The first encounter

My four years of tertiary education in Melbourne in finally coming to an end. It's during this short period of interlude between now and graduation that I intend to begin recounting my experiences here. Yet, an unfortunate incident occurred on the night of 11 Sept 2009.

Now this sounds like 9/11 Melbourne version? Well, sort of.

My garage door was spray painted with the words "Fuck gook". Apparently, my white Australian neighbours in the area believed that I am a Vietnamese and decided to tell the whole world that.

A quick visit to the police station yielded news that similar occurrences had taken place in the neighbourhood! Being curious, I drove around and to my dismay, there were more! "Fuck blacks, fuck indians, fuck jews and Australia Rules!" Houses were specifically targeted by the inhabitants! Those with white tenants/owners were left alone.

As all avid followers of the Asia-Pacific international affairs may well be aware, Melbournians in recent times have fallen foul of India and China's favour over repeated bashings and/or robberies targeting Indian and Chinese students. I was not all that surprised with the vandalism and racism exhibited by my neighbours, but by the relative indifference the local police demonstrated.

"Just clean it up after we photographed it alright?... MOIT?"

"No way you white pieces of trash... It shall remain as a testament to your racism and sentiments of white supremacy..." (Wondered what my landlord will think?)

If I remember clearly, there was this Michael Fay who got his bum all warped because he did something similar? Not racist in nature but VANDALISM!

Anyway, for today's posting, the question I want to ask is:

Are we still living under the colonial shadow? After many years of self-rule and independence, are we Asians (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Javanese, Thais etc etc) still suffering from an ingrained sense of inferiority? This question popped into my head because I sincerely do not believe that anyone of us in Singapore will dare to express our dissatisfaction with "the white minority" living among us via any medium.

Anyway, here's the photographic proof to back my claims...