^ruLU^ m

€DITORIfiL Like the proverb says — it's not wise

to believe everything you read. Newspapers in Australia claim to be objective and unbiased, while being the most highly monopolised In the Western World.'They claim to be socially responsible to their readers, printing only facts, and providing the community with all the information they need to know.

However, this is often not the case with the more widely read newspapers, with their high bud^ts and skilled staff. In this issue Semper examined three cases of news reporting. The article on the South African media points out that the media in that country usually opts for stories about loosened race restrictions, while ignoring the real injustices going on under their noses.

Australian media are not exempt either. Denis Bailey examined the media coverage of the last power strike, and found it heavily loaded with pro-government stories. Semper also explains how the world media treats Kampuchea stories -and discovers that we don't really know what is going on.

There are stories about the continuing saga of the Abortion Bill, with another took at the unusual Ed Casey and his particular brand of politics. Anne Jones did a tour of health food shops to try and find out how many of their "passport to better health" claims are true.

The forthcoming Cape York Wilderness Congress has attracted much criticism from Queensland scientists and conservationists. We feature an expose on the Conference's financial backing which suggests that it is simply a PR exercise for the election year. The aborigines of the north are being left out of the Congress, but the article by Bruce Rigsby claims the have rights to Cape York land which the Queensland government is trying to ignore.

COnT6nT5" THE GREAT HEALTH FOOD SHAM ANNE JONES explores the myth and ritual of the health food ethos

PRESS COVERAGE OF KAMPUCHEA Did President Nixon kill more Cambodians than Pol Pot?

7

ABORTION 9-10 The Queensland abortion saga continues

EDUCATION WITHOUT DIRECTION 11 Educationalist DOUG OGILVIE suggests where educatin should he headed but isn't

THE CAPE YORK WILDERNESS CONFERENCE 13 Sponsored by such prominent conservation organisations as Comalco, M.I.M, and the Queensland State Government

GOUGH ON FOREIGN POLICY 20 Ex P.M. Gough Whitlam delivered a rare lecture In Brisbane. SHELLEY DEMPSEY was there

WOODY ALLEN 25 A profile on America's beloved, neurotic film-maker

SPIKE MILLIGAN " 29" Speaks seriously about lifestyles and conservation

NEW LIFE IN QUEENSLAND FASHION 33 Latest fashion trends reflect innovative government policy

SEMPER is a non-profit poli­tical and cultural magazine based at the University of Queensland. EDITOR: Tim Low NEWS EDITOR: Kjaz Perry LAYOUT ind COVER: Matt Mawson SECRETARY: Anne Jones TYPESETTING: Marie Blanch PRINTERS: Mirror Newspapers Ltd., 367 373 Brunswick St., VaSley DISTRIBUTORS: Gordon and

Gotch Pty Ltd., Brisbane ADVERTISING REP: Kevin Pennant, phone 371 2568 PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE Jenny Horwood Semper Magzine vrelcomcs contributions and letters, but does not assume any respon­sibility for unsolicited manu-

. scripts, photographs and illustrations. Semper is copyright, St. Lucia, Queensland, 1980. Non-profit publications may reprint

articles and graphics provided Semper and the authors are duly acknowledged. The ex­ceptions are creative writing and copyrighted graphics which may ixot be reproduced without written permission of the authors.

Address all enquiries to: Semper Magazine, University of Qld Union St. Lucta. Qld. 4067. Ph; 371 1611 or 371 2568.

Amnesty International is a human rights organisation which campaigns for the release of political prisoners and for the abolition of torture arid the death penalty.

lliis oolunin details tfie etrcumstanoM of one or two political prisoners 'adopted' by Amnesty. Interested persons are Imrited to respond to the instructions gWen below.

Amnesty has received reports of hundreds of arrests by govemment security forces in the Berber kabyle region of Algeria. Arrests have occurred in response to peaceful de­mands for greater cultural expression for the Berber minority in Algeria which is thought to constitute about twenty per cent of the population of Algeria.

Among members of the academic staff arrested are reported to be the following:

Guendouzi, Dahmani Ahmed, Ousalem ^ Mohand, Zouaimia Rachid, Boutanuie ~*Ho^^Ja!» Ahmed-Aid, Khelil Mouloud,

Galpi, Hakem, Oudahar Salah, Lebsir Rabah, Achat) Ramdane.

Please send telegrams or aerograms to the following persons expressing con­cern that those detained have been anested for the non-violent expression of their beliefs. Please ask for clarification of the legal situation of those detained and that they be granted access to a lawyer. In your letters please mention the name of some of those detained.

His Excellency, The President of the Republic Chadli Benjedid Alters, Algeria

His Excellency, the Prime Minister Mohamed Benahmed Abdelghani Algiers, Algeria

i€"n^R-REPLY TO FEMINIST

CRITIQUE In response to a letter to the editor

by Leonard Amos printed in the last, edition of Semper, I will deal with one point he argued,

He introduced his letter with appreciation of the sentiments expressed in the article "Women Harrassed On Campus" but then said that feminists didn't appreciate one basic fact — that man and woman were dialectical opposites and therefore male and female sexuality have no common ground. This is a very dangerous notion and is patently wrong. He claims that the abolition of criminal penalties for sexual violence crimes would lead to women learning to like being raped at tlie whim of any man. The fact that women don't like this now, he implies, is merely because of socially induced inliibitions which prevent women from admitting that rape is enjoy­able.

I invite all women to consider if they, feel they would adjust to and team to like a society where unleashed sexually

GAY SOLIDARITY

A university collcctive/group/association/ society established for the social/ political/emotional support of all homo­sexual women and men.

MONDAYS l-2pm: Meeting in the ARCHIVE ROOM First Floor, Union Building.

TUESDAYS 7.30pm: SOCIAL gathering in a close-to-

.campus house.

predatory males could take power and pleasure from orgasm in their vaginas where-ever, whenever, and however males chose to do so. This is the vision of life which Amos believes should be the case. But he only put into words what many men dream about.

In our society and other patriarchial (male domainled) societies male sexualities takes a predatory and violent form. But non-patriarchial societies give us clues to the nature of real sexuality. The facts of these societies lead us to conclude that males always seeking violence and humiliation of partner in sex is not an immutable law of nature.

Feminists believe there is little difference between the essential sexuality of males and females. Both sexes have a sexuality which is strong and can be satisfied in essentially the same ways - non-violent ways. We believe that male sexuality as it is expressed in this society has little to do with real sexual pleasure but more to do with lust for power and satisfaction of that lust.

Feminists are not antirsex. Feminists work for the realisation of all peoples sexuality - otherwise why would we have worked for fifty years for sex education in schools, freely available contraception and pregnancy terminations?

Feminists are anti-violence in sex and believe that violence is a perversion and not part of essential male or female sexual needs.

Feminists will not be frightened with accusations of exhibiting a christian chastity fetish etc. Males who subscribe to Amos' analysis of sexuality are attempting to justify their violence, perversion, hatwjd of women, and are refusing to face their own hangups, guilt, vacuity of feeling by des­cribing mde as a hunger, instinctual rapist and woman as dialectical opposite to that.

Men are not roosters - they should be human beings.

-ERICA S C H W A R Z : :

ANNOUNCEMENT FRIDAY NIGHT ONLY

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But please don't just drop in to hang around with your half dozen stubbies - we like to feed people.

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B.Y.O. AND TAKEAWAYS

Open every day, Spm to 10pm

Function room avaikblefor parties 10% discount for Students Mon. to Thurs.

144 Indooroopilly Rd. Taringa East.

Phone: 370 1962,370 2073

ADVERTISE IN SEMPER phone Kev. Pennant 371 2568

Legal Service

STUDENTS' LEGAL AID can provide you with free legal advice and assistance regarding arrests, tenancy, divorce, to mention only a few. A solicitor and several assistants

are available to interview new clients on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridaysbetween 10amand 4pm. Situated Upstaris in the Union

Building. Phone 371.1611 for appointment.

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BIAS and the

POWER STRIKE Unions have often criticised the press for unfair reporting of strikes.

DENNIS BAILEY looked at newspaper coverage of the March power strike in Queensland, and found ample evidence of distortion, misrepresentatk)n and even hypocrisy in the paper's presentation of events.

The press in Australia has been severely criticised for bias by most sections of the political specf;;t»rn,, from B.A. Santamaria's atta^^lc on the Murdoch Press' pro-Labor'" stand in 1972 to Whitlam's attack during the constitutional crisis of 1975.

But whilst the press has on the odd occasion wavered from a Uberal position to actually supporting the Labor Party, in the case of trade unions and strikes it has shown remarkable consistency. It has always opposed strikes, no matter what.

This is not surprising, as the Australian media is one of the most higlily mono­polised in the western world, controlled by three family groups; Murdoch's News Ltd., Packer's Consolidated Press and the Fairfax family's Herald and Weekly Times.

Their shareholders include some of the largest and most conservative employers, such as the A.M.P. Society, Bank of New South Wales and Mount Isa Mines to name a few.

In 1974 the Fairfax Company admitted to the Prices Justification Tribunal that only 25 per cent of its revenue was derived from sales and the rest from advertisers.

The big advertisers are also big employers and as such subjected to the effects of industrial action by workers. It is therefore no wonder the press takes a solid stand in support of employers when a strike occurs.

For almost i century the public has endured terms which liave grown into cliches of industrial reporting - "Industrial black­mail", ". . iiolding the country to ransom . . . " , " . . .irresponsible actions ofa handful of selfish men . . . " , and the somewhat stale ". . .dominated by communist union bosses."

THE QUEENSLAND POWER STRIKE In the last week of March, Queensland

power workers walked off the job, frus­trated by government attempts to use "back door" tactics to thwart their campaign for a 35 hour week. The Queensland Electricity Generating Board (Q.E.G.B.) had attempted to bribe minority sections of the industry into accepting a "No Strike Clause" with the promise of shorter hours and higher pay.

At the same time employees were being disadvantaged by the presence of over 700 anomalies in ths award and by government attempts to delay hearings of their case.

During this strike the local Fairfax owned papers - The Courier Mail and the afternoon Telegraph - oontinued the trad­itions of the past in failing to explain to the public the causes of the dispute, concen­trating instead on sensationalising the effects.

The Telegraph on Wednesday, March 26 started the ball rolling with its front page headlines TOTAL STATE BLACKOUT FEARS' followed by a story wamuig of the threat to hospitals and other "essential services". Buried in the fifth parag-aph was one sentence explaining that the strike

SEMPER

was not over the 35 hour week but the actions by the Q.E.G.B. in trying to divide the workforce.

Rige three had a story preparing the public for Cabinet's use of the Essential Services legislatk>n.

MARCH 27 March 27, the next moming, the

Courier Mail struck out on page one with •POWER - IT LOOKS GRIM' featuring a hint from Mr. Bjelke-Petersen that he was considering drastrc action. Readers then had to wait for page three for the Trades Hall response that it was all a ploy for a May dection. The Courier Mail's editorial headed 'NO POWER TO THE PEOPLE' stated ". . . casualties are the innocent bystanders in the community". However buried at the bottom we fmd an amazing admission ". . Jt is hard to escape the view that the employers refused to negotiate because they knew they had the whole­hearted support of the state govemment". Why wasn't the refusal to negotiate by the employers used as a story on the reasons for the strike?

MARCH 28 By Friday the 28th panic appeared to

have set into the papers as the workers undaunted by the threatened use of the much publicised Essential Serwces Legis­lation voted to continue to strike. By this time both the govemment and the editors realised that should aD the men be sacked for striking there was no one to take their place.

Plage one of the Courier stated the

optimistic 'FULL POWER MAY BE BACK TONIGHT', and featured a picture of the Premier shaking hands with Trades and Labor Council secretary, Fred Whitby.

In the middle of page one was a story headed 'NO MONEY, NO FOOD, NO TRAINS, NO . . .' which in fact went on to tell readers where there was food, money and trains to catch. On the bottom of the page was a picture of caterer Barry Estick who in protest apinst the strike dumped some of his supplies on the bar across the road from Trades HaU, in the presence of Union officials.

This was an interesting though deceptive story, considering union officials had been urging a return to work. The rank and file had voted strongly against their officials.

An overseas reader of the Friday Tele­graph coiild have easily been forgjven for thinking that the situation in Queensland was akin to Russia in 1917. Apart from nasty pictures of a blacked out Brisbane and a sinister looking union official lighting up a cigarette the editorial could have been mistaken for a script from a horror movie.

"chaos to an entire state" "tiny handful of selfish men" "Queensland trembled on the brink of anarchy" ". . .a means should be found of dis­ciplining workers . . ." (which seemed

like sour grapes after the fizzing of the dreaded Essential Services Act).

But the piece de resistance was em­bodied in the Une criticising the rank and file of ". . .sheer wilful defiance; defiance of their leaders . . ." . This was sheer wilful hypocrisy on the part of a paper which has frequently used such terms as "Union

Bosses" and featured stories praising rank and file workers who defy the union. The Melbourne Tramway dispute, the Essential Services strike and the sacking of tlie Labor government are but a few examples of where Uie press played up a minority of anti-union dissidents.

At the conclusion of the strike, the Labor Relations Minister, Mr. CampbeU openly criticised the government and sup­ported the claims of the men. "I'm afraid to say the power industry workers had justification for their strike action." (Telegraph, March 31 Page 3).

By tills time the Telegraph had for­gotten about the strike in its editorial and moved on to car accidents. No apologies to the power workers. Bjelke-Petersen's earlier table thumping, cries of law and order and thinly veiled threats to do something nasty to the workers had disappeared. He appeared on the television news as a moderate begging for conciliation.

Did the local media interpret this as a defeat for Mr. Bjelke-Petersen's industrial and foreign policies?

Tuesday's editorial in the Courier Mail headed 'THE MELLOWING OF A PREMIER' praised him saying ". . .the fact is that the Premier has behaved humanly and sensibly in changing his mind on the Olympics and on veering away from industrial confrontation."

When it comes to wuons the press' attitude remains one of "heads I win, tails you lose".

-DENNIS BAILEY

3

STREET MARCHES Your piece in a recent

Semper - "Return of the Street March" - was sent on to me here and I was so impressed by it, both as an example of fair, interpret­ative reporting and as an important piece of news, that I write to congratulate you on it.

The background informa­tion in the article was con­cise, but I found the quota­tions from the new Dept. Supt. of Traffic most in­teresting as a reminder of that peculiariy naive kind of conservatism which seems to thrive in Queensland: the same closed-ranks solid­arity ('not polite' to even name his predecessor), the same juxtaposition of religious beliefs and belief in the importance of law and

order at any price ('nothing is worse than disruption'}, the same refusal to see obvious human oppression (Mt is nature and nature only which inflicts hard­ships').

1 found the news en­couraging because despite the denial of any change of policy there clearly has been a new liberalisation, and however much Supt. Power may be looking for a paradise which consists of Brisbane streets fiUed with endless fast-moving streams of straffic, there may now be a possibility for more untidy human activites in Brisbane, mcluding the ex­pression of opinion by Queensland citizens.

-RON HENDERSON Oriel College, Oxford. U.K.

FEMINIST REPLY Considering the gross

misunderstanding per­petrated by liberal ideas, generally on cam­pus, it is necessary not to leave the letter by Leonard Amos ("Cri­tique of Feminists" in Semper, 24 April) go unchallenged.

(Leonard Amos wrote that feminist sentiments "are often motivated by a self-defeating often mis­anthropic feminist ideology, which is an inverted form of fascism." His letter was a reply to an article by Erica Schwarz - Women Harassed on Campus, in Semper 13 March. -Ed.)

Althou^ this man's argument appears sound, it isn't. Fundamental to it is the idea that men and women under these social and historical conditions are equal as dialectical opposites. Women, how­ever, do not have the same status and privileges as men as Amos assumes.

His argument is Uke that of Freedom of Speech, which does not exist either. Those who have the chance to put forward their views in this society are either on-side with or arc the owners of the means of communica­tion. Feminists are criticised for pushing an extremist or as Amos thinks a fascist point of view. In actuality, feminism is a minority perspective at present be­cause it totaUy contradicts the dominant ideology. The dominant ideas in this society influence aU who Uve in it. These ideas con­tain justification for opp­ression. Every year more and more women are under­standing the nature of their oppression. They are realising the intimidation they have felt is not idio­syncratic to them but very real.

It is very easy for some­one to dismiss experience not recognised by the

dominant ideology. Amos seemed to think oppression is self-induced. His ideas which deny oppression are also very insidious as follows.

1. FREE LOVE: This very dated concept of the sixties is stiU perpetrated by many men. It is the sanc­tion by men giving men the right to rape on the assumption that aU women should be open to whatever men want to try on them. This idea makes women feel they are puritans and in­adequate for not consenting on basis of any man's wiU.

2. THE CHRISTIAN CHASTITY FETISH: This assumption is totaUy mis­informed. Feminists oppose the church as one of the biggest hierarchical oppressive institutions existing. Feminists also ob­ject to pornography because it objectifies women. This two-dimensional view of women is congruent with what's dominant, i.e. that women are property either as a body or as a producing unit. Moreover we see the church and the pornography machine quite similariy oppressive in misappreciaUon of women. The suffering caused through the unavaUabUity of abortions is pornography.

I fail to understand how pornography is a form of 'sex education' when the perspective of the nature of infonnation imparted is so unrealistic.

3. DENIAL OF LEGAL PRIVILEGES TO RAPISTS: Most rapists are not even charged. The bour­geois courts fail to recog­nise rape as a crime anyway putting the victim on the defence. Most women do not resort to court action or any action for fear of extra trauma and retalia­tion. Some women do seek their own revenge in specific circumstances. Considering the incidence of rape, women do not just 'cry rape'. On the contrary if women reveal the fact that they have been raped they are faced with disbelief.

4. THE FEMINIST

=i£n fis-BUTTON & CHIP?.

ON T.E.A.S. Full marks must go to Don Chipp of the Aust­

ralian Democrats for his naivety on the issues of T.E.A-S., free tertiary education and equality to the underpriviledged.

After such a credibiUty coUapse, if was with much relief that I read Senator Button's enUghtened com­ments on these issues in the latest Semper, where he stated that the Whitlam policy of the aboUtion of fees had done nothing for those whom it wa intended for, (i.e. the lower wage classes and the disadvant­aged), that exorbitant in­creases in T.E.A.S. were neither desirable nor to be expected, and that T.E.A.S. had not aided the disad­vantaged. It would do weU for students to examine these statements.

Two studies on this issue, one by the Tertiary Educa­tion Research Unit at the University of New South Wales and one by a research unit from three Universities' - Monash, A.N.U., and U.N.S.W., have come to exactly the same conclu­sions -

•80 per cent of univer­sity and coUege of ad­vanced educarion students come from middle and upper class backgrounds.

*since the aboUtion of fees in 1973-74, the in­crease in the number of students from lower socio­economic backgrounds entering tertiary institutions is zero.

•the typical background of those students who are in tertiary education is that of parents with above average education, from profession­al, managerial, or' white-coUar occupational groups, Australian parentage and Australian bora.

The message from the above points is crystal clear. The factors mitigating against underpriveledged groups entering higher edu­cation is not primarUy a lack of finance, but those of famUy background -achievement aspiration of parents, parents career and education, the adequacy of primary and secondary schooUng, and language and cultural difficulties in the case of migrants and abor­iginals.

Tlie rich get richer on the taxes drawn from the aver­age taxpayer to finance the middle class, monopoly on

education, and the poor subsequently become poorer, through a device invented by the reputed "working man's party".

To add insult to injury, Don Chipp, whUe admitting this national divergence, says that the Democrats beUeve in raising T.E.A.S. to 120 per cent of the Henderson Poverty Line! Remember the Mad Hatter's Tea Party? This Democrat poUcy would have the effect of giving $85.00 a week to students from upper and middle-class backgrounds at the expense (through addi; tional taxation) to the ordinary worker!

