The Word B

having had little contact within an educational setting (K-12) in australia, prevents me from making an in depth statement on schools specifically. however, from a societal influence upon multiculturalism in schools, i think there is a huge disparity between what is preached and what is actually practiced. i believe that australians and australian society is at a place in time where they are struggling to identify themselves. yet, on a whole the nation is having difficulties in casting off the eurocentric, english aristocratic, white dominated, mind set that it has lived under for the last 217 years since european colonialization of this continent. true, there are a greater number of multi-cultural immigrants from other non-white nations than in decades in the past. yet, rarely do i see these peoples welcomed with open arms by the dominant regime of the country. on the contrary, i see and hear a lot of people (the citizens) who are dominated by mistrust, and propogate fear. in the six years i have lived in the country, the talk has switched from an "asian invasion" to one of islamaphobia. the latter due to recent and current world events, all of which have been endorsed and encouraged by an ultra-consevative, right wing, john howard government. it is a government that preaches multiculturalism, yet its actions are totally ethnocentric. with such examples as; detention centers, wars in iraq and afghanistan, mamdu habib, david hicks, the tampa and children overboard, the bahktiari family, cornelia rau, with the most recent fear spreading tactics be the government officials themselves about terrorist in our midst, and the governments' failure to truly recognize and reconciliate with the aboriginal peoples of australia whom have suffered the most cruelly over the past 217 years of european colonialization. it is my feeling that no matter what is preached or the legislation that is passed in promotion of multiculturalism within schools, that this will never fully be achieved while under the direction of ignorant and blatantly racist policy makers. therefore the actions of the peoples, and school students included, will continue to hinder the potential for true multiculturalism in australia, despite the desire of many to see this possibility fulfilled.