Over It

I’ve been watching, with increasing dismay, the performance of our parliamentarians and their camp followers (the mainstream media) on the asylum-seeker issue.

Recently a couple of boats have foundered, and many people have drowned. This is intolerable, and the endless loops of body bags and floating corpses in life jackets have driven home the point.

I’m a little confused by the current hype, given that the greatest death toll involving asylum seekers, that of SIEV X on October 22, 2001 drew very little attention in the local media at the time.

It was reported, but there was nowhere near the saturation coverage we’re seeing now.

Best estimates had 353 people, including 146 children, 142 women and 65 men drowning in that incident, which occurred incidentally in the days of offshore processing and TPVs.

I don’t recall tears in parliament over that. Come to think of it, I don’t recall tears in parliament over the more than 400 diggers killed in Vietnam. But that’s another story.

This is not to dismiss the tragic nature of these most recent drownings, but simply to point out the confected nature of the media coverage. It is every bit as contrived as the posturing on the floor of both houses today.

At least the Greens, despite all the crap directed at them, have a set of principles on this issue which don’t change to suit the current media meme.

This is a complex and vexatious problem, but I wonder whether stripping it down to its basics might shed some light.

The basic facts are not complicated.

There are thousands of refugees holed up in Indonesia and Malaysia. If they were to follow the UNCHR processes they could expect to wait up to seventy years or more to get to Australia using officially sanctioned means. Arrivals coming this way using official channels have been averaging 60 per year from each country. I doubt too many are prepared to wait for this process to reach its conclusion.

They want to come to Australia, of course. Why wouldn’t they? We are a country that respects human rights as indicated by our support of UNHCR processes.

There is a well-organised cohort of people smugglers who, for a price, will offer them passage to Australia on dodgy boats.  Some don’t make it, and drown on the way. They’re desperate, and will continue to take the risk whilst ever this trade continues.

We have international obligations under the UNHCR conventions. All our major political parties recognise these conventions, and use them (when it suits) to justify their policies.

Put simply, the refugees are stuck in countries not too far to our North. They have a right under conventions we recognise to seek asylum here. We could take this population out of the official camps, process them in the host countries, and fly them to Australia more or less overnight.

They would have no need to pay people smugglers. The so-called business model would fall in a heap.

This assumes, of course, that we really do welcome refugees. A quick read of any of the right wing blogs reveals of course, a rich vein of racist xenophobia which continues to hold our politicians in thrall since wee Johnny used it to help him win an election.

The same xenophobia existed in the days of the Vietnamese boat people, but back then we had politicians with backbone who offered leadership, so we processed them and brought them here anyway.

I witnessed this xenophobia first hand when driving a busload of Vietnamese kids to a cinema in Enoggera in 1976. A driver pulled up whilst they were getting out of the bus at the cinema and proceeded to call them “dirty Noggie c**ts”. Fortunately, their English wasn’t good enough to get the full gist, but they knew he was hostile.

The point of this story is that a proportion of these cretins will always exist, but they’re best ignored. You don’t (as Howard did) exploit their ignorance for political advantage.   

On the whole, the Vietnamese have become great citizens. Have you looked at the national registrar of medicos lately and seen how many Dr Nguyens are listed?

So we could solve the “problem” of boat people drowning quickly and easily. But I wonder if the “problem” has more to do with our attitude towards refugees than it has to do with lives at risk.

We take a tiny proportion of international refugees in this country. We rank 91^st (per 1USD per capita) on the list. The Yanks take more refugees (border hoppers) in a weekend than we do in a year.

There is an issue of newly-arrived refugees concentrating in ghettos, usually in the poorer sectors of our major cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne. This is unfortunate, and it works against assimilation, and scares the bejesus out of the locals.

There is a solution to this. Remember the Australia Card? Ignore the bleatings of the Libertarians, introduce it, make it compulsory for everyone to carry, and pass legislation that sets up immigration zones. Acceptance of citizenship could be made conditional on residence in one of these zones.

Sounds a bit “big-brother”? Perhaps, but I doubt it’s any more totalitarian than offshore processing.

International Teachers' Day

My sister (a teacher) sent me this.

It's American, but relevant here.

Fighting to the Finish

Time for a book review. I haven’t done one for yonks.

The book is Fighting to the Finish by Ashley Elkins and Ian McNeill. McNeill died in 1998, and his co-author completed the work, although McNeill had already been honoured with the Templer medal for To Long Tan.

It’s not the sort of book you’d read for entertainment, but if you’re after a defining account of the ground war for the Australians from 1968 until 1975, this is the best you’ll get. If you want to restrict your reading about Vietnam to two books, this one, and Paul Ham’s Vietnam, the Australian War would cover it.,

It’s structured generally as a chronology, but there are subheadings that deal in detail with aspects of the conflict – most of them fascinating diversions into detail.

