Unpublished Letters to the Sydney Morning Herald

04.10.09

Here we go again! Another mob from elsewhere come to live here because its a more peaceful society, then start saying it should be more like where they’ve come from. (Keysar Trad SMH Spectrum Oct 3-4) Excuse me, Keysar, but polygyny (sic) is an old tribal custom resultant from higher male mortality, usually when males are older, then only with proven ability to support more wives.

Recent research has blown the myth of lifelong male virility, showing progeny intelligence deceases as the male sperm ages. This would indicate a generally lower intelligence in a society with such cultural practice. Still want to argue?

Likewise, the patriarchal myth of low female libido is blown away by your own (and many other) cultures’ anxieties about female sexuality. Extramarital affairs are not exclusive to men, but under patriarchy they are enabled by financial dominance.

I, Keysar, like other female acquaintances, have found many men intimidated by libidinous females. Common male responses are to emotionally demean or physically intimidate such women into submission. I'm quite sure some of my partners would have loved to wrap me in a veil too.

Like polygamy, monogamy works for some but has its casualties. Personally, I think we should be free to marry whom and how ever many we choose. I probably could have kept at least three husbands happy. And just what are these ‘medical reasons’ you cite against polyandry? Momma’s baby, Papa’s maybe?

07.07.09

During the Howard-Costello era, public debt was transferred to private debt as the country launched into a real estate speculation frenzy and followed Howard's urging to become 'mums and dads shareholders.' Well, we know what happened to those bubbles of fiscal lightheadedness, and I think we're all a little more savvy, if bruised, now. Does Malcolm really believe that old bogie is going to work again, or is he just a bear of little imagination and can't think of a new trick?

Regards, Teri


Good Weekend 06.08.09

At last! An article on Cuba without an agenda! Gerard Noonan and daughter Anna (Revolutionary Road, August 1) have done their homework on the origins and effects of the US embargo and its long-running quasi-war sustained by the hysteria of the expatriate Miami Mafioso still mourning the loss of their fiefdom. They meet Cubans with clear eyes and open hearts, pay respect to the humanity and achievement of the Cuban people. And they hit the nail on its proverbial head with observations of the dangers that suddenly open borders will bring. Let’s hope the friendly lawyer, Javier, is right. The riches Cuba has nurtured in its people’s resilience and humanity should never be for sale.

15.04.08

Being an historian of Australian political development and long cognizant of the dragging anchor on progressive politics of Labor's right wing, Monday's (ABC1 14.04.08) Four Corners was not terribly surprising. Its the old adage of 'lie down with dogs, get up with fleas' writ large and if the NSW Labor Party was a dog it would be considered so riddled with parasites that it may not survive the cure and would be better put down.



However, watching the brazenly disingenuous Noreen Hay repeatedly declare she had 'all sorts' lobbying her and had done nothing wrong in accepting substantial donations from developers whose projects she was supporting, and that she had been reinstated as Parliamentary Secretary, I did become nauseous with the pervasive moral vacuum. I had genuinely believed we had enough checks and balances in place to keep the perennial moral cancer of corruption contained.



Evidently not. Awareness of Frank Sartor's slippery rezoning practices in the Hunter Valley should strike fear in everyone's heart. That he called his parliamentary critic 'a spiv' is manifestly a case of 'pots'n'kettles.’ Sartor's assertion that councils 'take too long' approving DAs is code for 'forget your silly little illusions about democracy guys, the robber barons are in charge around here.' 



Tragedy is, we know from experience that the Liberals do not behave much differently once entrenched in power. Its the type of people attracted to adversarial politics, the way the electoral system has developed the need for massive campaign funds that drives ambitious politicians into developer's pockets. It has to stop, now! 



I vaguely remember a time when the media was obliged to provide a set amount of free time for each contender at elections, and we must reinstate that immediately. Let aspiring pollies go back to eating cake with the laity at morning teas in community halls across the country rather than drinks and dinners in expensive restaurants with the boys. And they all should do an obligatory ethics and civics course with regular updates. 



2008 on the Bill Henson brouhaha

Here we go, with self-appointed spokespeople of the ‘vast majority’ of Australians applying moribund values in realms of which they are utterly ignorant. Witness the obscene interpretations of Bill Hensen’s work by various complainants and in the actions of the NSW Police.

It is essential we remember that much recorded child abuse is historically revealed as conducted by seemingly ordinary individuals, often considered respectable members of the community; even guardians of public morality.

As intelligent as Mr Rudd may be, he is not an art critic. His aesthetic judgement of Bill Hensen’s photographs is not relevant to the legalities of this brouhaha and journalists who consider he and other such paragons are valid commentators are simply being sensationalist

Mr Howard was accused of harking back to the nineteen-fifties when his rhetoric was straight out of nineteenth-century laissez faire economics. Beware the saintly Mr Rudd, whose aesthetics appear not to have evolved since Mr Menzies’ halcyon days of artistic repression.

