Every country has its idiots - by Nick Wade

Today we were given the opportunity of interviewing Paul Basha on the subject of his short film which is currently in production. Paul’s film deals with the sensitive issue of racial stereotyping in Australia, in particular towards the Lebanese culture and people. Now before you turn away or stop reading thinking to yourself “yes, yes I’ve heard it all before”, what separates Paul from the rest of the drab crowd who constantly whine and bicker about racism is that Paul makes some damn fine points.

The point that hits closest to home for me is his reference to the minorities and basically how they are the root of all negative stereotyping. I can easily relate to this because when the world looks at Australia what do they see? They see middle aged men with beer guts and sausage stained singlets living in the middle of the desert and keeping kangaroos as pets. How many of us are actually like this? This was Paul’s main point, that because some drongos in Sydney with too much testosterone sparked a riot and because America is at war with the Middle East does this make every Lebanese person within Australia a criminal? His exact words were: “It’s the minorities ruining it for the majority.”

I can sympathise with this point of view as I’m sick to death of tourists coming to Australia and being disappointed that I don’t know how to surf, I don’t have a tan and of course most shocking I don’t have a pet kangaroo.

Of course for an interview it wasn’t actually what was being said that sold Paul's case for me, it was the fact that Paul entered with his two mates laughing and joking being able to talk about the sensitive issues calmly and with good humour. When asked, “What in your opinion is the biggest difference between Australia and Lebanon?” he was unable to think of an answer but instead gave similarities between the two saying “they are good people, easy going”.

While I don’t doubt there are Lebanese people out there who I wouldn’t understand and wouldn’t particularly get along with I’m certain there are just as many Australians that fit into the same category. At the end of the day Paul's point is that every country has its idiots and we have to all try our best to not them tarnish our nationality's reputation. This is what Paul's film aims to do and can be viewed on the 3rd of December at the TAFE Showcase.