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embarrassing truths .....

embarrassing truths .....

from Crikey ….. 

Camden: a tale of cowardice and mortgage belt bigots 

Alex Mitchell writes:  

Some thoughts on the shameful collusion between cowardly politicians, the craven media and mortgage belt bigots to stop the building of a Muslim school at Camden on the outskirts of Sydney. 

In 1867, a mentally deranged man named O’Farrell fired a shot at the Duke of Edinburgh during a royal visit to Sydney. The assassination attempt caused a wave of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic bigotry across the 80-year-old British penal colony. 

In his book, Life and Progress in Australasia, published in 1898, British MP Michael Davitt wrote:  

No class or race deplored the act more than the Irish citizens, to whom O’Farrell’s name linked him in racial association. But their indignation, outspoken and sincere as it admittedly was, availed them nothing.  

They were assailed in the most cowardly manner by the anti-Irish and anti-Catholic press, and (Sir Henry) Parkes was the chief accusing voice in openly charging plots and conspiracies, in line with O’Farrell’s act, against the Catholic people of Australia. 

Parkes revelled in this wave of bigotry, and rode upon it in a tempest of disgraceful popularity. Irish workers were dismissed from workshops, Irish girls discharged from domestic service, and a reign of political and party terror swept the country. 

Parkes paid for a spy to be placed in O’Farrell’s cell to take down further alarmist ravings from the condemned man. “On the strength of these concocted tales of plots to murder the Royal Family and others, he (Parkes) and a renegade Irish Catholic succeeded in passing a treason-felony bill for NSW, which, among other provisions, proposed to imprison anyone who should refuse to drink the Queen’s health!” 

Any similarities with the lynch mob politics at Camden overnight are simply a matter of history. 

So where is Premier and Minister for Citizenship Morris Iemma, MP for Lakemba which has one of the highest number of Muslim residents in NSW? 

Where is Planning Minister Frank Sartor, another high achiever from a migrant Italian family? Will he use his powers to declare the school of “state significance” and approve it as he has done with so many other controversial developments? 

What of Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, who has benefited from huge federal and state hand-outs to fund Catholic schools and the World Youth Day? Perhaps some spiritual guidance?  

And what of The Great Mandarin-speaking Helmsman Himself, Kevin Rudd, or is he too busy with an art-burning project flowing from his 2020 summit? 

Oh, and by the way, we know where the Rev Fred Nile is: the upper house MP and leader of the Christian Democrats is leading a campaign to stop new Muslim schools in Sydney and for a 10-year ban on all Muslim immigration. 

However, he recently welcomed messianic Israeli Eliyahu Ben Haim to parliament house to showcase the DVD Praying through the land which "assists Christians throughout the world to become aware of the specific prayer needs of the Messianic community in Israel". 

In one sense, last night’s unanimous council vote, accompanied by the delirious cheers of the local burghers, confirms Camden's place in the nation’s European history. In 1803, sheep entrepreneur John Macarthur was given 5,000 acres to raise sheep there, resulting in the dispossession of the Aborigines and their eventually wiping out. 

In recent years, Lady (Mary) Fairfax won approval to rezone her late husband’s sweeping estate at Camden's Harrington Park and turn it into residential homes for hundreds of settlers from the crowded city. It was a nice deal: she is reputed to have made several hundred million dollars. 

Today’s commercial radio talkback was crackling with the “good news” that Camden had been “saved”. Nice to know that after an uplifting interlude when John Howard was turfed out of office, the nation is back on track, and the Labor Party is ruling from east coast to west coast and from north to south.

NSW Police Media Release .....

NSW POLICE MEDIA NEWS RELEASE

SATURDAY MAY 31 

Hundreds of decadent, pornographic or otherwise unsuitable works of art have been seized in raids on galleries and bookstores around NSW. Strike Force Picasso was initiated to investigate illegal art works in December, comprising detectives from the Art Crime Squad, the Dog Unit and Ballistics. 

Yesterday evening, as a result of further inquiries, undercover police disguised as left-wing intellectuals attended premises in Paddington and Newtown at which it was alleged illegal images of an offensive nature were being trafficked. Detectives seized posters or prints depicting the following: 

 Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe, by Edouard Manet. Believed to be by a French person, this work shows a naked young woman picnicking outdoors with two bearded but fully clothed male suspects described as of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern Origin. 

 David, by Michelangelo Buonarroti. This depicts a statue of a nude male youth with a penis which can be clearly seen and which police will allege is inflammatory to persons of a homosexual nature. 

 Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, by May Gibbs. Apparently an Australian work of pedophile pornography, this book contains numerous images of naked infants, some with their genitalia barely covered by a gumleaf, others in which children's buttocks are clearly displayed. 

The Commander of the Art Crime Squad, Detective Superintendent Ernst Hanfstangel, congratulated Strike Force Picasso officers involved in the investigation. 

"It is not easy for police to be confronted by such filth, but I warn artists and purveyors of similar shocking materials that we will not hesitate to act to protect the community," Superintendent Hanfstangel said. 

Members of the public or female newspaper columnists offended by unsuitable or criminal works of art are urged to contact Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000. 

The moral panic over the Bill Henson photographs is wondrous to behold. It reminds you of Lord Macaulay's remark that there is "no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality". Or Heinrich Heine's prophecy that "where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people". 

Roasting Henson at the stake might be taking things a bit far in this enlightened era. A few years in Goulburn Supermax should be enough to teach him some decency, as the Daily Telegraph amusingly calls it. Thank heavens we have Kevin Rudd and Morris Iemma to speak up for hard-working Australian families. The Premier was especially quick to declare that the show at the Oxley9 gallery was "offensive and disgusting," no mean feat of art criticism given that he was actually in China at the time.

Of politicians, only Malcolm Turnbull, the millionaire eastern suburbs rake and libertine, was brave enough to say that he felt uncomfortable at the sight of police swooping on art galleries. If that doesn't disqualify him from the Liberal leadership, nothing will. Liberals like police swoops, Malcolm. 

Heine, incidentally, was referring to the Spanish Inquisition burning the Koran, an act of literary criticism they might like to consider at Camden now the council has kiboshed the proposal for the Muslim school there. 

I particularly enjoyed the apple-cheeked old granny who was angry that the ABC had turned up to the council meeting. "Why is Channel 2 against Australia ?" she hissed to the camera, eyes like hot coals. 

Another wild-eyed woman, a Pauline Hanson lookalike in a hat festooned with Australian flags, insisted she was not racist. Why, she even had a Turkish friend. "It's just that Camden is a white area," she explained. 

Those two women, and all right-thinking Australians, will be delighted the NSW police are shielding us from more than offensive art. 

Earlier this month, the Counter Terrorism Task Force turned up one evening at the Norton Street branch of the Leichhardt Council Library to inspect an exhibition about Palestinian refugees. It was called Al-Nakba, or The Catastrophe, which is how the Palestinians refer to their expulsion from their lands by the Israelis 60 years ago. There were, I understand, some confronting photographs of pain and misery. 

But not any more. After a quiet word from the coppers, Leichhardt Council cravenly closed the show even before it had opened to the public. Why we do not know. Was there a grave threat to national security? A police spokesperson told the Herald the officers were from a "community contact unit c they just had a quick chat to the librarian". 

The weasel explanation from the mayor, Councillor Caroline Allen, was that there had been "a breakdown of managerial process". 

With the police now so busy censoring art galleries and exhibitions, the Premier must act. NSW urgently needs a super-ministry for Police and the Arts, like the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice they have in Iran. He's not a member of the Labor Party, but I am sure the Reverend Fred Nile would accept the job. 

POLICE WARNING POPE SHOULD LEAVE OFFENSIVE IMAGES AT HOME

Given the current climate, it might be best if Pope Benedict were to leave his offensive pictures at home when he arrives for World (Catholic) Youth Day in July.  

From memory, the Vatican museum is choc-a-bloc with nude imagery. Greek wrestlers and naked cherubim - or putti, as they are known - are everywhere. It is a pedophile's paradise, a police officer's nightmare. We would not want the pontiff arrested by customs people at the airport. 

In the spirit of tolerance, I was delighted to see that Bishop Anthony Fisher, the man in charge of Youth Day, has decided to tone things down a bit. 

"We've been in discussion with the Jewish community," Bishop Fisher said. "We're very conscious of the fear some people might have that enacting the Passion of Christ could incite anti-Semitic feelings and so we've had a long dialogue about how we can minimise any risk of that. 

"We want to make it very clear to people that the Passion of Christ celebrated in the Stations of the Cross is not intended to be, is no excuse for being, an attack on anybody and certainly for nurturing any prejudices that people may have in their hearts." 

Excellent. Perhaps they could junk the crucifixion altogether and have Pontius Pilate sentence Christ to counselling and a stretch of community service. 

Mike Carlton