What depth we have plumbed as a nation

The AIM Network

9 years ago

By Sir Scotch Misery

Perhaps the Sydney Morning Herald has not seen just how ironic today’s story of the little Syrian boy lying dead on the beach really is.

We have sat and listened and watched as mainstream media over the past several years, 15 if you want to be completely accurate, has been complicit in the development of our island nation into something that it really never has been – an insular, self-absorbed group of afraid conservatives, scared witless of reaching out to anybody who is not white, preferring instead to remain separate, aloof but probably more importantly, uncaring.

One is forced to wonder what depth we have plumbed as a nation in refusing to not only accept these people, a few thousand a year at best, as Germany opens the doors to 800,000 and hungry inserts a barbed wire fence to keep them out. Italy week after week, brings in thousands. Our elected representatives, on our behalf decided that we didn’t want “those people” coming to our shores and screwing up our society. Not for us the multicultural premise on which Australia was built since the 1950s, rather this nation of “I’m alright Jack” and not so much a mention of the people affected by the wars which are prime ministers have taken us to since Gulf war 1 and the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan and anybody else who has natural resources that America wants.

We are not that country. We are not those people who are being held up as exemplar in turning back the boats. In spite of a fair bit of research into the subject it appears our process with regards to refugees is driven by the elderly and the usually long-term unemployed of Western Sydney.

Even here on independent media not everyone agrees that Australia should make a place of these people. Likewise, we have people who will tell you that the Alternative Liberal Party is the only alternative to the LNP, when we know that with a little effort that is absolutely not the case. Try looking back to the after-effects of the Vietnam imbroglio, that first undeclared war, and the thousands of migrants who took to the seas escaping the violence of what was left of their country. No opportunity for advancement, no jobs, no public faith in the new leadership, and all as a result of America deciding they needed to invade to protect “us”. What mindless bullshit.

I presented an award as part of one of my other hats last year, at an all girls school here in Brisbane, in recognition of the results of an essay competition. The winning entry looked at Aboriginal soldiers and how they were treated after the war when they came back. Nothing much has changed since 1919. We as a nation are still a bunch of racists laughing and pointing at the Northern Territory and Western Australia again as exemplar is of the Australian redneck, and then sitting down and ripping off a letter to the editor about how dreadful it is that all these boats are allowed to arrive, or how wonderful it is that the Englishman who currently poses as our Prime Minister, is tough on these “illegals”.

I enjoy moments when Australians say, “I’m not racist, but …”. I enjoy them because people don’t realise the depth of their lie.