Tragic murder parents fly in
DANIELLE McKAY
July 05, 2009 07:51am
THE grieving parents of student Zhang "Tina" Yu have arrived in Hobart, more than a week after their daughter's murder.
University of Tasmania officials met Mr and Mrs Yu at the airport yesterday morning after their 12-hour flight from Wenzhou, China.
The couple immediately sought details on their 26-year-old daughter's death from Inspector Peter Powell of Hobart CIB.
"Naturally they were seeking answers to what has happened to their daughter," Insp Powell said. "They were very distressed and obviously mourning deeply."
Insp Powell said it was not known how long they would remain in Tasmania.
Ms Yu was very close to her parents, usually calling them twice a week or every day if something exciting was happening, friends said yesterday.
"She was a very good daughter, and they were very good parents," a friend said.
"She was a warm-hearted girl, a best friend. I don't know what I'm going to say to them [Mr and Mrs Yu]. I don't know what I can say, nothing will make them [feel] better."
A family friend told the Sunday Tasmanian Mrs Yu had been so overcome with grief she had lost the strength even to stand late yesterday.
An outpouring of emotion overwhelmed a group of international students who held a memorial for Ms Yu at Salamanca Market yesterday.
More than 1000 people are believed to have signed a memorial banner for the accounting student, and many laid floral tributes in front of a large photograph of her.
Fellow accounting student Wen Zhen, 28, from China, said the banner would be given to Mr and Mrs Yu.
Mr Zhen said it was very heart-warming to see the large number of people taking the time to offer their condolences.
More than 40 international students took part in the memorial, which they hoped would also highlight their concerns about racism in Tasmania.
Although police say the murder was not racially motivated, her death has reinforced countless accounts of racism against international students.
Mr Zhen said international students chose to study in Tasmania because it had a reputation as a safe place.
"We are very scared," he said. "We don't feel safe any more.
"But we hope we can show the Tasmanian and Australian people we want to be treated the same as local people, and we want the Government to help us stop the violence and give us more security."
New Norfolk resident Greg Barker was one of many locals who signed the banner.
Mr Barker said he felt ashamed by the revelations of racism in Tasmania.
"I didn't realise how bad racism actually is in Tasmania," he said. "To think that a lot of their calls for help have gone unanswered by the community is just so sad."
Lord Mayor Rob Valentine said: "We want them [students] to know that they as a community are really welcome here. They are a part of our community and the community will get behind them."
UTAS acting vice-chancellor David Rich said he was deeply moved by the very strong support shown by so many Tasmanians when he visited the memorial.
Professor Rich said UTAS was working with authorities to provide a safe environment for all Tasmanian students.
Indian Students Grow Wary of Australia Following Attacks
Andrew Harrison, Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2009
Random violence against Indian students is damaging the reputation of Australia’s growing tertiary-education industry.
More than 1,000 mostly Indian students protested the violence in a demonstration in the city Sunday and Monday. One recent attack in Melbourne left an Indian stabbing victim in a coma.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Monday {snip} noted there are 90,000 Indians studying in Australia and more than 200,000 Australians of Indian descent.
Education of foreign students has become big business in Australia, generating 15.5 billion Australian dollars (US$12.54 billion) in 2008, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said last week. Foreigners now make up 25% of students, up from just under 10% in 1997.
The tertiary-education sector is now the nation’s third-largest export earner behind coal and iron ore. In Victoria state, education is the biggest export earner.
The number of Indian students has doubled in the past three years, with two-thirds studying at private colleges.
Violence against the foreign students has been escalating over the past four years, according to Gautam Gupta, spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students of Australia. In Victoria state, police said 1,447 people of Indian origin were victims of crimes such as robberies and assaults in the year ending June 30, 2008, an increase from 1,082 in the previous year.
Students face ‘terrible violence’
Phil Mercer, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: June 20. 2009 10:43PM UAE / June 20. 2009 6:43PM GMT
SYDNEY // As Australia grapples with embarrassing attacks on young Indians, students from the Middle East have also been subjected to unprovoked violence and bigotry.
