My Christmas letter - The Little Drummer Boy

Conversation is important, it's imperative however the ways forward are not always easy.
I often write about racism, however though I believe the Australian identity and national consciousness and political landscape to be racist and discriminatory, this is mostly the result of various nescience, however it does not mean per se that I believe people are inherently racist - rather that there is the development and preponderance of racism. There is discrimination without many people meaning to be discriminatory.

Simon, I do recall where we engaged in thread in your response to some arguments I put and the discourse was strong, and I believe healthy, though I don't agree with everything you have to write nor as you don't agree with me.

Racism is something that people feel, and it is something leveraged upon, imposed - it is a condition that arises and effectively what you quoted from me validates an effect I felt, that was dished out and hence validates an existing degree of racism and of racialism.

The reason I involved so much of my research into the subject of racism is because it has a horrifically damaging effect upon peoples and societies, and is destructively divisive.

Simon, I do know my British history and I know what I refer to in terms of 'slum-builders' and I do know my Greek history, having studied that too. Simon, it is you with a foci on a presumption that I am Greek because you head straight to my surname, however I don't view myself by various identities. My experiences bear witness that racism is a fact of life in Australia, and that many non-Aboriginal Australians do deny that Australia owns a hostile racism. I will argue that Australia is veiled by many layers of racism and discrimination - this is not to write that it is picture perfect in others places in the world - it is not. However, Australia with its contemporaneous high social health and human development indexes should have comprehensively disowned a lot of its past without a need to haunt those folk who organised the past. I seek not to judge those past only to improve on the policies and apothegms of the past, and if that means we need to define racist layers and policies and origins of thinking then so be it.

Simon, you cannot surely stay solid and argue against the discrimination, apartheid like, to Aboriginal peoples, the decimation of their right to lands, of the eugenics employed, of the Stolen Generation - the vile and despicable destruction of families and the effect this had and has on historical and contemporary identities. Surely, you cannot believe in your heart that Aboriginal peoples were not discriminated against and incarcerated remnant away from the mainstream because of deep seated racialist discriminations and other racisms.

Surely, you cannot believe that there is no ill feeling, culturally and historically based, on the assumptions of the 'other' and 'otherness', of migrants of today and of narratives past?

The history of humanity has horrific dark palls of racism, discrimination, slavery and class warfare. In Australia, to this day great racisms have continued against Aboriginal peoples, testimony is the bullshit Emergency Response in the Northern Territory.

I do not attack any peoples per se and only the policies and apothegms, the attitudes and acts of those whom I perceive and understand, as you may understand otherwise, as divisive, discriminatory and racist.

There is much anger in many places in our world and you apparently have experience, and improperly so, however it is so, in the Philippines and in Israel as you describe, and I am inclined to believe your experiences because it is the second time I have read of them on Indymedia. However your way is not my way, and how you deal with racism towards you or what you expect of others or how you wish to engage or manage your way through our world is not my way. I do not excuse others for how they have made you feel, and it is an indictment upon them, of them, a responsibility they too own, albeit they are tapping into a consciousness and their predicament. However, you have validated quite clearly that inter-relationships have an effect by impost and that you were made to feel a certain way, however do you read anywhere where I am in anyway denying your experience and especially how you were made to feel? I accept that your cultural and racial identity became a liability in those predicaments and it is not necessarily any personal or individualised fault of your own - rather it is historical, predating you. So why do you appear to reject as valid what others feel? Why do you appear to reject their claims to feeling racism, or that their cultural and historical identities are liabilities in the eyes of those who are not for instance Aboriginal or various other backgrounds?

If I am racist against Anglo-Celtics/Saxons as you impute then do I see my child different from me? Do I view her mother different from me? To answer that, no.

I am about the eliminating by dissemination and discourse, and full on if need be, various layers of racism, various prejudices and nescience.

