The eyes and mind of Jemapela

In early July 2009, a young woman arrived Melbourne to complete her studies which began in Singapore. We met for the first time even though we had first corresponded by e-mail as long as over a year ago.

Averal and I at a tulip farm in the countryside outside Melbourne

Averal is studying a management and marketing degree offered by Monash University. Unlike many typically meek Asian women, she is unusually bright for her age, and armed with motivation beyond most of her peers. She also models for story concepts and has worked with a few talented photographers.

Averal and I having afternoon tea in the countryside

After spending a lot of time together on the weekends in Melbourne, Averal and I became a couple in early September.

Averal is responsible for building and completing my new Jemapela Photography website in November 2009.

Foreword: I have stopped writing on my blog for a few months since April 2009 to accord high priority towards my social life in every way affordable and possible. Obviously, I would enjoy more going out there to chase skirts (socialise with women) than to stay at home stuck in front of a computer screen. I started writing on my blog again partly because recently someone told me that she liked reading my blog, but I’m unsure if I would want to continue writing frequently or regularly.

Since August 2008, I have been corresponding with a few Korean women in Korea through the internet by MSN Messenger and e-mail. Among the few, there is 1 particular woman named JJH2 who has sustained long and active interest in solidifying our friendship. What interested her about me was that I was living in Melbourne, and she, like many Koreans (and other Asians), was planning to come to Melbourne in the brave pursuit, by abandoning everything familiar back at home, for a better life in Australia. Understand this: in Korea, as women get older (closer to 30 years old), their employment opportunity plummets due to the unfair practice of ageism.

As a migrant in Australia, I totally understand her overwhelming sense of uncertainty and fear because I have experienced it myself. Even today, I am not spared from feelings of uncertainty and fear although it is much less now.

At first, JJH2 hid her photo, but despite that, I open-mindedly accepted her friendship and didn’t insist on seeing her photo. When she revealed her photo, I was amazed at my luck that she is such a beauty. We chatted on MSN almost every day, and occasionally in e-mail. Soon after, it progressed to SMS, and then talking on the phone. I made a few phone calls to her in Korea.

JJH2 arrived Melbourne on the last day of 2008 when I was holidaying in Sydney. When I returned to Melbourne in early January 2009, we met for the first time. JJH2 is very slim, petite, and meekly feminine like many other Asian women. Several meetings and dinners with JJH2 happened after that, but JJH2 was not the only Korean woman I was socialising with in 2009.

They are KKH2, BHR, KSM, PHJ, MAR, and others I don’t want to name openly.

BHR and I having dinner at an Aussie bar in the city

BHR and I got along very well. We spend a lot of time talking, even into the night, telling me a lot about her experiences and feelings about life in Melbourne and Adelaide.  Unfortunately, she didn’t stay until the end of her 1-year working-holiday VISA. In February 2009, BHR left Melbourne early to return to Korea to prepare herself in continuing her university studies which she had suspended to come to Australia. Currently studying very hard and overly stressed in Korea, she is still occasionally exchanging e-mails with me. I have also spoken to her in Korea on the phone.

BHR farewell SMS to me before she left Melbourne

KKH2 left Melbourne soon after BHR in early March 2009. Although KKH2 and BHR are studying in the same university and faculty in Seoul, they rarely meet and speak. My e-mail correspondence with KKH2 is very limited, and I can only guess that she is extremely busy in fast-paced madly-rushing Seoul. Before KKH2 left Melbourne, she introduced me to her room-mate MAR over a Korean dinner.

KKH2 and I at my home having tofu stew which she taught me to cook

KSM whom I had known since 2008 introduced me to a bunch of other Koreans. One of them was PHJ, a patisserie graduate who has Australian PR VISA. PHJ is the first Korean I have met who has PR VISA whereas everyone else has working-holiday VISA or student VISA. PHJ invited me to go on a road trip cum beach barbecue along Great Ocean Road with her Korean friends/housemates in April 2009.

