Average full-time adult weekly earnings
In Australia: AUD $1043.0 [Austalian Bureau of Statistics, 6302.0 - Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, May 2006]
In the United States: USD $651.0 [U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, Earnings of men and women by occupation]
In the United Kingdom: GBP £402.2 [Office for National Statistics, Average Weekly Earnings (Experimental)]
Exchange rates
Exchange rate, AUD to GBP: 1 AUD = 0.4034 GBP [Yahoo! Finance Currency Converter, Australian Dollar to British Pound Exchange Rate]
Exchange rate, AUD to USD: 1 AUD = 0.7589 USD [Yahoo! Finance Currency Converter, Australian Dollar to U.S. Dollar Exchange Rate]
Exchange rate, USD to GBP: 1 USD = 0.5315 GBP [Yahoo! Finance Currency Converter, U.S. Dollar to British Pound Exchange Rate]
Average weekly earnings in AUD
In Australia: AUD $1043.0
In the United States: AUD $857.8
In the United Kingdom: AUD $997.0
Average weekly earnings in USD
In Australia: USD $791.5
In the United States: USD $651.0
In the United Kingdom: USD $756.7
Average weekly earnings in GBP
In Australia: GBP £420.7
In the United States: GBP £346.0
In the United Kingdom: GBP £402.2
Many Muslims are violent pigs that have no right to live in modern society. That seems like an awfully bigoted and inflammatory statement (and it is), so let me qualify it. I’d like to think that the majority of Muslims are regular people, but there is certainly a vocal minority (particularly in the Arab world) that like to make death threats and set things on fire.
I am of course talking about the whole Danish cartoons controversy of a few months ago. The violent negative reactions that resulted are pathetic and profoundly disturbing, considering the cartoons were intended as a comment about freedom of speech and the position of Islam in secular Western society.
If you’ve got a problem with the cartoons, that’s okay. Perhaps write to the newspaper that published them and ask for an explanation. But that would be too sensible, wouldn’t it? Death to Denmark and the Jews (wait, what?).
I’m sick of turning on the television and seeing a story about violence being perpetrated in the name of Islam. It’s not fair to the people who are targeted, and it’s not fair to the ordinary Muslims either—I know this, but I still can’t help being biased against them. It makes me feel like all Muslims are violent pigs, and I’m far from alone.
Maybe this is what the sentiment was like in the Arab world back when the Crusades were going on. Isn’t religion great?