Racism is pervasive and endemic, it is not confined to Australia however it would be wrongful and immoral, a horrific impropriety, to allege that Australia is not racist. It is racist, its peoples may not racists per se, not the majority, however there are thoughts, inclinations, policies, actions and a consciousnes that is racist. Australia has done horrific wrongs to Aboriginal peoples and to many migrants, and now to our Asylum Seekers, and this wrongs must be owned for there to be ways forward for all of us. The answers will not be found in blaming and rather in understandings.

I would be a racist, even if a passive one, and that is still a full on racist, if said that the inter generational poverty of many Aboriginal communities and peoples was not the result of racism.

Simon, you described what irks you about other cultures, well there are manners and practices about all cultures that do not sit well with me too however we are all the product, soft or hard determinism, of practices borne before and of the conditions we are born into. I could write about animal cruelty and argue that the mass production of animals for slaughter, their en masse captivity in the dark, dank, crammed so they can finish up as fried burgers - beef and poultry - are offensive to me, however much of the Western World accepts this as a by-product of its capitalism, and accepts the salt and additives thumped on humanity to addict them as a contemporaneous cultural by-product - I consider this nescience cruel to animals and humans alike. However, I choose discourse, full on if need be, as the way forward, and where necessary various conscientious objections and in your face challenges and this often does not sit well with those that tell me I am full on or leading to far out from the front lines, however I do not agree with retributive violence, and other long term divisiveness.

I believe that someday we will recognise that everyone in our world has a right to go to wherever they want to in this world, that transmigration is perfectly okay, and that borders are an outdated by-product of excessive self interest, economic equations that hopefully someday are crippled, and iconic nonsense that just wastes the days our lives have been numbered with.

The Australian government was racist when it committed to the Northern Territory Intervention.
Australia is racist when it accepts a detention centre network on its shores rather than receiving humanity.
Australia is racist when it discriminates against someone because of their appearance or the colour of their skin.
However Australia is not alone, it is an endemic global phenomena, however hopefully on the way out.
Simon, all people are born with hope, with good, and there is a common good, and it is this we tap into. We in our lifetimes will not see the best of the common good that is yet to come. We can contribute for the sake of our children's children.

Gerry

Hi Simon, I can't recall whether you were a Simon or a Sean however, the story of the Philippines and the taxi driver who finished up shot in the leg, you used that example before in a thread of exchanges between us. I responded to all your comments from the threads I had first posted in whether they were about 'veils of racism', 'deaths in custody', or about 'Australia, a racist country'. Ultimately, it does not matter whether we've yarned before or not.

I have never said that Australia is the most racist country in the world. I have written that Australia is a racist country. Australia is most certainly not the most racist country. I have written racism is endemic, pervasive and a global issue.

Many will agree with you that Australia is a great place. For 97% of Australians, excluding the majority of Aboriginal peoples, Australia is a great place according to the United Nations Development Program Human Index charter, November 2 2011 - Australia rated 2nd the world, or from 180 odd countries measured, in human social wealth, in social health, etc. Australians are the world's top median income earners however I don't know if this is a good thing, disproportionate wages world wide dishevelling parity and costs of living. I like Australia, I like the country town I live in, the community setting, however I recognise Australia's problems and the need for it to continue unfolding a human rights language eventually equitably inclusive of the right to be, not the right to have everything, for Aboriginal peoples, and various migrant groups targeted as others historically past were targeted till their cultural narratives were essentially extinguished because they were liabilites to them rather than continue to unfold in the millstream of unity and solidarity.

Simon, in terms of your question to me about "Racism is something that people feel" of course racism can be felt by anyone and of course it can be directed at anyone. A core intention of racism is to exclude someone by means of differentiation.

