typical yanks

[lizzie]

i wonder why all african-americans who want compo don't go back to their homeland from which they were exported...

i actually find the term "african-american" rather an insult ... it keeps those of darker coloured skin segregated by their pigeonhole name. why are they not all "americans"?

we don't have the term of asian-australians or english-australians or african-australians or south-american-australians or middle-east-australians or european-australians ... everyone is just plain old "australian" and yet we are called a racist nation.

 

[lizzie]

2) Those calling for compensation would be doing so on the basis that their ancestors were enslaved and made to work for no wages, moreso than being relocated, because most slaves were born into slavery.

yes - but i think it gets back to the question of "how long do we keep paying for something that happened centuries ago by a people and way of thinking of another time?"

slavery was the way of the time, so was conquest by empirical countries, and workhouses (basically slavery of europeans by europeans as worked for roof and one meal a day) and dictatorships (otherwise known as monarchies) and inter-tribal canabilism.

if we look at the broader picture, everyone in the world has a case for compensation due to happenings to generations past.

 

[Perp]

yes - but i think it gets back to the question of "how long do we keep paying for something that happened centuries ago by a people and way of thinking of another time?"

I was saying that would be their logic, not that I thought it had any merit.

if we look at the broader picture, everyone in the world has a case for compensation due to happenings to generations past.

Yes, I agree. One has to draw a line in the sand somewhere.

 

[Aaron Sice]

Then i call end of the Second World War as the line in the sand

 

[lizzie]

Then i call end of the Second World War as the line in the sand

and only those still living who were "directly" affected - ie, wives, immediate children etc - as having rights for compo.

no great great great grandkiddies thanks

 

[Witzl]

and the world calls us racists.....

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/footbal...ard-him-with-racist-taunts-20100114-ma6x.html

 

[Ausprop]

Wow, where to start pulling that apart?

1) I'm not aware of any large scale/mainstream call for compensation by African-Americans, anyway.

2) Those calling for compensation would be doing so on the basis that their ancestors were enslaved and made to work for no wages, moreso than being relocated, because most slaves were born into slavery.

3) It's ridiculous to say that just because their were peripheral benefits relating to the unquestionably immoral act of enslaving people (ie their ancestors ended up living in a more economically prosperous country), that calling for compensation for that act means they should have to give up those peripheral benefits. It's a bit like saying "When I hit you with a car and paralysed you, you ended up falling in love with your personal carer and marrying them. If you want me to compensate you for paralysing you, you have to divorce your spouse."

what if that was their preference tho? My Irish ancestry was forced here as convict labor...I can't even get an Irish passport much less lay claim to ancestral stomping grounds. In the UK I accidentally bumped into an Afircan-pom in a supermarket once (actually he walked into me and dragged his shopping basket around me) and he got really fired up and told me to go back home to Australia. Talk about confusing.

 

[Perp]

and the world calls us racists.....

I don't know that "they" do. I think that if there are a few people on the internet making such accusations - and I bet you can find Icelandic people who hate Mongolians, somewhere on the internet! - it makes for a good headline in the media.

Just as we don't want the Indians to hear of some incidents in Melbourne and extrapolate that "Australians are racist", we shouldn't extrapolate from some isolated media reports/spokespeople in India to assume that "Indians believe Australians are racist".

I strongly suspect that the majority of Australians aren't racist, and the majority of Indians don't hold a belief that Australians are racist.

 

[jaycee]

they didn't get anything - old articles abound, but still raging in the US - esp in the military.

http://www.slcl.org/branches/hq/sc/jkh/slaveclaims/index-links.htm

i'm not tarring all African Americans witht he same brush here, just ones that think because their great grampappy was a slave in the civil war, that somehow, they are entitled to some sort of compensation.

oh right...

I thought it is not just a few africn amereicans making an imaginary fuss bout nothing and getting offended by what they percevie as racism.
I've never heard nyne ask for direct compensation for salvery, I have heard more that racism still occurs though..and I thought tht is what they complain about...

I cant judge them as you do, I dont feel I know enough to do so.

 

[jaycee]

Then i call end of the Second World War as the line in the sand

Yeah it should be you, an Australian to make a call about n American issue, but Americans should shut up about anything Australian.

