It only took a glance at the digital headlines to confirm the worst. The reptiles were off the wagon and back on to coal, the dear, sweet, precious dinkum, clean Oz black stuff that they've always loved to swill ...
Sure, there was our Henry at the top of the digital page berating difficult, uppity blacks in his usual way, but out of nostalgia for a vanishing form - the pond can't actually recollect what year it was it last held a newspaper in hand - the pond confirmed the worst by way of the tree killer edition... coal was all the go and top of the page, ma ..
As for that concern for the rich, the immortal Rowe had sorted out the problem at the get go ...
Ah digging up the country and shipping it out, is there nothing better for what might maritally ail ya ...
But back to coal, and here the lizard Oz editorialist was on hand to have a say ...
It takes exceptional skills for the reptiles to shun, or disappear any related topics, which is how the pond ended up at the
New Daily to read
‘Time is running out’: Experts’ warning after record seven-day temperatures ... which
opened with a link to graphs ...an important point for anyone trained on ABC news graphs ...
And so on, that's only a sample of what's out there ...
Does any of this shake or shift the lizard Oz editorialist? Do the reptiles ever doubt for a nanosecond the wisdom of keeping up that devotion to coal, by way of domestic use and export?
Of course not ... no need for petty doubts or fears, the entire matter of climate science and climate changed has been shunned, or better still, wilfully disappeared ... and so the yearning for dear, sweet, innocent, clean and unjustly persecuted Oz coal can continue unabated ...odds bodkins, who would demonise the precious stuff?
And what of the comprehensive stuffing of the planet? Apparently that's not hubris, that's the reptiles putting on a stage voice, and shouting away at their aging demographic, far right on an increasingly hot stage ...
What else? To be honest, the pond desperately wanted to avoid the hole in the bucket man for as long as possible ...
Why not join book club with cackling Claire? Sure, the pond is onside with Hong Kongers (and yes we should be doing more to help Ukraine) but the reptiles decided to run old Bob selling out Taiwan, so a book club might just provide some distraction and relief ...
Oh dear, the pond can sense that cackling Claire is going to turn Milan into another hectoring lecture on the importance of maintaining the culture wars, and the pond's mood wasn't improved by the remnants of the graphics department dragging out an aged snap ...
The Soviet empire is long gone, and more to the point, Vlad the sociopath is currently busy trying to reinvent the empire, and the best the reptiles can do is produce a snap from 1968? Why not a snap of a Ukrainian yelling 'go home Ivan'?
The pond has been on the wagon for a long time, but the pond understands you can get a crisp Clare valley riesling at good book clubs ... and about now seemed the right time, with this Claire starting to wind up ...
Ah, there she blows, and at that point the pond decided an
infallible Pope was definitely within limits ...
By golly, the pond would line up for any of them ... what a marketing ploy to teach the perfidious French and the fetta Greeks a lesson ... but back to the book club ...
Really? We're air brushing the past, as opposed to the notion that they did things differently then and we might do things differently now?
Besides, anyone partial to a particularly smelly form of smelly cheese will find rancid portions still available for tasting ...
At that point the reptiles decided to slip in a snap of Roald Dahl, because the shattered graphics department consists of a few literalists. They see a word and they rush to dig up a free graphic ...
As usual, there's a
wiki to read on the matter of Dahl ... and it turns out that there's always a fine line between anti-Semitism and ranting about Jews controlling the world, and a word or three about the current government of Israel ...
The pond is happy to leave it at that and finish off with a final short gobbet ...
Okay, here's a quiet act of personal contemplation. Why is the clap happy from the Shire still there? The pond saw the man who shouldn't be there yesterday, and he's still there today, and he simply refuses to go away, because there ain't nowhere else that wants him ...
And so to fix some holes in some buckets with dear Henry.
The pond has avoided the task for as long as possible but knows that each week a few slavering, slobbering preverts hang out for the pleasure of hanging out with Henry ... knowing that there'll be some strange fruit ...
Dear sweet long absent lord, the pompous ass would try to argue the hind leg off a horse, and big endian egg cutters might think they've found their champion.
As any goose would know and accept, the Senate is unrepresentative swill. Always has been, always will be, it's baked into the constitutional cake, and was done so deliberately so that the likes of Taswegians, crow eaters, sandgropers and cane toads didn't get their noses out of joint, and keep threatening to secede ... though every so often the
cylindrachetids keep bringing it up ...
Actually giving Aboriginal people a voice might accrue a benefit to everybody ...those who care about everybody, as opposed to the rancid bigots always shouting 'no' about a minority that's done it hard for a couple of centuries or more ...
