MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

You Have to Be Taught... “You've got to be taught to hate and fear,  You've got to be taught from year to year,  It's got to be drummed In your dear little ear You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught to be afraid Of people whose eyes are oddly made  And people whose skin is a different shade You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught before it's too late  Before you are six or seven or eight To hate all the people your relatives hate You've got to be carefully taught” (Rogers and Hammerstein) I wrote about immigration in Australia and The White Australia Policy   recently   and it has been interesting to receive feedback...and to reread my emails following the Census release this week. When I was a child of 7 my father, as an exchange naval officer, attended   Fort Queenscliff Army Staff Colle ge .   It was a magicial time.  One of open eyes for a young child, wit...

This transcript  of a comment about immigration policy by Australia's first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, was sent to me yesterday. I found the timing particularly interesting as I was reading this morning a newspaper report about one of the largest companies in Australia, Rio Tinto, launching today one of the single biggest recruitment drives in Australian history.   The shortage of skilled workers in Australia, during this current mining boom,  is so dire that the Federal Government this week revealed it would raise permanent migration levels by 5000 people annually.  The West Australian I have also been reading, and watching European TV news, about the role of immigration policies, particularly in the current French Presidential election campaign, but also the other countries of Europe.  While I have not visited for a year or so, I was aware of the underlying tensions raised about immigration in Switzerland, for example.        ...