Road trip along Great Ocean Road with PHJ and other Koreans

Barbecue at an ocean beach along Great Ocean Road with PHJ and other Koreans

Factually, my Korean women friends are mostly made by women introducing me to other women. I’m just like a parcel being passed on and on, and I’m passed on from one Korean to another as they leave.

In a blink of an eye, time has flown very quickly, and I have learnt more about Koreans and Korea.

Several years ago, JJH2 came to Australia on a working-holiday VISA. Spending most of her time in Sydney and only a few days in Melbourne, she had a generally positive impression of life in Australia. (Well, most Asians do like the relaxed lifestyle here in Australia.) She liked Sydney, but chose to come to Melbourne for studies this year. Soon after JJH2 arrived in Melbourne, I arranged for her to meet KSM so that she would not feel lonely.

JJH2 celebrating my birthday at Cho Gao bar

In May 2009, JJH2 and KSM celebrated my birthday with me in Cho Gao bar.

Like the many other Koreans who come to Australia to study hairdressing, cookery or patisserie to gain Australian PR in the hope of a better life away from highly-competitive Korea, PHJ also came to Melbourne with the same intention. After much toil, she graduated, got PR, found work in a restaurant in Crown Complex, but the tiring work has exhausted her and resigned. Eventually, she came to doubt her life in Australia, and enrolled into a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course so as to teach English in Korea. For several weeks while studying the TESOL course, I helped her, or tutored her, in her questions about English.

PHJ and I having dinner at a Korean restaurant

In early October 2009, the beautiful JJH2 has returned to Korea after deciding to give up her commercial cookery studies. If she had endured the pain and fought the hardship, she may have achieved her goal of qualifying and applying for Australian PR VISA. Now back in Korea, she is very worried at a worsening fluency in English, and is studying English to sit for the TOEIC test while trying to find a job.

In late October 2009, PHJ has also returned to Korea after completing a TESOL course in Melbourne. Starting on a new direction in life which she had been considering for a while, she will try out a career in teaching English in Korea while at the same time appeasing her parents’ wish to see her more. She acknowledges that life is surely better in Australia than in Korea, and it can be better for her, but unfortunately a better life has not happened for her after finishing her patisserie course which got her PR VISA.

In reality, life is not better in Australia for many other Koreans too, and also with many other Asians as well.

According to the latest Australian Census of 2006, there are about 53,000 Koreans and 40,000 Singaporeans living in Australia. Of all the Asian immigrants living in Australia, Koreans earn the second-lowest median income while Singaporeans earn the fourth-highest median income. From these statistics, it is not complicated rocket-science to figure out that there is a small chance of finding a “successful” Korean who is living a “better” life in Australia. Clearly, Singaporeans are comparatively more successful with their higher income and lower numbers.

In late November, another Korean woman friend MAR will leave Melbourne to return to Korea. Like many other Koreans, MAR suspended her university studies for 1 year to come to Australia on a working-holiday VISA.

Earlier this year, I lost 2 Korean woman friends in a span of 2 months (February to March). Soon, I will lose another 3 Korean woman friends again in a span of 2 months (October to November). Arghhh!!!

Unfortunately, many Koreans I meet are likely to be on a 1-year working-holiday VISA, and ultimately they will eventually leave Melbourne and Australia to return to Korea. The Koreans, and actually other Asians too, who are on a student VISA may not qualify to get PR VISA to stay permanently in Australia.

Since January 2008, I have observed a rapidly shrinking social circle due to the frequent departure of Asian friends from Australia. Many like Australia, and would like to live in Australia. Generally, the most common reason for their departure is that they could not legally stay permanently in Australia, that is, they don’t have PR VISA or Australia won’t give them PR VISA.

I’m losing friends faster than I can make new ones; new ones who, after some time, form a quality friendship comfortable enough to frequently go out with. I foresee this trend to continue far into my future in Australia.

Foreword: I have stopped writing on my blog for a long time since April 2009. This is because I decided accord the highest priority towards reducing my time spent on trivia/dumb activities to increase my social life in every way affordable and possible. I have observed a shrinking social circle as an increasing number of Asian friends leave Melbourne to return to their homelands. Honestly, the frequent and rapid departure is worrying and heartbreaking. I have temporarily stopped counting the numbers for there have already been too many. If I continued to do a “stock-take” on my friends leaving, it would only make me feel more depressed and possibly sway my intentions of living permanently in Australia.

