Terror Australis: There is a craziness abroad in our wide brown land
By Keith Davis
Dangerous small minds control our levers of power and we-the-people are, through our very apathy, steering our country down a path that may well one day leave us, and our reputation as a people, beyond any form of redemption. There is a craziness abroad in our wide brown land.
How did we let it come to this?
The Indigenous people of Australia suffered, and almost succumbed to, an unremitting historical regime of European transplanted terrorism. They were shot, poisoned, and displaced from their land. Our ancestors terrorised the Indigenous people of Australia.
Yet, in the modern era, our leaders are dithering over the very words of ‘recognition’. When it is so obviously a case where we should be hoping that the Indigenous people of Australia still have enough grace and forgiveness left to, in truth, recognise us, our leaders are dithering over a couple of words and planning the forced closure of Indigenous communities.
Forced re-settlement of ethnic minorities has long been recognised as an act of terrorism. Indigenous people in Australia are now an ethnic minority in their own country. There is a craziness abroad in our wide brown land.
On average eighty-four Australian women are murdered by domestic terrorists each and every year. That’s 840 Australian women each and every decade. Our leaders spend hundreds of millions of dollars, and involve us in an interminable series of unwinnable wars, in an attempt to nullify international terrorists who kill nowhere near that number of Australians.
We all know that terrorism is bad. International terrorism is bad. Domestic violence terrorism is bad. The greatest terrorist threat faced by Australia is home grown terrorism. We know it as domestic violence terrorism. It kills more Australians than all the other forms of terrorism combined.
Yet our leaders devote a pittance in real money terms to combating this scourge. Another eighty-four Australian women will be killed by domestic violence terrorists this year. There is a craziness abroad in our wide brown land.
The majority of asylum seekers who reach our shores by boat are not economic refugees. The majority of economic refugees arrive by plane. The majority of refugees who arrive by boat are fleeing, in most cases, state-sponsored terrorism, and in a minority of cases, the actions of stand-alone terrorist groups.
Yet our leaders bastardise the word ‘asylum’ and string razor wire around the fleeing victims. Our leaders want us to fight wars to protect ourselves and others from the horror of terrorism, however, if those ‘others’ do not have blue eyes and white skin then they are banished to remote concentration camps. Our leaders punish the fleeing victims of terrorism. There is a craziness abroad in our wide brown land.
We-the-people, we Australians, keep saying that we are a fair and egalitarian people. Yet our actions so glaringly belie our fine words. We-the-people are fully responsible for everything that our leaders are doing in our name.
If we continue to stand back in apathy … what else will happen … what further repressive policies will be enacted in our name? Which groups in our society will next be subject to the untender mercies of our apathy, and of the leadership who enacts policy in our name?
Will our scientists be next? Will our gays be next? Will our environmental activists be next? Will anybody who has a dissenting opinion be next? Will our Islamic citizens be next? Will our disadvantaged and poor be next? Will our unions be next? Will our alternative media organisations be next? Will any one of us be next? Will you be next?
Unless we do something about it. dangerous small minds will continue to control our levers of power.
Terror Australis. There is, indeed, a craziness abroad in our wide brown land.
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Return to home pageNor will there be any improvement while the fed politicians keep up their racist and anti woman policies, imported from the US Tea Party.
Time for the ALP to distance itself from neolib and neo con and offer a REAL choice for next election
Well said indeed, sir.
And the idiot Abbott keeps banging on about IS/Daish coming to get us, but how? Hasn’t HE stopped the boats!
The different scare campaigns adopted by the LNP over the decades are comical to think of in the present age of global power distribution, firstly they used the Soviet Union and Russia in particular which they described as ‘reds under the beds’, then later still trying to link the ALP with communism they used China as ‘the yellow peril’ however in the 21st century Australia is trading with both identities with China being our second largest trading partner because of the pioneering work done by the late Rt Hon Gough Whitlam QC.
With the advent of factional power being held by the extreme right wing faction of the LNP they have again opted for what I believe will ultimately be a failed model of their scare campaign, this time focusing on terrorism. Any moves made by terrorists to play havoc with Australia has been met with a stoic response by battle hardened Australians. We are a nation who has fought for our rights since our convict days and won’t be frightened into the last century response of clinging to conservative governments, we have seen through this plot, we are aware that Australia has hundreds of thousands of Muslims now, and as yet we have only seen one person go astray.
