Legally Brown: Muslim comedian finds the funny in radical, be it jihadists or bogans
"Cultivating Identity .. Thomas Keneally"
Waleed Aly Date September 24, 2013 Comments 123 [.. YouTube of embed .. ]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o1bW61eNsc Legally Brown - Trailer Legally Brown is an all-new, outrageously funny weekly comedy series which puts politics and culture in the line of fire.
Probably the most telling moment in last night's debut episode of Legally Brown was when Nazeem Hussain quipped that white viewers would be “expecting funny accents, jokes about the weird foods we eat and stories about my wacky ethnic parents. Sorry to disappoint”. And although he then proceeds immediately to impersonate his mum, he's making a statement here that “ethnic” comedy in Australia has hitherto been about the parading of stereotypes for comfortable, mainstream consumption. He's not interested in that.
This show is not Acropolis Now .. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropolis_Now ] Certainly, that show is an Australian landmark, but its power was in taking back ownership of wog stereotypes, thereby defanging them. It was hardly a show that punched back, even if it popularised “skippy” as a derisive ethnic marker. Hussain is a creature of a different time and circumstance.
"He's exposing a binary world where there's whiteness, and then otherness. Where white people are individuals and non-white people (a singular group) are not."
Wogs out of Work[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wogs_Out_of_Work ] began as a way of young Australian-raised wogs to laugh among themselves. They were lampooning their parents, their cousins, the kinds of situations that arise when a cultural gap exacerbates a generation gap. Hussain does that, too, but his is the world of post-9/11 Australian Muslims. It's about more than ethnic stereotyping. It's about being a consistent target of political opportunism, where everyone from the Prime Minister to the Foreign Minister to an otherwise washed-up backbencher with a view on burqas has you in their sights; where bombs detonate in Western capitals and unrelated nations are invaded. It is an altogether heavier, more politically contentious world.
A voice for Australian Muslims: Legally Brown with Nazeem Hussain. Photo: Jessica Dale
Hussain's work has grown out of this period. The social temperature in which he has been speaking has always been high. So he's not terribly interested in presenting minstrel characters for our amusement. He wants to interrogate his audience. But, truth be known, it's hardly one-way traffic. Hussain is interrogating in every direction. Sure, he'll pot racist bogans. But last night's “Indian Tourrette's” sketch ridiculed the naiveties of political correctness. “Muslim Shore” – with its subtext that we all have our losers lacking in self-awareness – will no doubt irritate Muslims expecting Hussain to offer them sanitised self-promotion.
And then there's Uncle Sam. He was born on community television at a time when the news media was completely preoccupied with radical preachers, and pop-culture was obsessed with Australian Idol[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Idol ]. Hence, 'Australian Imam', the search for Australia's most controversial imam. Uncle Sam was a contestant, designed to embody society's greatest fears about Muslim radicalism. In the SBS series of Salam Café[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salam_Cafe ], he stood for mayor of Camden, which at the time was home to a visceral campaign against the establishment of an Islamic school. He resurfaces in Legally Brown as an unlikely prime ministerial candidate with a promise to “Make Australia Halal”.
It riles the vacuous, like Michael Smith who can see nothing more than a character trying to demonstrate “how funny jihad is”. But Uncle Sam is also a buffoon: completely blind to his own outrageous double standards and the utter ridiculousness of his agenda to Islamicise everything, fully expecting Australians to be delighted by the idea. Everyone's a target here: the racists in Camden or Frankston who know nothing about Muslims except how much they hate them, and the Muslims who spout radical, conspiratorial nonsense and expect to be taken seriously. Trouble is, they often are. Hussain's putting them back in the box they belong.
A Muslim Shore skit from the comedy series Legally Brown.
There's no doubt Hussain is testing social limits with all this. Precisely how this goes will ultimately say more about his audience than Hussain himself. The truth is that – at least on the small sample we have so far – is only confronting because the Australian cultural majority is so unused to hearing minorities speak with such assertiveness. I worked with Hussain for years on Salam Café, reading the same audience reaction and, inevitably, the same hate mail. By far the most common theme was that we had no right, as Muslims, to be critical of some aspect of Australia. We were lucky to have been allowed into this country. How dare we presume to criticise, well, anything? Never mind that almost all of us were Australian born. Never mind that plenty of people shared our criticisms. The message was clear: we were outsiders, and should behave as such. We were not, to borrow from Michael Smith again, “real Australians”. We should know our place. We are welcome, but only as supplicants, celebrating the nation's unblemished virtue.
