Where is our Obama? | |
| Where is our Aboriginal Obama? This question has been asked many times since that magic day on 4 November 2008 when Democrat Barack Obama became the first black American to be elected President of the United States of America. A number of Australians are now asking who will be the first Aboriginal man or woman in Australia to rise to such a high position in politics. While many of us are left wondering, perhaps we should take a moment to reflect on a few things. Firstly, it should be pointed out that the original people of the United States are Native Americans. Barack Obama is African-American. While not belittling this historic and inspiring occasion, or the oratory powers of Obama, perhaps a better question to ask would be 'who will be the first Native American President?' Comparing the first African-American President with a future Aboriginal Prime Minister is worthwhile, but it is a little off the mark. A far more accurate comparison would be between Aboriginal leaders and Native American leaders, of whom very few have risen to political heights. In Australia, two Aboriginal men have been prominent politicians (Neville Bonner and Aden Ridgeway). Several other Aboriginal men and women have held, or currently hold, ministerial positions in State and Territory governments. In comparison, in the United States to date, Charles Curtis, from the Kaw Reservation, has been the highest placed Native American in Federal Government. He was the 31st Vice-President of the United States of America in 1930s under President Herbert Hoover. This political achievement is a very important milestone in world history that is rarely taught. Its significance should never be underestimated. Why African-Americans have achieved more politically than Native Americans or Aboriginal Australians is an interesting question. Is it because of the oratory powers of people like Martin Luther King who drove the civil rights movement, or is it due to the militant efforts of people such as Malcolm X? Some people may say that militant African- Americans were prepared to fight and die for their recognition and equality, while other minority groups around the world have not been ready to fight or die. Perhaps in Australia, some of us have been too divided to achieve solidarity or have been too focused on being the 'victim' to inspire and empower our people to greatness. Perhaps the reason that so many African-Americans and Native Americans have risen to political prominence is because they took up the opportunities that they were given and made the most of these opportunities. Maybe it was because the civil rights movement in American saw the establishment of a 'knowledge nation' of university-educated black people that led to employment in prominent positions in society where they could influence change. Regardless of the barriers in Australia, we can overcome them. In Australia we have some catching up to do before our country has an Aboriginal Obama. But can we achieve this milestone? By supporting other Aboriginal people who have political aspirations to better the whole of Australia – YES WE CAN! NEIL WILLMETT* Brisbane, Qld *Neil Willmett is an Aboriginal businessman and a regular facilitator in the Commonwealth Government Indigenous Men's Leadership Program. He will be attending Barack Obama's Inauguration Day celebrations in Washington on 20 January 2009 to watch Obama become the 44th President of the United States. | |
Thursday, 1 January 2009
A voice in the Koori Mail
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Twittering Gaza in December 2008
#Israel allows some 100 lorries of humanitarian supplies to cross into #Gaza in coordination with Palestinian Authority
at http://twitter.com/ajgaza
If Rumsfeld and Ashcroft go before the courts, can Bush, Blair and Howard be far behind?
Some of the best news to come out of 2008 turned up in News Week earlier this month.
The United States, like many countries, has a bad habit of committing wartime excesses and an even worse record of accounting for them afterward. But a remarkable string of recent events suggests that may finally be changing—and that top Bush administration officials could soon face legal jeopardy for prisoner abuse committed under their watch in the war on terror.
In early December, in a highly unusual move, a federal court in New York agreed to rehear a lawsuit against former Attorney General John Ashcroft brought by a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar. (Arar was a victim of the administration's extraordinary rendition program: he was seized by U.S. officials in 2002 while in transit through Kennedy Airport and deported to Syria, where he was tortured.) Then, on Dec. 15, the Supreme Court revived a lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld by four Guantánamo detainees alleging abuse there—a reminder that the court, unlike the White House, will extend Constitutional protections to foreigners at Gitmo. Finally, in the same week the Senate Armed Service Committee, led by Carl Levin and John McCain, released a blistering report specifically blaming key administration figures for prisoner mistreatment and interrogation techniques that broke the law. The bipartisan report reads like a brief for the prosecution—calling, for example, Rumsfeld's behavior a "direct cause" of abuse. Analysts say it gives a green light to prosecutors, and supplies them with political cover and factual ammunition. Administration officials, with a few exceptions, deny wrongdoing. Vice President Dick Cheney says there was nothing improper with U.S. interrogation techniques—"we don't do torture," he repeated in an ABC interview on Dec. 15. The government blamed the worst abuses, such as those at Abu Ghraib, on a few bad apples.
High-level charges, if they come, would be a first in U.S. history. "Traditionally we've caught some poor bastard down low and not gone up the chain," says Burt Neuborne, a constitutional expert and Supreme Court lawyer at NYU. Prosecutions may well be forestalled if Bush issues a blanket pardon in his final days, as Neuborne and many other experts now expect. (Some see Cheney's recent defiant-sounding admission of his own role in approving waterboarding as an attempt to force Bush's hand.)
Now the Bush Administration may still be able to sidestep American laws, but one has to wonder if the day is drawing nearer when the Iraqi Government will have the courage to take the United States, Britain and Australia before The Hague on the basis of breaches of international law and war crimes.
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