How many of the people calling for the banning of Australian livestock exports, will forgo holidays in Indonesia (in particular, Bali) by way of protest?
How many Australians care enough to protest loudly about the way prisoners are treated in Indonesian prisons?
How many of the people complaining about Australia’s live export trade, continue to rejoice in the ultra-cheap cost of the clothes they wear and other goods, such as electronic items, made by people so lowly paid they live in abject poverty, unable to afford such ‘luxuries’ as healthcare and education? And aware that the production of these ultra-cheap goods in many instances destroys the health of the people involved in the production, and the environment, in countries where there is no such thing as free healthcare for all or workers compensation?
No-one condones cruelty to animals or people, but this week has been like one mass outing of the Australian suburban hypocrite, a species now so prolific it threatens to overwhelm the whole of Australian society.
It’s so very easy to scream for this that and the other ‘ban’ and change from the safety of a suburban armchair, so that the conscience is cleared and the belief returns that their existence has no negative affect on the planet at all. Note that all the people screaming for change, are calling for a change they do not believe will in any way affect their own personal circumstances negatively. The loss of export income will affect their oh-so-comfortable lifestyle, but the vast majority have not even thought this through – they don’t even know how very well off they are.
The vocal rabble don’t see where their wheelie bin full of garbage is dumped every week. They don’t see the dirty oil wells and coal mines eating into pristine rural land, where the fuel comes from to run their cars, airconditioners, coffee machines, i-phones and flat screen televisions. They don’t see the dust blowing away when their soya bean crop is sown. They don’t see the chemicals sprayed onto the cotton plants to keep bugs from eating the fibres their clothing is made of. They don’t see the hard long hours put in by farmers who grow the food they buy, at the end of their relatively comfortable day in the airconditioned office. Most surprising of all to me, is the fact that the average Australian suburban resident is completely blind to the lack of native plants and animals in their own backyard and the extreme pollution they are surrounded by. Yet they spout on about environmental damage in remote areas.
It has been a most depressing week. The average Australian is completely out of touch with the realities of human existence and completely unaware that conservation is a middle class luxury (I wish it was otherwise, but it is not).
How many of those people kicking up a fuss, have shares in companies (directly or indirectly via super funds) in companies involved in environmentally damaging behaviour? And if it was pointed out to them, how many would exclaim that they were innocent because they did not know? The comments in online blogs are vitriolic in the extreme and graphically illustrate the low opinion that so many Australians have of the people who feed them.