12.12.05

Doesn’t anyone remember the 60s and 70s, Bodgies and Widgies doing battle with Beatniks, Rockers then Westies making forays to the coast to battle with ever-pumped Surfies? Testosterone and youthful bravado, tribalism and cultural territory incursions, all grist for the media mill and the politician’s opportunity for a bit of grandstanding. Lets do the time warp again!

OK! So, there’s a racial tone to it now, mostly, I hazard, because the public sphere has reached a critical mass of fear-raising hyperbole about ‘people of middle-eastern appearance.’ This is prefaced by the recognition that the vast majority of Muslim families are probably well-adjusted, peace-loving people. But, yes, there’s also the fact that we are all a bit over of the victim drums being beaten by the Muslim community at every instance, including those where they should be looking a little closer to home for the problem.

While the hyped up Anglo hooligans need to be reined in, the Muslim community does need to take some responsibility for its own hooligans too. There are a few abrasive cultural glitches that need to be addressed by that community. This was started, after all, with the bashing of two lifeguards by Muslim youths . Locals tell me that large groups of Muslim boys have regularly been setting up camp at the flags and making themselves conspicuous as stroppy smartarses, particularly with their behaviour towards girls. A number of young Islamic men have recently been up on gang rape charges, ramping up the clashing of cultural values, but we should remember that we’ve only really begun to deal with our own Anglo rapists who claimed it was invited too.

However, in Muslim family status the male child is traditionally elevated, which tends to give them an overweening sense of their own importance. Islam also teaches that decent women adhere to a strict code of modesty and women who flaunt their bodies are whores. Put these together and we can well imagine what courses through testosterone-charged Muslim youths’ minds of when they hit the sensual abandon of the Aussie beach scene.

So, they hang out in groups for safety, as does any other cultural group. But when they dress in an aggressive style and flaunt attitude, as young men the world over can do, it makes for an intimidating experience to Anglo girls more used to an oblique, laid-back approach. No wonder these ‘little kings’ get the flick, defend their honour by a bit of name-calling. And tit goes for tat, and soon you’ve got a few idiots on both sides shaping up to each other, the boys charged with keeping order on the beach get involved and get bashed for their efforts, then you get the escalation by a few more hot heads, and then the media and pollies gets hold of it, and it all goes haywire!!! Aaagggghhh! Just calm down! Everyone!

Commentary on Other Issues

On the scare email forward warning the child murderers of James Bulger were to be relocated to Australia

The James Bulger murder is, indeed, a horrific story. However, and I realise I'm treading a fine line here, we need to keep in mind a number of things and ask a few questions before we react to something so seemingly black and white.

1) Both the victim and perpetrators were children. The boys who did this horrible thing were not at an age where any child psychologist would say they were in full possession of all necessary and sufficiently mature cognitive skills to be held fully responsible. That's why we have different laws for adults and children, and unless you want to revert to more barbaric times, and start punishing children and adults in the same courts and by the same laws, we have to accept that there are some very big differences that need to be accounted for.

2) As children at the time of incarceration, they would have been subject to a battery of tests and, since they were unique, in that there being very few child murderers, and children are so much more malleable than adults, there would be a time of release set in their sentences. As a consequence of these factors, the authorities would have been at some pains to implement a concentrated and targeted rehabilitation program.

3) We also know that incarceration, itself, causes psychological damage, and, for children in such an extended and isolated situation, they would be unable to develop suitable social skills to equip them for their pending release - and unless we intend to put them away for their entire lives, they will be released at some time. Their guardians would be in the best situation to identify a point where, if they were still going to be able to adapt to normal life, they would need to be released, before they reached a stage where they would never be able to live normally in society again. This would have been the advice informing that judge's decision. We are not in full possession of the facts.

4) We normally hold parents responsible for their children, so why were these boys at loose ends, and so lacking in moral control that they were able to do this? What had their parents taught, or not taught them. Why were there no indicators of this potential that were picked up in advance of this final act?

5) And on a larger scale, we must also hold society responsible for our children. These boys did not perpetrate this monstrosity by themselves, but were responding to a complex, confusing, and morally subverted society from which they get a barrage of mixed messages. Why do we allow children to be exposed to so much monstrosity in the media? Why, indeed, do we allow so much awfulness in the media at all?

6) If it is a matter of ensuring that not just one life, but three, are not lost, we must accept the expert's advice that these boys have had sufficient vengeance implemented and are ready to attempt to live a normal life. That's what we educate and pay people to become child psychologists and judges for - to be experts. We, none of us are experts in this matter, so how can we form such an extreme opinion and set out to persecute and prosecute what we don't have the full information or training to understand?

18.06.09

It should be evident to even the most anthropcentred that humans have exceeded a critical mass for any viable equilibrium with the rest of the Life on this planet. That Peter Costello actually urged Australians to breed up, using specious statistics to support his argument, and set up an indiscriminate system whereby adolescents traded babies for technology, should put him in the loony bin of our history, not lauded as the 'best treasurer' as some brotherly idiots have been doing. The tragedy of this is that, people like myself who have long been aware of this problem and chosen to limit their breeding have simply made way for those of lesser consciousness to proliferate.