It may be of interest to U. of Q. students to know that their own Union CouncU, consisting of a various assortment of left-wingers claiming to be fighting for the rights of the working classes, and that other groups of "wishy-washies", last year passed a motion which demanded -

•S75.00 a week for all tertiary students, and

•that the weekly aUow­ance be based on student, not parent income.

In effect, this meant $3,900 a year for each student and would cost the government an extra $1,225,000,000 a year, to be absorbed by the tax­payer.

At present, any govern­ment is committed to giving the greatest subsidy to ter­tiary students, and the least, (with the exception of non-government schools) to primary and secondary schooUng. Senator Button made the point that the problems lie in the school years and that any just education policy should be auned at improving famUy circumstances and preventing the cycle of "self perpetuating poverty". I would go further than Senator Button to say that those students whose famiUes can afford their education, either whoUy or partiaUy, should pay for it, so that government aid can be directed to those who are in genuine need, and not to those who are already weU off.

-CHERYL ANDERSON Artsli

U

UTOPIA: Feminist theory does not dictate sexuality but clearly propagates the idea of woman-identifica­tion. A woman, for example, might be a lesbian but male identified i.e. WiU StUl betray the trust of women for men or a woman may be heterosexual but woman identified, under­standing the responsibUity she has to women. At this historical-social time U

is ihipossible to conceive a Utopia. Revolution can only be considered as a con­tinuous process. The idea of men as breeding studs is a male myth. We can only guess at what equaUty bet­ween the sexes is Uke be­cause we sure haven't ever experienced it.

5. WOMEN ARE IN A WORSE POSITION SO­CIALLY THAN BEFORE THE FEMINISTS: The ex­

ample that Amos gives shows a misunderstanding of who the enemy is. Im­portantly, as women speak out and organise more, the existing stmcture wiU re-taUatc Simulataneously. It wiU not tolerate a group however big or smaU whose ideas are threatening. In confronting oppression in theU personal life women, at first, find such a stmggle hard but graduaUy the quaUty of theU appreciation of life becomes more satisfying because it is based on realistic cognitions.

6. FEMINISM DOES NOT NEED TO BE INTE­GRATED INTO THE STRUGGLE OF BOUR-•GEOIS MASSES: Because women understand the need for an autonomous women's movement, Uke the need for an autonomous black move-mertl, does-sot—*?*»«^i*e negate working class opp­ression. Importantly, we

know that patriarchy is part of capitalism andone wiU not be defeated without the otiier. We are not misan­thropic as we choose to act out against oppressive ideas of society which can commoiUy oppress men and women.

Denying woman's opp­ression wiU not mean it will go away. It is productive to realisticaUy assess our situation to enable us to participate in other stmggles against the ruUng class.

-MARIA WINTER

TO LEONARD AMOS: dear leonard, such a wonderful letter,

you have such a way with wordz - zzzz

77.7.7.7.7.7.

zzzzzzz 'damian nelson,

Sylvester Stallone academy for inspiration

'SURFER'S PARADISE OR CONCRETE

PARADISE? As a concerned re­

sident of Australia's reputed glamourous and prestigious holiday resort, the popular Gold Coast, 1 feel somewhat precarious and even pessimistic of its long term future as this country's tourist capital.

Not a day goes by where a formerly attractive and sometimes historical house or motel isn't hastUy de­moUshed to debris to make way for yet another high rise, or more aptiy, glori­fied concrete matchboxes.

The rate in which these are mushrooming is un­precedented in our buUding history.

Our enterprising Gold Coast City CouncU had approved between 1st July and end of June 1979 a staggering total of 146 multi-storey buUding app­Ucations comprising a phe-

are financiaUy weU endowed.

I've recently toUed on a twelve storey hoUday complex on the Gold Coast where it wasn't uncommon to hear that aU the uruts had been sold prior to the actual foundations bemg laid. But what certain investors won't discover untU it's too late is that the entire southerly aspect vriU be obscured from their view by a mon­strous seventeen storey high rise to be conveniently constmcted directly along­side them.

Places like Miami and Honolulu because of their overdeveloped and congested apartment complexes have as a result suffered severe econological, environmental and even sociological problems for sonie time, unfortunately we haven't as yet learned from these. In the b a n ­ning of the tourism ver­nacular we had Hotels then Motels and even Boat-0-Tel, what's next, High Rise-0-Tel?

nomenal 3,184 individual units. By March of this year a further 87 appUca­tions have been granted saturating another 1,203 'matchbox' units on the •fabulous' Gold Coast.

Considering the occupant pays an average of $350 annually in rates per unU, a person might be forgiven for thinking there was any significance between the large number of appUcations approved and beUevuig the rumours that the Gold Coast City CouncU's coffers

Commercialism and pro­gress is legretfuUy here to stay and continue eroding everything in its path. Let's at least slow it down con-" siderably by reducing the number of forthcoming high rise developments be­fore it's too late and we become another 'Concrete Jungle'.

-R.H. BOJTSHUK first year journalism

student University of Qld.

FOOD.

The Great Health Food Sham

To some people a dedication to health food has become a substitute for religious morality. How valid are the tenets of this faith? AIMNE JONES reports.

Why do we eat? It is safe t r Ijjif'l. that people eat in order to surV.Ve; but in our culture what we eat and why is governed by far more complex factors than mere survival. It is necessary to have a proper balanced diet; to con­sume enough Iron to prevent anaemia, enough Vitamin D to avoid rickets and so on. But usually people choose to eat or not eat certain foods for other reasons.

Besides sustenance, food is chosen for three major reasons. Firstly for sensory reasons; for the way the food tastes, feels, looks etc.

Secondly, food has symbolic qualities. "Food is not simply a mixture of car­

bohydrates, amino acids and so on. It has various properties, which may be physical or abstract. These properties depend lo a great extent upon the person who is con­suming or examining the food. And Uie way

THE EFFECTS OF VEGETARIANISM Vegetarians need to be careful with their diet to

ensure adequate intake of nutrients. Before three years of strict vegetarian diet, the person at right was of normal build.

SEMPER

.Jie .or.„she construes that food depends greatly upon the norms prevailing in his or her culture. For example, some foods are seen to be healthy or "good for you", whilst others are seen to be "slimming foods".

Dr. A. Woilcy from Non-Nutritional Aspects of Food

Some people and cultures even give food almost magical qualities, (ox in­stance, those who believe that garlic keeps away vampires.

And finally, people eat certain foods for psychological reasons; neurosis emerges as obsession about food or fads, and almost religious conviction that one's own diet is THE correct one with the obligation to try and convert others.

People become involved with health food for al! these different reasons, and combinations of them; although the jus­tification usually is reduced to Uie premise

that healUi foods arc "good for you", health foods keep you alive better or longer Uian other foods.

Wliat are health foods? It is easiest to define health foods in terms of what people see as the problems with food generally. Tlie problems fall into two categories. The firsl is the things that aren't in nomial food; nutrients are lost by refining, processing and certain farming methods that deplete the soil. The other category concerns the foreign matter which finds its way into our food; additives and pesticides.

Health Food, say its sup­porters, contains more good­ness in the form of nutrients , rougliage and so on. One of the classic examples is whole­meal bread versus white bread (see box). To try and resolve this battle. Semper approached a dietician, Jenny Horwood, who freely admitted she didn't know the answer. Ms. Horwood ex­plained that there were so many factors it is difficult to get a definite answer. There arc different factions amongst nutritionists. Ms Horwood explained that all food should be viewed in the context of Uie whole diet and that in the case of bread it is pro­bably most valid to choose according to personal prefer­ence.

A favourite hobby horse

of health food affectionados is sweeteners. White sugar is spumed in favour of Uie less processed raw sugar, or even better, honey. Honey contains more nutrients than sugar. Ms. Horwood explained that while this was true, in a broad contexi benefit fiom having honey in your tea instead of sugar was negligible.

Take calcium for example. Sugar has no calcium. Wliilst a table spoon of honey contains 1/100 of daily needs. So lo get your daily requirements of calcium from honey it would be necessary to eat 100 table spoons or about a kilo of honey. It's probably easier, less fattening, and more pleasant lo drink 2 glasses of milk. Altiiough even Ihat isn't necessary as calcium is contained in various regularly consumed foods.

"The average adult would require I gallon of treacle a day to keep fit in terms of the minerals and vitamins it contains. This provides about 10,000 calories per day; therefore the person would gain approximately 12 pounds a week, and dramatically increase the risk of diabetes and iron poisoning", said Ms. Horwood.

Ms. Horwood mentioned an example of how nutritional claims for certain foods are often ridiculous. The example came from a book called "You Are Wliat You

WHOLEMEAL VS WHITE

Wholemeal bread contains more nutrients than white bread, but it is unresolved whether the human body is able to make use of these. This is because wholemeal bread has more chemical inhibiters and roughage, both of which inhibit absorption of some nutrients (particulariy thiamine and iron).

Hat" by Brcckon. Brcckon looked at claims by a researcher called Hauser (hat black molasses was an exceptionally nutritious food. Hauser claimed that black molasses contained (amongst other things), iron, copper and calcium. Brcckon investigated these claims carefully and discovered that the iron and copper were traces from the factory machines and boUing ketUes, while the calcium came from Uic lime water used in the refining process. "Besides", added Ms Horwood, "tiiere are more nutrients in

ordinary beans".

PROCESSED FOOD One aspect of healUi food plulosophy

which has some sense is in the avoidance of processed food. An article in a recent Choice magazine (AprU 1980) says:

"Food technologists grant that there is some loss of nutrients with all types of food processing, just as there is in improper storage and preparation of fresh food. The nutritional value of processed foods varies a great deal because of the differing amount of nutrients in the food, their sensitivity to light, air, heat and leaching out by water. For example, protein is the least sensitive to damage through processing and vitamins the most, particularly vitamin C and vitamin B group."

This problem can be counteracted by avoiding processed food altogether, but if you balance processed food with fresh food it can't have harmful effects. It would be idiotic to live on chiko rolls and coke, but eating those things isn't acUvely bad for you.

ORGANICALLY GROWN Of course, some say Uiat not all fresh

food is good for you, Uiat it is necessary to have organically grown fruit and vegetables to acquire the proper nutrients. Tlie temi 'organic food' is silly because all food is organic; but accepting the term, organic food is that grown wilhoul cliemicals.

In an article from "Nutritional Reviews" edited by Dr. D.M. Hegstcd, he states:

"Claims are made that 'organically-grown'foods are nutritionally superior to foods grown under standard agri­cultural conditions using chemical fertilisers. There is no scientific basis for this claim. Plants use only inorganic not organic forms of plant food, therefore it is relatively im­material whether traditional agricul­tural methods using chemica! fer­tilisers or organic farming practices are followed"

Plants take up nutrients in a way that

continued next page

.5.-'

.RX>D

The Great Health Food Sham

continued from previous page

is determined by their heredity, by codes in their DNA. So a plant can't be deficient in certain minerals, if the soil is deficient it will affect the yield not the individual plant. Plants can be bred lo certain levels of niacin, for instance, but its presence cannot be affected by the soil itself.

Organically grown food is possibly an example of a health food rip-off. Some sources claim that unscrupulous growers scl! their rejects as organic food. Fruit and vegetables that are misshapen or bruised, that won't be accepted by the markets' inspectors, find a ready outiet in health food stores by simply labelling them 'organic'.

PESTICIDES Another aspect of the desire to eat

'organically-grown' food is that il is grown without the use of pesticides. Pesticides and additives, some claim, are killing us, the food we eat is poisonous.

U cannot be denied that pesticides are highly dangerous substances and that residual amounts can be found in the food we eat; not only the fresh food but a small amount remams even througli re­fining. Pesticide residue can be found in flour.

The problem is that it is almost impossible to avoid eating pesticides. Choice studies show "that grains, dried fruits and nuts sold by most health food stores comes from tiie same source as foods sold in supemiarkets. And according to officials from the NSW Department of Agriculture,

that means that they've been treated with the same pesticides."

Consuming even small amounts of Uiese dangerous chemicals may have harmful effects. It is possible tiiat they accumulate in Uic body. Ron Deutsch in "Wliere Should You Be Shopping For Your Family?" states "As for the Uireat of accumulation, experiments in which volunteers actuaUy have eaten DDT and oUier pesticides show that they ARE, in fact, excreted. Some small amounts may be stored in body fat, where they are harmless. And other chemicals, some of them highly dangerous, are des­troyed when they pass through the liver."

Not totally reassuring, but some con­solation. The Federal Government perfomis annual tests to monitor the levels of pest­icides in foods. The Department of Primary Industry tesls 25,000 samples for chemical residues, organochlorlnes and organophos-phates. Violations of the suggested levels arc rare and most foods fall well below the safety mark.

ADDITIVES Another source of poison in food is

additives. Chemicals are added to food for a variety of reasons. The Uiree main reasons for additives are to preserve, colour and flavour it. Colourings are the least defensible of food additives. Food is coloured to meet supposed consumer expectations. Often colour is lost or diminished in pro­cessing, so manufacturers feel the need to put it back.

Flavourings are used similariy, heighten­ing the natural flavour which may have'been reduced. One flavour enhancer often used is Monosodium Glutamate. MSG heiglitens the taste and gives a glazed tasty appearance. For many years MSG has been suspected of being detrimental to people's health. But in

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a report recently prepared by the American Society for Experimental Biology has shown it to be quite safe. The only problem being that some people are allergic to it. So if Chinese food makes you feel sick and dizzy then you are probably allergic to MSG.

There are many additives which are potentially harmful. There is at present some debate over the use of Sulphur Dioxide, which is used as a preservative for dried fruit. Unfortunately no substitute har'a^^i found. Safety levels exist for the use of this and all other preservatives. Manufacturers usually keep well wilhin the suggested guide­lines. In fact some of the suggested levels would exclude foods which have been eaten for centuries.

Dietician, Jenny Horwood, said that potatoes and onions both contain excessive levels of toxins. "If you ate 3/4lb of onions a day on a regular basis you would develop anaemia. Onions exceed the legal safety margin of one of the organic acids."

That isn't to say that one should merrily disregard the presence of preservatives in food. There are quite stringent measures taken to ascertain the possible dangers of food additives, Ms Horwood pointed out also that it isn't actually in food manu­facturers interests to poison their customers, legal wrangles are bad for business.

As usual the besl practice is to balance your diet. Ealing solely food with additives is probably not totally safe, so eat a good proportion of fresh food.

One of tile more disturbing aspects of the growing interest in health food is the sudden increase in the marketing of healtii food. There are various kinds of outlets lo choose from: old style stores with bulk food available, new style with trendy pine shelving and pre-packaged food, health food chains and there's often a health food section in the local supermarket.

These various types of outlets can be compared in different ways: for cleanliness, additives in the food sold and price. Choice magazine examined the first two, in an article in April 1980. Their results showed no clearcut recommendations could be made on those grounds. Unfortunately Semper can't afford costly analysis for extraneous matter and additives, but did manage a littie comparative shopping.

We compared prices at various health food outlets in Brisbane's western suburbs. It must be stressed thai tiiere are differences' in tiie qualily of some ofthe products listed, for all items if different qualities were available al the same store, we have slated the cheapest.

Surprisingly, the smaller outlets seem to be able to compete effectively with the larger outiets and chains. From the five items listed Cranks is the cheapest health food store examined; despite the fact tiiat they only stock stone ground flour which is much more expensive tiian other varieties. Of course, tiieie are other reasons for

—3>.:^felord Hauser suggested a naturo­pathic approach to diet with special emphasis on what he called his five wonder foods - skim milk, brewer's yeast, wheat germ, yoghurt and black­strap molasses. "Any one of tiiese five foods, used daily", he writes, "can probably add five youthful years to your life". The best medical opinion is that they offer nothing one cannot obtain less expensively from ordinary foods.

Blackstrap molasses is the dark, sticky dregs that remain after tiie process of sugar refining is completed. According to Hauser, it has enormous medicinal properties. In his book he states that it will help cure insomnia, nervousness, menopause troubles, baldness, and low blood pressure. In addition, Hauser claims, it will help restore grey hair to its former colour, aid the digestion, prevent many changes due to old age, help the functioning of the glands, and strengthen the heart Government nutrition experts have called these claims "false and misleading".

MARTIN GARDINER from Fads and Fallacies

choosing to shop at certain places. For instance. Wholefoods stocks organic fruit and vegetables; while Woolwortiis is far more convenient because of the vast range. The choice is yours.

Tf you choose to cat health food for whatever reason, don't forget that it is still necessaiy to balance your diet properly. And it is foolish to balance your diet by a huge intake of costiy vitamins when the same benefit can be derived from simple foods.

Healtii Foods are not a cure-all, but it is important to be aware of what your food contains and how it affects you. You would probably die if you ate notiiing but chips as you wold die if you ate nothing but soya beans. Healtii food devotees are often just as guilty of silly diets as others. a

500g 1 kilo 500g 500g 500g Total soya plain honey dried raw beans whole- apricots peanuts

meal flour

Woolworths Supermarket Indooroopilly Shoppingtown Sanitarium Health Foods Indooroopilly Shoppingtown Cranks Health Foods High Street, Toowong Wholefoods Milton Road, Toowong

58

58

50

47

46

44

75

56

86

95

78

68

3.05

3.69

2.85

3.48

80

84

83

88

$5.75

$6.50

$5.71

$8.07

1

-ffm^.

imm

J DISTORTION, CONFUSION FABRK^TION

The Atrocious Press Coverage of Kampuchea The Khmer Rouge who ruled Kampuchea be- bombing raids may have killed more Kampucheans

fore the Vietnamese invasion have been described than Pol Pot's forces. And the forced evacuation as the most fanal^a] mass murderers since Hitler of Cambodian cities, so derided by western ob-and Stalin. But there is plenty of evidence that servers, was probably a humanitarian act which western media exaggerated accounts of Khmer saved many lives. TIM LOW reports, atrocities. Former President Nixon's illegal

Organisations concerned with famine relief in Kampuchea give surprisingly variable estimates of the number of people surviving in that country. Queries by Semper to the Brisbane offices of Freedom From Hunger and Austcare, and to the Canberra office of the Intemational Disaster Emergency Cominittee, reveal population estimates ranging from two to five million. These figures are mostly less than the Dapartment of Foreign Affairs estimate (5 to 5.25 million) and much less than relief organisation and CIA estimates reported eariier this year in the Washington Post (5 to 5.6 million).

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said the lower figures were not accurate, and tiiat they came into vogue from Heng Sanirin and Vietnamese sources. He implied tiial the popular 3 million^ estimate was a fiction created to win support for the new pro-Vietnamese governnient in Kampuchea. He said thai Department of Foreign Affairs estimates had always put the population between 4.5 and 5 million, using figures provided by the Unilcd Nations.

A spokesperson from the International Disaster Committee mentioned estimates varying from 1 to 6 million but said tiiat; 5 million was the safest estimate. He said "estimates by joumalists and officials in Bangkok varied enormously depending on the politics of those involved."

None of the spokespersons contacted by Semper would verify last year's media reports of 0.5 to 3 million people slau^tered by Pol Pot forces.

Peter Wood of Freedom From Hunger said 2.8 million people died or lefl the country while the Foreign Affairs source said "hundreds of tiiousands have lost tiieir lives". Yet botii stressed tiiat their estimates were of deatiis from any cause, including starvation, and were not estimates of Pol Pot killings.

The IDEC source would not give an estimate, but gave the private opufiion tiiat "I don't doubt at all tiiere were ex­aggerated accounts of massacres."

These comparatively subdued comments contrast witii the emoti've media reports of previous years, in which tiie Khmer Rouge were described as fanatics, madmen and murderers who had "committed a form of genocide unknown to mankind since

.gg^^jpgp

Skulls from a mass grave that are believed to be relics of genocide

From TIME, 12 November 1979. Gonocide perhaps, but caused by whom? In the last decade mass deaths have occurred from American bombing, the American invasion, Lon Nol brutality, and starvation resulting from American destruction of ricefields. Yet TIME'S placement of the photo with an article "Deathwatch: Cambodia" implies (without stating) that the deaths were caused by Communist Kampucheans or Vietnamese. J

the holocaust" (Marsh Clark, TIME, 12 November 1979).

