What has happened to us?
Remember this? Kevin Rudd, speaking after Australia’s 2009 ‘Black Saturday’ fires: “…In some countries, tragedy exposes the fault lines in a nation. The strong abandoning the weak; one region indifferent to the sufferings of another, one culture uncaring as to the needs of another. But ours is a different nation. Our nation has been as one. Australia - a nation of compassion. Courage and compassion…”* IS AUSTRALIA STILL A ‘DIFFERENT NATION’; DIFFERENT FROM OTHER, MORE DIVIDED PLACES? ARE WE STILL A NATION OF COMPASSION AND COURAGE? I’m not sure anymore. This is what we have: State against State. Region against Region. ‘Haves’ against ‘have-nots’. A worshipping of money by those in power. Imprisonment of (genuine) refugees. Persecution of folk on ‘Welfare’ – (that use to be called ‘Social Security’) The use of the National flag as a sort of weird nationalistic authority, accompanying rampart racism. I feel there is a nastiness that is unlike anything Australia has seen – or felt - before. I don’t like this ‘new’ Australia. Should we blame it all on the mental fatigue presented by the COVID19 virus? I don’t think so. *Address on the National Day of Mourning for the victims of the Victoria Bushfires, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne. 22/02/2009
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Author notesI choose to comment on social issues and write creatively on a variety of subjects - for a variety of audiences. Archives
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