Suchergebnisse

Australia as a host-country.

At a time when increasing attention is being paid in Australia to economic planning and social welfare, one cannot help noticing a conflict of attitudes among both the politicians and the population at large : they show both the expectation that the skilled immigration programme will be accompanied by an improvement in the balance of trade and industry, and the fear that low-skilled intakes will increase the Government's already heavy expenditures for human services. Of course Australia's advantages within the global economy and in comparison with the other host countries'possibilities are her vast tracts of unoccupied land, her huge natural resources and her small population. But Australia's relatively poor economic performance in the past six years compared with other countries, particularly the booming Asia-Pacific economies, should induce her to develop a strong industrial infra-structure before widening her immigration intake. In other words, there are priorities, and even the most humanitarian nation cannot giwe away what she has not got.

Phillip Roberts, ou Waipuldanya de la tribu Alawa (Territoire Nord -Australie) est le narrateur de ce morceau de "littérature orale", c'est-à-dire de l'histoire de sa vie transmise oralement à Douglas Lockwood qui l'a ensuite "traduite" .
Il s'agit du message écrit d'un conflit culturel et mental chez un Aborigène qui lutte pour son indépendance, sa dignité, la maîtrise de la confiance en soi et sa reconnaissance dans l'Australie blanche.
Même s'il s'avère que Phillip Roberts soit fidèle à l'une et l'autre culture (l'Australie des Aborigènes et l'Australie des Blancs) il se sent néanmoins angoissé par son double engagement. Bien qu'il soit fier d'être citoyen australien, il reconnaît finalement que "d'avoir la citoyenneté australienne ne le relèvera pas de ses devoirs tribaux" (p. 240).