- Reaction score
- 1,725
- Points
- 1,160
Hey Wes, what do you think of this:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/westview/story/2472557p-2864556c.html
Sunday, January 9th, 2005
And this Just In, From the Far, Far West...
Sunday, January 9th, 2005
By COLIN CAMPBELL
WE'VE done it again, betrayed our national adolescence by worrying that we're not the U.S.'s best friend. Worse, we've leapt to the conclusion that Australia has assumed this role.
How silly. We scarcely register on the U.S.'s radar, even in the best of times. Only the United Kingdom comes close to maintaining any consistent acknowledgment of its existence from the Americans. You would think we wanted to become a nation of David Frums. Our angst over Australia's ascendancy among the ignored has prompted me to reflect upon how little we know about this bundle of contradictions "Downunder."
My wife and I spent December in Australia visiting family and friends. I first went to Australia in 1986. Arriving in Melbourne, I was stunned at how "English" the country appeared: The airport architecture aped Heathrow, right down to the signage; I noted several older British-made cars during the drive into the city (no salted roads); and the structures along the way reminded me of London's workers' cottages punctuated by drab 1960s functionality. The British-made cars have since passed on; freeways and tunnels crisscross both Sydney and Melbourne; and distinctive, Australian-flavoured office towers dominate the skylines.
On the train going to a far southern suburb of Sydney, we saw many of the old visuals: curved Victorian stations lined with flowers and white iron fences, cottages squeezed flush against the right of way, and a scorching sun -- the latter, of course, not being English in the least.
And therein rests the first contradiction. Australia parts company with the United Kingdom and, for that matter, the U.S.'s blue states because it encounters extreme weather only on the upper end of the thermometer. (Sorry Winnipeg, I can't discuss Australia without touching on this theme.) Its climate plays on its national psyche in myriad ways.
For instance, even though it is a declining Christian culture (the Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney has just had to assign several of his priests to two parishes each), Australia still celebrates Christmas clinging to lavish accoutrements evoking the Northern winter. Yet, yuletide has become a godless, indeed hugely alcoholic season -- more a national Calgary Stampede than even a pagan celebration of the winter solstice.
This brings me to another contradiction. Australia's residual Christianity has led it to consider itself the "deputy sheriff" (Prime Minister John Howard's term) in its region, which includes the world's largest Islamic nation, Indonesia. However, it appeared to us that the entire "Fleet East" was in port, docked next door to the waterfront apartment we rented for our stay.
I made a point of asking every cab driver whether this meant that Christmas would be a good time to invade Australia. Each answered that the Americans would come to the rescue if anybody tried such a deed. Trust the Americans. They don't even take the "Chrissy hols" off! (I can see the headlines three days after the capture of Darwin: "World awaits statement from Crawford: Bush mulls response to Indonesian invasion of northern Australia; Rice says first priority still democracy in Iran.")
Soon after our arrival, I spent a week in Canberra as part of research I am doing on "transformation" of the U.S., U.K., Canadian and Australian militaries. I thought that I would leave envying the Australians for demonstrating much clearer views of their military future than the Canadian Forces could ever muster. But one finds little open debate in Australia over the challenges to which its military should be working. Notwithstanding the idle Fleet East outside our window for over a week, defence of the homeland still takes centre stage as it did even during the Cold War. Indonesia remains the unmentionable in this equation -- very much like China serves as "Red" in U.S. future games centred upon a possible peer-competitor.
Still, Australian rhetoric has become much more aggressive in its view of self-defence -- in ways that resonate with its deputy-sheriff role. The government has just adopted a policy -- highly dubious both with respect to international law and enforceability -- whereby any vessels coming within a thousand miles of this island must declare specifics such as the nature of their cargo and their destination. In 1999, Australia led a U.N. action in East Timor that facilitated that country's independence from Indonesia, and it currently pursues interventions in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Nonetheless, apart from East Timor, Australia's activities in the region have remained small-scale -- consisting of largely symbolic ventures prompting jingoistic headlines. The day after the murder of an Australian peacekeeper in the Solomon Islands, Rupert Murdoch's The Australian (Dec. 23) screeched, "Troops rush to Solomons". In fact, only 100 troops joined 160 soldiers and 147 police already there.