Despite being written as a military history, it’s not so technical that it ever becomes dense. Perhaps my personal involvement contributed but I found it riveting, and I read it in about three days. Given it’s about 1000 pages, that’s noteworthy.

It pulls no punches, particularly in its descriptions of the conflict between the then government and the military. The overall impression is of political decisions being made with absolutely no consideration for the interests of the military, and no heed taken of their concerns.

This was obviously the case both in terms of how we were involved in the first place, but some of the shenanigans that went on around the Australian withdrawal are breathtaking.

In fact, the government of the day indulged in shenanigans both on the way into Vietnam, and on the way out again -

Some quotes –

On 29 April 1965, when Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced his government's

decision to commit the first battalion of Australian combat troops to South Vietnam,

he said this was in response to a request from the South Vietnamese Government.

Questioning of this basis for the commitment had begun well before the war ended.

June 1971, the New York Times published leaked extracts from a secret US Defense

Department study of American involvement in Indochina that became known as the

Pentagon Papers. Australian newspapers picked up the story, focusing on evidence

the reports that suggested the supposed request from South Vietnam in 1965 was

‘manufactured' and that the Menzies government had deceived the Australian people. (p689)

So we went in on a lie.

And on the withdrawal -

On 18 August, Prime Minister McMahon announced his government's decision

withdraw the task force from Vietnam." Hanoi's plans to overrun the Republic

Vietnam had been 'frustrated', McMahon assured parliament, and 'changing and

improving circumstances' now allowed 'all remaining Australian combat forces' to

return to Australia. The enemy threat remained in Phuoc Tuy, he conceded, and

'some setbacks may yet occur'; but the enemy had 'largely lost the initiative' and

South Vietnamese 'territorial forces should be able to handle the likely contingencies'.

Most Australian combat troops would be home by Christmas; stores and equipment

would follow early in 1972. 'In compensation, the government pledged A$25 million

military and civil aid to South Vietnam over the next three years. There were also

plans to retain some military training and advisory elements, such as instructors in

Jungle Warfare Training Centre.

This was contrary to the army's advice against leaving an Australian residual force,

which could not be adequately protected and might become a prime target for the

enemy. In an echo of the army's initial 'one out, all out' policy, Major General Graham,

Deputy CGS, had earlier signalled Dunstan in Saigon: 'It will be in best interests of

army to make a clean break'.  

(p 603)

And we went out on a lie - but the enemy had 'largely lost the initiative' and

South Vietnamese 'territorial forces should be able to handle the likely contingencies' - was BS and the government knew it, but the tide of public opinion had turned against the commitment, and the Coalition was covering its backside.

And the way it was done was against the advice of the military.

There’s also a lot of interesting background about the tensions between the American military hierarchy and our own. Generally, various task force commanders were continually at odds with the Americans on how the war should be fought.

Fortunately for the sixty thousand or so Australians involved, our commanders usually prevailed.

That's me standing on the far right  - looking pissed off as usual.

So I’d recommend it. Having said that, you have to shell out $100 to buy it. Maybe it’s one of those books best borrowed from a library.

I had to buy it of course – I appear in two pictures – both taken by that genius of photography, Denis Gibbons.

I'm to the right of Gibbo, right hand under chin. That's my rifle to the left with the sheep counter taped to the stock. An hour later, Charlie Tilmouth (standing third from right with M60 rounds around his neck) was seriously wounded and medivaced - later RTA.

Anyway, that’s my excuse for buying it.

It's available on-line from the AWM.

Update -  I've just noticed an error in the caption to the bottom pic. It should read "5 platoon, B company" not "5 platoon, D company".

Pollies Promises

We’ve heard plenty about the alleged lying of our current Prime Minister.

In fact, she’s been vilified to the point where it’s been brought to the attention of the media authority.

Fair enough. She did promise there wouldn’t been a price on carbon imposed by her government. The fact that her crystal ball had a software glitch, leaving her unable to forecast the wash-up in the reps is somehow ignored.

The other inconveniently ignored fact is that you’d presume that Green voters combined with Labor voters at the time of the election would have largely supported a price on carbon, and these two cohorts with the independents united to put her in power.

It's called democracy, I believe.

The Raving Right has never been much good at dealing with more than one fact at a time, so I guess their collective inability to understand these complexities is unsurprising.

Perhaps they will be able to follow something a little less complex.

I refer to promises made by the current LNP government in Queensland. I live here, so feel qualified to comment.

Prior to the election, Newman made many promises. Let’s look at just two of them.