In terms of who invented what well what you've attributed is by means of an equation, by means of volume rather than by unfolding. Will your argument still hold in a century? Will for instance Asians not be predominately responsible, and by a factor of population weight and levels of education, for most technology to unfold, will you wish then you were born Asian? I hope this is not a thinking to continue to unfold and divide peoples - this type of parochialism is not only divisive it is baseless. Even though the other day I happened to be thinking about Old England and various advancements and inventions - as I was thinking of Jethro Tull - I don't agree with your assumption that 'white people' have invented everything thus far. Simon, what is a 'white person', I usually don't make references to someone as 'white'. By nomenclature, I am white, am I white to you. Are Indians white to you? Or are only northern Europeans white or who have their origin in Northern European. Historically, there have been great advancements across the planet some lost in collapse of time and space and others lost in a focus of history written from one part of the world as total of the world. Anyway, this stuff does not matter to me, it does not matter who invented what, for who is responsible for refrigeration, for understanding critical mass, for first understanding the Archimedean screw, for dispersing speed by volume by mass into flight, and rather what we do with it all, of what benefit is - critical mass has also been used to devastate regions of the earth, to leave nothing standing.

In terms of race, there is only one race - Diogenes, I believe was correct, in that he believed he was a citizen of the world, that we are only human beings, culture is one thing however it is not tied to the assumption of race - in terms of racialism there is only the human being, the rest is manifest, the rest is the property of cultural unfoldings, not racial.

In terms of Greek history I have not anywhere put it up on any pedestal - I do not do that with anything. It is you Simon that keeps on making reference to Greece and Greek history, and who keeps on linking me to some ownership that I must have of any sins that you presume of a Greek heritage - I am as much responsible for Solon's laws or Dracon's laws, or for the Battle of Mesolonghi, or for Spartan ways, as you would be for what the British to the Irish, forcing them into the hedges to learn. This is all nonsense. We are not here to judge people per se and rather to make some of difference by what we do and say and change thinking where we can.

I don't know if Arthur would agree with you about Aboriginal folk being moved on to the 'big smoke'. I have spoken by phone with Arthur a couple of times. What you're describing is the Northern Territory Intervention and the government's racism to move them from their lands to hubs, 21 of them in the NT, the 'big smoke' as you say, however this is racism and discrimination. What they deserve after the apartheid that disenfranchised from the right to accumulate as the rest of have generationally, they deserve the full suite of funding to all basic services in the first instance and to the full suite of services and rights, this they have been denied. Simon, there is an Australian National University report at the moment that reckons that all country towns under a threshold of a 15,000 population should not be subsidised for services from the Australia Regional Development Funds and from the Royalties for Regions, and that they should move to the big cities were they can continue on without the need for governments to subsidise these towns. What is neglected in this report is that most of these country towns do fine, yes we have a few ghost towns resultant from a demand for single industry economies rather than multi factored economies, however most country towns are community settings with reasonable cost of living when compared to the cities. In fact it is the cities that are subsidised extensively and not the country towns - it is the cities with en masse public transport and road networks running forever at a loss, etc., with whole precincts of services subsidised and the demand for more council and state taxes to try and help with the outpaced expenditure to revenue. If folk were moved on as is the demand in the NT to Aboriginal folk, from country towns to the big cities there would be outrage and protestation the likes not yet seen in Australia - however it appears alright for some to say to Aboriginal folk to move on but not to non-Aboriginal folk. Simon, give them their funding, the full suite of it, the services and infrastructure that are their due and allow for Aboriginal advancement by Aboriginal peoples, in the cultural identity sense, so we as a race of humanity can continue living on in together pursuant of harmony.

In terms of Arthur's reference to a victim industry, well I have seen the victims and the volume of victims is immeasurable - that there are such industries borne to be exploited by some is a fact of life, it happens everywhere and much is manifest that need not be - however we need to always be on the alert to not let this form of exploitation dissuade us from the real facts of human misery and human suffering. Happy for you to come with me and see the human misery that coalesces at Street Doctors for the homeless, for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal homelessness and it will be an eye opening witness, there is much misery under the sun (and under the moon), and we cannot turn a blind eye to it or assume because we know of someone who misuses a predicament or languishes in a predicament when they could do otherwise with a little strength that is the way that all are, it is not Simon.

In terms of your fears that we are tied up to a legacy of shame, well Simon we can correct everything in the ways I describe above and hence a new legacy is borne, and we are freed from any shame and rather we would have much to be proud of.

Gerry