Death of a Giant...

...what? The headline refers to that in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald, announcing the death of Australia's richest [business-] man, Kerry Packer. By all accounts rude, overbearing and a bully, 'death of a giant arsehole' sounds like a better completion of the headline.

He was nevertheless lauded by many of those in Australian media, and of course the Prime Minister, John Howard. Apparantly 'generous', he gave large tips to casino staff when he won big, and donated $10 m to the hospital which kept him alive for 5 years after an almost terminal kidney complaint. Big f**ing deal, as he himself probably would have said. Tipping casino staff - a huge plus for humanity. And a $10m donation in gratitude for being kept alive when your personal $$ value exceeds $7bn; so what?

Let me just clarify, I have never met the man, and oviously now never will. But it doesn't say much about Australian society that the type of person they worship is either a sportsperson (more on this later) or a man of ex-Mr Packer's calibre.

-A

the 'racism' issue (cont.)

Just a quick follow-up to my previous post - clearly I'm in good company - former (Liberal) prime minister Malcom Fraser [no less] has echoed my views as expressed in my previous post - see below.

In a TV interview last night, he stated that 'the attitude to Tampa showed there is a strong element of racism [to these events]... including in the government'

-A

more on the riots downunder

It could be argued that John Howard, Australian PM, was the one who institutionalised racism in the political fabric of Australian society with his 'Tampa' election win 4 or 5 years ago. Desperate to win an election, he campaigned on keeping 'boat people' from Australian shores, by the crude means of simply ordering that a ship that had rescued a boat-full of refugees (the Tampa) not be allowed to land on Australian shores.

This episode reached its climax when he showed a picture on TV, 2-3 days before the election, purportedly showing refugees throwing their children overboard, to prevent their boat being towed out of Australian waters - at least according to him. The net impression was 'what sort of people are these, that could throw their own children overboard'?

This duly won him the election. When, after the election result, it was conclusively shown that this was not true (ie the children were not deliberately thrown overboard) he never apologised for the lie that he had made to the Australian public, even though it became clear that he knew at the time that it was not true; unsurprisingly, the negative image of 'boat people' was allowed to remain in the public mind. (Of course anyone of any integrity would have been mortified at their terrible mistake, but not a man of Howard's calibre).

The point of this digression? As originator of this crude policy to keep refugees (of mainly middle eastern) appearance from entering Australia, he won the election, and institutionalised racism into politics and in so doing (given his post as prime minister) gave it a sense of legitimacy for society as a whole. Of course, he is quoted (Sydney Morning Herald, Tues 13 Dec.) as saying 'I do not accept there is underlying racism in this country'... However, there are many who would disagree - Morris Iemma, born of italian immigrant parents, and Premier of the state of New South Wales, is quoted as saying (in the same paper) ' What [this] showed on the weekend, was the ugly face of racism'.

They're un-Australian!

If you've caught up on [international] news, you'll have heard that there were 'race riots' in Cronulla, a beachside suburb in southern Sydney yesterday.

Locals at the beach went about beating up anyone of Lebanese descent, or anyone who looked vaguely like they might be of Lebanese descent. Of course, the Australian newspapers were full of copious denials by various politicians [including PM John Howard] that racism could have been involved. Apparently sms text messages that circulated before the disturbance called for 'aussies' to join 'Leb and wog bashing day' - i'll leave you to formulate your own opinion as to possible racism.

However the funniest report was of the reaction of the NSW police commissioner's view that the activities of the hooligans/rioters was 'un-Australian' - a meaningless, but much bandied-about term.

Mr [Ken] Moroney condemned the violence as 'un-australian' according to The Australian. He said: ' by any test, by any measure, that which we have seen here is clearly un-Australian. It's not Australian to adopt a mob mentality and assault [lebanese] women. I have never in all my working days seenanything as un-Australian' .

Well thanks Ken for the socio political commentary, but you offer no definition of what it is, or is not to be 'Un-Australian' or for that matter 'Australian'. Except that given the violence was perpetrated by typical residents of these beachside suburbs - white, anglo-saxon - in a demonstration that is quite typical of Australian behaviour (as observed by many visitors to this country and immigrants), the indignant Mr Moron was clearly wrong - the behaviour of the rioters was aggressive, macho and racist & quite clearly 'Australian' .