Sorry, that was one product the pond simply couldn't swallow, and it felt more apt than the wretched remains of the graphics department reaching for a very large snap of Judith ...
Back to our Henry's specious pleading ... and if he misquotes the
1789 Declaration of Rights, the pond will let out a very loud scream ...
Nah. You can't get away with throwing in "and of the citizen" and expect to get away with it. The wording is clear enough, and though the odd "citizen" and "person" gets a mention, back then the trend was clear enough ...
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.
2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man.
11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man.
And so on and on, always bloody men, and the more pompous and boring, in the Henry manner, the better ...
Meanwhile, the literalist in what's left of the graphics department had discovered a snap of Hancock the historian ...
The pond long suffered at the hands of Hancock, perhaps even more than Manning Clark, and as there's
entry on him at the ADB, that's more than enough ...
As for the rest, the pond can't believe it's quoting a
Reddit thread, but what the heck, needs must ...
...In the 1998 Hancock Lecture (an annual lecture delivered in tribute to Hancock, who despite his faults was important in the development of Australian academic history), Ian McLean argued that:
"...one of Hancock's major tropes of empire [was] the capture and occupation of the land. His first chapter, 'The Invasion of Australia', did not, as the title might suggest, chronicle the clash of armies, but a battle with the land. The taming of nature by pastoralists became the means of forgetting the history of Aboriginal contact. Here the land was not a resource, but an enemy to be defeated as in any other invasion. Thus, he writes":
"The explorers were scouts thrown out by the advancing army of pastoralists . . . Far away on the fringes . . . adventurous pastoralists skirmished with drought and raided the desert . . . The story of these brave assaults upon the interior of Australia . . . that adventurous race of men who first dared, with their flocks and herds, to invade the unknown interior of the continent."
The land and not the Aborigines were invaded and defeated. The Aborigines were not conquered because they had never conquered the land. The Aborigines were not defeated but dispossessed - which is why his opening sentence, 'the British peoples have alone possessed her', immediately writes Aboriginal texts out of the picture without even needing to account for or name them. The Aborigines have no role in the making of Hancock's Australia- that is, they have the role of oblivion.
Elsewhere, in a 2010 biography of Hancock, A Three Cornered Life: The Historian W. K. Hancock by Jim Davidson, Davidson ultimately agrees with McLean:
"...after spectacularly entitling the opening chapter of the book 'The Invasion of Australia', it soon becomes plain that he is tracing the impact of the British on a new environment, which they transform utterly. Although aware of the brutal effect on the Aborigines, Hancock's own attitude seems to merge with that of the average white Australia, who 'sheds over their predestined passing an economical tear'."
So, basically, despite the provocative chapter title, Hancock's Australia indeed fits fairly and squarely within the Great Australian Silence framework described by Stanner - he's talking about ecological invasion. In Hancock's day, it was a common expression that Australia's economy was 'riding on the sheep's back', and Hancock was concerned with showing how the Australian economy was transformed by transforming Australia's ecology into something suitable for merino sheep. So yes, there was no controversy and backlash at the time, because Hancock is not talking about, you know, the topic matter of John Connor's 2002 book The Australian Frontier Wars 1788-1838.
Well yes, the pond can still recall the history book it was served up in primary school and the depiction of a quaint and useless mob who in due course would disappear, it being their nature and their fate, and if our Henry has his way, the great Australian silence will continue... because the last thing our Henry needs is disagreeable, uppity, difficult, tricky black people having a say ...
Um, if we must invoke that three fifths of a man, Martin Luther King, might we not also remember the race-based treatment of a certain number of Australian citizens from the time of the invasion? You know, the ones that could finally be counted in the census in 1971, a time which remarkably the pond can still recall having lived through, a time when Hansonism was rampant in the bush long before there was an actual Hanson incarnation ...
By this point the pond was well over Henry's humbug ... and even more over the shattered remains of the lizard Oz graphics department, yet again resorting to a huge snap ...
And with that there was just a gobbet to go and for once not a mention of Thucydides ...
Uh huh ... good luck with that lodestar ... otherwise known as back-turning bigot's corner, likely to apologise for the back-turning years after it mattered ...
But that would mean the pond ending on a sour note of a gas-fuelled expulsion of faux cheese into the ether, so why not catchup with a couple of Luckovichs?
There’s always the temptation to try and construct a nuanced criticism of Our Henry’s latest parade of straw men - but sometimes it’s just a lot quicker, and more satisfying, to simply note that he’s a pompous, supercilious old prat, and a windy bullshitter to boot.
