Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Australia and the "Wogs"

I usually check my hit counter once every day or two, and a couple of weeks ago, I began finding searches through google with the phrase "I hate lebanese". I quoted a friend once in a post below when he was complaining about the confessional system, and these searches were directed there.

However, lately, these hits have increased. I had only heard about the events there on Monday, but sadly, other events took shape in Lebanon.

Simplistically speaking, there have been anti-lebanese (and arab) riots, which - when I first heard about it - seem to have been initiated by some act done by Lebanese.

Usually, such riots do not begin with one event. I had a friend who lived in Australia (Sydney, I believe) for around 13 years, and she would tell me stories about how Lebanese were deprecatingly called "Wogs" (Wikipedia claims that Wogs is an ethnic slur against arabs). Apparently, they weren't that well behaved. (I have heard similar complaints by friends in Nigeria and Kenya - except these complaints were much more serious that just not "well behaved".)

According to one sociology professor:
More than 20,000 Lebanese migrants arrived in Australia over a two-year period in the late 1970s: an immigration wave that coincided with a dramatic downturn in Australia's manufacturing industry.

The job market they would have relied upon to build a new life in Australia simply wasn't there, Humphrey says.

By the late '80s and early '90s, unemployment rates in the Lebanese community, based mainly in southern Sydney and Melbourne, were up to five times higher than the national average. "There's a social path to this that has created a marginal second generation," Humphrey says. "We have an out-of-control teenage group. I wouldn't like to say material conditions equals bad behaviour, but it no doubt contributes."

Humphrey says world events have also contributed to the progressive stigmatising and alienation of the Lebanese community. "We have had this increasing association between international events and violence and the devaluation of [the Lebanese community's] status.
"September 11, the Bali and London bombings particularly and the way our government focused on the politics of fear around security heightened the fear we were hosting dangerous people within. I'm not saying you can reduce events in Cronulla to this, but it's a focus for a whole kind of cooking of a sense of anxiety and uncertainty."

I could probably copy paste the slurs that were shouted on both sides, but in the spirit of "unity", I would rather paste the following speech by the Australian Prime Minister:
"Attacking people on the basis of race and ethnicity is totally unacceptable and should be repudiated by all Australians, irrespective of background and politics," he said.

"It is important that we reaffirm our respect for freedom of religion in this country, but it is also important that we place greater emphasis on integration of people into the broader community and the avoidance of tribalism."


posted by Lazarus, 10:28 PM

7 Comments:

  • Lazarus,

    From what I know, “Wog” actually has a positive connotation, and it stands for the old sign raised to welcome the incoming populations that would help the rise of Australia. WOG is actually the abbreviation of Welcome, Oriental Gentlemen.

    By Blogger Hassan, at 6:48 AM  

  • H - the abbreviation you're thinking of is "Worthy/Wily Oriental Gentlemen", but that is its use in British English. For more info on it as a "racial epithet", check this.

    By Blogger Lazarus, at 7:19 AM  

  • Thanks!

    By Blogger Hassan, at 9:01 AM  

  • It actually stands for WESTERN ORIENTAL GENTLEMAN and it was used against the Africans in Britain. Dont know how it became a name for the europeans in Australia but if you called a european a WOG in Britain, you would be in big trouble.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:56 AM  

  • jvDa other day i was wif my mates in da car and dere were dese 2 aussie girls lukin at us..well i didnt pay any attention to em but den my friend told me dat she call us a d**khead..so i told her ..waht u want den she goes ..let me come out dickhead i am gonna show u ..i didnt pay any attention to her again...and i drove away so in da traffic lights i got punched on my face ...den i saw da chick runnin..soo i got out of my car and kicked her car ...

    To let you all know. Aussies are mostly racist and they hate us and treate just because of some bad people out dere who messed up stuff with them. Anyways i didnt call the cops because ill get in trouble for everything because id get in trouble for nothing.

    we dont hate aussies but still we get called wogs and get treated like shit..

    The word wog means "Dirty" "illness" etccc...in ausssie...and we get called dat..anyways

    peace out

    By Blogger AfghanReviews, at 9:03 PM  

  • What have all u aussie's got against us? its not fair that ur racist 2 us just coz we arnt completly australian. Sometimes wogs do cause trouble, but that doesent meen u should be racist 2 all of us! And if we do up our cars, or always have bling, y does that piss u off? We can do wat we want 2 our cars, and we can wear wat we want. It has nothing 2 do with u!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:10 PM  

  • Ok Most WOGS are nice people, but a large percentage are scum.

    We are laughing at you mate. Your bling is fake and you purchased it with every last cent you made working at the local yiros joint.

    Why do wogs hang out in car parks at night with their mates in their VL commodores, get a life.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:10 AM  

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