The first deals with vehicle registrations. I’ll quote –

A CanDo LNP Government will save families $15-20 a year by freezing family car registration fees for the first term of an LNP government.

Wow – now that’s a great promise. Trouble is, if you look at the paperwork I received yesterday and compare it with last years’ rego (under that heinous Labor government) you’ll find that instead of saving $15 - $20 as promised, I’ll actually be paying $3 more.  Now that's not a lot - but unless in my dotage I've lost all mathematical ability, "more" is not "less". It's certainly not the $20 less promised.

Last years' bill under Labor.

This years' under the LNP. Freeze? What freeze?

Surely there must be some kind of mistake. I know – I’ll subtract $20 from the fee and send the balance. If they complain, I’ll just ask them to go and talk to Campbell.

He promised after all. It looks like CanDo’s freeze has melted already.

Then there’s the issue of public servants.

Here’s another promise –

An LNP Government will also commit to no forced redundancies.
Restructuring will be managed through natural attrition, career advancement and training opportunities.
We will always find a job within the public sector for hardworking public servants to contribute to a better Queensland. That's why an LNP Government will protect and revitalise front line service roles in conjunction with unions and manage the overall growth in the entire public service.

This from yesterday’s FOTN* -

But Mr Newman, who campaigned ahead of the March 24 election on a platform of no forced redundancies in the public service, refused to confirm that full-time staff faced the axe.

It gets confusing. Who should you believe? CanDo before the election or CanDo after the election?

I’m offering a free calendar to the reader submitting the best short and sharp description of Newman’s election promises. Something from the same genre as “Juliar” would do nicely.

I've bookmarked the LNP's promises page. Actually I'm surprised it's still there. A screen shot is probably a good idea.



* The Australian - The Fart of the Nation.

Time to Move On

In September last year, a local opinionista* was found to have contravened section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

OK – big deal. A reasonable person would assume that this opinionista would have learned something by the experience, and moved on.

After all, there are hundreds of journalists publishing every day in this country, and they seem to manage, without too much trouble, to stay on the right side of the RDA.

They seem able, most of the time, to get the basic facts straight. This was not the case in the offending articles.

This opinionista might have perhaps considered the mature and responsible behaviour of issuing a personal apology (whether compelled to do so or otherwise), and making it clear to those maligned that a mistake was made. Displaying a little humility and regret would also have been becoming.

In this case, however, we’re not dealing with “reasonable”. Instead, we’ve seen behaviour which would be par for the course in kindergartens across the country. I say kindergartens advisedly. By the time most kids are into pre-school, they’ve outgrown tantrums.

This person has posted ad nauseum about what he calls “free speech” since Bromberg’s judgement.

In fact the rate of posts about this topic (free speech) has risen exponentially since the Finkelstein Report in this country and the Leveson Inquiry in the UK. These posts are written as if the experience of being found in breach of the RDA somehow endows an expertise not available to those who are responsible enough to print accurate and honest reports.

Perhaps we should look to the serial rapists of the world to advise us on the issue of sexual violence?

If it wasn’t so disgraceful it would have a funny side. A sense of humour, however, is not a virtue displayed by this person. This virtue, of course, is rarely seen in those who take themselves so seriously as to be easily offended if any personal criticism is made. This is probably not an ideal characteristic in someone who makes a living out of packaging hate and vilification, and retailing it as opinion.

The thing about heat and kitchen comes to mind. And whilst we’re into cliché, there’s that other one about pot and kettle.

This brings me to a few examples of hypocrisy that (through the magic of the screen shot) I’ve preserved, dear reader, for your edification.

This first one relates to the recently-published “Am I Black Enough For You” by Anita Heiss, one of the defendants in the September 2011 case. The opinionista was waxing lyrical about Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu’s music.

The actual text of my post, broken by the link, is “Is Gurrumul black enough for you, Andrew?”
I thought that given his previous views on what he regards as “real” aborigines, he’d care to comment on Gurrumul’s authenticity. He’d had lots to say on the topic in the past.

Not on your Nelly – my comment was wiped. Now was it fear of further litigation? Hard to see how – all he had to say was “yes”.

Maybe the link was the problem. How embarrassing it would be if someone actually bought it and read it. Visions of book-burning emerge…..

Then there was this -

Perhaps this one was a bit strong. “Bloody disgrace” might cause offence to those of delicate disposition. But we’re talking here about someone who will use all sorts of name-calling and snide references to vilify, so I thought he’d be OK with it.

Perhaps I’m just a bit too direct.

And this -

Now this time my comment was directed towards another commentator (“Big Ted”). Big Ted is regularly abused by the bleating bigots who inhabit this blog in the same way as beetles thrive in cow dung, so obviously agreeing with him might get these same bigots offside.

