arts & culture
19 Aug 2008
Why Can't We Take Criticism?
Helen Razer listens to a whingeing Pom and realises she agrees with him
It seems that published criticism in Australia has a value and a vigour roughly equivalent to that of flat-pack furniture. Apparently, it's all falling down.In recent news: The merit of our public thinkers has diminished. And, no. It is neither Don Watson nor Robert Manne who are alerting us to this trend.
It is, in fact, a bloke who tends to keep his modifiers dangling.
Everett True, whose real name is Jerry, is a writer whose words are chiefly read by those who alphabetize their vinyl. This is to say, if terms like "krautrock", "Eno" or "subpop singles club" are part of your lexicon, you will recognize this nom de grunge. You've read that book by Nick Hornby or seen the winsome film? Well. He's just like the bloke in High Fidelity played by John Cusack, except elevated to the sort of rock-snob status that guarantees dinner at Kim and Thurston's house and an Access All Areas plastic tag.
For reasons wrapped in more mystifying black than your average emo teen, True currently resides in Australia. The man who made his (fictional) name in the NME and the Melody Maker is living in, of all places, Brisbane. A very tolerable town, to be certain, but not the kind of nabe where a man formerly known as "The Legend", and also famous for introducing Kurt to Courtney, might get a chance to hone his rock matchmaking skills .
Nevertheless has also, courtesy of this online dispatch, introduced analysis to the Australian music press.
I give him ten points for his sheer guts. Anyone who can sift through street press without poking themselves fatally in the chest with an Einstuerzende Neubauten CD has my deepest respect.
Yes, I know - the "critical" music press is itself an easy target for critique. It's all crap written by smitten teens for less than five cents a word. And since True's heyday - an era in which, it should be noted, the man himself was utterly eclipsed by then truly decent writers Julie Burchill and Nick Kent - even the serious and better paid criticism of popular music has become little more than reprocessed PR.
It is not so much that music criticism is a necessarily fruitless act, or a deed every bit as useful as "dancing about architecture", to recall Laurie Anderson's famous maxim. The qualia of music aside, at one time its critique was a worthwhile endeavor.
Like all decent art criticism, investigations into popular music had a purpose. I'm all for the unpacking and decoding of artifacts. Particularly popular ones. In scritinising Rhianna's latest confection, we might learn a little about the conditions that produced it. This is useful anthropology.
Of course, Burchill has long since become a fruit-bat Zionist, diet spokesmodel and resigned as a columnist. The NME merely commodifies music and no longer employs literate persons with degrees in English literature from decent schools. Fans no longer expect thorny marginal gloss interpreting their favourite tunes. And besides all of this, music has more or less gone to the shitter.
Even if you consider the parlous state of music criticism written anywhere in English, the fan has to concede that True has got a point: It's even worse here in Australia. Critics tend to say that EVERYTHING IS GREAT.
This is what aroused my interest regarding True's post. He hinted at our recent tendency to flatter freaking everything.
It is not merely the toady work of besotted Australian ten-year-olds writing about Flo-Rida that is crap. Most of what you find in the mainstream press written about all art-forms is crap too.
Our three half-decent broadsheets and one decent magazine still afford occasional space to some erudite folks. But even the "highbrow" sections in these publications are shrinking. Criticism in every costume has become little more than an exercise - to use True's parlance - in indiscriminate praise.
Everyone is breathless. From the Saturday "arts" supplements to crap music press to the travel porn of Getaway. Everything is grand.
In explaining their tireless cheering, True's music press teens tell him it's the advertisers that demand uncritical criticism. And this is what the producer of a blancmange mainstream media will tell you too. We have to be chirpy. The advertisers expect it. Chirpy, apparently, provides financial results.
Except, of course, that it couldn't possibly. This is Australia, for Chrissake. Fear, disdain and knee-jerk suspicion of everything are the colonial foundations of our character. Which focus group took a jackhammer to this broadly acknowledged truth? Who said that passionate criticism didn't fly in a country that imagines nearly everyone is a wanker?
Criticism should flourish here. We have the perfect conditions, viz. decent universities and a pathological mistrust of authority. We should be producing critics and public intellectuals like Greer, James and Hughes.
Oh. Hang on. They are Australian, aren't they? Well, aren't they all just GREAT.
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Critics are afraid to criticise because of Australian law. If A.A.Gill wrote restaurant reviews in Australia his editor would spike 9/10 of them for fear of being sued.
Doug M.
I am impressed Helen..so much verbiage to make a single point..that had already been made.So where is the analysis or substantive evidence? Oh, I know..someone "famous" said it! No wonder the Arts are so poorly patronised if your example of a self indulgent gallop around the Thesaurus track is anything to go by.
Anthony Carew’s film reviews are worth reading. Mostly because he seems to hate everything, which I find quite refreshing. Plus, I think he has interesting taste in music.
I think the point missed here are the smaller and smaller spaces being given to (music) reviews - 3-4 sentences seems to be the norm. What can you say in that much space?
Harry Modern song writers in the main equate noise as being music. Many lack rhyme or metre and perhaps are poor spellers, If the last word of a sentence souinds something like the following last line, it is used. Couintry western Australian singers with the exception of the late Slim Dusty and a few others also sing through their noses like Yanks. Please excuse a peasant from mentioning country /western
DougMe. You’re correct, of course. Big names in the gastro firmament like Adrian Gill could never prosper here thanks in large part to the threat of litigation. I believe it was an establishment called The Blue Angel who set the precedent when they sued Leo Schofield for a particularly vivid review. As I recall it, he denounced the lobster as having the texture of whale blubber. As I hazily recall it, the plaintiff proved that Schofield had never eaten whale blubber and was, therefore, unqualified to draw the analogy.
Most food critics will agree off-the-record: this was a dark day.
AFAIK, however, Barrie Kosky et al have never threatened to sue similarly. SO how do we explain a reluctance to analyse? outfield44 says I have explained it badly. Moreover s/he says it’s a point that has been made before. Good. I intend to keep making it until such time as the culture resembles a blancmange less. outfield44, I chose not to nom instances of crap critique because it seemed petty and unkind to draw attention to individual journalists who, often freelancers, are providing that which is demanded of them. I guess my thanks are in order for going against the grain and critiquing my own writing style with the thrillingly unique “you’ve eaten a thesaurus” line. Which words seem unfamiliar or quaint and I’ll be sure NEVER TO USE THEM AGAIN. Gosh. AT least punctuate correctly if you’re planning a courageous assay. The ellipsis is almost never acceptable. Break your sentences in two.