 

[jaycee]

i actually find the term "african-american" rather an insult ... it keeps those of darker coloured skin segregated by their pigeonhole name. why are they not all "americans"?

we don't have the term of asian-australians or english-australians or african-australians or south-american-australians or middle-east-australians or european-australians ... everyone is just plain old "australian" and yet we are called a racist nation.

you are beginning to sound like those very americans you colained about for sticking their nose into issues nothign to do with them

ask an american

I suppose in australia we hve never had any terms besides migrant

even if america has racism, no bloody doubt - what does that have to do with whether we have racism here or not - it's not "in comparison to America" for Christ's sake.

racism exists here, in different forms. why is that so hard to accept without making excuses for it ?

 

[BayView]

"Australia - do they speak English there?"

This was actually asked of me by an American in California - on the ferry going over to Catalina Island.

Just in case you were all worried by how the Americans view us racists Aussies, I can promise you that the overwhelming majority of Americans not only don't care about what we do or say; they don't even know where our Country is.

Their interest stops at their border.

And, this would apply to a lot of the rest of the world I'd reckon.

We Aussies are very worried about what the rest of the world thinks of us. Why?

Who cares? I bloody don't. We are too far away for most of the world to be bothered with us.

We know what and who we are.

 

[Perp]

Just in case you were all worried by how the Americans view us racists Aussies, I can promise you that the overwhelming majority of Americans not only don't care about what we do or say; they don't even know where our Country is.

Their interest stops at their border.

So true! I kept waiting for the "world news" to come on... but they pretty much don't have anything from other parts of the world, unless it's about US foreign policy.

We Aussies are very worried about what the rest of the world thinks of us. Why?

I quite like Dr Phil's saying: "You wouldn't care so much what people think of you if you realised how seldom they did."

 

[Aaron Sice]

Yeah it should be you, an Australian to make a call about n American issue, but Americans should shut up about anything Australian.

not JUST an amercian issue - ANY issue as far as generational compo goes.

you must be getting heated about this - you're jumping the gun - unlike you...

 

[Slim Pikins]

and only those still living who were "directly" affected - ie, wives, immediate children etc - as having rights for compo.

no great great great grandkiddies thanks

And the Japanese were sorry for people dying. No compo for my family.
But there again the old man didn't die in the war, just stuft for rest of his life.

My old woman was lucky she got compo from the Australian Gov't when she was old, 35 yrs after he died, and less than $1,000 for each yr.

Slim

 

[Strannik]

2) Those calling for compensation would be doing so on the basis that their ancestors were enslaved and made to work for no wages, moreso than being relocated, because most slaves were born into slavery.

So how does any of that entitles them to a compo?

3) It's ridiculous to say that just because their were peripheral benefits relating to the unquestionably immoral act of enslaving people (ie their ancestors ended up living in a more economically prosperous country), that calling for compensation for that act means they should have to give up those peripheral benefits. It's a bit like saying "When I hit you with a car and paralysed you, you ended up falling in love with your personal carer and marrying them. If you want me to compensate you for paralysing you, you have to divorce your spouse."

No, it's more like - "when I hit your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother with a horse and as a result her ancestors have started to live better (not mentioning the fact that grandmother was probably saved from much worse fate back home), you are not entitled to any compo"

plus you forget that majority of those slaves were sold by their own tribes, or were enemies caught during a war between tribes and sold by the winner of the war. so the blame should lie on the ancestors of people who sold them into slavery in a first place. those can probably still be found in Africa.

as much as you don't like it, slavery is a part of history of the wast majority of countries, and if everyone started to claim compo on the basis of their great great great parents being enslaved then the world would be a total mess.

applying today's moral standards to the distant past is a very dangerous thing to do, especially claiming compo based on current morals.

 

[Strannik]

we don't have the term of asian-australians or english-australians or african-australians or south-american-australians or middle-east-australians or european-australians ... everyone is just plain old "australian" and yet we are called a racist nation.

sure we do

it's called indigenous australian, and the question whether you are one is in almost every single government and non-government form you fill out.

i agree that it's very racist to single them out (as well as offer them any compos). KRudd apologized for everything, so we all should be australians now, and forget all the special treatments that certain groups of people are getting based on their race.

 

[jaycee]

not JUST an amercian issue - ANY issue as far as generational compo goes.

you must be getting heated about this - you're jumping the gun - unlike you...:confused:

Really ? UN-like ? thanks !

Look we all know that life is not blakc & white.. There is no fair defintie line in the sand, it's all shades of grey.. it's not that simple and some people making it hard... Ask the people on the other side of that fence and they will say, they see it clearly and the other people are denying the obvious facts right in front of their eyes -with just as much convicton and details as you have.