Poor Banjo, you just don't seem to get the point.
mikk et al certainly do, my references were not to global warming, but to your use of sweeping statements which say nothing.

I agree with you 100%, you are right, correct. He is better off physically, but what about spiritually. What about our heritage, here I am not talking about our rural heritage, our national heritage, but our human heritage.

From a purely capitalistic point of view it would great to have a completely homogeneous society that were confined to a small relatively stable demographic.

Apparently the banjo utopia would be to have all the third world peoples doing our menial tasks, well even a cleaners wage is preferable to having to hunt down your food, fish from the rivers and oceans, harvest the fruits of the forests and plains.

Sure we have superior medicine, but they can learn, they can come here and learn the good from our ways, then take them home to blend it to there own desires and needs.

The problem is if they are not being ruled by terrorist governments or exploited by western capitalists. They are too scared from the invasions, being enslaved and generally used and abused.

If mankind put 1/2 of the efforts that they put into war, greed, consumerism, nationalism and power into aiding the rest of mankind into attaining what is deemed to be a reasonable minimum standard of living, then the world would indeed be a happy place.

Many people seem to adhere to the western delusion of judging a person's quality of life purely on the merits of their material surroundings. We in the west have very little idea of the spiritual life of those who live in traditional societies, or of the psychological structure that forms their world view. This is why interference, as Wybong points out, from early colonial rule and, more recently, globalization have taken their toll so drastically on many who live a traditional way of life - not least Australia's own indigenous people.
E. F. Schumacher, in his book "Small Is Beautiful", wrote:
"There are, moreover, many features of the rich man's economy which are so questionable in themselves and, in any case, so inappropriate for poor communities that successful adaptation of the people to these features would spell ruin. If the nature of the change is such that nothing is left for the fathers to teach their sons, or for the sons to accept from their fathers, family life collapses. The life, work and happiness of all societies depends on certain "psychological structures" which are highly vulnerable. Social cohesion, mutual respect, and above all self-respect, courage in the face of adversity, and the ability to bear hardship - all this and much else disintegrates and disappears when these "psychological structures" are gravely damaged. A man is destroyed by the inner conviction of uselessness. No amount of economic growth can compensate for such losses...".
There is a reason why countries like Costa Rica and others like it, who are not economic titans have good feelings of well being - they have held on to autonomy and their traditional ways, and in doing so, have retained their sense of meaning and self-respect.

Lovely story Wybong, welcome. We often forget in our busy lives that the people we see in the street, in the shops, libraries, waiting in a queue and even at Coles may have an interesting story to tell.

G'day is free and yet the returns great.

With our focus so much on consumerism and material wealth we forget that people are not what they 'do'. One of the smartest woman and most interesting woman I ever met was a shop assistant in a canteen. Every day we would exchange pleasantries and when I got to know her better our conversations would become more poltical and philosphical until one day she told me more about her life. What a woman. She had lived and worked for Aid organisations for many years, lived on a commune and worked a permaculture farm until retiring. As it turned out she was a volunteer and gave her time for free.

I can't remember it all but there was a nice story that did the rounds a while back - it went along the lines of .. a humble farmer who lived in a cottage by the sea met a man who said come to America, work hard and long, make a good living and then one day you will have your own house by the sea. The old man said but I already have that now.

Sometimes we forget that success or wealth is defined very much within a Western Capitalist perspective. Happiness and contentment does not always come with our version of success or material wealth. The GFC has at least made us wake up and question our values and obsession with economic imperatives over all other.

<Honor was so important that death was preferable to dishonor.>
Ahhh. The noble savage.
Sounds impressive until you realise that this is the basis for honour killings.

Wybong,
I get the point all right. You were projecting a romantisied view of the life of a an African tribal herdsman. I put some reality into that by mentioning some other aspects of the lifestyle.

You talk about his spiritually,yet I know that a closeness to his land or forebears will not save a dieing wife or cure a child in pain. Being spiritual does not put food on the table during fammine.
I see, too often, videos of how their honour and dignity disipates when fighting to get the food handed out during fammines.

There is far more likelyhood of his wife bearing healthy kids at Mt Druitt, and the kids reaching adulthood, than there is on the plains of Africa. His family are less likely to die of fammine at Mt.Druitt.

He is lucky to be here and there are opportunities to better himself if he wants.

I do not dream of an utopia. People simply have to make the best of what is available. But far too many in our society have an unrealistic view of life in a tribal situation

Banjo, I am afraid you are a lost cause, your inability to analyse anything perplex me.
Your sweeping statements show your unwillingness to examine the underlying facts.

In 2 replies I had stated that you used incredibly wide sweeping unsubstantiated statements to prove a point.

You previously replied to my criticism that you use unsubstantiated sweeping statements was:

"I was right that you are a romantic and am somewhat surprised given your rural background. Us rural types usually take a more practical view of things."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=3349#79718

I one foul swoop you have divided us into non romantic but practice people, implying therefore that city people are romantic and impracticable. So having been insulted and on behalf of all the romantics in the country (hundreds of famous artists, poets, singers and songwriters) I say thanks.

I am not going to point out the errors of your statements and mindset as it will only change when you are willing to take a deep inspection of your motivation.

mikk on the other hand is a lateral thinker, he said:

"Reality is made by humans. If we wanted to, if we cared we could easily provide at least the basics to every single person on this planet."

also a sweeping statement, the difference is, he proceeds to explain it.

Having said that, I will turn to HermanYutic http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=3349#79778

"Sounds impressive until you realise that this is the basis for honour killings."

Honour killings go on daily in our own society with all our christian values, just ask any homicide detective.

Another question: How many people do we calculate to have killed or exterminated, tortured or imprisoned, vilified or discriminated against in the name of Christianity. Note, the use of scientific notation will be acceptable in your answer.

Don't look at both sides of the coin, look at the edges too, the borders, the marks and scratches, for in mint condition they all look the same, it's the imperfections, the scars of time that tell the story.

I am not stupid enough to say their way is better, nor arrogant enough to say ours is.