Aborigines and Johnny-come-lately

A few weeks ago John Howard, in the face of scary poll results and the admitted threat of electoral annihilation, stated that he did not have a rabbit to pull out of the hat. Well, guess what! He has just found his rabbit. Child abuse in Aboriginal communities is Howard’s rabbit – the Tampa and children overboard rabbit that he has harnessed just 4 months out from the federal election. Of course none of us condone child abuse and all of us want to see it eliminated but WHY HAS HOWARD WAITED TIL NOW TO ACT? Once again Howard’s actions are driven by political strategy. We have seen it with Hicks, climate change, water, and many other issues. As Dr Tim Rowse of the ANU wrote: Recently, we heard through the Prime Minister's leaked analysis of the Government's electoral prospects that he has no 'rabbit to pull out of a hat'. In 2001, when the Howard government needed a rabbit it found one in the alleged 'child abuse' by unauthorised refugees (Children Overboard). The government won a mandate to deal firmly with refugees, and it exercised that mandate, in part, by imprisoning children. Now the government is facing defeat, and it has found -- in the dire circumstances of some Aboriginal communities and families -- the 'rabbit' that it needs. Again, the protection of children will be the Howard team's rallying cry. Today's announcement has the stench of 2001's rotting rabbit carcass.
If there is any doubt about Howard’s belatedness and his tricky strategizing then the following should put the doubt to rest.
Patrick Devery writes on Crikey:
The abuse of children in Indigenous communities is an issue that was highlighted long before Lateline's report in May 2006 initiated the Northern Territory Government's report into the protection of Aboriginal children from sexual abuse. Below is a timeline of how the issue of sexual abuse in Indigenous communities has been publicly addressed.
1989: Judy Atkinson writes a report for the National Inquiry on Violence naming sexual abuse in Indigenous communities as endemic and epidemic.
1991: Ms Atkinson writes a similar report for the Prime Minister and cabinet.
1999: Aboriginal academic Boni Robertson leads an inquiry of 50 women, representing all indigenous communities in Queensland, to look into alcoholism and abuse of women and children in remote communities.
2000: Ms Robertson's report is tabled in the Queensland parliament.
2002: The Central Aboriginal Congress prepares a paper showing the number of Indigenous women being treated for domestic assault at the Alice Springs hospital more than doubled from 351 cases in 1999 to to about 800 cases in 2002.
7 July 2003: Prime Minister John Howard calls a summit on violence in Indigenous communities in response to statements by a number of indigenous leaders. The summit begins on 23 July 2003.
5 August 2003: Cape York community doctor Lara Wieland hands John Howard a 10-page letter outlining incidents of abuse, and claiming that child sexual abuse and neglect are out of control in the community.
26 November 2004: NT Chief Minister Clare Martin reports to a cabinet colleague that "social dysfunction" at central indigenous community Mutitjulu is driven by chemical addiction and passive welfare, and that two-thirds of its children are malnourished or underdeveloped.
15 May 2006: Lateline obtain a confidential briefing paper written by Nanette Rogers, Crown Prosecutor for central Australia. The paper -- originally intended for only a small number of senior police -- details endemic sexual abuse of Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory. Remember how this dominated the media for several weeks!! Where was Howard and his white charger then? (my point in italics)
22 June 2006: The Northern Territory Government announces an inquiry into child sex abuse across the Territory's Aboriginal communities.
8 August 2006: NT Chief Minister, Clare Martin, officially appoints Rex Stephen Leslie Wild QC and Patricia Anderson to the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sex Abuse.
30 April 2007: Little Children are Sacred, Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse is presented to the Northern Territory government.
16 June 2007: Little Children are Sacred report publicly released.
21 June 2006: Prime Minister John Howard and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough hold a press conference to announce a series of reforms directed at indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. The Prime Minister calls the situation "akin to a national emergency".

It is disgusting that Howard should compare this situation to Hurricane Katrina when alarm bells have been clanging since the day he became Prime Minister.

More Recent Reading

The Conversations at Curlow Creek by David Malouf (1996, 214pp). This was a good Australian story set in NSW, 1827. It’s about two men, one a bushranger who is to hang at dawn and the other the police officer who is to supervise the hanging. The novel tracks the conversations and thoughts of the two men throughout the night before the execution. I liked the Australianness of their situation – the bush; the convict connection; the Irish background of both men. I found the story a little tedious in the middle but the ending grabbed my attention by the throat.

The Little Karoo by Pauline Smith (1925, 160pp). I enjoyed reading the Karoo stories set in South Africa and discovering the tough, dour and pious people and the demanding lifestyle of Platkops dorp. The musical names and words and intriguing terms like inspanning and outspanning (hooking and unhooking oxen to the wagon) belied the daily struggle. I wonder to what degree the stories are autobiographical. I note Arnold Bennett says in his intro that Pauline left for school in England at the age of 12. My interest in Pauline Smith is a strange tale of coincidence which I hope to soon share with that endangered species - my blog reader.

Coincidentally I had also just finished reading Jon Cleary’s The Sundowners (1952, 336pp) which gives an interesting insight into the lives of shearers and their pursuit of hard work in an earlier rural Australia. The bushfires and droughts and pressures of the woolshed tested the sense of humour and the relationships of the main characters. I liked the way Cleary captured the dilemma between wanting to stay on the road with all its unpredictability and adventure with the yearning to settle down in a place of your own.

