I'm watching a documentary about White Australia.
A former Prime Minister of Singapore speaks on the program.
Lee Kuan Yew says:
It made Australia look exclusionist. Afraid of contact with Asians. And others not white. Willing to take migrants from Malta...Turkey. But not from Asia. You took farmers from Southern Europe, but not thinkers from Asia.
Uh....
What?
Is it my imagination or is he trying to say that farmers aren't thinkers?
It's a bit hypocritical to speak out against prejudice and then say something yourself that's prejudice.
I'm telling you. Singaporeans are very hypocritical and obviously ignorant about the intelligence that's needed for farming.
No, I'm joking (about people from Singapore). I just thought it would be fun to put hypocrisy on top of hypocrisy.
Seriously, though. I can't say I'm a big fan of what happens to animals on factory farms.
But farming in general. I think agriculture and animal husbandry takes a LOT of brain power.
And it's maybe slightly important...you know.... since it provides us with food.
Our body needs that.
A former Prime Minister of Singapore speaks on the program.
Lee Kuan Yew says:
It made Australia look exclusionist. Afraid of contact with Asians. And others not white. Willing to take migrants from Malta...Turkey. But not from Asia. You took farmers from Southern Europe, but not thinkers from Asia.
Uh....
What?
Is it my imagination or is he trying to say that farmers aren't thinkers?
It's a bit hypocritical to speak out against prejudice and then say something yourself that's prejudice.
I'm telling you. Singaporeans are very hypocritical and obviously ignorant about the intelligence that's needed for farming.
No, I'm joking (about people from Singapore). I just thought it would be fun to put hypocrisy on top of hypocrisy.
Seriously, though. I can't say I'm a big fan of what happens to animals on factory farms.
But farming in general. I think agriculture and animal husbandry takes a LOT of brain power.
And it's maybe slightly important...you know.... since it provides us with food.
Our body needs that.
Thanks for the link Dina. I shall have to go back and start from part 1 of the documentary.
ReplyDeleteI take your point about the inconsistency in what Lee Kuan Yew was saying. I'm also looking forward to hearing what others were saying.
Food is good. The bigger I get, the more calories I seem to need.
Fruitcake,
ReplyDeleteYeah. Food is great.
I look forward to hearing what you think of the documentary.
I was a bit shocked. I knew Australia had some overt racism in their beginnings. I knew about the White Australia policy....
I guess it's just hearing the actual politician quotes. I don't know if I knew they said those things.
I need more calories as I get big too.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting doco. Very, very little I did not know. Was interested to hear Arthur Calwell talk about "mongrels" and Asians.
ReplyDeleteHe has always been credited with making a pun on "two wrongs don't make a right" by saying "two Wongs don't make a white." He spent his life insisting that this had been lifted out of context, and his intention had been to have a joke at the expense of Member for Balaclava.
From the context it seems Lee Kuan Yew was definitely having a go at farmers/ peasants. Why did we not want thinkers from Asia? Because we needed labour. Duh. We weren't developed enough to employ brainiacs.
HappyOrganist: I hope you gets LOTS of calories.
ReplyDeleteFruitcake,
Yeah. I remember the Wong thing. And yeah. I also vaguely recall him trying to defend it.
But it seems like he WAS pretty Anti-Asian.
From your comment...I just realized that Lee Kuan Yew was being a bit bigoted in another way. It's the assumption that Asians are going to have brainy jobs (which in his eyes aren't farming, it seems); and the people from Europe are going to be the farmers.
I would think both continents would have a mixture of farmers and not-farming jobs.