Letter from Australia

As the date for an impending Federal election draws near, potential voters would be looking forward to expressing their political opinions. That voting is compulsory is not lost among Australians – it would be impractical to ‘cop a fine’ as the phrase goes, because one cannot be bothered to vote. After all, both the Coalition and the Labour Party have promised many incentives, monetary or otherwise, in return for a vote in their favour.

An interesting development has come about the past week about increasing political involvement among the general population. National channel Seven has introduced a plan to encourage independent candidates to stand for election in the Senate during the coming elections. If successful, Seven would sponsor five or six independent Senators, one from each state, through a six-year term in office. While it would be antithetical for Singapore to embark on such an ambitious proposal, such determination to encourage non-partisan political involvement deserves to be lauded.

It is perhaps debatable that the First World War spawned nationalism for Australia, as opposed to the almost fanatical loyalty to the Crown. While the loss of life in the wars fought in the twentieth century would have undoubtedly brought the Australian psyche from childhood idolisation towards adulthood scepticism, it is perhaps heartening to note that the populace are similarly unimpressed by opinion polls, government propaganda and rock star hyperbole. Of great significance is the muted level of discussion of creating an Australian republic – cynics may claim a lack of courage on the part of political parties; perhaps it is due more to a mark of respect to the generation of baby-boomers, who still have strong emotional ties to the Queen and motherland.

This week past witnessed the passing of an Australian icon. He is not someone who is unduly famous or notorious, nor is he someone who led the country in the political arena. Here is a man who kept a low profile most of the time, except for annual celebrations of his contribution of the Australian psyche. Indeed, Ted Smout passes on the spirit of the diggers, aged 106, unto the next generation.

A true blue Anzac veteran, who has been witness to two World Wars, Smout has inspired thousands to stand up and make a difference to both self and country. Like many contemporaries, he put himself in the line of fire, artillery and chemical gas, to protect the land in which he was born. That he was young was no barrier; nationalism in its true sense of self-determination was born.

To transcend politics, economics and philosophical arguments about wrong or right may seem distant to the vast majority. Ted Smout has shown that it does not require a special skill or technique. His example as earned him more than the many military honours that has been bestowed upon him since the end of the Second World War. An ordinary man, undertaking extraordinary tasks, surviving through loss of thousands just like him, takes his rightful place in the hearts of all who have been blessed to hear his voice or to watch him on television. He will be missed, yet the inspiration of his humble example will continue to be a guide to the determined pursuit of a better future for al of mankind.

I have never been a great adherent of Darwinism and the theory of evolution, although that is not to say that I refute concept that man was placed on planet Earth far later than dinosaurs were. Recent research into Darwin’s theory espouse that evolution takes place not in gradual stages; rather the theory may be rephrased as one of revolution rather than evolution. Increasingly, scientists believe that a meteor crashed onto the Earth’s surface ten thousand years ago, causing dramatic climatic shifts that transformed the planet to its present day form. It is easy to classify shifts in climate as ‘dramatic’, considering the conventional notion that climatic patterns are not known for its volatility. However, there is evidence to suggest that the shift in climate during the Ice Age was irrevocably modified as a result.

This idea of climatic revolution is one of the main themes of the movie The Day After Tomorrow. In one of the most compelling portrayals of the interplay of geography and politics, floods and snow take centre stage, alongside Pacific Ocean currents and the size of Antarctic land ice. It may well take the genius of a rocket scientist, though most probably that of a climatologist, to identify the factors underpinning the survival of homo sapiens through the Earth’s last known major climatic event.

The resilience of species is certainly not confined to man; koalas in New South Wales face particular danger from the continuous logging of eucalyptus trees for commercial purposes. One such specimen has defied the odds, by virtue of his relatively large size. Measuring about 25 percent larger in weight and height that the average, one such koala adapts itself through rapidly diminishing forest areas, and becomes the subject of a scientific study. On a personal front, my maternal grandfather survived the onset of throat cancer to live what would arguably be the most fruitful years of his life in peace with his Creator.

An interesting documentary has a somewhat peculiar slant against domesticated animals. When discussing the effects of El Nino in Australia, the severe lack of rainfall poses unique challenges to those introduced by European settlers. Goats have been known to sink in the mud while taking a much-needed drink from a drying stream – their hooves do not provide the necessary surface area prevent them from being bogged down in the loose desert soil. In contrast, the native red kangaroos have no such disadvantage.

While it may be somewhat facetious to suggest that indigenous people have rights that others do not, it is perhaps wise to stress the importance of being, and more pertinently, remaining adaptable to one’s environment. The powerful Cuban lobby has much influence in the state of Florida in the United States. The needs of bumiputras in Malaysia are highlighted in Asian media as frequently as those of Japanese rice farmers. While these continue to mould and shape the national and foreign policies of governments all around the world, the willingness for mankind to capitalise on the winds of change is critical for the prevention of getting one’s feet, feathers and head from being stuck in the mud of mediocrity. Singaporeans, likewise, would do well to remain vigilant to all forces, external and internal, commercial and governmental, to continue to shape the future that is their right and their children’s legacy.

I have followed, regularly at times, the television series Charmed, starring Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan, as three sisters who possess magical powers. Although at times the supernatural theme may be seen as a trifle overbearing, the realistic portrayal of moral dilemmas in each episode is consistently intriguing and engaging. One recent segment contrasted the views of gifts (in the context of the series, magic) between one who possesses it (one of the sisters), and one who does not (a convicted felon). The felon associates great power with gifts, and seeks to harness this for his personal gain. Consequently the felon is killed by the magic and power that he craved for.

