By our communiuty reporter
Melbourne,June 15: Two Indian students of La Trobe university were killed in a car accident early this morning here. The accident took place in Preston. The third person who in the back seat is in serious but stable condition in Royal Melbourne Hospital. One of them is from New Delhi. The names of the students are not known.
Related posts:
- Tragic death of three Indian students in Melbourne fire By our community reporter Melbourne: Three Indian students have been...
Dear Neeraj Nanda,
Your CV is a very rich one.
You can do much more being based in Melbourne-Australia.
The time is ripe and you must make the media do its best to publish the happenings in Melbourne, to all our Indian Students, who have gone to Melbourne to study and work hard to make ends meet.
Their trust in the Austrlain Government is immense, when I visit the IDP offices all round including the gulf, I see innocent faces, ready to go to Melbourne to study there, the parents are saving their hard earned earnings to send the kids there.
How is it the Australian children who have good family background are starting to do evil things to our Indian students suddenly.
The local authorities must provide more protective measures for our children to live in peace and harmony.
Our children are there to study and earn their degrees which is 1 /5 th the cost of other countries, this is one of the main reasons parents send their kids to Melbourne.
Why should the drop outs or kids from broken homes and rough heads be allowed to go near our Indian students and disturb their peace of mind, torture them , and hurt them and now start killing our Indian students, for what reason.
YOu and the media have to play a very important role right away, by insisting on heavy security in all trains, buses and transportation too, as in a taxi there is no safe guarantee today.
Camera’s to be installed ever where and the hostel areas, the private homes students hire and share must have security officers to patrol the area regularly.
Please help parents like us, who are so many miles away, trusting in the Australian Government to guard, protect and bless our children.
May my restless heart and mind, put all my trust in you as a leading reporter to do your bit and help to publish more requests to the Australian students or citizens to lend our Indian students support during attacks.
The sit still and watch in silence I am informed when our Indian students are being killed and harmed too.How can this happen to these situations, are they not human beings with feelings too.
Please help to solve this unrest soon and let our hearts and minds have peace till our children return after they complete their studies, so much cash has been spent and arrangements made for the rest of their fees and life in Melbourne.
Thanks and God Bless you and other reporters in the media for all you will try to do to save our Indian students
With best regards,
Barbara Thyab Ali
P O BoxL 38485 Sharjah UAE
Mobile 050 6914668.
Hi, My father is in Kolkota just to keep you informed.
You mentioned thay you want to deal with him, now do it…..
Dear Barbara,
I deeply understand you concern, and as a student myself along side many Indian students am appauled as is the vast majority of other Australians.
The reality is, and what the media do not tell you, probably in fear of being branded racist, is that most of the bashings are initiated by gangs of new and next generation immigrants from various other cultures and backgrounds, not so much Australian students “doing evil things” to your kids. I have never seen violence stem from any of our Universities in Melbourne, and I have studied at many for a long time. I assure you that there is no place for violence or discrimination in university culture.
We do have security here, to a point, but for safety, there are suburbs, certain places and times of night that I will not travel or go to. The best thing for your kids is to avoid such places, even for jobs. This is how many Melbournians avoid being the victims of violence.
Good luck and dont fear too much as these incidents are the exeptiion rather than the norm. Your kids are well supported in their schools,
Lauren
Barbara and All
I absolutely agree with Lauren. The recent attack its dreadful and tragic. However, hard as it may be to distance yourself from an emotional response now, there are a few crucial things to remember when assessing the current situation:
(1) Melbourne is a big city of around 4 million people, with big city problems, including crime and socio-economic disadvantage. The areas where most of the attacks have occurred are in potentially dangerous, socio-economically troubled districts. Melbournians exercise extra caution in these areas, as foreign students should do also. Anybody can be a victim in these areas. Would Indians walk through dark parkland at 10pm in deprived areas of London, LA, Paris, Mexico City, Brazil, or Calcutta for that matter?
