A unified culture vs. multiculturalism (Part 5)

When it became clear that Australian governments were seeking to trade empowerment for ethnic votes, a claim arose that English is not our national language. I suggested that mandarin would soon be appropriate.

A de-feathered senior public servant then reportedly flew around the country in an attempt to develop a language policy. In a nation which has no population policy, no long-term economic policy, no stable education policy, and no urban planning (eg. schools and public transport)? The Minister grounded him (so it was bruited) by reminding him that only Ministers make policy!

“We are more multicultural than any other country in the world” (a meaningless assertion) is now being replaced with “We are multicultural,” in an effort to espouse ethnocentrism. An example: the Morris Dance was resuscitated in Canberra by those who claimed that the British too are an ethnic community! This occurred in a nation controlled by the descendants of British founders, and now dominated by Aussie Vaticanites.
More recently, a proposal that immigrant business signage should be in English as well is being rebuffed – because “we are multicultural.” Ethnicity rules, right?

Some years ago, Thailand and Indonesia required that immigrant origins and languages were not to be publicly displayed. Residents of Chinese origin continued to dominate the economies of these two nations (as they do in the rest of south-east Asia); but they took their identity from their nation-of-residence. National pride rules!

Unfortunately for the ambitious, ethnic empowerment expires with the death of the individual. Those whom I view as ‘professional ethnics’ are also being undermined (possibly unconsciously) by people who share their cultures. The latter make the necessary cultural and ideational adaptations, in order to become an integral part of a nation of substantially variegated origins; and to relate to others as equals, and access the equal opportunities thus available. Successful cultural blending follows.

For example (and it is a wonderful example), young Muslim women, covered head to foot, are playing sport, and being trained as life-savers. My faith in our young is growing and glowing. Those Muslim women, covered in toto, who had a swimming pool closed to all others (including non-Muslim women) when they collectively entered the pool, and their overt arrogance, should have no platform for their prejudice.

Cultural evolution is unavoidable, no matter how recalcitrant their community controllers might be. In some cases it might take decades before morally-crumbling control-structures give way.

When I was the Chief Ethnic Affairs Officer (for the state of Victoria) in Melbourne in the early 1980s, I saw Australia’s future. Three teenage boys, dressed identically (only the logos on their T-shirts were different), and expressing identical speech forms, but with their faces and heads indicating 3 different geographical (and cultural) origins in Europe were on my tram. They were Aussies, yet visibly the sons of post-war immigrants.

I was reminded of my children’s generation. Some of their friends were, as my children are, (in part) second-generation Aussies. Some of the parents, like me, were immigrants, and thereby first-generation Aussies (there being no second or subsequent generation immigrants, only Aussies). A shared education, buttressed by school teachers who commendably acculturated them to being one people, sport, socialisation, habituation, and commonsense, made them one people.

Ethnic empowerment, politically based upon an unwarranted emphasis on ethno-cultural differences, can have no future. Defending our national sovereignty will be difficult enough, especially with the insidious influence of dual nationality.

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A unified culture vs. multiculturalism (Part 4)

A unified national culture implies a proudly-held sovereign nation, does it not? An unfettered sovereignty has, however, gone the way of the ‘dodo’ bird (non-existent). Having created their nations based on consanguinity (blood or genes), a shared culture (included a language), and a defined territory, European colonialism ran rampant in splitting trial boundaries all over the globe. This was in order to protect their respective spheres of interest.

Then the creation of the U.N. and its hydra-headed agencies (with their non-legally binding Conventions), and followed by trade agreements, a bonding unified national culture has to survive as best as it can. That is the external reality.

There can also be (will be?) home-grown blemishes on a national culture. In Australia, the ‘founding fathers’ permitted (predominantly) Irish Roman Catholics to establish and control their own schools. I have been told reliably that school children daily manifested that chasm representing sectarian religious prejudice. Even at the end of the twentieth century, I heard comments displaying this bilateral disdain from retirees.