In fact, contradictions and confusion surround all accounts of recent Kampu-chean history. Klimer Rouge policies and actions seem to have been grossly mis­represented by many journalists - with disturbing implications for tiie state of political joumalism.

To understand the confused state of knowledge of Kampuchea it is necessary to look briefly at the history of this small country.

The communist Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia (later renamed Kam­puchea) in 1975, after overthrowing the American-backed Lon Nol govemment. During a four year reign of govemment which ended last year, the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot closed Kampuchea to the outside worid, expelling all foreigners and admitting few visitors.

The closure of the counlry posed prob­lems for journalists and historians wishing to document events witiiin the country. WiUi littie direct access to Kampuchea, journalists came to rely on a new source of information - the testimony of refugees fleeing the country.

The flow of refugees into Thailand began soon after the Klimer Rouge lake-over, and numbers fleeing over tiie years ebbed and flowed in response to internal events. Refugees gave different reasons for fleeing - fear of execution, dislike of forced labour, disease and hunger. As a source of information about Kampuchea, refugees were limiting in several respects.

Firstiy, many refugees fled for ideological reasons, or from fear of persecution. Refugees in such circumstances could be expected to present exaggerated tales of

V — —

oppression. Tliis would particularly have applied to those hoping to migrate to the United States, a nation whose hatred of tiic Klimer Rouge was well known.

Few Khmers speak English or Fr,ench and few journalist speak Klimer. Journalists seeking interviews with refugees relied largely upon interpreters suppUed by of­ficials of the pro-American Tliai govem­ment. ll would have been easy for Thai officials to have directed joumalists to refugees offering tiie most horrific stories. And interpreters could have distorted or elaborated the same stories for furtiier political effect.

The few refugees able to speak English or French- would have belonged mostly to the educated upper social strata. These educated classes were favoured by the haled Lon Nol regime and so became targets for persecution by Khmer Rouge forces. Al­thougli able lo communicate directiy with journalists, educated refugees would have presented a more hostile viewpoint than most peasants.

These points suggest serious limitations of refugee testimony. They do not imply the accounts of refugees are without value, but indicate the need for a cautious ap­proach.

Such an approach was taken by the human riglits organisation Amnesty InternationaT. Because of tiie lack of corroboration and possible exaggeration of refugee atrocity stories. National Sections of Amnesty were advised to avoid making public statements "in the absence of independent sources of in­formation in Cambodia."

This approach led some joumalists to question Aninesty's silence over tiie issue, as if it were politically motivated. In fact they would have been better employed by directing their suspicions towards colleagues in Thailand.

For the caution exercised by Amnesty, was not shared by many of tiie joumalists gathering stories at the refugee camps. Most published tales of atrociti'es lack corroboration and are suspect for the reasons listed above.

Apart from refugee testimony, what other sources of information about Kam­puchea were available to joumalists?

Despite Kampuchea's closure to the worid, a limited number of joumalists and diplomats were permitted entry to the countiy. Their accounts offer a wholly different picture from that presented by refugees.

continued next page

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-meDifl.

Kampuchea continued from previous pogo

Richard Dudman wrote in the St. Louis Post Dispatch (15 January 1979):

"What I found in two weeks of touring Pol Pot's Cambodia - under strict govemment supervision but with a good opportunity for observation -was a regimented life of hard work for most Cambodians, leavened, how­ever, by much improved housing, regular issuance of clothing, and an assuratice of apparently adequate food. I did not find the grim picture painted by the thousands of refugees who couldn't take the new order and fled to Tliailand or Vietnam.

Richard Nations wrote in the Far East Economic Review (12 January, 1979) "Most joumalists returned favourably im­pressed with tiieir firsl spontaneous contact with Cambodians on Cambodian soil under Khmer Rouge rule. These women looked cheerful, were nol emaciated, and were working in tiic fields wilhoul evident super­vision."

The Swedish ambassador lo Peking, Kaj Bjork visited Kampuchea in 1976 and said "around Phnoni Penh you could see young­sters marching, all of tiicin with a hoc and a spade, some of thcin also carrying a gun. 1 got tiic very strong impression that the regime has aciive support from this kind of young person." (New York Times, 9 March 1976).

These and similar accounts were the personal observations of western observers. They lack the inherent biases of refugees and Heng Sanirin government sources. Yet they have been given littie attention in the worid media.

American professors Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman argue that such-comments have been ignored because they conflict witii the western worid's desire to denigrate a communist regime. In After The Cataclysm (Soutii End Press: Boston, 1979) the authors laboriously analysed three years of media coverage of Kampu­chea, and documented many examples of distortion, exaggeration and fabrication. Their 165 pages of analysis and 427 foot­notes present a disturbing commentary on how the west interpreted a regime it found politically and socially repugnant.

Chomsky and Herman's analyses arc too detailed to be summarised here. But the theme of tiieir arguments can be conveyed by considering one of the events tiiey dis­cussed - the forced evacuation of Cam­bodian cities.

The evacuation of Phnom Penh and olher cities was used by journalists to illustrate the "fanaticism" of tiic Khmer Rouge. Journalists from tiic outside worid were understandably shocked at the siglit of near empty cities and saw the 'skeletons of cities' as symbols of a dying country.

And since the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge, the migration of people to Phnoni Penli has been seen as a sign that things arc retuming to nomial. (The fact that movement to the cities has been mainly to collect food handouts has not dampened tiie enthusiasm of Cambodia-watchers).

The mostiy rural Cambodians were probably less concerned by Ihc emptying of their cities than the urban journalists who reported the event. But this misses an important point, the rationale for emptying the cities in the first place.

William Coodfellow, an associate with the Institute for International Policy, left Cambodia with the final United States evacuation in April 1975. He wrote in the New York Times on 14 July 1975:

"The evacuation of Cambodia's larger cities has been sensationalised in the

Western press as a "death march". In fact it was a journey away from cer­tain death by starvation, for at the time the former Phnom Penh Govern­ment surrendered, starvation was al­ready a reality in the urban centres, and widespread famine only a matter of weeks away, while in the country­side there was a sizeable food surplus. Phnom Penh, with a population of 500,000 before the war, bad swollen to 1.5 million by the war's end. Last March the director of the United Stales Agency for International De­velopment in Cambodia, Norman Sweet, estimated that in Phnom Penh alone 1,2 million people were in "desperate need" of United States food, although at the time only 640,000 people were actually re­ceiving sotne fortn of United States food support. In spite of the sizeable United States Food for Peace program, starvation was widely reported."

A similar account is reported in a letter to the Wall Street Journal by the director of the Indochina Resource Centre in Washington. The letter was in reply lo an anti-Khmer Rouge editorial in the Journal on 16 April 1976.

/. You call the evacuation of Phnom Penh a "forced march", recalling in­numerable commentaries in the media over the past year attributing the dispersion of the population of the cities to the countryside in April 1975 to cruelly or fanaticism or both. But you neglect to point out that as many as 85 per cent of the population involved in the evacuation of the city of Phnom Penh were ac­tually refugees from their homes in the countryside; that Cholera had begun to spread in the overcrowded, rat-infested slums and refugee camps in and around Phnom Penh and that major epidemics were feared a fear which had been expressed as early as February by foreign medical personnel in the city; Ihat there was no power or supply of uncontamiu-a ted drinking water in the cily by the end of the war; that the country did not have the transportation system lo truck food into the city for an in­definite period; that it was vital to havfL.^vcry able-bodied person in the country help to bring in the crop then being harvested and to prepare for crops to be harvested later in the year.

2. . . .But there is no disagreement that, given the fact that only 50 to 65 per cent of the population was producing food at the close of the war, instead of the 90 per cent of the population which had done so in peacetime, Cambodia had an urgent requirement to increase the labor force drastically in order to produce enough food to prevent famine. The 500,000 to 700,000 true urban dwellers of Cambodia would have had no income and no goods to trade in the cities, since the Cambodian non-agricultural economy had ground to a halt due lo the cut off of imports.

Comments such as these were mostly ignored by Time and Newsweek, both of which printed many refugee stories. One arlicie in Newsweek (23 January 1978) comprised five pages of emotive refugee talcs. A single paragraph was devoted to the opinions of outside experts:

Several prominent Indochina experts have recently disputed many of the refugee's charges, contending that a few thousand Cambodians at the most have died at the hands of the Angka Loeu (the Khmer Rouge rulers). They also maintain that it was a matter of economic necessity to relocate the population into rural areas because U'S, bombers ravaged the land during the Vietnam War. But so similar and so frequent are the refugees'stories of terror and deprivation that many analysts have concluded that Cam­bodia has become what one refugee called it last week: "a country of

walking dead."

This account is more informative than an article in Time (19 May 1975) which offered only meaningless rhetoric to ex­plain tiie evacuation:

Was this just cold brutality . . . a cruel and sadistic imposition of the law of the jungle? . . . Or is it possible that, seen through the eyes of the peasant soldiers and revolutionaries, the forced evacuation of ihe cities is a harsh necessity? Or was the policy both cruel and ideological?

This gibberish makes a mockery of a comment published in Time two weeks

"After one of the most intensive bombing assauhs in history, a conservative estimate is tiiat 500,000 of Cambodia's 7 million or so people had been killed."

What effect did the bombing have on Cambodians? A former Foreign Service officer in Phnom Penh, David P. Chand[ler speculated:

What drove the Cambodians to kill? Paying off old scores or imaginary ones played a part, but, to a large extent, I think, American actions are to blame. From 1969 to 1973, after all, we dropped more than 500,000 tons of bombs on the Cambodian countryside. Nearly half of this ton­nage fell in 1973'. . . In those few

NIXON BLAMED Former American President Nixon WAS mainly

responsible for the war which led tiie Khmer Rouge power, according to British journalist William to

Shawcross

Writing in the Far East Economic Review |7 and 14 January, 1977), Shawcross ar­gued this conclusion from a study of hundreds of inter­views and papers released under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Shawcross' analysis, recently published in Sideshow — Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cam­bodia (1979, Simon and Schusterl is as follows:

In 1969, warfare in Indo-China was confined to Viet­nam. Cambodia under Prince Sihanouk was trying to re­main neutral, but its eastern regions were being used by Vietnamese communists as supply routes and sanctuaries.

The communist bases were irking U.S. commanders in Saigon who asked then Presi­dent Johnson to allow bomb­ing raids. He rafused.

However in early 1969, Richard Nixon won the U.S. Presidency. Less than a month after taking office he gave the go-ahead for bombing raids in Cambodia.

Accoti> • • : : -•--r.Ti'foss this was an illegal act, as the American constitution allows only Congress to wage wars — and Congress was not in­formed. Nixon kept the bombings secret with falsified computer printouts — one of his earlier deceits which even­tually led to Watergate.

The bombings had a dramatic effect on Cambodian life. Many, if not most of the victims were innocent peasants, over 500,000 accord-into to a U.S. Senate estimate.

Bewildered peasants flocked both to the cities and to the anti-American Khmer Rouge. Formerly a weak force, the Khmer Rouge became powerful and intensely anti-American. China and North Vietnam, outraged by the bombings, flooded the Khmer Rouge with weapons.

Meanwhile the U.S. con­tinued the bombing, and in 1970 invaded Cambodia in search of communist hide­outs. The invasion was a

TVK- I'S If.imhinf; pcllcni in litdnfhina fmm Jiiinijry I y 7,1 i,it;il Aiifiist when Congress ?!<';Vi('J ill It} s!)ii> tUi- Oaniafc hcinf injlictcii hy Oh- .S'ixdit'Kiiiinjtcr li'/iifc lliiusf. Map rfi>ri)Jiici-tl limn 'SUcshow'

failure. The communists had moved west to avoid the bombings, and tha Americans only succeeded in alienating more Cambodians.

With the growing strength of the Khmer Rouge, and its access to Chinese and North Vietnamese weapons, success against the pro-American Cambodian government wis inevitable. And in April 1975, to the cheers of city dwellers, the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh.

_

earlier - afier the Khmer Rouge takeover but before Ihe evacuation. Referring to "the problem of feeding an estimated 1.3 million refugees who were still believed lo be crowding the capital" Titne quotes an (anonymous) expert asking, "How can the 60,000 Klimer Rouge iroops handle the 2 million people packed into Phnom Penh?"

This is a valid question. So why was tiie "problem of feeding an estimated 1.3 million refugees" not offered as an ex­planation for the evacuation in the Time article only two weeks later. Instead Time could only frotli with catchy phrases like "cold brutality", "the law of the jungle" and "pure and simple genocide".

In the event, tiie evacuation seems to have been a life-saving move. With "forced labour" in the fields, Kampuchea once again becomes self sufficient in food. (Even Time grudgingly admitted tiiis). Kampuchea was even exporting nee, until the Vietnamese invasion disrupted production and led to the present famine.

(Pol Pot's media critics have even blamed him for the famine, despite the invasion, severe drouglits, and despite the initial reluctance of the new Heng Samrin govern­ment lo distribute food).

The evacuation of Kampuchean cities was only one of the many incidents mis-reported by western journalists. Chomsky and Herman describe many more. Of interest is their reference lo the American bombing of neutral Cambodia (see box).

According to William Shawcross (Far Eastern Economic Review 7 January 1977):

l>nL)i<m!r.'t'.i UU-JNUW.-

months, we may have drive thou­sands of people out of their minds. (In Chomsky and Her/nan, 1979, p. 154j.

William Goodfeliow in the New York Times (14 July 1975) wrote:

Primarily because of a large-scale United States bombing campaign in which 539,129 tons of bombs were dropped on the Cambodian country­side, the agrarian economy was shat­tered. Ahnost half of Cambodia's population became refugees, many_ of whom fled to the cities where they became fully dependent on United States supplied rice.

These comments describe events as horrific as Pol Pol atrocities. Yet tiiey refer to actions initiated by the U.S., the mosl vocal critic of Pol Pot.

Of course tiie figure of 500,000 deatiis may be wildly inaccurate, as most of the Khmer Rouge murder estimates are. But a cynic might speculate tiiat tiie U.S. bombings caused as many if not more deaths than Pol Pol, particulariy if deatiis from starvation were included. (American bombs destroyed vast acreages of rice paddy as well as human lives).

The U.S. bombings make a mockery of that country's condemnations of Pol Pot. They show the hypocrisy of the western world's media machine - a vast apparatus creating distorted images of American bene­volence and communist horror.

Meanwhile, the famine in Kampuchea worsens...

fliSiVjg?

-6DucRnon.-

EDUCATION WITHOUT

DIRECTION

If we care to take off our socialised blinkers for a while, we might look back-over the past two thousand years and see that manldnd has been involved in an enormous amount of movement, but precious iittle change. Or, from an evolutionary perspective, we miglit say that we have made innumerable adaptive changes without achieving anything like a new level of existence.

Who would deny that tiie scribes and pharisees, tiie senators and centurions, still walk (or commute) among us, and that the courts and ^ ^ • • • ^ • i the soldiers implement their wishes, and that the average man voles regulariy for Barabbas and Mammon in preference to Christ and God? The Massacre of Wounded Knee (Neihardt, 1974) takes place daily and we each make a choice from three alternatives: we can pick a side or wc can ignore the battie. And of course the three alternatives are, in reality, two, because tiiose of us who ignore the battie actually assist the Wasichus who have the big guns.

We move more quickly. We calculate

Modern universities are socialising factories serving elitist occupations, according to educationalist DR. DOUG OGILVIE*. He argues the need for universities to develop mature theories of existence to counteract the immaturity and selfishness of modern society. He sees Christianity and the alternative society as steps in the right direction.

were conceptualised by means of vision, and before they were institutionalised by petty bureaucrats and administralors and teachers.

This need to change is as pressing wilhin the individual person (who is an or­ganisation of cells and organs) as it is in the larger social organisations lo which he belong?. As individuals, most of us operate as mechanistic systems. Our natural be­haviours arc inhibited by our socialised conscience. Wc seek artificial satisfactions instead of responding to natural drives. We

In an organic organisation, any decision is the responsibility of the unit that will implement the decision (e.g. a teacher who will assess the skills of a student is respon­sible for designing the relevant assessment).. At the workface, each individual has res­ponsibility for a functional activity (e.g. enquiring into the nature of human or­ganisations).

The individual also collaborates with other individuals witiiin a series of over­lapping functional units of increasing size and complexity, each larger unit being res-

more speedily and we do things more often ^ ^^^ authority of our superego "and ponsible for a more complex function. How (and more monotonously) but otherwise what has changed? We delude ourselves mto believing that more rapid movement means a betier life, i.e. a change of state. In fact, most of us are vigorously, and somewhat stupidly, running on the spot.

Our cmcial need is for fraternal relation­ships characterised by creativity and con­sensual decision-making. In a sense, we need to return to tiie Libcrty-Equality-Fratcrnity ideals of tiie French Revolution, or to Christ's ideal of brotiietly love. But the return needs to be to those ideals as tiiey

Doug Ogilvie, M.Ed.Admin.. Ph.D. is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Education. His major concern is Educational Administration.

reject the possibility of operating as mature, integrated organisms, i.e. intuitively, spon­taneously, enthusiastically, pleasurably and creatively.

Similariy, we exist and work within mechanistic organisations; bureaucracies wherein wc accept the authority of managers of rules or of tradition. We reject the pos­sibility of living and growing in organic organisations where we might make our own decisions and be responsible for our own behaviour.

A movement away from the mechanistic form of organisation to (he organic form of organisation, at both individual and societal level, would seem to be crucial to the future evolution of mankind..

ever, no functional unit in the upward ex­panding organic hierarchy has any authority over any unit lower in the hierarchy in the performance of its function. Simpler units have first call on resources and only as surplus energy is available is it allocated upward in the emergent hierarchy.

In short, in an organic organisation, there is no hierarchy of autiiority and power is equally distributed because of tiic right of veto inherent in consensual decision­making.

On the other hand, a mechanistic or­ganisation has a bureaucratic hierarchy of authority imposed upon it by manage­ment. By this means, managerial decisions can be imposed upon sectional units lower in the hierarchy. This applies whetiier

dominant officials are ap­pointed by owners, as in a traditional bureaucracy, or elected by the majority of members, as in a trendy collegial bureaucracy.

There are important ele-. ments of botii socialism evi­dent in a bureaucratic organi­sation. TTie rights of the or­ganisation lake precedence over the rights of individual members. The individual functions in the interests of the organisation (as those interests are conceived by those who dommate the or­ganisation). The individual enjoys only tiiose rights, duties and responsibUities tiiat arc delegated dovmward

• • • ' • • • ^ • " to him by the controllers. Activities are planned by specialists so tnat individual members have littie freedom of initiative and clients arc left with littie or no choice of product.

In an organic organisation, on the otiier hand, basic rights, duties and responsibilities rest with tiie individual member. Tlie organ­isation has no rights or responsibilities except those delegated upwards by con­sensus. Freedom of enterprise is liighly valued and individual initiative is en­couraged. Because of an acceptance of consumer sovereignty, there is consider­able freedom of choice for the client. As only the fit can "survive" at tiie workface, individual members are motivated to be productive, creative and adaptive, or else to find another responsibility more suited to their talents. Such organisations tend to be creative, exciting and rewarding for both member and client. Because basic rights and power are shared equally, these organisations also provide security and community for their members.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT As individuals, most of us are seriously

inhibited. We maintain a consensual gap between our rational thought, based largely on the frontal lobes of the brain, and our

continued next page

t r SEMPER 9

(wmon. EDUCATION

WITHOUT DIRECTION

continued from previous page

instinctual thought, or feelings, arising from the limbric system near the physical centre ofthe brain.

The modem scientific age has been characterised by this mechanistic domina­tion of rational tiiought and submission of instinctual tiiought. Througliout both capitalist and socialist societies, science and technology have been worshipped more than religion. In schools and univenities, the cog­nitive domain has been considered separate

and superior to the affective domain; the head has been rewarded at the expense of the heart; rational analysis, measurement and catagorisation have been encouraged in preference to creative integration; the male element has been promoted at the expense ofthe female element.

Man's internal alienation has made possible tiie inhibition of powerful, natural drives and has generated behaviours that are artificial, inautiientic and neurotic. Such be­haviours are leading modem man into a

meaningless, adaptive dead-end as he tums his back on tiie possibility of continuing organic evolution to a higlier level of being.

Such evolution would be dependent on individuals of integrity, or mental maturity, coming together wilhin organic organisations. The necessary mental malurily would require the acceptance of self-responsibility for replacing internal dominance-submission alienation by a con­sensual, integrated relationship between rational thought and intuitive feeling.

The basic theory and skills necessary for tliis personal development to maturity are already available within the literature

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and practice of the laboratory training (T-group) movement. This movement has generated a variety of experiental learning strategies, i.e. strategies tiiat facilitate learning from tiie events of an artifical ex­perience, e.g. sensitivity training, encounter groups, transactional analysis, psycho-drama, assertion training.

In association with these strategies, a range of experiential learning techniques has also been developed, e.g. role playing, use of non-evaluative feedback, group-

Botii groups are, understandably, threat­ened by tiie possibility that facilitation and collaboration miglit be more appropriate behaviour for mature' adults tiian mani­pulation and control. And as long as tiicy maintain their myUis, tiiese remain the experienced "reality" within which society operates.

MASS MOVEMENTS Two mass movements thst appear likely

to attract mature individuals and develop

on-group observation. The basic theory and skills necessary

for mature functioning in an organic organisation are also available and can be found within the literature and praclice of the organisation development (O.D.) move­ment. This movement has generated a variety of problem-solving strategies, 'e.g. team building, conflict management, creative decision-making, goals clarification, survey feedback, and their associated techniques, e.g. brainstorming, forcefield analysis.

Botii movements (O.D. and T-group), when not prostituted by the inevitable chariatans, encourage the development of integrated individuals and mature relation­ships through their emphasis on:

a. education, instead of manipulation, b. problem-solving as an alternative to

• hi'sinagcmenl, c. collaboration, in preference to co­

ordination, d. reliance upon self, rather than reliance

upon authority, e. relationships characterised by honesty,

openness, trust and caring. Educational organisations, including

universities, have largely resisted efforts to gain Ic^timacy for this problem-solving allernalive lo the traditional management model within which they operate. Educa­tional administrators generally depend for their privileged status on maintaining the myth that an organisation won't function unless it is managed. Teachers, similariy, have a vested intcresi in maintaining the niytii that students won't learn unless they arc manipulated.

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mature organisations would appear to be Christianity and the alternative society movement.

However, the Christian churches need to dissociate themselves from the mater­ialism of powerful individuals and in­stitutions, and to reconceplualise (he teaching of Christ concerning the nature of God and Mammon, Christian love, the brotherhood of rrian, and the things tiiat are Caesar's and hence should be rendered to him ratiier than to God (Luke, 20:25).

In turn, the alternative society move­ment needs to distance itself from those counter-culture freaks whose adolescent rebellion merely replaces traditional drugs, dress, sex, food, religion and authority with trendy substitutes. The emphasis needs to be on the positive importance of love, conservation, intuitive happiness, the quality of life and personal development wititin community and the movement needs to actively disassociate itself fiom habitual drugs, exploitive sex, laziness and the iso­lation of attempted self-sufficiency.

These two movements, Christianity and alternative society, can be expected to co­alesce and be vitalised (or re-vitalised) and enter (or re-enter) mainstream society in direct confrontation with those author­itarian, materialistic political and economic movements tiiat currently dominate soctety, worid-wide. Each individual will be forced to make a personal commitment lo one side (the Indian Nation or the Wasichus?) and wc can expect brother to be divided against brother, and parent against child, in gravest hostility.

The eariy stirrings of an Aquarian Age arc evident in a widespread questioning of authority and concern for the quality of life. There is a multi-faceted move to bring about a major revolution in man's way of life; the achievement of a new level of existence. It is illustrated by happenings as divergent as the Second Vatican Council and the anti-war protests of the sixties, the anti-nuclear protests of the seventies and the pressure for civil rights for blacks, women, homosexuals, prisoners and children, and in action to promote con­servation, accountability and participation.

The roots of this movement, expressed immaturely bul vigorously in the musical "Hair", dig deep into the thoughts ofa host of creative minds.

Previous revolutionary movements were founded on the ideas of one or two men of. genius. These creative persons were accepted' as authorities by a mass of immature men. However, mental genius has always been in

;rahott supply_xglaliy5_:ta:adn!in«t£ative-jkai^

and the second generation authority for past ^revolutions inevitably tumed out to be an 'ego-centric shopkeeper. The creative ideas of Jesus Christ were bureaucratised by Paul and Constantine, those of Roussea by Napoleon and those of Marx and Lenin by Stalin, in a pattern of pedestrianisation that has been repeated throughout history.

Today's idealistic revolutionary move­ment, however, neither has, nor seeks, a sage 01 a founder, a messi^ or a fuhrer (and in this it differs from the counter­culture rebellion of societal dropouts). It is made up rather of hundreds of thou­sands of individuals in thousands of or­ganic communities (families or communes or hamlets or associations), all questioning autiiority in a multitude of ways and striving for self-responsibility, and so sowing the seeds of a genuinely mature revolution.

UNIVERSITIES What are lacking, however, are mature

tiieories of existence (i.e. of reality and its manifestations). These will integrate con­ceptualisations from the sciences and the humani^i^^ from religions and folk lore. By uuu'ding more complex understandings upon these, the minds of man will generate a more vital, exciting picture of the pheno­menon that is man.

The integration of such theories will provide the conceptualisation for living that is currentiy being sought, by many creative people, in religion, in science, in politics and in superstition. (It will probably be of no significance to reproductive people who are more concemed witii profit, or vrith pride, or witii being entertained while they fill in tiieir time).

The development of such theories would seem to be the crucial responsibility of a university, and particulariy of an education department within a university.

Universities appear idedly suited to provide a phylum for man's furtiier organic evolution and, within a university, an education department would seem an appropriate location for that phylum's initial angle of divergence. Where else

would be more appropriate for the in­tegration of conceptualisations from elementary disciplines and fields of applica­tion? Where else should we expect to find a stronger drive for, and commitment to, understanding, growth, development and the search for Trutii?

Unfortunately, of course, such depart­ments suffer from the malaise common to mosl educational institutions.

Contrary to the official mytii, tiie modem university is essentially a socialising factory that services the elitist occupations (including the academic one itselQ and through tiiem reproduces an immature society based on the motivations of selfish­ness and greed. The university provides an initiation programme for tiie potenlial dominants of an exploitive society, in­doctrinating them very successfully into th appropriate societal values and cer-

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The Anti-abortion Bill:

UBS ABOUT FACE The Organisational wing of the

Liberal Party has announced its opposition to the Unborn Child Protection Act. Retiring president Ms. Yvonne McComb announced that an executive meeting held to discuss the issue had resolved to tell j^irty members not to support tj?ifr::i'^ Instead Ms. McComb said the party wants a white paper on the abortion issue so that the public can discuss the issue. This could be used as a quide to legislators in drafting a more acceptable bill.

The Liberal party executive noted that there were a number of difficulties in the bill which had not been properiy tiiouglit out at its firsl drafting. These issues are said to have included rape and incest provisions, and the difficulties faced by country women if the bill was passed.

Ms. McComb pointed out that isolated women and country women would be at a severe disadvantage if all the provisions of the bill were implemented. Counlry towns usually have only one doctor, and isolated areas often share a doclor with residents thousands of miles away. This is tiie case witii people who depend on the flying doctor service. If a country woman needing an abortion was made to abide by the provisions of the act it would be nearly impossible for her lo get the permission of two doctors as required by the law, let alone by a specialist in her field of illness.

Ms. McComb said she would not be telling Liberal members lo vote against the legislation when it conies to Pariiament again. She said "we don't ever advise our members of what their conscience vote should be . . . that's their conscience and their decision."

However Ms. McComb said that the Leader of the Parliainentary Liberal Party Dr. Llew (Noddy) Edwards, and a rep­resentative of the back bench were also at tiie meeting, and were lold by the execuiive to convey the decision to pariiamentary members!

The Executive decision will come as a blow to Dr. Edwards who supported the bill, and to Health Minister and ex-Liberal Leader Bill Knox who drafted it. Mr. Knox's personal stand is to oppose abortion as a means of contraception, but to see that it is available legally at registered hospitals.

When tiie bill was drafted, however, registered hospitals became "authorised" hospitals. This raises doubts about how many hospitals would receive autiiorisa-tion, and whetiier political patronage would become a necessity for hospitals to operate properiy without fear or favour.

Knox wiU almost inevitably come out with egg on his face over the drafts and redrafts of tiie bill. Hapless Bill was merely fulfilling a task set for him. His fault was tiiat he fulfilled it only too well.

It is also something of a vindication for longstanding women's rights campaigner Ms. Rosemary Kyburz, member for Salisbury and only woman in a parliament of almost eighty members. Ms. Kyburz has - risked her precariously held seat for

several years while being outspoken about rape, abortion and similariy touchy issues. Ms. Kyburz also holds the distinction of being tiie firsl member of tiie Liberal party in living memory lo call botii the Premier, and a government sponsored bill, fascist. She and fellow backbenchers like Innes and Bishop have come out of tiieir batties in the joint parties room fairiy well, con­sidering the toughness of their parliamentary colleagues, the cynicism ofthe press and the fickleness of the public.

Press speculation has suggested tiiat the Liberal about-face was prompted in party by a strong lobby of Liberal voting doctors opposed lo the legislation. The doctors are not being entirely altruistic in tiieir oppo­sition. Their concern is as much for their own privacy, and unrestricted practice of their profession, rather than the feelings of their potential patients,

A recent sur\ey in Queensland showed the majority of doctors supporting moves to loosen up abortion laws.

ll was recommended to pariiament some time ago that a working committee be set up in conjunction with the AMA to discuss the formulation of future laws relating to abortion. Such a commitlee was never established. Liberal members have voiced the opinion tiiat this proves how single minded the governnient has been

in its opposition to loosened restrictions. Opinion polls of the voting public have also showed Queenslanders to be in favour of less restrictive abortion laws.

In late 1977 Children By Choice com­missioned a survey from McNair Anderson concerning tiie state of play in the Queens­land Abortion wrangles. McNair Anderson interviewed a large sample of Queenslanders aged 16 years and over, and asked Ihem nine questions on abortion. The survey was broken down to survey the different voting trends of men and women, of city and country areas, voting preferences and religion. The questionnaire also included a question about whether voters would approve or disapprove of a law permitting legalised abortion in Queensland.

The result showed Queenslanders of all areas, sexes, and voting patterns voted in the majoriiy lo approve any new law con­cerning legalisation of abortion. The only group to oppose the proposed law were Roman Catholics. Yet the same people voted to allow abortions to women affected by seven of the nine circumstances proposed by McNair Anderson. The only two circumstances where Roman CatiioUcs were opposed to abortion were where a woman was over forty, or where living conditions were inappropriate to child rearing.

QUEENSLANDERS VIEWS ON ABORTION (1977 survey) Qunllon

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88 87 86 88 63 60 59 68 74

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97 97 9.5 91 77 78 80 83 87

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New, smaller surveys suggest that the support for abortion has now grown even further.

In a rare stand for such a a conservative organisation the Queensland Branch of the _ Australian Medical Association has come' out in Opposition to the proposed Bill. The President of the Queensland Branch, as well as several general practitioners have made statements to the press condemning the governments bid to gain control of doctors' files, and patients medical records througli provisions in the act relating to attempts to subvert tiie intentions of tiie act, by referring patients for counselling by pro-abortion services. Penalties for doctors are extremely high in that circum­stance, including jailing and possible de-registration.

The AMA represents seventy percent of practicing doctors, and so their stand is quite considerable. Members have been granted permission to use their names in Ihc media when opposing the bill - a practice otiierwise frowned on as "ad­vertising" by the Association. Several' doctors have spoken out in support of tiie Association stand.

However, several doctors have also spoken out in opposition to AMA. In fact, two doctors resigned because of the Assoc­iation stand. They said they could not remain members since the Association no longer represented their views. One of these doctors interviewed by the media admitted that he had not read die act, and was quite shocked when he learned the possible penalties to be imposed on doctors and their practices. He d&d not rejoin the AMA however.

A large advertisement supporting the legislation appeared in newspapers soon after. It suggested tiiat contraception was the only recourse for those not wanting children. The ad, was signed by several doctors including Dr. Edwards. Children By Choice later revealed tiial seven of tiie doctors involved had actually referred patients to Children By Choice for abortion counselling. These doctors were seemingly unaware that by doing so tiiey were subject to prosecution under the new bill's pro­vision. Several women told Semper tiiey had had experiences with a number of doctors on the list. AU these women claimed to have changed doctors in tiie last year because tiiose named had proved unhelpful and unwilling to give treatment tiie women were seeking.

One woman claimed she was refused contraceptive advice. Another claimed tiiat a doctor treating her for cystitis had lectured her disappro\dngly because she was single and sexually active. She said the doctor had regarded tiie whole matter as distasteful.

The Unborn Child Protection Act has now passed its first reading and will now lie on the table in the House until its second reading at tiie end of May. What happens afler dial is anyone's guess, but several government members have tiie feeling that the eyes of tiie worid arc upon tiiem. Tlieir reactions will be interesting, considering tiiat the eyes of Queensland voters still don't seem to be bothering them much.

-KJAZ PERRY

•—' -*• Till l a f i i r '

SEMPER \^

_n6uus - — Ttie Anti-abortion Bill:

CASEY SUBVERTS LABOR POLICY Ed Casey is an amazing man. As

well as being Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, this Labor politician made history by winning the leadership of the party after being expelled for being too chummy with the enemies of the left (He was later reinstated). He is also a senior official of the Right To Life Association, a body actively campaigning for the total prohibition of abortion. Casey was one of four Labor politicians to cross the floor in support of the anti-abortion legislation currently before the House, that is - lie voted WITH the Govemment.

So it came as a shock to neariy everybody when he issued a press release saying he could not suppori the legislation, and felt it should be tiirown out and redrafted. He even went so far as to say the bill was a deliberate plot by the Premier to split the ALP, and regarded it as a ploy whicli had failed.

He then did tiic sort of backflip Queens­landers are used to seeing from the Premier and revealed his true objections. Casey said he fell the bill was "too liberal", and would make abortion on request possible and lawful in Queensland. Such legislation, with its "unworkable loopholes" does not fit in with Casey's moral and religious beliefs, which make abortion out of the question in all cases.

There was confusion in Labor ranks when the press release was flrst published. Had tiie Labor leader aclually been so swayed by public opinion titat he was prepared to abide by his party's slated pro-abortion policy? Amazement soon tumed to consternation as Labor supporters realised that Casey had actually hardened his stand. Labor people reacted with a sort of doomed glee at Casey's statements. As one long time supporter said, "It's so depressing it's funny. I bet he and Joh see eye to eye on this one alright. Oh well -I suppose you have to expect this kind of thing in Queensland."

What it really means is another tiling. Casey has nol actually said he will vote against the bill. He said "I am not saying

I will vote against it because tiiere has to be a lot more discussion before we get to tiiat point."

It is possible Casey will vote against tiie bill, not because of any change of heart, but because party and public pressure will dictate il. The statements in the press release allow him lo do this withoui appearing to colnpromise his morals. Such a step would make tiie legislation less likely to be passed. With people crossing the floor on both sides, and with public debate heating up defections from either camp will be crucial at the final vote.

He might simply abstain fiom voting al all. This would be a morally safe move, and probably politically safe loo. However, it is not the sort of wishy-washy behaviour that will endear him to the pariiament or the public. Then again, tiicrc arc otiiers in the Queensland government who have a bob each way on everything and get away with il. From the point of the pro-abortionisls it would at least prevent lum doing further damage lo opposition nunibcrs since the opinion of any party leader is imporlant in shaping public opinion.

Ihen again, Casey could vote as he did on tile first reading of the bill, in favour of the Icgislation. As seen earlier Casey is strongly against abortion under any cir­cumstances, including rape, incest, or hard­ship to the motiier. This view is in line with anti-abortionists policy of regarding tiie embryo and foetus as sacred. The life of the mother is secondary in these circumstances.

The policy voted on at the last ALP state conference is in conflict with the Qld pariiamentary leaders views. The policy supporting free, safe abortion on demand was endorsed by the majority of delegates. Labor policy makes conference decisions final, and binding on the pariiamentary and organisational wings of tiie party. Thougli Casey attended the conference he did not debate abortion. He is now in contravention of his party's policy by opposing it in tiic House.

There is a groundswell of opinion opposing Casey within lus own party ranks. Groups like the Socialist Left and tiie Labor Women's Caucus have been seeking lo censure him since his petition calling for touglicr abortion legislation was submitted to pariiamcnl lale lasl year. Parly members felt the petition was unnecessary boat rocking, as well as being in direct contra­vention with party policy. At the time Casey said he was surprised at all the publicity, since he was only doing as his electorate asked. He began to get angry at joumalists questions and demanded lo know why they weren't asking about inflation and unemployment "the real issues". Shortly after that he would not discuss il at all.

For the first time supporters were made aware that he was involved heavily in tiic Right To Life Associalion. They did not object to that in principle, but lo the fact Ihal he was allowing his personal opinions lo colour party business which was already settled. Many members pointed out tiiat the majority of Queensland voters, and

tiie majority of doctors, were in favour of an easing in abortion laws. They felt it unjust that he should be aligning the party witii a minority pressure group.

His petition caused internal strife in the ALP witii several groups lobbying to liave Casey removed from the leader­ship. When women in the party approached Jerry Jones for support he uttered the now famous reply:

"The women of the party have got to get used to the fact that it is the men in pariiament who make the decisions, and tiiere is nothing they can do about it."

Frustrated groups opted to defer any action against Casey in the interests of

^.y^artv-.jyiity. It was hoped that the furore iiadbeen enough lo silence him.

Casey has not been silenced. Nor has he moved from his original stance. ALP supporters are now in the unenviable posiiion of having to oppose tiieir own pariiamentary leader, as well as three silting Labor members to win a battie for tiie vindication of their own party policy. Now the parly must either back its policy and oppose its leader, oppose its policy and defend its leader, or risk losing a large percentage of its voles from disenfranchised supporters.

RIDDLE: When the majority ofa party's members endorse one stance, and the minority of the party uses its position of power to subvert and oppose it, what do you get?

ANSWER: A typical day in Qld politics. -KJAZ PERRY

END OFABORTION BILL? In the wake of wide criticism of the government's Unborn Child Protection

Act, twelve amendments to the Bill has been proposed by Health Minister Bill Knox. These will be presented to the Joint Government Parties and then to Cabinet soon.

The exact nature of the amendments is as yet unclear, and one Liberal back­bencher who was unable to throw any liglit on the subject said that backbenchers are

always the last to be lold about government business anyway.

One known change to the Bill js the ex­tension of time given to women to report

EDUCATION WITHOUT

DIRECTION continued from page 10

tificating them when they prove their competence.

Education, as with Christianity and Democracy, has been successfully taken over by tliosc sectional interests that have most to fear from its expression, and its outcomes are quite different fiom its pro­fessed aims.

The modem university is no longer a community of scholars; a "sanctuary for scholarship and research" (Eccles, 1970:164). Rather, it is a market place

where trade-marked, certificated, informa­tion is sold by an oligarchy of privileged entrepreneurs, to be consumed by a milti-tude of addicts. We probably need a few

concemed individuals to drive the merchants from the temple.

U may be time that the enormous amount of energy currentiy expended in universities on immature, data-gathering-learning, on placebo work-study and on skilful careering, was rechannelled into generating and integrating mature theories and providing creative educational leader­ship.

More people may then come lo accept tiiat the function of educalion is lo facilitate tiie movement of people through the natural stages of development until they become self-actualised. Tlicre is no other function appropriate to any educational institution. Nor is tiiere any more important function appropriate to any other human organisation.

