Dennis Overbye Retiring
1 hour ago
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Priorities set
Aborigines from Cape York who are protesting new rules that prevent them from developing their own land have upset an inner-city gathering (is there any other kind?) of Sydney environmentalists.
What amuses the ShadowLands most are the environmentalists' comments. (We add our contribution in italics.)
"I think it was confronting," one guest said. [Confronting? Did it add a sour taste to the canapés? Maybe if you spent a night in a Cape York community - and let's face it, that's never going to happen - you would find out what confronting really means.]
"It is scene setting. It is dramatic. It gets people's attention," another said. [Yes, it gets your attention in a way that, for you, caring about Aboriginal people apparently hasn't.]
"I am aware of the dispute between the Aboriginal people and the environmental movement up there particularly, but I have to say environmental sustainability comes first," she said. [You mean, and people's welfare comes second? I'm glad we cleared that up.]
(By the by, can anyone remember the last time that a report on an environmental protest included quotes from three sources on the other side?)
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4 comments:
but I have to say environmental sustainability comes first," she said. [You mean, and people's welfare comes second?
How big is Ms Anna Christie's carbon footprint compared to these Aboriginal people? I think she means her and her cohort's welfare comes first, being self-righteously domineering about other's lives comes second, environmental sustainability comes in third, and the welfare of Aboriginal people is somewhere else.
Smooth the pillows and polish the floors in the dying, outdoor museum of the indigenes. We are exhorted to be the curators of their, and our own, extinction in favour of endless, uninhabited "national parks".
yep... there was actually a glimmer of hope there, that the aborigines would use all that latte-left goodwill to actually do something exciting and forward-thinking, to take some risks, and to try to build a better future. Unfortunately, as blogstrop said, they are learning that their only role is as a curiosity, a museum exhibit... it's so patronising.
To the detriment of the Wilderness Society et al AFAIK there is no concept of 'Wilderness' in aboriginal lexicon; i.e. no us/nature dichotomy; tards ...
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