Month: Aug 2018

Posted in Racism

The Week that was… (Part 2)

Posted on by uma197

This is a continuation of my rant from a couple of days ago.  I am trying to decipher, analyse what went wrong in my beautiful country.  Feels like Deja Vu.  I have been here before.

Life is good, life is peaceful.  But I slowly feel the undercurrent.  Makes me uncomfortable.  Still, the fully loaded optimism in me refuses to notice the change, change for the bad.  I fail to recognise evil.  Most times you have to bring me kicking and screaming to notice evil in others.  One failure passed on from my father.  He always believed that everyone was born a nice person, he vehemently believed that it was the society and its pressures that makes some to take the wrong path.  He likes to give the benefit of the doubt and say you never know what decision you would take unless you are at the same cross roads.  I guess he hadn’t read the bible.  As per Christianity you are born a sinner.  My ignorant dad believed the other way.  I am not a saint like my late dad to forgive everyone, I claim not to be as naive as him as well.  But time to time I am given a rude awakening to realise maybe I am too much like my late dad.

one decission

It was that one decision that brought me to this beautiful land Australia – I’ve had enough of my birth place and it’s politics when my dear friend was killed in Sri Lanka which made me finally pack my bags.  Until then many of family members and friends demised by a bullet, being burnt, shells, land mines and other means of torture.  None of them were my own brothers or sisters.  But uncles and friends brothers and parents – people I personally knew.  People I spoke to a week ago.  The suspects were the Sri lankan Army, Indian Army and some inside killings by the Tamil militants. But no one was investigated and no one was brought to justice.

I feel strongly about this subject, because I know first hand what racism does to a country.  I will be damned if I am going to let my chosen country to have the same demise.  My voice may not reach many, it may not reach any, but I have to try.  I owe that to this country.  This beautiful country and it’s people adopted me with open arms.  I owe this country so much and I love this country very much.  I would argue that I love it more than those who claim to have the best interest of this country.

Currently Burma is on the radar for similar atrocities as was in Sri Lanka.  But makes me wonder why Burma has caught the eye of the world, while atrocities in Sri Lanka and the likes escaped world scrutiny.  I came to these shores twenty eight years, long before the so called end of the Sri Lankan war.  It was at this point Kevin Rudd struggled with the ‘boat people’ and Tony Abbott came up with “Stop the boats”.  I guess politically it was far better to use these refugees for your political gain than to question or show your displeasure of the then Sri Lankan government.

Have you ever wondered why no one from Australia gets on a leaky boat and sets off to another country.  Because this is a great country.  Our lives are not in danger. Instead of waging war at the refugees, why don’t the big nations and its powerful leaders put sanctions on those corrupt governments.  It’s not like we have not waged war with another country before for the same reasons.  I recall the hunt for Sadam Hussain was such a noble cause.  I know it’s not your responsibility nor jurisdiction to interfere with another country and it’s issues.

I understand that as a leader of a country you have no choice but to shake hands with another countries leader, even if you suspect him to have blood on his hands.  I guess as a politician they are always on cross roads, but as citizens we hope that they would take the right turn at most times. There is no evidence of that in the recent times.

War is never pretty, most times it is unnecessary.  My plea for my Australia is to avoid war and conflict like the plague.  We know how to fight bush fires.  I would think it would be similar methods to avoid war and conflict.  Keep a tight eye on the known arsonists.  Keep the public up to date with any signs – smoke, weather etc.  Prevention is always better than a cure.  In fact if we need to look for cures, it’s already too late. So prevention is the only way.  Who comes under the category of Arsonists – there are from both sides inciting violence, I don’t really care if they Muslim or Christians, religion is for peace, if you want to wage war in the name your religion

PLEASE PISS OFF. Obviously you are unhappy in this peace loving country, so PLEASE PISS OFF.  I humbly ask this of Rupert Murdoch and his crony’s as well.

 

In all this argument it may come across as I am mainly angry with our right wing ideologists.  Well, I am no big fan of theirs.  However, I always believe that there is two sides any issue.

I acknowledge that language is a very powerful tool.  In order to change the way the society thinks and acts, many changes have been made.  This has definitely helped us deal with race bias, religious bias, gender bias etc.  However, I think the pendulum has gone too far to the opposite.  The word ‘black’ has become a taboo word.  It’s just a colour. People just take a chill pill. You don’t need to go to the extreme of changing the lyrics of “Baa Baa Black Sheep” to Rainbow sheep.  This is where I think political correctness has taken a ludicrous turn.

Extreme of anything is bad.  Whether it be religion, even when fighting for a good cause, you can lose your way when you fail to see the other sides issues.  Most of us believe that the weather is changing and the humans are a major cause of this.  Most of us are happy to contribute towards a solution, however our ‘Greens party’ goes way over board.

 

Muslims/ Islam –  well at present you cannot say that you are completely blameless.

I prefer to usually leave my blog at a cliff hanger. So I am going to do the same today.  So tune into my next blog if you want to know what I think.

