Sneja Gunew responds to Dessaix's article by way of four concepts: host, guest/parasite, contagion and disease/noise. She writes: 'In Australia those who occupy the host's chair operate according to the time-honoured imperialist principle that possession is nine-tenths of the law. Those other displaced ones, guests by definition, are anxiety-provoking reminders of the unstable status of their hosts' (35).