Archive for March 10th, 2008
The Tao of sanity
Yes, I have been continuing my reading of the Quran. Oh dear, no direspect intended, and anyway there’s not much in there that you can’t find parallels to in the Bible, but oh how I wish we could grow out of the Great Sacred Book syndrome.
The Tao Te Ching is not a Great Sacred Book. I don’t think anyone has ever thought God wrote it or that it is infallible.
The Herald stirs the pot
There is a series in Sydney Morning Herald crusading vein today beginning with the provocatively titled lead White flight leaves system segregated by race.
WHITE students are fleeing public schools, leaving behind those of Aboriginal and Middle Eastern origin, a secret report by high school principals reveals.
The NSW Secondary Principals Council conducted a confidential survey which raises serious concerns about “white flight” undermining the public education system and threatening social cohesion. Some teachers and principals have described it as “de facto apartheid”.
Seen at a Surry Hills Bus Stop
I took a walk around 10.30 pm last night. In the bus stop on Elizabeth Street three young men were sitting — friends. What struck me was that I was seeing 21st century Australia as it can be, as one hopes it really is more often than not, despite what we hear. They were respectively Anglo (you can’t say Aussie — they were all Aussies, most likely), Middle Eastern or perhaps North Indian/Pakistani, and African. No big deal. That’s the point. Just three young men chatting happily in a bus stop.
The bus came. The African got on, the two others set off down Elizabeth and turned into Cleveland. Obviously they had come to see him off after dinner together or something…
I guess it was then I noticed they were gay.
Australia as it ought to be…
No hassle.
