My mother loves the beautiful, clean beaches here on the east coast, I often take her with a picnic, comprising of bread, figs and olives to Cronulla Beach. Today is her birthday, she is 68 years old, and of late has been poorly, so she hasn’t gotten out much. As a special treat, we are forgoing our typical picnic and I am taking her to a fine restaurant in Cronulla. As I am driving to her house, I notice a police car travelling at an incredibly high speed for a suburban area with its sirens on, it is followed by another two police cars and the riot squad. My heart sank, something serious is happening. Tears start to well in my eyes. But, I shake this feeling off, today is all about my mum, not the police and their latest drug bust. As my black
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We drive to the ‘Pial de Amor’, the sophisticated restaurant is said to have the best view of Cronulla beach in the area, it is picturesque, and you can see the entire beach. The restaurant is made of marble with a beautiful etched carving above the front door representing the artwork of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, I am in awe, as is my mother. That being said, in my Palestinian’s view, the whole of Australia is beautiful, full of cultural diversity, nevertheless, as hard as you try to describe a national culture here it is nearly impossible – there is no such thing. In the past I have tried to patch together some of the representations of cultural diversity in Australia, much as one might fashion a patchwork quilt, to garner some sense of nation, nationhood and the identities that exist within them. In fact, many persons, including Muslims and the indigenous communities all ‘call Australia home’, as the Peter Allen song reminds …show more content…
Hundreds of people are rioting against Muslims being allowed in Australia, they’re holding signs claiming “Ban halal”, “No burqas”, “No child brides”, and “F*&k off, we’re full”. I tell my mother we should leave but she refuses, she’s furious and, frail old her runs into the centre of the drunken riot. I was still in shock and too slow to grab her. I scream out to Allah for help as she is getting trampled, police try to control the crowd, they can’t, and I catastrophically collapse. I awake in a hospital bed, I’m told that I suffered from an anxiety attack, fainted and hit my head on the bitumen and became
We drive to the ‘Pial de Amor’, the sophisticated restaurant is said to have the best view of Cronulla beach in the area, it is picturesque, and you can see the entire beach. The restaurant is made of marble with a beautiful etched carving above the front door representing the artwork of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, I am in awe, as is my mother. That being said, in my Palestinian’s view, the whole of Australia is beautiful, full of cultural diversity, nevertheless, as hard as you try to describe a national culture here it is nearly impossible – there is no such thing. In the past I have tried to patch together some of the representations of cultural diversity in Australia, much as one might fashion a patchwork quilt, to garner some sense of nation, nationhood and the identities that exist within them. In fact, many persons, including Muslims and the indigenous communities all ‘call Australia home’, as the Peter Allen song reminds …show more content…
Hundreds of people are rioting against Muslims being allowed in Australia, they’re holding signs claiming “Ban halal”, “No burqas”, “No child brides”, and “F*&k off, we’re full”. I tell my mother we should leave but she refuses, she’s furious and, frail old her runs into the centre of the drunken riot. I was still in shock and too slow to grab her. I scream out to Allah for help as she is getting trampled, police try to control the crowd, they can’t, and I catastrophically collapse. I awake in a hospital bed, I’m told that I suffered from an anxiety attack, fainted and hit my head on the bitumen and became