When I was a child, “In the olden days” as my children when younger used to say, Robinson’s jams had a Golliwog emblem and I had a golliwog to play with, as well as traditional dolls.
I also read Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
A decade or so later, my sister was studying medicine in London and brought home a lonely (black) African fellow student to share Sunday lunch.
About this same time, I was reading ‘Cry, the beloved country’.
Learning is not confined to the classroom, and, over time, through expanding our knowledge and understanding, we are offered the chance to cast off prejudices, respect difference and accept that change is a continuing feature of our existence.
That is perhaps an idealised expectation. Not all avail themselves of that choice.
When I was a teenager, homosexuality was a criminal offence throughout the British colonised world, as well as among those of other faiths. In the British context, this was largely a result of the translation of certain passages in the Bible – which was, itself, penned in more ignorant times.
My mother, a dedicated Christian, who was brilliant in English grammar and arithmetic, but totally ignorant of more than basic science, firmly believed in the Genesis story of creation.
Ignorance of scientific discoveries is no excuse for ignoring them once they have been bought to your attention. There is no place in a changing world for ‘believing’ something which has been shown to be false.
It is a fact, which is still being denied by the intransigent, that mankind’s addiction to increasing use of fossil fuels, with the concomitant increase in polluting emissions, is a major contribution to accelerating global warming.
It is a fact that we are running out of time to take the steps necessary to drastically reduce the level of emissions and the damage being done to our oceans by plastic pollution.
Too many wars and conflicts are already occurring around the world, and the expansion of global corporations, encouraging the greed and selfishness of shareholders, are all features contributing to a refusal by a majority of governments to accept the massive task of declaring war on climate change.
Governments think in terms of winning the next election in 3 – 5 years’ time.
This myopic approach denies them the vision of how their current policies will impact the next generation – or they do not care about others enough to think it worthwhile.
When it comes to politics, I sit on the fence.
No one party has all the answers and the way European governments form coalitions from a wide range of parties is, in my opinion, a far healthier way to achieve consensus and develop policies which are not too biased.
The current ‘Coalition’ government in Australia is setting itself up to develop a police state. The AAT is being progressively politicised by appointing liberal members, many with no legal experience and little in the way of other special and relevant expertise.
Our disgusting treatment of refugees and asylum seekers – worse treatment than is handed out to those condemned of serious criminal offences – even Ivan Milat’s cancer was given more medical attention than are the severe traumas inflicted on those confined to Manus and Nauru.
We have a Minister in Peter Dutton who seems obsessed with sadistically inflicting pain and suffering. The Biloela family could have stayed at home, contributing to the community while all their matters went through the courts.
Instead, two innocent little girls have been treated so badly that we have almost certainly breached our obligations under the UN Convention on Children, while they have probably been as traumatised for life as have the victims of institutional sex abuse.
And the cost to the taxpayer has been exorbitant – certainly more than enough to settle all the excluded refugees in jobs and contributing to the economy!
Australia – the Lucky Country? – I don’t think so!
Australia – the land of the Fair Go? – Only if you are white and wealthy!
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The self centred, cripplebraned, selfish, mates bumboyinsiderfriendly anuses in this government are disgusting, deficient, inadequate.
Thanks, but I don’t feel any better 😯
An interesting topic. About 15 years ago my niece visited me here in Adelaide, from Southampton, and brought her 5 year-old daughter with her. As we walked around a park, she began to sing a learning song that was familiar to me, with a minor alteration; ‘Bas baa grey sheep, have you any wool.’
I said it was a nice song, where did she learn it?
‘It’s a song we sing at school.’
Now I am not in any measure racist (okay, I don’t like US foreign policy but I have honestly never met an American I didn’t like.), and I understand that some words can be used pejoratively, but calling a black sheep a grey sheep is not really addressing racism. And the current PC description of non-Caucasians is ‘people of colour’, which I happen to think is mealymouthed. Negro is now a swear word.
Of all the skin tones humans can have, my own colour – pink and blotchy’ – is far and away the least attractive.
Now I could call Tony Abbott, for example, a Pommy bastard, and not be censured. But if I were injudicious enough to include the racial origins of the equally odious Hockey in my description of him, I would be roundly rubbished.
I am emphatically not a racist; my wife is Chinese (interestingly, she insists that
her skin is yellow) my kids have Indian friends and Indigenous friends – they would scoff at the idea that i was racist.
I might be accused of being a ‘culturist’ though.
Having kept sheep, I know black sheep turn grey as they age. Old sheep can be a beautiful silver grey. Black sheep were highly valued for spinning and used by farmers to determine if trace elements are lacking. This is nonsense and DEVALUES blackness!
Well I’m certainly concerned about Australia as a police state, to me everything else these scum do is a worry but the last place I want to live in is Nazi Australia!
@Wobbly: Australian voters get the politicians they vote for from the candidates pre-selected by the unelected political hacks squatting in air-conditioned metropolitan offices sipping lattes, and form a government that does the bidding of those who contribute most to the party funds which keep the unelected political hacks in the manner to which they wish to remain accustomed.
You may not have to live in Nazi Australia. Seems the Communist Chinese are here already, in our Universities and various trade and industry organizations.
Now onto Australia… (Profit Watch pw@p.profitwatch.com.au)
Last fortnight I told you about China’s influence over Australia. Specifically, Australian universities.
It was causing quite a stir and the former chair at the Australian Research Council, Professor John Fitzgerald, said this may be posing a national security risk.
Well, I wanted to expand on this today…
Earlier this month Drew, a young Queensland uni student, requested a court order against a Chinese diplomat.
On the surface, you may be thinking so what? However…
According to Drew, Dr Xu Jie endangered him by describing him as an anti-Chinese separatist.
Because Drew is supporting the Hong Kong protests…
Alright, that’s the gist of it, now for the problem.
The Chinese Communist Party is in Australia
Dr Xu Jie works at the University of Queensland — and you’ve previously heard in Profit Watch that Aussie universities are selling themselves out.
The problem is Dr Xu Jie accused Drew in a formal statement of ‘capital crimes in China’.
The reason this is important to understand will make sense after you hear this…
Dr Xu Jie is a ‘visiting’ professor at the University of Queensland and extremely important in the Consulate of China.
To rephrase that for you. Dr Xu Jie is part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Don’t be fearful, it’s just a fact we need to live with.
The Chinese have infiltrated our beautiful country. And we let it happen. And that’s why I back Mike Pence’s comments, stating the US stands with Hong Kong.
I hope you can see just how powerful the statement ‘Stand with Hong Kong, fight for freedom’ is.
My thoughts exactly!
In response to David Bruce, I say, I don’t quite hate Mike Pence as much as I do Dutton, but the way I believe we should stand with Hong Kong is not to threaten China, but to do what we did 30 years ago, and allow protestors to seek asylum in Australia. As we have seen in Australia, the politician I despise the most is the evil Dutton, but it’s going to take the idiots who voted for him to change their vote to get rid of the bastard. If the people of China want regime change, it is going to take a domestic movement to say, “Enough!” and then we can assist them.