We find even less follow-through with Australia's big-noting its future expeditionary role in support of coalitions responding to crises outside its region. An ever-shrinking minority of Canadians derives shame from our failure to support the Americans in Iraq. Perhaps more deservedly we lament our meager contributions of late to UN-peacekeeping. But, at the low, low price of 200 soldiers currently assigned to the "Coalition of the Willing" in Iraq and a solitary member of the military working in Afghanistan, Australia has become America's best friend! Give me a break.
John Howard just became the second-longest-serving prime minister in Australia's history. Like all superannuated politicians, he has survived by being a consummate illusionist. He has worked exquisitely at making Australians, now inveterate North American wannabes, think they have become as tight as first cousins with the U.S.
For example, the government has relentlessly pressed reform of higher education -- purportedly following the American system. In a leap of faith, it introduced two tiers of students -- those whose marks merit state-subsidized tuition and those who pay the full market cost (the differential can be upwards of $10,000). Imagine the plight of a medical or law professor at the highly prized University of Sydney teaching courses made mostly of superlative performers, but also populated by students who would have enrolled in much less-selective programs had not their parents been wealthy.
One part of the government's mind wants to privatize the university system. However, it surely must realize that the feeble performance of Australian philanthropy -- significantly worse than the Canadian counterpart -- has left all universities bereft of any substantial endowments. It now has launched an effort to wrest administrative responsibility for the universities from the state governments on the grounds that this would make the system more competitive internationally. The government must have economic rivalry with Singapore in mind, as even China, not to mention the United States, allows a certain degree of regional autonomy in the university sector.
Canada's greatest weakness regarding the United States has us constantly trying to differentiate ourselves from our neighbours to the south, even when it doesn't make sense. Australia provides the mirror-image of this foible. Rather than trying to straighten out the Victorian curves in its train stations and high streets modelled on cow paths, it should celebrate their survival.
Colin Campbell is Canada Research Chair in U.S. Government and Politics and Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. His 2003 book with Michael Barzelay of LSE on strategic planning in the U.S. Air Force has just won the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration Brownlow Book Award.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2005 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/westview/story/2472557p-2864556c.html
Sunday, January 9th, 2005
And this Just In, From the Far, Far West...
Sunday, January 9th, 2005
By COLIN CAMPBELL
WE'VE done it again, betrayed our national adolescence by worrying that we're not the U.S.'s best friend. Worse, we've leapt to the conclusion that Australia has assumed this role.
How silly. We scarcely register on the U.S.'s radar, even in the best of times. Only the United Kingdom comes close to maintaining any consistent acknowledgment of its existence from the Americans. You would think we wanted to become a nation of David Frums. Our angst over Australia's ascendancy among the ignored has prompted me to reflect upon how little we know about this bundle of contradictions "Downunder."
My wife and I spent December in Australia visiting family and friends. I first went to Australia in 1986. Arriving in Melbourne, I was stunned at how "English" the country appeared: The airport architecture aped Heathrow, right down to the signage; I noted several older British-made cars during the drive into the city (no salted roads); and the structures along the way reminded me of London's workers' cottages punctuated by drab 1960s functionality. The British-made cars have since passed on; freeways and tunnels crisscross both Sydney and Melbourne; and distinctive, Australian-flavoured office towers dominate the skylines.
On the train going to a far southern suburb of Sydney, we saw many of the old visuals: curved Victorian stations lined with flowers and white iron fences, cottages squeezed flush against the right of way, and a scorching sun -- the latter, of course, not being English in the least.
And therein rests the first contradiction. Australia parts company with the United Kingdom and, for that matter, the U.S.'s blue states because it encounters extreme weather only on the upper end of the thermometer. (Sorry Winnipeg, I can't discuss Australia without touching on this theme.) Its climate plays on its national psyche in myriad ways.
For instance, even though it is a declining Christian culture (the Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney has just had to assign several of his priests to two parishes each), Australia still celebrates Christmas clinging to lavish accoutrements evoking the Northern winter. Yet, yuletide has become a godless, indeed hugely alcoholic season -- more a national Calgary Stampede than even a pagan celebration of the winter solstice.