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty, when I first spotted the name “Hancock” I today’s sermon, I thought that Henry was approvingly citing the views of the late, not so great Lang. Come to think of it, Henry’s self-importance also resembles the comedic persona of the late great Tony Hancock. I wouldn’t classify Henry as a tragic clown, though - just a clown.
Lehmann should think of the name changes in Australia like other colonial countries renamed themselves, such as Rhodesia became Zimbawe, Nyasaland became Malawi, etc. Perhaps she thinks they should have kept their colonial names. As for removing statues, Ukraine dismantled a Soviet-era “People’s Friendship” statue, in Prague a granite monument to Stalin was destroyed, while in Belgium statues of King Leopold II have been removed and protestants destroyed the various statues, etc. of the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation.
ReplyDeleteOne can ponder whether Lehmann gets her books from the Library of Ron De Santis, where they don’t just change a few words, but redact the whole thing.
True, Anon, but I got the impression that today’s Claire Cackle was just one of those “Mix and Match” columns. Use the death of some notable figure as an excuse to pick a couple of the regular culture war whinges, and just cut and paste in the standard paras. It’s a classic example of money for old rope, and a damn sight easier than actually thinking about a subject.
DeleteOur E-Claire is just exhibiting a standard reptile/wingnut fantasy that the past was a perfect state from which the present is committing 'woke' rebellion. So nothing ever done in the past is really blameworthy - oh sure there may have been a few mistakes and the occasional error of judgement but really, Western Judeo-Christian Civilisation has just been wonderful throughout all of its grand history.
DeleteAnd that's why, for instance, reptiles just absolutely can't understand why Australian indigenes aren't happily grateful for all the wonderful things the Anglo-invasion has done for them. Why, we brought alcohol with us, didn't we.
So of course they would truly want us to keep all the colonial names we imposed on them - who wants to learn a bunch of 'native' names instead ?
Can Henry explain how the Voice is creating inequality? No he can’t.
ReplyDeleteCan he explain how it is denying equal political rights? No he can’t.
Can he explain how it is preventing collective agency or undermining democracy? No he can’t.
Does he show that equal responsibility, equal representation and equal consultation will be breached by the Voice? No he doesn’t.
Nowhere does he show that the Voice creates two classes of citizenship. He simply assumes it does.
The Voice does not discriminate on the basis of race, but rather allows, like non-Aboriginal people have, that Aboriginal peoples will at least have a say in how legislation directly affects them and so will have some control over their own culture and lives. Democracy requires that those most affected by a government decision at least be heard. This is all that is being asked as anyone whose read the Report on the Voice should know. The Voice is the complete antithesis of what Ergas claims; it is the democratisation of our institutions to address the racism Aboriginal Peoples have suffered for generations. Ergas shows his true colours when he dismisses Professor Megan Davies (I wonder why doesn’t he give her her full title) with one word: “Perhaps.”
According to Ergas, it is apparently the failure of Aboriginal people’s to be integrated into non-Aboriginal society (which he appears to think is free of recreational drugs or any other problems, but apparently able to be cured of its ills, unlike Aboriginal communities). So when Ergas talks about a colourblind Australia he means an Australia without colour.
As for the elites advising governments, does he mean all those like the Murdoch commentators, who have regularly given advice on Aboriginal affairs for decades? No, of course he doesn’t mean them.
Should anyone listen to Ergas? No.
Ah, but Our Henry has clearly read a lot of books and quotes numerous Great Names, Anon. So why does he need to explain or present evidence?
Delete"Nowhere does he show that the Voice creates two classes of citizenship. He simply assumes it does." Actually, Anony, he isn't assuming at all, he's just plainly lying - a little trick that all reptiles practice. Whatever he says is of no consequence whatsoever, provided it scares the average punter into doing what he wants them to do - ie. vote against the (small v) voice.
DeleteCome to think of it, wasn’t it a common practice by Egyptian Pharaohs and Roman emperors to deface, destroy or repurpose statues and monuments of disfavoured predecessors? What about the early Christian habit of usurping and renaming pagan rituals and Holy Days? Surely conservatives would approve of such activities from Classical times and the Foundations of Western Civilisation? Only a little over a decade ago, London’s Clock Tower was renamed “The Elizabeth Tower” by a Conservative Government- where was the Reptile outrage then? Clearly some renamings are Good, while others are Bad.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Ozymandias, Anony ? Or Ramesses II if you prefer.
DeleteWhile I’m reluctant to criticise the Infallible Pope, a better cheese to represent Howard might have been that processed stuff that Kraft used to sell, with each foil-wrapped block in a light blue cardboard box; it didn’t even require refrigeration, but just sat on the supermarket shelf. Dull, bland, the epitome of 1950s suburbia…..
