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"As an expatriate Aussie living in the UK I'm frequently struck by the naivete about Australia here in Britain. I'm often forced to inform Brits that Neighbours and Home and Away are not reality tv. When it comes to Australia they think of kangaroos, a funny shaped opera house, sport, and beer. We have all of that and more, it's a vast country, something Brits just can't come to terms with, it has the most extreme climate ranging from baking heat to snow, and a black history.
John Pilger has always been one of my favourite journalists. I remember the first time I saw him was late one night in suburban Heathmont, Melbourne when I turned on the tv to escape a novel I was writing. There was Pilger talking about East Timor and one of the worst examples of genocide, backed by American, British, and Australian military and economic aid. I was rooted to the spot, for years I had wondered about the great Australian silence and you have to live there to understand the Australian silence. Now at last someone had broken the silence and asked the most obvious question, why? Why are we allowing our 'ally' to slaughter civilians wholesale, not only that but we gave them the weapons to do it and closed our eyes.
Pilger is like that, he opens your eyes and for that he has been slandered in the mainstream press and by governments. For good reason, they hate having their lies and duplicity laid out for the world.
A Secret Country is the history we were never told. Back in high school during our year of Australian history we were given an Australian history book. I've forgotten the name of it but it was lamentable. We had two paragraphs about Aborigines and then it was white civilisation, which didn't seem so civilised even then. Pilger has rolled back the curtain to reveal not only Aborigines but also their wars of rebellion and their continued fight against white oppression.
He also uncovers the convict myth to reveal that contrary to popular opinion in Australia, our nation started as a brutal military dictatorship, perhaps that's why we supported Suharto in Indonesia? He covers the sacking of the Whitlam government in 1975, how well I remember the rage that day. My teacher Mr Brown came out and screamed at the kids, 'they've sacked bloody government!' It was not his outburst that angered the school principal, it was because he used the word bloody in front of impressionable kids. Pilger shows how and why it happened, CIA involvement, and American foreign policy demanded he be removed.
He also looks at Hawke, Keating and other likely suspects to shine a light on their sins. We elected a man, Hawke, whose most famous talent I remember was being able to stand on his head and drink a yard glass of beer. No wonder we were doomed.
He also reveals heroes, people who stood up and changed the system and gave women the vote before any other Western nation. We were the first to introduce a minimum wage, child endowment and a thirty five hour week. He praises our ability to absorb different nationalities with a minimum of disruption, for the most part.
If you want to maintain your illusion about Australia and beer drinking sessions and wet tee shirt contests then it's probably a bad book to read. Pilger will shatter your illusions. But if you want to get past the mainstream crap and read about the real Australia then I can't recommend this book highly enough, you will see us warts and all. And let's be honest if we want to avoid making the same mistakes over and over, we first need to recognise our past mistakes.