massacre coverup?

[miriam_e]

Those of us in Australia can watch a documentary on SBS at 8:30pm on Tuesday 14th January. It details an investigation into the disappearance of about 3,000 Taliban soldiers who surrendered. There is some evidence they may have been trucked out into the desert by the Northern Alliance and massacred under the watchful eye of US troops.

Comments

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I never really learned much human history, and Australian history was actually avoided by all when I was young. We were taught about a smattering of explorers here, but almost nothing more. School history was about England and Europe. I think this comes from the commonly believed shame of being originally simply a convict colony and once people got here, of deliberately exterminating the local populations. The first part turns out to be wrong; There were far more immigrants wanting to settle in the new lands than convicts. The second part was so well forgotten, the tragic extent of it is only starting to come to light.

Any history of Australia has to take into account the deeply amnesiac nature of Australia. We are one of the few countries on the planet that doesn't have a history -- because we have deliberately forgotten it. For a long time we had a "cultural cringe" and didn't consider ourselves worthy of anything. Our current Prime Minister, bless his nasty little heart, is trying to reverse that so that we can be prey to all the evils of patriotism, but it is my hope that it will never really catch on.

I don't know where you would find historical accounts of Australia. I am sure they exist. I think you would have to read them with a careful eye though. I doubt they would be on the net... though you might find some. You would probably have to go to the major state libraries. I noticed recently that Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org), particularly the Australian mirror of it, has some Australian historical books up there (for free download). Two books by Watkin Tench, "The Expedition to Botany Bay" and "The Settlement at Port Jackson". But they are individual accounts of particular times, not larger histories.

One good thing about this lack of a past is that it means Australia has grown up as a part of the whole planet -- it gives many people here a strange outlook. We have become citizens of the world instead of Australians in a funny kind of way. But our politicians are just as backward and conniving as ever. I found out recently that our little neighbor, East Timor, has been cheated out of most of its oil reserves by our politicians. Australians are renowned for disliking and distrusting our politicians. There is very good reason for this.