The next election will be fought on other issues such as government compassion and empathy for the poor, lack of performance at the helm of economic levers with rising unemployment, record low trade deficits and a sluggish economy that does not need more austerity measures, but a new approach to economic management to replace this dull and dire ultra conservative approach being dished out to us at present.
Spot on! And we HAVE to get off our behinds and stand up for ourselves before it is too late!
The machinations of this government have been widely criticised internationally, yet here in Oz the MSM passively accepts whatever it is told.. There is no hard questioning, no real open debate. The shutters are down; secrecy prevails. When there is criticism or perceived opposition, there is the possibility of legal attacks in retaliation, inquiries, Royal Commissions and vilification.
The lack of empathy is obvious. The poor, the old, the infirm, the disadvantaged are all used as mere units in the economy. People such as the Aboriginals or those perceived as “other’ are treated with disdain. Policies which should take into account what is needed in this country are poorly formed and poorly presented.
Indigenous people who live in remote areas have made a “life-style choice”, according to the PM without any reference to history.
Refugees remain “illegal” if they are referred to at all; more often referred to only as “boats”. And while the boast is that he has stopped the “boats”, here are people, including children, languishing on remote islands, out of sight and out of mind. Did it ever occur to this government that all the money being spent on stopping the “boats” might be better spent in helping agencies in Indonesia and the UN to process quickly those people who could otherwise end up languishing in camps across SE ASia for as much as 20 years? For what? So that a boast can be made that a promise has been met – at the cost of human lives, whether they drowned or not.
So the reign of terror continues. Billions spent on planes which do not fly and on boats built elsewhere – and how redundant are those machines in an age of drones?
So we have the homeless and the unemployed and the underemployed and parts of the country in recession – with worse to come.
We have Climate Change taken up with token gestures, despite the enthusiastic claims of the Minister for the Environment. And despite the message from the Pope himself. But the commentators which support the government claim that the Pope can be ignored because the Pope is about morality and ethics and not science, which denies Rudd’s claim that Climate Change is a huge moral problem.
So we see that this government puts things and people into defined boxes, apparently unconnected, so that nothing they say makes a reasonable vision and plan for the future. Much of its time is spent on trivia or looking back into the past as if it is still in opposition. It has gone into a stubborn position.of secret “operational matters”, flag waving and fear-mongering mantras against “death cults”.
They are creating more terror than the “terrorists”.
British Lord Cromer ‘We do not govern Egypt, we govern the governors of Egypt’ …. familiar?
just in – and in the same vein (from sepoland) – as Keith
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/australia-human-experiment-in-a-bottle/
And darling Dawn Fraser wants to kick first generation Australians out of the country … for being insufficiently sporty. Go team straaaya!
Who would have thought a word such as ‘terror’ would morph into a loaded political sentence?
If indeed we continue on this trajectory of 2 women a week being murdered by their partner then it will be more than 89 this year whom we have lost. The MSM say; A woman ‘died’ at the hands of her partner, ex, husband etc. By using the word ‘died’ instead of ‘murdered’ we are desensitised to the reality confronting women every week in Australia, the possibility of being murdered by someone who you thought loved you.
The Minister for Women ‘defunded’ specific women’s shelters and lumped them into the ‘homeless’ budget thereby announcing that funds had ‘increased’. This use of language to fool the people and distort the truth is dangerous to us all.
How many women tonight are living in terror? How many dread Saturday night and feel the tension rise as they are emotionally, psychologically, financially and physically abused? And what does the Minister for Women do? Nothing. He does not care, nor is curious, is not informed nor is he considered in his representing of the women in this Nation.
The Minister for Women is also the Minister for Indigenous Affairs.
Funny that he treats both incredibly important portfolios with such contempt. His emotional intelligence is missing in action as he urges the fear to rise so that he can don yet another uniform and be seen as a ‘protector’.
I am not fearful of asylum seekers, nor ‘them’, nor my partner (I am luckier than my daughter in this), nor the ‘foreign peril’. But I am sure as hell terrified of a PM who uses the usual neoliberal ideology to retain power for his own sake.
I must be Un-Australian because I consider the apathetic, the greedy and the venal people that voted for the LNP and delivered us this riffraff that considers themselves above the law, as they the people.
Amazingly/sadly 48% would vote for them tomorrow
Re : “If we continue to stand back in apathy … what else will happen … what further repressive policies will be enacted in our name? Which groups in our society will next be subject to the untender mercies of our apathy, and of the leadership who enacts policy in our name?”
