"u might enjoy this"

"u might enjoy this"    

                 Received this morning from my friend Richard Leigh.


Raimond Gaita talks with Phillip Adams


I'm a big fan of Rai Gaita

Lots of goodies in here i think you’d like

rl




I enjoy toing and froing with Richard, covering so many topics as we've done for so many years now. 

One of the recurring issues over those years has been  dealing with thoughts about "moral philosophy" although I don't think we ever called it that.

Examples: in these times of great crises from Ukraine to Gaza, Sudan, Dafour and Chad, Myanmar, the recent expulsion of Afghanis from Pakistan, the nightmare of division in the US who can hardly fund their administration for 3 months at a time, the hatred expressed everywhere against refugees, whether they flee from Africa to Europe or from Latin America to the USA, the lurch to the right in so many nations such as recent polls in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Finland, New Zealand...

I see this as indicating a complete breakdown in humanitarian values. Here in Australia where the NO vote won the referendum we were told by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price:

‘We are not a racist country’: 

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price speaks out after Voice defeat

Well I was astonished by this comment and even though I'm not of Aboriginal descent, I am deeply aware of the the racism which has been rampant in Australia since the first settlers arrived, which allowed our colonial forefathers to steal the land from the people who occupied this country before European settlement, who have been downtrodden in so many ways over the past 250 years, so much so that:

In 2021-22, the rate of youth detention for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 10 to 17 years was higher than the rate for other Australian young people in all Australian states and territories.

I guess that doesn't point to any form of racism in our nation at all, so we can all continue to think of ourselves as a most egalitarian people and a wonderfully generous nation!

The discussion between Raimond Gaita and Phillip Adams highlights the problems we all confront which may come under the heading of "Moral Philosophy".  I take that subject to be central to ALL RELIGIONS even though each particular religion may disagree with many tenets held by the others.

In the discussion Raimond raised the question of different uses of the word "we". He highlighted the difference between the use of that word by John Howard and Paul Keating...
Keating using "we" when he said "we did these things" while Howard said you can't say "we" because I was not there and "we" were not there when they happened. 
 
Well, what can I say? I was not there when massacres of Aborigines occurred here in Central Victoria in the period after 1837 or so, but I know they did occur and I am living on the land of a dispossessed people who may have been massacred, or if not,  were "moved on", imprisoned, adopted by various institutions "for their own good", in order to make way for the town of Kyneton where I enjoy a very comfortable retirement.

So I hope you can listen to the clip which Richard sent me this morning, it's an excellent discussion.

Here are two more links concerning the new book Raimond has just released:





Thank you Richard for sending us this discussion.

pt

















Comments

  1. bobbyboyNovember 24, 2023 at 3:15 PM

    Thanks Peter. I loved "Romulus, My Father" when i read it all those years ago and bumped into the book the other day when I was looking for something else, so Rai's been on my radar again. At 77, he is still a very fine thinker and I particularly loved his comments about 'place and connection' and the importance of conversation. These very human aspects of embodiment are also something of a balm to so much of the detached, non-human AI explosions in the air today – another topic we've also talked so much about.
    So glad it hit a nerve with you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousNovember 24, 2023 at 3:36 PM

      Yes, it touches a lot of nerves Richard... more later,
      pt

      Delete

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