A more recent blemish has come from some Islamicist immigrants (how were they selected?) Unlike most of our Muslim entrants, who adapt to the institutions, behavioural practices, and social mores of the nation they chose to enter, some seek sharia law. Perhaps, as I wrote sardonically in an anthology published by the Multicultural Writers Association of Australia, the proponents of this claim requiring Australia to adapt to the immigrant “miss the sharia law they never had.” Strangely, my article was then mentioned in a Malaysian journal.

As well, does suburban Australia experience strong sand-storms (up to head-height), thereby requiring full body-cover? Should multiculturalism policy be viewed as partly responsible for the claim by some immigrants that they have a right to practise in Australia all the cultural practices they imported from tribally-controlled territories, when such practices are not part of, or anathema to, a Western cultural milieu?

I instance clitoridectomy, child marriages, multiple wives, instant divorce available to the whim of husbands, a ‘walking tent’ on suburban streets, and niqab-wearing drivers of motor cars on busy city streets.

Do the proponents of such cultural practices see themselves as only campers in Australia, rather than adapted and integrated citizens? Will they then reject Western cultural values such as official welfare and other public handouts in order not to taint their cultural autonomy?

The good news is that the great majority of Muslims, like immigrants of other faiths, adapt their behaviour to prevailing practices amongst an evolving population. I observed all this in my role as Chief Ethnic Affairs Officer for the Department of Immigration & Ethnic Affairs in the State of Victoria.

Cultures too evolve! And that happens also in nations whose then cultures are sought by some immigrants to be imposed onto the nation in which they chose to live. An integrated nation represents the future!

A unified culture vs. multiculturalism (Part 3)

There is evidence that both sides of politics in Australia once sought the chimerical ethnic vote. The waiting period for residents to apply for citizenship was reduced from 5 years (out of 8) to 3 years by one government; and then to 2 years by the other.

This happened some time after my expert team had carried out the first review of the Australian Citizenship Act of 1948 (in the early 1980s). Our recommendations were accepted. Reflecting our basal position that citizenship involved a commitment to the nation, I had recommended that only a citizen can govern, administer, or fight for Australia.

My suspicion (in my retirement) was that the motivation for seeking the ethnic vote had been ethnic empowerment. Well-settled Australians of European stock had convinced the federal government to set up a parallel settlement –assistance program, at considerable cost, in the 1970s. Their claim had been that immigrants had to be taken by taxpayer-funded ethnic community employed social workers to needed services, both public and private, instead of being shown where to go. How had earlier arrivals, from 1948, managed?

The immigrants, then, were primarily European and Levantine; Indo-Chinese refugees and the preferred East Asian immigrants had not arrived. Whether the latter 2 communities could self-manage, on arrival, needed settlement services, is highly questionable.

Thus, long-established European communities received grants, in spite of a scarcity of new intakes. Late in the 1980s, second-generation Aussies argued for the continuation of these grants to assist ageing immigrant populations, which had already integrated into the nation.

Then, a superstructure of ethnic community organisations evolved nationally, through federal government facilitation and funding. Federal public servants (Anglo-Celt, with one exception – me) provided necessary briefings for their conferences. State government too set up advisory bodies. The unspoken emphasis was on ethnicity retention. The thrust of these federal and state bodies, then, was opposed to ‘mainstreaming,’

Mainstreaming involves the delivery to all Australians, equably, of all necessary services, by both public and private agencies, irrespective of country of origin or ethnicity of clients. Why was that not acceptable to ethnic community leaders?

Quaintly, federal multiculturalism policy encouraged ethnic identification, through the retention by ethnic communities in Australia of those aspects of their imported cultures which were not inconsistent with Australia’s cultural values – just as we were merging into one integrated people. Was ethnic empowerment enhanced by this emphasis?

Reality was recovered when Prime Minister Howard and NSW State Premier Carr jointly and sensibly replaced multiculturalism policy with a policy of celebrating a shared Australian citizenship. The residence requirement for citizenship was also raised to 4 years.

