Should We Ban Australia Day As Well?

[icyfroth]

We are after all celebrating the landing of the First Fleet on January 26th 1988...

Aldi pulls 'racist' T-shirts after online outrage

Discount supermarket chain Aldi has pulled an Australia Day T-shirt and singlet from its stores amid claims on social media that designs featured on the garments were racist.

Complaints that the range of promotional T-shirts with 'AUSTRALIA EST 1788' logos were racist led to people targeting @ALDIAustralia on Twitter and calling for them to be withdrawn.

The T-shirts and singlets were scheduled to go on sale on this week in the lead up to January 26.

Twitter users slammed the design as racist and culturally insensitive to indigenous Australians, who inhabited the continent for thousands of years before Europeans arrived.

Click Here For Article

Perhaps we should abandon the celebration altogether.

[**meep**]

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@icyfroth wrote:

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

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@gkam2 wrote:

It is correct to say that Australia was not established in 1788 and if that is a reason to ban Australia Day then get rid of Christmas as 25 Dec. was not Christs true day of birth, get rid of Easter as it changes date each year and get rid of the Queens Birthday as her Birthday is not in June. The nation of Australia did not come into being untill Federation in 1901 prior to that we were a collection of seperate colonies and quite frankly who cares, it is just a 'T' shirt and i have seen much worse that should be banned.

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You may not care, but clearly many indegenous people do. Maybe you feel offending them doesn't matter -  common sense and basic good manners tells me that it does.

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Yes but then surely it shows a lack of commonsense and bad manners to celebrate Australia Day as well then doesn't it? I would think Aborigines would be even more offended by declaring a National Day of celebration of when they were invaded by our ancestors?

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Yes, I think it does.  A Public Holiday vs a T-Shirt.

[the_great_she_elephant]

Aborigines would be even more offended by declaring a National Day of celebration of when they were invaded by our ancestors?

Many of them do, indeed refer to it as Invasion Day.

Maybe the time has come to do our celebrating on a more appropriate day - Reconcilliation Day or Federation Day might be better.

[imastawka]

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@boris1gary wrote:

should't be shopping at auldi anyway, it's owned by 2 blokes (think they might be brothers, can't remember am tired)) who rate as two of the richest retailers in the world,  they are a non-union shop who managed to do away with a lot of jobs by selling off palettes instead of proper shelves and lots of other little tricks etc.

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That's a big call.  Aldi started life in 1913 as a little grocer shop in Germany.

There's nothing wrong with selling off palettes. That makes them cheaper

than the big 2 (Woolies and Coles) They still nees people to stock the store,

be it palettes or shelves

Should we stop shopping at Myer, David Jones etc because they are owned by

rich people?

[imastawka]

Bit of cross-threading here, but maybe this is how Aldi gets rich?

http://www.thelocal.de/20140107/aldi-staff-find-140-kilos-of-cocaine-in-banana-crates

(Don't eat the bananas thread)

[cherry*135]

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@boris1gary wrote:

should't be shopping at auldi anyway, it's owned by 2 blokes (think they might be brothers, can't remember am tired)) who rate as two of the richest retailers in the world,  they are a non-union shop who managed to do away with a lot of jobs by selling off palettes instead of proper shelves and lots of other little tricks etc.

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Yes, I hope the OP doesn't shop there. foreign owners

Seriously though, Aldi are very good employers in Australia, they pay above award rate I believe.

The check-out persons get to sit down when working ( the only supermarket in Australia to do so).

If they can make their products cheaper by selling of pallets instead of installing proper shelves, I don't think their customers are going to complain about that.

 ALDI became the first grocery retailer to offer paid maternity leave to all employees. This means full-time and part-time female employees who have been with the company for 12 months are eligible to receive 14 weeks’ pay at 50 per cent.

[**meep**]

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

Aborigines would be even more offended by declaring a National Day of celebration of when they were invaded by our ancestors?

Many of them do, indeed refer to it as Invasion Day.

Maybe the time has come to do our celebrating on a more appropriate day - Reconcilliation Day or Federation Day might be better.

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I think that's what the OP was getting at......more or less.....

[donnashuggy]

I don't like the way they treat their customers like thiefs, is that part of the training? Inspecting bags at checkout?

It makes me feel uncomfortable.

[cherry*135]

If you have nothing to hide what is the problem? They have to be acive in preventing/catching shop lifters I suppose.

K-mart used to have a door person that asked to look in people's bags when they went out the door (those that didn't go through check-out).

Other places do it too. I was in another store recently and two younger people  with back packs were stopped at the door and asked to open their bags...they were surprised to be asked. They were in their 20's.

[**meep**]

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@donnashuggy wrote:

I don't like the way they treat their customers like thiefs, is that part of the training? Inspecting bags at checkout?

It makes me feel uncomfortable.

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I think you will find those are  the conditions of entry into all supermarkets/stores, which are usually clearly displayed.  We have a choice of not entering.

[donnashuggy]

It's the first time I have seen a supermarket do it, they have not checked mine but I feel sorry for the little old ladies they do it to. I also feel sorry for the staff having to ask, why can't they just use cameras?