Onya Helen
Yes, Helen! Julie Burchill has "become" a "fruit-bat Zionist"! This nomenclature is well-deserved; after all, she pointed out that, during the Israel-Hizbullah conflict, the media referred to Lebanese civilians as "civilians" and Israeli civilians as "Israelis". An "eerie and sinister" difference, to be sure, but drawing attention to such media biases against Israel, and quitting the Guardian for its "vile anti-Semitism", clearly makes the Lutheran Burchill a "fruit-bat Zionist". How dare she, really?
Thank you so much for slipping this little, completely off-topic, credentials-waving gem into your article. It’s so spare, really; in so few words, you’ve cleverly implied, "Look, this article has nothing to do with Israel, but I hate Israel and its awful policies so much that I’m going to slip a reference to that shitty little country in here, too!"
Not to worry, Helen - I noticed it! Congratulations on another courageous little attack on the Jewish state. There are many of us reading who love these little bits of judenporn. Keep up the good work! (Next time, could you slip it into something even less related to politics or foreign policy? Perhaps a piece on garden furniture.)
What I found interesting was that True completely failed to realise that the street press kids were subtly trying to tell him that his "ace pick-up garage band" was crap.
Besides which, I don’t understand why he "didn’t understand the query" - HE doesn’t work for the street press does he? So what does HE do when he interviews a band he doesn’t like?
Helen..perhaps reading glasses are in order?.."eaten a Thesaurus" (sic) ..now that really would make you sick!.My mixed metaphor was about a "gallop" not a gollop"..so try getting it right, even if you are a journalist.The novelty should have appeal to you.As for the syntax critique..I wasn’t writing an essay..it’s called the internet Helen!
And as for the "gastro firmament"..never say simply what you can describe in lurid prosaic prose..I bet it’s a real "hit" with the arty set.Carry on the good work Helen..keep the Arts elite.There is no chance that the masses will read, let alone embrace, such self indulgent wanking.
What the cock are you on about, outfield44? I get that you don’t like my writing. This is hardly any defence for neglecting the space bar and using Latin terms inappropriately. Sic is generally reserved for glaring errors or made up words like “gollop” (sic) written after too much commemorative port or whatever the cock it is that you drink to nurture your unique writing style.
Gabes, you’re getting on my wick as well. Please forward other examples of this “judenporn”. And then tell me why displeasure with a bully state is so promptly read as anti-Semitism? Why does censure of Israel’s foreign policy so often end in, “You hate Jews”? I don’t think it’s an argument worth having, to be frank. Fortunately, we have the fearless Mr. Lowenstein to take up the slack.
Granted, the biographical detail re Burchill may not have been the most relevant inclusion in the world. But she is SUCH a nut for Israel. She is at pains to point out she doesn’t “swallow the modern liberal line that anti-Zionism is entirely different from anti-Semitism.”
This Zionism does impact on her writing. Or, more specifically, it’s her bigotry that makes her impossible to read. I’d find Taliban cheerleading as much of an impediment.
Incidentally, Burchill is again writing for those judenpornographers at the Guardian.
It’s a very simple caricaturization to say that those of us who don’t buy the trendy liberal narrative about Israel just dismiss anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism.
We do no such thing. Criticism of Israel is rampant within Israel itself, and around the world. It is perfectly legitimate. Anti-Zionism is another issue, and it is complex - suffice it to say that it is technically possible to be anti-Zionist and not anti-Semitic - indeed, I have a highly degreed Jewish friend who is just this - but the majority of anti-Zionist polemic is ultimately anti-Semitic. We can discuss this further if you like.
Quite the opposite is true about the anti-Zionists. Anti-Zionism has become the new anti-Semitism. Hence, judenporn. Burchill’s pointing out that the media refers to Lebanese civilians as "civilians" and Israeli civilians as "Israelis" is a subtle example of an underlying narrative that has at its base a number of highly contentious premises - and a prejudice against Jews.
This discourse is not good-faith criticism of the state of Israel. It is venomous invective - as well as subtle linguistic inversions - that are aimed at the very legitimacy of the Jewish state.
Ultimately, most of this debate is irrelevant. The Israel-haters will hate Israel. They regard the small minority of non- and anti-Zionist Jews as "the good Jews", just like plenty of kings and popes and sultans and others had their "good Jews". This purportedly absolves them of the charge of anti-Semitism.
But you must understand - it, in truth, does not absolve you of any such charge. You cannot say anything you like about Jews and the Jewish state and hide behind the cover of "legitimate criticism of Israel", just as we cannot accuse legitimate criticism of Israel of anti-Semitism.
There is a point at which discourse descends beyond legitimate criticism of Israel, into anti-Zionism, and rapidly descends into thinly veiled anti-Semitism. So I ask you to end the black and white to-and-fro between the Israel-haters and the Israel-supporters, and recognize that much criticism crosses a line from good faith critique to downright anti-Semitic invective.
Just like a judge said about obscenity in a famous US Supreme Court case, who said "I know it when I see it." Most of you contributors here at newmatilda will know the difference between good-faith critique and thinly-veiled anti-Semitic diatribe when you see it.
Unless you choose to ignore your good sense.
Thank you, Gabes. At last some clarity.
Joe
Memo Helen: stay with the "big issues" such as innapropriate use of the space bar! I would have thought your ramblings were an abuse of the written space. As for your "what the cock am I on about?"..is that supposed to mean anything, or an example of your incisive(razer sharp) wit? No doubt if I replied with the same phrase in your gender specific, I would be put out of here for obscenity.On a point of trivia, since you raised it, I don’t drink alcohol, so find another excuse for anyone who has the temerity not to agree with you.
P.S. Helen. It is quite ironic that your article lampooned the lack of criticism by Australians, yet you are so defensive and dismissive of any that comes your way.Perhaps you are so talented as to be above criticism, or perish the thought..not an Australian!
Jeez, seems it’s not only Australians who cannot take any criticism!
Gabes, after all that runny crap about "judenporn" and "subtle linguistic inversions" you might want to define "legitimate criticism of Israel" - with the emphasis on the word "legitimate".
Then you can give us your definitions for the terms "anti-semitism" and "anti-zionism" which you have used to load your poisonous attack on Helen.
Maybe then the nexus between your incoherent outburst and Helen’s article might become visible to us all!
George Vickers
"legitimate criticism of Israel" = criticism which Zionists do not disapprove of.
