Watch Israel's demonisation of Hamas get ever more hysterical as they try to justify their genocide of the Palestinian people.
roslyn ross - small stones and other poems
Sunday, December 3, 2023
To commit genocide we must first demonise the enemy.
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Palestine aches
The dead have silent teeth and empty throats,
they have no voice with which to speak, to cry
of all the horrors they have seen and been and
known; to call for justice, freedom from the
power of those who kill to claim what is not
theirs, the land of others, who suffocate children
in waves of dust and shredded metal moments,
where blood and tears and destiny are driven
deep into the waiting earth; dressing broken
fragments of their lives, their souls, their
hearts, that costuming of evil which war does
primp and posture into place, for those who
are the victims, for those who cannot speak,
and for whom the only hope can be for others,
that their throats are not empty, their teeth
are not silent, their words are not crushed
beneath the boot of evil and injustice and
military might, and that in the darkened
quietness of this awful, suppurating wound,
their only hope is that the voices of the living
will be speaking out for those who lie strewn,
fleshed like scattered crops, in that harvest
which bleeds and grieves and slowly seeds
the fields of future justice in aching Palestine.
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
THE MYTHS WHICH DAMN US ALL
Logic and reason are mist against the stone of ideology and
that is the reality. Humans are more reluctant to give up dreams than realities
and too many of the stories of our aboriginal stone-age history, repeated today
are largely fantasy and have been for half a century.
The public has been immersed in the lies, now mythology,
since the 67 Referendum when the Yes case used outright lies to win the day.
The argument, and it was admitted at the time these were untruths, was that
Australians would not be able to understand what the Referendum was about - in
essence to transfer responsibility from State Governments to Federal for
aborigines who remained living in tribal/clan systems - and the means justified
the end. The means were the lies that aborigines were not citizens, did not
have the vote, were not counted in the census and had been classed as Flora and
Fauna, so not even human.
A very good paper was
written by Helen Irving, Sydney University, in 2015, Indigenous Recognition and
Constitutional Myths to counter this misinformation. Irving supports
constitutional recognition and in general takes the recent academic view of
aboriginal history, but, she clearly felt moved to correct the myths told
during the 67 Referendum which too many still believe. Helen Irving was appointed Professor Emerita
at Sydney Law School in 2021. Her research includes Australian and United
States constitutional law and history; constitutional citizenship; comparative
constitutional design and gender; the use of history in constitutional
interpretation, and models of judicial review.
Unfortunately, as has been said, a lie repeated often
enough becomes a 'truth' and that is what has happened since 1967. And so,
today, most people, including those who should know better like teachers,
school principals and academics, believe the lies.
The mist of reason does not make a dent against the stone
edifice of disinformation masquerading as gloriously dressed mythology.
1. That Australians without aboriginal ancestry owe recognition and
compensation to Australians with aboriginal ancestry because the British
colonised this land more than two centuries ago.
This ignores the fact that everywhere on earth has been colonised as humans
migrated around the globe and that those many different peoples here in 1788,
called Aborigines by the British, had also colonised the land in different
waves of migration. Why is colonisation by stone-age hunter-gatherers, called
Aborigines, acceptable and colonisation by Anglo-Europeans is not? The only
reason there is an issue today is that the British were more enlightened than
stone-age hunter-gatherers and they did not wipe out those they found here, but
instead sought to preserve and protect them.
2. That having Aboriginal ancestry, no matter how small and for most who
register as Indigenous it is minimal and for some non-existent, gives one
greater rights to this land and greater connection to the land including a
spiritual link which no human without aboriginal ancestry can possess.
This ignores the fact that all humans were once stone-age hunter-gatherers and
connected to the land in order to survive. It also ignores the fact that no-one
has lived a true stone-age hunter-gatherer life in Australia for nearly two
centuries. When survival depends on what the land does and provides, then of
course the connection is powerful and we see this in farmers who are deeply
connected to their land because they depend upon it for survival.
And it ignores the fact that if there were some spiritual links to the land and
some unique connection then Aboriginal communities would be other than what
they are – cesspits of filth and environmental vandalism and degradation.
3. That having Aboriginal ancestry, no matter how small, means the rest of
society should respect and honour those with it, particularly anyone over the
age of fifty.