ReplyDeleteYou're not dissing my beloved Kraft Cheddar, are you Anony ? Shame !
DeleteOur dyke-headed Henry: "On the one hand, each citizen is equally represented in the lower house..." What utter balderdash - each citizen is "equally represented" only when all citizens vote for just one set of candidates - ie national voting for one single president. So that's ok for the Americans, but what about Australians ?
ReplyDeleteLet's take a very simple example: number of voters per electorate in some Australian electorates:
133501 Macarthur
103709 Wentworth
Why NSW ? Because it is one of the most evenly divided states in Australia but even there it is clearly not voters being "equally represented"; Macarthur voters have just 103709/133501= 0.7768 of a vote compared with a Wentworth voter. Now compare Macarthur with Tasmania (ignoring the ACT):
74797 Clark
Macarthur and Clark both elect a member of the House of Representatives, so in short each voter in Macarthur has just 74797/133501 = 0.56 of a vote when compared with a Clark voter. Now do assure me that that is "each citizen is equally represented".
Day in, day out, nothing but ignorant bullshat.
Henry ("when we turn all out to vote we become 'the Australian people'") may be surprised to learn that when Australians vote in referendums, they are voting as citizens of their State, so the vote of a Tasmanian is worth much more than that of a NSW voter.
ReplyDeleteThen I suspect he is not troubled by the fact that the National Party has about five times as many MPs as The Greens, even though they get about the same number of votes.
And of course, the supreme example of the Senate where the 5, 536,451 enrolled voters of NSW and the 4,397,328 enrolled voters of Victoria elect exactly the same number of Senators as the 403,635 enrolled voters of Tasmania.
DeleteAnd it is bleedin' bloody obvious that the voters of NSW have the lowest value votes in Australia -even us Viccies do better.
Joe - I have commented here in other times about the Henry's earlier life, in Queensland. He would have been in his matriculation years in 1969-70, then at University of Queensland, probably through to 1974, because the common 'economics' degree on offer then was 'Commerce/economics - with a goodly slab of bookkeeping and accounting, so the potential graduate was employable.
DeleteThose years span the absolute ferment of the Bjelke-Petersen Governments. It seems that our Henry draws on no particular recollections nor experience of those years. So much nicer, and more patronising, to cite authors from millennia back, or on the other side of the world, even as the government of the state you lived in was breaching every supposed principle of democracy. Equal representation? The 'Johmander' simply outclassed the historic Elbridge Gerry. Oh, and if we are speaking of need for amendments to our Australian constitution - one, passed successfully, was set off in response to Joh doing what all good 'conservatives' do - preach the unwritten conventions, right up to the time when it suits you to defy them. Using the compliance arm of government to cow (in its non-animal sense) those you disagree with? It is only a few days ago that the justly reviled Terry Lewis, Joh's own Police Commissioner, died.
And I haven't touched on keeping indigenous peoples of Queensland 'under the Act' during most of the 'Joh' era - circumstances which the Henry seems to have lost in a mental mist of some golden age, that all the rest of us - missed.
That was the National Party - and that is still the inner nature of the Nationals.
We don't see or hear much of Joh Bananas these days, even though it's less than 20 years since he shuffled. Certainly one of NZ's most infamous exports.
DeleteHe does represent a phenomenon that I still have trouble grasping: the propensity of people to hero-ise and worship the worst and continue to vote for them long after it's obvious that they are doing themselves harm. But then, maybe they don't recognise it as harm, just like the ensconced Trump and Johnson - and Putin - voters don't even now.
Oh Henry: "Nor is it merely the equal right to vote that matters, it is also the equal right to be consulted." To be "consulted" ? Dear Henry, a "petition" is not a matter of being consulted, it's a matter of some bunch trying to push their desires even if that is contrary to the wishes of the bulk of the population. And, please correct me if I'm wrong, there is no requirement for a parliamentarion to even read a 'petition'. And so far absolutely no stated requirement for parliamentarians or public servants to pay any attention whatsoever to an indigenous "Voice".
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, let's consult that favourite of the "conservatives", Edmund Burke: "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion." Yep, that's just the essence of a 'right to be consulted', isn't it.
https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch13s7.html
Evidence ? Whoever heard of such a thing, and how, and by whom, will this "evidence" be validated ? Oh, right, by the ACCC; yeah, that'll work.
ReplyDeleteACCC to compel companies to back up environmental claims with evidence
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/14/accc-to-compel-companies-to-back-up-environmental-claims-with-evidence
"Companies should have evidence to back up claims they make about their environmental sustainability, according to draft guidelines developed by the competition watchdog in a bid to stamp out greenwashing." Oh no, not "greenwashing" here in Australia.