If you want to have the cathartic experience of a good weep - and I recommend it for the body and the soul (releases pent up tensions in both) - have a look & listen to these aborigines and imagine their history and hope. If you're not already involved in the campaign to save their homeland rights, perhaps you'll be moved to become so.
Showing posts with label Social Justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Justice. Show all posts
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Monday, 16 June 2008
Online info/views/actions
Here's a link to the final report from the 2020 summit.
http://www.australia2020.gov.au/final_report/index.cfm
Also, if you're interested in giving the federal government your opinion on anything they do (or don't do) you can do so from the ALP website: http://www.alp.org.au/
I always think that governments are waiting with baited breath for my views, LOL. It never hurts to let those in power know what we think of them and their decisions and it takes little time.
On that note, the Victorian Government is doing consultation on mental health issues and you can download the consultation papers here and consider making a submission: http://www.health.vic.gov.au/mentalhealth/reformstrategy/index.htm
If you'd like to become more active in online 'opinionating', you'll find links to some of the places I go to participate in campaigns (or just to keep informed) in the INFORMATION/ACTION LINKS section on this page.
Saturday, 1 March 2008
Health Insurance - state mandated theft
http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20080229-What-do-you-think-were-running-here-Medicare.html
A commentator after most - if not all - of our hearts :).
As a 'refuser', I deeply resent the cost of not being a member of a private fund (i.e., my tax 'fine' for exercising free choice not to further enrich insurance companies).
The introduction of a system that has failed to deliver health equity outcomes or budget savings in the USA is not, in my view, likely to save us here. The previous government's continuous attempts to force us to buy a product that delivers higher health costs and lower health benefits, demonstrates that their purpose was to serve other than human entities - especially when you consider that no one actually 'owns' these companies.
How peculiar is it that all these benefits flow to 'virtual' entities - i.e., businesses that exist without 'base' ownership in the human world. They have 'shareholders' and their boards and executives change/rotate/stagnate over time, without anyone with a real relationship to the 'service' to keep them in line. The 'powers' within the companies just come in, 'stick their snouts in the trough', then move on to another trough, to which they have as little commitment or personal investment. Meantime, we get the unenviable job of filling those troughs and carting off the waste when the feeders are through.
If in doubt, just look at the current ABC (the child care centres, not the media outlet) scandal. A business, with control over arguably the most precious of our species, run by and for the profit-makers. They get the benefit of government rebates to those who need childcare, while pushing up their prices to well beyond government subsidy levels for enrichment of their shareholders and the top dogs get to sell their own shares 5 minutes before the bottom drops out of the share price. Never mind the question of how the price can go down on this 'gold mine' growth industry, where ABC is the dominant player (and, incidentally, where those who do the real work of caring for our children are among the lowest paid of workers, with a very high level of responsibility and risk).
Too late to say "don't get me started", I think, LOL; but you get the point.
Saturday, 16 February 2008
The nation of Australia is sorry
Wednesday, 13 February, 2008. The day Australians of conscience and compassion can mark in their personal histories, as the one where our elected leader linked us all in a gesture so important that it can hardly be overestimated. Aboriginal people had bared their souls in telling their traumatic life stories to produce the 'Stolen Generations' report, only to have their pain exacerbated by the refusal of the Howard Government to say 'sorry' in vindication of their suffering and courageous willingness to 'relive' and share it.
They were robbed of their apology by the election box, no one can doubt that Paul Keating, who commissioned the report, would have made one had he been in power when the report was tabled. Now the election box has returned it to them. All those who voted to remove a government intransigently opposed to genuine reconciliation, can feel proud that they've been instrumental in bringing about this wonderful event. We can also feel humble in the face of our First Australians' patience, understanding, forgiveness and charity towards us for being 'a bit slow' - in terms of time and ability to learn - and showing such good grace in allowing us to begin our redemption.
So many gems were uttered in Kevin Rudd's speech to and for our nation and hearing and reading the words for ourselves is the best way to experience it. The full speech can be read at the link at the bottom of the Blog page and all quotes from the apology used here are taken from that document.
"I move that... today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history." In his opening remark, Keven Rudd set the scene, no other comment need be made, I think, than 'here, here'.
May we all contemplate our own loved ones, what each of them means to us as individuals and how much poorer our life experience would be without one or more of them. Those who voluntarily relinquish their children still suffer the grief of loss. Those who have their children taken from them through illness, accident or violence, suffer agonies of loss. No one is ever replaced because no individual can be. Now, contemplate what would be our pain if the Government took away many or all of those precious people who give our lives meaning!
