Which is massively ironic, in light of everything that I'm going to discuss.
Anyway. Let's do a fun little exercise that The Age did. It's called 'stereotyping'.
People love it. Makes things a lot easier, when you can categorise people based on race.
Disregarding the fact that *shockhorror* not every person in each race is the same as each other, let's do a bit of stereotyping and generalisation.
White people love footy and beer, and not going to uni is ok. In fact, it might even be encouraged.
Asian people, not so much. There's a pressure to actually go to uni and complete your degree.
For white people, not having a high paying job or a successful career is ok.
For Asians, not so much.
Let me reiterate, I know that this isn't the case for every single person in every single race. But let's just play The Age at their own game.
So if we go with the assumption that people can be stereotyped as above, then why would it be surprising that Asians 'dominate' selective-entry schools? If Asians, as The Age so eloquently state, have pressure from their parents to achieve at school, while white people don't, then why would it be absurd that there are more Asians at an elite school?
What worries me more is that the contention is not so much that it's absurd. What worries me is that the contention that The Age is making is that there is something wrong with this. That white people have some divine right to be the dominant race at a selective entry school.
Simply put, nobody was complaining when it was mostly white people at Melbourne High and Mac Rob a few decades ago.
There's no rules forbidding anyone from taking the exam, doing well enough, and getting in. In fact, I would argue that it would, or should, be easier for home-grown Aussies to get in, for reasons that I don't think I need to go into.
Let's just assume that there is something wrong with having too many Asians at selective entry high schools (whatever that even means. I mean, for the purposes of this argument, am I Asian? Certainly genetically. But, for all intents and purposes, I am an Australian.) What is the proposed solution? Prevent Asians from caring about their education and their future, and hence, stop them from studying as hard?
Andrew Bolt, for once, quite nicely summed it up.
There's no distinction for students at those schools. We don't go around not talking to white people because they're white. We just have fewer white friends mostly because it's a cultural thing. We tend to do different things in our spare time. Have different family values. In sum, not so much to talk about. We still have white friends though. Just less of them.
I mean, the whole thing is stupid. Most people never think about these things in terms of race. I, for one, don't look at someone and go, hey, they're white, must act differently towards them.
Anyway, whatever. Work hard, or be born smart and work a little bit, and you'll probably end up at a selective entry school (if you're even aware of their existence - I know most people aren't), regardless of your race.
The topic of working hard to get further in life is a nice segue into my next little topic.
Some of you may have noticed this thing taking place. It's called Occupy Melbourne (or insert any other city in the developed world).
If this were happening in any other city, I could understand.
But this is Melbourne.
The same Melbourne that has a real unemployment rate that economists consider to be zero.
The same Melbourne where you get free education, and get paid by the Government if you're out of work.
The same Melbourne that my father came to, twenty years ago, with no money, no relatives, no friends, and no understanding of the language or culture, and managed to make a living, and eventually afford a house, a car, and schooling for his children.
He's not the only one. Probably 99% of my friends are the children of immigrants. And they're doing alright.
If someone like my father, and countless other immigrants, who have nothing when they come here, can more than make ends meet, I think there's rarely an excuse for people that grow up here not to.
Granted, my dad is a man of incredible drive and dedication. He worked, and still does work, 9, 10, 11 hours a day, often seven days a week. With maybe a 15 minute lunch break. Sometimes with no lunch break.
He is also smart. The work he's doing now is experiencing a shortage of people that will probably not reverse any time soon.
But that didn't happen straight away. He also experienced many setbacks, times when he didn't know whether it would all work out. There were times when he worried whether he'd make enough money to put food on the table for dinner that night.
Just as an aside, I don't think I'm anywhere near as good as he is. For one, I think I'd find it very hard to leave a place that I'd called home for 30-odd years, to go to a place that I knew nothing about, in search of a better future.
While I know that not everyone is as determined, driven, smart, or brave as him, a lot of it is down to hard work. So, I guess, mainly determination.
Yes, I know that some people experience bad luck. I also know that not everyone comes from an ideal background that's conducive to being educated, or getting good jobs.
I know that, because my father came from a similar background. So did my mother.
But, conversely, many people at this Occupy Melbourne thing have a much better foundation than he does. 99% of it comes from the fact that they grew up here. They're native speakers of the language. They were educated until at least Year 10. They have a safety net to fall back on.
Let me make it clear what it was like when my parents came here, just after I was born. They had nobody to rely on. Nothing. If they starved, they starved. The Government offered no assistance. When they arrived, it was during the worst recession since the Great Depression. And they managed to get through all that.
Yes, corporate greed is excessive sometimes. Was, is, probably always will be. It's human nature. Put yourself in their position. Would you take more?
I'm not saying it's right, but what it seems to me is that all these people ranting against 'capitalism' in favour of 'socialism' (as an aside, I doubt many of them know what either of these words actually mean) are only against it not because there's anything intrinsically wrong with capitalism, but because capitalism isn't handing a job to them. Or whatever they want capitalism to hand to them. I'm a little confused about that point, but whatever. Put another way, they'd be perfectly happy if capitalism were to give them a house, a car, and no mortgage to pay.
The most profound moment, for me, in this whole saga, was one of my Facebook 'friends' harping on about how he'd spent the day at the protests.
He'd just come back from a trip around Europe. Last time I checked, airfares alone were around $4000.
How hypocritical is that? There's nothing wrong with going to Europe. Australia's a liberal democracy. Do whatever you want with your money, as long as it's not harming anyone. But please, don't then turn around two weeks after you come back from your sojourn around Europe, and complain about your lack of money/job. Money needs to be saved. Nobody owes you anything. If you decide to spend it on a trip around wherever, don't go and protest about how corporate leaders are taking your money. They're not. You're spending it all away.
I know this doesn't apply to everyone there, but it seems to be a common theme. Not just at these protests, but just around the place. People spending all their money, having good times, getting wasted, whatnot, then complaining that they don't have enough money to do it all again.
It's clear that most people protesting don't see the apparent contradiction in their actions. Otherwise, they wouldn't be protesting. The whole thing is just one, big confused mess. What it seems to me is that people are using this as a way to vent their frustrations. Any frustrations. Not necessarily anything to do with anything.
Again, I acknowledge the fact that there are genuinely unfortunate people out there. They deserve our help. In many cases, we do try to help them. What's distressing, at least in my mind, is when people go and blow probably close to at least $10 000 on a jolly holiday, and then complain about their lack of money.
Of all places, Melbourne is the last place you'd expect something like this to happen. The very fact that you have time and energy to camp in the city for a week, and not starve to death, or have to worry about actually getting that food that you're lacking, is testament to this.
Further, the corporate 'fat cats' didn't just become fat cats overnight. Whether you like to acknowledge it or not, many of them worked hard for it.
Lindsay Fox dropped out of school because he was no good at it. He started driving trucks. He eventually saved up, and bought one. Then several. Eventually, he built a company out of it.
Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jay-Z, similar stories. Often coming from less-than-ideal backgrounds.
Yes, there is an element of fortune to becoming a bazillionaire. Probably a large part of it.
But do you think they just sat there, and it just happened for them, with no work on their part?
Very rarely do fat cats become fat cats for no reason. While what they get paid, and what they take, seems, and probably is, excessive, it didn't just happen either.
Also, fat cats employ people. Topple big corporations, and you'll lose more jobs.
I'll give you this awesome slogan from the movement.
GREED IS OVER. REAL DEMOCRACY NOW.
What. The. Hell.
The two things aren't mutually exclusive. There are greedy people in democracies. Actually, I would contend that greedy people make up the vast majority of any society, not just democracies.
To summarise, I find it genuinely amazing how people are so self-entitled, and think that they deserve to have money handed out to them, especially in a place like Melbourne, where money is often handed out to them. While I know not everybody there is like that, many of them are.
I think I'll just leave it there. I feel a bout of compulsive head-banging on the table coming on.
Word of the Day: Occupy
