Radio Australia Today Editorial
Archive for July, 2008
Aborigines and Tibetans. Interesting Comparison.
14 July 2008
One of our blog readers, Luke, has made an interesting point about the Tibetans.
Luke intimates that the reason the world knows so much about the events in Tibet is because Tibetans are educated, and able to get their message out to the world.
He says that Australian aborigines, not having had such educational advantages, have been less able to expose the difficulties of their lives, and the problems foisted on them by successive governments.
The truth of the Aboriginal condition here in Australia (and in many places around the world) is that they have been treated as ‘subjects’ without a voice for centuries. So there was great surprise back in the 1930s when a few indigenous people in Sydney spoke up and demanded that aborigines be counted as part of the Australian population. What surprised many people was the intellegence with which these early activists pursued their demands. Following Gandhi’s passive methods, they spoke gently but firmly, and although it took thirty years, they eventually got the incremental step of being counted in the national census as Australian people. The important thing here was that the Australian people voted in favour of the change, and in doing showed a change in their view towards their indigenous people.
I knew an aboriginal activist who told me that there was once a plan to blow up three major ports in Australia in the early 1970s. Luckily this plan was scuttled by a leading aboriginal woman leader. I say luckily because the consequences for aborigines would have been dire in those days of racism and discrimination. The peaceful methods continued, and the public has come to know exactly what aborigines and their ‘stolen generation’ have had to suffer.
It has been a long journey for Australian aborigines. They still have an infant mortality seven times or so highter than the white population. They still live twenty years shorter lives. They are still over-represented in jails. They are still the poorest and most endangered people in this country.
Thanks Luke for bringing up the subject, and you’re point is right. Aborigines threatened to disrupt the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but in the end there was no disruption, as there will probably not be a disruption to the Beijing Games by Tibetans. But the points still need to be raised over and over, until the problems are fixed.
– Phil
The Olympics in Beijing. You Can Have a Laugh You Know.
11 July 2008
By historiccal standards, this has been a pretty serious Olympics.
First of all there was the concern over human rights, then earlier this year the ructions in Tibet had world leaders questioning whether they would boycott the opening ceremony. The Olympic Torch Relay was repeatedly disrupted across the world as human rights protestors did their best to highlight the Tibetan issue.
Then came the fears over pollution.
Putting Tibet to one side, the poor Chinese people must have been beside themselves. They win one of the great events of the world, only to have the goodwill of it all snuffed out.
Things of course have settled to a degree. China has even resumed friendly relations with its traditional hating partner Taiwan, and the first direct flights between the two countries have started. The issues of sovereignty are far from settled, as have the worries of the Tibetans, but it does seem at last that the Olympic spirit has started to kindle.
Historically, the Olympics have not been without controversy. The 1936 Berlin Games were filled with acrimony, especially after black Amercian Jessie Owens was supposedly snubbed by Adolf Hitler. Some German historians dispute that Hitler snubbed Owens, saying it was a different black American (so their point is?). Either way, it was a dark Olympic moment.
Forward to 1980, and the Americans and some other western teams boycotted the Moscow Olympics. The USSR did a tit-for-tat in Los Angeles in 1984.
But for the majority of Games they have been huge spiritual successes. I remember the Sydney Olympics in 2000 lifted the city as no other event has done. The city is still vibrant and happy. Petrol and house prices have since gone through the roof, but the goodwill has stayed.
That is what the Olympics can do.
So let’s laugh a bit and enjoy. There are bad things happening in the world, even in China’s part of the world. Let’s not kill the chance for sone love, where love is sorely needed.
As they say, Only Nixon Could Go To China. He did, and built a bridge that was seen as impossible. Perhaps the Olympics can do the same thing.
Our Olympics reporter Neil Humphreys is doing Olympic Milestones here on Radio Australia leading up to the Games. They are often hilarious, and show that maybe we can all take a breath, and for the next six weeks, put our angst on hold.
Happy Olympics.
– Phil
Finding a Bit of Peace (Part 2)
10 July 2008
Abbot Christopher Jamison (seen here with a guilty-looking Addy) is certainly a man of peace.
He advocates everything I wastalking about in yesterday’s blog. And much more.
He sees life as going way too fast for own own good. We are so busy thinking, that we don’t have the time to connect with the spiritual. By this he doesn’t just mean connecting to his own religion, but connecting to whatever your spirit of choice. What he’s talking about here is taking some time out from your day to clear your head. Sit still, Uncross your legs. Then just wait and see what comes in.
You’ll be surprised, he says. Do it every day for a few weeks and your eyes will be opened.
Garth from New Calendonia emailed in while the Abbot was on air and explained his own version of finding peace. Chill out in the bush, and watch the scenery. No the Abbot says, that may be tranquility, but it’s not the kind of peace he’s talking about. What about when I said I find peace by walking the beach with the dog. No, he said, that might be relaxing and peaceful, but it’s not really finding peace.
So it seems there is a method to finding peace. Oh well. Beach still works for me.
– Phil
Finding a Bit of Peace.
9 July 2008
Peace doesn’t start with an accord about the Middle East. Nor does it start with nuclear disarmament.
Just like charity, it begins at home.
Is it any wonder that countries face off against each other needlessly when life is so frenetic? Our leaders must have lives full of noise and demands.
Just like us. Many people have to negotiate busy highways to get toi work, to then be bombarded by the needs of employers, employees, clients or government reguators. The phone rings. I need. You must. The email beckons with a ding. An SMS buzz. A deadline looms.
After at least eight hours of this madness, you negotiate those same highways to go home to the needs of loved ones. Children, god love ‘em, are noisy and demanding without realising they are.
You might watch CSI or some similar crazy-paced murder mystery, which stirs the emotions, just in time for you to go to bed. You might even have a television in your bedroom.
My question is: when do you get your peace?
Huimans need quiet time. Golfers have known this since the game was invented. When life gets too crazy they go off to shoot 18 holes, perhaps alone, for the quiet, the green, the only noise being the twitter of birds and the swoop of a golf club.
Today we’re talking to an Abbott from Britain who says we need peace for well-being. He will tell us exactly how to do it.
Do you crave peace? Tell us how you get it. Pass on the tips to other Breakfast Club listeners. Tell us here as a reply to this blog. Let’s start a campaign to bring peace back into our lives.
Maybe then our leaders will find peace in their work too. And that can only be good for all of us.
– Phil
I’m So Confused.
8 July 2008
Yesterday was a life-changing day for me.
Really.
We spoke with David Spratt, a climate chanbge expert here in Australia, a man who has contributed to the Australian government’s report on the issue.
He says things are far worse that previously thought, and if temperatures rise by only two degrees, billions of people and millions of specioes could die.
Two degrees. Just two degrees.
Remember that the Australian government’s climate change target is THREE degrees.
He says this is the greatest threat to the world in the history of mankind. Countries face extinction.
This sort of puts in perspective all our agonising over petrol price increases.
The confusion I mention in the title comes from the news today that petrol companies have announced emergency measures to search for more oil deposits, in Peru and off Sri Lanka.
It seems we can’t wean off oil, even though the burning of oil threatens our future.
In ten years time we will ask why we didn’t do something in 2008.
It’s not all over Red Rover quite yet, but unless we change our lives, starting here in western countries, it will be all over, and that includes red rovers.
I’m cancelling that order for a new car. And that’s only the start.
– Phil