Then the value of citizenship was diminished by the availability of dual citizenship – except for those who seek to be members of Parliament. Who would want to be governed by politicians owing part-allegiance to a foreign government?

Does a degree of ethnic empowerment continue through ministers of multiculturalism, advised by appointed ‘ethnic’ advisers? Would this be compatible with a substantially-integrated Australia, which is also colour blind?

A unified culture vs. multiculturalism (Part 2)

Multiculturalism describes ethnic diversity. It is not prescriptive. Multiculturalism policy, however, sought to manage multiculturalism. What was there to manage? Who were the experts in human behaviour who were to carry out this policy? How did they plan to go about it? What triggered this attempted intrusion into our lives?

I had grown up in British Malaya. There, initially, a wide variety of ethnic communities co-related with one another with mutual tolerance. Then, my generation, through a shared education, socialisation, sport, habituation, and a common language, blended into one people.

From the late 1940s, in Australia, we Asian students, confident in our cultural heritages, glided over the displayed racism of the White Australia policy; except that, in the 1950s, I was denied employment, although a graduate of Melbourne University, initially as a psychologist (“too black”) and then as an economist (not acceptable as an executive by workers in the private sector).

Comparably, also in Australia, wanted (selected) European immigrants (also from the late 1940s) ignored the name-calling (the kindest term was ‘wog’) and other signals of cultural disdain. I found that the Europeans has respect for Asian heritages (they generally sought our company).

Both coloured and white European foreigners eventually achieved acceptance by Anglo-Aussies – simply by being ourselves; the Europeans also being made welcome initially by Good Neighbour Councils. Until the 1970s, governments were not involved in cross-ethnic (cross-cultural) relations; because there was no need for such involvement.

Good community relations evolve – and they did. Again, habituation, supplemented by the ‘fair-go’ ethos, and a widening of a global perspective by younger generations (including the call of fusion cuisine) contributed to integration (but not assimilation). All of us continue to contribute to the evolution of a unified national culture (as a way of life), reflective of our pride in the value and sovereignty of our nation.

While day-to-day behaviour is very much the same everywhere, we immigrants are free to pray as we wish; to wear the clothes and eat the food reflecting our heritage; celebrate our tribal festivals; and to retain those cultural practices which are not inconsistent with the law, institutional practices, societal values, and behaviour norms of the host population. Did we not choose to enter (to live) in Australia?

We are thus required to accept Australia’s Constitution and related institutions of government; gender equality; freedom of speech; and equal opportunity. We need to also respect the nationally-accepted cultural values of other cultural communities in Australia. Of course, imported cultural practices which are traditionally anathema to the host people do need to be discarded. That is, immigrants adapt to the nation they chose to enter; not vice versa.

Australians of a wide variety of origins were relating well to one another when government – which has no business in our beds, wallets, and minds – introduced multiculturalism policy to manage multiculturalism. Why? Was it the ethnic vote?

A unified culture vs. multiculturalism (Part 1)

Behind the rigid ramparts of the White Australia policy, the hope of creating a white nation in which no man would disdain any kind of work offered fulfilment. The understandable fear of a white nation set in ‘coloured seas’ and surrounded by foreign faiths would have, in my view, fuelled this hope. A few coloured immigrants incidentally or accidentally within Australia did not appear to have been seen as a threat to this policy.

The Australian Aborigines, who had unknowingly tarnished the imagined terra nullius in the southern ocean, were not expected to be a problem: they would be bred out through ready access to the necessary wombs, and the resulting whitish children removed and placed within white families. Together with able-bodied men, they would all provide free labour wherever they were. ‘Blackbirding’ (a.k.a. slavery) from Pacific Islands added to the workforce where needed.

It was indeed a great achievement for the diverse Anglo-Celt tribes from the British Isles to eventually becoming transformed into an Australian people. Despite a prolonged and somewhat bitter sectarian religious divide, which was not completely dissipated until the arrival of much-needed able-bodied European immigrants, Australian men volunteered to protect Britain in two World Wars.

