Apr 19 2008

The 2020 Summit

Tag: Iced VoVos — cerebralmum @ 10:16 pm

Watching 2020 today was depressing.

The joy at Howard’s political demise was, not unexpectedly, a short-lived euphoria. I quite like Rudd, if only for the fact that he is an unashamedly intelligent man and intelligence is not a much loved quality in Australian life, but the 2020 summit didn’t feel like “a breath of fresh air”. Yes, it had a very different atmosphere than anything that would have been possible under Howard, but all I was left with was a feeling of frustration, and worse, disillusionment. Not disillusionment with the government which, in my opinion (I’m a philosophical anarchist), has little to offer anyway but with the complete lack of ideas.

Philosophical anarchism isn’t about storming parliament or violent revolt (though I understand the inclination): It’s about organic change which renders our current political structures obsolete. It’s about building alternative ways of doing things. It’s a positive philosophy, a humanist philosophy. It is optimistic about what humans are capable of.

And it is independent.

2020 is supposed to be about ideas. And there were none. Each “stream” - health, the arts, etc - came back with the same tired thoughts. We should set up a commission, an independent body, an “insert new political job title here”. We should educate the public about… And as my particular anarchism has always been somewhat socialist, I hated the voice in my head which was getting angry that no one could think of any way to improve our society except having the government spend money. And my sense of social justice hated that I don’t care whether or not there are indigenous representatives on every art board even though I am fully aware that if the government “makes it so” it won’t do anything to put indigenous art “front and centre”.

Indigenous art will never be front and centre. Art will never be front and centre. And should “cultural production” be in the government’s domain anyway? I hated that the majority of my thoughts in response to what I was hearing sounded like right wing echoes. Why should the government prop up the arts, I thought. Surely, if the arts cannot maintain themselves, our society is bankrupt anyway. And does art really flourish under the aegis of bureaucracy? I don’t think so.

I don’t want the government’s fingers in every aspect of our society. I want a society that can support itself, that wants to support itself. Today, I’m disillusioned by seeing how much it doesn’t want to, how much it thinks everything is the government’s responsibility even to the point of choosing what food we eat (banning “unhealthy” food was one suggestion).

As far as I’m concerned, if we must live in nation states and pay our taxes to them (and for the foreseeable future, we must) then they should provide healthcare, education, social security where needed and maybe some infrastructure.

Then they should fuck off.

I can’t remember who said it, but if man is incapable of ruling himself, he is surely incapable of ruling others. I always thought that, maybe, one day, ruling ourselves we could manage. Today, everyone abdicated. Today, everyone was a child looking to an imagined parent to orchestrate their lives. Obviously when someone envisages a world of adults that isn’t the greatest thing to watch, but worse than that, today I couldn’t even register the potential for it.

And I don’t know what that says about me and my “optimism”.

[Note: This is really not a balanced explanation of my political stance - Rather, it is just a tired response to a moribund event. ]

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Feb 13 2008

An Apology a Long Time Coming: Australia Says Sorry.

Tag: Iced VoVos — cerebralmum @ 9:27 pm

Magneto Bold Too summed up today - the day that Australian PM, Kevin Rudd, made a parliamentary apology to the Stolen Generations - very well…

“About fucking time.”

For my overseas readers, the Stolen Generations are those indigenous children the “white” Australians literally tore from the arms of their parents over decades, never to be returned. They were clothed, and fed, and “educated”. And stripped of their family, their heritage, their language and their culture. For their own protection. The fact that at least 17% of the girls and 8% of the boys experienced sex crimes while in the care of the government and the churches and “charitable” white families gives us a very clear picture of the quality of that “protection”.

Of course, it wasn’t just the children who were stolen, and had something stolen from them: Entire peoples were victims of this abuse.

Yes. I’m comfortable calling it what it was: Racist abuse.

I’m not interested in the arguments made about “good intentions”. (Brendan Nelson: You made a grave error of judgement.) The nature of those intentions are evident in the acts and the results of those acts, whether they were committed in ignorance or not. For some things, ignorance is not an excuse. And it cannot be claimed as one on a scale such as this.

I cannot tell their stories for them. I do not have the right and they have been doing that for themselves for a long time now, most of it without being heard. Most of it while being ignored or subjected to attacks from those unwilling to accept the faults of the past, adding more and more failures of humanity to our history.

Today, Kevin Rudd called it a “stain upon our souls”.

I don’t know what a soul is supposed to be, but I feel it as a stain, even though I was not born here, even though I was born after these crimes “officially” ended. I have felt ashamed of our history since I learned of it. I have felt ashamed that it is something I learned only as an adult. And while John Howard was in power, I am proud to say that I was ashamed to be an Australian.

I’m not very old but while I was being educated in Australian schools, Australian history consisted of the First Fleet and bushrangers and Federation and diggers. These dark facts were not given to me until I went to university and I was very aware that meant many others who went on to study in other fields were never told the truth by those who had a responsibility to do so.

As a child and a teenager, I had a strong social conscience. I carried around a tattered copy of “I have a dream…”; I had anti-apartheid posters on my walls. And all that time, I never knew what had happened in my own backyard, not just during the period of the Stolen Generations, but since settlement.