“anti-Semitism” = those who do not support Israel’s race war against the Semitic races of the middle east, especially Palestinians, Arabs and a large percentage of the world’s Muslims.
“judenporn” = a multi billion dollar international monopoly on snuff porn and child pornography controlled by a small group of criminals like Yoram El-Al who is wanted by Interpol in every civilised country of the world but who is warmly protected from arrest or prosecution by the state of Israel.
"Legitimacy of the Jewish state" - that politically correct and fashionable fiction called "the state of Israel" created by the illusion of politically correct self censorship sponsored in the west by a deeply prejudiced Islam phobic media.
So anyway, yeah, I like Silverchair.
outfield44, it seems I am yet unable to understand you. Perhaps this has to do with the unresolved conditional: “I would have thought” et al. Thought what, man? Finish your sentences and thoughts and then we can all enjoy you as thoroughly as Ben enjoys the music of Silverchair. Re the word cock. I simply find it immensely funny to type and say in assorted company.
Gabes, when, then, is criticism of Israel legitimate? Is this the sole privilege of Jewish public thinkers from within the state? While I freely allow that I’m no great shakes when it comes to resolving international disputes, am I not entitled to the fairly informed opinion that Israel has been a wee bit of a tormentor without having this salvo of anti-Semitism charges fired at me? Sheesh. I feel like an Arab in the occupied territories.
Effectively, you are saying that all goyim should shut their cake holes when it comes to Israel. Effectively you have accused me of being worse than a racist. Viz. Helen is a Jew-Hater who shrouds her revulsion for an entire people in left apologism. You are telling me I am a racist AND a liar.
I shall not share my Jewannabe credentials with you as you don’t seem like the sort of person inclined to change their mind. In fact, I f I were to share my experience of Jewish culture with you, you’d more than likely apprehend such as further evidence of my judenpornography. Whatever the blazes that might be. I just don’t fancy the foreign policy of Israel and I do rather think the Palestinians get the rough end of the grenade launcher. If we say Israel has more weapons, Palestine more dead, is that tantamount to anti-Semitism? If so, should we let the matter rest without scrutiny?
Helen..Is it too late for me to recant? I read several of your other social commentary articles and enjoyed them immensely,especially the "Pakenham Train" piece.As for the Israeli/Palestinian question, I freely admit I don’t have any answer, but hope that Joe’s One State solution could be possible. In the meantime I think everyone should be free to criticise either side without the spectre of being accused of racism or anti semitism.On the other hand, when you read Shock Doc’s offering, it is no wonder that Gabes is sensitive to the motivation of some critics.
I like Powderfinger too, but not Eskimo Joe.
Eskimo Joe is the Israel of pop.
Why did Israel rate a completely irrelevant mention in this article and not Georgia, Tibet or Taiwan?
The only difference betwen these places and Israel is that the one Jewish country (in comparison with the 50+ Muslim countries) has the ability to defend its citizens.
helnrazer, have you tried to go to church in a Muslim country lately?
I promise you that you will be allowed to do so when you visit Israel and won’t be hanged in the local football stadium. In Israel, those are reserved for playing football.
P.S. Legitimate crticism of Israel can only come from Israelis, Jew and non-Jew alike.
It’s is like an American going on about how Australia treats immigrants, for example. It’s none of their business. These criticisms are reserved for Australians to make.
Clean up the mess in your own house before preaching to others how to clean up theirs.
No outfield44, you are wrong, BOTH shockdock AND gabes are way out of order here.
Look, I don’t know if I am missing something here, but I have read Helen’s article a second and a third time and I simply cannot find any reference to anything anti-semitic at all. Who cares what Helen likes or hates anyway? It’s her prerogative.
The article, as far as my perceptions can gather, is about us, Australians, and we have nothing at all to do with Israel, judaism, anti-semitism, Palestine or anything else from the meditteranean or the middle east.
Forget anti-Israel, just why the hell does EVERYTHING have to revolve around that crappy little state in the middle east anyway? It’s not like any of us is from there.
Do Australians really have to be in love with everything Israeli? Why do we all need to feel guilty about hating the genocidal tendencies of that racist little state anyway? Because of some filthy animal who died in a bunker 60 years ago?
George
Arieel, when Israel attacks Palestine and Lebanon, when it occupies foreign lands and expels, murders and imprisons indigenous peoples of the foreign lands which it occupies, then it becomes our business.
Helen - my initial reply to you may have been a little harsh. Fair enough. My point remains: in your opinion, is there any other sort of Zionist APART from a "fruit-bat" Zionist?
You ask what sorts of criticism of Israel is legitimate and what isn’t. I really think I explained this in my second post. You ask whether you can point out that that Israel has more weapons - of course you can. And I can point out that Israel abides by international law when using those weapons and does not target civilians - unlike, say, Palestinian suicide bombers.
You ask whether you can point out that there are more Palestinian dead - and of course you can. Perfectly legitimate. And I can respond by pointing out that the majority of Palestinian dead are armed fighters. I could also point out that, of the people killed in the totally unnecessary "Second Intifada", a far higher percentage of Israelis killed were civilians (and a much lower percentage of Palestinians killed were civilians). Stands to reason, really - the Palestinians TARGET women and children, whereas the IDF targets armed gunmen. (Incidentally, the armed Palestinian gunmen place themselves in civilian marketplaces, hospitals, schools and so forth. To elicit civilian casualties. From their own people. This is a well-documented practice.)
So of course - there is legitimate criticism of Israel. Most of it, when it comes from non-Israelis, is largely uninformed. Helen - perhaps you know a great deal about the conflict. I don’t know. Either way, you could make either uninformed or informed criticisms of Israel, and I can’t see why, if made in good faith, they wouldn’t be legitimate.
On the other hand, shockdoc’s criticism (see above) is thoroughly illegitimate. (Thank you shockdoc for the example.) Suggestions that Israel should not rightfully be a state are tantamount to saying that only the Jews, out of all the peoples on earth, should not have a right to self-determination. Next, singling out an Israeli criminal is another ridiculous, illegitimate criticism. Imagine if someone criticized Australia and went on about how the Australian government is so evil that it is trying to commute the sentence of a convicted drug dealer - Schappelle Corby - just because she’s Australian. Damned Australian supremacists! Then of course there is the accusation of Israel carrying out a "race war" - a thoroughly preposterous suggestion, and a criticism that is not being made in good faith. Anyone who knows anything at all about the situation here (I’m in Israel on a visit at present) would never make such an absurd criticism.
outfield - I’ve explained in another thread why a one-state solution is a denial of the human rights of the Jewish people and the Palestinian people. I wrote that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights constitute binding multilateral treaties whose common Article 1 asserts that "All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development…" In the case of the Israeli nation and now the nascent Palestinian nationalism, this requires both peoples to freely and separately determine their own political futures.
