Isolation. Posted 9 December 2010

A friend once told me that Darwin was the most isolated city on Earth. It turned out that she meant that it was isolated from the rest of Australia's Northern Territory. It is a classic colonial situation.
It is also a city. There is not much left of the natural vegetation. It is an artificial place.
Many of the people who live in Darwin are very ignorant of the natural habitats and the ex-urban cultures of the Northern Territory. Naturally they do not like to talk about, or have political opinions about, things that they do not know about.

People do not like it when the political discussion moves beyond their area of subject security.

A great political conservatism is the result of this situation.

There is very little discussion of the great political/ecological questions of the time, fire,weeds, and the fact that the pastoral industry is not ecologically sustainable.

We are confronted here with a major communications challenge. I believe that we should organise to address
this challenge. And that we should do so as a part of the campaign for universal adult ecological literacy. We need to have an ecologically literate community, and we need to inform it well.

The first practical social problem that we need to deal with is that many people are disabled by poverty.Poverty that is a direct consequence of the Australian Government Budget paying inadequate Social Security Benefits and Pensions. It is a false economy. It is a cruel, stupid and indefensible policy.

I am convinced that this poverty does terrible damage to the morale of the people, and to their willingness to communicate, and to learn. It is the first communications obstacle that we need to deal with. In my humble personal opinion.      Cheers.