Hi folks, just a quick note to say that I thought the Pilger programme was
excellent. It was very similar to his article in the Guardian last weak
(available from their
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3894241,00.html
web archive). He is frequently attacked in this country for his views and
often accused of bad research in academic circles. However, in my
experience where I have researched the same subjects independently I have
found him to be very accurate and insightful. What do you all think of his
work, especially concerning the Aborigines?
Damien
-----Original Message-----
From: Trudy and Rod Bray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: RecOzNet2 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 02 September 1999 05:49
Subject: [recoznet2] The Times (UK): Review: Welcome to Australia
>
>http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/09/01/timfeatel01002.html?999
>The Times (UK)
>September 1 1999
>TELEVISION
>
>In Welcome to Australia (ITV), John Pilger -
>the man waging a fearless battle against David
>Attenborough to be the last TV presenter in the
>world still wearing short-sleeved safari suits -
>also tried to find an echo in history for
>Australia's newfound national confidence by
>contrasting the country's republican groundswell
>with the plight of Aborigines who were never
>consulted about their country's future and who
>are still, by Pilger's reckoning, treated as
>third-class citizens.
>
>Or, as Pilger put it: "Given Australia's
>democracy and its self-image of decency, why is
>it not possible for a nation's leaders to behave
>honourably towards less than 2 per cent of its
>population? Set against this question, the issue
>of whether Australia becomes a republic in the
>21st century is simply irrelevant. For until the
>first Australians are given back their nationhood,
>the rest of us can never claim our own."
>
>Welcome to Australia probably isn't the film
>Australia's Olympic Committee showed to the
>Olympic authorities when it was pitching to host
>the 2000 Games. It was a charge-sheet of racial
>injustice and government neglect: "Aborigines
>die 25 years younger than whites, child mortality
>is many times that of whites and many
>Aboriginal communities have no clean running
>water," said Pilger. One academic alleged that
>Australia has been committing genocide against
>the Aborigines for 210 years.
>
>Pilger doesn't see shades of grey. He's a
>black-and-white man. You can find his manner
>irritating, but you can't help admiring his zeal.
>Unlike, say, Michael Moore, there is no
>tricksiness, no made-for-TV japes. You might
>even say Pilger wears his heart on his sleeve, if
>only his safari shirts actually had one.
>
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