" just why the hell does EVERYTHING have to revolve around that crappy little state in the middle east anyway? It’s not like any of us is from there.
Do Australians really have to be in love with everything Israeli? Why do we all need to feel guilty about hating the genocidal tendencies of that racist little state anyway? Because of some filthy animal who died in a bunker 60 years ago?"
George - you are a real piece of work, mate. I made a post because Helen commented that Julie Burchill has "become" a "fruit-bat Zionist". So go back, and re-read her article a THIRD time, son.
And you think Israel is a "crappy little state" that is "genocidal" and "racist". Saying it doesn’t make it so. Prove it. Perhaps you can explain why over a million Israeli Arabs have full voting rights, freedom of religion, freedom of movement, freedom to set up business… essentially full rights as equal citizens of this country?
If you believe yourself to be an open-minded person, you might try reading this http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218446173609&pagename=JPost/…
But then, I doubt you are. You sound like a small-minded Israel-hating individual.
By the way, 5 million of the world’s 13 million Jews live in Israel. Most of the rest of the world’s Jews either visit, have family in Israel, own property in Israel, or support Israel. Israel is the world’s only Jewish state.
Can somebody explain to me how you can be anti-Israel and not anti-Semitic?
I’m not just talking about criticizing Israeli policies. I am talking about being opposed to the existence of the Jewish state. How is this possible without being an anti-Semite?
Just wondering.
Rockjaw - the Jews are the indigenous people of Israel. The word "Jew" means "one who originates from the land of Judea".
The Arabs only arrived when they conquered the land from the Christians in the first millenium BC, whilst the only people to maintain a continual presence there - no matter how small - for the last 4000 years are the Jews.
Next time, I suggest you read a history book before making such vile comments.
Furthermore, it may interest you to know that some of Hitler’s partners originally suggested that the solution to the "Jewish question" of Europe was to transfer all Jews to the Holy Land - or as the Romans had called it in Latin, "Palestina" - whence they had originally come. (Obviously this was rejected in the end in favour of genocide).
We should all be proud that the Jews returned sovreignty to their land and removed the yoke of their oppressors, just like the African nations did. Don’t be upset because the Jews succeeded in creating a vibrant, modern society whilst most of the African nations have not yet been able to do so.
ariel - note that the name "Palestina" was a Roman neologism that was invented to replace "Judea" in order to de-Judaize the Holy Land. The Romans largely succeeded in this.
Now, while it’s all well and good to debate the pros and cons of Israel’s existence, I am going to head around the corner and buy a felafel here in the centre of Jerusalem, thereby injecting some much-needed shekels into the Israeli economy, and some much-needed chickpea calories into my belly.
Now that’s my kind of Zionism - carno-econo-Zionism!
P.S. Later, I might head over to the Old City of Jerusalem and walk around freely - because my uncle, as a Jew, was banned from doing so prior to 1967 when the Arabs controlled the Holy City. Just thought I’d let you know!
P.P.S. Boaz Sharabi tomorrow night!
Gaby, the bottom line is this, Israel sucks and you know it.
You also know that Helen is right. Australians probably don’t accept criticism, and who can blame us?
Your criticism of Australia and Schappelle Corby, for example, is entirely illegitimate and uncalled for, especially from someone living in that racist little state of Israel.
The difference is that Schappelle Corby is not an internationally wanted drug lord like your Yoram El-Al (have you googled that name?)
Unlike Israel Australia does not support the war on drugs to eliminate competition, we do it to eliminate the destruction which people like Yoram El-Al causes to ordinary people’s lives.
Australia does not protect and harbour internationally wanted criminals. Australia would also not tolerate a rapist President like your President Moshe Katsev, nor would we tolerate an internationally wanted war criminal as our nation’s chief executive, nor would we hold the world record for breaking international law, nor would we bomb murder and maim millions of Palestinians, nor would we illegally occupy, imprison and starve to death entire communities like Gaza, nor would our defence force chiefs threaten entire continets like europe with illegal stockpiles of nuclear weapons, nor would the chief of our Air Force justify the rape of a 12 year old Palestinian girl on the grounds that she is the wrong religion, like your General Ashkenazi - and the list goes on.
I agree with the proposition put forward in this article that Australians cannot take criticism, and particularly not when that criticism comes from petty little upstart racists who originate from the butt end of the middle east.
George Vickers
George, you are the only racist on this forum!
Your hatred (jealousy?) of Jews is only overshadowed by your complete ignorance of anything that is going on outside your dunny.
I invite you to provide evidence to support any of your accusations.
Your libelous comments about General Ashkenazi should be accompanied by the time, date and location where the quote was supposedly spoken.
Your ridiculous statement that "Australia would also not tolerate a rapist President like your President Moshe Katsev" shows that you have a very short memory and large capacity for ignorance. First, Moshe Katsav is no longer president; he was forced out of office because of the accusations of rape against him (which still have to be proven in a court of law).
Secondly, your memory loss condition seems to have made you forget one Peter Hollingsworth who was eventually fired by PM Howard because of similar rape allegations against him.
You see, Israel and Australia have much in common. Get off your high horse and go visit Israel to see with your own eyes the reality of the situation. It’s time to get off your toilet seat, pull your head out and put your pants on, ‘cause you’ve been caught with them around your ankles…like Peter Hollingsworth and Moshe Katsav.
Georgie, my comment about Schappelle Corby is exactly the same as your comment about Yuval whats-his-name. What’s the difference? (Also, point of clarification: I don’t live in Israel. I am visiting here. But it’d be great to live here - it’s an amazing place.)
Your post doesn’t deserve a response, really, but the record should be corrected:
1. There are no internationally wanted criminals being harboured in Israel. There have, however, been a huge number of Nazis who have lived in Australia for the last 60 years. Go have a cry.
2. The president of Israel is Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, whose birthday is tomorrow, incidentally. By the way, the ex-premier of Western Australia, Brian Burke, is a convicted felon, and a Queensland MP was convicted of child sex offences back in 2000. Criminals come from all walks of life, in every country. In fact, the president of Austria was Kurt Waldheim, a Nazi war criminal. He went on to become the secretary-general of the United Nations. Yes, before Kofi Annan took on that distinguished role.
