Word: asianness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Australia's complexion, too, is changing - literally. Until the 1970s, an exclusionist White Australia Policy kept out most Asian immigrants. But today, around 8% of Australians are of Asian descent. (If nothing else, Rudd jokes, the changing immigration pattern has catalyzed a culinary revolution in a country where Irish stew was once considered haute cuisine. "At last," says the Prime Minister, "we have some decent food...
...Thai and stir-fried veggies aside, not everyone is pleased with the way Australia has changed. While the reflexive xenophobia of conservative politician Pauline Hanson, who warned in 1996 that Australia was "in danger of being swamped by Asians," has retreated from politics, Asia's presence and influence in Australia still provoke controversy. Some Asian, Middle Eastern and African Australians complain that they are somehow considered less truly Australian than those who came from, say, Italy, Greece or Croatia. An influx of foreign students into Australian universities - many of them Asian - has heightened tensions. In an ugly series of incidents...
...Tensions have also been exacerbated by the economy's increasing dependence on Asian markets. The long economic boom came courtesy of Asian - read Chinese - demand for Australian commodities such as iron ore, coal and bauxite. In large measure, Australians understand the benefit of this regional trade. "The Australian people are enormously practical about the reality of China," says Rudd. "That hundreds of thousands of Australian jobs, directly or indirectly, depend on Chinese trade is something Australians...
Russia, to be sure, is not entirely dependent on a U.S. endorsement to feel important. In mid-June, it hosted two summits in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg: one with members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (which includes China and four Central Asian republics, as well as observer states India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan) and the other with leaders of the so-called BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China. Medvedev was the first foreign leader to receive Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after his controversial re-election. (See pictures of the aftermath of Iran's election...
...attempting to wean itself off its addiction to Russian gas with a new pipeline. On Monday, five European governments signed an agreement in Ankara to build the Nabucco gas pipeline, which will bring Middle Eastern and Central Asian gas to Western Europe via Turkey and the Balkans - completely bypassing Russia. (See pictures of the changing face of Europe...