Our salmon from Alaska
We read blogs from Brooklyn
Wear fashion from Milan made in Pakistan. We even eat Israeli couscous without a thought of where our political views lie - it is really fluffy and more versatile than that 'ordinary' couscous.
Our news - only local will do.
When a plane crashes in the fog of Papua New Guinea we give faces and names to those Aussies who died. When a wave crashes over our Pacific neighbours the Aussies missing are given voices, faces, beamed into our lives. The locals who hosted these Aussies are left without names, they are presented as statistics and so the news reel moves on, as easy as a shake a sauce bottle.
In this increasingly interconnected world why do we disconnect from humans born in other lands. Why is an Aussie life more deserving of dignity than any other. Where is our own dignity in that?
An Aussie solider dies after choosing to 'serve', his mates carry him, the Government sends a plane and a flag to bring him home, the PM puts aside shit-storms and the opposition "leader" rises from his burning bed to solemnly comment on the loss.
The Afghan mother buries another child, sometimes in the very spot where the child fell. Her pain is given no face but that seen by her palms as she cradles her head. Her dignity is not shown to the world another 'casualty' in a war she did not choose to live amongst, cannot escape from and goes on living within.
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