Inspired by this post.
I recently came across a post about Injustices which
prompted me to ask this question. Why are we blind to what’s going on in the
world? And even if we pay the slightest attention, why is it to only some of
the injustices but not all of them? Doesn’t that make us hypocritical in one
way or another? That some of us seem to focus on non-local issues, rather than
local issues or maybe even the other way around?
You might have heard recently on the news about the killing
of Muslims in Burma, the shootings in America, or even the recent bloodshed in
Syria along with other events currently happening in the world. There are also
injustices amongst us as people such as poverty, discrimination, equal rights
and so on.
Us, as Australians, as well as our government often question
what goes on in other countries, and we often criticise it without having a
look at what’s going on in our own backyard. Think about it. I have a point,
right? We look at how citizens, particularly women are treated badly in third
world hcountries, and we shame it. If we claim to be a democratic first-world
country, why is gay marriage not legal yet? Why are there still homophobic
attitudes towards homosexuals? Even in a prominent society like ours, we still have
sexist and racist attitudes… Even if those that do are usually the minority,
however those that hold homophobic attitudes remain a fairly big portion of our
society.
What about injustices happening overseas such as Poverty? We
sympathise with the poor Africans who have no food yet we are quick to turn
away the boats that come from these poor countries. Little bit hypocritical,
don’t you think? Once the boats enter Australian shores, most of these asylum
seekers are detained and thrown into detention centres, where they get treated
horribly, possibly more than they did in their country
.
Just imagine, what if you were a refugee? Hypothetically
speaking. What if war broke out in your country, and you had no option but to
leave if your life was in danger. The next thing you would do is hop on a boat,
right? Particularly to what you would imagine a place full of luxuries, a place
with better resources, a place for a better life. Of course, most of these
being third world countries, they have limited resources, as well as limited
education, so they are unaware of what actually happens to illegal refugees
like themselves.
In schools, we learn about the Holocaust. We often feel
sympathetic towards Jews who were mistreated in those times, yet we totally
ignore those injustices going on in Palestine, currently done by Israel. Those
that are often resistant militant groups are called ‘terrorists’ when in fact
they are freedom fighters, but I guess like the saying goes “Another man’s
terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Which brings me to the point of
how most Muslims are stereotyped as terrorists, which is an example of the
racist attitudes I mentioned earlier. As you know the event of 9/11 led to the
U.S. invasion of Iraq, and as an ally of the U.S., Australian soldiers went
over there which obviously led to Iraqi refugees in Australia, yet they still
get the racist backlash from Australians. My point here is how can we
sympathise with people that we don’t know so easily, yet treat those around us
so badly?
Which also leads me
to another point. The rejection of Multiculturalism. Australia practically
thrives on Multiculturalism. It was partially built on it too. We still have
racism towards immigrants, who’ll actually come in and do the jobs that us as
Australians are too lazy to do, yet we still complain about the amount of
people coming in and taking up all the space.
Even speaking nationally, we seem so concerned about what’s
going in other states such as Queensland, Victoria and so on, yet we seem to
disregard the current issues in New South Wales, which we should give more
regard to, as it concerns us the most.
Another thing is people seem to pick through issues that
only suit them, not due to their sincere humanitarianism. Of course there are
more issues to be looked into, but I’d be here all day if I were to explain
them all, so the ones I have explored in this speech are probably the ones
you’d be more familiar with.
Why can’t we just focus on all issues? Of course, we’re more
likely to focus on issues that concern us or that we’re interested in, but to
be clearer, why don’t we take a look at ourselves first, and fix the issues
faced by our people in our country, while still turning our direct attention to
what is happening overseas. To conclude this speech, I just want to say that I
hope it’s left you thinking. Thank you for listening to my speech.
No comments:
Post a Comment