The cement which bonded the diverse British tribes in Australia was obviously based upon a shared culture (a way of life), a common language, and (presumably) a keen awareness of ‘them’ (coloured people) and ‘us.’

Then, most admirably, there developed the fabled ‘fair-go’ ethos – a very rare feeling for the welfare of fellowmen within any nation. This ethos underpins much of Australia’s socio-economic policies.

The massive immigration program introduced in the late 1940s, which brought in European labour (with some initial preference for Roman Catholics), did not erode this unified culture. The wonderful initiative of the Good Neighbour Councils, followed by a massive official program of settlement assistance (of which I was once part) sought to ensure the successful integration of massive waves of immigrants into Australia’s cultural ethos.

No ’ghettos’ were formed. Any embers of imported tribal prejudice were speedily and quietly extinguished. It was only in the late 1970s and 1980s that a faulty multiculturalism policy arose.

Chinese quotes (2)

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. (Laozi, 6th Century philosopher)

Amongst the flowers is a pot of wine;
I pour alone but with no friend at hand;
So I lift the cup to invite the shining moon;
Along with my shadow, a fellowship of three
(Li Bai, Tang Dynasty poet)

“Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.” (Mao Zedong, political leader)

(Comment: Thoughts worth contemplating)

Chinese quotes (1)

“I’d rather do wrong to others than allow them to do wrong to me!” (Cao Cao, Han Dynasty warlord)

“At fifteen, I aspired to learning. At thirty, I established my stand. At forty, I had no delusions. At fifty, I knew my destiny. At sixty, I knew truth in all I heard. At seventy, I could follow the wishes of my heart without doing wrong.” (Kong Fu Zi)

“No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat; as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat.” (Deng Xiaoping, de facto leader of People’s Republic, late 1970s to early 1990s)

(Sound advice, from the past to the present)

China’s contribution to human civilisation: a summary

“China has been the source of many innovations, scientific discoveries and inventions.[1] This includes the Four Great Inventions: papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, and printing (both woodblock and movable type). The list below contains these and other inventions in China attested by archaeological or historical evidence.

The historical region now known as China experienced a history involving mechanics, hydraulics and mathematics applied to horology, metallurgy, astronomy, agriculture, engineering, music theory, craftsmanship, naval architecture and warfare. By the Warring States period (403–221 BC), inhabitants of the Warring States had advanced metallurgic technology, including the blast furnace and cupola furnace, while the finery forge and puddling process were known by the Han Dynasty (202 BC–AD 220). A sophisticated economic system in imperial China gave birth to inventions such as paper money during the Song Dynasty (960–1279).

The invention of gunpowder during the mid 9th century led to an array of inventions such as the fire lance, land mine, naval mine, hand cannon, exploding cannonballs, multistage rocket and rocket bombs with aerodynamic wings and explosive payloads. With the navigational aid of the 11th century compass and ability to steer at high sea with the 1st century sternpost rudder, premodern Chinese sailors sailed as far as East Africa.[2][3][4] In water-powered clockworks, the premodern Chinese had used the escapement mechanism since the 8th century and the endless power-transmitting chain drive in the 11th century. They also made large mechanical puppet theaters driven by waterwheels and carriage wheels and wine-serving automatons driven by paddle wheel boats.

The contemporaneous Peiligang and Pengtoushan cultures represent the oldest Neolithic cultures of China and were formed around 7000 BC.[5] Some of the first inventions of Neolithic China include semilunar and rectangular stone knives, stone hoes and spades, the cultivation of millet, rice, and the soybean, the refinement of sericulture, the building of rammed earth structures with lime-plastered house floors, the creation of pottery with cord-mat-basket designs, the creation of pottery tripods and pottery steamers and the development of ceremonial vessels and scapulimancy for purposes of divination.[6][7]