This brings me to another contradiction. Australia's residual Christianity has led it to consider itself the "deputy sheriff" (Prime Minister John Howard's term) in its region, which includes the world's largest Islamic nation, Indonesia. However, it appeared to us that the entire "Fleet East" was in port, docked next door to the waterfront apartment we rented for our stay.
I made a point of asking every cab driver whether this meant that Christmas would be a good time to invade Australia. Each answered that the Americans would come to the rescue if anybody tried such a deed. Trust the Americans. They don't even take the "Chrissy hols" off! (I can see the headlines three days after the capture of Darwin: "World awaits statement from Crawford: Bush mulls response to Indonesian invasion of northern Australia; Rice says first priority still democracy in Iran.")
Soon after our arrival, I spent a week in Canberra as part of research I am doing on "transformation" of the U.S., U.K., Canadian and Australian militaries. I thought that I would leave envying the Australians for demonstrating much clearer views of their military future than the Canadian Forces could ever muster. But one finds little open debate in Australia over the challenges to which its military should be working. Notwithstanding the idle Fleet East outside our window for over a week, defence of the homeland still takes centre stage as it did even during the Cold War. Indonesia remains the unmentionable in this equation -- very much like China serves as "Red" in U.S. future games centred upon a possible peer-competitor.
Still, Australian rhetoric has become much more aggressive in its view of self-defence -- in ways that resonate with its deputy-sheriff role. The government has just adopted a policy -- highly dubious both with respect to international law and enforceability -- whereby any vessels coming within a thousand miles of this island must declare specifics such as the nature of their cargo and their destination. In 1999, Australia led a U.N. action in East Timor that facilitated that country's independence from Indonesia, and it currently pursues interventions in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Nonetheless, apart from East Timor, Australia's activities in the region have remained small-scale -- consisting of largely symbolic ventures prompting jingoistic headlines. The day after the murder of an Australian peacekeeper in the Solomon Islands, Rupert Murdoch's The Australian (Dec. 23) screeched, "Troops rush to Solomons". In fact, only 100 troops joined 160 soldiers and 147 police already there.
We find even less follow-through with Australia's big-noting its future expeditionary role in support of coalitions responding to crises outside its region. An ever-shrinking minority of Canadians derives shame from our failure to support the Americans in Iraq. Perhaps more deservedly we lament our meager contributions of late to UN-peacekeeping. But, at the low, low price of 200 soldiers currently assigned to the "Coalition of the Willing" in Iraq and a solitary member of the military working in Afghanistan, Australia has become America's best friend! Give me a break.
John Howard just became the second-longest-serving prime minister in Australia's history. Like all superannuated politicians, he has survived by being a consummate illusionist. He has worked exquisitely at making Australians, now inveterate North American wannabes, think they have become as tight as first cousins with the U.S.
For example, the government has relentlessly pressed reform of higher education -- purportedly following the American system. In a leap of faith, it introduced two tiers of students -- those whose marks merit state-subsidized tuition and those who pay the full market cost (the differential can be upwards of $10,000). Imagine the plight of a medical or law professor at the highly prized University of Sydney teaching courses made mostly of superlative performers, but also populated by students who would have enrolled in much less-selective programs had not their parents been wealthy.
One part of the government's mind wants to privatize the university system. However, it surely must realize that the feeble performance of Australian philanthropy -- significantly worse than the Canadian counterpart -- has left all universities bereft of any substantial endowments. It now has launched an effort to wrest administrative responsibility for the universities from the state governments on the grounds that this would make the system more competitive internationally. The government must have economic rivalry with Singapore in mind, as even China, not to mention the United States, allows a certain degree of regional autonomy in the university sector.
Canada's greatest weakness regarding the United States has us constantly trying to differentiate ourselves from our neighbours to the south, even when it doesn't make sense. Australia provides the mirror-image of this foible. Rather than trying to straighten out the Victorian curves in its train stations and high streets modelled on cow paths, it should celebrate their survival.
Colin Campbell is Canada Research Chair in U.S. Government and Politics and Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. His 2003 book with Michael Barzelay of LSE on strategic planning in the U.S. Air Force has just won the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration Brownlow Book Award.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2005 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
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