Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/30

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Subject: Re: [Leica] South Africa - where men were men and blacks were boys - and some people thought things were hunky dory.
From: kiklaas@iinet.net.au
Date: 1 May 2002 01:47:23 -0000

Javier,

Yes, I believe that and there is still room for improvement.  My email 
about the US was not so much "we are better than you" but more "I have 
been used to living here, then visited US expecting to find one thing, was 
surprised/shocked it was not what I thought and then being able to compare 
it with standards here, which thank God have not got to that level yet."
It does not negate constantly working at making sure it gets better with 
time and not worse.

Australians are understimated in many ways....the world would be surprised 
if it took a closer look.

Karina

PS!  They did a rerun of excerpts from the Logie awards(Oz's Oscars) since 
its beginning and I was shocked to see the presenters stand on stage with 
a cigarette and glass in their hands while presenting - they used to get 
as drunk as skunks.....way behind with polictical correctness but provided 
it does not maliciously hurt anyone I think that has a natural charm on 
its own - Australia is finally overcoming their identity crisis.


> Funny this should come up
> I was living in Indonesia (Medan) in 1985. I had an R4
> with motor drive, an SL a 50 a 19 and a 180 Elmarit
> but no 35 or 135 in R mount for some stupid reason.
> Anyway I also had with me a non-Grundig SW radio and
> one the few stations that came in clearly in English
> was the Australian national radio station. I've 
> forgotten what it was called (Radio Australia?) but
> they played the familiar call tune before the
> beginning of every news program. They carried some
> sort of entertainment show where all they did was mas
> make the most insulting and degrading remarks about
> Aborigines. I'm not talking about cutesey humour
> centred around real or perceived ethnic or racial
> peculiarities but biting intentionally insulting
> dialogue containing references to things like personal
> habits or intelligence and comparisons to animals. I'm
> not going to go into details because I don't remember
> any at this point but if you can imagine the most
> degrading ethnic or racial jokes you've ever heard
> made about Poles, Jews, Blacks, Italians, Asians,
> Hispanics ...etcetera and reapply  them to aboriginies
> then you have the theme of this show. And most
> shocking of all, it was aired on the national
> shortwave station - their voice to the world!
> I don't think they even realized how offensive they
> were. It made me cringe and I have an extremely
> tolerant sense of humour.
> Javier
> --- B. D. Colen <bdcolen@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > Karina actually wrote...
> > 
> > That was what I thought and said about South africa
> > until I moved to
> > Australia - I learnt more about the true state of
> > South Africa whilst
> > living in Australia and I am retrospectively
> > appalled by how it was for
> > those less fortunate.....
> > 
> > ----
> > Did you never read or see anything that wasn't pure
> > racist propagand the
> > entire time you lived in South Africa? Weren't you
> > ever the least bit
> > curious about who lived in the townships and how
> > they lived? Didn't you
> > wonder what the homelands were all about? Didn't
> > you have any curiosity
> > about who worked in the mines and what the
> > conditions were like? And did you
> > never read anything written by Nadine Gorier, your
> > Noble Prize winner for
> > literature? 'Those less fortunate'...by which you
> > mean the majority of all
> > men, women, and children in South Africa?
> > 
> > And you would, with a straight 'face,' compare the
> > poverty and inequities in
> > today's America with the situation in South Africa?
> > 
> > That's really pretty appalling.
> > 
> > B. D.
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On
> > Behalf Of
> > kiklaas@iinet.net.au
> > Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 9:42 PM
> > To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: calling on the LUG to do a
> > good deed: leica
> > scholarship
> > 
> > 
> > ...I'm just
> > > saying that, in general, things are economically
> > pretty good here.
> > >
> > > B.D.
> > 
> > 
> > BD,
> > 
> > That was what I thought and said about South africa
> > until I moved to
> > Australia - I learnt more about the true state of
> > South Africa whilst
> > living in Australia and I am retrospectively
> > appalled by how it was for
> > those less fortunate.....
> > 
> > How many years does it take to reach 4 week paid
> > annual leave in the US?
> > 
> > How many hours do you have to work a day to live
> > well?'
> > 
> > Quantifying standard of living should include
> > quality of life....not the
> > clothes you wear and the cars you are able to
> > drive...but also, how well
> > the less fortunate than you are taken care of and
> > how much time you get to
> > spend with your family etc...
> > 
> > What do they say - one can win the rat race....but
> > you will always be a
> > rat.
> > 
> > By the way, I enjoy this exchange because I learn
> > more about the US so I
> > am absorbing everything you write.
> > 
> > It does not take a stupid person to form a
> > perception based
> > on the only source they have avalaible to them,
> > until actually visiting
> > the country.  I was just surprised at how far off
> > the mark that perception
> > was
> > 
> > Someone in LA said there is here is a saying that
> > applies to LA:
> > 
> > A bus comes in at 12 o'clock everynight and picks
> > up all the ugly people
> > 
> > This almost knocked me off my stool.
> > 
> > Karina
> > 
> > --
> > To unsubscribe, see
> > http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html
> > 
> > --
> > To unsubscribe, see
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> 
> 
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