3. The prime minister ("chief executive") is not a war criminal of any description. He is criticized, in fact, for having very little army experience.
4. Israel is scrupulous about keeping international law. What are you talking about?
5. When were "millions of Palestinians" murdered? Sounds like I would have read about it somewhere.
6. When were "entire communities like Gaza" starved to death? Sounds like I would have read about it somewhere.
7. When did Israel threaten Europe with nuclear weapons? Again - something I would have read about somewhere.
8. No Israeli air force chief ever justified the rape of anyone.
Do you make this shit up as you go along?
Actually Gabes, millions of Palestinians were murdered.
You see, before the year 1948, the Jews living in Israel/Judea were called "Palestinians" by their various conquerors (Romans, Pesians, Greeks, Christians, Muslims and the British) and were murdered by the hundreds of thousands. Even the greatest anti Semites in Europe throughout the Middle Ages would tell the Jews to "go back to Palestina" up until they decided to burn them in the millions in the 1940s.
The Jews can’t win either way. When they’re in the Diaspora, it’s "go back to Palestine". And they get told they’re not really German, or French, or whatever - they’re actually Palestinian. And when they move to their homeland, it’s "you stole this land from the indigenous Palestinians." Well, which is it?
Judenporn: the deliberate insertion of anti-Israel tidbits into fashionably left-wing publications in order to titillate the quasi-intellectual hoi polloi.
But gabes, everyone knows that people who visit Israel can be divided into two distinct groups. Psychopathic racists on the one hand (they usually stay and gain citizenship) and people (like Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu) who cannot wait to experience the relief of getting the hell out of the filthy little sandpit.
I am a fully initiated member of the second group.
Both Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela have repeatedly expressed their absolute disgust and horror at the racism and barbarity of the Israeli regime. Both of these distinguished Nobel laureates have also described Israel’s racism as far worse than anything ever witnessed in apartheid South Africa.
ANC anti-apartheid freedom fighter and Israeli citizen, Ronnie Kasrils, has expressed the same sentiments and has made it clear that the reason he avoids visiting Israel, even as an Israeli citizen, is that he finds the racism too disgusting.
I guess if anyone can recognise racism it would be these three heros and world famous victims of the apartheid regime.
Now if someone like Nelson Mandela says there is only one other nation which practices a more barbarous form of racism than apartheid South Africa, well then I am happy to give him the benefit of the doubt even if I was somehow convinced not to believe my own lying eyes which witnessed the barbarity first hand.
I hope you are not a Palestinian or a Falasha gabes, because if you are, you might consider a really good life insurance policy with a non-Israeli financial institution.
I like Paul Kelly, he is a great musician. Though does anyone else think he looks a bit Palestinian?
Wow ! So many opinions !
Rockjaw,
Re your passionate comment (at 12.46 last night) about powers occupying foreign lands, and murdering the Indigenous people there: does this apply to Russia’s invasion of Georgia as well as Israel’s invasion of Palestine ?
Ringo,
I get a kick out of many of Paul Kelly’s provocative editorial opinions, not that I agree with them, but by Christ, he was a good footballer. And he can play a good guitar too.
Outfield,
Yeah, I’ve been working on that One-State solution in palestine - my point is that there will never be a solution which involves religious nutters from either side. But I realise now that that’s not enough: there will never be a united, democratic, secular Palestine/Israel (with Jerusalem as a common religious site for Jews, Muslims and Christians under international administration) until the Middle East is far more industrialised, especially Saudi Arabia, which otherwise will always stir the religious possum: in other words, until secularism is more or less prevalent across the region, we can’t expect a united, democratic and secular Palestine/Israel.
When that happens, I’ll get interested again. Until then, there are far more pressing concerns - Kurdistan, Georgia, Tibet, Turkestan.
Now that somebody has mentioned Turkestan: is this why China is so publicly silent over Russia’s invasion of Georgia - because the invasion has a message, not for the US alone, but for China as well: keep out of Central Asia, it’s Russia’s fiefdom. As well as an indirect message (perhaps not as Russia intended) to the Turkestan Independence movement: go for it.
Think of it this way: can you imagine China fully supporting Russia’s argument that a piece of Georgia must have the right to choose independence, no matter how small it is (70,000 people, 1500 square miles) - when there is Xinjiang (Sinkiang) with ten million people and a million square miles, i.e. somewhat more plausible as a legitimately independent state alongside other Central Asian states ?
And on China’s trouble with demonstrators, see
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news;_ylt=AraKKv.DqLiBUMyUy0DmxNvQ1Zl4?…
for an account of the jailing of two 79-year-old grandmothers for a year for asking if they could demonstrate about being thrown out of their homes in 2001.
Wouldn’t be dead for quids ! Who said history had ended ?
Joe
In other news, I am not at all fond of The Veronicas.
Touché Joe (Stalin), he also wrote a pretty good tract (get it?) in The End of Certainty. Really sold out after that though. His weekly gigs as an Insider are like a best of volume 1996 on high rotation.
So glad I am not a Jew or worse still an Israeli Jew..the hatred expressed here is quite amazing! Far better to be born an Australian and be hated on my merits (or lack of them)Re XiangJiang Joe..would we allow South Australia to secede from Australia (although many would applaud it)because it has an ethnic minority within the sovereign country? Also as XiangJiang borders on Pakistan it has become a prime target for terorist insurgents, who have killed Chinese citizens.I realise we have a moral priority list when it comes to killing i.e. If you are a citizen of the "bad states" such as China or Israel, and you are a schoolkid on a bus that gets blown up..well it’s just too bad..you probably deserved it anyway for being an accomplice to a repressive regime.Hope the Vietnamese don’t extract vengeance on us in Australia for one of the most despicable acts of genocide and imperialism of the last generation.
Hi Outfield,
Now that you raise the issue of South Australia quite justifiably seceding from the rest of an uncaring ‘Australia’, I notice that quite a few of the placards at the numerous demonstrations down here against the destruction up-stream of the former Murray, express precisely this sentiment, and seem to get quite a bit of approval. I’m not sure if the comparison with Turkestan or Ossetia is entirely relevant:
* South Australia currently makes up about 10 % of ‘Australia”s population, two million or so, and just under a million square kilometres, so it certainly would be viable as a separate entity (a damn sight more viable than having to support up-stream states).
