Dumb Drunk and Racist

9:40pm – Wednesday, July 25 on ABC2

After a three-week road trip, the Indians’ Australian odyssey is nearly at an end. But before they reveal their views on Australia, they take a look at our drinking culture…

Australians drink more than just about any other country on earth; we also love our cricket. Joe introduces the Indians to a grand tradition – a beer at the cricket.

The crew then embark on a club crawl in Surfers Paradise, and experience Aussie binge drinking culture up close. Binge drinking is one of the major health problems affecting young Australians and it’s the police and hospital emergency departments that are on the frontline. Joe takes Amer and Mahima to St Vincent’s, where Dr Gordian Fulde reveals that a single drunken punch can destroy a life.

From the city, the Indians then head to the bush to experience a country pub. Wrapping up the drinking tour, Joe takes everyone to the Meandarra B&S Ball, a romantic rite of passage where alcohol plays a vital role.

Finally, after meeting and experiencing many different parts of the Australian culture, Gurmeet, Radhika, Amer and Mahima deliver their verdict. How have their opinions changed? Do they still believe Australians are indeed dumb, drunk and racist?

9:30pm – Wednesday, July 18 on ABC2

Joe gives the Indians a crash course in what constitutes an average Aussie – are we bushies, bogans or battlers? Why do we celebrate our larrikins but hide our laureates.

In episode 5, the crew aims to discover the truth behind these stereotypes. Starting off in the bush, Joe takes the Indians to the Allora Show to experience country life at its best: cakes, pumpkins, dodgem cars and rodeos.

Just down the road is Mt Isa, the epitome of a country mining town. The Indians visit a school tuckshop and meet Mt Isa’s woman of the year, Theresa Braithwaite. A cancer survivor and serial volunteer, Theresa’s story really moves Radhika and Gurmeet.

Joe is determined to introduce the Indians to a real-life bogan – and the streets and footy fields of Mt Isa finally bring them face to face with the real deal.

Mahima and Amer then meet Dr Brian Schmidt, Australia’s latest Nobel Laureate, and by no means dumb.

Joe sends Gurmeet and Mahima – both from very traditional Indian families who expect to have arranged marriages – to meet a not-so-average Aussie family: Chloe and Erin are a lesbian couple raising four kids in a suburb of Brisbane. Finally, Gurmeet and Mahima experience a hen’s night in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. Mahima gets into the spirit of the night but Gurmeet is shocked, especially by the strippers.

DUMB, DRUNK & RACIST … are we really? Series premiere Wednesday 20 June at 9.30pm on ABC2

Australians get a bad rap overseas, and our stocks are especially low in India.

In fact, a sizeable chunk of India’s 1.2 billion people think Aussies are dumb, drunk and racist. But doesn’t every country have its negative stereotypes? Continue reading »

9:30pm – Wednesday, July 4 on ABC2

In episode 3, journalist Joe Hildebrand takes Amer, Radhika, Gurmeet and Mahima to what the Indian media claim is the most dangerous city in Australia – Melbourne.

Although many Australians think of Melbourne as our most liveable city, for Indians it’s infamous for attacks on Indian students. In fact, education adviser Radhika tells students not to risk studying in Australia at all.

Joe and the Indians investigate the nature of these attacks – were they really racist or more a case of Indian students being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Gautam Gupta, an Indian student leader at the time of the attacks and now a practising surgeon, tells Gurmeet and Radhika that he has no doubt that the attacks were racist. Later, Joe shows the tourists CCTV footage of a brutal attack on Indian student Sourabh Sharma. Mahima and Gurmeet then meet Sourabh, and hear first-hand about the attack.

Meanwhile, Radhika and Amer patrol the mean streets of Melbourne with the Victorian Police – Radhika is appalled by the level of drunkenness but Amer seems less concerned.

Back in India, Amer had said he wanted to walk the streets of Melbourne at 2 or 3am, to judge for himself if Australia is a racist country. Joe grants Amer’s wish, and Gurmeet accompanies him. The walk is uneventful until Amer and Gurmeet return to Swanston Street…

9:30pm – Wednesday, June 27 on ABC2

Journalist Joe Hildebrand takes four Indians on an Australian road trip to examine our most negative stereotypes. Tonight, they dive head first into Australia’s multicultural melting pot. Despite joining a nation built by successive waves of refugees, the most recent arrivals often cop the most flack and in Australia in 2012, it is Australian Muslims who are on the front line.

Mahima, Radhika, Gurmeet and Amer are in the second week of their ‘dumb, drunk and racist’ road trip, and begin this episode in Sydney’s Lakemba – a suburb with a predominantly Muslim population. Radhika is clearly surprised by the lack of white people in Lakemba: “This is not really Australia… these people have built their own country in another country.” Later, Radhika and Mahima meet Nasro, a Somalian refugee, who tells them that although she has experienced kindness, she has little doubt that most Australians are racist.

Venturing deeper into the heart of this issue, Joe takes the travellers to Cronulla beach and tells them the story of the infamous 2005 riots. The footage of that awful day shocks everyone and brings law student Amer to tears.

The crew then travel back into the heart of Sydney’s Western suburbs and play a game of soccer with the all-women, multi-ethnic Lakembaroos.

Finally Joe takes them to Villawood Immigration Detention Centre. There they meet members of the Australian Protectionist Party, a group that believes multiculturalism is a failure and Muslim immigration should be stopped altogether. As they are talking, several pro-refugee advocates arrive and tempers flare as the Indians find themselves in the middle of a heated argument about multiculturalism.

9:30pm – Wednesday, June 20 on ABC2

Australians get a bad rap overseas, and our stocks seem especially low in India. In fact, a sizeable chunk of India’s 1.2 billion people think Aussies are dumb, drunk and racist. But doesn’t every country have its negative stereotypes.

In this six-part factual series, journalist Joe Hildebrand takes four Indians on a road-trip around Australia to examine our worst stereotypes – are we really beer-swilling, racist bogans, or are we simply misunderstood.

After three weeks of seeing the good, the bad and the ugly up close, will our intrepid Indian travellers still think that Australians are dumb, drunk and racist? And what will we think of ourselves, after seeing Australia through their eyes.

In the first episode, Joe travels to India and meets the four locals who will join him on the trip – newsreader and journalist Gurmeet Chaudhary, call centre worker Mahima Bhardwaj, law student Amer Singh and student advisor Radhika Budhwar. All agree to risk life and limb to visit our reviled and dangerous country.

Joe kicks off the Australian tour by mixing the glitz and glamour of Sydney Harbour with Australia’s most renowned beach, Bondi. The travellers quickly become seduced by the beauty down under. But before his guests relax too much, Joe stops them in their tracks with a provocative mural plastered on an inner-city wall. The mural – which reads ‘Ban the Burqa’ – sparks off the first heated debate… and the Indians aren’t the only ones upset by the message the mural carries.