There have been dozens of assaults in Melbourne and Sydney, mostly on Indian expatriates, and the muggings and beatings have spread to smaller regional centres, where other nationalities have been targeted in a suspected wave of racially motivated crimes.
At Newcastle University in New South Wales, undergraduates from Saudi Arabia have been “exposed to terrible violence”, according to Veronica Meneses, a welfare and education officer at the student association, who accused the authorities of not doing enough to help.
“Saudi students have been having a hard time especially in Newcastle, which everybody knows is one of the most Anglo-Saxon cities in Australia. Having an influx of Saudis is a bit of a cultural shock for the locals,” Ms Meneses said.
Hani, who preferred not to divulge his surname, arrived from Saudi Arabia to study medicine last year. He was set upon by a gang of teenagers in Newcastle, but was saved from serious injury by a group of friends who came to his rescue.
“There is some attacking on the campus and the suburbs around the university and that has put too much pressure on the students,” said Hani, who conceded that he might leave Australia if the situation didn’t improve. “I am doing martial arts so I can defend myself but lots of students can’t do anything when people attack them.”
Knives and baseball bats have been used in street robberies, while one international student has also been shot at.
Across Australia, the police and various university authorities have stressed that the security and well-being of visiting students is a priority. While the official view is that the majority of attacks were opportunistic acts carried out on the vulnerable, there is an admission that some were hate crimes perpetrated by racists.
Ibrahim Abu Nadi, president of the Saudi Club in the Gold Coast in Queensland, said the police and universities had “acted positively” when dealing with assaults on young foreigners.
Mr Nadi, from Jeddah, who is working on a PhD in electronic government, insisted that while the attacks on Middle Eastern students on the Gold Coast south of Brisbane were“rare, they were nevertheless unsettling.
“A married woman, she was riding on the bus from the university to home at 12 o’clock and there were two people who were drunk and they wanted to remove her hijab and they were saying bad things about her,” he said.
“There was also a guy who had just arrived from Saudi. I don’t know why he was attacked, maybe because of his looks. It was 11am and he was mugged by two big guys, who came to him and stole his money. Amazingly enough, they came back to him and gave back the money. I guess they felt sad for him or something.”
A steady flow of Saudis, who have found entry into Australia easier than the United States after the September 11 attacks, has helped fuel a boom in the country’s multibillion-dollar higher education industry. In 2004, Australia was the world’s fifth most popular destination for overseas students and today about 450,000 are enrolled at universities and colleges across the continent.
Foreigners are a vital source of revenue and allow institutions to provide a diverse range of courses, but Nigel Palmer, national president of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, believes they have been taken advantage of by a system that simply wants their money and is not willing to offer them safety and support in return.
“Universities around the world have embraced the growth of the international education market as, pretty much, free money,” Mr Palmer said. “They have been keen to welcome international enrolments and international fees but haven’t felt compelled to really make an investment in support of services for those students.”
As a result, many visitors have been left to fend for themselves in a strange, lonely place, far from home.
“International students are not connected to the community – not even to the domestic student community. Isolation, discrimination and racism are issues,” Ms Meneses said.
Some Tips For Staying Safe While You're Walking
If you’re walking alone at night to keep fit, or perhaps you're a student on campus or just need to get where you're going, it’s understandable that you might feel uneasy from time to time. Here are some simple tips that can help minimise your chances of being targeted by thieves, attackers or even stalkers;
1.Keep alert. If you feel as though something is wrong, head for a well-lit or populated area.
2.Try to walk against the flow of traffic as this will make it easy to see any cars that are approaching.
3.Walk with friends whenever you can, there‘s safety in numbers.
4.If people are following you or approach you, don't stop to have a conversation with them. Try to keep moving and find a well populated area.
5.Avoid walking where the lighting is poor, such as parks and laneways.
6.Handbags should be carried either in front of you or under your arm with the strap secured. Never let the bag or strap hang loosely.
7.Avoid wearing headphones as it’s difficult to hear what is happening around you.
8.If you have to walk alone, vary your route and consider a personal duress alarm.
9. Carry a phone for emergencies
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
