Who is the Jackass now?
What better way was there to rupture the fabric of time than to send the
uncouth white fellas, the dregs of the prisons from Britain
to the pristine environment of Australia
over two hundred years ago. There in that unspoilt land countless tribes of
aboriginal people had lived for 40,000 years or more in splendid isolation.
There too were the countless tongues spoken by each tribe mirroring the babble
of Babel
predicted in the Bible.
These diverse inhabitants had nurtured the desert land and co-existed
with nature keeping their laws and trading tentatively with each other even to
the extent of stealing a wife or youth or two to ensure inbreeding did not
occur with their strict laws to prevent a too close a bloodline with their own kind.
The early European settlers did not fare well and
could not see how to survive in this paradise and were nearly wiped out by
their ignorance and the Jackass laughed at their foolishness. It was not until
wealth was found in this white man’s hell did the vast expanse of the new
continent become an attraction to the greedy and they have remained. What
profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his life?”
No country has been so cruelly raped as Australia. Ancient forests lost,
countless species of fauna lost, and the balance of the seas inhabitants lost.
Meanwhile we still try to find ways to keep the original inhabitants in prison just
for being.
And the Jackass keeps calling, “And who is the jackass now?
Photo courtesy - Stevegrafix.com.au
that is very sad but so true
ReplyDeleteSadly, we can't undo the past, and many well-intentioned amends only mangle things further.
ReplyDeleteHistory repeats itself and this has been the fate of most colonies of the Empire. My rich country too has been raped and stripped bare prior to 1947 for over 100 years. Now it is the political heads who are at it. Sad!!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really thought provoking post.
ReplyDeleteDespite all the greed and loot the outsiders brought to that land, Australia is still a wonder to marvelled at as far as natural diversity and the craziness of the flora and fauna found there is concerened. And that makes me sad about what would have been. I have read stories about hunting aboriginal people as a sport. Like it was a matter of course.
And the guy who let the first pack of camels go feral should be shot first. Oh wait, we don't want to shoot him, let's send him to Australia!!
Thank you oldegg for this post. Man is the most ungracious animal. Civilized man especially so.
That's the British for you!
ReplyDeleteThought-provoking.
ReplyDeleteThe title is so apt.