Ka tsatsi le leng, e 'ngoe ea libaesekopo tseo ke li ratang haholo e ile ea koaloa. Liboto li ile tsa nyolohela ho art-deco Valhalla e Sydney, e 'ngoe ea tse ntlehali lefatšeng ka ho hlahisa litokomane tse matla tsa lipolotiki. Ho haella ha moferefere ho ka 'na ha bonahala ho makatsa motseng oo ho thoeng Opera House ea eona e ikhethang e bontša boikhohomoso ba kajeno ba Australia litabeng tsa bonono. Ho e-na le hoo, ho koaloa ho ile ha bontša ho koala ka kakaretso.
Ka sebele Valhalla e ne e le ntho e sa tloaelehang naheng ea Australia e neng e tšoasitsoe ke lequloana la "papatso" hoo molaoli oa Sydney Morning Herald a ka bolelang "karabo" ha se "batho ba bohlale le ba masene" empa "batho ba ka phethahatsang leano la hau". Ka la 9 Hlakola, Mokhatlo oa Tšebelisano-'moho le Tsoelo-pele ea Moruo Paris o phatlalalitse Australia e le moruo o sa laoloeng haholo le oo e leng oa poraefete ka ho fetisisa lefatšeng la bophirima. Ena ke naha e nang le bo-rakhoebo ebile e tsamaisoa. Mohlala o hlakileng ka ho fetisisa ke oa khatiso. Rupert Murdoch o laola hoo e ka bang liperesente tse 70 tsa phatlalatso ea koranta e ka sehloohong. Ntle le merabe e mengata e Khethehileng ea Khaso le marang-rang a seea-le-moea a Mokhatlo oa Khaso oa Australia, mecha e meng ea litaba e bonahatsa Bo-Murdochism le khopolo ea 'maraka e rekisoang ka bongata ho tsoa United States. Lintoa tse makatsang tsa setso tsa tonakholo ea neoconservative, John Howard, li fana ka mohlala oa sena.
Howard believes that “business and sport” are society’s prime movers. The country’s once-respected scientific research laboratories, the CSIRO, have been instructed to take on business sponsors. Almost alone among nations, Australia last year abstained rather than vote for a modest United Nations proposal that members should defend “diversity” in their own cultures – against rapacious great power. When Australia’s leading playwright, David Williamson, likened Howard’s privatised “aspirational” Australia to a cruise ship sailing to the “sobering destiny” of an environmental disaster, his speech was “called for” by the prime minister’s office and a vicious campaign was orchestrated in the Murdoch press. With no political opposition to speak of, Howard’s conquests have been in cultural life, with historiography thrown in. Siding with an unchanging clique of far-right commentators, he has effectively stifled debate about Australia’s bloody colonial past while deriding the “black armband theory of history”: that is, the truth of a genocidal racism that continues to devastate the Aboriginal people. His patriotic, or “put out more flags”, campaign is pure George W Bush. Schools have been ordered to erect flagpoles, and on “Australia Day”, 26 January, which “celebrates” the “settlement” of another people’s country, flags are distributed and often displayed with gormless aggression.
Hona ha ho mohla e kileng ea e-ba karolo ea bophelo ba Australia; MaAmerika a itlamile ka folaga ea bona, empa eseng rona Maaustralia. Re ile ra e bona e le khopotso e bontšang tlhompho ea ba neng ba ile! e ho loana le ho shoa lintoeng tsa boemphera tse ileng tsa baka likoluoa tse ngata haholo tsa Australia, ba ileng ba "etsa sohle se matleng a bona". Puso ea Howard e fetotse tsena tsohle. Moetapele e monyane o rwala folaga ya polasetiki ka becheng ya hae, jwalo ka Bush, mme a bea letsoho la hae pelong ya hae, jwalo ka Bush, mme a matlafatsa setjhaba se itshetlehileng ka morabe, jwalo ka Bush. Le hoja ho hlokomolohuoa ha New Orleans e le letšoao la Bush, nyeliso e bontšitsoeng pele ho Australia ke ea Howard.
Ka “Letsatsi la Australia”, ke ile ka haola lifolakha ho ea Redfern, e leng sebaka sa Maaborijene se ka hare ho toropo, ’me ka keteka seo Maaustralia a matšo a se bitsang Survival Day. “Letsatsi la bona la ho siama le ho ipelaetsa” la pele le ile la tšoaroa ka 1938 ka selemo sa bo150 sa tlhaselo ea makhooa. Banna le basali ba Maaborijene ba fetang sekete ba ile ba e-ba teng sebokeng seo sa pele sa litokelo tsa botho, ka mor’a hore ba hane ho sebelisoa Holo ea Toropo ea Sydney. Letšolo la nako e telele le le bohloko la tokoloho le toka le ne le qalile, ’me ! e mamella, joalo ka boteng bo sa bonahaleng.
Sebakeng sa Redfern Park ka Letsatsi la Pholoho, lifolakha li ne li le ntšo, li khubelu le khauta: mebala ea letlalo la matsoalloa, lefatše le letsatsi. Tlaleho feela eo ke ileng ka e fumana ea Redfern letsatsing le hlahlamang e ne e le ea ntoa e nyenyane, eo ntle ho pelaelo e ileng ea fuoa lipampiri ke mapolesa. Ha lentsoe "Aboriginal" le ka kena lebaleng la sechaba le tlameha ho amahanngoa, moo ho khonehang, le "no-hopers".
In Howard’s Australia, the ultimate “no-hoper” is a sick, terrified, deeply troubled and abused young man called David Hicks. Hicks was a drifter, which was once an Australian type known as a “swagman” and a “larrikin” and lauded by our bush poets and balladeers. In the 1990s, Hicks became a Muslim and drifted through Kosovo, then on to Afghanistan, where he was kidnapped by the Americans and sent to their concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. Not a shred of evidence exists that Hicks fought for al-Qaeda, or is a terrorist. He is a drifter. Yet he is to face one of Bush’s “military commissions”, for which torture is used to extract confessions, and there is no right to cross-examine witnesses, no presumption of innocence and no standard of proof “beyond a reasonable doubt”. Even three of the hand-picked US military prosecutors have withdrawn, arguing that the commission is rigged to secure convictions. Many of Australia’s leading jurists agree.
'Muso oa Howard o boletse, ka mantsoe a mangata, hore David Hicks a ka bola. Ke motho ea se nang tšepo, eseng-Moamerika, ea sa khothaletseng. Beha lifolakha tse ling hape.