Two events - one here and the other overseas - illustrate a risk factor that the average person doesn't want to know about. We live in our own peaceful little world and newspaper headlines describing such things are not welcome.
On Sunday night a family group of five Jewish people were walking home from their Synagogue in Sydney's suburb of Bondi. Some of them were wearing items of clothing that identified them as Jewish - and this caught the attention of a group of young men in the 17 to 23 age group.
Without warning, these men and women were viciously attacked and beaten. They were also verbally abused but the medical treatment required involved broken bones, concussion - and in one case - bleeding on the brain. It was a " near death " experience.
The police have made arrests and the perpetrators were boozed up young men from a Pacific island background who were simple bored - and chose to attack another innocent group of people - because they were " different ". It seems pure bad luck that these two groups happened to coincide in a Bondi street, and if that had not happened - it might have been someone else that got beaten up - or it might have resulted in property damage to channel their aggression.
The fact that the victims were Jewish struck a nerve with many people. Memories of the Holocaust still haunt people's minds and an attack on people for just being Jewish is a reminder that the Pogroms of Europe still linger in the souls of many, generations after that event took place.
The other event concerns " Maria " - the Roma child living with people who were not her direct kin in Greece. Initially, it was thought police had stumbled on a child stealing ring, but that has been disproved and this event highlights another rejected race of people who are doing it tough across the entire relatively wealthy national group that is the EU.
It seems that Maria's mother had her while in Greece during the fruit picking season. She had numerous other children - and lacked the means to provide food and support for one more. She contends that this child was given to another Roma family in sheer desperation at her plight.
The Roma seem an accursed race, welcome in none of the EU countries and being relentlessly pursued to force them back over the border in many others. They have a reputation as thieves and vagabonds - and they are denied work or education by most communities.
Sadly, a similar life is shared by some remote Aboriginal communities here in Australia, and the habit of giving away children to others is not unknown.
These headlines remind us that uncomfortable events that we pretend do not exist in this country are lurking in the shadows !
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