Bernard Salt: half man, half ideologue

Today I was listening to demographer Bernard Salt on radio 2UE (no link), celebrating the ever-expanding diversification of Sydney.

Surnames reflect changing suburbia
Meet the Patels, who have overtaken Smiths as the most common surname in Parramatta.

And in Cabramatta you'll find the Nguyens, Trans and Huynhs, while at Lakemba Kahn and Islam are among the top surnames.

In Parramatta, the geographical heart of Sydney, Smith and Jones don't even make it into the top 20. The most common family names are Patel, Singh and Chen.
Salt says that immigrants congregate in areas because of: shared language, ethnic food shops, and being close to family and friends. He says this is good and natural.

Does Salt apply the same beliefs to white people? If he did, he would acknowledge that the ever-expanding wave of diversity continually encroaching into white areas is bad and unnatural for whites. Indeed it is, which is why they move out.

But does Salt mention this downside of diversity? Nope, apparently we're meant to celebrate and enjoy the limitless diversification.

Bernard's brain is a house divided. He must think whites are a different species.

And later I found a previous 2UE story on the introduction of quiet carriages onto Queensland Rail, which Bernald Salt welcomes. And I have to agree, it's long overdue. I've lost count of the number of times I've wanted to throttle noisy and rude people on the trains, it's an everyday occurrence these days.

But that's where the common sense ends for Salt. He then notes that Japan has even more enlightened rules of civility that frown upon anyone who even uses a mobile phone on a train. He suggests that is due to Japan's higher population density. Apparently we will become uber civilised when the population reaches critical mass.

Alas, it's not a convincing argument. What's more convincing is that Japan's racial and ethnic homogeneity provides a higher degree of empathy and care factor, which is fertile soil for rules of civility. In diversity, however, empathy and authority do not so readily cross ethnic boundaries.

So does Salt consider the racial factor? Nope, that part of his brain is cryogenically frozen by the ideology of non-discrimination. So I wouldn't bet on Salt's demographic nirvana being realised anytime soon.

File under: part man, part freak.

1 comment:

  1. Japan is a more civil society possibly because they treasure their culture and don't want it divided and ultimately destroyed.

    The picture of a majority white community being displaced by alternative religious and social cultures is becoming all too common in Australia.
    Mr Salt says that birds of a feather do actually stick together. But if the birds have white Australian feathers and choose to residentially congregate, then by Mr Salt's reckoning, that's not quite right.

    ReplyDelete