The British sinologist Francesca Bray argues that the domestication of the ox and buffalo during the Longshan culture (c. 3000–c. 2000 BC) period, the absence of Longshan-era irrigation or high-yield crops, full evidence of Longshan cultivation of dry-land cereal crops which gave high yields “only when the soil was carefully cultivated,” suggest that the plough was known at least by the Longshan culture period and explains the high agricultural production yields which allowed the rise of Chinese civilization during the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600–c. 1050 BC).[8] Later inventions such as the multiple-tube seed drill and heavy moldboard iron plough enabled China to sustain a much larger population through greater improvements in agricultural output. ”

(From Wikipaedia)

A few Chinese inventions (Part 2)

A few more of the far-reaching Chinese inventions which changed the world
(From ‘Humans are free’ article “22 Chinese inventions which changed the world”)

Roads and Relay Hostels: Roads and relay hostels, or inns, greatly improved communication and trade throughout the vast land of China. By the late 700’s, inns offered horses and food to travelers, and provided places for government officials to stay for the night during long journeys.

The system of roads allowed government inspectors, tax collectors, and postal messengers to move long distances. Messengers delivered mail across hundreds of miles. Merchants could carry trade goods such as rice, tea, silk, and seafood without fear of bandits.

Sciences: Astronomy, physics, chemistry, meteorology, seismology, technology, engineering, and mathematics can trace their early origins to China.

Scholars routinely discovered scientific principles and invented new ones. A number of notable astronomical discoveries were made prior to the application of the telescope. For example, the obliquity of the ecliptic was estimated as early as 1000 BC by Chinese astronomers.

From 600 AD until 1500 AD, China was the world’s most technologically advanced society. The history of science and technology in China is both long and rich with many contributions to science and technology.

In antiquity, ancient Chinese philosophers made significant advances in science, technology, mathematics, and astronomy. The first recorded observations of comets, solar eclipses, and supernovae were made in China.

Ancient Chinese scientists already possessed knowledge of alchemy. When it comes to scientific achievements and developments in ancient China, alchemy would be placed in the first chapter of the history book of chemistry.

According to the ancient Chinese Taoist concept of making dan, an energy cluster in a cultivator’s body, collected from other dimensions, in the furnace, once dan is formed, it has the capability of changing any tangible substance into gold or silver.

Dan can also transform the physical body and bodies in other dimensions, thus promoting a cultivator to transcend time, space, and the human body and enter into higher levels of cultivation.

The first seismograph, credited to the Royal Astronomer of the late Han Dynasty, Chang Heng, was designed as a cast bronze vessel with nine dragons facing different directions, each of which held a ball in its mouth.

Any seismic activity detected by the vessel would prompt the balls to fall into the corresponding mouths of the nine frogs sitting below the dragons, which would point to the direction of the earth tremor.

This natural measuring tool did not appear in the West until approximately 1,500 years later, where it has since been instrumental in measuring and predicting earthquakes in places like California and Mexico.

Smallpox Inoculation:  A Daoist monk introduced the technique of inoculation to the physicians in the capital. By the 16th century it was widely practiced against smallpox in China. The technique was unknown in Europe until the 1800’s, when it was introduced by Doctor Louis Pasteur.

Spinning Wheel:  Silk was first made by the Chinese about 4000 years ago. Silk thread is made from the cocoon of the silkworm moth, whose caterpillar eats the the leaves of the mulberry tree. Silk spinners needed a method to deal with the tough, long silk threads.

To meet the increasing demand for silk fabric, the Chinese developed the spinning wheel in 1035. This simple circular machine, easily operated by one person, could wind fine fibers of silk into thread.

The invention used a wheel to stretch and align the fibers. A drive belt made the wheels spin. Italians who traveled to China during the Mongol dynasty brought the invention to Europe in the 14th century.

Stirrups:  The invention of the stirrup was timely and appreciated. Before its appearance, riders had to hold on tightly to the horse’s mane to avoid falling off, in addition to having to mount the horse by a flying leap or a pole vault.

This invention, one that did not appear in the West until 400 years later .and led to the development of another unique Chinese invention: water polo.

Umbrella:  In written records, the oldest reference to a collapsible umbrella dates to the year 21 A.D., when Wang Mang had one designed for a ceremonial four-wheeled carriage.