Within society, different organisational units may specialise in research, develop­ment, expression, production or exchange, but all actiwties need to derive from, and recognise, the need for each individual person to express a natural libido drive in personal growtii and development to ultimate maturity. • • Only an orgaiuc organisation has the

capacity to perform this vital function.

REFERENCES

J.C. Eccles: Facing Reality. N.Y., Springer-Veriag. 1970. J.G. Neihardt: Black Elk Speaks. London. Abacus. 1974.

v l 12

rape or incest to the police. From seven days tiie time is now twenty weeks. However, as one legal expert explained, the suggestion would only be a cosmetic change to the Bill. Severe mental anguish is already a grounds for abortion in the orignally proposed legis­lation, and it is unlikely that a doctor would list rape or incest as grounds for such an­guish. Since a doctor is neither lawyer, judge, or police officer, such a claim cannot be made conclusively. If the doctor were proved wrong, they would be in danger of litigation.

Executives of all the majo'r political parties have told their pariiamentary wings to drop the bUl.

Several important members of the govem­ment will be absent during the crucial pariiamentary proceedings next week, including Mr. Ron Camm, and Dr. Llew Edwards who will be overseas. With several Liberal and National Party members guaran­teed to vote against tiie Bill, and tiie Labor Party ranks firming in their opposition, it is likely that the vote would be very close. It is more likely that the eovemment will attempt to have the bill held over until Pariiament is prorogued for the election later this year. In that instance, all bills on notice are rejected, and disappear. This would effectively kill tiie le^slation. In that case the whole matter would have to begin again from scratch. With the problems the present proposed le^slation is causing It is very unlikely that the government would repeat the process.

-KJAZ PERRY

' • • ' • ' • ' " • ' • ' • I

.F6RTURe

WORLD WILDERNESS CONGRESS An Exercise In Cynicism?

The Australian Prime Minister Mr. Malcolm Fraser will open the coiv ference thus lending his personal, as well as government financial support. Vice Patron of the conference, is Mr. Bjelke-Petersen, who will give the closing address. Together both govern­ments have provided $90,00Q,for the conference funds. Private ' i Ki'iJsli-y, most notably mining companies have provided another $80,000 in support.

The Campaign Against Racial Exploitation criticised tiie conference for its glossy public relations format, and the selective use of "indigenous people" invited to speak. Among those invited were an Australian Aborigine, a "red Indian", and Mr. Enoch Mabuza, billed as tiie "Chief executive, councillor of the new Swazi homeland". This is one of the region's Bantustans - forced homelands for non-white South Africans. Mr. Mabuza is one of the government's cliief apologists.

LitUe has changed, and the glossy pre­sentation brochure of the Caims conference lists a number of the same delegates as tiie last conference. However, there are several major points of conjecture. Conservationist groups are angry at tiie fact that the Queens­land and Federal Governments have given heavy financial aid to tiie conference. So

Serious questions are being raised about the proposed World Wilderness Congress to be held In Cairns between June Sth and 13th 1980. The first Wilderness conference held in South Africa in 1977 attracted wide criticism as simply a highly successful propaganda exercise by the South African government to "cover up" the mistreatment of non-white South Africans.

KJAZ PERRY

have some of the industry big guns, including mining and logging interests. To compound this, aboriginal groups have not been invited to speak at the conference wliich could have a greal bearing on the fate of aboriginal communities in the North.

The only aboriginals to take an official role in the proceedings will be Lindsay Rouglisey - described as "artist and Songman of the Lardil Tribe; and Dick Roughsey O.B.E. who is listed in the official programme as "Artist, Past Chairman Aboriginal Arts Board". They will share the dais on Tuesday afternoon with Captain P.J. Trezise one of tiie prime movers of tiie conference who will speak about "Rock Art in Cape York". After that the con­ference moves to the Tobruk Memorial Swimming Pool for the "Welcome Cocktail Party".

Many aborigines and conservation groups

are outraged that there will be no effective aboriginal participation at the conference while several other "indigenous" people from olher countries are to speak. In the official rap up summary at the Johannesburg Conference these people were listed at the end as members of other "endangered species", giving some indication of how the South Africans regard non-white people.

The Campaign Against Racial Exploitation has called for a boycott of tiie Cairns conference by environmentalists, conservationists, and supporters of aboriginal land rights. Thay feel that attend­ance will be used to give credibility to racist govemments and the mining companies. Aborigines who niiglil want lo attend tiie conference would have to pay the $175 attendance fee - far beyond many people. According to the group, all the bodies in the group pretend to be concerned about

native people, and wilderness areas, but are cynically exploiting bolh.

Among other "indigenous natives" invited to speak at the Cairns conference are Dr. M. Gatsha Butiielezi, described as a Zulu chieftain speaking aboul "Zulu attitudes to Wildlife and Wilderness". Con­servationists question the validity of his opinions since he is Chieftain of yet anotiier Bantustan. Tlie blacks under liis charge are unwanted by the whites and forced into these areas where they are deprived of their South African citizenship, and for­bidden to travel or work elsewhere without visas, which are hard to obtain. The Zulu and Swazi homelands are barren and in­hospitable. The people ruled by Buthelezi and Mabusa often have to struggle to survive. Yet they are both speaking on behalf of tiieir people, about the relation­ship African natives have to their wilder­ness.

One concerned conservationist said tiiat by trying to keep alive the mytii of the noble savage, the backers of the Cairns conference will use what they say is de facto support from Australian natives who have not been invited to attend. Groups like tiie C.A.R.E. have littie doubt tiiat botii Chieftains- will be full of praise for tiie conference, its aims and its backers.

The conferences other prized Token Native is Ms. Carol-Ann Brandt from Canada. She is a veteran of the South African Conference, and is described in the official progranim as a "Mohawk princess", who will speak about "The Wilderness of the American Indian". In photographs from the first conference, Ms. Brandt is seen arriving at the airport looking decidedly non-Indian. A "WASP" princess she certain­ly looked in her tailored clotiies and im­peccable makeup. Anotiier photograph shows her in her "Indian Suit" - tastefully clean buckskin and an oh-so-shoU "authentic" sliirt. Witii her hair in Indian braids, and smile as bright as an Osmond, she seemed every inch the real Indian we are used to seeing on Disneyland.

Wliile these people may actually have sonietiting relevant to say about tiie situation of tiieir respective people, the use that will be made of the infonnation at the conference is in question.

In the meantime, the selection of some delegates and the exclusion of others have caused upheavals with the other delegates as well. Several scientists who have worked in the area have nol been invited lo speak, while other scientists, specialising in tiie wilderness areas of Tasmania, will have a place on tiie dais, Tliis is not objectionable in itself, except that many people concerned with the conference believe tiiat it will be used for political rather than conservation purposes.

Professor Bruce Rigsby is the Retiring President of Royal Society of Queensland. The society is a respected, apolitical body under tiic patronage of the Governor of Queensland. However Rigsby, head of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Queensland, was moved

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SEMPER or 13

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WORLD WILDERNESS CONGRESS

continued from previous pztge

to comment about the conference in his retiring address. In an extract from his address Mr. Rigsby said:

Most scientists who are actively engaged in research on the Peninsula, including myself, have not been invited to speak there. It is obvious that the organisation of the congress has come under the control of people who are closely associated with the current Queensland govemment and its policies on aboriginal affairs, economic development and environ­mental conservation.

S 10,000 each. In return the leaders of the companies were appointed to the Board of Trustees. Three papers lo be read at the conference reflect the attitudes and interests of mining groups to the use of the wilder­ness. A Comalco representative will speak on mine regeneration in the Monsoonal Tropics. A rep. from Conzinc Riotinto will speak on "Mineral Exploration in relation to Wilder­ness Areas", and will be followed by Dr. J.H. Lewis from Mineral Deposits Limited on "Mining and Rehabilitation in Natural Ecosystems." It is enough to make con­servationists shudder, and almost any halfway intelligent adult realise they are not expending tiie breath for nothing.

Otiicr invited delegates have decided to witiidraw, including autiior and conser­vationist Judith Wright, and Author Xawer Herbert. Herbert is listed in llie final programme as speaking on "The Australian Writer and Wilderness." However, he says

will of the aboriginal people from the North for its continuing work in archaelogy and ethnology.

Similariy, the final programme lists the Univeraty of Queensland Anthropology DeparUnent as an exhibitor. They have cancelled to avoid offending aboriginals.

Mr. Ian Player, brother of the South African Golfer Garry Player, and by way of being the Organiser of ihc Fust Worid Wilderness Congress commented about tiie Caims conference this way. "In Australia, the Aboriginal has lived on the land for hundreds of tiiousands of years but the land was left intact. All they left behind was tiieir art."

The inference is that real aboripnal culture is dead. As pointed out in the Nationwide story, the Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement

AUSTRALIA'S WILDERNESS AREAS

APPROXIMATE k)calions of major (circles) and minor (crosses) wilderness areas in Australia.

Key to minor areas: 1. Mossman Gofge and Mt. Windsor Tableland; 2. Hinchinbrook Island; 3. Parts of Fraser Island; 4. Parts ot Fall of Northern Tableland; 5. Parts ol Blue Mountains; 6. Ml. Kelly, Mt. Bimberi area; 7. Parts of South Coast Ranges; 8. Parts ol Snowy Mountains; 9. Parts ol Alps; 10. Snowy River; 11. Coast between Wbnboyn and Cape Howe; 12. Coast between Cape Howe and Cape Everard; 13. Parts of Wilson's Promontory; 14. Pari of Cape Barren Island; 15. Norfolk Range; 16. Part ol Central Highlands; 17. Part of Freycinet Peninsula and Schouten Island; 18. Gammon Range; 19. Sunset Country; 20. Big Desert; 21, Western MacDonneM Range; 22. Petermann Range; 23. Musgrave Range; 24. Twilight Cove; 25. Fitzgerald River; 26. Part of Hamersley Range; 27. Coburg Peninsula.

C*Pt YO<j« PtWIHSOl A

PRIHCtRECtKt filVER AHO KWDf RLETS

Percy Trezise, Congress organiser, is happy with the official lineup of the conference:

/ / is unfortunate we can't have every­body but it's only going for a week not twenty years . . , it's the old Aussie attitude, if you're not in it you bloodyweO knock it mate, and that's what they are doing these stupid knockers... like conservationists who unforntnately are not able to take tm active part in it. They're just knocking us that's all, and they're not making very much imprexion I can teU you.

Brisbane conservationists have littie doubt of that. They say they are sure that Trezise is sincere but misguided in his aims for the conference. Brisbane ^oups say their main problem is that Trezise has a large ego, and is unwilling to discuss things with others.

It Is not as though the only people who are "knockers" are those who were not invited to attend. Tasmanian delegate David Brown is attending, but suspicious of the conference motives.

"Well, the conference is being sponsored by a line up of some of tiie chief wilder­ness wreckers, the big industries which are wrecking Australia's wilderness. For example MIM, CSR and in particular Comalco which can take a great deal of credit for the destruction of Lake Peddcr . . .for the forthcoming destruction of the Franklin lower Gordon wilderness, and for the Cape York wilderness in Queensland going down hill as fast as it is", Dr. Brown said. .'' Comalco,'MIM and CSR have contributed

that if he docs not participate, it will be unofficially. On a Nationwide interview with Murray McLaughlin he said.

Most of these people, audience in-eluded, are not really interested in conservation at alL It's to want to conserve the country, would mean to love it, and how many of those people there would love it? It would be the Aboriginal i>eople I suppose, and how many Aborigmal people are going to be in this? There are these people still with their tribal lands, wanting their tribid lanih and being denied them - has anybody said anything about that?

In fact some Aboriginal groups are deeply distrustful of Uie Queensland govemment's stated proposal to turn large parts of (^pe York into a National Park. They believe that by judicious working of any act the govemment could move any troublesome aboriginal reserve and declare it a National Park, kicking the aboriginal population off the land. This is admittedly an extreme view, but they say that the govemmcnt has been known to pull similar "cute tricks" before, and might find this an opportunity too good to miss.

Several artists will show their work at the congress, as well as exhibits and displays from Museums, Art Galleries, Universities, and concemed groups. However, here too there have been withdrawals. The Queens­land Museum has withdrawn their proposed Aboriginal Display. They cancelled the display because of the exclusion of aboriginals - with the exception of Dick R o u ^ y who will talk about cock art. The museum says it depends onlthe good-

apparently shares the view. Nationwide was shown a presumably confidential Depart­mental memo which talks about fear that the Land Ri^ts movement might secure control of North Queensland, to form a "Fourth Worid Movement". It says the movement is "a quite genuine ground swell of radical opinion related closely to con­servation, anti-technology, and Rousseauian primitivism."

Such an altitude cleariy shows what the government regards as threatening to its interests. (Though it is interesting to note that they are using much biggpr words in their memos these days).

One of the main complaints raised by l i z Bourne of the Queensland Conservation Councn was the misuse of the term "wilder­ness" by some of the delegates to tiie congress. She said that many of tiie organisers, and official speakers, spoke, in terms of a "managed wilderness area", rather than the protection of a large tract of primitive country with its land and waters and its native plant and animal commuruties largely unmodified by humans and their work. A wilderness is not the same as a National Park, since these are usually no­where near large or primitive enou^ to be called wilderness.

Percy Trezise has spoken on television interviews about his ideas for the Cape York Wilderness Areas, with human access by foot, hone, or canoe, and with the provision of family camping and recreational areas. These ideas are fine as a National Park, but would be seriously detrimental to a wilderness' area, where human access is highly limited, and human ale improve­ments non-existent.

M • - ' - - ' - - •

Ms. Boume said that it is obvious that the idea of retaining a tme wilderness area in Cape York would be directiy at odds with the interests of mining and govemment groups. It is believed that the thrust of tiie papers presented by government and mining groups will be that these groups are involved in the environment, and thus are con­servationists, as opposed to the more ex­treme preservatioiusts. The government is offering the consumer both the products tiiat result from mining, and the beauty of an "accessible" wilderness.

There has been much criticism of the Queensland govemment's plans to establish Wilderness Parks on the Cape. Groups like the Cattiemen's Union, and Cairns residents have expressed fears that the parks will foster feral animals carrying tropical diseases like the screw worm fly, which tiiey claim is prevalent in Tones Strait. Cattiemen say that if there cattie are excluded from grazuig land on the Cape the cattiemen will be unable to monitor the diseases, and they will spread south into dairy and beef cattie. "Rvr-.iFfjTtb the industry has been estimated between $100 million a year and $100 miUion a monlh.

One of the Congress organisers, retummg from the Soutii African Congress suggested that the Cape York Parks could be used lo make homes for endangered species of animals from all over Uie worid, like elephants, and other African ammais. However, the idea was met with howls of derision from all conservation groups in Australia, and tiie idea has been dropped.

As Liz Boume points out, the fears that the whole Cape will be tumed into a wilderness park are unfounded. The three areas defined by the Stale Govemment as Wilderness are not prime grazing land, and will not displace those properties runiung catde. Fears tiiat exotic diseases vvill over-nm the cattie industry are largely mis­placed. The wide variation in figures put up by concemed groups leads one to think that they are not certain themselves what the effect of wilderness park.s will be. Certainly tiie disease problem may arise, but cattiemen who now shoot feral animals, and treat their own animals will continue to operate unhindred.

As it stands the Second World Wilderness Congress is going ahead without a number of parties vitally interested in the fate of Cape York, while several mining companies and other wilderness wreckers will be out in force to discuss conservation of their own special mterests. Even some people invited to speak have decided not to go, or will attend with deepest reserva­tions about the congress motives. There was a ruling tiiat all speakers should submit their proposed papers in advance, ostensibly to give the organisers some idea of the format. Some dele^tes believe it to be a form of censorship of material. Some speakers who have submitted papers will give different speeches ^togetiier than those listed in the programmes.

The Congress is indeed suspect. Delegates at the last conference were invited to hunt at selected land holdings, or in official hunting areas operated by South Africa's professional hunters. The conference bro­chure proclaimed the wide number of species available for hunting, including Ithe white rhino, zebra, hippo, elephant and lion. Hunting was discussed at length at the Johannesburg conference, where delegates were told how important con­trolled hunting is to proper conservation where game keepers could control numbers of animals and weed out sick stock. This is not conservation, but raUier, environmental management, a tiling Australian conserva­tionists fear. The same concept applied to Cape York would allow mining and log^ng comparues to exploit a natural resource in the name of environmental interest.

'Az:vr^c.

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ABORIGINAL LAND RIGHTS A Sorry History

Critics of the Aboriginal Land Rights Movement sometimes claim it is motivated by greed for mining royalties. Anthropologist BRUCE RIGSBY tells a different story. He argues that Aboriginal people have never stopped mourning their lost land, and he expresses fears that the broader concept of a Cape York Wilderness may be a ploy to deprive Aboriginal people of their land.

It is sometimes claimed that the land riglits issue has been created by outside agi­tators, and that the possi­bility of mining royalties is a great incentive for Aboriginal people to de­mand land rights. This head-in-the-sand view is wrong and dangerous, as it rules out the possi­bility of just and orderly social change.

Aboriginal people on the Peninsula have never stopped talking about tiie loss of their land. Nor have tiicy stopped thinking about how to get it back or how to gain some sort of compensation for it. Land and related White in­justice are topics tiiat Abori­ginal people talk about among themselves, as well as occasionally to Wlutes. I believe the Aboriginal land question on the Penin­sula (indeed, in the whole state) is a festering sore tiiat will not be healed until it is publicly confronted by Queenslanders and discussed in dialogue amongst Blacks and Whites.

Aboriginal rights in land have had no force in British and (later) Australian law since January 26, 1788, when Phillip raised the British flag and annexed the country. The legal validity of this act was upheld by Mr. Justice Blackburn's decision in the 1971 Gove Land Rights Case,

Essentially, Mr. Justice Blackburn said that tiiere had been no indigenous Aboriginal land titie to recognise or ex­tinguish. The relationship between the traditional landowning groups or clans and their lands did not amount to proprietor­ship as understood in Australian law. And further, the counlry had been settied or occupied, rather tiian conquered or acquired by cession. The decision thus repeated a position that dates especially from the Enli^tenment and tiie philosopher, John Locke, viz. that only cultivation of land gives rise to proper land ownership titie.

Of course, modem social antiiropoligical research from all around the worid and Australia too, provides strong contrary evidence. Hunter-gatherers do have well-developed concepts of land ownership and systems of land tenure. But tiie law always lags behind scientific knowledge. The received view that there was no Aboriginal title to be recognised was most recently upheld hy a 3/2 decision by the High Court in April, 1979 in tiie Coe case. Thus Australia remains the only former British colony not to have recognised native titie

SEMPER

to land. A different approach was taken in 1835

when John Batman purchased land from the Dutigalla people at Port Phillip. But tiie govemment declined to accept the treaty Batman had negotiated, and Lord Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary, explicitiy said that the Batman treaty would subvert the existing order if it were accepted.

This is an important point, because tiie land rights movement and current land rights legislation in other stales docs not mean that Australian law now recognises Aboriginal title. Rather, tiie land rights legislation provides tiie means for Aboriginal groups to acquire Australian freehold and leasehold titie to land under specified con­ditions, ll attempts lo incorporate some Aboriginal people into the Australian system as owners of land and not simply as landless people who have only their labour to sell.

Thus, "land rights" has a narrower meaning than the public generally thinks. Land rights does not mean Whiles giving up city blocks and houses, or graziers leaving stations built up over several generations. Instead, land rights are best defined witii reference to tiie Reports of Mr. Justice Woodward of the Aboriginal Land Riglits Commission in 1973-74. Mr. Justice Woodward recommended that Aboriginal people in the Nortiiem Territory should obtain land in three ways:

/. The Federal Parliament should legiskite to grant freehold title to all lands "reserved for Aboriginal use and benefit". This would trans­fer Reserves to Aboriginal owner-ship.

2. Aboriginal gjroups should be able to lay claims to unalienated Crown

land before a judicial commissioner, who could grant them freehold title if their claims were accepted.

3. A commissioner would administer an Aboriginal land fund financed by the government to purchase freehold and leasehold land on the open market for Aboriginal groups. They would have to establish their traditional ties to such land or demonstrate some social and eco­nomic need for it.

