one thing here i do completely agree with is that having 'countries within countries' is a very bad thing.
When I was in the states - I said to a very educated and well respected yank friend - that I felt the US was a nation of islands racially. He agreed and said that some of those islands were large. - I was in Connecticut (one of the wealthiest states) - and I was amazed at how quickly you could move from a white area into a Hispanic area etc.. imo, the whole joint is a powderkeg with a pretty short fuse. I now have no doubt why they have a national guard - to keep themselves safe from themselves. Did anyone else ever wonder why one would need a national guard?
We definitely don't want that here. My feeling is that australia's future is undoubtedly tied up with Asia - we will need strong ties with all our asian neighbours (like it or lump it, it is fact) - our links with the USA and England and Europe will be less important than in the past.
I don't think a discussion on Pauline Hanson's intellect or lack of is important - but what is important are her (or anyone else's) comments on immigration - particularly Asian immigration.
We are amongst friends - and one should always be aware of friend's attitudes/beliefs and feelings - and if we are talking about on a national level - many of our asian friends are going to be very powerful, potentially much more powerful than our old european friends or our american friends.
We should tread carefully, lest we have loose canons setting off land mines that we really don't need.
What we need to come to terms with is that we will be closely bound with our near neighbours and what we do not want to do is to form alien feelings that drive groups to live in islands of their own national origins - if we are to have asian friends who become our next door neighbours in reality and we are all australians - that is the way for peace and harmony.
The last thing we need is to have political tricksters who say things like "I fear we will be swamped by Asians" - or Muslims or whatever.
Politicans should be leaders who are are responsible - statments like that these days are anything but responsible - and they certainly are not statesman like. If one has feelings like that and they insist on verbalising them - they should be kept for the public bar or the bedroom.