Sometimes, I receive invites from Caucasians (or other non-Asians) to a social event such as a house party or after-work drinks in a bar. I would often enthusiastically accept the invite so that I can thrust myself in a situation and environment where I can mingle with non-Asians. Strangely enough, I often happen to be the only Asian present. Yep, the only slit-eyed chink.

If I’m not the only Asian present, the other Asian would probably be an Australian-born local Asian, or an Asian migrant who has been living in Australia much longer than I and sounds more Australian than Asian by speech.

Shane held in a neck chain by his girlfriend

Earlier this year in January, on Australia Day, I was invited to a house party by 1 of my Aussie models named Shane. Far away from the city, the journey there took nearly 2 hours of travel by public transport, but I dragged my heavy body just to join in the fun instead of being a typical uptight Asian. I arrived at his house to find that I’m the only Asian present.

Shane and I flexing our warrior-faced machismo

As you can expect, Aussies would be knocking back alcohol like the world would end tomorrow. Shane and his girlfriend did some silly and funny acts. So did I, well, a little. Towards the end of the party, I could not resist the opportunity to be photographed beside an adorable busty Aussie girl. Hehehe! I’m a cheeky dickhead!

Aussie girl and I in the Australia Day spirit

In February, on Valentine’s Day, I was invited to another house party by another 1 of my Aussie models named Jayse. Quite near Shane’s home, Jayse’s home was also far away from the city and took me forever to reach, but I committed myself to drag my heavy arse there for a piss-up (get-yourself-drunk-event). I was the only Asian present at his house party.

Mischief inflicted on an Aussie guy who got wasted on alcohol

Perhaps, in a typical style of low-budget Aussie house parties, Jayse provided the simplest and commonest party food – bread, butter, onions and snags (Aussie slang for “sausages”). Drinks were BYO (Aussie abbreviation for “bring your own”), hence I brought my own beer.

Jarrod poses with his passed-out drunk brother

His mate Jarrod, and Jarrod’s younger brother, also came for this piss-up. The latter wasted himself to early, and fell asleep on the floor in front of the house. As you can expect, shameless Aussies would get up to some wicked mischief. While the guys creatively painted his face with permanent markers, wrapped him in toilet paper, and tied up his legs, the girls decided that Mr Drunk should also be decorated with condoms. After that, Mr Drunk was somehow picked up and put into Jarrod’s car where he slept the night away.

All good names start with J - Jayse, Jeremy (me), Jarrod

That night, I was slightly swaying and high after drinking alcohol but did not puke. I accepted Jayse’s offer to sleep over on the couch. Unfortunately, no shameless Aussie girl found me sexy enough to offer me man-woman “exercise”.

Never mind, maybe next time!

Warning: This blog entry is very likely to cause offence to religious persons.

Having lived in Australia, and open-mindedly mingling with Australians for the past 7 years, I have learnt much about Australia, and I continue to learn more from the people who have lived in Australia much longer than I have.

Australia has strong Christian/Catholic roots.

Australia is a western country with strong Christian/Catholic roots. Many people, including ignorant Asians, including myself when I first came to Australia, would be quick to assume that many, if not all, Anglo Saxxon or Caucasian people are church-going hallelujah-singers.

Wrong!

In a liberal western country where adult stores (selling dildos, butt plugs, porn, naughty lingerie and fetish costumes) may be legally situated beside a jewelry store or restaurant, you would wonder about the moral conflict of this society where many robust century-old churches and cathedrals stand firm through historic times into modern times.

For the first time ever on this Easter, I was informed that in Australia on Good Friday, footy (Aussie football) matches are not allowed to be played, and pokies (jackpot/gambling shops) are not allowed to open. However, Melbourne’s world famous Crown Casino opens from 12pm on Good Friday.

