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January 26, 2006
I've been having terrible connectivity problems in the holiday shack at Victor Harbor thanks to a combination of Telstra, wireless modems and old computers running Windows 98. But I'm back online this morning with the old computer chucked and the Toshiba laptop working without wireless.
Sharpe
West Papua is a forgotten and marginalised story.The 43 West Papuan refugees are political dissidents. The banner emblazoning their outrigger canoe with the words ---save West Papua people soul from genocide' ---was deliberate. Under Indonesian rule their struggle has become a struggle for survival and they seek independence from an oppressive Indonesian colonialism.
Tis Australia Day in Australia today. A public holiday that celebrates Australian identity that should include an affirmation the value of freedom from political oppression as well as the freedom to live in their own state. Shouldn't we give our neighbours a hand to achieve this? Are we not fighting in Iraq for freedom and democracy. So why the concern for Iraq and not for West Papua?
The PM's speech to the National Press Club is about history:
"Too often it is taught without any sense of structured narrative, replaced by a fragmented stew of themes and issues. And too often history, along with other subjects in the humanities, has succumbed to a postmodern culture of relativism where any objective record of achievement is questioned or repudiated."
Questioning and repudiation are not the same thing are they? One does not necessarily lead to the other, does it? And Howard wants to subordinate difference (the fragmented stew) to identity (structured narrative).
The PM wants a grand narrative historical narrative about the nation stated taught in the schools that is linked to citizenship and grounded on universal western values.
John Howard says:
Part of preparing young Australians to be informed and active citizens is to teach them the central currents of our nation’s development. The subject matter should include indigenous history as part of the whole national inheritance. It should also cover the great and enduring heritage of Western civilisation, those nations that became the major tributaries of European settlement and in turn a sense of the original ways in which Australians from diverse backgrounds have created our own distinct history. It is impossible, for example, to understand the history of this country without an understanding of the evolution of parliamentary democracy or the ideas that galvanised the Enlightenment.
How can you honestly teach all that without, questioning, criticism or critique? The conservative account wants to , dampen down, if not do away with critique to ensure social cohesion and national unity. So who is going to do the critical thinking in the nation if critical thinking is not taught in the schools?
John Howard does not acknowledge diversity, but he subordinates it to the dominant cultural pattern. He says:
Most nations experience some level of cultural diversity while also having a dominant cultural pattern running through them. In Australia’s case, that dominant pattern comprises Judeo-Christian ethics, the progressive spirit of the Enlightenment and the institutions and values of British political culture. Its democratic and egalitarian temper also bears the imprint of distinct Irish and non-conformist traditions.
Note the absence of capitalism in that account and the failure to acknowledge the working class's long struggle for a better and more just Australia.
Wasn't the progressive spirit of Enlightenment based on critique of power, bigotry, prejudice and superstitution? Strikes me the PM's speech has a bit of contradiction running through it.
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