Commensality 2: another perspective

Miss Eagle has received an email from a friend giving another perspective to the previous post.

It is pleasing to see that this sort of material is going up on a blog. Nevertheless I'm seeing it on a slightly broader canvas. I was appalled when I heard that Howard is to give such a reception, trading on the event and the media hype.

However I think he is covering himself by saying he is bringing to the reception all the people who did the work of getting the men out, to applaud their work. And he is quite cognizant of what a demanding task they undertook under so much uncertainty about what was likely to work and be safe; and done with enormous strain on their bodies and emotions. We all need to be focused on all this achievement as well as on the survivors, their endurance and their ability to keep their pecker up, knowing quite well, with the best will and action in the world they might not be found or they might not be rescuable. I just don't like Howard using it to aggrandize himself. Better, I'm sure if Howard kept out of it except to send letters of appreciation to all those who planned and executed the rescue and leave it to the ABC to let us meet all or most of these people telling their own stories on, say, Australian Story or Four Corners. Of course there is not much chance of the ABC doing a story as Seven or Nine will have tied up the Beaconsfield two.

So you see, I think the whole thing is tied up with the nature of the rescue and that it went on for two weeks as much as it is about the fantastic endurance of the survivors. I don't think that survival per se is the only focus. This is a let out clause for saying these two survivals are different, apart from who the people are.

He has a crest of a wave here and he is going to ride it, and write off giving other receptions just as he will write off giving State Funerals to other eminent people by articulating some aspect unique of the contribution of Kerry Packer.

So whilst I agree that the whole issue of industrial safety is an absolute must for enquiry and finding ways of helping people of Beaconsfield who lose their source of work if the mine is closed, nevertheless I have voted No 3. It is a mistake to have the reception at all, in and of itself.

Thank you, my friend.

Commensality: who will be invited to table with John Howard

Australia has been euphoric this week because of the rescue of two Tasmanian miners. Miss Eagle has not posted on this, dear Reader, because there has been so much coverage elsewhere. But on the same day as the two Tasmanians were rescued and the media were all a-jostle with chequebook journalism, at the very tip of Australia three Torres Strait Islanders were rescued without the fanfare of the press or any sort of Winnebago village as Beaconsfield experienced. The three men from Mer (Murray Island - the island of Eddie (Koiki) Mabo) showed great endurance and resourcefulness. The two Tasmanians were underground for two weeks, blown off course by Cyclone Monica. The men from Mer were lost for three weeks. They lived on raw squid. They formed jerry cans into paddles to work their way back into signal distance for their mobile phones to be useful in calling for help.

Hours prior to the rescue of the men from Mer, Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced that there would be a Canberra reception for the Tasmanians and there would be an ex gratia payment for the third miner, who did not survive. Miss Eagle, dear Reader, was concerned at this announcement. What happens with the next survival story? What happens with the next workplace fatality? What will be available from the Prime Minister's largesse for those who come after? Then within a very short space of time there is an outstanding story of survival in a very remote part of Australia involving three black men.

John Howard calls himself a cricket tragic. He turns up at all sorts of sporting events and basks in the glory of national sporting teams. Miss Eagle thinks that John Howard is nothing less than a celebrity tragic and wants to surround himself - without it being too obvious of course - with those in the public eye. Of course, if there is a good cover story so he does not appear too crass that's great. This time compassion, concern for the miners and the town of Beaconsfield, will be the story. And the men from Mer who live within a very basic economy, who are not close to the facilities of a major town, who frequently take their lives in their hands as they cross the Torres Strait from island to island - this time to pick up a sporting team - what of them? Will they - in true Christian tradition - be invited to the banquet?

Now is a time for discernment. Now is the time to assess the values of modern Australian society. Do we only identify with what comes under the lens of a television camera? Do we only get concerned or emotionally involved when the media mediate the event? Do we think that an event has no importance if there is no media attention? Can we judge for ourselves the worth of an invent without the media telling us what to look at, what to think, what to feel?

Australia it is up to you.

Do the men from Mer turn up in Canberra with the terrific Tasmanians?

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