When I learned of it, I was appalled, and furious at the education system which had failed me. I can only hope that the curriculum has improved since then. I do not want my son raised in the same self-satisfied and blinded atmosphere I was. A past so heinous needs to be addressed, if not by those who created it, then by those who are its inheritors.

theage

So this was me in the 90s, wearing my reconciliation armband; the armband which sold out within a day of appearing on the shelves at The Body Shop because I was not alone in my sentiments. Below me was Nicole Kidman, a “glamorous activist” fighting for the same thing I was. I marched for Land Rights, for The Wik Decision, for the Amendment to the Native Title Act. I read and I watched and I argued and I cried.

In the scheme of things, did that mean anything?

I look at it now and see a white girl who came to this country and was granted all the rights of a citizen without question. I look at it and see a white girl who will never be able comprehend the enormity of the pain that was caused to the people she wanted to stand up for. I look at it now and see a pretty white girl in the newspaper when faces other than hers should have been seen, when voices other than hers should have been heard.

But I cried today when that symbolic act took place. I cried to hear, finally, an official apology which was unequivocal and made no excuses. I cried to see someone stand up and speak the truth on behalf of all of us who have wanted it spoken for so long. Not because it expatiates our history’s wrongs, not because it absolves us of our guilt, but simply because, as Cathy Freeman said, “It is the right thing to do.”

I’m very sure that for some members of the Stolen Generations, and some of those effected by the policies of successive Australian governments and the behaviour of generations of white settlers, the words spoken today will mean little. And that’s fine. Victims of abuse are not required to forgive and forget. For others, they might find a little peace in finally hearing words of acknowledgement which have been so long in coming and I am glad of that.

But the shame of our county’s past, and the stain upon my “soul”, will not be washed away until our indigenous children stop dying, until our indigenous people live long and full lives, until our indigenous people have the same access to the healthcare and education and services we enjoy and they are free to make their own choices about using them, not just in law but in fact.

This apology which is so long overdue… It’s a beginning.

What Others Are Saying…

Anyone who I have missed, please leave a link to your post about the apology in the comments of send it to me via my contact form and I will add it to the list.

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Dec 04 2007

The first promise kept…

Tag: Iced VoVos — cerebralmum @ 9:46 pm

Okay, I know no-one comes here to read the news, and everyone has already heard this news, but I’m just happy about this one. On behalf of Australia, PM Rudd’s first official act has been to sign the instrument of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and the Governor-General has approved it. It will go into force 90 days from the date it is received by the UN.

And I’m happy, happy, happy.

In fact, I probably won’t be able to resist including a little political commentary every now and then, so I’ve set up a new category called “Iced VoVos” to cover all things government related. I’m not crazy with optimism because government is what it is (ie; a completely illegitimate form of power based on older, completely illegitimate forms of power) but I do feel relieved that those long years of living “under a black hearted Howard government” (as Pomgirl puts it) are finally over.

And finally, Australia can stop being a global embarrassment. About one thing anyway. (I won’t mention who should be shame-faced now: They know who they are.)

Anyway, that’s my Yay for the day. Let the disillusionment begin.

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Nov 25 2007

A strong, hot cup of tea and iced vo-vos for all Australians…

Tag: Iced VoVos — cerebralmum @ 1:33 am

While you guys in the US are finishing turkey leftovers and are slowly returning to your blogs, Australians have gone to their polling booths and finally - finally! - said goodbye to Prime Minister John Howard.

To be honest, after so many news polls over the last year pointing to solid victory for Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, I was still sick to my stomach thinking there remained a small possibility no change would occur.

I thought the news of the victory would unleash my tongue and I would snarl and snipe at Howard, dancing gleefully on his political grave. Hilaire Belloc pretty much summed up where I stood.

Here, richly, with ridiculous display,
The Politician’s corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintances sneered and slanged
I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged.

[Quoted by Jeff Sparrow, the editor of Overland (the one journal I have been published in), as part of the final words from the commentariat at Crikey.]

Instead, I’m just relieved.

I can’t say I’m unhappy that the victory was so emphatic, even historic, and I can’t say I’m unhappy with the extra salt poured on the wound by the almost certain loss of the Howard’s own seat, Bennelong, which will make him only the 2nd sitting PM in Australia’s history to lose his seat in an election. I can’t say that I’m not drinking my champagne with a little bit of schadenfreude. But…

It’s over.

Perhaps it seems a little odd for a philosophical anarchist to have such an investment in the outcome of an election but as imperfect as the political system is, it is what we have. For years I did not vote on principle, in spite of Australia’s legal requirement for me to do so, but so much of the last 11 and a half years has been intolerable. Indeed, shameful.

So I welcome the change and hopefully we will see some of the social injustices perpetrated by the Howard government set to rights. I won’t say I expect the new government to live up to my standards - government is fundamentally incapable of that - but I am hopeful that the Ruddslide will give us some politics that are a little less regressive, a little more inclusive, a lot less destructive, and that exhibit at least a modicum of integrity, something which has been noticeably absent for too long.

That’s not a hard ask, considering.

And in Julia Gillard, we now have our very first female Deputy Prime Minister elect, the highest political office a woman has ever held in this country. With the exception of one doofus politician who called her “deliberately barren” and considered her unfit for her position because she was childless, her sex was a non-issue throughout the campaign. What more could a feminist want?

So…

Iced Vo-Vo
Friends, tomorrow, the work begins…You can have a strong cup of tea if you want, even an Iced Vo-Vo on the way through. But the celebration stops there.

[Kevin Rudd’s Acceptance Speech]

Er, actually… I’m still celebrating.

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