* But I don’t think it is ethnically distinct from the rest of ‘Australia’, we have our share of Indigenous people, Vietnamese, Afghans, Germans, Arabs, Filipinos, Sudanese, Anglos and Irish, just like every other state. Ethnicity, in short, is not the issue. Justice and equity are the issues and we don’t expect to get those from the East-coast latte-swillers.
Now that you mention it, secession does seem quite an attractive option. We could form a single country with Western Australia which might re-think the idea, since they too are denied Murray water. When our mineral boom kicks in, the rest of you can migrate if you like, and take out SA citizenship (you may have to relinquish your former ‘Australian’ citizenship, or risk deportation and confiscation of property at any time). But your application for unskilled work will be put in the queue with the rest. After all, we need skilled migrants, not riff-raff.
Joe
Oh Outfield, you have totally mistaken criticism for hate. Well done. For me, this lesson has now ended.
Love your work Helen.
Hey kids
Helen’s article was a timely and interesting discussion of Australian arts and music criticism, in response to the (completely bemusing) arrival in BrizVegas of noted music writer Everitt True.
What Helen’s article was not about was zionism, Israel, anit-semitism or Palestine.
In other words, most of your comments on this thread are completely off-topic. Why not engage with Helen’s actual article, which has some really valid points in it about the degraded and arguably corrupt state of the Australian arts and music press?
Helen, I am saddened by your lack of interest in Jess and Lisa. My girlfriend taught them speech and drama and she claims they were very talented even at a young age LOL
Joe..I can’t argue with any of your secession points. Maybe I will emigrate across the border..hope your standards are low enough for me to gain entry.
Helen..There you go again, attributing my remarks against you personally. Have you read any of the vitriol here by "some" of the contributors? If that passes for criticism,then the KKK is simply a benign social institution expressing their philosophical concerns regarding non Aryans.Sorry to disappoint you again Helen,but the "lesson hasn’t ended" as I must be a slow learner.
P.S. Here endeth the lesson, was a nice touch Helen, as it took me back to my Sunday School days.
P.S. Humble apologies to Helen..remarks were addressed to rachelC
Ben, if you read the posts above, you’ll notice that the discussion was not at all off-topic; it had to do directly with Helen’s usage of the term "fruit-bat Zionist" in relation to a journalist from the UK (who, incidentally, happens to be non-Jewish). I found this offensive and am still awaiting a response from Helen on the point.
Hi Outfield,
My dear friend, no, I wasn’t intending to give the impression that you were having a go at me, forgive me a thousand times for ever unintentionally doing that.
And sorry, but I won’t be setting the standards for entry into the Republic of Austrasia, but I’ll see what I can do for you to jump the queue.
On citizenship: throw up ‘dual citizenship’ on Wikipedia - very enlightening. Many countries - China, Syria for example - don’t recognise dual citizenship: if for example, you were a Chinese citizen in Xinjiang, and accepted, say, Russia’s offer of citizenship, you would have to relinquish your Chinese etc. citizenship: you cannot be both a Chinese citizen and a citizen of any other country.
But another point of international law fascinated me: in some countries that DO recognise dual, even multiple, citizenship, if you are charged with an offense in country A, where you are a citizen, then country B (where you are also a citizen) cannot interfere on your behalf, since, for those purposes, you are a citizen of A and it is their business, not country B’s. For example, if someone is a citizen of both Australia and the US, and is charged with an offence in the US, then Australia cannot get involved (although it would be obliged to monitor the situation).
But of course, if someone is a citizen of, say, Australia and Canada, and is charged with an offense in the US, then both Canada and Australia can - in fact, are obliged to - get involved on that citizen’s behalf. Think about it.
Is there such a thing as a ‘fruit-bat Tsarist’ ? Even amongst NM contributors ?
By the way, in case you are wondering about china’s take on the invasion of Georgia, try this:
XinHua
China welcomes signing of peace plan by Georgia, Russia
www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-20 18:36:33
BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) — China welcomed the signing of a peace plan by Georgia and Russia over the conflicts in South Ossetia and the pull-out of military from the area, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
Spokesman Qin Gang made the remarks at a regular press conference when responding to a reporter’s question.
Qin said China hoped the ceasefire would help all parties concerned to peacefully resolve the conflicts through dialogues and finally find a proper solution.
He added that the current priority was to ensure peace and stability in the area and the tranquility of the people there.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last Saturday signed a French-brokered peace plan for settling the conflict between Georgia and its breakaway region of South Ossetia, while Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili had signed the peace plan last Friday.
In that last sentence: ‘the conflict between Georgia and its breakaway region …. ’ and the reference to the puppet Medveev signing on Saturday while democratically-elected Preasident Saakashvili signed on Friday - are these indicators of Chinese unease ?
Cheers,
Joe
Good post Joe, and here is the link to Suckaschlamielie’s response:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26Hfh72CGbc
I guess the moral of the story is that if you want to pick a fight with the big dogs you should wait until you no longer pee like a puppy.
George
This seemed appropriate….
The first episode the music industry satire series, Forlorn Gaze, is set in a Brisbane street press office. Screening on ABC’s JTV later this year…..
Forlorn Gaze: The Street Press Episode: Act 1 from ministry of truth on Vimeo.
Forlorn gaze: Street Press Episode: Act 2 from ministry of truth on Vimeo.
Hi George,
How long might that take ? Until then, are you advising that the puppy lies down and takes it up the *rse from any dog which happens to be bigger ? (Apologies to the Professor).
Cheers,
Joe
Joe - no need to apologise. We’ve seen your charming language in the other thread already! (http://www.newmatilda.com/2008/07/29/one-wall-obama-wont-be-breaching)
Cheers!
The Sudanese army is attacking Darfur refugee camps, Russia has just blown up Georgia’s coast-guard fleet and an oil train, and some fruit-cake has just blown himself up with dozens of others in Iraq, but as you point out, I sometimes use bad language. F*ck me, so I do, shit I’m sorry - please forgive me. I hope no bastard got hurt.
Joe
Man alive! Take one week off and the most interesting thread ever bursts onto the scene.
Helen for a start you are %100 right on when it comes to cultural criticism in this country. The worst offenders are major newspapers whose critical sections read like the TV guide; a bit of a plot summary and a list of the players. Street press is little different. I agree that much of it is down to the reliance on advertising from the very venues and labels they are reveiwing.
Moreover critical thinking has taken a beating since postmodernism allegedly killed truth. Nothing is good, bad or better when all values are an example of competing truths. The schools that produce these lazy journalists must be held to account and where necessary burned down.
