The M Word

Certain recent events have once again led to dark mutterings about the failure of multiculturalism. Well, there's a surprise.

Multiculturalism is dirty word in my book. I loathe it. The whole concept is stupid. If you need a commitee to define it and lecture you about it, it's failed. Give it up.

By all means, let's celebrate our diversity. But the reality is that Government-funded initiatives like Harmony Week only serve to highlight differences. I'm Chinese by ethnicity, sure, and Australian by nationality. But I am not some weird hybrid beast called a Chinese-Australian.

How often do the police describe a white person of interest as an "Anglo-Australian"? Never; he's an "Australian". Now how often is someone Nyoongar also described as "Australian"? Yeah, right.

And how can we celebrate diversity? One simple way would be to acknowledge that our festivals have equal weight to those from England. Which of the major festivals of the major ethnic groups are in the calendar? None of them. Instead we get holidays like the Queen's Birthday, which only a handful of monarchists get excited about, but not enough to actually throw a street party for.

In Singapore, they have THREE New Year's Days, as well as Deepavali for the Indians, and Vesak Day for Buddhists. All the major ethnic and religious groups have their day. Multiculturalism wasn't a conscious policy there - the relevent groups just took the day/s off to celebrate and everybody else either got on with it or went along for the ride. Everybody, whoever they are, loves to party.

True multiculturalism isn't something that happens once a year - it's a lifestyle. I experience it from time to time here, but not enough. Atrocities like Harmony Week remind me that in my adopted country, I am still just a hyphen.

Come on. Migrants aren't exactly a new thing. For decades, you've been eating their food, dancing to their music, affecting their paraphernalia as "conversation pieces" for the coffee table or the garden. Internalise us already.