I'm sure that anybody who's read my posts elsewhere in these forums knows where I stand on this issue, so I won't add any 'oxygen' to this particular debate.

However, I would like to commend Robert on the considered and balanced consistency of his posts to these forums, across a range of subjects. We often disagree, but nonetheless he's the kind of chap with whom I'm sure I'd enjoying having a coffee, if not something a little stronger.

I'm sure that, between us, we could solve the problems of the world ;)

garra, thanks for the kind words. I suspect that in the end we both strive for many of the same ends, we just read the map and terrain differently when working out how to get there.

The threads on these forums are a great way for those of us who are interested in doing so to better understand the other options.

I've never done too well at solving the worlds problems, sometimes it's fun to try though.

R0bert

Dear RObert
Thank you for your civilised and conscientious attempt to have a dialogue. And JustDan too.

Just to put your mind at ease, I resigned from the Labor Party quite some years ago in absolute disgust, after about 6 years trying to be an active member. Not only with its intrinsic internal corruption, but that a Chinaman is only good if he knows his place. And that is the smiling Buddha type, obsequious, compliant and ever ready to do the bidding of the powers-that-be: money, new ethnic members, the jackie’s lot. So I am not being party political when I single out Howard.

The national leader's role is paramount in the cultivation of our culture, our national character, our soul. Elsewhere I have written no more flattering views of Kim Beasley.

No doubt the Indonesian judicial system is behind ours. We have perhaps a 100-year headstart? And with a "seamless" transfer from colonies to nationhood. But to use the former duplicitously to ginger up the conditioned masses waiting for the proverbial dog to kick (so that they get some relief from their own economically or emotionally disenfranchised state) is morally indefensible, quite repugnant to me. Hence my article.

Cheers

chek

Dear RObert

Incidentally, our judicial system is far from perfect. Hanson went to gaol for fibbing about the status of her party members, in a legal sense. Peter Reith gets a $250 000 a year job, tax free, after lying to us on a matter that might have tipped the 2001 elections. The consequence of that lying might well turn out to be a growing class of “liberated” free-to-choose workers soon, perhaps functionally bringing back the days when a foreman would stand at the factory door each morning and pick the ones he needed from the long queue in front of him that morning. Social justice is what I am on about here.

And if I recall correctly the americans were much better behaved when one of their teenagers was sentenced to a few cuts of the cane, a few years ago in Singapore. By contrast we were just so crass in the beat up before the Corby sentence. Self-cultivation is a mark of the civilised - we tend to thump our chest and declare "the other" as substandard. Sceptics may care to read ex-diplomat Alison Broinowski's Yellow Lady, a chronicle of Australians' attitdie to Asia and Asians in the past.

No use my being negative or critical some would say. But I take solace from the fact that tobacco is now accepted as a human folly and a social liability, and some of the tobacco companies have been brought before our courts for deliberately hiding what they knew and anaesthetising our consciousness with images of the Malborough Country and so on. Will history be harsh on Howard? Hope so. Even Blainey, our once national icon, has been said to be wrong by Howard a few years ago. We should never condone unethical or immoral behaviour or leadership, if we aspire to be a great nation.

So I will continue to point out the less salubrious aspects of our culture whenever I can. One day things will get better, and my decendants will inherit a better land. Otherwise where is the room for optimism?

Cheers

Chek

Chek, what do you think of Windschuttle's recent books like "The White Australia Policy" and "The Fabrication of Aboriginal History"?

If you haven't read them, I reckon you'd find them very interesting and illuminating.

tlen " disagree. Racism comes from the side of privilege. "

Disagree - racism is as common among the underprivileged as it is among the privileged - what happened in Rwanda was racist motivated (based on tribal distinctions) - and nothing to do with privilege.

The support and promotion of racism is uniquely expressed by the small minded and ignorant - regardless of what level of education they may claim to have achieved.