The Woodward Reports applied spe­cifically lo the Northem Territory, but they were intended as a model for olher states. The Woodward recommendations were given legal fonn in the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.

Mr. Justice Woodward did not raise the issue of compensation for Abori^nal land already taken or for environmental damage done to remaining Aboriginal land by overgrazing, feral pigs and buffalo, mining operations and tiie like. The public often views "land riglits" in this broader sense of compensation, and people ask "how can we possibly locale tiie des­cendents of Sydney, Brisbane and whatever tribes now in order to compensate them or perhaps return some land to tiicm?" The current land rights legislation does not deal with lliis issue of compensation. How­ever, the Federal Senate unanimously resolved in 1975:

That the Senate accepts the fact that the indigenous people of Australia, now known as Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, were in possession of this entire nation prior to the 1788 First Fleet landing at Botany Bay, urges the Australian govemment to admit, prior ownership by, (he said

indigenous people, and in­troduce legislation to com­pensate the people now known as Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders for dispossession of their land

The current Treaty Move­ment would in part deal with the compensation issue. So also would tiie proposed Australian Aboriginal Dev-elopment Commission, a Commonwealth body.

QUEENSLAND Queensland Aboriginal

people know that their Northern Territory brothers have some land rights now, and they talk muchabout "getting the land back" on the Peninsula reserves and m the towns. Yet tiie Queens­land Premier and his govem­ment have been adamant

tiiat they will not accept a land rights programme in the state. They speak of the dangers of a Black state across northern Australia and compare tiie Bantu homelands of Apartiieid policy in South Africa and Aboriginal land rights. They fail to consider the Bantu homelands in the vwder poUtical context of tiie larger South African system, where Blacks are at the majority. In Soutii Africa, Blacks provide cheap labour for industry, mines, and domestic service. The Bantu homelands are where Black women, cluldren and unemployed men live on remittances from employed relatives and by some food production.

The Northern Territory Aboriginal lands are not at all similar, nor would Queensland Aboriginal lands be so cither, if land rights were granted. And so the ownership of Aboriginal Reserve lands in Queensland remains with the Crown, with control vested in a trustee, the Director of the Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement, Mr. P.J. Killoran.

Witii respect lo Mr. Justice Woodward's second recommendation, there is no Queensland legislation allowing Aboriginal groups claim to unalienated Crown land.

[Unalienated Crown land, is land tiiat no Whites wanted earlier for whatever reasons. And yet in the Northem Territory, Aboriginal people must go before a White court to prove tiieir traditional ownership of what used to be considered "rubbish" land. And tiiis in spite of tiie Senate resolu­tion respecting prior Aboriginal ownersliip.

This is what much of tiie land rights niovenietit so feared by Queensland's Premier and the public is about - the Aboriginal people want freehold titie to Reserve land and unalienated land tiiat

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15

imM. ABORIGINAL

LAND RIGHTS continued from previous page

Whites didn't want.) Concerning Mr. Justice Woodward's third

recommendation, tiic Aboriginal Land Fund Commission, a Commonwealth body, has been attempting to purchase freehold and leasehold land for Aboriginal groups in Queensland over tiic past five years. It has had littie success. The ALFC purchased 732 ha. of freehold at Redlynch and 1.76 square kilometres on the Daintree River. The only leasehold land it has acquired are two special leases for 1,783 square kilo­metres al Murray Upper. The Minister for Lands has otiierwise refused transfer of' leaseholds to the Aboriginal Land Fund Commission, even when the seller and the ALFC have finalised negotiations.

And in Queensland, tiie Minister need not give reasons for refusal. It is said that the Murray Upper leases were transferred only because the seller, a local National Party member, had used the ALFC deposit to make a deposit on another block and so could not return it after the local Council had vetted the sale.

Tlie attempts of the Aboriginal Land Fund Commission to purchase leasehold properties in Queensland are of interest because of their relationship to National Parks and wilderness.

In 1975-76, tiie ALFC paid a deposit on the purchase of Archer River Downs, a pastoral leasehold on the westem Peninsula. It was intended for tiie Winchinam group of Aboripnal people who

cunentiy are forced to hve at Aurukun. They are the traditional owners. The Minister for lands refused to transfer the lease, and on November 12, 1977, tiie I66,0(X) ha area was gazetted as the Archer River Bend National Park. The Winchinam people have since brought an action against the state govemment under the 1975 Federal Racial Discrimination Act.

This action has alerted knowledgeable Aboriginal people in nortii Queensland to the prospect of large tracts of Peninsular land becoming National Parks. Once land has passed into National Park status, it has become or remains "alienated", h is possible that traditional owners or Aboriginal people having historical association with the area will be unable to gain freehold tille by future claim. They may not be able to return to live on their homelands permanentiy with secure titie. The Ayers Rock/Uluru land claim case did not exhaust all the legal issues, but there is the danger that tiie wider public interest created by National Park gazeltal may overweigh traditional Aboriginal ownership.

In eariier times Aboriginal people saw their lands taken mainly for grazing, agricul­ture and White settiement. Over the past twenty or so years, they have witnessed White claims to tiie large muieral deposits and other valuable resources on their re­maining northem lands, once unattractive to larger scale White enterprises. Mining and exploration continues, but at least in parts of northern Australia, land-owning Aboriginal groups or their agents have negotiated for royalties, employment and other conditions of mining operations.

Not all Aboriginal groups arc opposed to mining and other commercial enterprises under any conditions.

Save for o brighter future

Use your Credit Uriion !\for oil It's worth:

L I I M I J SAVINGS • LOANS • PROTECTION

QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITIES CREDIT UNION LIMITED

REGISTERED OFFICE HAWKEN BUILDING UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND ST. LUCIA. QLD. 4067. Phone: 3773299/377 2546."" ' " " ^

Now yet anotiier threat has arisen -the possibility that Aboriginal resen^e land and traditional land will become national parks in whose management Abor­iginal people v/ill play littie or no part. The govemment of tiie Northem Territory recentiy embarked upon such a gambit, and the Queensland government started to move in that direction three years ago. Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen did not turn "green" simply because of a conversion to

the. cause of environmental conservation. Thoughtful Aboriginal people in North

Queensland fear tiiat a vindictive state govemment may transform some Reserve lands into National Parks if their Councils display too much initiative and autonomy, as at Aurukun, Momington Island and Yanabah. The prospects of being left with only a very small Local Authority land holding are there.

How might the fears of Aboriginal people be allayed in this respect? And what sorts of policies might conservatioriists and the friends of Aboriginal people support in order to realise their common interests in a Cape York Peninsual Wilderness? These are my thoughts:

1. Aboriginal people should be ffven freehold title to the present Re­serves as Mr. Justice Woodward recommended. These include some tracts not now occupied, as at Mt. Carbine md Mt. Molloy, where there are Aboriginal cemeteries and where people visit for holidays.

2. The Aboriginal Land Fund Com­mission and its proposed successor, the Australian Aboriginal Develop­ment Corporation, should be allow­ed to to purchase Peninstdar leasehold properties for Aboriginal groups who are traditional owners and/or have historical associations with the areas. Many groups will wish to engage in park-type and other land uses compatible with environmental conservation.

3. Conservationists and others should work for the development of land use and management programmes that coordinate Aboriginal interests with other interests. This means direct channels of communication and interaction between Aboriginal groups and non-Aboripnal entities, such as the minmg companies, the Australian Conservation Founda­tion, Queensland Conservation Council, Cope York Conservation

orofessor Rigsby Is a linguistic anthropologist. He has a deep commltmsnt to the Aboriginal people of Cape York, with wtvom.i he has been working (or eight years. He (s presenUy Head of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology

i.at theUniiMislty of Queentfahd.'/ •.;'; V

Council, and the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

As well, the training and employment of Aboriginal people by the raining com­panies, Nationd Parks and Wildlife Service and other govemmental bodies should be encouraged. The National Parks and Wild­life Service should train and employ a num­ber of Aboriginal park rangers. Such park rangers could be stationed in or near then home countries or areas where they formeriy did stock work. There are many competent Aborigines on the Peninsula who would do well in such employment and who could share their heritage of the land with Park visitors.

Another matter concems Aboriginal use of the National Parks. The Premier has said tiiat Aboriginal people will "retain their traditional right to take animals and fish for food" (Courier Mail, 15/8/77). And the Australian Conservation Foundation has indicated its support for Ab*«^hal hunting and gatiiering by "traditional methods" in "non-Aboriginal wilderness areas" (ACF 197:9).

There is a need to let Aboriginal people know they are welcome to use National Parks and to involve them meaningfully in management practices that ensure species conservation. They do want to harvest barramundi and other fish, wallabies, water­fowl and feral pigs for tiieh own use. But must tiiey be restricted to tiie use of "traditional" material implements? How many of us would care to hunt feral pig;s with a traditional English longbow or a pike?

Older Aboriginal friends have told me< of deaths and injuries suffered thirty to fifty years ago when they were first tiying to take pigs with spears and dogs. Can we really ask Aboriginal people to forego the use of .22 rifles and shotguns, nylon line and steel fishhooks, and soft iron wire for fish spears? ITiese items have become as traditional for them as they have for us. Aboriginal people are not "Noble Savages", they are men and women like us who are pursuing various goals and trying to make a living in tiie best way they can.

**«

Cape York Peninsula is not wilderness in the strict sense. It has not been primitive

vwldemess since Aboriginal people first settied it some thousands of years ago, and its environment has undergone major changes by White pastoralists and miners over tiie past century. Although large parts of the Peninsula are now unoccupied, that is the result of state govemment policy, not of its Aboriginal owners. These facts should be remembered as preseivation of the Peiiinsula js,pursiied tiuou^ a, policy of Aboriginal.-.owriBd; .ItesBixfisV.Ab.odginy .hpmelaMs.anjil.Nati.Q.n. ..p9rfoj, <

16

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SOUTH AFRICA H O W TO READ YOUR NEWSPAPERS

By COLIN COLLINS

During the last few nionths, most Australian papers have carried many articles on Southern Africa. This has been especiaUy true as the Rliodesian war escalated. But what is disturbing is the increasing number of articles which speak about South Africa in terms of the changes taking place and of Mr. Botha, the new Prime Minister as some kind of saviour. While it may be true that more blacks in South Africa can now go to the movies, eat in restaurants or stay in hotels (big deal!), one needs to look at the underlying circumstances to understand the "changes" going on in South Africa.

In order to do so, 1 would likv o give as a sample of writing on South Africa, some extensive quotes fiom a piece in tiie Australian of March 29 th. (Almost all the reporting on South Africa comes from otiier papers; this one is from the U.K. Guardian).

"South Africa is a country awash with tnoney these days. It comes from the bonanza in gold - the precious metal which fetched only $US35 an ounce 10 years ago. Early this year it rose crazily past the $US800 mark and this week was hovering around SUS470. South Africa produces over 22.5 tnilUon oz a year - more ihan half the world's supply. Whites in South Africa are being only human when they expect the gold bonanza to solve not only some of their economic problems, but perhaps some of their 'race pTObltiViS, tOQ-. The feeling of financial wellbeing and the general air of opulence in the white suburbs is merging into a mood of political euphoria. A reformist prime minister and a gold boom -it's too good to be true. The Budget introduced in the South African parUament on Wednesday began the task of redistributing some of the bonanza to blacks. Spending on black education is going up by a record 34 per cent. Money will also be spent on housing and other amenities. But tbe real function of the bonanza will be to pick the economy up jrom the floor, where it has been lying since the Soweto uprising in 1976, and sustain it at a minimum 5 per cent annual growth for 10 years. Even that will only hold unemploy­ment at its present levels. Otherwise, there could be 6 million black un­employed by the turn of the century. This has been one of the most in­teresting changes taking place in South Africa - the way the Afrikaner rulers have started to think in econ­omic terms, not just in the familiar terms of race identity and ethnic survival. They clearly accept that if the econ­omy falls, the Prime Minister's re­forms will, too. The minimum starting point for poli­tical reform in South Africa is re­generation of the economy. A stable, contented black labor force must be created, and created quickly. The priorities have become economic, not ideological.

HAVOC This is playing havoc with the apar­theid ideology and the Afrikaners have become a ruling class in ideo­logical confusion. They have had to scrap, for example, one of the most sacred of apartheid principles - that or Collins Is a former South African who

•was involved with the black consciousness move­ment, He. was a personal fMend of Steve Biko. M d rtbW a lec^ii'erln the ,erfuCjitlon_ Djiiiart-

/qWnl^ttti* l Ww^wWy*** '^Wenilan^l.. .

Africans must be temporary sojourn­ers in the white man's cities, because if they are allowed permanence, they immediately construct a whole edi-

Afrikaners are now becoming wise and dropping apartheid. The centre of tiiis analysis lies in this quote;

". . .this is playing havoc with the apar­theid ideology and the Afrikaners have become a nding class in ideological con­fusion. "

Implicit in this comment is Uiat Afrikams who were racially prejudiced are now giving up apartheid or, at most, higlily confused about it.

Anyone familiar witii racial analysis will

fiee of political imd other demands. This kind of change in the Afrikaners approach would not have been poss­ibk 20 years ago, because then they still felt too threatened as a group: politically, economically and cultural­ly. Since then, they Itave been swept up in the economic expansion ofthe cities and become part of the wider white community -from which they had withheld themselves as an ex­clusive ethnic group. As a result, they are leaving behind many of the old ideological hang­ups which gave them almost no flex­ibility in handling the race situation. Their aim is still white hegemony, but the method is no longer to batten down the hatches, but to open safety valves. Ruling classes pay a price for opening safety valves: they can never shut the again. Prime Minister Botha knows this.

This article goes on about Mr. Botha's difficulties with his Right Wing and the kind of instability his refomiist policies will bring.

To an outsider this preci may seem a fair description and is, in fact much better than many others that do not lie in the economic angle witii the political. But,, the article still tells tiie South Afiican story as a liberal would. Apartiieid is the enemy and the Afrikaners' - invented •• it. • Th^

know that racial prejudice is not the main problem in South Afiica but tiie fact that it is a labour exploitative state. Before in­dustrialisation and much more after it, blacks have been used as cheap labour. Despite gold bonanzas, tiiey still arc.

Moreover the Afrikaners didn't invent apartheid, it was expertiy practised by British autiiorities such as Shepstone in tiic mid-19th century. Segregation has fiequent-ly been used as a ploy, an excluse for paying people badly. If groups like the blacks arc viewed as being dumb and inferior witlun an ideology, tiie ruling class will use such an ideology lo justify low wages. Il has always been so in South Africa - and, indeed in most colonial situations.

By this I am not suggesting the National­ist government didn't sharpen up apartheid. They needed to; they were much further down on the class scale compared to tiie previous government and had greater need to suppress black competition.

But, over the last 30 years, the Afiikanc rs iiave become richer. And, always a praV matic people, they have moved their ideology and ideological practices. Apar-"theid became Separate Development, which became Equal Nations which has now become a Council of Equal Communities. But, and tiiis is the importanl thmg to remember, each one ofthese political names, just masks the same tiling - exploitalion of black labour.

What is now happening in Soutii Africa is that, firstiy, petty apartheid is going -it never was that important. It is going for one reason alone - to buy off tiie upper one or two per cent of black middle class and black labour aristocracy so that tiiey will fonn a cushion between tiie white ruling class and the black proletariat.

It's an old trick; it's worked many times and may well work in South Africa. A few blacks will be brouglit into tiie channed circle. A few whites (the unskilled or semi­skilled Right Wing) will be jettisoned. Mr. Botiia becomes friends with Mr. Oppen-heinier and the interests of most whites coalesce. A few tiiousand blacks will be smiling. The remainder of the blacks, tiie vast majority, will still remain impoverish­ed. The rich still get richer and tiie poor, poorer in South Africa. And apartiieid may or may not be needed to justify tiiat situation. After all, even Mr. Fraser doesn't approve of apartheid, but we sure do know what he thinks of rich and poor people.

There is also anolher aspect to tiie re­porting tiiat goes on about Soutii Africa, U is the poor coverage given to the way in which black people re-act to exploitation. Wliile it is true that dramatic events such as the school-childrens revolt in Soweto in 1979 as also tiie recent boycott of schools on the part of coloured cliildren do get a mention, yet Uie many other events either do not get into tiie papers or, il Uiey do, arc somewhat misunderstood. Such cover­age is achieved, bul only in journals that have no circulation in Australia. A writer in "Southern Africa" (Vol. XIU, No. 2), reports, for example:

In a cloud of teargas and a flurry of arrests on January Jl, the South Africa government made it official -black resistance is on the rise, both in townships and on factory shopfloors. And the government's vaunted prog­ram of "liberalisation" is in serious trouble, challenged by a wave of strikes and demonstrations that state leaders clearly found more threaten­ing than the negative publicity sure to follow a new crackdown on political activity. Hints of a new upsurge of black mili­tancy had filtered out over a period of several months. A paragraph here, a sentence there, mentioning the emergence of a number of new Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) or­ganisations and walkouts by workers at various plants across the country. But as happens so often in trying to decipher developments in South Africa, it was the level of repression ihat finally gave a measure ofthe scale of resistance.

The black peoples of South Africa have resisted colonisation and neo<olonisation since the advent of the white man in Southern Afiica. The eariier wars were re­placed by more polite deputations. But, fiom about 1940, the deputations have been succeeded by boycotts, demonstrations, strikes and, ultimately, violence of one kind or another. What eventually finds their way into the Australian newspapers are tiie violent re-actions on the part of the police to black protests. Such events are, however, only the top of the iceberg. Tliis too, should be remembered by Australian readers. Q

. 1 1 I t ' t

i . j U > . . . , • .<• • ' I t t t ? - •>•-.•'• v r i ' 17 SEMPER

(•I

POLITICS.

Gough on Foreign Policy The Soviet presence in Vietnam was mostly the fault of western govern­

ments, according to former Prime Minister, Mr. Gough Whitlam.

Speaking at a recent foreign policy seminar at the University of Queensland, Mr. Whitlam discussed several worid trouble spots and said:-

* Korea was potentiaUy the second most dangerous threat to worid peace after Iran.

•Palestinians were probably the largest refugee problem in the worid.

Mr, Wliitlam slammed the United Slates for its decision to deny foreign aid to "one and a half billion of the worid's poorest people", by exercising its influence througli the World Bank. Vietnam is one of three communist countries which are members of the Worid Bank, an organisation which lends money to member countries.

Mr. Wliitlam said the Unilcd Stales had moved various resolutions in the Lower House during 1977 and 1978 to prohibit various countries such as Vietnam, Kampuchea, Laos and others axeiving American aid througli tiic World Bank, The World Bank reportedly rcplicii ilial it was ag.ninst the Bank's Charier U) ;!ccept donor funds which had politi(.;il strings attached.

According lo Mr. Whitiam, the lio:id of the Worid Bank, Mr. McNaniara, s:iiti that i .ic resolutions became law, one und a

billion of the world's poorest people would suffer. However, in September last year, the Bills which authorised l|iesc resc lulions were passed. The outcome was that Mr. MacNamara "crumbled", said Mr. Whitlam, and the Worid Bank acccpled the condition?! funds from the Unilcd Stales, tiius depriving whole populations ol" needy people of foreign aid.

Political grounds had also been used to discriminate directly against Vietnam in obtaining finance for reconstruction througli the Asian Development Bank,

according to Mr, Whitiam, . The Asian Development Bank, which

was set up ostensibly to help under­developed Asian countries, of wliich Vietnam became the first communist member in 1977, has never granted foreign aid to Vietnam. This was a contradiction of tiic Asian Bank's Charter, Mr. Whitlam said, which stated that funds were lo be allocated on purely economic, and not political, grounds. Vietnam has only ever received one loan from the Worid Bank he also pointed oul. Evidence that Vietnam was being persecuted for political reasons could be found at the recent annual general conference of the Asian Development Bank held in Manila, where every other loan applicant had been approved except Vietnam.

