>I say it is a poor joke, because in context it is potentially racist, suggesting that Vietnamese refugees and other Asians are
There hasn't been a Vietnamese refugee come to Australia in about 20 years that I'm aware of, excluding those poor souls who were stuck in Hong Kong detention camps for about 15 years in the 70s and 80s. >continually in the news as responsible for much of our crime although they are in reality only a small percentage of Australia's population, but a larger percentage of the population of some crime-ridden suburbs of Sydney and However I would make the observation that high- tech crimes (skimming, dumping, phone cloning, ATM duping etc.) seem to have a higher proportion of Asian offenders (judging by media coverage that is). A lot of this is because serious criminal syndicates from Malaysia and Indonesia like to send groups of operatives to Australia to scam away until they are caught and then replace them with others who haven't been identified. The penalties for first time offenders are relatively paltry here and there are enough tourists from those nations to make them less conspicous. >possibly Melbourne - although one seems to hear less of this in Victoria than of Sydney. Maybe local (Melbourne) media like to portray big, bad Sydney as being the centre of all crime? No, I think Victoria fights well above it's weight when it comes to serious crimes. >Anyway, despite the undoubted existence of Asian crime syndicates, I think it is being a bit unfair and prejudicial to Asians to make such a statement. So I will (interpret | consider) it (or deem it to be) as a poor, but innocent joke to maintain the joker's integrity in my mind. On the other hand, he is free to his own opinion and preference even if it might be racist. The reason I found it so funny was that some years ago I was living in a share house (where none of us was particularly Asian). After a great deal of debate over what name to get the telephone reconnected under we decided to use the name Mr. Ng. When we were watching the news that night they reported that Mr. Ng had been caught at the airport with several kilos of Heroin stuffed down his boxers (or something similar) and we all thought it was a rather funny co-incidence, as my friends ran and hid their drug stashes 'just in case'. And guess who's now an Ebay Power Seller? Check out my current book, DVD and CD auctions: http://cgi6.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=dwarf_fighter&sort= 0&page=1&rows=200&since=1&showpics=1&stab=30 New Books at Discount Prices --- Send the right message --- + Today freemail + Get your free, private email address at http://www.today.com.au --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
