Namdaemun (the southern gate) in Seoul was burnt down on Sunday night. Arson is suspected but no leads as yet. I was lucky enough to see it last summer when I was looking for a camera. It was also one of the first major tourist spots I visited in Korea. I’m pretty sure this is where you can see the bullet holes the Japanese left during the occupation. There were also pictures of machine-gun posts in front of this gate from that time. It is a very sad day for Koreans as the gate was over 600 years old and it’s loss was deliberate. However, I don’t feel the public outrage that I would have expected.
Case in point; A few years ago the government built a commemorative walk near my house to honour the soldiers who fought in Papua New Guinea against the Japanese. It also served as official recognition of the Papua New Guinean people who risked their lives tending to wounded Australian soldiers. Barely a fortnight had passed from its opening when some street urchins vandalised the shrine. After that, there was a palpable resentment of all teenagers. In Australia, people respect war monuments as we are a nation of migrants and refugees escaping tyrrany and war and these serve as a reminder of everything that is (fortunately) missing in Australia. Since then, that shrine has been restored and remains the same even to this day.
Here, nothing. But I guess there will be more to come as forensics tears apart the remains of the National Treasure No.1.
In other Australian news, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced the Pacific Solution will come to an end. This involved Australia paying Nauru to keep ‘illegal’ refugees in detention centres until they were declared genuine. This stems from the Norwegian freighter Tampa picking up 400 mainly Afghan refugees in August 2001. And more were to come as the cynically ‘Coalition of the Willing’ began bombing Afghanistan in October 2001. So after six and a half years one sad and ignominious chapter of Australia’s history is over.
Tomorrow is also the day slated for the Australian government’s apology to the Aboriginal people for the ‘Stolen Generation’. This was an official government policy between 1910 and the 1970s (along with the equally disdainful “White Australia Policy”) aimed at ‘rescuing’ indigeonous children from poverty and abuse. Unofficially, it was designed to ‘breed out’ the Aboriginal people. With this apology on behalf of the government, Rudd stresses that the Australian people can not be held responsible for the transgressions of others (Orthodoxy anyone?), it is hoped Australia can move forward as a united nation being proud of the great elements of our history but at the same time remembering the terrible moments and declaring “L’olam lo suv“.
Dr Jose Ramos-Horta. president, was seriously wounded by gunmen outside his Dili home in Timor Leste. He was treated at an Australian Army base in Dili before being transferred to Royal Darwin Hospital yesterday. He is still in a serious condition.
I was lucky enough to meet the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate when he gave a talk at my alma mater, as the Foreign Minister for the newly free Timor Leste. He let slip he was there to discuss sharing the oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea which Australia claims, illegally. My favourite moment was when he was heckled by a Resistance member about making a deal with the devil (referring to our then Foreign Minister, the stiletto and fishnet wearing Alexander Downer). Ramos-Horta calmly stated that as a relatively small and new nation, one does not make demands of its bigger neigbours. Instead, one tries to find a solution that will be beneficial to both parties. Genius!
On an aside, the Australian government spends about AUS$100 million a year funding the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) which coincidently is the same as the whole annual budget of our closest nighbour. This also means that each gold medal Australia won at the Sydney Olympics (the ‘best ever’ according to fascist poster child Juan Antonio Samaranch, later made to look like mutton dressed as lamb by the Athens Olympics) cost Australian tax-payers, i.e. me, AUS$20 million over four years.
Filed under: Afghanistan, Australia, Kevin Rudd | Tagged: Afghanistan, AIS, Australia, Jose Ramos-Horta, Kevin Rudd, Namdaemun, never again, refugees, Stolen Generation, Tampa, White Australia Policy