The lack of aid from other sources had resulted in Vietnam's closer ties witii Russia, Mr. Wliitiam said. "Vietnam has obviously gotten closer to the Soviets because of its need for economic assistance, with the result being that Russian influence in Vietnam is stronger now than ever before. We've only got ourselves to blame very largely for this increase in Soviet influence."

On Korea, Mr. Whitiam said the dangerous alignment of worid superpowers ip. North and So'tth Korea could escalate into anolher worid war in tiie event of a Korean civil war. He warned tiial' Uie twenty-eight year armistice between com­munist Norlh Korea and the non-communist South could flare inlo a civil war. Russia and China recognise'Norlh Korea, and not South Korea, and America recognises the South, but not the Norlh of Korea.

"Russia would suppori Nortii Korea if a civil war broke out, China could scarcely fail to support the North, and America and

Japan would support the South", he pre­dicted.

Australia, along with many smaller countries such as .Burma and Fakisiaii, recognised bolh North and South Korea, bul Australia's diplomatic relations with the communist North were not active at the moment, he added. Mr. Wliitlam called for ail nations to follow the example of recognising both sections of Korea, and the granting of United Nations membership • to both, as solutions to the stalemate pressures.

"The situation in Korea is one of a long­

standing dispute. It is not responsible to let tiic situation continue without relieving the tension."

Mr. Whitiam said the Fraser government had missed a valuable opportunity to challenge China on the Korean situation with the recent visit lo Australia ofa promi­nent senior Chinese diplomat, Mr. Li.

He pointed out tiiat the Palestinian refugee crisis was another case where the alignment of worid powers was causmg an increasingly volatile situation. "What is alienating the Arab countries - and they are also the OPEC countires - is the Pales­tinian refugee issue. The Palestinians are probably the largest refugee problem in the worid. The Palestinians are fighting for a national homeland tiie same as the Israelis, and the Israelis are resisting this."

Mr. Whitiam predicted that the Moslem nations would side with Palestine as the Arabs have done, if the situation is per­mitted to prevail unchecked. He criticised "American inaction" on the issue. "No country can afford to be indifferent on the Palestinian situalion", he declared.

Mr. Whitlam expressed concern over the East Timor and Kampuchean refugees, and said that otiier nations should follow Australia's example of ratifying all United Nations Human Rights Conventions to demonstrate their awareness of the problems. The United States had an ex­tremely poor track record for ratifying such conventions, he said. The way to improve world human rights conditions was through established conventions and bodies such as the UN and the ILO (International Labour Organisation), he said..! 1,;..

Of the tense worid situation at present sparked by the Russian invasion of Af­ghanistan, Mr. Whitiam said "tiie way to contest international economic imperial­ism is for governments to co-operate."

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Rock Against Intimidation In December last year, a dance in Caxton Street ended in what police have

described as 'close to a full scale riot', which they finally 'brought under control'. People who attended the dance tell a different story.

They say that after the dance, about p —• 50 people were gathered outside the hall, | making plans for the rest of the evening, and arranging Efts home. As is common­place at dances in Brisbane, several plain­clothes police officers looked on. An un­marked car then pulled up at tiie curb, and several men got out. They made their way through tiie crowd to one particular man, and proceeded to assault liim. When people objected, they ran amok, pusliing, and throwing punches. Brisbane's own Task Force had arrived, and was going aboul its business. By the end of the fighting, around 20 police cars and a dog unit had arrived to help Task Force control the 'riot'.

Task Force is a group of about 15 police officers, whose official role is to patrol the iimer city area of Brisbane, and assist in situations which are beyond the control of local police. Legal aid lawyer Noel Nunan, who's become involved in the Caxton Street case, says Task Force members are 'a gross parody of Starksy and Hutch. They drive fast cars, and wear sneakers and Hawaiian shirts. They take that role very seriously.'

Noel Nunan says Task Force are 'criminogenic', in that they cause crime to happen. Nine of the twelve people who were arrested at Caxton Street agree with him, and were prepared to fight their cases m court. Two of them have since been found guilty of assaulting and hindering police. Their claims that they were assaulted by police, both at the dance and later at the watch house, were dismissed. One defendant was told by the magistrate that he was lucky that this had happened today, and not in days gone by, when police would have used batons, and he would still have been recover­ing from the injuries.

Complaints by the defendants, and their support group 'The Caxton Street Defence Group', are now tiie subject of an internal inquiry to be conducted by two police in­spectors. Criticism that the inquiry is un­likely to find that Task Force was at fault has not unpressed Deputy Police Com­missioner Vem MacDonald. Mr. MacDonald says 'there's no investigatory force in Australia that could do a belter job of

J cleaning up misdeeds on the part of police, than the police themselves.'

The investigation will do better than just clean up the Caxton Street case. It will be a complete cover up, and the Internal Investigations Unit is otherwise known as 'The White Wash Unit'.

Police harrassment and subsequent cover-ups are nothing new in Queensland. In­vestigations inlo the Cedar Bay raids and the bashing of a studenl demonstrator on Coronation Drive resulted in promotions for some of the key figures. Similar investigations into allegations of harrass­ment at a dance in Paddington in March last year, and at the 'Great West End Brain Robbery' in August, brought the usual result 'the matter was thoroughly investi­

gated, and it was found that there was no police impropriety.'

Wlien asked if he thought an independent investigation would help clean up the public image of the Police Force, Deputy Cbm-missioner MacDonald said he wasn't con­cerned witii the force's image, and was more woffied about violence in the community. His reply to comments that the community might be more worried about violence in the Police Force 'police have been bashed in their time too, you know.'

With their offidal role of controlling street disturbances. Task Force became in­creasingly prominent after sireet marches were banned in Queensland. Since then, they have taken over from Special Branch as the state's primary political police. Special Branch arc now mostly incompetents who are allotted minor tasks, and spend a lot of tiieir time harrassing Hare Krishnas and photographing people at rallies. Task Force are now the darlings of the police adminis­tration.

They are a regular sight at rock dances, where they try, unsuccessfully, to mingle with the crowd- They hang around outside venues, questioning people as Ihey come out. They see rock venues as gathering places for 'undesirable criminal elements'.

Police harrassment is systematically closing down most live music venues in Brisbane. The Queens Hotel and Cloudland Ballroom, where patrons regularly found themselves face to face with Task Force and the dog squad, are now closed to rock and roll. In the words of a member of the Caxton Street Defence Group, anything that's not middle class, middle aged, and middle of the road, is being savagely re­pressed.

Police action is consistently directed against a particular group in the community. It is doubtful, for instance, that com­plaints of noise from a disco or a footbaU match would liave been responded to by Task Force, 20 police cats, and a dog unit. But apart from that general attitude to rock 'n roll followers there are direct political links.

When it was rumoured that Jimmy and the Boys planned to burn an effigy of the baby Jesus at their Christmas Eve concert at Cloudland, it was Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, not the Police Commissioner, who

ptonased that police would be on hand to stop the outi age. When the concert began, police officers were stationed at strategic points around the stage.

The Task Force is known as 'Joh's official sireet police', and their involvement in the street march issue means they are familiar with most civil liberties campaigners in Queensland. The .person they initially attacked at Caxton Sireet was an active member of the civil liberties campaign, and it's seen as no coincidence that Task Force was in the area when a noise complaint was made, U fortunately for those involved, the continuing issue of street marches means tliat police are developing a degree of ex­pertise in presenting their cases to court. They no longer make the obvious mistakes in constructing their evidence which oc­casionally allowed cases to be won in the past.

The Caxton Street Defence Group has called for the disbandment of Task Force, on the grounds that they deliberately provoke confrontations, for political and financial reasons, since they are paid over­time for their court appearances. It is doubtful that the disbandment of Task Force woidd mean an end to the repression of dissent in Queensland. They are obviously a reflection of their masters, and no reform in the police force is gomg to change the Queensland govemment.

-LINDY WOODWARD

This article is reprinted from Rouge No. 7. Rouge is an Australian femimst paper, each issue produced by a collective of women in a different Australian city. Issue No. 7 was compiled in Btishane and includes article on Brisbane women in rock and on radio, abortion, women behind bars and feminist film. Roi^e is available at the following outlets for 40 cents per copy:

Qriterkm Bookshop, Brunswidc St., Valley People's Bookshop, Barry Pde, Valley Red & Black Bookshop, Elizabeth Arcade, City. West End Resource Centre. Women's House, Bartley St., Sprii^ HiD. Women's Rights, University of QM. Union. 4ZZZ-FM, University of Queensland.

Caxton Street Legal Service The Caxton Street Legal Service is

It is free of charge, and unlike other test is applied.

According to Noel Nunan, one of tiic founders of the service, the organisation's symbol represents tiie people the service is trying to help - those trapped by economic circumstances, people in need. Although the service was designed originally to meet the needs of such citizens, it has gone beyond that now to incorporate ordinary people who need legal advice as well. The fact that no means test is applied makes the service available to all. If you are one of the "middle" people, who cannot afford high private legal fees and yet can't qualify for government assist­ance because of the stringent means test, or alternatively, if you are eligible for govemment help but think too many questions are asked, then tiie Caxton Street Legal Service may be ideal.

The service is open three nights a week, on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from

the only one of its kind in Brisbane, parallel government bodies, no means

6.30pm lo 8.30pm at 17 Caxton Street, Petrie Terrace. Till just recently, the service operated only twice a week, but a third session was added due lo popular demand. Tony Cotter, a law studenl, estimated tliat ten to fifteen clients are seen each niglit.

The service is staffed by volunteer lawyers, many of theni from Aboriginal Legal Aid and Student Legal Aid. Other professionals such as social workers help as well. They give tiicir services free of charge.

Advice is given on any subject, but Tony Colter said the most common problems are family troubles, car accidents and to a lesser degree, complaints aboul the police. Noel Nunan said the mosl pre­valent aUegations about police concerned police.officers denying or delaying legal advice -to '^offenders" and-forcing con­fessions. The dixton Street Legal Serwcc

ment, take it lo Caxton Street. They may be able to help.

The service was founded in September, 1976, by Noel Nunan, Morris Morrissey, a Brisbane barrister, and Laurie Boccabella, a writer for the Australian Financial Review. Now, less than four years later, the service is to publish a book. The Legal Resources Book, available later this year, will be a lay person's guide to Queensland and Commonwealth law. The contents will cover everytliing from de­famation and bankruptcy to discrimination and wills and estates.

Other Legal Resources Books have been put out in Victoria and New South Wales, but the one to be pubUshed by the Caxton Street Legal Service is the fu st of its kind in Queensland.

No appointment is needed at the service, handout says "Remember, an Increasing but those who would like more information number of cases are.being thrown out of MO ring 36 6195 on Monday, Tuesday or court. bPQauS? of police abiisc. 6f powers'*. .' Tliursday nighU.' ' - ' i \ N \ \ » 4 ' " < ; . - 1 ' . If you have a grievaAtfe' dbcSiilf i>bH6e Iteal- ( 1 1 1 -SHElLEYpEMfcEY

-Oi; SEMPER 21

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The Export of Death Strict environmental and health controls in the West may be endangering

jives in the Third Worfd. When the sale of a multinational's drug or pesticide is banned as dangerous, the company sometimes cuts its losses and "dumps" the dangerous product in the Third World where there are few, if any, controls.

There are products now on sale in Africa, Asia and Latin America which have been banned in the USA because they can poison or cause cancer. The US magazine "Mother Jones" has recently revealed that selling potentially hamiful goods to tlie developing countries is a common US business practice. It is a trade with a yearly turnover in the US alone of rouglily $1,200 million.

An anti-fire chemical called Tris was used in the manufacture of children's py­jamas. When it was found that Tris could cause cancer, sale ofthe pyjamas was banned in the US. The makers then dumped them in the Tiiird Worid, where they can be found on sale in countries from Turkey to Colombia.

The Motiier Jones dossier is a savage indictment of tlic corporate conscience. "Governments make the rules. We'll sell where, and when we can" is the stock response of the multinational to llie charge of double standards. Much of the trade is in fact legal. There is no US law which stops a US company from selling a product abroad which is banned on the home market.

Because pesticide and drug manufacturers have armies of salesmen in the field, developing countries need all tlic inform­ation they can gel about hazardous goods. There is at present practically no control over the woridwide distribution of dangerous pesticides. The World Health Organisation estimates that half a million people a year are poisoned by pesticides. The Mother Jones dossier says that "every pesUcide banned or restricted by the US Federal govemment has been exported".

DEATHS Recently in Egypt for example, an un­

disclosed number of famicrs and over a thousand water buffalo died after exposure to Leptophos, a chemical pesticide exported to 30 countries, but which was never registered for use in the US. Some western companies do not even bother to print the instructions in the local language, which leaves villagers unaware of the potential dangers posed by pesticides.

Ironically, the double standards of tlie rich countries are now rebounding on them, through Uie importation of food already contaminated by pesticides. The US Food and Drugs Administration, for instance, says that nearly half the imported green coffee beans contain pesticides banned in the US.

Unsafe drugs are also dumped in the Tiiird Worid. The anti-diarrhoea medicine Lomotil is sold only by prescriprion in the US because increases in recommended dosages can be lethal. Yet in the Sudan it has been sold over the counter in packages boasUng it was "used by astronauts during Gemini and Apollo space flights".

Althougli some Third World countries do have their own controls on dangerous products, tlie muUinaUonals are adept at overcoming them. Brazil, for example, has a law prohibiting tlie unportaUon of a drug not approved for use in the country of origin. To evade this law the drug company ships the dmg to a country without such

le^slalion, and then re-exports it to Brazil. Guatemala, with its lax controls, is a favourite springboard inlo the Brazilian market.

The mosl controversial charge made by Mother Jones concerns the Dalkon Shield, an intrauterine contraceptive device (lUD). Tlic makers, anticipating a ban on Dalkon sold a bulk consignment to the US Agency for Intcmarional Developmenl (AID) for distribution to developing countries. US AID was offered die Dalkon Shield at a discount of 48 per cent.

Mother Jones charged that US AID bought the contraceptive device when the danger of using them was already known. AID'S Office of Population denies this. Dalkon was banned in the US in June 1974, after 17 deaths had been ascribed to its use; immediately the ban came into force, US AID tried to recall the Dalkon Shields. But this was impossible to do completely because many thousands had already been distributed to remote rural health clinics in the Third World.

In order to prevent the sale of dangerous products abroad, Third Worid officials have asked the US govemment for reliable and comprehensible infonnation. But any measures the US govemment may take to curb this intemational trade are bound lo be opposed by the powerful American chemical industry lobby. As far as the developmg nations themselves are con­cemed, only a few so far are acting to prevent the multinationals from using Uieir countries as a dumping ground for dangerous and faulty products.

-ROBERT LAMB EARTHSCAN

Taj Mahal Threatened India's famous Taj Mahal faces the

pollution. SUMI CHAUHAN reports. The poor and unemployed of Matura,

the ancient temple town north west of Agra, the site of the Taj Mahal, benefit little from tourism. They would gladly exchange the Taj Mahal for the 3000 million rupee ($366m) oil refinery now under construction at Mathura. But the Indian environment lobby is vehementiy opposed to the govemment's decision to locate the refinery 40 kilometres upwind of the Taj Mahal at Mathura.

possibility of slow destruction by air

The Indian government, after spending five years and seven million rupees ($850,000) on assessing the air pollution threat to tlic Taj has concluded that the monument will not be threatened by the suphur dioxide emissions from the refinery. But these findings have not silenced talk about "stone cancer" and "acid rain".

The people of Mathura will be the first to be affected by any pollution, not the Taj Mahal 40 kilometres away. They are looking

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to the refinery to create jobs and economic prosperity. To environmentalists who propose to relocate the refinery, the people of Mathura say "take the Taj away stone by stone, and build it someplace else".

The government report drew attention to the existing pollution in Agra, caused by a railway marshalling yard using up to 50 tons of coal a day, two decrepit power stations and 250 small foundries. Given suitable anti­pollution measures, the report stated, the refinery would make only a negligible impact on the surrounding environment, a view supported by the Indian Dept. of Science and Technology.

The major pollutant m this controversy is suphur dioxide. It is feared that this gas will combine with the moisture in, the atmosphere to form suphuric acid. This may react with die marble (calcium car­bonate) of the Taj to form calcium sul­phate, which would make the marble flake away.

The governmentowncd Indian Oil Corp argues that the sulphur dioxide level at Agra, now at 20 micrograms per cubic metre, is lower than in otiier industrialised regions (the New Delhi level approaches 40 micrograms and in Bombay it is 60). The

' ••'/••J ; ',/ *j.'> * V.-. ^i S.> f t r I '

SEMPER

government has set up an independent monitoring system and plans improved poUution-control measures for the refinery. Most important, the refinery will use low-sulphur crude oil from the ofTshore wells at Bombay, not Middle East crude which has a higher sulphur content.

But two environmental scientists. Pro­fessor Shivaji Rao of Vishakaptnam's Andhra University and Professor J.M. Dave of Jawaharlal Nehru Univcrsily in New Delhi have questioned the low level of sulphur dioxide emission predicted by the corporation. They doubt the validity of calculations made by the Indian Meteor­ological Department, and the assessment of an Indian consultancy firm which said the marble of the Taj was "well preserved".

While the controversy simmers, work on the refinery continues. More than half the building work has already been completed and the refinery is scheduled to start production late next year, so it is hardly likely to be shifted now. Whatever the out­come, it is clear that much more thought needs to be given to siting such major projects, and criticisms answered before work begins.

.23

Film

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: Directed by Ralph Bakshi; Albert Cinema.

Telling people you have never read Lord of the Rings by J.R. Tolkien is like saying you've never eaten a chocolate eclair. It seems to leave them in a state of shock and dismay.

Well in regards to Lord of the Rings, at least 1 can say I've seen the movie; whk:h will probably only sink my credibility further in the eyes of those misguided Ring fans. Judging from the story as portrayed in Ralph Bakshi's fihn, I did well to avoid the book, it seems little more than "Boy's Own" fantasy. But I'll reserve those cri-

. ticisms for later. The movie of Lord of the Rings is an

animation; but if you're expecting some­thing along the lines of Bambi, you're in for a surprise. The director, Ralph Bakshi, has developed an old technique of 'roto-scope' to produce realists animation. The technique involves filming live action, then tracing the characters from the footage. He began using this technique in his previous feature, 'Wizards'. Bakshi's better known fihns are 'Fritz the Cat' and 'Heavy Traffic'.

Rotoscope lends cartoons a very intriguing quality. It gives animation a k)t of subtlety it otherwise lacks. Bakshi explained it helped achieve the "nuance

when a man touches another man". The rendering of battle scenes that abound in Lord of the Rings, were made easy by rotoscoping; the animators not having to draw every participant as an individual. In fact, rotoscoping gave the crowd scenes, with the Ores in particular, more force than animation can usually achieve.

The backgrounds were also of high quality. Mountains took on eerie organic forms, all the backgrounds lent depth and power to the action. Where tiie ammation fell down was with the main characters. Frodo had all the depth of Barney Rubble. The main characters were drawn in the traditional manner. Admittedly they had four fingers rather than the usual three, but they were drawn in a clumsy and exaggerated way. Il was difficult to accept them as sensitive, serious characters.

I suppose it was this problem with the main characters that gave the movie that "Boys Own" aura. This came as a surprise to me as I've always had certain expect­ations of Tolkien's work. I don't like fantasy, but I presumed Lord of the Rings woutd possess certain imaginative and lyrical qualities to make it so popular. A friend of mine has read it 14 times at last count, and 1 doubt that he would have expended so much time on a story

that is little more than "Biggies goes to Middle Earth".

Bakshi's interpretation of Lord of the Rings is no more than an adventure story. And a simplistic one at that, the forces of goodness and niceness battle against im­possible odds. The ring is evil, no questions asked, evil is evil after all. And good is good. The world is black and white. Daring men of courage and vision fight for what they know is right.

There don't seem to be many women of courage and vision around; or even evil-hearted ones. Or were those the days when men were men and women were pregnant.

