Poll: Allowing Kava at the Multicultural Festival?

Pommy bastard said :

“effecting” = to produce as an effect; bring about; accomplish; make happen.

The most commonly made grammatical error in all my posts.

p1 said :

ainira said :

Kava is banned in Europe and the USA as well. Are they racist too?

Well, yes. But that is something else entirely.

The question of whether a policy is “racist” when its end result effects one specific racial group more then others (even when the law applies to everyone), is a question I have heard before. If currently 99 per cent of kava in Australia is consumed by Islanders, then it is clearly effecting Islanders more then the rest of the community. Is this a racist policy?

Pet peave alert!

“effecting” = to produce as an effect; bring about; accomplish; make happen.

I think it’s crazy to say that it’s banned due to racist or discrimination reasons, but more likely that it’s banned because it isn’t commercially sold or distributed so the Gov’t doesn’t really know what’s actually in it. If they allowed it and then someone had a bad reaction, as per the Gov’t advisory listed by Rawhide Kid, then they sue the Gov’t and then we all pay for it in our taxes! Why do people have to always make everything about racism?

What’s the point of multicultral festival if you can’t share your culture? Last year they had Kava there and there were no problems? It’s stupid banning it suddenly on Saturday. The organisers knew they would be having it prior to the day and suddenly they aren’t allowed to have it. They werent selling it, people were giving a donation if they wanted to but they didn’t ask for it. I’d much rather have my husband in there drinking Kava sharing his culture with people than have him drunk walking through Civic with people assuming the worst of him.

If you want to drink Kava, go back to Tonga, sunshine! If you want to live in Australia – no kava for you! Sorry about that “bro”….

Erg0 said :

For that matter, are we discriminating against Americans by restricting their ability to own handguns in Australia?

My point was that there is a massive grey area between your example and saying we are going to ban caste marks on women’s foreheads. Just because such a law might be applied to the whole population would not detract from it’s unfair impact of Hindus.

The validity of the stated reason would have to be the measure I think. Personally I don’t know much about kava, but I assume the health authorities consider it to be a significant risk to people, yet make allowances for cultural use because they know the small numbers of users in the population will never produce the kinda stats to cause public outcry.

Once again though, if the stuff is legal for select people to use within culturally relevant situations, then surely a festival dedicated to celebrating that culture would be such a time?

p1 said :

The question of whether a policy is “racist” when its end result effects one specific racial group more then others (even when the law applies to everyone), is a question I have heard before. If currently 99 per cent of kava in Australia is consumed by Islanders, then it is clearly effecting Islanders more then the rest of the community. Is this a racist policy?

Facetious example: Greece has the highest rate of cigarette consumption in the world, followed closely by large sections of Eastern Europe. Are anti-smoking laws an example of racism against these nationalities?

For that matter, are we discriminating against Americans by restricting their ability to own handguns in Australia?

It’s obviously not a simple question to answer, but if the policy has genuinely been formulated on public health grounds then it’s hard to argue that it’s racist, regardless of who it impacts the most.

p1 said :

ainira said :

Kava is banned in Europe and the USA as well. Are they racist too?

Well, yes. But that is something else entirely.

The question of whether a policy is “racist” when its end result effects one specific racial group more then others (even when the law applies to everyone), is a question I have heard before. If currently 99 per cent of kava in Australia is consumed by Islanders, then it is clearly effecting Islanders more then the rest of the community. Is this a racist policy?

Umm no.

Kava is a prohibited substance, you need an exemption to import it, part of the exemption is for cultural festivities. That being said, one would think that you’d have to be part of the culture to consume it.

From what I saw there was no problem with the stall holders drinking it themselves, or providing it to other islanders, they just couldn’t supply to people who aren’t from their culture.

From what I have been told it is very bad for an islander to “sell” kava, it is against culture to do so.

If they want to have a Kava party, then so be it, but they have to follow the rules of the jurisdiction, in this matter it simply meant the white fella’s can’t partake in the Kava.

I’m sure it was a misunderstanding, next year they need to find a way to put Kava on a stick then it will conform to acceptable multicultural practice in the ACT.

ainira said :

Kava is banned in Europe and the USA as well. Are they racist too?

Well, yes. But that is something else entirely.

The question of whether a policy is “racist” when its end result effects one specific racial group more then others (even when the law applies to everyone), is a question I have heard before. If currently 99 per cent of kava in Australia is consumed by Islanders, then it is clearly effecting Islanders more then the rest of the community. Is this a racist policy?