In December, 1992 Paul Keating - speaking as our elected Prime Minister - delivered one of the seminal speeches in our history. He said, the following (and so much more):
It is important that we don't fail again, as we have so many times in the past. The apology is made on behalf of the Nation, its Governments and Parliaments but we must never forget that it is 'the people' who put them in power and bear responsibility for their actions - carried out in our name. Our Governments can't be allowed to forget that they govern for ALL Australians and our First Australians are starting from a long way behind the rest of us.
They were robbed of their apology by the election box, no one can doubt that Paul Keating, who commissioned the report, would have made one had he been in power when the report was tabled. Now the election box has returned it to them. All those who voted to remove a government intransigently opposed to genuine reconciliation, can feel proud that they've been instrumental in bringing about this wonderful event. We can also feel humble in the face of our First Australians' patience, understanding, forgiveness and charity towards us for being 'a bit slow' - in terms of time and ability to learn - and showing such good grace in allowing us to begin our redemption.
So many gems were uttered in Kevin Rudd's speech to and for our nation and hearing and reading the words for ourselves is the best way to experience it. The full speech can be read at the link at the bottom of the Blog page and all quotes from the apology used here are taken from that document.
"I move that... today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history." In his opening remark, Keven Rudd set the scene, no other comment need be made, I think, than 'here, here'.
"For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry."
May all Australians contemplate how their own family histories anchor them in 'time and place'. How we talk about our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, cousins, etc., in an almost unconscious way, using them to explain who we are and why we are as we are. Adoptees are the most obvious ones among white Australians who can come anywhere near understanding the 'displacement' loss of family brings but even they cannot contemplate what it would feel like to have had their life and history stolen because of their colour and to find themselves racially and culturally alone in an often hostile place.
"To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry."May we all contemplate our own loved ones, what each of them means to us as individuals and how much poorer our life experience would be without one or more of them. Those who voluntarily relinquish their children still suffer the grief of loss. Those who have their children taken from them through illness, accident or violence, suffer agonies of loss. No one is ever replaced because no individual can be. Now, contemplate what would be our pain if the Government took away many or all of those precious people who give our lives meaning!
"And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry."
May we all contemplate the truth of our cultural heritage in providing us with confidence and belief in our value. Imagine the undermining of that confidence and belief if we are considered and treated as 'less' because of our birthright. If all the things we valued were seen as barbaric and we ourselves were disdained as unworthy of inclusion. If your people had not even been counted as people for most of the nation's history, would this not impact on your psyche?In December, 1992 Paul Keating - speaking as our elected Prime Minister - delivered one of the seminal speeches in our history. He said, the following (and so much more):
"It begins, I think, with the act of recognition. Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the disasters. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion.
"It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things being done to us. With some noble exceptions, we failed to make the most basic human response and enter into their hearts and minds. We failed to ask - how would I feel if this were done to me?"
This speech is worthy of rereading again and again, to keep reminding us of our power. We can insist on our politicians doing, in our name, what is just and fair, what is humane and moral. If those are not the core values of our elected representatives, we need to elect some who do hold those values and act on them for the benefit of all people and for the good of our national 'soul'.It is important that we don't fail again, as we have so many times in the past. The apology is made on behalf of the Nation, its Governments and Parliaments but we must never forget that it is 'the people' who put them in power and bear responsibility for their actions - carried out in our name. Our Governments can't be allowed to forget that they govern for ALL Australians and our First Australians are starting from a long way behind the rest of us.
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Liberals are never sorry - or responsible
"Dr Nelson said he personally had a "bit of concern about the idea of one generation being responsible" for the past." http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/opposition-slams-planned-apology/2008/01/28/1201369037426.html
This pretty much says it all about Dr Nelson! Funny that the Liberal Party has had no trouble taking credit for our ancestors 'good' deeds. John Howard waxed lyrical about the 'diggers' spirit, for example, intimating that it formed the Australian character, along with the 'fair go', which has been largely mythical but, nonetheless, grew out of the past. There are many examples of the Liberals playing these games, so Dr Nelson is continuing the 'tradition' of all credit and no blame that was so much a feature of John Howard's tenure (see previous article "Is John Howard actually God?", 12 November 07).
Tony Abbott (a truly 'painful' man) has run true to form with his comment, reported in the same Age article, that an apology would reinforce the 'victim mentality'. Please! What reinforces the sense of being victimised is being victimised. Can the Liberal Party find no portfolio where this man doesn't get the chance to demonstrate his lack of humanity?
Dr Nelson also reportedly said: "You have to ask yourself … whether that is the most important issue that's facing Australia when we've seen a decline in the share market, home interest rates go up, petrol get more expensive and a basket full of groceries harder to fill".
