A recommended list of books by Australian authors dealing with population and sustainability, demise of the WASPs, Aborigine issues and one of particular interest now that the ALP has abandoned border protection. The publishers have websites with long lists with a conservative and conservationist bias, some way out, but worth a browse. For a good laugh instead: Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby is a DVD starring the most politically incorrect teacher you can ever imagine. Hilarious. Great value at $14.99 at ABC bookshops and shop.abc.net.au.
Overloading Australia. How Governments and the media dither and deny on population.
Envirobooks. 248 p.p. AUD$19.95 from good bookshops or www.envirobook.com.au
Mark O’Connor and William Lines provide a text which is both an encyclopaedia and a bible on the subject of Australia’s overpopulation. Their book provides all the statistics on facts, trends and costs that the reader will need to become informed on the topic. The book records how governments, the media and environment groups have dithered, distorted and obfuscated. Both the media and green groups have been muted by the playing of the ‘race card’ by business interests.
Dick Smith's Population Crisis. The dangers of unsustainable growth for Australia.
Allen and Unwin 240 pp. AUD $19.99
Dick Smith takes on the hot topic of our times, arguing that Australian and global population growth carries enormous risks, dangers that none of our political parties is prepared to address.
The Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail
Paperback p.p. 316 $28
Available from the Heritage Bookshop or www.alor.org/library , or from the Social Contract: www.thesocialcontract.com, or from Amazon.
A prophetic novel written in 1973. A gripping read. How weak democracies demonstrate lack of will to resist. a massive third world boat invasion of Europe.
The Howard Legacy - displacement of traditional Australia from the professional and managerial classes
by Peter Wilkinson
Will Australia follow the pattern of the SE Asian nations and have a dominant Chinese minority? Go to The Howard Legacy button in The Independent Australian website.
The WASP Question: An Essay on the Biocultural Evolution, Present Predicament, and Future Prospects of the Invisible Race by Andrew Fraser
Arktos 422pp. Try bookshops; £20 at www.arktos.com, US$23.11 at Amazon.
Agree or disagree with Andrew Fraser’s prescriptions, his combination of originality and scholarship deserves to find a place in literature dealing with ethnicity, nationalism, constitutional history, biosocial science, and advocacy for Anglo-Saxon ethnic identity and biocultural continuity. Be prepared to read, reread and ponder.
Saving The Antarctic Wilderness by Dr J.G. Mosley
Envirobooks 128 pp. $19.95 Available jandemosley@bigpond.com or www.envirobook.com.au
Saving The Antarctic Wilderness focuses on the the Madrid Protocol of 1991 (keeping intact the Antarctic Wilderness intact) and on the pivotal role played by the Australian conservation movement in delivering this outcome.
Above all it is about the power of the community and the possibility of winning through against all obstacles when one sticks to ones ideals and refuses to compromise.
Aboriginal Self-Determination; the Whitman's dream by Gary Johns.
Connor Court Publishing, connorcourt.com. ISBN 9 781921 421860 324 pp. AUD$29.95.
Reviewed by Roger Hughes,
The granting of land rights and some degree of self determination were supposed to be of benefit to Aborigines, as Gary Johns points out, they actually made many of their problems much worse. Exacerbating these are the debilitating effects of welfare and attempts to recreate traditional Aboriginal culture.
Johns takes on some controversial issues and does not flinch from uncomfortable truths. Many Aborigines want to keep their ancient culture but also receive the economic benefits of the white man’s culture. Wealth is created with modern skills, not with those of the hunter gatherer. Aborigine culture provided belief, but not the rationality that gave us modern science and and its benefits.
Aborigines have been integrating into the broader Australian culture, more or less successfully, for for two centuries, but over the last 40 years separate development has often resulted in violent and degraded lives, heavy welfare dependence and child abuse. The gap between indigenous and non-indigenous unemployment is worst in remote ares. Aborigines in remote areas may have aspirations, but the opportunities are not there and for that matter their abilities are not adequate. Education, skills useful in a modern economy and even competence in the english language are poor and sometimes non-existent.
Trying to respect Aboriginal culture and set up separate communities has been suggested as a solution, but seems to have worsened their problems/ Nevertheless governments avoid asking uncomfortable questions for fear of being labelled racist. Meanwhile we are presented with an idyllic picture of a traditional society that in reality had elements of savagery as much as nobility. Not surprisingly many present day Aborigine communities are characterized by violent crime, corruption, abuse of power and a pretty miserable existence. White people are generally blamed for these problems and in a way we should be criticized -for being so ingenuous and ignorant of economics as to think separate development and Aboriginal empowerment would work.
Commissions and reports have led us further astray, the Royal Commission into Aborigine Deaths in custody being a particularly bad example. There had been a spike in the number and rate of deaths in custody in 1987, but this was more marked among non-indigenous than indigenous prisoners. Four years after the Report was handed down there was a noticeable rise in the rate and number of indigenous deaths in custody.
The commonly made recommendation that alcohol, or at least alcohol beyond a certain strength, be banned from Aborigine communities has had limited success. Initially bans result in a drop in violence, but after a while the level of violence returns to a level almost as bad as before the ban was introduced. Imprisonment of offenders seems to have little effect on conditions inside jails are often better than outside. Some young Aborigines seem to consider jail time as a rite of passage.
The Federal Government’s intervention and the introduction of income management in the Northern Territory seems to be having some positive effects. The intervention led to more community stores selling healthier food, school nutrition programs, thousands of child health checks, extra police, the setting up of safe houses to provide protection from violence and a number of benefits made possible by an increase in government funding. A lot of those placed on income management said that they would like to stay on the scheme if it was made voluntary.
Johns has shown courage in attacking ideas that have become dogma amongst the politically correct for some years now. We can hope that his book has a positive impact on how Australia handles problems in indigenous communities.