Ironically, strip clubs and brothels are not mandated to shut their doors on Good Friday. So it would seem that playing footy and gambling are inappropriate on the day Jesus Christ died, men getting a stiffy (erection) and a squirty (ejaculation) are alright.

This Good Friday morning, I was in a taxi driven by an Algerian man who was very outspoken about the religious meaning of Good Friday. Within 10 seconds after I told him my destination, he said all religions, Christians and Muslims, are hypocritical. I swear this is true! Mister Algeria was obviously very upset with religious people and the irony of Australia’s Christian roots. He was pointing out at people, especially women, on the streets as he drove and labeling them as “dogs” and “sluts”. He was opposed to kissing and hugging on the streets. Women who wear very little clothes are sluts, but ironically, he wished he was locked between the muscular thighs of an athletic-build woman crossing the road.

I didn’t ask what was causing his ire. I could guess why.

As I have said before many many many times, Australians are shameless and unpretentious. Why else would Aussie women go out on weekend nights wearing the lowest plunging neckline and the shortest dress or miniest skirt?

Anyhow, I’m not surprised. I have, for a long time already, detected pretence and hypocrisy in religious places and among religious members.

A research published by La Trobe University (in 2006 if I remember correctly) revealed that the Australian church employs around 20,000 people to work as pastors, deacons, leaders, etc. The Australian sex (porn and brothel) industry employs roughly about the same number of people. Nobody from the adult industry has been convicted of underage sex crimes but more than 500 from the church have.

So you think all your brothers in Christ have never walked into an adult store for a stiffy or a brothel for a squirty?

Bullshit mate!

Stop lying!

Warning: This blog entry may be offensive to some persons who are sensitive to racial and religious issues. It is recommended that such persons use their time reading Disneyland story books instead of this ugly page.

According to a Monash University research published in 2008, and information gathered in the Australian Census in 2006, many non-English speaking country (NESC) migrants, including newly-arrived Asian migrants not educated in English-speaking Australia, living in Australia are disadvantaged. There is much evidence to indicate that generally these migrants earn a below-average or below-median wage, and are in trivial and menial jobs, or have a higher unemployment rate.

The primary language used in Australia is English. In other large economically powerful western countries such as US and UK, the primary language used is also English. It does not require a genius to know that in order to assimilate into the mainstream culture of these countries, speaking good English would be the foremost advantage. Since these countries are also liberal in attitudes, it would be of great benefit to a migrant to maintain an open mind.

Reading recent news reports, you could easily make sense of why some things just don’t fit into the bigger picture of mainstream western society.

Muslim unemployment higher and may rise
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=795101

If the above link has been removed, below is a selective extract from the news report.

Muslim people already suffer twice the unemployment rate of other workers in Queensland and the global economic crisis is likely to make matters worse, research shows.

A study undertaken by Queensland University of Technology researcher Dr Hossein Adibi found there was a huge gap between the level of unemployment in the general population and Muslims, something that was likely to worsen in the declining economic climate.

The unemployment rates for some segments of the Muslim population, including women and young Muslims, may exceed 20 per cent, he said.

The jobless rate in Queensland for February was 4.5 per cent.

Dr Adibi found that Muslims were disadvantaged due to four main factors: racism, discrimination, media bias and the lack of Muslim representation in decision-making bodies.

Civic centre gunman ‘wore body armour’
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=797746

If the above link has been removed, below is a selective extract from the news report.

The gunman who killed 13 people in a rampage at an immigrant community centre and then committed suicide was wearing body armour, indicating he was prepared to do battle with law enforcers, the Binghamton police chief said.

The attack at the American Civic Association, which helps immigrants settle in this country, came just after 10am as people from all over the globe - Latin America, China, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Africa - gathered for English and citizenship lessons in an effort to become a bigger part of their new home.

The gunman, 41-year-old Jiverly Wong, had been taking classes at the American Civic Association, which helps immigrants assimilate, until last month, Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said on Saturday.

The gunman’s actions were no surprise to Wong’s family, the chief said. Wong, who used the alias Jiverly Voong, believed people close to him were making fun of him for his poor English language skills, he said.

