On Australia Day, January 26th, one of the worlds leading neurosurgeons Dr Charlie Teo will give the honorary speech and he will make the statement that ‘racism is still alive in Australia‘. Maybe it is to a degree Dr Teo – but so it is in all countries around the world. Australia is one of the most tolerant countries towards people of different cultures, which is why so many seek to live there. New citizens from abroad can practise their own faith, build their mosques, temples, shrines and synagogues alongside the Christian churches that are traditional in Australia. Dr Teo is descended from Chinese immigrants himself and has risen to become one of the most respected neurosurgeons in the country – has anyone refused his services because he is of Chinese origin…? I very much doubt it.

Racism exists everywhere; show me an India where light-skinned Indians are not considered better than dark-skinned Indians. Show me a China where Muslims are not persecuted for wanting to practise their faith. Show me parts of the USA where black-skinned Americans, Catholics and Jews are not looked down on by the bible-belt dwelling red-necks of the South. Show me a France where British people are not referred to disdainfully as ‘les rosbifs’. Show me a location in the Caribbean where white tourists are not killed on holiday for a few dollars and a wristwatch. Show me a Muslim-dominated region (there are plenty…) of the UK where white English females are not openly regarded as ‘white trash’ – show me a Lakemba or Hurstville in Sydney where the mindset of the growing middle-eastern population is any different.

Australians have lived with immigration for decades, we are used to migrants, however why is it becoming increasingly common for migrants now to want to change what they find when they arrive, and even demand that locals accommodate those changes…? and why should there not be some resentment about this…? that is not racism, that is simply indignation at ingratitude…and it’s justified. It’s the same everywhere Dr Teo – and in your ancestral China you need look no further for the worst of human rights abuses. Thanks to the opportunities of the country in which your parents chose, wisely, to raise you – and your fellow Australians who in their majority have treated you with respect and humanity – you are a successful, respected and wealthy man. It is easier to criticise what is closest to hand. Please don’t bite the hand that has fed – and continues – to feed you.