It is easy to empathise with such a character, especially when one considers the perceived lack of things material that the felon faces each and every day. His envy for those who seem to have a better life than he does is evident throughout the segment, and one could be forgiven for the jealously he must have felt for not being one of the Charmed Ones, who seem to have it easy while they sail through life and demons alike.

The world of entertainment is known to few; the public views celluloid images of carefully crafted snippet of what is in fact hard work on the part of directors, artistes, camera crew, make-up and, increasingly, computer technology. One such person who has demonstrated his understanding, and perhaps I may be allowed to add, mastery of television and the media, is Ronald Reagan. The former actor and governor of California did not exactly live a charmed life; he was born in the Midwest, and not from the Eastern coast like many of his predecessors. Yet President Reagan defied the odds, and age (he was in his seventies when he ran for the 1984 election), to the most powerful office in the land.

The 40th President of the United States is one of the few leaders who can arguably be said to be more respected among US citizens than most in recent times. Abroad, the former President is widely acclaimed to be the one who moved the world away from a nuclear confrontation between the US and the then-Soviet Union. Like a domino, Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms of perestroika and glasnost transformed the face of Eastern Europe. This would not have happened as smoothly if Ronald Reagan did not communicate in no uncertain terms his sincerity in averting a Third World War.

At home, many Americans credit his bravery in reducing tax rates across the board as one of the important factors in establishing the US as the world’s leading economy. It is easy to forget that tax rates thirty years ago were as high as 70%. Politically, Ronald Reagan transformed the Republican Party from one that was averse to reducing taxes, to one that is progressive and some may argue, overly aggressive, in implementing expansionary fiscal policy. Yet it must be mentioned that Ronald Reagan was concerned about keeping the budget deficit to a minimum, although he did not achieve that goal during his two terms in office.

As a man, Ronald Reagan stood for optimism and freedom. Looking back on my childhood, I occasionally could not make any distinction between the President of the United States and the ever-cheerful clown that represented the MacDonald’s franchise. From the days of Vietnam doom and Middle-East gloom, Ronald Reagan transformed the psyche of the American public. Government was to stay out of the way of private enterprise. One can only speculate on how Coca-Cola and Pepsi would have survived, or whether the likes of Microsoft, and Ebay would indeed have been successfully launched in the first place, if the days of 70% tax rates persisted.

To the man, who has been an inspiration to my beliefs in free enterprise and responsible freedom of the populace, who has indeed been a bright light shining atop the hill of optimism, rest in the private peace that you deserve. You may not remember the glorious send off your nation has given you, but it was as beautiful as your vision for this world – harmony, joyful appreciation, and thanksgiving. In the words of another recently departed, one who was no more charmed than you were, being blind at age seven, one twenty years your junior – may both of you rest in the knowledge that your songs will live on in the memories of millions.

I've been so many places in my life and time
I've sung a lot of songs, I've made some bad rhyme
I've acted out my life in stages
With ten thousand people watching
But we're alone now and I'm singin' this song for you
- Ray Charles, A Song For You

In attempting to understand social interactions amongst children and adolescents, the media is often used as a conduit into such insights. Young children may experience first-day-at-school anxiety, and while some may actually overcome such fears within the first hour of being at a new environment, others may not recover fully from the culture shock. The use of video, in particular, the use of colour and shapes in such media, facilitates the understanding process by having children identify with their experiences at a relatively safer distance. One such video, produced in South Australia, featured a puppet known as Sally Black (characterised by a black, round-faced, puppet), who plays the new addition to a primary school. Although she is initially isolated by the other puppets (who are of different shapes and colours), through a series of events, the school finally accepts her, even though they do not possess the same physical characteristics.

One potentially troubling finding borne by several studies claims that children are not really as colour- (or shape-blind) as society makes them out to be. The power of socialisation, it would seem, impacts upon young children to a far greater extent and depth than the powers that be would like to admit. The observation that children can spot differences among one another even form as young as age four is not meant to cause undue alarm among the populace; it does signify the power that adults have over the future of their kind.

The use of shapes and symbols by adults as a means of communication and indoctrination is arguably as ingrained as the idea that the Earth is flat. Perhaps I should retract that assertion; after all the latter was not accepted as fact by many until centuries after the death of Galileo. The institutionalisation of social norms extends from the using of diagrammatical conventions in physics, to holding hands in a round circle in a classroom (as opposed to a ‘square’ one), to the using to horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines to express oneself in the creative arts.

The transfer of shapes and symbols not only reveals itself in written and spoken language, but by the unsaid meanings that people of one culture interpret in manners that may be totally opposite that construed by another culture. What is particularly lamentable is that, today, in established cultures of nations, death is glorified, in a perverse manner, whether under the rhetoric of heroism, of under the guise of religious expression. The impact upon society is as real as such jingoistic glorification is illusory.

A community divided within, faces imminent implosion in the form of self-pitying denial and despair. The global norms of exclusivity and polarisation remain numb to the valiant struggle for those who believe otherwise. These are the unnamed heroes who seek to maintain some semblance of unity, respect, mutual understanding, non-violence, and indeed, love and life itself. Our children could not do with better worldly leaders as role models than what we have before us to sow the seeds of our own destruction. Perhaps they will be less than competent followers of our current leadership.