Hussain isn't a supplicant. Not content with neutralising prejudices, he's throwing them back. On next week's show, he dresses as a range of non-white celebrities he doesn't remotely resemble (Will.i.am, Sachin Tendulkar), only to fool members of the public into believing they're in the presence of celebrity. He's exposing a binary world where there's whiteness, and then otherness. Where white people are individuals and non-white people (a singular group) are not.
Is that edgy? In Australia that description is typically reserved for someone who drops the c-bomb or says something unkind about Don Bradman [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Bradman ]. We simply don't have the tradition of lacerating American comics like Dave Chappelle or Bill Hicks.
[ Here's a good one about Limbaugh .. insert embed ..
Hussain, by his own admission, isn't as provocative as all that. He's just speaking with a voice we rarely hear from a minority: one that simply assumes its place as an insider. His is a political voice, sure. But it's also an Australian voice. And that, I suspect, is what's most likely to offend.
Nazeen Hussein stars in Legally Brown. Photo: Supplied
Waleed Aly is a columnist for Fairfax Media and a lecturer in political studies at Monash University. He has also been a long-time friend to Nazeem Hussain after having worked together on comedy talk show, Salam Cafe.
Pregnancy overtakes disability as top source of workplace discrimination complaints
The World Today By Lucy Carter, staff
Updated 1 hour 36 minutes ago
Australia's workplace watchdog has revealed that pregnancy discrimination is now the number one complaint against the nation's employers.
The Fair Work Ombudsman says its figures indicate that for the first time there were more complaints about pregnancy-related discrimination in 2013 than for complaints related to mental or physical disability.
Business analysts say it is yet another indication that far too many employers have archaic misperceptions about women, and need to build more flexible workplaces.
Of the 235 complaints to ombudsman, 28 per cent were from pregnant women and 21?per cent were from people with physical or mental disabilities.
Around 11 per cent felt their family or carer responsibilities resulted in them being treated differently.
The commission investigated 76 matters, took three to court and executed enforceable orders in another three.
"Pregnancy discrimination is still alive and well in Australian workplaces." Elizabeth Broderick
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick says it shows employer attitudes must change.
"I think the key message is that pregnancy discrimination is still alive and well in Australian workplaces," she said.
Ms Broderick says attitudes need to change.
"Women represent more than 50 per cent of the Australian population. They represent half the talent pool that exists in this country," she said.
"And smart employers understand that actually, keeping women attached to the labour market through flexible work arrangements, through parental leave, whether it's the national scheme or a private scheme, they're important strategies to ensure that all people can contribute to the productivity and stronger economy of this country."
ACTU president says bias against women rife
Under Australian workplace laws, women have a legal right to take maternity leave as well as the right to return to the job they left.
Employers are not allowed to make a woman feel uncomfortable about being pregnant, and must modify any shifts or tasks that could become difficult to complete.
The Australian Council of Trade Union's president, Ged Kearney, says it is clear these laws are not always obeyed.
She says pregnancy discrimination can happen in a variety of ways.
"I think it's a deep-seated bias against women with children being in the workforce. I don't know, maybe it goes back to the '50s and '60s." ACTU president Ged Kearney
"Discrimination actually whilst pregnant, at work, where, for example, women are not allowed to get lighter duties in the later pregnancy," she said.
"They are not allowed extra toilet breaks, with dire consequences. We have heard of a number of professional women experiences along the lines of handing in a request for maternity leave and being told that they might as well be handing in a resignation letter."
Ms Kearney says archaic attitudes towards women do not belong in modern workplaces.
"I think it's a deep-seated bias against women with children being in the workforce. I don't know, maybe it goes back to the '50s and '60s," she said.
"It certainly goes back to the fact that I think a lot of men now are in are still in predominantly in managerial positions."
But she says there are many employers who realise the value of providing a flexible workplace.
"We've got lots of employers out there who are now offering incentives for women to come back after maternity leave," she said.
"They're giving them bonuses and offering to subsidise childcare because finally, I think, many employers are seeing the benefits to the business of having skilled women back in the workforce with that corporate knowledge and with that loyalty."
Sex Discrimination Commissioner says role of fathers also important
Ms Broderick is travelling around the country to teach people how to deal with discrimination and educating employers on good habits and practices.
She says it is important for the health of the economy for workplaces to be able to help employees balance work and family.
"We need to be in the mindset which recognises that women and men need to work and care and we need to work to make that fit together," she said.
"By recognising men and their caring responsibilities, it sends a strong message that he can be a serious player at work and an engaged father."
