Hard economic times ahead
At the moment eBay seems to be drying up as a source of cheap CDs. The sellers have been jacking up the price of post and packaging to offset the fear of their CDs going too cheaply. Is this one of the signs of the great economic depression which is about to engulf the developed countries of the world.
But perhaps with a touch of irony I did receive a soundtrack CD yesterday via eBay. The title was
American History X. The film was an Academy Award nominee in 1998 but became engulfed in controversy and disappeared until last year.
The plotline involved American neo-nazis, blacks, violent racial murders, imprisonment and its sordid implications, then an all too late epiphany. I've only seen an excerpt. I'm not sure if I want to see the rest.
However I have known for a long time that the film had an outstanding set of musical compositions by English composer Anne Dudley. When I saw the CD come up on eBay I was pretty pleased that I managed to nab it for $4.25.
Ten years later it seems the US is still plunging into an economic and social black hole.
American History X may turn out to be a taste of much more of the same to come, not only in the US, but elsewhere, including Australia. Racism and violence thrives in tough economic times.
I think that for much of this we can blame the greed of the real estate industry, the banks and the politicians who enjoy too many free lunches. Now they are discovering they've gouged the common peoples too much and are facing the descending whirlwind which will be the fruit of their labour.
Here in Australia we are certainly facing tough times. There is a whole generation of young people who can't afford a home, and if they do manage to get a loan, they will still be repaying it when they retire. Food prices are starting to go through the roof too.
I recently came across some notes I wrote in 1991, well before blogs had been invented. Make of it what you will:
Aborigines, miners and the wealth of the nation
As the economic recession deepens the mining industry is once again feeling the pinch and now desperately look for scapegoats upon whom they can heap blame for their own ineptitude. The two principal recipients of the miners’ ire are the environmentalists and the Aborigines.
At a recent Institute of Public Affairs breakfast in Perth a spokesman for a major iron ore miner described Aboriginal religious beliefs as being “superstitious mumbo jumbo” and “nothing short of loony” (The West Australian 19/7/91:3). They are of course the words of a bully, and a loser, whose anger was generated by the defeat of the mining industry’s intentions for Coronation Hill by a group of three hundred people belonging to the most underprivileged socioeconomic class of people in Australian society.
The mining industry has undoubtedly played an important role in Australia, and its representatives never cease to remind us of the fact. The same industry also claims that it engages in rigorous consultation with people who will be effected by its activities, and yet we still have unenlightened public statements coming forth from industry leaders who describe the beliefs of people they consult as “mumbo jumbo”.
It would seem that with such attitudes existing in the minds of the industry leaders, that the same opinions probably percolate right down through the corporate structure, and it would be a rash employee indeed who dared to disagree with such a bigoted boss.
It is hardly surprising therefore that there are so many incidents of confrontation between Aborigines, environmentalists and mining companies in Australia.
The State Government is now well and truly on side with the miners, and both apparently both now view the successful exploitation of other mineral deposits such as are at Yakabindie and Marandoo as some form of panacea to cure the dreadful financial ills which the politicians have guided us into. The Deputy Premier Mr Taylor, speaking at the same breakfast as the mining representative said that such projects created hundreds of jobs and would earn export income for the state.
It is rhetoric which must have been uttered hundreds of times by many politicians, and if it is so beneficial we must ask ourselves why do they and their mining friends still seem to have so much trouble convincing the rest of the population.
The mining industry does not have a good record in contributing to the long term well being of Australia.•Most of the minerals it extracts are processed to a stage just enough to allow them to be sold at bargain basement prices and shipped overseas, where smarter nations convert them into the type of products which we then clamour to buy.
Mining towns in Australia soon collapse when mining activity ceases because no meaningful alternative manufacturing infrastructure exists to contribute to their economic survival.
The historical maps of Australia contain hundreds of names of now non-existent towns where some mineral was ripped from the ground, ostensibly in the name of jobs and export income. Not infrequently the only legacy is a polluted unusable landscape.
The people who work in the mining towns frequently exist in a love hate relationship with the company that owns them. They often endure their situation with clenched teeth in order to make as much money as possible in the shortest time and then get out, usually beating a hasty retreat back to the city. Those who stay and try to make a go of it are eventually dumped by the companies like so much overburdon when things get tough.
Mr Taylor has described the Aboriginal protests at Yakabindie and Marandoo as a financial threat to most Western Australians. Perhaps however the real financial threat to this nation comes from those short time entrepreneurs who seek to flog off our mineral wealth overseas at bargain prices, and then never, ever put anything of worth back. Paul R. Weaver - 1991.
© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.
Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my
YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my
Panoramio website or my
Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on
Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writerClick here to see our backyard.Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