Many things come to mind about this comment but I confine myself to two. First, are we capable of paying attention to only one thing at a time? How does a government run if that's the case because our world is obviously more complex than that. Secondly, Dr Nelson demonstrates Liberal priorities yet again (and a lamentable habit of assuming we all think the same way he does and of pushing people's 'fear/selfish' buttons) with all the important issues being about money and none about the quality of our society.
Did being thrown out of government teach them nothing about the values Australians want their leaders to foster?
This pretty much says it all about Dr Nelson! Funny that the Liberal Party has had no trouble taking credit for our ancestors 'good' deeds. John Howard waxed lyrical about the 'diggers' spirit, for example, intimating that it formed the Australian character, along with the 'fair go', which has been largely mythical but, nonetheless, grew out of the past. There are many examples of the Liberals playing these games, so Dr Nelson is continuing the 'tradition' of all credit and no blame that was so much a feature of John Howard's tenure (see previous article "Is John Howard actually God?", 12 November 07).
Tony Abbott (a truly 'painful' man) has run true to form with his comment, reported in the same Age article, that an apology would reinforce the 'victim mentality'. Please! What reinforces the sense of being victimised is being victimised. Can the Liberal Party find no portfolio where this man doesn't get the chance to demonstrate his lack of humanity?
Dr Nelson also reportedly said: "You have to ask yourself … whether that is the most important issue that's facing Australia when we've seen a decline in the share market, home interest rates go up, petrol get more expensive and a basket full of groceries harder to fill".
Many things come to mind about this comment but I confine myself to two. First, are we capable of paying attention to only one thing at a time? How does a government run if that's the case because our world is obviously more complex than that. Secondly, Dr Nelson demonstrates Liberal priorities yet again (and a lamentable habit of assuming we all think the same way he does and of pushing people's 'fear/selfish' buttons) with all the important issues being about money and none about the quality of our society.
Did being thrown out of government teach them nothing about the values Australians want their leaders to foster?
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Australia/Invasion Day
Today I find myself in the 'place of mind' that I come to every year on 26 January. There are always mixed feelings in 'celebrating' our nation's 'feast day'. We celebrate with every imaginable party trick too, so it's no small thing, this day we stop to ponder what it is to be Australian.
First, I always feel an overwhelming sadness and regret that we, of European heritage, ever came here at all. The displacement - holocaust - of the indigenous people weighs heavily on the mind and conscience to the present time and will do so with increasing intensity until we start to reverse the damage. Increasing intensity because we should know better now. The original invaders had the excuse - if one could call it that - of some ignorance due to an arrogant 'world view' about the value of the 'western' culture they were bringing to the lands they colonised. The other major element of invasion/colonisation, greed, remains a motivation for our failure to take full responsibility and genuinely address the harm done - from which we all benefit to this day - in that original act.
I am strangely relieved at the revision of Cook's history in a recently shown ABC program. He was depicted as a much more humane man than I had heard of before, who actually respected the aboriginal people and was not responsible for the abomination of 'terra nullis' (empty land). Also, it was good to see that his later behaviours were interpreted as aberrant in context with his earlier attitudes and practices, viewed as indicative, possibly, of some mental health problem. For the first time I can see our 'discoverer' as someone of 'character'. This doesn't change the horror of what followed but does, in some strange way, get him 'onside' with the protests against them. In my view, he can now be cited as an opponent to atrocity, rather than just an harbinger of oppression.
Secondly, I am overwhelmed by a sense of wonder and tearful love for this country. Not its government, or its wealth, or its suburbs or any of the other meaningless elements. Rather for itself. This amazing island continent, still expressing itself so grandly, so spectacularly, in the life of our planet. Its geography is stunning (although not always 'liveable'). My emotion, as I muse on what it is to be Australian, almost overwhelms me in contemplation of the grandeur and wonder of the landscape. I'm a city girl, how can this 'country' be so embedded in my psyche that it moves me to tears? I don't really care! I'm just overjoyed that it does. Now if we could only stop digging it up and chopping it down!
Thirdly, I feel a fantastic sense of opportunity each year, as this day rolls around, so close to the beginning of a New Year. It is placed in a 'calendar' time of renewal, of potential for change, of thoughtful assessment of the past and contemplation of the future as we'd like it to be. As a nation, we can take this opportunity to change direction, to 'swear off' behaviours that have not served us well and replace them with ones that make us better. We are, at this point in time, where we are! We can't change what has happened before but we can stop the effects from continuing under our 'watch'.
