Our Dispatch today was first published on 24 April 2011. Still the racist Intervention continues with white Australia’s complicity, the deliberate destruction of language is ongoing. A look at Argentina.
¿Que tal?
The first gramophone record that came into my father’s possession in the 1920’s was by Dajos Bela. It was entitled Sehnsucht. I believe Sehnsucht is the German word closest to the Spanish word añoranzas that I mentioned in my previous Dispatch. (Actually 13 September in PCBYCP)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSkvAlVeYfw
In the 1950’s my parents had an unforgettable evening at El Galeón, which featured Dajos Bela y su orquesta. My parents had a long conversation with Dajos Bela (in Dutch and German). At dad’s request they played the ‘Kaiser Waltzer’.
http://youtu.be/g7YE7xFNdhE
Dajos Bela was responsible for attracting many European Jewish musicians to Argentina before the shit hit the fan. He is buried at a Jewish cemetery in Buenos Aires.
So a dispatchee informs me the Welsh word for añoranzas is hiraeth.
Señor Isasmendi had been sacked from the Argentine education system. He was anti-Peronist. So he struggled with a private academy. Señor Isasmendi was an inspiring teacher. Many a Palomar child was launched into a lifetime of eager learning by Señor Isasmendi. Once a year, we all trotted off to external exams in Buenos Aires which we passed with flying colours. One of the subjects we were examined in was Justicialismo (Peronist dogma). I vaguely recall us entering a room one by one in which we were asked perplexing questions about Justicialismo. We didn’t have a clue. We passed with flying colours.
Years later my father explained that although Justicialismo was compulsory, Señor Isasmendi had refused to teach it. He had bribed the examiners.
Latin America has been stereotyped by the sajones (English speakers) as being a thoroughly corrupt, incompetent, backward part of the world.
Remote Australian Aboriginal communities are stereotyped as dysfunctional and depraved.
As with all stereotypes a certain element of where there is smoke there is fire applies. Señor Isasmendi had acted corruptly, no cabe duda. I’m glad he did.
Stereotypes often result from ethnocentric value-judgements. A refusal to look into the mirror.
I have often pondered why the Assimilationists are so determinedly dogmatic in pushing their agenda. The best explanation I can come up with is that they are afraid to look into the mirror held up to them by societies with different world views. They are intent on destroying the mirror, rather than face up to what they see in it. We will all be the poorer for it, if you ask me.
http://youtu.be/dt0uK3VXCoQ
So what about corrupt, incompetent, backward Argentina?
Argentina has a subsidised public transport system that Australian authorities can only dream about. My nostalgic train trip to the town of my childhood cost me the princely sum of two pesos ida y vuelta (return) equivalent to 50 Australian cents.
A free-enterprise, highly competitive and efficient luxury coach system criss-crosses the interior, and would be the envy of any Australian state. The colectivo ticket to Rosario (a 300Km.trip) cost a quarter of what it costs an equal distance from Alice Springs to Yuendumu on the twice weekly Bush Bus.
As for its treatment of its indigenous population, in the short time I was there, I got the impression that the situation on the ground isn’t much better than that in Australia. The more I look into it the more I get the impression that the screwing of indigenous peoples is as universal as climate change.
In a speech at the Congress I attended, Jose Maria Iñet (a Mocovi indian) explained the current status of los Pueblos Originarios in Argentina in relation to “Rangelands”. He saw his main role to be that of an interpreter. Interpreting an indigenous world view to mainstream Argentines.
… these knives that we dance with awaken the spirits of this land….. http://youtu.be/Enm1da-0lB4
Mid-way through his speech he suddenly grinned like the Cheshire Cat “en un ratito estaban distraidos, y introducimos a los derechos de los pueblos indigenas en la constitución….” (For a moment they paid no attention and we snuck in indigenous rights into Argentina’s constitution). That was in 1994.
Reconocer la preexistencia étnica y cultural de los pueblos indígenas argentinos. Garantizar el respeto a su identidad y el derecho a una educación bilingüe e intercultural; reconocer la personería jurídica de sus comunidades, y la posesión y propiedad comunitarias de las tierras que tradicionalmente ocupan; y regular la entrega de otras aptas y suficientes para el desarrollo humano; ninguna de ellas será enajenable, transmisible, ni susceptible de gravámenes o embargos. Asegurar su participación en la gestión referida a sus recursos naturales y a los demás intereses que los afectan. Las provincias pueden ejercer concurrentemente estas atribuciones.”
Artículo 75, Inciso 17 de la Constitución Nacional.
I’ll do my best in translating it:
To recognise the ethnic and cultural pre-existence of Argentine indigenous societies (in other words a rebuttal of Terra Nullius). To guarantee respect of their identity and their right to an intercultural and bilingual education; to recognise the legal status of their communities and the possession and communal ownership of the lands they traditionally occupy, and regulate the granting of other lands sufficient for human development; none of these lands will be sold or transferred or be subject to liens or caveats. The participation in the management of their natural resources and other interests that affect them will be ensured. The provinces may jointly exercise these powers (obligations?).
In practice these glorious words may be no more meaningful than Kevin Rudd’s Apology turned out to be in hindsight.
… no one saying what they mean… http://youtu.be/PrSoKnwIku0
but one thing is certain, the Northern Territory Emergency Response (the Intervention) would have been unconstitutional in Argentina, as would the NT Dept. of Education’s “4 hours English only” edict. The current push to force Aboriginal societies to become less communal, and embrace the mainstream ideal of individual ownership would also be unconstitutional in Argentina.
But then the “dirty war” (Argentina 1976-1983) didn’t exactly meet the requirements of their constitution either.
Jose Maria Iñet invited a group of us into his home one evening, he sang a Mocovi song. Navaya, a delegate from Tanzania, had us all singing a Masai song. Jose Maria and I sang Los ejes de mi carreta…
http://youtu.be/nY-EXKzaLqc
Chau,
Franklin