Ignoring the fact that respect is earned and there was nothing to respect in
the stone-age hunter-gatherer lives found here in 1788 and there is nothing to
respect in the remnants of what is called traditional life, but which is a
dysfunctional Aboriginal/Anglo European hybrid found in Aboriginal communities.
There are of course many Australians with Aboriginal ancestry whose efforts are
deserving of respect but that is because it has been earned. If we were to
respect people from the past then surely, we would have even greater respect
for the settlers who created this modern nation out of nothing?
4. That aboriginality and its myths, traditions and cultures can be invented
without any substance in facts and that Australians must accept it all without
question. For example, the British practice of children calling adults who were
not family members, Uncle or Auntie, has now been co-opted by the aboriginal
brigade for any man or woman with some aboriginal ancestry who does or says
anything. This honorific has no source in any of the hundreds of different Aboriginal
clan traditions and is insulting because adults are being asked to use the
terms. These people are not our Auntie or Uncle and in fact they are not even
Auntie or Uncle to most Australians with aboriginal ancestry given the rigidity
still of tribal/clan divides.
5. That nothing negative can ever be said about the brutal reality, well documented,
of stone-age hunter-gatherer aboriginal lives where topics like cannibalism,
infanticide, child marriage, violence toward women are censored and condemned
and where even academics rewrite history to pretend that the world of stone-age
Australia was a Utopia destroyed by colonialism.
6. That reconciliation is needed between Australians with Aboriginal ancestry,
around 900,000, most of them minimal in such ancestry, and those without it,
more than 25 million Australians.
This ignores the fact that the reason why so many are more
Anglo European than they are aboriginal is because we have had high levels of
intermarriage for more than two centuries. Indeed, today, most Australians with
aboriginal ancestry are in mixed marriages. There is no greater reconciliation
and acceptance than intermarriage and no greater testament to the lack of
racism in most Australians over centuries.
7. That Australians with Aboriginal ancestry are owed ‘rent’ because the
settlers created this nation on land where their ancestors lived. Ignoring the
fact that the gift of this modern democracy, one of the best places in the
world to live, is something for which they should be grateful.
8. That Australians without Aboriginal ancestry are to blame for any
dysfunction in Aboriginal communities because it would never have happened if
they had not been colonised.
Ignoring the fact that most Australians with Aboriginal ancestry are doing fine
with the same sorts of lives and outcomes as anyone else, sometimes better, and
that those struggling are generally in communities which, unlike the majority,
are not assimilated into the modern world but remain trapped in backward and
violent tribal/clan systems. Most people talk about indigenous Australians as
if they were one with the same sorts of lives and outcomes when of course they
are not. The Linda Burney, Stan Grant, Ken Wyatt, Lidia Thorpe brigade, to name
just a few of many, have nothing in common with the few who continue to
struggle.
It also ignores the fact that all humans are descended from the persecuted,
abused, traumatised and colonised and most do not live lives of dysfunction
today because of ancestral suffering. If the claims of inter-generational
trauma had any substance, then everyone would suffer from it, particularly
those with some Aboriginal ancestry and they do not.
9. That Aboriginal tribal beliefs, practices, lore should be supported and
encouraged regardless of how violent and backward they might be.
Ignoring the fact that civil law exists to protect all of us and goes beyond
tribe, clan, community or culture for that very reason. Which stone-age
practices should be restored? Cannibalism, child marriage, infanticide, women
as slaves, brutal initiation practices to boys and girls which often killed
them or left them sterile?
10. That longevity of ancestry should give one greater rights as a citizen and
greater power over Government.
This is the premise of the voice which wants to single out Australians with Aboriginal
ancestry for greater rights and power. Ignoring the fact that our democratic
systems have been hard won and evolved in order that tribal systems could be
discarded and every citizen would be treated equally as a citizen and where we
all had the same voice, the vote. To give one group more voice is to betray our
democracy.
These lies have become mythology over the past few decades and the only
positive thing about the voice is that it is making more people question them
and this racist division of our nation which has been stealing its way into
power for too long. Never underestimate the power of a myth for it is a lie
dressed in appealing form and too easily mistaken as a truth.
Monday, July 17, 2023
Monday, June 26, 2023
The sex that dare not speak its name
Friday, June 23, 2023
CERTAINTY
For
certainty was never born
And
never lived, to die;
For
certainty is phantom-
The
world's best and greatest lie!
So know
it for illusion
And call
it by its name,
For
certainty can never rid
You, or
life, of pain.
