10
news without borders
Australian PM slams
attacks on Indian students
SYDNEY: Australian Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd on Mon-
day condemned a series of
attacks on Indian students as
calls mounted for a wider probe
into the country’s international
student sector.
Indian students say the
attacks in Melbourne, which
have left one student with
serious injuries after being
stabbed with a screwdriver, are
racially motivated. Police say
the incidents are both racial
and part of a wider increase in
opportunistic crimes.
The attacks escalated into
a diplomatic issue last Friday,
with Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh expressing
concern during a phone call
with Rudd.
“We deplore and condemn
these attacks. These are sense-
less acts of violence. Those
who carry out these attacks
stand condemned,” Rudd told
parliament.
“I said to Prime Minister
Singh the more than 90,000
Indian students in Australia
are welcomed guests in our
country.”
Australia’s international
student sector is the country’s
third largest export earner, be-
hind coal and iron ore, totalling
A$13 billion (RM30.7 billion) in
2007-08. Police in Victoria state
on Monday broke up a sit-in
Cabbies are Britain’s grumpiest workers
LONDON: Taxi-drivers are Britain’s
grumpiest workers, according to a
survey on Monday, while secretar-
ies are the happiest.
The gloomy prospect of ferrying
around strangers every day makes
taxi-drivers laugh less than any
other profession, according to the
survey of 4,000 workers.
Drivers cited traffic jams, the ris-
ing cost of petrol, drunken passen-
gers and frisky couples as reasons
not to be cheerful.
Fitness instructors could lighten
theSun | TUESDAY JUNE 2 2009
Tiananmen mothers
won’t let memory
REUTERSPIX
of their dead fade
BEIJING: Twenty years after her
teenage son was shot by troops near
Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Zhang
society should be able to participate
in an investigation,” Zhang said.
Their quest is impeded by police
protest Xianling is still trying to work out surveillance, the mistrust of families
by Indian how many others died with him. of the dead and the demolition of
students The Chinese government’s refusal Beijing’s traditional alleyways, which
in the to release an official figure for the has scattered neighbours and made
capital number killed on June 4, 1989, is sym- families harder to track down.
of Mel- bolic of its larger silence about the The group issued a statement
bourne. crackdown on student protesters. in the run-up to the 20th anniver-
“I think China’s economy is now the third- sary of the crackdown calling for
that some largest in the world, an achievement an investigation, compensation and
of the at- that would have been unthinkable prosecution of those responsible.
tacks are during the impoverished 1980s. But After 20 years, the rush for wealth
racially political reform has stalled, with has become a bigger priority for
motivated,” the Party quick to stamp out any most Chinese than dwelling on the
said Victo- perceived challenge. past, or even pressing for greater
rian state “China is on the road to democ- freedoms, reformers acknowledge.
police chief racy and the rule of law, but we But recent events have spawned
S i m o n don’t know how long that road a new generation of activist parents,
Overland. Indians living will be ... Before, I thought I would seeking explanations for the deaths
“I think wave of in Australia see the day, now I am not so sure,” of thousands of schoolchildren
some of the attacks on Indian students are seen Zhang said in an interview in her during a devastating earthquake in
attacks are opportunistic in that in Australia. holding a comfortable living room, filled with Sichuan province a year ago, or seek-
they just happen to be Indian “Under the prevailing cir- placard at books and her husband’s musical ing compensation for infants who
students in the wrong place at cumstances I find it inappropri- a protest in instruments. died or were sickened after drinking
the wrong time,” Overland told ate at this juncture to accept Melbourne “Now the economy is more de- contaminated milk powder.
reporters. this decoration,” Bachchan on Sunday. veloped. A lot of people just chase Like the Tiananmen Mothers,
Australia is a major des- said in a letter to the Queens- economic advancement, and don’t those parents are being followed,
tination for Indian students land University of Technology worry about politics.” monitored and detained, showing
studying abroad, who recog- posted on his blog Sunday. Zhang’s son, Wang Nan, was a the Party is still nervous their activ-
nise the high quality and cost “My conscience is profound- cheerful, bespectacled 19-year-old ism could threaten its hold on power.
competitiveness of Australian ly unsettled at the moment.” when he left a note on the night of June 4 is taboo for the Chinese
education services. Bachchan, 66, known as June 3 to say he was going to join media and on Sunday, the CNN feed
Enrolments of Indian “The Big B” in movie-mad friends on Tiananmen Square. It took in Beijing was cut when the Tianan-
students in Australia have India, had used his blog to re- 10 days before his disinterred body men movement was mentioned.
increased at an annual rate of quest fan feedback on whether was returned to his parents. His – Reuters
around 41% since 2002. he should accept the degree glasses were still on his face.
Meanwhile in New Delhi, – awarded for his contribution Zhang founded Tiananmen Moth-
Bollywood legend Amitabh to the world of entertainment. ers with another woman, Ding Zilin, Thousands of protesters take
Bachchan has rejected an hon- He said he had been “over- whose 17-year-old son was also to the streets in Hongkong on
orary doctorate from a Brisbane whelmed” by the response. killed. The group is trying to make Sunday, four days before the 20th
university to protest against a – Agencies a list of the dead and urge for a re- anniversary of the June 4 military
assessment of the verdict that the crackdown on the pro-democracy
movement was a “counter-revolu- movement in Beijing’s Tiananmen
tionary” plot.
They recently
confirmed one
Square in 1989.
up too, with just 0.9% of them Other workers scoring high on more name,
saying they enjoy a giggle in the the laughter scale were, perhaps bringing their list
gymnasium. surprisingly, accountants – many of victims to 195.
Those in recruitment could also of whom said they regularly played Zhang believes
do with a good dose of humour, pranks or wound up their work- they have only
the survey said, as just 3.8% laughed mates to alleviate the daily grind identified about
regularly during the working day. – and teachers. one-tenth of
By contrast, 53.5% of secretar- The results of the survey, con- those killed.
ies said they laughed on a regular ducted for comedy TV channel “Our greatest
basis during a working day, with a G.O.L.D. also revealed a correlation hope is to be able
quarter of those surveyed confessing between laughter at work and days to openly say it
that most of their amusement comes off taken sick. was wrong for
REUTERSPIX
from watching the stressful lives of The more we laugh, it seems, the the army to fire
their disgruntled bosses. less we skive. – Reuters on people. Civil