I also have no time for the Veronicas, Despite Ben’s protestations of prepubescent talent. In keeping with the theme of the thread I for one wish they had kept it hidden under a bushel.
Ben Pobjie, Eskimo Joe can’t be the Israel of Australian music because at the critical moment they failed utterly to go nuclear. How one could go from decent post punk rock to crying emo twitfest in one album is way beyond me. Black fingernails, red wine - my giddy aunt!
As to the rest of the posts it seems to me, Gabes, that the very definition of ‘fruit bat Zionist’ is someone who reads a peice like this and lobs accusations of anti-semitism into the thread like so many Gaza bound missiles.
For the record though I support a homeland for fruit bats. God said they could have one and thats good enough for me.
If nothing else if I were a Burchill supporter I would have been more offended by the diet spokesmodel thing, which is like calling her a fuckwit straight to her face.
While on the racism thing. Are Israelis genuinely a race? It’s like the French. There’s not a French race as far as I can tell; the French are just white people who eat horses. And bugs. And speak French.
The Israelis are more a culture than a race. If we can’t be critical of cultures who we beleive are genuinely wrong headed, for fear of being branded racist, then we will quickly have no capacity for criticism at all.
arieeel if the only legitimate critique of a culture can come from within then we are truely screwed. I know no-one has mentioned the war yet, despite the way the Holocaust and post war decision making underpins everything these posts have been about.
Would you have been OK with the Germans taking sole responsibility to change from within? Countries, cultures and people can take a wrong turn, as a group. It is the responsibility of the rest of the world to draw their attention to it.
Finally Joe, filthy language doesn’t make you clever, but it does make me laugh. In fact I laughed till I peed myself like a puppy. Whatever the hell that means. I suspect Rockjaw of being anti-canine. Let my people go man!
Hi Doctor Dog,
Being a wombat of little brain, I think that you may have made some valuable points here: this thing about all cultures being equal, for example. I would take Jewish culture over Nazi culture any day - the Marx brothers, Karl, Groucho, Chico and Harpo alone are more than an antidote for the trash of Nazi culture, Sholem Aleichem, Amos Oz, Spinoza, Billy Joel, the work of the Bund, Klesma, Bob Dylan - where do you stop ???? While the Nazis have left nothing but horror and grief - a sort of horrific anti-culture. The idiocy of the notion of ‘all cultures are equal on their own terms’ has surely been blown out of the water.
Yet, as you suggest, this does not hermetically seal any culture off from criticism. If asnything ,the most valuable lesson anybody can learn about their culture is from outside: somebody else,who, with love and respect, is prepared to point out that such-and-such a fondly-held aspect is crap, or bullshit of the highest order, or outrageous, or racist, or whatever. No culture is immune and perhaps I could coin a new aphorism:
‘all cultures are unequally imperfect, generally being imperfect rationales for male dominance and the closing off of all further thought and discussion’.
I might have to cut it down so that it fits on a t-shirt. The point is that many ‘cultures’ are hide-bound, some are open to discussion and relatively generous towards women, but most are viciously anti-women, pro-status-quo in all sorts of prettied-up ways, most pander to closed and smug minds and thereby oppose and condemn any self-analysis - but understandably, on the other hand, almost all ‘cultures’ are attempts to make sense of the world with very imperfect knowledge and rigid social relations, particularly between men and women, and between us and them. That’s life, the good and the bad, and without pat answers.
Which, Helen, brings us back to pommies, I suppose.
Thank you, Dr Dog, I am genuinely flattered that you like my filthy language: praise indeed ! I hope that I can keep it up to a level at which you can continually pee yourself. F*ck, I know it has that effect on me.
Cheers,
Joe
Oh, The Veronicas are just awful. Lebanon should invade them.
I always thought Judenporn was nude photos of rabbis.
For some reason, Dr Dog, I imagined that referring to someone as a "fruit-bat" was an ad hominem and that Helen only used it against Burchill because the latter happened to defend the Jewish state against the standard - anti-Israel - left-wing narrative. (No allegation of anti-Semitism was made. Burchill is a Lutheran, anyway.) What I can’t imagine, Dr Dog, is why *I* would be a "fruit-bat Zionist" simply for pointing out that Burchill was mischievously labeled, and that she makes an easy target. Sue me if that makes me a "fruit-bat Zionist"!
My point was that if anti-Israel rhetoric like this could slip into an article about CULTURAL CRITICISM, then this judenporn has really gotten out of hand. It is hateful and misinformed. Just because Israel is as acceptable to hurl vitriol at as Zimbabwe does NOT make it right nor does it make it correct.
I am visiting Israel now and I’ve yet to see evidence of the egregious criticism Israel constantly cops from the ignorant and uninformed. If there is apartheid here, as many anti-Israel people allege, then it favours Muslims: for instance, everyone is welcome at Jewish and Christian holy sites, but to enter the Temple Mount - a site holy to Christians and Muslims as well as the holiest site to Jews - is verboten to Christians and Jews except for about 4 hours per day. During these visiting hours, no Bible may be brought up there, and anyone caught moving their lips in prayer by the Muslim authorities is promptly tossed off the site. On the other hand, there are no rabbis standing near the Western Wall to kick non-Jews who pray off the site. I am not a religious man, but I went up there the other day, and could not believe the religious suppression. Who is this apartheid against?
I urge anyone who has a criticism of the only democracy in the Middle East to make these criticisms openly, in the spirit of open debate, and not to toss hateful little anti-Israel references into a totally unrelated article.
My domestic political views may line up almost completely with all of yours, and I love reading newmatilda - but while it isn’t sexy or fun or popular to criticize these anti-Israel comments, it is incumbent on those of us who do have an expansive knowledge on the conflict here to respond and to respond comprehensively.
And if you can’t write on these forums without using bad language, then please - harden the fuck up!
"For some reason, Dr Dog, I imagined that referring to someone as a "fruit-bat" was an ad hominem"
No, it’s only an ad hominem when used to fallaciously discredit an argument, eg "she is a fruit-bat, therefore her arguments can be disregarded". Helen’s use of the term was just a simple insult.
But I don’t think calling someone a fruit-bat Zionist is anti-Israel rhetoric. Saying that one is a fruit-bat Zionist does not imply anything about Israel; it doesn’t even necessarily mean that Zionism and fruit-batism are the same. A fruit-bat Zionist may be one whose brand of Zionism calls for Israel to be moved with skyhooks to the Bass Strait. If a Zionist said that, they’d be a pretty fruit-bat Zionist.
What do you think about Operator Please?