Wong was ethnically Chinese but from Vietnam, a friend said on Saturday. He was angry about recently losing a job at a Shop-Vac assembly plant, couldn’t find other work and complained that his unemployment benefit checks were only $US200 ($A280) a week…

Is it any wonder why Australia raised the passing mark for IELTS (English test) for migrants in 2007/2008?

Is it any wonder why 71% of Asian migrants with Australian university degrees don’t/can’t secure a managerial/professional job, or a job relevant to their degrees, in Australia?

A friend told me a generalised description of Aussies. Here, not in his exact words, is the description.

“If an Aussie has $3000 to spend, he is likely to buy a cheap second-hand car than buy a new laptop. If an Aussie has $300 to spend, he is likely to buy sausages and beer for a house party than buy the new iPod.”

Being in a huge spacious country such as Australia where public transport doesn’t get to everywhere, I understand the logic of choosing the car over a laptop.

Unlike Singapore which prides itself with building more and more shopping malls to cultivate the national pastime of shopping, I understand logic of choosing to socialize with others and having a good time. Who knows? With all the shameless and unpretentious mentality going around in Australia, free sex presumably happens more often, and just might really happen often enough. Which guy would complain? Why do you think Singapore ranks second-lowest in the world for sexual frequency?

Today, I read a news report that Asian youths can’t live without television and internet.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20090324/ttc-tech-us-media-asia-youth-tech-life-96247d2.html

Korean youths lead with the highest number of hours, followed by Hong Kong and Singaporean youths. If Asians spend so much time in front of a screen of pixels, is it any wonder why they could be so shy and socially withdrawn, and worse, regress further?

I say get out more, say hello to someone’s face, shake hands and smile, and then wave goodbye. Between the “hello” and “goodbye”, some sparks might actually fly.

Warning: This blog entry is likely to cause offence to some Asians. It describes the irony of lives and contradiction of principles of many Asian migrants in the western society of Australia.

Every so often, published in the news are the letters written by Aussies who shamelessly and unpretentiously express their disapproval and displeasure about migrants in Australia who refuse to adapt to, and integrate into, mainstream Australian society. The main line of attack towards migrants is usually directed at their inability to speak English well, and some would go as far as to shamelessly and unpretentiously suggest migrants get the f##k out of Australia.

Aussies can be shameless and unpretentious when expressing themselves. They can be merciless with their political incorrectness.

I’m not bluffing. I’m not exaggerating.

Recently, I had been blatant enough to wear a potentially offensive souvenir tee-shirt which I had bought in Sydney.

At the suburb of Cabramatta, an Asian enclave in Sydney

Two Aussies I know said that the tee-shirt was racist, or it has racist undertones.

An arguably racist souvenir tee-shirt sold in Sydney ironically by Asians- the people who are being insulted by Aussies

Yes, I quite agree.

The proudly-made-in-Australia tee-shirt was bought from a souvenir tee-shirt stall run by an Asian migrant family who spoke third-grade English in Paddy’s Market in Sydney. Many of the stalls in Paddy’s Market are run by Asians (who speak poor English), and many of them sell such souvenir tee-shirts with shameless and unpretentious racist or sexual messages. Funny though, the tee-shirt was made in Australia, and it was obviously designed by a shameless and unpretentious Aussie who felt that it would be fair game to be offensive. The tee-shirt was ordered by and sold by Asian stall-holders.

What an irony!

In the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, a huge Asian enclave, I noticed the words “democracy” and “liberty” on a large Chinese landmark.

(I’m trying not to laugh.)

From my own personal experience, and also from the experiences of Asian friends working in Melbourne and Sydney, the work culture in Asian companies in Australia is usually and frequently the far opposite of democracy!

The word

A good friend (I won’t name him) describes his Asian (Chinese-related) company’s work culture similar to a rank-pulling, orders-barking, hierarchy-obsessed communist country headed by someone as abominable as “Dear Leader” Kim Jung Il (the current leader of North Korea). For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jung_Il That does not sound like working in a egalitarian democracy.

What an irony!