It's
nothing and it knows it,
It
answers to your call,
But has
no truth in being,
Illusion
… that is all!
Certainty,
that shadowed thing,
A light
both brief and clear,
It
flashes, teases, disappears
And
promises to be
A
presence, sure and lasting,
A solid
place to be,
And then
it cries 'illusion'
Destroys
the hope of dream.
It
dresses ever prettily,
It
primps, and pouts with glee
It
dances on my hopes and then
It skips
away from me.
This
darkling, fairy being
Is no
more certain now,
Will no
more keep its promise
Than
life allowed it should.
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
WHEN WE DON’T KNOW WHAT WE DON’T KNOW
If one thing is
certain in terms of the voice, most Australians do not really understand what
it means, how it will work and how it will be set up. You could be forgiven for
thinking that neither do those promoting a Yes vote. The reason for that is
because the Government which is pushing the voice has not explained in clear
and coherent detail such critical factors.
When has trust me, I’m from the Government ever worked? Who would buy
anything on the basis of, don’t you worry about how it’s going to work?
Neither is the Government presenting Yes and No positions as it is required to
do under regulations pertaining to a Referendum.
Section 11 of the Act requires the Australian Electoral
Commission (AEC) to distribute a pamphlet with a written argument for and
against the passage of the referendum. This pamphlet should be received by each
household with an enrolled elector not later than 14 days before polling day.
These written arguments (no more than 2,000 words each) are to be authorised by
a majority of parliamentary members who voted for or against the Referendum
Bill, respectively.
Now, clearly the
Government still has time to create and distribute said pamphlet, after
battering Australians with the guilt-waddy for months, and playing the
emotional card which was used, along with a lot of lies, now called myths, to win the 1967 Referendum. Advertisements promoting a Yes vote are now
being used by the Federal Government. Then again, the Act is hardly what it
once was, where previously, “it allowed the Commonwealth to only spend money in
relation to preparing and distributing the pamphlets and prohibits any
Government-funded referendum education campaign or advertising. However, in
1999 the Government legislated to allow additional expenditure, such as for
advertising, in relation to that specific referendum, and the recent history of
public funding of referendum campaigns has been relatively ad hoc.”
So, the public is presented with a pro-Yes campaign from the Federal Government
in the months leading up to the Referendum, which hardly seems right, let alone
fair. And that leads most people to rely on what the media offers. Unfortunately,
in the realm of mainstream media, with some noble exceptions, there is more
promoting a Yes vote than making a case for a No vote.
And given the lack of clarity on the voice and its structure, function and powers,
there is little basis for the average Australian to gain perspective. From what
is presented we have a suggested position that the voice is going to resolve
the problems in aboriginal communities, which it seems dozens if not hundreds
of groups and consultations, billions of dollars and decades of time and
attention have failed to do.
How many live in such communities? A small minority.
Based on projections for 2022, among Indigenous Australians:
38% (344,800) live in Major cities. 44% (395,900) live in Inner and outer
regional areas. 17% (155,600) live in Remote and very remote areas combined
(Figure 2, ABS 2019b).
So, a small minority
live in the troubled communities and the guess of how many are fully Aboriginal
in ancestry is around 1%. The data is hard to find because one presumes in this
age it is a no-no to enquire into such ancestry percentages, given the prevailing
view that Aboriginality is something spiritual and there is no relevance
between 100% of such spiritual ancestry or less than 1%.
But, the most common presenting position suggests that Australians owe those
with Aboriginal ancestry special treatment because, they have been here a very
long time, 40,000 years, pick a figure onwards and upwards. Or rather, they
believe they can trace back their ancestry furthest and that makes them unique
and deserving of special treatment and what amounts to a louder and extra voice
and in essence, their own chamber in Parliament and an additional vote.
How is any of that fair, constitutional, democratic or not racist? The
basic premise with longevity ancestry is that the further back someone can
trace some of their ancestry, the superior they are as a citizen, i.e. they
deserve special rights. This means that someone with 100% Aboriginal ancestry
is top of the ranking, although we don’t actually know if any of those here in
1788 were descended from the first Homo Sapiens to arrive on this land, and
someone who became a citizen last week is bottom. None of that is democratic
and all of it is an insult to Australians in general and migrants in
particular.