Some of my older posts on similar subjects

What it is to be Australian – https://uma197.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/what-it-is-to-be-australian/

Remember it’s water not oil to calm the burning fire – https://uma197.wordpress.com/2016/07/03/water-or-oil-or-let-it-burn/

Ode to the Aussie Voter – https://uma197.wordpress.com/2016/06/26/ode-to-the-aussie-voter/

 

 

 

 

Posted in Australian Politics

The Week that was…(Part 1)

Posted on by uma197
politics aust
By David Rowe

The week that was…

What a week it has been for the Australian Parliament.  Many words got thrown around. Fiasco, Circus, insurgency – yes it was all of the above.

We the tax paying citizens are scratching our heads, while the master minds rejoice- I am not referring to Tony Abbott, I will come back to him later, in my opinion the real vermin no the eroding termites are Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt.  Maybe lets give some credit to Ray Hadley as well.

Yes I refer to them as termites.  Termites/white ants are the cause of the demise of many imposing structures and buildings.  They start the erosion from within the structure, rather quietly.  They do it slowly, one nip here and another bite there.  Slowly gathering momentum.  Racism and hatred evolves the same way.  It doesn’t happen over night. It is slowly and carefully fueled.  Until they know the frame work is under threat, then they come out guns blazing.  By then it’s too late to save that building or structure.  Same goes for our country and its progress.  Just like, termites never build anything other than destroy perfectly good structures, racism and hatred never builds anything either, just destroys a perfectly good society.  Sure, the society may have it’s issues but racism is never the answer.

Media plays a very important role in having a fair and successful democracy.  In some countries their is no free press.  Journalists in those countries and even from our country put their lives at risk to bring the truth to the public.  My youngest son who aspires to be a foreign correspondent in the future holds such views in spite of  my fears and reservations.  I wonder if all this is worth it when you have the likes Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt undoing all the great work and sacrifice of true journalists.

I feel Democracy is in serious crisis.  It’s not about what’s good for the country anymore.  It’s about big businesses making deals and running the country the way it profits them.  They have become bullies and politicians have become their puppets. Hide everything behind – politics is the art of compromise.  You can only stretch that BS so far.  And why  are we the one’s who have been compromised at all fronts?

If a Muslim Mufti got on the airways and spoke the way Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt spoke could you imagine the back lash.  If they had spoken the way that idiot MP (no one knew him before and I am not going to aid him to get publicity being a racist) spoke about the final solution, well the mufti’s final solution may have been the Sharia Law – the punishments for criminals would be arms being chopped off or worse.  That would certainly bring down the crime rate.  Unfortunately these people are great orators (both the likes of Alan Jones and the Mufti) they have the ability to steer people to listen to them and slowly convert them.  They are vultures who are similar to cult leaders.  Why is it when the Mufti speaks that’s hate speech, and the like of Andrew Bolt speaks that is freedom of speech?

Don’t be fooled people.  None of their cries are for your benefit.  It is purely for their own benefit.  I come from a country where it was torn apart because our leaders decided to win the elections by playing the race card.  Pearl of the Indian Ocean is now battered and torn and it’s citizens leaving it in drones.  Once you have witnessed war, you will not invite it again.  And this is why I am more than eligible to say what I am saying and going to say to both sides (to the far right white Supremacists and the new migrants).

I love this country so much.  I have nothing but gratitude and I feel indebted to this country forever.  I will do anything for this place. I will watch cricket at the wee hours of the morning.  I wept when Steve Smith wept.  I have watched so many reruns of the movie ‘Castle’ and many references are played out quite frequently at home.  Still recovering from last nights Wallabies game.

But on a serious note, I pay my taxes, maybe grudgingly and yes I do everything I can to minimise what I have to pay.  Well just like Kerry Packer said, I don’t think the Government is doing such a great job that I need to give them so generously.  My 76 year old mother works 5 days as a volunteer.  She takes multiple buses and trains to get to her destinations and spends her own money at times for these activities.  The reason she says is that this country is so good to her and this is her small way of saying thank you.  I have met so many others with the same attitude.

Let’s Mathias Cormann as an example, he was born in Belgium and migrated to Australia and became a Australian Citizen in year 2000 on Australia Day.  My husband and I became Australian Citizens in year 1992 on Australia Day.  So in terms of seniority I have 8 years on him.  Then why would he be more of an Australian than I am just because he is a tad bit lighter in shade than I am.  So this is my answer to the Right wing dinosaurs,

“sorry mate, I am here to stay”   

I will do everything in my power, even if it is a small voice to keep this country as pure as it was when I reached it shores twenty eight years ago.  I know mine is just a muffled voice compared to that of Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt.  But, It is still a voice and if I could get the support of a few other muffled voices we may gather momentum.  Who knows.  But we can’t keep silent forever.

So above bashing is mainly about the issues of racism whites over black or Christianity vs Islam.

As person of colour, as person who is rather tanned, as person who might be considered brown or what ever other politically correct or incorrect way to refer me I would say I have earned the right to say the following.  (In my next blog)

There is never a one sided problem.  The other side, the new migrants, Islam, Burka are all issues that I will talk about in my next blog.

I leave you with the song from the Rolling Stones “Nobody wants yesterday’s papers”