The word

Australia is a liberal free country. Personal liberty is heralded. In fact, when you ask any Asian why he/she wants to live in Australia, the first word out of their mouths is probably “freedom”. Try it! Ask any Asian. Australia strongly holds the belief that people should have the liberty to do what they want, say what they want, practise what they want, and live the life they want, but of course within reasonable limits of not causing grievous criminal harm to others.

Moral arguments aside, Australia permits the liberty to perform porn, produce porn, distribute porn, and watch porn, unlike the strict country of Singapore which imprisons and fines all activities involving porn. This same liberty (freedom) allows men (brothers, boyfriends, husbands and men friends) to buy porn performed by women who have the same liberty to do it. This same liberty (freedom) allows me to photograph women who also have the same liberty to pose nude for me. However, this same liberty (freedom) is not always understood and accepted by Asian migrants.

This same liberty (freedom) which I enjoy in Australia, and this same liberty (freedom) which many Asians migrate to Australia for, is often criticized and condemned by narrow-minded Asian women bred in a conservative homeland. How? Every so often, I see Asian women and their frowns or weird stares as they consider me an abominable “pervert” for doing my liberal style of photography within the liberties of Australia. Yet so many of them want to migrate to live in Australia, some even trying to seduce and snare men into becoming partners so that they can obtain a Permanent Residency VISA.

What an irony!

Warning: This blog entry describes the world’s biggest and probably most shameless and unpretentious sexuality parade which happens in Sydney. Some images contain nudity and perverse sexual practices. Conservative and religious person are probably going to freak out, scream for their mothers, and be admitted into psychiatric hospitals. If you are honest enough to admit that you are such a person, please go to a safer webpage that won’t cause you recurrent nightmares and persistent bedwetting. Don’t read about my perverted Aussie porno experiences like this blog entry.

One for the album before the Mardi Gras parade starts.

Every year, the world’s biggest GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered) parade happens in Australia’s most bustling, and most sexually shameless, city of Sydney. Called the Mardi Gras, this parade is the finale of a roughly 2-week long Mardi Gras festival of social events which celebrates the pride, and to raise awareness, of GLBT people. From another perspective, Mardi Gras also brings out to the surface and in full public view the perverse or fetish sexual practices not often discussed by most people who are “normal”.

Well, what is considered “normal”?

What you consider “abnormal” may be “normal” to others. It is subjective.

Gay residents along Oxford Street look out of their apartment to watch the Mardi Gras.

For narrow-minded conservative people, lots of things are expectedly considered “abnormal”. For example, Singapore considers oral sex on its own to be “abnormal” if it is not done as a foreplay leading towards sex. Performing oral sex on its own is a crime against the order of nature! If I remember correctly, you get fined, or maybe even jailed. Yeah, that’s tight-arse!

I remembered reading in the news that there were discussions in parliament to abolish this strictly stiffly narrow-minded “abnormal” law. I don’t know the result of the discussion. Whatever it is, people should be free to consensually suck on penises and lick on vulvas without being fined or jailed.

Some spectators amused themselves with the free condoms given out by pre-parade entertainers.

Having been in Australia for 7 years, and keeping a very open mind towards this liberally-western pro-secular society, I felt that not having seen Mardi Gras should be considered a high-crime shame. Just 200m away from my Sydney apartment is Oxford Street, the gay nexus of Sydney where the Mardi Gras parade would march. A world famous big event which draws an international crowd, I would be a dumb and stupid not to go for a look-see.

A group of Asian women camp over 2.5 hours to reserve their spot to watch the Mardi Gras parade.

On Saturday 7 March 2009, my Melbourne housemate and I met and arrived at about 5pm at Oxford Street to a large gathering crowd. Some Mardi Gras performers, and possibly gay men, were walking around the street in tiny briefs, swim trunks, and other weirdly colourful and tacky clothes. Oxford Street was a shameless homosexual show-off street that afternoon. I found a spot.

Dykes on bikes.