That is obviously an unacceptable risk.

Nothing is sacred here – not even religion. See what happened when I posted a fairly harmless remark about Cardinal George Pell -

 

After all, Pell came down on our local Bishop like a ton of bricks. His crime? He said something that the Vatican disagreed with.

You can't tell me that the Herald Sun was worried about litigation from George Pell.

Now what was our mate saying about free speech?

* A more accurate description than "columnist" or "journalist".

Education

Both my parents were teachers, my bride is a brailler and teacher of the blind, and one of my sisters teaches music.

I have a commitment, therefore, to education, and to its function in society.

Hopefully, I've learnt something about the activity, having been up to my ears in it since 1968. That's 44 years and counting.

As a result, I've developed a set of beliefs about learning and teaching based on what I've seen and done since 1968.

The most fundamental of these understandings is that teaching is about change, initially in individuals, and as a consequence in society. I belong to the group of teachers that believes that beyond passing on society's beliefs and mores, a teacher has a role in making the world a better place by encouraging students to reflect on what they see, and if they believe it can be improved, they should set out to do so.

Good teaching is essentially subversive, something that becomes clearly evident whenever totalitarians seek and gain power. Teachers are usually the first to be controlled or eliminated. 

Obviously, working with disabled kids since 1970, has convinced me that for those disadvantaged through impairment, education is one way of removing barriers to best quality of life.

Hence, I've always worked hard to make kids with disabilities as independent as possible. Ultimately, the amount of real independence they develop is directly proportional to later quality of life, defined as power to make and shape their own lives. The less they have to rely on others, the better their lives.

Which brings me to the image above. The difference with kids with disabilities is that you're teaching basic skills as well as the capacity to be critical. The sequence (skills first) is vital.

Read it carefully.

I reckon Chris Hedges has nailed it.

iLead iTeach iLearn

I’ve just returned from a conference of special educators. Once upon a time, before I “retired” attending conferences was a fairly regular experience.

Not any more.

This is the first professional conference I’ve been to in about five years. I’ve attended training sessions, simply to stay up to date – mostly with technology.

Practically everything once dealt with by the bureaucracy is now “Do it yourself” – using the IT support that underpins most routine processes.

It will be interesting to see how well this proceeds after 30^th June, when the new state government has terminated the contracts of all the IT support staff.

But I digress…

This one was different, and to be honest I shelled out the hefty registration fee because I was glad of the opportunity to meet up with old colleagues, and spend a bit of time with like-minded people. Most of them continue to be passionate about their work, and given the barriers presented by the fading of the social justice agenda (some of it as a result of the political drift to the Right), they need real guts and determination to stay on the job.

This conference was an assembly of leaders (principals and heads of special education services), so for me it was a chance to renew some collegiate associations. It was gratifying to note many teachers that I have mentored down through the years are now principals.

My parents were both teachers, and I ran into one forty plus bloke who remembered being taught (in year 2) by my mum in the early sixties. He remembered her very clearly, described her as the most compassionate person he ever encountered, and told this yarn to illustrate.

Apparently the year 1 and 2 kids in my mum’s class used to have a “sleepy time” for about half an hour at the end of the school day.

This doesn’t happen these days, but looking back on it, it probably wasn’t a bad practice. One afternoon, one of the kids (indigenous, and from a family that was doing it tough) went completely to sleep. At bell time (3pm) mum didn’t wake him, but let all the others out whilst he slept on.

When he did wake up, he was disoriented and upset, so mum took him home with my two younger sisters, ran him a hot bath, gave him a feed, and drove him back to his home with some clean clothes on. This was straightforward, given that the school residence where my family lived was next door to the school.

I was innocent of this, being at boarding school at the time, but when I checked with my sisters, they remembered it.

These days, of course, acting that way out of basic compassion would be unthinkable.

It rings true, because I remember mum doing something similar when I was about six or seven, although on this earlier occasion, she sent one little aboriginal lad home wearing my clothes. I was not impressed.

He was right about my mother. She couldn’t bear not helping if she saw someone in difficulty. Sometimes it got her into trouble.

I must be getting on. I was the oldest person at the conference, and there were only four principals in the room of my generation, who had come through the specialist training that I had.

The scary thing is that no-one is being trained in these specialist areas these days. The organisation is slowly losing its collective memory.

Not a hell of a lot has changed in our system. There are still issues in education involving the on-going clash between politics and pragmatics.

I can attend these things now with a wonderful lightness of being – I’m not a principal anymore, and can be empathetic without having to deal with the day to day challenges of incumbency.

As someone said on the last day – the work these people do with disabled kids is vital. You can't (for example) have an 85% success rate at crossing the road.

I salute them.