Yeech.
I've finally uploaded photos for the Big Catch-up Post, which I will probably do in parts.
I've been cooking in the last few months. For example, lots of chocolate-y goodness for a cake stall (and no I did not happen to fall in love while serving behind the table at this 'Bake Sale'), and more recently learning how to whip up some delicious cheese and bacon puffs. Apparently, they were fantastic (according to the middle aged and beyond at a church Christmas Party).
However - Stephen and I leave the parents alone for one weekend and look what happens.
Yes, they burnt the kitchen down. It's still being worked on now - we've had things replaced but there's slightly more cleaning to do. And that was months ago.
Yesterday was a busy day. In the morning Mumsy and I went shopping for some presents for people, and then took my Gran out for a lunch - fish and chips. Delicious.
My Gran is great, there's Ohye in every part of her. By 'Ohye' I mean 'stubbornness', which she gained from her husband and was thus passed down to my father. Stephen's also got some of this Ohye Stubborness, however I believe I luckily missed out on the 'never give up' attitude of fiddling with things that are infinitely broken.
We talked about many things, such as how her friends and sister are going, and vandalism in the area, knitting for Wrapped With Love and her pompously annoying neighbour.
My Grandmother grew up in the Depression, and underwent some very tough times. Similar to Fiona's grandmother, my gran is of the generation that think the Japs are evil, and that the White Australia Policy was probably a good idea. We were discussing Johnny Howard and english as part of a test for Australian Citizenship, and talking to my similar-aged friends at a party that night, I realised how much difference time can make. Whereas Gran reckons that people should know english before coming to Australia, or at least being willing to learn, people my age would think that it's a somewhat elitist policy that removes from Australia whatever it is that makes it Australia. I've also heard it called 'double standard', and from hearing explanations of both points of view, it can be sensible either way. My gran was saying that 'this multiculturalism is a very difficult thing', with Muslim people being particularly 'foreign' and so different.
I was telling her that less than half my grade at school was white, and she was quite shocked. She guessed that most of them were Chinese, and I admitted that often parents really push their kids to do well at school (and thus get into a selective school), because they see education as really important - maybe something they were never able to have. But I said that there were other ethnic backgrounds, such as Indian, and plenty of people are second or third generation. My Gran asked if the Indians do as well as the Chinese or white kids, and remarked that it's a lot easier for Chinese people to integrate (remember the government's policy of 'Assimilation'? Well, of course you don't - we weren't born), for some reason. But people from predominantly Islam countries are so 'alien' and 'foreign' that entire streets have signs in their own language, with no English, and aren't willing to be part of society. Rather, she suggested, they stick in their own groups and then we get things like racial tension and terrorism.
I was shocked at what she was saying - at Speech Day (presentation day) on Monday, our school Principal talked about how our school is representative of how multiculturalism is supposed to work - everyone in harmony and equality. When saying to my Gran about if the 'Indians do as well', I just said to my Gran, 'We're all the same'. I realised after I said it that my grandmother and I come from such different worlds. It's my natural way of thinking, that you're Australian if you live here and you can speak some english, and joke about yourself and pay out the Prime Minister.
People of my granparents' generation were brought up thinking differently. It's difficult to determine if being conservative is wrong. (See John Heard's article) Although, it appears quite clearly to me that my grandmother is racist. I think it's a bit late to try and change her perspective. She's not about to go and rally against anything, or argue that non-whites should be shipped away, but at the polls, you can probably guess which policy she would vote for.
I don't mean for this little rant to be just about white eurocentric racism either.
As long as there is an 'Us' and 'Them' view of cultures and racial identity, We (collective Australia) will not be able to entirely 'succeed' in creating and perpetuating a multicultural society.
