All marked trees must be removed. They stand in the way of PROGRESS!
Dear reader,
There’s gonna be a new expression to define environmental, cultural and human bloody mindedness. And that’s “Doin a Juurkan”. Or; ‘Juurkan-around’, to describe the mindset that seeks to destroy for profit rather than any other motive. To “Juurk-off”, implies an organisation with so little respect for indigenous culture, artefact and spirituality it’ll just do it outta spite. Ultimately we’re living in a ‘Juurkan-depleted’ society.
This is not PROGRESS! Looks more like a BLACK-FELLAS CAMP!
Its a bit like government’s who bang on about inclusiveness, and gender representation, and first opportunity they get for buck passing they’ll throw the Sheila under the bus. If they had more respect she’d be ‘a woman’, but Sheila is cultural and embedded. Bit like killing women in domestic violence, another undisputed Australian tradition. That’s the hospital-pass we love in political and corporate governance. Whenever there’s some really serious shit going down, appoint the sheila to the chair. Celebrate your credentials for inclusiveness, then throw her under the bus. In the end it doesn’t matter if its a bus, cliff, or roller coaster. The public and tabloids LOVE IT!
Its exactly the same as public departments who talk of respect for custodians, first nations and then plunder on. Or any corporation that spruiks its credentials for inclusiveness, cultural sensitivity, (whatever the buzz word is), and then just blows away. Its a post-Juurkan era. Before, in the pre-Jurkaan era, they pretended to pay lip-service to the environment and all that jazz. Now the modus-operandi is to keep it quiet and just not get caught.
THIS IS WRONG! Embassies are recognisable by large porticos, Doric Columns and GUARDS WEARING BLACK!
At the base of it is the belief, that somehow, societies, civilisations, not defined by a Pyramid, an Acropolis and a silly book about an old bearded bastard who seeks retribution on human kind is not valid . The over-arching principle of “Juurkanism” is to assume that anything non western or strictly eastern is immaterial, and ultimately of no value. That’s what gave the Directors of Rio, free rein. They’ve learnt their lesson . And in doing so instructed other governments and corporations the value of keeping their operations quiet. Or if you cant keep it quiet, go to New Guinea or Africa where your interests will be preserved through the usual mechanisms of bribery and corruption. Like setting up Uighurstan Concentration camps,( just as the British pioneered in Sth Africa), it’s best to keep quiet and propound the benefits of law, cricket and “playing the game’. It’s a palpable fact that GENOCIDE in any form upsets the genteel classes over breakfast. And besides whatever is done to the poor, the unrepresented and hopelessly romantic, is done FOR THEIR OWN GOOD!!!
That’s why Vicroads determination to defeat a few local indiginies in the Ararat road widening is such a “Juurkanific moment”. Vicroads is saying; “look here youse, we represent progress. With this road duplication, truckies, and bureaucrats will get to some other part of the highway fifteen seconds faster’.
TROUBLEMAKERS WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF MONEY!
You cant argue with that. I mean though these silly bastards kept the landscape intact for over sixty thousand years, can’t beat fifteen seconds. And if you’re in an electric vehicle, that’s fifteen seconds of carbon-free progress. And if you’re the firm who’s doing the contracting, a big multinational like Downer, you get the job, charge what you like and pay no tax. That’s the privileges on- hand for desecrating culture.
Some silly bastard like Bruce Pascoe will tell you that these trees, are the first Australians cultural identity. It’s their churches, museums, and stories. They are the archive of all that’s left. It’s what’s left of their legacy. So they could hand it over to the squattocracy. Who repaid them by rounding them up or just shooting them on the spot in the mid nineteenth century. it’s all they’ve got.
PROGRESS!. In our post Juurkan Budget imbued era, “those who wear the HIGH-VIZ ARE INVIOLATE”!! ( Testimonials Ch;2 V 1V)
But in ‘Jurkaan-time’, they’re FUCKED!
‘Tisk Tisk we all say, forget about everything we say about inclusiveness. Respect dignity for first Australians. But please we implore you, differences aside, we welcome you to the smoking ceremony and welcome to country at the road opening ceremony. Pollies like to look inclusive, and its a good look for the shareholders .
And besides, if we ever we considered these few trees as OUR SHARED LEGACY, and VALID in their own right as markers of a SHARED and DEEPLY VALUED INHERITANCE it’d be a flamin disaster We’d have to re- think our relationship to the landscape and the first Australians FOR EVER! It would be a seismic shift in our understanding. A FLAMIN GREAT DISASTER!
Good thing then that IT”LL NEVER HAPPEN.
Cos that would require imagination.
“Pssst, you’ve got problems with a shovel ready project that’ll give you Cayman Island registered investments a real kick? Having a problem with Native Title and Greenie troublemakers? Send open cheque to Angus’s Cayman Environmental Management Fund, and we’ll have it sorted. For the right planning outcome and at the right price, it pays to be nice”.
And as the other Dan will tell you, “IMAGINATION AINT SHOVEL READY”!