She says fathers need to step and make their caring responsibility visible to others, which will also help women.
Ms Broderick points out that just as women and men returning to work after parental leave face practical and financial challenges, so do some employers and especially small businesses.
The Human Rights Commission has launched a research project into the issue of pregnancy discrimination. It is expected to report back early next year.
Topics: pregnancy-and-childbirth, family-and-children, discrimination, community-and-society, business-economics-and-finance, work, australia
Pre-existing conditions can mean a whole pluthera of things from acne to stress to pregnancy. There is a list as long as my arm of conditions which could lead to insurance companies to denying or dropping customers. More than 1.3 million Wisconsinites under the age of 65 have been diagnosed with a pre-existing condition.
[hidden]Only 20-30% of Muslims construct their identity on the basis of their religious practice, writes Saman Shad.
Australia's Islamic communities are becoming a world-leading example of positive integration. It's time we recognise that Muslims are a diverse lot, writes Saman Shad.
By Saman Shad
UPDATED 4:35 PM - 13 Dec 2013
It might surprise some people in Australia that not all Muslims in this country are the same. Yup, not all of us wear hijabs or pray in mosques or grow beards. In fact some of us don’t even consider our ‘Muslim-ness’ as inherent to our identities. Just as most people consider themselves to be unique individuals, most Muslims do too. (Here’s a secret – we are people just like you and everyone else).
A survey of 6,000 Muslims in ten different countries, conducted by Professor Hasan of Flinders University in South Australia, has revealed that “Between 20-30 per cent of Muslims construct their identity, their 'Muslim-ness', because of their (religious) practice... .. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/12/01/what-muslim-ness-australia ” Which indicates that a large majority of Muslims don’t believe their religion should be a factor in how they are perceived.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise – not many of us want to be defined by our religion, or ethnic background or our race. Most of us want to be viewed by our achievements, where we grew up, where we live, our career aspirations, or basically by what we do for most of the day. Most of us residing here in Australia, simply want to be perceived as Australians more than anything else.
Professor Hasan agrees and states that “Muslim Australians are in many ways in the first instance Australians.” He also believes that Muslims in this country are more positively integrated than anywhere else in the world.
----- This should be a cause of celebration. We should embrace the fact that no matter what our religion we all want to be identified as being of this nation first and foremost. Yet despite this, many still don’t view Muslims as a valued part of society. -----
Last year, for example, some media commentators used the violent protests against the screening of an anti-Islam film .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Sydney_anti-Islam_film_protests .. to paint a picture of a society where a clash of cultures seemed to be raging. They used the incident to show that Muslims found it hard to fit in to the Australian mindset; that they are angry and not loyal to the values that are upheld in this country .. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/keep-their-hate-out-of-our-country/story-e6frfhqf-1226475229425 . This is despite the fact that the perpetrators of the violence represented a very tiny minority of the almost half a million Muslims in Australia.
It is no wonder then that many Muslims are beset with frustration – despite feeling like we have integrated into the country we call home, many of our countrymen feel we don’t belong here. The reason for this may be that the majority of the populace has a very narrowly defined image of a Muslim. They typically imagine a very socially conservative person, who wants Sharia law to govern Australia, who holds sexist views towards women, and is pro-terrorism. A bit like Uncle Sam perhaps – who is actually, you know, a caricature.
It shouldn’t need to be said but Muslims come from all walks of life and hold all sorts of views – just like the general population. Islam in Australia isn’t a recent occurrence. As Professor Possamai from the University of Western Sydney .. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/12/01/what-muslim-ness-australia .. says, “There is a supposition Islam arrives in the 1970s in Australia. But in fact there is a hidden history of Islam in Australia that started with the Macassar from Indonesia back in the 1700s, and with the Afghan cameleers [in the 19th and 20th centuries].”
So it seems Muslims in Australia have a long and varied history in this nation. Yet while the vast majority of Muslims have done their best to integrate into Australian society, society itself is often not particularly welcoming. The onus is now on society at large to change its views of Muslims. It’s time all Australians educated themselves about the religion and its adherents that so many in this country seem to demonise - because the reality is we all have to live together in this great big land - the more harmoniously we can do it, the better.
Saman is right "it shouldn't need to be said", however sadly paranoia and xenophobia of so many makes it essential that it is said, over and over and over, red rover, again.
Conclusive evidence of extreme labour exploitation, slave-like conditions and black market labour gangs has been found on farms and in factories supplying Australia's biggest supermarkets and fast food chains.
