Re: more notes from the outback
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Mon, 15 Mar 1999 15:28:21 +1100
O God Scottie PLEASE don't tell me you are a monarchist!!! I could go on
for hours about how crazy that is in this enlightened age ...
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
> Camille writes: '...Australia as an artistic nation is ever
> growing...'
>
> Yes. Yes, I can just about hear them - the distant strains
> of 'Advance, Australia fair...'
>
> Then she goes on: '...There is an absolute interest in culture
> here which may amaze Scottie ... However, we are currently
> saddled with a ...government ...who is determined to send
> Australia back to 1954 and who has cut funding to arts all
> over the place. Exacerbated by the fact that our previous
> prime minister was a real visionary and artistic type who
> was going to take Australia into the 21st Century. All of
> the causes which were raised then - Aboriginal reconciliation,
> becoming a republic - all have backslid horribly...'
>
> None of us, I imagine, would wish the boys in the bush
> to be kept forever in a state of stone age backwardness.
> But what about the validity of native cultures? Surely
> some attention should be paid to that?
>
> As to funding of the arts. I do hope the Colonies will
> not repeat the mistakes of the Mother Country & fall
> into the socialist trap of subsidising every Tom, Dick
> & Harry in his delusions of artistic grandeur. Follow
> that route & in no time at all the place becomes choked
> with rafia workers, ensembles for flute & bongo,
> rap epics, make-it-up-as-you-go-along theatrics,
> God knows what...
>
> And as for a republic. Replace HRH the Duke of Cornwall?
> With a Les Patterson hauled from some Brisbane suburb,
> dusted down & addressed as 'Mr President'?
> Or Billabong Clinton in a cork lined hat?
>
> She can't be serious.
>
> Scottie B.