(2) As such, it is a very dangerous fallacy to automatically blame racism without direct evidence, and it is also highly offensive to many Australians. Offending innocent Australians is going to make this situation much worse. Merely being Indian and a victim at the same time is not evidence of racism, its just paranoia. There are numerous attacks in some districts in Melbourne, and for every Indian attacked, many more people of other ethnic backgrounds – mainly northern Europeans, for that matter – are also attacked. Two other people were seriously assaulted this same weekend, and neither were Indians. Indians cannot expect to be magically immune for some reason.
Unfortunately, it is also true that some of the perpetrators are themselves immigrants or children of immigrants. Australia is not just koalas and surfing, it is an extremely ethnically and socio-economically complex modern society, and I often suspect that many foreigners – including Indians – simply do not understand this.
(3) There are some more unsavoury matters that the government does not wish to draw attention to, due to their own policy interests, and I suspect that the Indian government may also not wish to raise these issues themselves. Both governments are in economic growth fever. However, not all Indians or Australians are enjoying this boom. For example, there is currently a wide perception that Australia, and Melbourne in particular, is becoming overpopulated, at the disadvantage of the environment and the poor, and only to the advantage of the wealthy. This overcrowding has resulted in an acute housing crisis, and this is directly affecting the socio-economically disadvantaged. These persons are finding themselves unable to afford housing in their own home city, or find unskilled employment to pay for rental accommodation. Unfortunately, the enormous recent influx of Indians and Sri Lankans, often competing for the little available housing, enjoying educational opportunities that many locals cannot afford (even as locally born, often multi-generational citizens), are the unfortunate visible face of the kind of policy. It is widely understood that many are seeking permanent residency through completing cursory educational courses that are generally perceived to be merely immigration entry scams. This makes a nasty recipe in any part of the world for the poor to feel angry, and to feel (unreasonably) justified in stealing from those they see that are unjustly disadvantaging them. Foreign students walking around at night with expensive laptops and the latest i-phone, are no match for a hardened robber who feels he has little to lose.
I do not sympathise or endorse this viewpoint whatsoever, but I feel that this situation needs to be raised. Governments do not wish to take responsibility for the effects of their own economic or social policies, and they do not wish the embarrassing problem of multigenerational social disadvantage to be raised before them. It is easier to just keep the economy growing and keep cashing in.
(4) In closing, for balance, it should be worth noting that there are over 90,000 Indian students in Australia, and the number attacked is miniscule compared to this. Since Australian crime statistics do not usually record ethnicity of victims, it is not easy to determine the proportion relative to other people, but there is no reason to believe that it is any higher than for any other ethnic group, including Northern European Australians.
(5) A few random memory refreshers for Indians to reflect on the safety of their own country, quoted from DEFAT:
“Over 170 people were killed and more than 300 were injured in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks targeting places frequented by Westerners in Mumbai”.
“Women travellers, especially when alone, often receive unwanted attention and have been sexually harassed and assaulted. There have been a number of sexual offences reported against foreign women in Delhi and Goa. Women should avoid walking alone at night in deserted areas, including city streets, village lanes and beaches.”
“Travellers have been robbed and assaulted after consuming ‘spiked’ drinks or food. Incidents of tourists riding in taxis and rickshaws being robbed and assaulted have been reported.”
“Travellers staying on houseboats in Kashmir have been intimidated and harassed by houseboat employees. There are persistent allegations and media reports of sexual misconduct involving religious cults and their leaders in India.”
“Hikers have been attacked and have disappeared in the Kulu/Manali district in Himachal Pradesh, particularly on more remote trekking routes. Hikers are strongly urged not to hike alone and to obtain detailed information in advance about proposed hiking routes. You and your group should register your presence with the local police and online with us.”
