Racism at the 6th ICAAP

[Guest guest]

To all India delegates at ICAAP-6. I must relate an incident I

witnessed on October 5 in the main hall near the Batman Hall.

I saw Dennis Altman, co-chair of the ICAAP-6, talk to Ashok Rao Kavi

of Mumbai very rudely. He used a very foul language, which should

not have been used by a professor of an Australian University.

I don't know what it was all about,. However, Ashok was very angry

and did go and talk to some of the Indian delegates.

Mr. Altman is considered rude and racist attitudes in Australia and

is not having good reputation. Should Indian delegates keep quiet

over this? I feel we should jointly complain to Australian high

commissioner here. Over all this is the most racist

ICAAP I have ever been to

Brown skinned persons were reduced to the recipients of the

conference. They were systematically excluded from the decision

making process of the 6th ICAAP.

Only the cronies of Mr. Dennis managed to have any say in the way the

conference was organised and in the selection of the themes of the

conference

The organization of the conference also, was very poor. There was no

Asian Food for an Asian Conference!. And they were serving pork at

the lunch to delegates. Are not Muslim delegates very angry at this

or did they eat it?

Indrani Mukerji

E-mail: indrani75india@...

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[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

I am sure that ICAAP will have an official response to the comments below,

but I would ask all of you to be cautious before jumping to conclusions.

I am a yellow-skinned person myself, and I find it offensive to assume that

when a white person and brown person are having an argument that racism is

involved. It may be involved, but it might not be, and reporting about an

argument and assuming that it is a racist incident is irresponsible. It is

especially irresponsible in a public forum.

The other complaints, about food and decision making processes, are

certainly topics that should be discussed, but making Dennis Altman the

focus of complaints is incorrect, inaccurate and unfair to Dennis, and to

other readers who receive an inaccurate impression on how

conferences are organised, and an irresponsible reporting of one incident at

the event.

Many people from around the region believe that the conference was a great

success so while I respect the right to personal opinions, to try and

encourage others to mount a complaint to the high commission is probably not

particularly productive.

I ask this in a personal capacity and my views in no way have any official

connection to the organisation that I work for.

Andy Quan

aquan@...

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