Pre-parade entertainment started at about 5:45pm with entertainers and marshals distributing colourful lollipops, condoms and mineral water to the crowd. Hah! You should have seen all the kiasu (Singaporean slang literally meaning “afraid to lose out”) Asians, mostly Chinese from China, eagerly grabbing the freebies, even condoms. When they opened the small disguised packages and saw that it contained a condom, some appeared red-faced. Come on! How dumb could they be? This was Mardi Gras, not a Disneyland fun fair.

A Mardi Gras parade performer.

The parade started at 7:45pm with roaring 2-wheeler machines quite expectedly by dykes on bikes. The word “dykes” is used to describe lesbian women who are on the masculine side. The parade procession went on to feature a wide variety of unusual people and groups, some of whom I couldn’t determine their gender or motive.

A Mardi Gras parade performer whose gender... I don't know.

There was at least 1 group which promoted abandonment of religion (mainly Catholicism), accusing it of causing death and murder. Another float mocks the Pope for having a broadband link to his “invisible friend”. Another group danced in Catholic priest/bishop robes to bring awareness of gay clergymen. Another group promoted secularism.

A Mardi Gras float with performers of bondage sadomasochism.

According to a sexual behaviour research by La Trobe University in Melbourne, the Australian church and the Australian adult (porn and sex) industry employs roughly the same number of people – about 20,000. Nobody from the adult industry has been charged for underage sex crimes but more than 500 from the church have. Even today, every now and then, I read in the newspapers of another priest/pastor being charged for sex crimes against children, very often boys.

A group dressed as gay Catholic clergymen.

Sometimes I can’t help but think that the religious are pretentious, hypocritical, and ironic.

Promoting the abandonment of homophobic religions.

After the Mardi Gras parade, the massive 300,000 crowd gradually dispersed in every possible direction from Oxford Street. As I walked along the street in the direction of the infamous Kings Cross to look out for interesting photo opportunities, I saw a topless woman walk pass me. Yes, topless! She had her breasts fully open on show, and her nipples weren’t painted to cover/censor her shameless show.

A topless Mardi Gras performer hands out pamphlets promoting the abandonment of the Catholic faith.

I have already uploaded some Mardi Gras images into my Friendster and Facebook profiles, and more images should come soon.

Warning: This blog entry is likely to cause offence to some Asians. It describes the irony of the lives of many Asian migrants in the western society of Australia.

Perhaps, like in many western countries including Australia, migrant Chinese and Asians set up enclaves for themselves in some suburbs to live more comfortably among their own kind. For some reasons not easy to explain, they move and settle themselves in large numbers in a suburb and gradually alter the characteristics of the locality to become like their Asian homeland.

Singapore Plaza at Cabramatta, an Asian enclave in Sydney

In Melbourne, apart from Chinatown (Little Bourke Street) in the city which resembles Hong Kong, dominant Asian enclaves can be found in the Melbourne suburbs of Springvale and Box Hill. The suburbs of Footscray, Richmond and Glen Waverley also have significant Asian populace.

Hong Kong Shopping Plaza at Cabramatta, an Asian enclave in Sydney

In Sydney, Chinatown is centered around Dixon Street in an inner city suburb called Haymarket which shares the prime Sydney CBD postcode of 2000. Similar to other Chinatowns in western cities, it is a crowded, tight and often untidy cluster of shops and stalls doing small, simple and often trivial-looking businesses. Sydney’s Chinatown sits on a larger area than Melbourne’s, and is more bustling like the rest of the city.

You would think that you are in Asia, but no, this is Cabramatta, Sydney

Rivaling Sydney’s Chinatown is the suburb of Cabramatta where the environment is very much Asia-like. By western standards, Cabramatta would appear something like an Asian slum. On common walkways, elderly Asian women illegally hawk cooked food, vegetables and other oddities for maybe a gold coin (referring to the Australian $1 or $2 coin). In the crowded Cabramatta plazas or malls, walkways are flanked by stalls selling cooked food, mostly Vietnamese. The atmosphere is quite similar to a pasar malam (night market) or street-side market in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, or other Asian country. In Cabramatta, you would really believe that you are in Asia, not in Australia.

