Daily Lessons from Life 03 February 2010

"Indian charged with faking racist attack in Australia - Wed, Feb 03, 2010 Reuters

MELBOURNE, Feb 3 (Reuters) - An Indian man who claimed he was set on fire in a racial attack in Australia was actually burnt while torching his car for an insurance claim, police said on Wednesday.

A series of attacks on Indian students in Australia over the past 18 months, which police have said are criminal rather than racially motivated, have strained ties between the two nations and damaged Australia's lucrative foreign student market.

Indian media have slammed Australia as a racist country but Indian nationals have now been charged over two of the most recent attacks."

Indians in India and the Chinese in China sometimes act in similar fashion - with loads of emotion! This is especially true whenever their citizens are allegedly targeted in 'racial attacks' in a foreign country. Sometimes even so much as the nation's pride was slighted or smeared, they will react in a totally emotion manner and provide an all out attack without trying to use rationality to filter through the facts, provides solid evidence, or put forth credible argument balancing the benefits and potential damages when things are said in public!

Lessons for me are:

1. the host nation must go all out to provide the hard facts and evidence and BLOCKED out the emotional outbursts from the audience, which is always the vocal minority, in their own country about the host country. When one is emotionally charged, the other party must maintain rationality. At the same time, comments like: "You should not be so emotional." will not be helpful. So the arts of presenting the calmness must be a learned response!;

2. the home nation's government, while ever keen and eager to placate its citizens who felt or were informed that their fellow citizens or friends or family members were being discriminated and attacked, must also be calm and express itself clearly. Use emotional response to their own citizens first to calm them down. Then to seek out the facts as quickly as possible without jumping to 'concussion' that the host nation's government is up to no good!;

3. the people on the ground MUST realize their responsibilities to themselves and the host nation. Unless it is truly a racist attack, one must speak out. If it is NOT, as in this case and the other case cited by the Australian police, they MUST speak out too. On the facts. This Indian guy who tried to create this false attack on him as a racist attack when he was trying to commit a fraud to cheat the insurance company simply showed that people CAN and DO perform selfish act to benefit himself. Even to the extent of fabricating facts!! I am very GLAD that he was found out!!

Australia had an image problem in the past. There are, just like in any other country, citizens who do not tolerate foreigners for a host of reasons - some valid and some are just personal characteristics defects. If you are a foreigner in another country, you just have to look out for your safety and exercise your rights as well as speak the truth for the host nation on the good things that happened to you. It is about personal integrity! A characteristic of a 7e Leader!! ;-)