The best bloody country.
14 Wednesday Dec 2011
Posted in Gerard Oosterman
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Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle %d
14 Wednesday Dec 2011
Posted in Gerard Oosterman
That prison for boys and their treatment follows on much the same as the treatment of Aboriginals, The Stolen Generation, orphanages run by nuns or priests and what to do with pregnant young girls and their babies. The mentality of the time which lasted up to the 70s was truly dreadful. It still hovers over a large proportion of the population regarding the ‘boat people’ but there are people openly fighting and complaining and doing stuff this time round.
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Yes, I find those sort of historical pieces astonishing. The treatment of boys at Tamworth still going on after Helvi and I had our kids., considering this was during Whitlam or was it Gorton, or McMahon? I suppose it was all in a delayed time warp of an earlier convict era. I am convinced that, when Howard rekindled the ‘children overboard’ that the ensuing xenophobia against anything foreign is even now being played out by earlier events. I mean, Tamworth was just one example. There was the importation of children from the UK, the taking away of children from aboriginals. The taking away of babies from single mothers. We have several friends who finally confided they too had babies outside marriage that were taken away.
Geez, in Holland that was done during the pre-war thirties but in the sixties and seventies sex was no big deal and babies in or out of wedlock were loved regardless. (or not)
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I don’t know when the Tamworth prison closed or changed but it was nothing to do with the Feds let alone Gough. I think it is correct to say that the UK kids were exported to Australia, not imported. Their appalling treatment began in the UK. So called authorities in Australia were often religious bodies delegated the ‘caring’ by the State governments. The system was not questioned, the kids had no voice or representative and of course they should all be grateful for their miserable treatment.
Not all single mothers got the raw end of the stick but you had to be very brave or have supportive parents (who were not roman catholic) to fight the ‘system’.
The Tamworth prison story comes to light now – pity it didn’t happen decades ago. But then Victoria still hanged people for murder through to 1966/67 (Ryan)..
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For me the message was rather simple; raise children with love and care because they will do the same to others when they are adults. Reap as you have sown. Perhaps there’s another message – the other side of the coin – that a government is no better or worse than a family – both can be dangerous and harmful for the young, innocent and powerless.
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Spot on, Emms!
No amount of love is enough love. No amount of care is enough care.
Our kids are our next govn’t.
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The best thing about Tamworth was I was born there. The second best thing was I left there.
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Yes, George, you are right, but…………. on the Drum there are many claiming it is…. “The Best country.”
I am more inclined to reflect on the Tamworths of this world etc before claiming anything the ‘best’. Even so, a country which produced the Acropolis would be somewhat better placed in anyone’s estimation compared with Tamworth. Perhaps it is a silly if not frivolous comparison but why do I hear so many stories of so many Tamworths of late? Could this not be a reason for our unfriendly ‘attitude’ to boat people? ie. You give back what was given!
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A pity you chose the Acropolis as your example, Gerard… Whilst on the one hand, in building this magnificent piece of architecture, Pericles ‘provided work for every hand’ to create one of the wonders of the ancient world; one which epitomised the apex of Ancient Greek art and architecture; yet on the other hand, in doing so the Athenians emptied the treasury of the ‘League of Delos’ to fund it. Pericles is usually regarded by the Greeks as one of their best rulers, yet one contemporary critic (I’d guess it was Euripides…) criticized the policy for ‘dressing Athens like a whore…’ As I’ve said before, Pericles was anything but far-sighted; a short-sighted political opportunist whose populist policies led to the Peloponesian War.
If you think about what he did, it could be likened to robbing his friends to dress his ‘wife’ like a tart…
G’day piglets! Sorry I’ve been AWOL for awhile… but I needed a break; didn’t feel like I had much to say… black dog snapping at my ankles…
Oh, and a belated but hearty ‘Happy Birthday’ to Vivienne, Helvi and Big M…
🙂
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OK, The temple of Zeus then. Would that be the equivalent of Revesby’s workers club?
Nice to see you back Asty. I was getting a bit worried. Take the black dog to the pound.
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Will be making that trip this arvo Gerard…
😉
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Jaysus, Gez, I need another glass of wine (and a check of the metal security screens()). The embedded parentheses are for special effect!
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Holy smoke Big M, that ‘white’ you both gave us is a drop and half. What an absolute corker. We are slowly sipping it, savouring every drop.
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Bought it in sunny Mittagong.
had to have the rest of the bottle after this little article. Now, orff to bed!!
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But, gerard! REALLY!
There is NO country -not a single postage stamp sized plot of land that can be called “best country.” No place, no mortal, no god, no flower can be the “best” at everything. If it were it would be called Utopia or Eutopia.
Tamworth was ugly and there are most definitely other institutions in Oz that are damned horrible. Unquestionably so but all the phrase “best country” does is to set up a straw man and then try to know him down. Oz is the best for many things, just like a man, or a god or a flower is the best for some things; but not for all things. That’s why people have preferences. That’s why they migrate, that’s why they have different biases, that’s why they ARE different. No one and nothing is “The Best.”
If you want to make a philosophical enquiry into the greek “eu” (the best), the “ideal” then you’ll have to check out Plato’s views on “Forms.” The perfect exists only in the imagination, in the “idea” not in reality. What the carpenter has in mind about the chair he wants to build will not be the end result. There will be flaws, or diversions from that “ideal.”
Oz is bloody triffic for many things, just as, no doubt, Zimbabwe is best for many things also but Tamworth does not make Oz a Zimbabwe just as the magnificent Victoria Falls doesn’t make Zimbabwe, Oz.
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