Some Recent Reading

Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis. The book recounts the life of a German Holocaust doctor. The narrator, together with the reader, experiences time passing in reverse, as the main character becomes younger and younger during the course of the novel. This is done with unerring skill and is quite disconcerting. The doctor starts off as a middle class American who then goes back through several identities until he is participating in the horrors of Auschwitz. A good, challenging read. I read this book because I saw a fleeting and dismissive reference to it in Inga Clendinnen’s (IC) book Reading the Holocaust (IC writes: ‘The most effective imagined evocations of the Holocaust seem to proceed either by invocation, the glancing reference to an existing bank of ideas, images, sentiments(‘Auschwitz’), or, perhaps, more effectively, by indirection. Martin Amis in Time’s Arrow conjures Auschwitz skimmingly through the swift manipulation of familiar clusters of icons.’ An that’s it! IC, I’ve discovered combines intellectual acuity with academic arrogance to denounce and dismiss just about anything that lacks historiographical purity.

Reading the Holocaust by Inga Clendinnen’s (IC) book (1998, 250pp). I decided to read something of IC after reading her attacks on Kate Grenville’s The Secret River. IC wrote a lengthy piece called The History Question – Who Owns the Past? in Quarterly Essay No 23, 2006. When Grenville responded to IC's bombastic and selective attack she had to use kindergarten simplicity to spell out that her work was fiction. But IC had to have the last say with a supercilious pedantic uppercut. (Quarterly Essay No 25, 2007).
I was going to do a detailed comment on this particular history war but after reading the piece in The Age of last year where IC said she jumped around with anger over Grenville’s treatment of some sacred historical incident I thought why bother. IC appears, at least in this brief encounter with her, more interested in histrionics than history. Proprietorial purists like IC should accept that more people have received more understanding of historical events/ periods/people from historical novels than ever have from pure historical works. A quick scan of my meagre bookshelves shows writers such as Roger McDonald (early Tasmania + Darwin); Peter Carey (early OZ); Tracy Chevalier -The Girl with the Pearl Earring (17th century Holland); Colleen McCullough (ancient Rome); Tolstoy ( everyone knows this one); numerous novels on World War One (eg Pat Barker, Sebastian Faulks, Patricia Anthony et al - I wouldn't include All Quiet On The Western Front because the Clendinnen clan would probably suggest it was a belated diary because the author had been there). That's enough and I've only checked one bookcase but you get my point. Anyway I read IC’s book on the Holocaust and was a bit underwhelmed.

Bulkers senior on Pasha Bulker

At last some bulk coverage of the Bulkers. (Jesse's email is bulkers and Luke's cricket mates call him Bulkers). These photos were taken from the ship's bridge camera just before the grounding.

Here is my take on the bulk carrier stranded on Nobbys Beach, Newcastle.
There is no way the Pasha Bulker will be pulled off the beach. She will leave Nobbys in little bits after being cut up. Either that or she will stay to rust into the sand over the next 100 years.
Our best bet is to invite 1000 Bangladeshis who are experienced in cutting up large ships on beaches to come over for a couple of months and Nobbys will be clear by summer.

Speaking of bets, it is more likely that Geodynamics (GDY) who specialise in hot rocks energy will break $2.00 this year than the PB will be towed off Nobbys. Similarly Queensland Gas Company (QGC) is more likely to go through $3.00 very soon. And while I'm giving free advice, if you can buy Taylors 2005 Shiraz for under $13.00 grab it.

A Good day On the Sunshine Coast

Started with a couple of sets of tennis. I usually play Tuesday mornings with a group of similar age people. Some are exceptionally good. We play on courts in the most beautiful setting against a rainforest backdrop and with very old Poinciana trees overhanging the clubhouse. Then home for a quick shower before driving 40 minutes to Noosa to attend a NoosaLongweekend event. The NoosaLongweekend is a ten day arts festival with a strong literary flavour. Today I sat in on a chat between Janet Turner Hospital and Peter Goldsworthy. It was very interesting and enjoyable. Then a chocolate gelato on Noosa beach which was at its stunning best. Then back to Buderim to join Wendy, Joyce, Clive and Sheila for afternoon coffee at Merlots. Sheila lives in Buderim and was a nurse in New Guinea in WW2 and is a wonderful lady. Joyce is visiting from Melbourne so thinks the weather here is tropical. Clive is up from Canberra and has just bought land in Buderim so he can experience this beautiful place full time.

Zorba the Greek

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzaki (1952, 319pp) I just finished reading this book for the first time. Published over 50 years ago, I see why it is a classic. It has something for everyone but I’m sure that, like a lot of things, the older you get the more you are able to identify with the multiple themes of this wonderful story. It is set on Crete and centres on Zorba, a rich character who has a zest for life that most of us would like to have. He shows us that even in his later years he has passion for work, women, music, friends, and nature. His cynicism toward religion and books is credible because his vitality abounds without them. There is much down to earth philosophy in Zorba’s words and actions. His selfishness and irrepressible ego are acceptable because his humanity and love (especially towards the narrator and the the aged Dame Hortense) make him a person we would all like to know (and, perhaps, be like).

Things Italian

I recently read A Small Place in Italy by Eric Newby. I thoroughly enjoyed Eric’s account of his restoration of and life in an old farmhouse in Italy. He and his wife Wanda purchased the ruin in 1967 and spent the next 25 years fixing it up, holidaying there, getting to know the neighbours and participating in all sorts of community events, especially the vendemmia (the grape harvest). The vendemmia was always a mix of hard physical work on often very steep slopes with no machinery and a lot of drinking of last year’s vintage. The farmhouse was situated in the foothills of the Apuan Alps on the borders of Liguria and northern Tuscany. This was where Eric spent time as an escaped prisoner of war in 1943-44 so there were many interesting connections throughout the book. I also enjoyed the liberal sprinkling of Italian in the story as I have been learning Italian for 2 years now. I love Italian and would love to spend some weeks there in a small town.
Ciao a tutti, belli e bruti!!!