I had to go to the supermarket last night - nothing special with that I guess except this supermarket has 4 security guards...and yes this is in Australia! Im constantly amazed by the fact that a supermarket would need a security guard let alone 4 of them!
Anyway, I first got to meet the head security guard a few weeks ago when I was standing out the front with my dog waiting for my girlfriend who was in doing a bit of shopping - old mate came out and told me I couldn't beg for money outside the Woolworths there, to say I was a bit surprised by this is an understatement! Anyway, we got chatting and he soon realised I wasnt a beggar (didnt think my work clothes were that rough looking!) and we struck up a conversation, old mate who Ive now nicknamed Ghandi is a 6ft tall Indian fella who I wouldnt like to meet down a dark alley. Now we have got to know each other a bit I always say Gday to Ghandi and he always says gday to me, we pass the time of day and I ask him how many people he's had to throw out for the day which is usually 4-5 every day!
Anyway, last night Ghandi was looking a bit stressed and was being interviewed by 4 police, I just just assumed he had dealt with another petty thief and that was that. This morning I got thinking about what my mate Ghandi must go through every day just to put food on the table and I was reminded of the writings of Allan Savory, an exceptional man who will surely go down in history....look him up if you havent heard of him.
Savory talks about the breaking down of society and in turn civilisation and I really can't help but wonder if what Im seeing in inner city Melbourne is the start of a break down in Australian society?
The streets here on a Sunday morning has some extra graffiti scrawled on every bit of available concrete, theres a few more broken bottles and sometimes the odd syringe in the gutters, people dont look one another in the eye and say gday when they walk down the street - something completely foreign to me!
The locals must think Im a bit odd here, I say gday to them, strike up a conversation and always acknowledge them when I see them again.... I guess they dont see that from the locals too much.
Ive met a few other interesting locals here too, and by chance I was just talking to one of them this morning when I went to buy the paper. I met this bloke a few weeks ago when he asked if he could pat my dog - he said his uncle used to have Kelpi's on the property he worked on. This poor fella was an aboriginal bloke who was trying to forget his world drinking cheap wine in a brown paper bag and hurling abuse at his other drunken 'tribe'. His eyes changed from a blank drunken stare to kindness when he patted my dog and in slurred tones he was telling me fondly of his uncles dogs and how he missed having them around, I guess at that stage he was at the bottom of the slippery slope and cheap wine dulled his daily grind. Ive since seen old mate a few times with his 'tribe' and he's always given me a wave and Ive always stopped to say gday and ask him how he is getting on. I dont know think many locals talk to these blokes.
Its obvious handing out endless streams of money doesnt work for people, Ive seen that from the Kimberly to Sydney and from North Queensland to Melbourne. I think my aboriginal mate in Collingwood is a prime example of that. They drink to forget and maybe now they have drunk so much they have forgotten what they were trying to forget in the first place?!
I think this another example of our community breaking down, Australia is a melting pot of cultures, countries and ideals - most people are happy to be here, some are trouble makers and need to be shown the next flight back to where they came from. What is vitally important though is a community and government plan that takes a holistic view of where Australian society is at. Presently we dont have this, we have cultural groups singles out and treated that way - the population of our country is a whole and interacts as a whole, the singling out of groups is simply creating an urban ghetto situation which is leading further down the path of society breakdown.
Im really glad I was bought up in the country on a farm, Im extremely proud to have been able to carry on the family tradition of being a farmer - times have changed recently which is bringing around a whole new adventure for my family and myself. This has taken some extreme planning and at times a leap of faith into the unknown but its all coming together in a way that will take us on a journey for the next 100 or so years - part 2 of the family history hey?
I dont know who, if anyone reads my little blog here in the corner of 'internet land', perhaps even if just 2 or 3 people take my message about where society is going, research holistic decision making, read some of Allan Savory's works and implement it - maybe even tell your friends and family and start looking at your part of the world in a different way too?
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