Australia's history is actually very short in terms of nationhood. We can still get on to a path of genuine reconciliation. We can still mould ourselves into a country with the values we've 'spouted' almost since inception. A fair go, an example of a just society for the rest of the world, a safe haven for those from other places, seeking to rebuild their shattered lives in a new land, an advocate for change in the wider world. All these values - and so much more - are our possible future. Why would we not choose such a future?
First, I always feel an overwhelming sadness and regret that we, of European heritage, ever came here at all. The displacement - holocaust - of the indigenous people weighs heavily on the mind and conscience to the present time and will do so with increasing intensity until we start to reverse the damage. Increasing intensity because we should know better now. The original invaders had the excuse - if one could call it that - of some ignorance due to an arrogant 'world view' about the value of the 'western' culture they were bringing to the lands they colonised. The other major element of invasion/colonisation, greed, remains a motivation for our failure to take full responsibility and genuinely address the harm done - from which we all benefit to this day - in that original act.
I am strangely relieved at the revision of Cook's history in a recently shown ABC program. He was depicted as a much more humane man than I had heard of before, who actually respected the aboriginal people and was not responsible for the abomination of 'terra nullis' (empty land). Also, it was good to see that his later behaviours were interpreted as aberrant in context with his earlier attitudes and practices, viewed as indicative, possibly, of some mental health problem. For the first time I can see our 'discoverer' as someone of 'character'. This doesn't change the horror of what followed but does, in some strange way, get him 'onside' with the protests against them. In my view, he can now be cited as an opponent to atrocity, rather than just an harbinger of oppression.
Secondly, I am overwhelmed by a sense of wonder and tearful love for this country. Not its government, or its wealth, or its suburbs or any of the other meaningless elements. Rather for itself. This amazing island continent, still expressing itself so grandly, so spectacularly, in the life of our planet. Its geography is stunning (although not always 'liveable'). My emotion, as I muse on what it is to be Australian, almost overwhelms me in contemplation of the grandeur and wonder of the landscape. I'm a city girl, how can this 'country' be so embedded in my psyche that it moves me to tears? I don't really care! I'm just overjoyed that it does. Now if we could only stop digging it up and chopping it down!
Thirdly, I feel a fantastic sense of opportunity each year, as this day rolls around, so close to the beginning of a New Year. It is placed in a 'calendar' time of renewal, of potential for change, of thoughtful assessment of the past and contemplation of the future as we'd like it to be. As a nation, we can take this opportunity to change direction, to 'swear off' behaviours that have not served us well and replace them with ones that make us better. We are, at this point in time, where we are! We can't change what has happened before but we can stop the effects from continuing under our 'watch'.
Australia's history is actually very short in terms of nationhood. We can still get on to a path of genuine reconciliation. We can still mould ourselves into a country with the values we've 'spouted' almost since inception. A fair go, an example of a just society for the rest of the world, a safe haven for those from other places, seeking to rebuild their shattered lives in a new land, an advocate for change in the wider world. All these values - and so much more - are our possible future. Why would we not choose such a future?
Sunday, 14 October 2007
Happy little Vegemites.. as bright as bright can be...
I'm no expert on prisons but it is fascinating to think that prisoners, who have no 'right to privacy', are able to refine Vegemite (and numerous other foodstuffs) into alcohol. Such a problem apparently, that they are now to be deprived of this spread. I personally object to the fact that those who DON'T sacrifice their toast and Vegemite for a swig, are now going to suffer with those who'd prefer to get legless (why would you want to drink in prison, I wonder?).
I've got an idea (picture lightbulb)! Why not consider supervising prisoners to prevent this 'secret' activity? The authorities might just be able to use this same revolutionary idea to monitor other behaviors, such as bashings, rapes and other harms to these incarcerated people, for whose safety we have a responsibility. After all, we put them in prisons (acknowledging that the crimes committed were their actions - if the guilty verdicts were correct - and leaving aside the societal ills that may have led them to these crimes) where they are unable to leave, or control their environment, so shouldn't we make sure they're not punished beyond the letter of the law for their crimes? Incarceration is the penalty under the law. Perhaps those running the prisons should take a quick peek at the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights - just in case they give a damn.
I've got an idea (picture lightbulb)! Why not consider supervising prisoners to prevent this 'secret' activity? The authorities might just be able to use this same revolutionary idea to monitor other behaviors, such as bashings, rapes and other harms to these incarcerated people, for whose safety we have a responsibility. After all, we put them in prisons (acknowledging that the crimes committed were their actions - if the guilty verdicts were correct - and leaving aside the societal ills that may have led them to these crimes) where they are unable to leave, or control their environment, so shouldn't we make sure they're not punished beyond the letter of the law for their crimes? Incarceration is the penalty under the law. Perhaps those running the prisons should take a quick peek at the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights - just in case they give a damn.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
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