Shorter Phil Weiss on Aussie journalist Antony Loewenstein’s latest article published in Haaretz….
I’m like Michelle Obama today, proud to be a Jew for once! Why? Aussie journalist Antony Loewenstein has a beautiful piece in Haaretz commending newly-elected Australian P.M. Kevin Rudd for his apology to the Aboriginals for the terrors done to the indigenous Australian population when children were forcibly removed from their families in the 50s and 60s–the “lost generation”. Lots of Australian Jews have praised Rudd’s action. And of course Loewenstein makes the connection to the Australian Jewish response to the Nakba of ‘48, when Palestine was cleansed of 750,000 Palestinians, and the continuing dispossession of the West Bank.
In fact we will say sorry three times…
Will that suffice ?
And “no” those aren’t crocodile tears…
Now will you go away ? Like get over it,sure whole generations were fucked over but…
And besides,family is “over rated” anyhow…
Who needs family when you can be institutionalized.Nothing like a good beating,or a bit of sodomy every once in awhile,does a kid good…
They would descend on Aboriginal communities, separate the light-skinned children from those with a darker complexion, and then take them away.
Histories of the period recall how wire cages were sometimes used with spring doors. Children would be tempted in by a trail of sweets.
Under the twisted logic of the time, the idea was to “civilise” these young Aboriginal children, to inculcate them with European values. Another early aim, which stemmed from the doctrine of eugenics, was to “breed out their colour”.
Kinda gives the Pied Piper tale,a whole new meaning….
Sorry is a word, it’s just a hollow word
Particularly when that sorry is not backed up by any concrete steps to mitigate or put right the consequences.
Words are cheap,actions speak loudest.
So reads Glenn Greewald’s latest post ,in regards to the electoral defeat of Australian PM John Howard.And not just a defeat but a humiliating defeat.Howard did not endear himself to Americans when he offered his opinions on Obama…
If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for [Barack] Obama, but also for the Democrats.
I second the good riddance sentiment.
Out of solidarity with the Aboriginal Peoples of Australia.
Perhaps now the new Labor government will show more respect for the fundamental Human Rights of Australia’s indigenous peoples. And quickly set in motion legislation that would null & void the paternalistic/racist policies enacted by the Howard government.
Filed under: APEC, Australia, Canada, Climate Change, Funny Funny, Harper, Neo-Cons, Politics
Wanna-be’s anyhow.Had to chuckle when I seen this group picture embarrassment,at the 15th summit of pan-Pacific leaders being held in Australia.
Rest assured citizens corporations your leaders employee’s are writhing in confussion.
On the Howard government’s recent take over of indigenous communities in the Northern Territory.
Which is being seen as an attempt at further encroachment on what little land,and control indigenous peoples have left over their lives.
“We in the Northern Territory are about to be dispossessed of everything, everything that we’ve got left from the original dispossession of our land and lives.
Aboriginal leaders have also called for indigenous peoples to come together to fight for what rightfully belongs to them.
“I appeal to you to stand beside us to fight the rottenness that is … the sickness of this government setting out to simply take away what’s rightfully ours.”
