Early in my life I observed a pattern in the behaviour of siblings within families (including mine). I soon realised that the cultural traditions of the tribe had a vast influence. This was also reflected in the pattern of relationships within the extended family. In spite of our diaspora, and our modernisation in a Western social mould, my family’s cultural values and practices continue to prevail according to past patterns. This pattern does not apply to me, as the odd fellow whose personal destiny took him offshore – to be left, for reasons known only to the spirit world, in cultural isolation.
I therefore had to seek a new pattern in Australia, with its limited history. Spiritually and in terms of cultural values, but not practices, I am as I was conditioned in my youth: I remain a communitarian. Materially, operationally, I now reflect the behavioural pattern of a Western society created by immigrants. My family is thereby nuclear. The pattern of extended family relationships in Australia varies from an attenuated Anglo-Celt pattern to the more cohesive Mediterranean/Asian pattern. Regrettably, mine is the former. Yet, we are all enveloped by the ethos of individualism, the singular characteristic identifying the 4 major Western immigrant nations created by Europeans (including the British).
Tragically, the pattern of successful European settlement in the 4 lands garnered by invasion does not yet include the indigene as a viable component of society. However, progressively, the Anglo-Australian accepted the post-war European immigrants who had been needed to build up the infrastructure; then the Asians (who had provided a necessary colour to the nation) in order to present Australia as part of Asia (but no one believes that); and finally a smorgasbord of other coloured people, proving that we are now indeed multicultural.
The current pattern of governance of the nation, and of the states compromising this federation, suggests that we are being governed, wall-to-wall, by a minority linked by faith. The pattern of administration has traditionally featured leaderships of a comparable colouration.
My book ‘Musings at Death’s Door,’ recommended by the US Review of Books, sets out quite a few other patterns about life in the Antipodes. This book was endorsed pre-publication by a senior academic in history and politics. It is available at Amazon Kindle as an ebook at US $2.99. It is also bicultural in perspective.
In this book, I contrast the subservience of our political class with the ‘stand-tall’ attitude of the old Anglo-Celt worker. I also highlight our status as a satrapy of the USA, while advocating that we become its next state. I decry the ‘professional ethnic’ who seeks the retention of ethno-cultural purity; I point out that, by the third generation, immigrant grandpa’s cultural values would have been moderated through a societally-integrating education. Thus, we would all be Australian, with our own culture.
I also touch upon empires gone and going! Religion and spirituality are also examined, together with politics. Readers may appreciate a long-term perspective which advocates ethno-cultural integration bound by a shared belief in the spiritual.
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 