A Four Corners investigation has revealed the food being picked, packed and processed by exploited workers is being sold to consumers nationwide. The supermarkets involved include Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, IGA and Costco.
Fast food outlets KFC and Red Rooster are also implicated. Four Corners understands a third major fast food chain is also involved.
The foods tainted by exploitation include a wide variety of vegetables and poultry products, with some of the biggest brand names set to be named.
Migrant workers from Asia and Europe are being routinely abused, harassed and assaulted at work, the Four Corners investigation found. Women are also being targeted sexually, with women being propositioned for sex and asked to perform sexual favours in exchange for visas.
The exploitation is widespread and in some cases involves organised syndicates.
The shocking forms of exploitation are all accompanied by the gross underpayment of wages, with potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen pay going missing every year.
A scam is being run by unscrupulous labour hire contractors - dodgy middle men who sell groups of cut-price migrant workers to farms and factories producing fresh food across the country.
The migrant workers enter Australia legally on 417 working holiday visas, which were designed as a cultural exchange program.
The visa allows migrant workers to travel and work for up to six months in one location, performing low-skilled jobs such as fruit and vegetable picking or working in meat and poultry factories in regional locations and some cities.
Australia's international reputation 'under threat'
Labour law and migration expert Dr Joanna Howe, a senior lecturer with the University of Adelaide Law School, said the 417 visa system had been corrupted so severely it was jeopardising Australia's reputation globally.
"We will be known as a country that exploits vulnerable people who are looking for a better chance at life," she said.
"We would never accept this if it were Australian workers being treated in this way, but because it's 417 visa holders and we don't know them, there's a lid on it, we accept that it's OK.
"You know we just turn a blind eye."
Federal Member for Hinkler Keith Pitt was even more scathing.
"I think our reputation has already been damaged," he said.
"The reality is we need these people. Horticulture in particular needs the additional workforce to get their crop off."
Ethical farmers and suppliers suffering
Four Corners has also found farmers and suppliers who play by the rules and pay workers correctly are being dropped by the supermarkets, who are instead awarding contracts and sourcing food from cheaper suppliers using grossly exploited labour.
SA Potatoes, one of the largest potato suppliers in Australia, recently lost supply contracts to supermarkets, which opted to go for cheaper competitors using exploited migrant workers.
"It's gutting," company CEO Steve Marafioti said, referring to the situation in South Australia.
"They're cheating the system. They're taking it from the little guy, from the people on the farm and the people in the pack sheds and using that as their competitive advantage in the marketplace.
"It's not the correct thing. It's not the right thing. It's actually changing the shape of our industry."
Calls for supermarkets to lead urgent reforms
Industry insiders and federal politicians are calling for urgent reforms to Australia's fresh food supply chain before it is too late.
There are calls at a federal level for the supermarkets to stop shirking responsibility by passing accountability back to the suppliers and farmers.
The relentless downward pressure applied by supermarkets and the lax auditing regime governing labour hire contractors is forcing farmers and suppliers to resort to cut-price labour hire contractors to stay afloat.
"It's a matter for the supermarkets to investigate," Mr Pitt said.
"They certainly have no issues with putting all sorts of regulation and red tape and green tape on their growers and their suppliers.
"I'd suggest this is something else that they should look at."
Governments turn a blind eye; low-skilled work visa needed
Dr Howe said the solution was to replace the 417 visa with a new low-skill work visa.
"The Government, successive governments, Labor and Liberal have turned a blind eye to the fact that both international students and working holiday makers are being used as a low-skilled source of labour for farmers and other people across the country," she said.
"They know that this is occurring and yet they allow these [417] visas to proliferate without any regulation.
"That's the Pandora's box. Governments are afraid to open it because it would mean regulating. What we need is the Government to shed some light on this issue and to show some balls and to say 'let's investigate the possibility of a low-skill work visa'.
"It would allow the whole system to be better regulated."
Multiple authorities and government agencies responsible for regulating the system, including the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Department of Immigration, stand accused of failing to stop the problem with labour hire contractors, which has reached breathtaking proportions.
"The significant problem is effectively that it's across so many departments," Mr Pitt said.
"It affects Fair Work, taxation, local government, hire services at the state level.
"We really need all of those departments to come together and tackle this in a consistent way.
"We need a multi-jurisdictional taskforce. We need to coordinate our enforcement action.
"To be able to catch these crooks, and I'll call them crooks because they are, actually takes a significant amount of intelligence and resources."
You can watch the full report on Four Corners tonight at 8.30pm.
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