Where would Australia be without food from other places?

My suburb is African in the way that ‘The Valley’ here used to be Chinese when my mother grew up there. There are lots of new Australians from Africa who live here.

I have to admit I don’t understand the cultures they come from. I don’t know what I’m doing if I smile at someone. (I’ve stopped doing that because you get some strange reactions.) Otherwise they are pretty much like everyone else and seem to be live-and-let-live.

What they bring to the area on the other hand is quite special – African Food is pretty much at the top of my best things list – the more African restaurants the better I say. There’s also colourfulness and a down-to-earth nature to the new shops.

I think we are going to do ok, if only the annoying people would just shut up. For some reason, they want to turn the African immigrants into this year’s political scapegoat.