Well, BP, I suspect that the appellation implied that because she was a Zionist she was therefore a fruit-bat. I therefore asked Helen whether there was any sort of Zionist that wasn’t a fruit-bat Zionist.
No response.
There are fruit bats everywhere Gabes. Zionists, Christians (especially Christians!), atheists, sportspeople, polititians. We are surrounded by people who are so involved with their repective cultural beleifs that they are blinded to the truths behind criticisms aimed at those beliefs.
No doubt I have some biases of my own (is biases a word? Everyone seems much more adept at Latin than me), as we all do, but to castigate Helen for a throw away line that really says more about how Burchill is popularly perceived than Helen’s actual thoughts about the state of Israel is to go too far.
In my definition a fruit bat Zionist is one that requires the reality of Palestinians to simply disappear, just as a fruit bat Palestinian is one that acannot acknowledge the reality of the state of Israel. It seems to me that both groups are replete with fruit bats.
I don’t think there is bad and good language Gabes, I just think there is well used and poorly used language, so the swearing stays when I feel its warranted.
I would very much like to see the Veronicas moved with skyhooks to the Bass Strait, it would have been possible if Shirley Straun was still alive, but you may get some resistance from the ubiquitous Red Symonds.
While on music criticism, Joe, please leave Billy Joel off your list of positive contributions. The only tinkling pianist worse than Billy Joel is Tim Freeman, the Billy Joel of King Street.
Operator Please seem great but there is definately something about teenage bands that palls by the time they have been signed too early, pressured to put out shoddy second albums and gone into their twenties happy, reasonably well off and no longer in touch with their angst. See Eskimo Joe above.
I like Billy Joel.
Really? Wow. Even ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’? ‘Uptown Girl’? Anything after ‘Piano Man’?
Julie Burchill is a fruit bat. Julie Burchill is a Zionist. I didn’t draw a Vens diagram, Gabes, to illustrate the intersection of these subgroups. Are you a “judenpornographer” in disguise doggedly exhuming prejudice?
Go and virtuously demand answers from someone else. You know, someone actually thick enough to be an anti-Semite. I’m tired of this argument and I’d rather poke a fork in my eye than endure (a) any more righteous posturing and (b) silly words like “judenporn” that will just NEVER catch on.
In Australia, the quality of written criticism is diminishing. Perhaps the fear that we’ll be accused of impropriety and/or suspiciously shiny black boots keeps critics mum or bland.
Dr Dog,
I think the plural of ‘bias’ might be ‘biades’ if it’s Latin, or ‘biai’ if it’s Greek. Your grasp of Latin ? Non te abominate, Doctor ! Nos omnes argentarii-mercatores sumus !
I have a real soft spot for Billy Joel, I was going through a thing when his first hit record came out, about 1977 or so, so I associate him with intense feelings. But actually and more in earnest, I have been inspired far more by Mahler and Ernest Bloch, and in terms of the inequality of cultures, I would be happy to point to them as examples of vastly superior Jewish culture, if this is how people want to articulate it, than any of the thuggish filth that came out under the Nazis. And then, how could anyone compare the beauty of Bach or Mozart of Brahms with Hitlerite trash ? Cultural practices which humans and human groups devise and circulate thus vary from the divine to the hellish - there is no possible equivalence between them. So I hope that people are starting to move away from the brainless imbecility of ‘all cultures are equally valid etc. etc.’
And that people are also moving away from equating human biology with culture: I have no trouble at all in the notion that all human groups are more or less of equal intelligence, but if there is anything at all in the notion of human learning, then I also have no problem with the notion of ‘unequal cultural practices’: knowledge moves forwards (and sometimes backwards) in fits and starts, and generally what works tends to get retained and what doesn’t gets junked (generally). So I have no trouble with the notion of the upward and onward growth of knowledge, that the knowledge in one paradigm is superior to that in another. for example, is the earth flat, or is it round ? Is it round or is it ever-so-slightly elliptical ? Is is ever-so-slightly elliptical or is it a bit more eccentric than mere geometry would predict ? And so on. Is a mathematical system A that can count to a thousand superior to a system B which can count to two (one, two, more than two) ? Yes. Does this mean that the people embedded in culture B with only two numbers are inferior to people A who can count to a thousand ? No. Those people in culture B can learn to count to a thousand, like anybody else. Humans devise culture, but they unversally also have learning systems, forms of education, ways of moving from ignorance to knowledge, even if this is often accompanied by bitter resistance from those in culture B who benefit from that ignorance. People are not culture. Culture is not biology. Culture is not - do I have to say it ? - race. Read Kenan Malik’s latest book, Strange Fruit, to check it all out: brilliant !
Joe
Interesting though to think about the biological constraints that seem be connected with culture. It raises all sorts of questions about whether we can live without violence, or some form of sexual discrimination. The really interesting thing to me is to find out if cultural evolution rather is genuinely possible. The backward steps seem as big as the forward, socially, despite the steady increase in knowledge.
Hi Doc,
Cultural evolution is happening all the time ! Australian culture in 2008 is very different, surely, from Australian culture in 1958, or 1908. Or 1708, for that matter.
We made a study of Aboriginal society from the 1830s through the 1870s, down around the mouth of the Murray and lower lakes, and what struck us was that there were no agencies directly forcing Aboriginal people to change their cultural practices: if anything, the Protector wanted to keep people out of towns by providing them with ‘canoes’ (15-footers), shot-guns, rations, tents, fishing lines, and perhaps even shot for their guns. Guns were repaired free.
As well, people seemed to move around at will, from the lower lakes to Adelaide and down to the south coast, as they felt like, and as work opportunities (on the whaling and in the grain harvests) presented themselves. In doing so, they were probably more mobile than they ever had been in traditional times, and met and worked with all manner of people, Black and white and Chinese, on the whaling ships, on the road, on farms, at the mines, cutting firewood, in towns and in Adelaide itself. The Protector noted in 1845 that when Aboriginal people met each other, or worked together, they spoke English, since the chances of the other person knowing their language were often slight. So English was the common language, for Aboriginal people from NSW and Victoria and all over SA. Not better, just the common language.
And of course, what did they talk about ? Our guess is that people spoke their own language when they were talking to a countryman (or woman) about intimate matters, household matters, family and clan matters, but switched to English when they spoke of towns, shipping, employment, the harvest, grog, tobacco, wages, clothes, farm animals and processes, the police. This domain-shifting would not surprise a socio-linguist.
So very quickly, people in the south became bi-lingual. In h