Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

What price a quiet heart?

By Daemon Singer - posted Friday, 13 September 2013


It began with a radio program here in Brisbane, asking the question "what makes an Australian?" It was premised on the requirement for people going to citizenship ceremonies and being given a piece of paper making them "Australian", and as part of that process, having to "swear allegiance to Australia".

There were many suggestions about how somebody who is actually an Australian by birth could indicate their "Australian-ness", and among the things shared by ordinary everyday listeners, was a love of country, knowing all verses of the National anthem, knowing who Sir Don Bradman was, and other somewhat sensible ideas, none of which really did it for me.

Eventually, I rang up and said that rather than measure Australian people, why don't we measure Australia, and find ways not so much to codify Australia, as much as to quantify our country's "Australian-ness".

Advertisement

I cast my mind back to my days in the Navy in the 1970s, and the regular arrival by fishing boat of people displaced by that first misadventure we entered into with the Americans, frequently referred to as the "undeclared war", Vietnam.

Where, I wonder, are the similarities? Let's write them down just so that we can see them:

  • Both wars were started by America, for reasons which later/have now proved spurious.
  • Both wars resulted in huge numbers of displaced persons, none of whom needed to be/are managed by America. Displaced persons are normally handled by countries in the region.
  • Both wars changed people's view of America as "the great saviour".
  • Both wars have almost bankrupted the United States.
  • Both wars put the Australian government at the time in an invidious position with the population.
  • Many Australians hated the government of the day for what they had done on behalf of the United States, and expressed that hatred by unfairly spitting on returning diggers, who had done exactly as they were told.

In a recent letter to the then Prime Minister, Mr Rudd and now Prime Minister Abbott, his Excellency Bishop Hurley of Darwin noted the "brutal, uncompassionate and immoral stance towards refugees". He noted his personal sadness after having visited a couple of onshore detention centres in Darwin, noting that his own father was an immigrant to Australia.

My question remains; what cost to us as a people, this despicable, cruel, politically motivated handling of a crisis which is of our own making?

I thought back to the radio program and my view that what I miss as an Australian is a country which for decades, demonstrated the generosity of spirit which saw those Vietnamese "boat people", arrive on our shores and be taken into the bosom of the land and made one with it. Where now, those "boat people"?

Advertisement

Well, a few of them represent us in our parliaments. Others are well known and widely respected business people, employing "native" Australians, in their companies. I must confess I use the expression "native", with some trepidation because many of us regard the first people as natives, and those of us pale skinned, round eyed European usurpers, as the real "boat people".

As I listen now to the goggle eyed madness of 2 GB morning "talkback", reported occasionally by the American owned rubbish to which many of us turn for "news", ranting about which party will provide the most for the media barons, I wonder where that generosity of spirit has gone?

It certainly doesn't live in Western Sydney, where the original "criminality" of Suspected Illegal Entry Vessels began. It is certainly not part of the experience of the multiple, bipartisan, focus groups which were conducted by both the left and right of politics, in an effort to gain traction with a naive and self-serving electorate, mainly amongst fourth-generation unemployed Australians, worried about the impact of "boaties and reffo's, on their "jobs". People who had been called to the focus groups because they had nothing to do after going to the dole office, and the $70 they got for the focus group was not taxable and did not have to be reported to centre link.

It doesn't appear to exist in the halls of our representation on Capital Hill, apart from in the offices of those parties which are considered by that same naive electorate to be a pointless waste of a vote. I speak naturally here, of The Greens. They alone can hold their heads up at the end of this disgraceful part of our history, and with hand on heart say "I really tried".

As a country, we have nothing to be proud of. We are a continent of generally self-serving, cruel, greedy, self-centred, unthinking human beings, as evidenced by the governments we elect. We cannot in good conscience travel the world and hold our heads up because of what has been done in our names to those we have assisted America to destroy.

This week has seen an attack in PNG on a group of trekkers on the Black Cat Trail. Meanwhile in Port Moresby the first few hundred single men arrive from Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka. Is there a connection? Are the people of PNG putting Rainbow Camp together with "Australia" and having a go?

Can you imagine anything more distressing to these refugees than to be placed in something like Rainbow Camp? How much further from their own culture, would it be possible to get? A written history 5000 years long, being dumped in the middle of a malaria infested swamp, where 70 years ago lived a population of cannibals.

Over the past couple of months there have been several suggestions about sending a plane to Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka on a weekly basis and bringing back 300 people seeking refugee status. It would actually prove so much cheaper than this so-called "New Pacific Solution", as to make any talk about economic rationalism so much bullshit. How much different is this to the Final Solution?

One of the other points I raised was how much I miss politicians who occasionally tell the truth. I no longer expect it, and when I see it, outside of The Greens, I am shocked to my core. Telling the truth is no longer part of Australia's political paradigms. We as voters expect our "representatives" to lie to make sure we vote for them. I no longer believe I am alone in this expectation.

The last point revolves around what we are pleased to call "Mainstream Media".

Do we need to define "mainstream media"?

  • Is mainstream all about the lowest common denominator?
  • Does "mainstream" provide the information requirements of those who ask the least questions?
  • Is mainstream media all "tabloid", utilising no qualified journalists, even less editors, and in general not putting a magnifying glass to our political elite?
  • Is mainstream about those who read the Telegraph, and listen to an apoplectic, out of control, fact-free, young-male-football-player-enjoying, Alan Jones?

The recent election provided people with an opportunity to see what mainstream media really was about. Editorials in all 3 major printed outlets were just free advertising for the Liberal party, as a donation to them by their American "mogul", with no questions being asked about policy etc. Just blind acceptance of and support for the Liberal Party line. And people wonder why I never say "newspaper" and "journalist" in the one sentence, without noting the oxymoron.

Sort of like what's happening to refugees in Australia at the moment, without the blind acceptance and without the move towards change. Rather a racist, xenophobic, spittle spraying angst, against anyone taking a humanitarian line. Unfortunately, that was true of both camps of the Federal government and their supporters, and appears it will continue.

What indeed ever happened to that generosity of spirit which was so much the hallmark of us as a country? Has it been sacrificed at the altar of political expediency, or pimped out to our Pacific partners in an effort to make them take part of the blame for this humanitarian outrage. Worse – perhaps we exchanged it for our 30 pieces of silver, as we betrayed those for whom we have a humanitarian responsibility, because of our government's unswerving, unquestioning loyalty to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Are we proud of ourselves?

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

25 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Daemon Singer is an executive member of the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties. His views expressed here are his own and do not represent the formal views of the Council. For more information on the QCCL, visit their website: http://www.qccl.org.au/whatsnew.asp

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Daemon Singer

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 25 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy