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The term multiculturalism generally refers to the acceptance of various cultural divisions for the sake of diversity that applies to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the scale of an organization such as a school, business, neighborhood, city or nation.

Australia The response to multiculturalism in Australia has been extremely varied, with a recent wave of criticism against it in the past decade. An anti-immigration party, the One Nation Party, was formed by Pauline Hanson in the late 1990s. The party enjoyed significant electoral success for a while, most notably in its home state of Queensland, but is now electorally marginalized. One Nation called for the abolition of multiculturalism on the grounds that it represented "a threat to the very basis of the Australian culture, identity and shared values", arguing that there was "no reason why migrant cultures should be maintained at the expense of our shared, national culture."[83] A Federal Government proposal in 2006 to introduce a compulsory citizenship test, which would assess English skills and knowledge of Australian values, sparked renewed debate over the future of multiculturalism in Australia. Andrew Robb, then Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, told a conference in November 2006 that some Australians worried the term "multicultural" had been transformed by interest groups into a philosophy that put "allegiances to original culture ahead of national loyalty, a philosophy which fosters separate development, a federation of ethnic cultures, not one community". He added: "A community of separate cultures fosters a rights mentality, rather than a responsibilities mentality. It is divisive. It works against quick and effective integration."[84] The Australian citizenship test commenced in October 2007 for all new citizens between the ages of 18 and 60.[85] In January 2007 the Howard Government removed the word "multicultural" from the name of t

The response to multiculturalism in Australia has been extremely varied, with a recent wave of criticism against it in the past decade. An anti-immigration party, the One Nation Party , was formed by Pauline Hanson in the late 1990s. The party enjoyed significant electoral success for a while, most notably in its home state of Queensland , but is now electorally marginalized. One Nation called for the abolition of multiculturalism on the grounds that it represented "a threat to the very basis of the Australian culture, identity and shared values", arguing that there was "no reason why migrant cultures should be maintained at the expense of our shared, national culture." [83] A Federal Government proposal in 2006 to introduce a compulsory citizenship test, which would assess English skills and knowledge of Australian values, sparked renewed debate over the future of multiculturalism in Australia. Andrew Robb , then Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, told a conference in November 2006 that some Australians worried the term "multicultural" had been transformed by interest groups into a philosophy that put "allegiances to original culture ahead of national loyalty, a philosophy which fosters separate development, a federation of ethnic cultures, not one community". He added: "A community of separate cultures fosters a rights mentality, rather than a responsibilities mentality. It is divisive. It works against quick and effective integration." [84] The Australian citizenship test commenced in October 2007 for all new citizens between the ages of 18 and 60. [85] In January 2007 the Howard Government removed the word "multicultural" from the name of t he Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, changing its name to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

What better measure of society is there than through the fiction it creates? In 1988 the Japanese animation feature film AKIRA was released to the world envisioning the near future of a 2019 neo-Tokyo.

THE MATRIX in the U.S. would do for action and sci-fi movies, what AKIRA did for animation. The directors of THE MATRIX, the Wachowski brothers, cited one of their main influences and inspirations as AKIRA and that films director Katsuhiro Otomo

Fiction represents the ideas of a society that’s thinking as much about it’s future as it is it’s past and present. It represents as much about the hopes of that collective society and it’s factions as it does the fears. The concept of who and what heroes and villains are, protagonists and antagonists, are critical concepts for framing identity

They are young, earn little and spend little, and take a keen interest in fashion and personal appearance -- meet the "herbivore men" of Japan

some men who she said were changing the country's ideas about just what is -- and isn't -- masculine

"Some guys still try to be manly and try to be like strong and stuff, but you know personally I'm not afraid to show my vulnerability because being vulnerable or being sensitive is not a weakness."

The 50-year-old star is portrayed in the play Mercy Madonna of Malawi by a black male actor in a blonde wig

It also attempts to depict how people in the African country viewed the case.

Without taking sides, it asks whether it is right for a child to be taken away from her culture if it means enjoying a life of privilege.

So many scholars and commentators attribute suicide terrorism to such factors as poverty, foreign occupation, or religion, among many other things.

Over the past two hundred years, there has been a global, though highly uneven, shift within the values systems of various societies.

One particularly profound transformation has been the relegation of one’s religion to the private sphere, as a matter of purely personal choice.

coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee. Can't we celebrate something else? Canberra is the political capital and Sydney is the economic capital and Brisbane is the lifestyle capital and Melbourne, we're the capital of brown boiled bean-juice that gives you morning-breath and loosens your stools with colonic laxativity

And I'd chosen the coffee machine because, as a resident of this city, I felt it was my municipal duty.

This is the San Polo municipal football ground on the outskirts of Brescia - a big industrial city in the north of Italy home to one of the biggest south Asian communities in the country.

The attraction is cricket - the final rounds of a limited overs competition.

"It's not a good place to live", he says. "Most Italians only speak their own language and so - unlike Indians and Pakistanis - they don't mix well with people from other cultures."