Source: http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/India
Do you see Australia making an international diplomatic fuss, or Australian expatriots or tourists conducting violent demonstrations each time an Australain is attacked in India. No, you do not. Do you wonder about the reasons for the difference in reaction? Do you think that Indians consider themselves to be “special” for some reason, deserving some special protection that nobody else deserves?
It is a ridiculous, impossible demand that any government provide absolutely secure protection for citizens and visitors, yet this is precisely what some Indians seem to be demanding of Australia. Why can India similarly not magically fix its problems with poverty, disease, crime, sexual abuse, noise and filth, overpopulation, (and while they are at it, their relations with Pakistan). It is an enormous demand. It is equally impossible for foreigners to expect that India provide tourists and expatriates with personal bodyguards to offset any possibility or crime. Sadly, civil freedom also comes at a price. A police state might be somewhat safer, but most of us do not want to live in one.
(6) If the Indian Government, and especially the India Media (who are apparently really enjoying the current hysteria) do not stop fanning the flames, it definitely will “affect bilateral relations”. And that means in both directions. I have a number of Indian neighbours, and my whole street all live very happily together. All this hysteria is making me rethink my plans to holiday in India due to the likelihood of feeling unwelcome in reverse. At over 40 Rupees to the Australian Dollar, India is not the only one who has a lot to lose economically.
To all Indians out there.
I am a non-Indian and live in Melbourne.
Melbourne is a safe city, and the recent violence as reported is rather blown up as a media event.
The incidents have all happened in the Western part and the worst part of the city. If you avoid this area, you will be quite safe.
For parents, it is best that your child resides in somewhere like South Yarra. It is very safe, a nice area, and close to the city. Here, your child will be perfectly safe.
As for the Australian education system – thats another matter. I will leave it up to you to make that decision. I would say it is more important to choose where you are going to go based on the quality of schools. The racial/danger aspect is a very minor aspect compared with the quality of education issue.
John
Indians are living in almost all countries in the world and this kind of physical attacks are faced only in Australia. Just see how beautifully different cultures are staying in USA. Learn something. Grow up.
Kart
You need to grow up, not John. You didn’t actually address a single point in his excellently argued post.
Your claim that “…this kind of physical attacks are faced only in Australia.” is false to point of absurdity (not to mention gramatically incorrect
. I cannot believe that you actually assert that the USA is a model of multicultural harmony! This is especially ridiculous in comparison to Australia, which is widely regarded to be one of the most successful multicultural nations on earth. Australia does not, for example, have thousands of street gang members, affiliated along ethnic grounds, and nor are its cities deliniated along racial “neighbourhoods” in the way that most cities in the USA (and in many other countries) are.
Australia, unlike India, does not have an entrenched caste system, nor ethnic minorities that provide child sexual services to adults from more privillaged majorities, it does not have religious riots, millitant sepratist factions, it is not constantly on the brink of nuclear war with its near neighbours, and it does not share the apparent Indian preoccupation with the relative virtue of ethnic groupls based on how light their skin colour is. I cringe with revulsion every time I hear or read Indians droning on about “lowly” South Indians, “lowly” Veddics, and then personally claiming to be “noble Aryans” by comparison, to be “Superiour” Bengalis etc. etc. Many Indians do not seem to see how ridiculous they sound, or how repugnant.
Have you ever been to Australia, Kart? Have you even travelled outside your home country at all, or mixed with foreigners?
You write like a very ignorant and simple-minded person indeed.
You take your own advice and grow up.
see post at
http://www.southasiatimes.com.au/news/indian-students-bashed-up-in-melbourne-2-in-coma/
Please ignore grammar in post 2; sentence 2.
I know it is incorrect…but when aimed at a twat as was the second post, grammar was the least of my concern.
Kart….did you know that 75% of people born in the United States have NEVER applied for a passport?
Are you one of these people?
Perhaps the attacks on Indian students are
retaliation for the millions of unwanted harassing telephone calls made from Indian call centers
enough is enough