission.
Howard's doing a fine job there, isn't he?

It is a nightmare here at the moment. I am only thankful that none of
this is happening near where I live and work. Tensions have been rising
for years in the Sutherland Shire area. This area is predominantly
white and is actually quite a racist area, non-whites are not accepted
at all. Young Lebanese males take advantage of this tension and head
out to the Shire and hassle young white women who are at the beach or
having a night out. Things went from simmering below the surface to mass
eruption when two Middle Eastern men, most probably Lebanese, attacked
two local lifeguards on the beach two weekends ago. All during that
week, there were mass emails and sms messages encouraging white
Australians to come to a demonstration to "Take Back our Beach". This
demonstration had the backing of several extreme right-wing parties,
parties that could safely be called Neo-Nazis. This weekend, mobs of
young white males turned up to the "demonstration" tanked up with
alcohol and looking for a fight. There was no real demonstration, it
was more like murderous mob, all running around wearing Australian flags
(which truly sickened me) and racists t-shirts. They didn't keep their
anger controlled towards young Lebanese males, but instead attacked
anyone, both male and female, who even remotely looked Arab. There are
reports of a mob of men running after a 13 year old Muslim girl and
tearing off her head scarf, then parading around the streets holding it
up as a trophy. Literally thousands of young men chased after a
solitary 14 year old Arab boy who was simply going to the beach for a
swim. There are reports of beatings at train stations and stabbings.
On Sunday night, the Lebanese community retaliated with young Lebs
going around stabbing the first white man they saw and smashing up
cars. Last night, the violence continued once more with more attacks
and vandalising cars. It will probably cycle like this unlike the
police put the areas on a night-time curfew. To makes matters worse, it
is summer here and school is out. We have thousands of young men that
literally have nothing to do except plan and carry out revenge attacks.

It has got nothing to do with poverty or economics, in my opinion.
These aren't exclusively poor or less well-off people. It has to do
with race. White Australians who hate anyone who is different and
Lebanese boys who have a cultural disrespect for white women and who are
caught between conflicting cultures. They don't really belong anywhere.

It doesn't help that our PM has won two elections based on white
Australia's deeply ingrained dislike of immigrants and fear of
terrorism. Of course, he is taking no responsibility whatsoever. His
speeches on racism are so wishywashy that they can be taken to support
both sides of the argument. At least our state premier has come out
strongly condemning the violence on both sides of the equation saying
that it doesn't matter where you came from, you can't indulge in that
kind of behaviour. What I found the most sickening was the politicians
from the Neo-Nazi parties actively out there stirring up hatred - one of
them even had a BBQ going with free food for whites only.
The Sydney Morning Herald (http://www.smh.com.au) has very comprehensive coverage of these riots covering both sides of the argument. It is
worth a look at, even if it is just seeing the photos from the Sunday riots.