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| Political Capital goes up in Smoke | |
Many Australians
would have been happy to see Canberra actually feel some hard-ship today at the
destruction of some 400 homes, deaths of 4 people, and scores of injuries as
Canberra suffered the worst bush-fire losses on record. Canberra is the tax-sink of
Australia. Australians work hard to pay taxes which get spent largely on the
Canberra public
service on 'administration' overheads. Consequently Canberra (and
Canberrans) are sometimes rather unpopular with mainstream Australia. Canberrans have though, developed an isolationist mind-set to cope with
this. The logic that high-taxes automatically generate more wealth seems quite logical to someone who has
always enjoyed greater opportunities when more money sloshes through the
Canberra routing-trough. A recession in Canberra means having to wait an extra
3 months for that well deserved promotion, and a major recession may even mean
a reduction in overtime opportunities! The rest of Australia are regarded as
ignorant or unappreciative of their hard work. This explains the satisfaction felt by the rest of Australia, but how could
such devestating fires occur in the nation's capital? Canberra's dominant religion is political
correctness, and tree-hugging is the preferred form of worship. While
referring to the Aborigines as the 'rightful
owners' of the land (as
long as they stay of their bit), Canberrans refuse to understand how
the Aborigines actually managed the forests before European colonization -
regularly burning it, and hence clearing the thick undergrowth. Australian wildlife was not in a natural state at European arrival - it had
been managed (if somewhat crudely) by the Aboriginal population for 60,000 odd
years. And while the colonization of Australia by the Aborigines was
initially devastating, 60,000 years of extinction, natural selection and evolution created an
Australian flora profile which was designed for regular burning. But tree-huggers are not keen on tree-burning (they might get singed having
a quick grope), and they have choosen to rewrite Australia's pre-European
history in ways which involve mother nature 'taking care of herself', and use
words like 'harmony' in preference to 'steady state' or
'adaption'. Consequently many try to build their homes as close as possible to national
parks containing bushland, and instead of planting lawn, and green ('European
cultural cringe') plants, they choose to grow native Australian plants - ie
plants evolved to burn. So when the bush gets really really dry (like, say in a drought), and
really really hot (like, say summer), and the winds blow really really strong
(like, say yesterday), critical mass is reached, and Canberra burns! Maybe the Canberrans could feel closer to the Aboriginal population by
sleeping in bark huts from now on? Or maybe they could hand the management of
the national parks back to the local Aborigines who could regularly burn it,
and make it safe for everyone? No no, Canberrans will continue to subscribe to the politically correct
fiction of the noble savage, and occasionally suffer the savagery of a feral
landscape.
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