You think Asia? No, this is Cabramatta, Sydney

Another significant Asian enclave is the suburb of Bankstown. Although I haven’t been there yet, I am told that it has, in recent years, taken a shift towards Vietnamese dominance. The streets of Bankstown would experience the occasional rough-up and beat-up by Vietnamese low-lifers. Just like in Melbourne, the Vietnamese are stereotyped by Aussie locals as no-good-English belligerent Asian gangsters who may swing out knives, and maybe even, a gun.

Bankstown, another Asian enclave in Sydney, is dominated by Vietnamese

The most common story of any Asian migrant who left his/her Asian homeland to live in a more developed, more liberal, and more democratic western country such as Australia is the hope and pursuit of a better life and job. However, the reality is really an irony.

The sights and plights of many Asians migrants in Sydney are quite expectedly no different from those in Melbourne. And, I would suppose the same for any other Australian city.

According to the last Australian Census conducted in 2006, most Asian migrants living in Australia earn below national median wages. Only migrants from Malaysia, India and Philippines earn above national median wages surpassing Australia-born (local) people. Ranked the fourth highest paid Asian migrants, Singaporeans are nearly on par with Australia-born (local) people. However, do not misunderstand. Not every Singaporean (or Malaysian or Indian) is as successful as the census data might suggest.

Since the start of 2009, I met 3 Singaporeans who don’t have decent income for at least the past 6 months because they can’t find a full-time job. Of this 3, 2 are graduates from Australian universities. Research published in 2008 by Monash University says about 71% of Asian migrants with Australian university degrees can’t fill a managerial / professional position, or a job related to their university education.

Warning: This blog entry contains writing and images with sexual references that may offend conservative or religious persons. Please, if you know that you fit into any of these categories, don’t read. I say again, don’t read. I don’t want you to have recurrent nightmares and persistent bedwetting.

Very often, I’m confused by the contradicting messages coming from many Asians. On one hand, Asians are traditionally and supposedly conservative towards sex, but on another hand, Asians sometimes break their stereotype by being blatant about it. When, and why, do Asians often show the red light (no to sex) and sometimes show the green light (yes to sex) confuses me a lot more than trying to solve complicated Maxwell’s equations.

I think that this very puzzling contradiction happens a lot more in a liberal western country such as Australia. I suspect that many Asians bear an internal conflict of pretence.

We pretend.

To save our faces, we pretend.

In the previous blog entry, I said that I saw a young Asian couple enter a strip club cum brothel along Darlinghurst Road in Kings Cross. Along with them were 2 young Asian women who are their friends. The 4 of them went in to watch strip dancers wrapping themselves around a steel pole, gradually taking off their clothes, and then dance around male patrons with absolutely no shame in spreading their legs to show their pink bits.

That really happens in such Aussie strip clubs. I’m not exaggerating.

In comparison, the mostly Aussie or western patronage in such strip clubs would suggest a greater degree of shamelessness and unpretentiousness of the white-skin race than Asians.

As if we don’t already know.

We already knew it long ago. The white westerners are more liberal about sex.

Yet, strangely, despite Australia being a shameless liberal country, many Asians choose to settle in this land where sex blatantly screams in your face every night in its western-influenced society.

Just like Melbourne, Sydney is no exception.

An Asian mother and daughter at Paddy's Market in Sydney's Chinatown.

At Paddy’s Market in Haymarket, near Sydney Chinatown, I noticed a similarity to Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. Rows of make-shift stalls sell lots of souvenirs, shoes, clothes, lingerie including sexual fetish costumes. Just like in Melbourne, many of the stall holders are Asians, and a few Asians operate stalls selling lingerie and sexual fetish costumes.

A stall selling lingerie and fetish wear at Paddy's Market in Sydney's Chinatown

I mean, bras, g-strings, lacy panties, translucent babydoll dresses, and various uniform costumes comprising midriff-baring tops and micro-mini skirts small and short enough to cause pastors and priests to commit sin. The sexual connotations are so strong.

And yes, I saw Asians selling them.

Now you know why I’m confused?

“What’s goin’ on mate?”