Which groups ? … I frankly think this unrelenting government will have its’ gun sights trained on anything and everything it can think of – to try and bring 23 million ( minus children and babies in voting terms ) under their strict and fascist control. They seem to be trying to do it every day.
………
Well said abbienoiraude – there is a desensitisation to the word ‘died’ … instead of what should be said “murdered”. …. even if they applied the so-called non-prejudicial word “alleged” it would at least be somewhere closer to the real truth. “alleged murder”. … Gets the message across a lot more clearly, and honestly. … And it is easily done by reporters, who are subject to their editors.
…….
The only terrorists we have to fear in this country is the current government. …
I do take issue with the ‘we-the-people’ part of your article. … approx. 45% of people outright voted for this LNP to get in, 2013 election ( NOT a majority ). … The remainder of their windfall was provided by the smaller parties which popped up almost overnight ( yes figure out what you like from that !!! ) …. and gave all of their preferences to the Liberals, and the Nationals.
What ‘we-the-people’ did, I believe, was not want Rudd – and therefore went more towards Abbott on a 2PP basis, however that still didn’t make the cut. … Many of ‘we the people’ did not vote for either major party. I didn’t, and cast what I thought was tantamount to almost informal, as I knew the smaller parties did not have a prayer of getting anywhere near power. … What I DID NOT know, was where their preferences were headed. … I so wish I had kept the bumff that is handed out on polling day, to see how those preferences were presented prominently – if at all.
Yes, I know – they hand out vote papers with numbers etc. shown – but there was much confusion surrounding the 2013 election – in the minds of the voters. … Still – it is past history now, and the future beckons – which gives us a chance to NOT make the same mistakes again.
Never trust the smaller specific parties. ( maybe they were stooges ? ).
…….
Re : “Indigenous people in Australia are now an ethnic minority in their own country.”
Sadly, this has almost always been the case – by sheer lack of numbers, if for no other reason. …. They at least are standing up for their rights by protesting in the streets of major cities – and I don’t mind that – in fact more of it would be good.
Mightn’t be too good for commuters etc., but it is actually ‘saying something’. … However, the waffling and skirting around the issue of ‘recognition’ is just another diversion and divisive tactic brought to bear by this unbelievable rabble we call guv’mint.
They should hang their heads in shame – – – but they won’t….. not ever.
@ guest …
May as well say it here, I have been wanting the opportunity to mention it …
Re the MSM. …. The Victorian “Herald-Sun” is openly regarded as a Murdoch rag, that dances to Murdochs’ tunes.
My husband buys it at the weekend – mainly for sport and to look at the fields for racing. I rambled through it last weekend, and to my astonishment, there were 3 different articles – small admittedly, that slammed the government and its stands on two issues. If I could find the damned thing, I would go into more detail – but it may have been used for the open fire we had this week, so you will have to take my word for it.
One of those articles, showed a distinctly unflattering image of the abbutt ( I think he was eating something ) … but none of that is important.
What IS important is that 3 articles that put down the government were indeed printed. … AND Channel 9 ( another stooge to Murdoch ) last week very strongly corrected without criticism – which actually had greater impact – a statement made by the pee-em … about the number of private bills that had been presented in Parliament over his “21 years of political life”. …. He stated 2 or 3 which were not ( he thought ) successful. ….The Channel 9 reporter corrected that to nine private bills, all of which had been passed without hesitation.
So the worm just might be turning – somewhat. … a small start in the right direction ??
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Wun,
Over half the voters cannot read a newspaper with any critical understanding. Ask amongst your friends to see how many get their ‘news’ from sunrise or today every morning and every evening from 7, 9 or 10 for news and current affairs?. Ask your catholic friends if rabbutt is opus dei or why women’s physiology prevents then from equality with men much less be be priests? Ask anyone if labor left the economy with a debt crisis and what is the meaning of the AAA rating?
Then reconcile why 48% will vote against billy shorten. They think the rabbutt is right.
The day is not far off when, governments will not have the ability to enforce any of their absurd laws which, they currently have to borrow money to do. When the credit machine stops, everything will stop, including law enforcement.
Harquebus, law enforcement will never be stopped. Who the officers will be protecting is the question.
,,,,, and HOW the officers will be ordered to, or permitted to, ‘protect’ is also a question. ….
I don’t trust any of this, especially if there is any chance that Harquebus might be correct. … I believe there will always be some form of law enforcement – but – might we see a military state looming, some time in the near future ?