We also have the insanity that someone like Senator Jacinta Price, if the voice
gets up, is a superior citizen along with her mother and her sons, and her
father and husband are inferior citizens, despite the fact they all live the
same sorts of lives. Would a Yes vote
mean that in divorce situations the parent with some Aboriginal ancestry gets
greater rights over any children? It could, because nothing has been spelled
out. And it is an important question because most Australians with aboriginal
ancestry are in mixed marriages. In fact, we have more than two centuries of
intermarriage which is why most Australians with Aboriginal ancestry are more
Anglo-European than anything else. This fact alone is a testament to the lack
of racism in Australia.
Analysis of the 2006 census reveals that 52% of Aboriginal men and 55% of
Aboriginal women were married to non-Aboriginal Australians. In Australia's
larger east coast cities, the intermarriage rate was well above 70%; in Sydney,
as many as nine out of 10 university-educated Aborigines had a non-indigenous
partner.
But, with the shocking dysfunction and violence in Aboriginal communities, that
position also raises the question, since the entire group is deemed to be in
need of this voice, of whether or not any amount of Aboriginal ancestry
predisposes to serious dysfunction or inferior function at best. We know that
is not the case because the majority of Australians with aboriginal ancestry,
now numbering around 900,000 because we allow people to register as ‘native’
even with truly trivial amounts of Aboriginal ancestry, are doing fine. They
have the same sorts of lives and outcomes as other Australians, experience no
Gap and are as successful as the average and often more so. We see it in the
fact that with the inflated numbers for Aboriginality, those with such ancestry
make up around 3% of the population and yet are represented in State and Federal Parliaments at
nearly 5%. These are the minimals who are fully assimilated into the modern
world and broader community and who have been for generations in most cases.
They have absolutely nothing in common with those struggling in tribal/clan
communities for the simple and tragic fact, they are the least assimilated into
the modern world, and instead remain trapped in backward and violent aboriginal
tribal clan systems. This group of urban elites do not speak as one because
they are descended from different tribal/clan groups. In fact their only
capacity to speak as one is in English as Australians. Neither do they speak as
one in communities, riven as they are by familial and tribal/clan divisions. As
far as many in tribal communities are concerned, these Aborigine Lites are
whitefellas. Anyone who thinks that Linda Burnie, Marcia Langton, Ken Wyatt,
Lidia Thorpe or Noel Pearson live the same sorts of lives as those in
Aboriginal communities needs to think again.
So, we do not have one voice among those who have been elected to Parliament
despite them all having some Aboriginal ancestry. We do not have one voice in
each Aboriginal community and we certainly do not have one voice from all
communities, let alone from every single Australian who has registered
themselves as native. And yet we are being asked to change our constitution,
betray our democracy and introduce racism into our society by voting for a
voice which does not exist and which will never exist.
How could it? In 1788 there were between 350-500 different groups, most not
even big enough to be tribes, but instead, family clans, without a common
language and generally at war with each other. They were descended from waves
of migration across 40,000 years with the most recent thought to be the arrival
of colonists from southern India, who brought their native dog with them which
became the Dingo. Did those stone-age peoples eradicate anyone they found in
their path, apart perhaps from a few useful females? Probably, for that was the
way of it in the times. In a modern democracy 40,000 or 4,000 years are no more
important than 40 years or 4 weeks, for that is the nature of the system.
In Aboriginal communities the clans are still at war with each other and as
Noel Pearson recently demonstrated with his attack on Mick Gooda, there is infighting even with the elites. If
the urban Aborigine Lites are at war with each other what hope is there of a
voice even from this mob?
And there are many notable Australians with Aboriginal ancestry like Senator
Jacinta Price, Anthony Dillon and Warren Mundine who are firmly in the No camp.
There is no unity even among those who are well educated and highly successful
in Australian society. And yet we are being told that Australians with
aboriginal ancestry, codename indigenous, need to speak with one voice and this
needs to be written into our Constitution, a document which is meant to
represent each of us equally. It would not even represent Australians with
aboriginal ancestry equally because there is no unity and there is no one
voice. Never was, never will be.
Meanwhile, with nothing clarified or spelled out in terms of this voice, Australians can only sift through the
propaganda and snippets of information, apply common sense and try to avoid
making a serious error of judgement which our children and grandchildren will
inherit to their terrible cost.
On something as important as our Constitution and our democracy, ‘she’ll be
right mate, ’just doesn’t cut it. When you don’t know then vote NO.