The 2nd century commentator Fu Qian added that this collapsible umbrella of Wang Mang’s carriage had bendable joints which enabled them to be extended or retracted.

I-Ching and Yin Yang : Written by King Wen and his son, Duke Chou, nearly 3,000 years ago, the ancient book of “I-Ching” (Book of Transformations) to this day provides guidance to those seeking the true organization and balance of the Universe’s natural elements.

The “yin” and the “yang,” representing all the possible sets of naturally paired opposites, is incorporated into this philosophical work, which has become part history and part eternal spiritual guide.

A few Chinese inventions (Part 1)

A few of the far-reaching Chinese inventions which changed the world
(From ‘Humans are free’ article “22 Chinese inventions which changed the world”)

Abacus   The Chinese developed the abacus, a counting device, around 100 AD. By the 1300’s it was perfected and given the form it still has today

Alcohol   Newly unearthed evidence suggests that we have the Chinese to thank for inventing alcohol. Analysis of 9000-year-old pottery shards found in the Henan province revealed the presence of alcohol, 1000 years before inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula, previously believed to be the first brewers.

Canals and Locks   Imperial China’s construction of waterways to connect different parts of its vast territory produced some of the world’s greatest water engineering projects

Clock   One of the greatest inventions of the medieval world was the mechanical clock.

Compass   Recognized in Chinese as Si Nan, this early version of today’s compass came in the form of a two-part instrument, the first one a metal spoon made of magnetic loadstone, the second one a square bronze plate, which featured, in Chinese characters, the main directions of North, South, East, West, etc., symbols from the I-Ching oracle books, and the finer markings of 24 compass points with the 28 lunar mansions along the outer edge

Crossbow  The use of the bow and arrow for hunting and for war dates back to the Paleolithic period in Africa, Asia, and Europe. It was widely used in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, the Americas, and Europe until the introduction of gunpowder.

However, over two thousand years ago in China, the crossbow was invented as an innovation to the basic bow and arrow that extended the use of mechanical hand weapons throughout the world.

Gunpowder and Fireworks   Gunpowder is the first explosive substance mankind learnt to use and also one of the four great inventions of ancient China.

Iron and Bronze    Coming much earlier than it did in other civilizations; the Bronze Age in Chinese history was especially significant. It was during this period around 3000 BC that Chinese metal workers discovered how to make bronze from copper and tin, producing an easier casting method that allowed them to make sharper cutting tools.

Kite    Two thousand years before the European discovery of flying sails, the first Chinese kites were already in flight.

Movable Sails & Rudder   The Chinese maritime forces, therein including the sailors as well as the shipbuilders, had no comparable equals in the ancient world. They were learned, widely traveled and technically advanced. The Cape of Good Hope, Australia, trade with Africa, a possible landing in the Americas-all of these achievements have at one time or another been attributed to these formidable men.

In addition, the ancient Chinese maritime forces were responsible for the invention of the rudder and watertight compartments for ship’s hulls. Likewise, they are credited with innovating the use of masts and the replacement of the basic square sail with the fore-and-aft rig allowing the ship to sail into the wind.

Musical Breakthroughs   The Chinese court musician Ling-lun created the first reed instrument, the bamboo pipe, sometime between 3000 and 2501 B.C. By 2500 B.C., Chinese music grew more complex, employing a five-note scale.

In subsequent dynasties, the development of Chinese music was strongly influenced by foreign music, especially Central Asia..

Paper, Printing and Publishing   In almost every respect, the Chinese were at the forefront of developing the printed word. In 105 A.D., Ts’ai Lun invented the process for manufacturing paper, introducing the first use in China.

Paper Money   The Chinese invented paper money in the 9th century AD. Its original name was flying money because it was so light it could blow out of one’s hand. As exchange certificates used by merchants, paper money was quickly adopted by the government for forwarding tax payments.

Porcelain   The invention of porcelain was China’s great contribution to the world civilization.