The Week that was…(Part 1)

By David Rowe

The week that was…

What a week it has been for the Australian Parliament.  Many words got thrown around. Fiasco, Circus, insurgency – yes it was all of the above.

We the tax paying citizens are scratching our heads, while the master minds rejoice- I am not referring to Tony Abbott, I will come back to him later, in my opinion the real vermin no the eroding termites are Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt.  Maybe lets give some credit to Ray Hadley as well.

Yes I refer to them as termites.  Termites/white ants are the cause of the demise of many imposing structures and buildings.  They start the erosion from within the structure, rather quietly.  They do it slowly, one nip here and another bite there.  Slowly gathering momentum.  Racism and hatred evolves the same way.  It doesn’t happen over night. It is slowly and carefully fueled.  Until they know the frame work is under threat, then they come out guns blazing.  By then it’s too late to save that building or structure.  Same goes for our country and its progress.  Just like, termites never build anything other than destroy perfectly good structures, racism and hatred never builds anything either, just destroys a perfectly good society.  Sure, the society may have it’s issues but racism is never the answer.

Media plays a very important role in having a fair and successful democracy.  In some countries their is no free press.  Journalists in those countries and even from our country put their lives at risk to bring the truth to the public.  My youngest son who aspires to be a foreign correspondent in the future holds such views in spite of  my fears and reservations.  I wonder if all this is worth it when you have the likes Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt undoing all the great work and sacrifice of true journalists.

I feel Democracy is in serious crisis.  It’s not about what’s good for the country anymore.  It’s about big businesses making deals and running the country the way it profits them.  They have become bullies and politicians have become their puppets. Hide everything behind – politics is the art of compromise.  You can only stretch that BS so far.  And why  are we the one’s who have been compromised at all fronts?

If a Muslim Mufti got on the airways and spoke the way Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt spoke could you imagine the back lash.  If they had spoken the way that idiot MP (no one knew him before and I am not going to aid him to get publicity being a racist) spoke about the final solution, well the mufti’s final solution may have been the Sharia Law – the punishments for criminals would be arms being chopped off or worse.  That would certainly bring down the crime rate.  Unfortunately these people are great orators (both the likes of Alan Jones and the Mufti) they have the ability to steer people to listen to them and slowly convert them.  They are vultures who are similar to cult leaders.  Why is it when the Mufti speaks that’s hate speech, and the like of Andrew Bolt speaks that is freedom of speech?

Don’t be fooled people.  None of their cries are for your benefit.  It is purely for their own benefit.  I come from a country where it was torn apart because our leaders decided to win the elections by playing the race card.  Pearl of the Indian Ocean is now battered and torn and it’s citizens leaving it in drones.  Once you have witnessed war, you will not invite it again.  And this is why I am more than eligible to say what I am saying and going to say to both sides (to the far right white Supremacists and the new migrants).

I love this country so much.  I have nothing but gratitude and I feel indebted to this country forever.  I will do anything for this place. I will watch cricket at the wee hours of the morning.  I wept when Steve Smith wept.  I have watched so many reruns of the movie ‘Castle’ and many references are played out quite frequently at home.  Still recovering from last nights Wallabies game.

But on a serious note, I pay my taxes, maybe grudgingly and yes I do everything I can to minimise what I have to pay.  Well just like Kerry Packer said, I don’t think the Government is doing such a great job that I need to give them so generously.  My 76 year old mother works 5 days as a volunteer.  She takes multiple buses and trains to get to her destinations and spends her own money at times for these activities.  The reason she says is that this country is so good to her and this is her small way of saying thank you.  I have met so many others with the same attitude.

Let’s Mathias Cormann as an example, he was born in Belgium and migrated to Australia and became a Australian Citizen in year 2000 on Australia Day.  My husband and I became Australian Citizens in year 1992 on Australia Day.  So in terms of seniority I have 8 years on him.  Then why would he be more of an Australian than I am just because he is a tad bit lighter in shade than I am.  So this is my answer to the Right wing dinosaurs,

“sorry mate, I am here to stay”   

I will do everything in my power, even if it is a small voice to keep this country as pure as it was when I reached it shores twenty eight years ago.  I know mine is just a muffled voice compared to that of Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt.  But, It is still a voice and if I could get the support of a few other muffled voices we may gather momentum.  Who knows.  But we can’t keep silent forever.

So above bashing is mainly about the issues of racism whites over black or Christianity vs Islam.

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As person of colour, as person who is rather tanned, as person who might be considered brown or what ever other politically correct or incorrect way to refer me I would say I have earned the right to say the following.  (In my next blog)

There is never a one sided problem.  The other side, the new migrants, Islam, Burka are all issues that I will talk about in my next blog.

I leave you with the song from the Rolling Stones “Nobody wants yesterday’s papers”