June
18
Professor Ajay Kapoor, Associate Dean at Swinburne University in Melbourne, finds the recent international coverage of Australia as an unsafe country far removed from his own experiences in Australia.
"I have been here for two years and haven't found any traces of racism," said Kapoor. "I find Australians to be very open. They say what is in their hearts. This allows me to do the same and I find that absolutely superb".
He feels the recent media coverage regarding racist attacks on Indians paints a grossly inaccurate picture of Australia. He is concerned about the perception this is creating in India and the distrust it is causing between the communities.
Kapoor moved to Melbourne two years ago and says he has developed many long term friendships and feels a strong community bond with residents of the city. He lives with his wife and two daughters in a Melbourne suburb and says he feels very accepted. "I know for sure that Melbourne is one of the safest cities," he says.
He and Indian friends currently living in Australia believe that India's negative media coverage of Australia has been blown out of proportion. He rejects the depiction that Australia is a racist country and dangerous place to live in and points out that many of his friends have made Melbourne their home over the last few decades.
"A couple of isolated incidents do not make this whole place unsafe," he says. He suggests that the issue of violence could be better addressed by informing international students of basic safety responsibilities when travelling overseas. ?Indian students often find the culture differences hard to adjust to. Many have come from very small towns in India and have never been to a big city. There needs to be education on what areas to avoid,? he says.
Australia is a multicultural country offering many opportunities for international people from India, and around the world. A large proportion of Swinburne's staff and students have an international background and Swinburne takes their health and wellbeing seriously. Kapoor says the Australian government has taken many initiatives and are doing as much as they can in regards to the Indian protests currently taking place.
Kapoor was educated and raised in India before moving to the UK where he completed his PhD in Engineering at Cambridge University. He spent more than 20 years in the UK, teaching at Leicester and Sheffield universities. He said: "In my 20 years of living outside of India I have never been to or lived in a better place than Melbourne".