Whilst on the subject of discrimination, I was also intrigued by the fact that all the good guys where white and the bad guys were black. And the Uriah Heepish, Smegel had that cliched, homosexual sibflance to his voice.

One of the major problems with this film is that it stops in the middle of no­where. Bakshi claims that people " . . .were so emotionally involved they didn't want it to end. It could also be looked at that after two hours and sixteen minutes they wanted to see more." Well, I find that difficult to believe, Il was overly long, and the inter­minable battle scenes could have been cut to make room for the remainder of the story.

In the battle scenes, the blood flowed. If this had been a live action fihn rather than an animation, it would certainly have not got its NRC rating.

Many of the flaws in Lord of the Rings, are not Bakshi's but Tolkiens; for instance, the lack of female characters. But where Bakshi bungles is in ignoring to a large extent the mystical medievalism for high adventure.

'ANNE JONES

EXCLUSIVE PnEMIEnES

BEST ACTRESS T9T9 BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL MOST POPULAR FILM 1979 SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL

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THURSDAY 22 MAY -SATURDAY 24

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Cnminy't phonomanrt aconomic rKDvary it Iha txpaioa ol lOtial gtoKth and dmaJopmant aho UKoacb on a pattona! and payctwlofieal k m . MARIA BRAUN may ba Fatsbindai'i linaat Iilm.

" A I wall aa baiitf a uparb dapiction ol a Caimanv tavafad by World War II, and ol tha ramarkalila Maria'a (alaliomhipl with man, with harmothaf and with bar friandt arvj Imtn. tha Iilm b a parabia . . . I I ia a nwiaaga ol dttguti and daapaji at what ha* happanad to modam Carmany, con>ayad with graat tcrca and narar Maying into atridant crudJIiaa." . . J>J*. McGuinaaa - NATIONAL TIMES

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Fassbinder's

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Die Ehe der Maria Braun 0

Directed by P«ut Schrader, won GRAND PRIX Parii Film Festival 1978 ! • ¥ ¥ T I 7 with Richard K T - . (Z«ke), Harvy Kiatal Uanry), Yaphet Kotto D A A J J M

"They pit the lifers against the new boys, the old aflainst the y o u n o ^ / ' \ ¥ ¥ A D the black aeainst the white, to keep us in our place." Zeke, SmokayX^X^JU&umMlk and Jerry are workers in • Detrott car plant whosa only relief from thi grinding job is their friendship and roughhouse sense of humour they share. At home they have problems keeping up with ths instalment plar to maintain the necessities of suburban life. In the course of a wtk drunken night the uio decide to rob a union safe - a robbery which surts K a comedy caper, but complications result. -

r,. MC i«V""*' ' ^^ '""" '^* ^*"^ '^^*">'» • P«*«' '" **•« *^°r^ . • ' BLUE COLLAR may linger in the mind when a tot slicker more easily assimilated movies have passed beyond recall. . . . Time Magatini

CURRENTLY SHOWING TO RECORD CROWDS AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

JUNE 1-11

as 24

.PR0FIL6

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About

WOODY ALLEN "Today I saw a red and yellow

sunset and thought. How insignificant I am! Of course, / thought tliat yesterday, too, and it rained. I was overcome with self-loathing and con­templated suicide again - this time by in/wling next to an'insurance sales­man. "

Woody Allen's magnificent ob­sessions are close to us all. lie worries about mortality, the frustration of failed love, growing old and losing liis teeth. These concerns arc not just tliose of the characters in his movies. They are universal. Yet his films appeal to relatively few in this country. Still, with the release of liis new offering ".Manhattan" here, a wider audience may be just around the corner.

Woody Allen is a talented musician and loves music with the same passion he loves liis native New York. His favourite hangouts, when he does hang out, are Elaine's, the Manhattan restaurant, and Michael's Pub, also in iManhattan. He seems liappiest playing clarinet with his jazz band al Michael's on Monday nights. He shuns the celebrity lifestyle, abhors the American West Coast and didn't bother to show when Ills 1977 film "Amiie Hall" carried off four Academy Awards. A workaholic, he finds writing tlierapeutic, along with psycho­analysis, wliich he has undergone for 23 years.

Among his comic heroes are Bob Hope, Mort Salil and Groucho Marx. He has written two Broadway plays, starring in one of them, and directed eight films, starring in seven of them. He is a regular contributor to the "New Yorker" magazine and has published three collections of humorous essays. "1 don't wanl to achieve immortality through my work", he once said, "I want to achieve it through not dying."

Woody Allen is not a funny man, bul neither is he as dour and morose as tlie popular press would liave us believe. He insists tliat he is "not reclusive", merely "not gregarious". He is introspective, shy and retiring, quiet and intensely thought­ful about his work. Have a look at a picture ofthe guy.

Born Allen Stewart Konisberg on December 1, 1935, in Brooklyn, New York, Woody is the son of Martha and Nettie Konisberg, both Orthodox Jews. He "haled every second" of school. The only subject that interested him was English composition. At fifteen he began writing jokes and sending them to a variety of nev/spaper columnists under the name of Woody Allen. The mention of liis name in one of these columns led to a job as a radio and TV gag writer. From there he progressed through night-club performer to film actor and eventually to his present position of film director of some stature. As a young man he was paid $24 a week for writing 50 jokes a day for other com­edians to call their own.

In 1961 he left a $17000-a-week behind the scenes job to attempt the precarious career of a performer. He became a stand-

up comic, with the spiritual and physical encouragement of liis friend who had to literally push the badly stage-frightened Woody onstage in his early appearances in Greenwich clubs. Within a year he had con­fidence enough to handle national exposure via variety television.

Australians probably first encountered Woody in a supporting role in the slapstick bedroom farce of "Wliat's New, Pussycat?", for which he wrote the screenplay. The film was a massive commercial success. Woody hated il so much he became a director.

Seldom has Allen looked back profession­ally, bul by his own admission he is continually looking back, artistically speaking. He says "my childhood bears such an importance to the way I behave as an adult. All my films liave a basis in my childhood". Although he lias been reported as being an atheist, he retains what he describes as "the urban Jewish mcnlalily" of "feeling one step ahead of trouble and anxiety". He once wrote: "There is no question that there isan after-life. The prob­lem is how far is it from mid-town and how late is it open?"

Some argue tliat the "urban Jewishness" of much of Allen's work is what restricts his audience in Australia to no more than a cult following. It Is, the critics, say, too obscure, too oblique and too far removed

from our perceptions of life. Yet for many of his fans, lo lose that essence In search of an "upmarket" would be lo lose all tliat is intrinsically Woody.

The childhood years that Woody sees as so importanl were spent as a loner. "I never ate with the family. And I never did any extracurricular activities at school . . . I'd go right in my room and shut the door immediately. Consequently, I was able lo get Ihings done. 1 could learn an instrument, I became adept at sleight of liand . . . " This image as a loner and a failure was reflected in liis early work as a film director and writer.

The first unadulterated Woody movie was 1969's "Take the Money and Run", starring Woody as a young man who aspires to become public enemy number one but who can't even rob a bank wilhout the bank officials arguing over the wording of his hold-up note.

This led to "Bananas", in which Fielding Mcllish (Allen), is the leader of a Latin American revolution. At one point he has lo order lunch at a countryside delicatessen for tlic troops "to go". ("200 tuna on whole wheat, 300 BLT on toast, and 400 grilled cheese - 260 on rye, 35 on whole wheat, four on white, and one on a roll.")

In 1972's "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex, But Were

Afraid To Ask", he played, among other Ihings, a sperm pale with fright as it waits lo be ejaculated, backed up by a crew looking iike NASA preparing for a launcliing.

These early films were for the most part slapdash, hit and miss afl'airs. They were hysterical. They gave only a hint of the complex yet incisive body of work which Allen was to deliver afler them.

Critics saw the early films as largely extensions of bis night-club routines. By the time of "Sleeper" (1973) they had to sit up and take note of .Mien as a serious fiim-niaker. This was a conscious move on his part. "By the time I did "Ijove and L>ealh" (1975) I was very concerned with die filmmaking aspect, and with wanting to do darker thinf's. not deal with a lol of con­ventional stuff".

But Allen was disillusioned. ". . .The setious intent underlying the humour [in "Love and Death"] was not apparent to most audiences. Liughter submerges every­thing else."

This problem led liim io develop the style he adopted for "Annie Hall", probably Uic film mosl popular with Australian audiences to dale. Tliis was a story of failed relalionsliips, a semi-confessional, which alternated between the comic and the serious.

His success prompted liim to "Interiors" (1978), his most controversial tnovie to dale, h is sombre, slow and intense, dealing not this time with Jewish/Christian relation­ships but with the disintegration of a New York family and the breakdown of the mother and her subsequent conversion to Christianity - heady stuff, with not one laugli its entire length. Woody liimself prefers 'serious' films to comedies.

"Laughter and making people laugh are completely instinctive things to me. I never try to know why people laugh at this or that. I jusl notice that sometimes they do and sometimes they don't laugh at some­thing I thought was funny. But, of course, I decide when 1 want something to be funny. I could have told the whole story of "Interiors" as a comedy but I decided not to do so . . . When "Interiors" firsl came out 1 feared the audience would just sit there and wait for a joke tliat would never come. That's what always happens lo funny film­makers. The serious ones never have tliat problem. I hope "Interiors" has cleared the way for me and next time there will be a lillle less surprise when I announce a serious one."

***

"I have deckied to break off my engage-metn with 11'. She doesn't understand my" writing and said last night that my "Crituiue of Metaphysical Reality" re­minded her of "Airport". We quarrelled and she brought up the subject of children again, but I convinced her they would be too young."

With the late 1979 release of "Man-liattan", it is apparent that Woody Allen has fallen in love with the New York., intellectuals he once cruelly satirised. (Remember the encounter with Marshall

continued next page

>* • • V • « » t r * » • f v • " \ i '•

25

.PfiOFIl€. Ewerytiwi^ \bu Always Wanted to Know About

WOODY ALLEN continued from previous page

McLulian in the movie queue in "Annie HaU"?)

In many of his films he makes fun of intellectuals while at the same lime being the prototype of the intellectual film­maker himself. "Love and Death's" references to Tolstoy, Turgcnev, Chekhov and Dostoyevsky didn't come from the funny pages. Woody is aware of the contra­diction.

"There obviously is an ambivalence wilhin mc that attracts to the pleasures of life, but on the other hand drives to a more intellectual way of living . . . Con­flicts between people, in life and in movies, used to be more physical than they are now - Chaplin, Buster Keaton used to hit each olhcr on the head all the lime, fall over, lose their trousers. Now characters talk aboul what's going on in their minds, Confiicts happen inside people, which makes it hard for a film-maker to show what's going on in llieir minds," And so the increasing

complexity ofhis characters. "Manhattan" has been criticised for its

similarities to "Annie Hall", that Allen is portraying a one-dimensional perspective. Certainly, "Manhattan", once again centres around the world of New York intellectuals, and Woody continues to re-enact his eternal romance with his regular co-star Diahne Keaton. The film centres around the familiar problems of failed romance, but there is a definite progression. Most importantly, the characters are less nervous, neurotic and graceless than they have ever been. They are sexually active, not sexually inadequate. Perhaps those 23 years of psychoanalysis are starting lo have some effect. Woody is realising a potential as a film-maker few realised he had only five years ago.

Filmed in living black and white, "Man­hattan's" most startling feature is its visual magnificence. One critic wrote:

"Even if Woody Allen's "Manhattan" were otherwise totally deficient it would still rate an Oscar for "Finest Performance by a Cily in a Motion Picture". Coaxed along by cinemalographer Gordon Willis and Allen himself, the city of New York is nothing less than astonishing in the tille

role, providing an aUemately hilarious and agonisuig commentary on the doings of the fleshy beings in the movie." If nothing else does, the sight of the blossoming friend­ship of Mary and Isaac (Keaton and Allen) as first light hits the Brooklyn Bridge behind them should steal your heart. The eternal loser has come up with another winner to ease us into the eighties.

* * *

"/ am pbgued by doubts. What if every­thing is an illusbn and nothing exists? In that case I definitely overpaid for my carpet

Woody Allen, like us all, is still plagued by doubts. He continues to use his films as a celluloid psychiatrist to work out his real-life obsessions. He has that quality which makes us laugh not only at him but at the parts of ourselves we see in his characters. New York Jews, Mid-West Catholic goyim ("La De Dah!") and Australian suburban boys alike, we're all only human. Quite soon. Woody Alien's essential therapy may well work its way into a few more hearts around here.

-NOELMENGEL

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Consumer's Guide to

Local Theatre This article is a Cook's tour of live theatre

venues and companies and gives a brief description of their features including organisation, philosophy and average cost for a night's entertain­ment.

The only way to really know live theatre, of course, is to check tlie scene out. Why not give the movies a miss next time and do just that? You run no more risk of disappointment than with the cinema, and prices of some shows compare favourably. There's the excitement of a live event, and the satisfaction of having supported local talent. Jane Fonda and Robert Redford can make it without you.

LA BOITE

Located across from Lang Park. A pro/am (mostly am) theatre with a reputation for producing challen^ng and new drama. Tliis year featuring an all Australian season of plays. An exciting prospect, but witli the

risk tliat some shows will misfire. The small, comfortable (air-conditioned) arean type auditorium allows for intimate theatre worth checking out.

Prices: general publii, S4.50 studenis, pensioners, unemployed and ZZZ subscribers S3.00. Early week plays (which are trial productions of untested material)., are cheaper: G.P. S3.50, students, ZZZ etc. $2.50. Subscriptions available. Phone 36 1622.

WOODWARD THEATRE

At Kelvin Grove College. Small, llcxiblc and comfortable. Hosts productions by groups such as Orange Juice Company (student group). Community Theatre (amateur) and A.D.P.A. (theatre diploma course). The A.D.P.A. also use a converted church in the Valley as a venue.

A.D.P.A. do studio-type productions designed to give experience to acting students; non-essential aspects of staging are de-eniphasiscd - a unique type of theatre experience. Prices for A.D.P.A. shows: G.P. $3.00; students and ZZZ subscribers S2.00.

HER MAJESTY'S

In tlie cily. Mainly touring productions of various sorts of plays, opera and ballet. Tickets are dear and vary from show to show - around $15 for ballet and opera (now you know why it's called high culture) and $10-$ 12 for otiier shows. Students and pensioners pay a little more llian half tlie prices. Occasionally there are concessions to ZZZ subscribers. Of most interest are probably the one man shows such as Spike Milligan or Barry Humphries.

You are advised to book in advance by mail in order to get good seats. Phone: 221 2777.

S.G.LO. THEATRE

In S.G.I.O. building, cily. Home of the professional Queensland Theatre Company - tlie establishment. The theatre is air-conditioned, well-appointed, comfortable and huge; check that your seats are within a reasonable distance of the stage. Drinks are served in the foyer bul are outrageously expensive. The dramatic fare is usually a balance of classics (e.g. Shakespeare, Shaw" and popular hits (e.g. musicals, comedies, thrillers). Production standard is usually higli; not adventurous bul that's a philosophical can of worms we'll leave unopened.

Prices vary from show to show depending on the elaborateness of the production. General public pays $7.00 to $9.50 (groups, pensioners and ZZZ subscribers gel 50c to $1,50 ofO, students $3.00 to $4.00. Best Bet? if you're nol a student, see a matinee perfonnance, prices are much cheaper and you stand a better chance of getting a good seal. Subscriptions available. Phone 221 3861.

TWELFTH NIGHT THEATRE

In Bowen Hills near Cloudland. Not to be confused with the TN Company which is only one of tlie groups to use this venue. The theatre is air-condilioncd and comfortable but not aesthetically pleasing (too large). Drinks served in foyer for tlie affluent. Show prices vary; best to check with group which is producing the particular show.

ARTS THEATRE

On Petrie Terrace near Normanby Fiveways. Amateur group with deserved reputation for producing innocuous commercial fare. However, new artistic director promises more challenging and

interesting material for future. Venue, though air-conditioned, is uncomfortably cramped. Avoid balcony if you have fear of heiglits. Prices: G.P. $4.50, Pensioners and students $3.00. Discount for ZZZ subscribers is being negotiated. Phone 36 2344.

CEMENT BOX

Underneath Schonell Theatre, University of Queensland. Used by various groups from students (University Drama Society, Lunch Box Theatre) to amateur (Shoestring Theatre Company) to professional (TN Company). A small, flexible space. Seating is makeshift, though conforlable. Thou^i not as good a space as La Boite, it still provides' an intimate theatre experience. As show prices vary, contact the group producing the particular show.

TN COMPANY

Not a venue bul a professional company. Shows are produced at Twelftli Niglit Theatre and oilier venues such as Cement Box. Has presented a range of plays for intelligent Uiealre-goers. However, it has had difficulty finding enough people in that category and is in a slate of some uncertainty and unrest. It remains lo be seen what direction the company moves in if it survives current difficulties. The most satisfying dramatic productions have been non-mainstage "underground" productions.

If you are into theatre, don't miss these. Prices: G.P. $7.00 (ZZZ subscribers get

50c discount) students $3.00. Subscriptions available. Phone 52 5888.

GALLERY THEATRE

Jordan Tenace, Bowen Hills (hard to find). Home of Young TN Company, training branch of TN Company. The group has produced some interesting and enter­taining stuff. (If you are into participatory theatre you might consider enrolling in this programme)'. Venue is uncomfortable and not air-conditioned, but is currently being renovated. Prices for regular productions: G.P. $4.50, students $3.00; for teenage productions: G.P. $3.00, students $2.00. Phone 52 5888.

POPULAR THEATRE TROUPE

A professional troupe which does original revue type material based on social and political issues. The troupe performs qt a variety of venues including pubs, factories.

• y i o - ^ n '> • » » » ^wit w-r «•«-»•»•' w»- naf** '•v-jtJt^Ln^:^r^rtT:atLTX;rxur^Ka£'iXiT.^^!j»ntia-.ryi3t^tt^ m^i^-^-^^-^iem^ «.^ » » »•!

SEMPER

schools, meeting halls, old peoples' homes and occasionally at tlieir headquarters at 60 Waterworks Rd., Red Hill (not easy to find). Organisations can book a show and theyll come to you (for $100 to $350 depending on circumstances). Call the troupe at 36 1745 to find out where and when they arc perfonning. Prices vary with venues but are generally reasonable. ZZZ subscribers get a discount in most cases.

AVALON THEATRE

On Fred Schonell Drive, St. Lucia. This makeshift and uncomfortable venue is the home of tlie Camarata Theatre, a small

continued next page

m

THefiTfi6. continued from previous page

amateur group which has consistently selected fascinating and challehging plays to present. Performance standard is not always top-flight but this group deserves much better support than it has been getting.

Prices: G.P. $3.50, students, pensioners $2.50. Memberships available. Phone 372 4917.

BRISBANE ACTORS COMPANY

A professiona! company originally founded to give Brisbane actors an opportunity during a time when the other professional groups used mainly southern actors. Made somewhat redundant by new policy of TN Company, however, with future of that group in doubt it may re-emerge as a force. Fare has varied beiween unabashedly commercial and middle-to-high brow stuff. Venues vary and prices vary accordingly (i.e. the bigger the show and thealrc the higher the price). Phone venue lo get information about. particular productions.

NEW EDWARD STREET THEATRE

At the Brisbane Communiiy Arts Centre (formerly Coronation House) in the city. A new theatre venue, successfully used recently for an amateur production. Will be used (supposedly) by a variety of groups.

Plans include lunch hour drama, for city workers and other interesting (and somewhat ambitious) projects. It will be interesting to watch developments.

QUEENSLAND THEATRE OF THE DEAF

To see how expressive the human body can be, you should see this group in action.

They perform in a variety of dramatic fonnats and at a variety of venues.

This guide has not exhausted live theatre in Brisbane. There are groups which only produce a play occasionally and some of these shows have been quite good. There are also a number of smdl amateur groups such as the Ignatians, the Villanova Players, Theatre Maria etc. These groups tend towards mainstream musicals and deservedly obscure comedies and mysteries.

The performance standard can make some of these productions trying for those not related to members of the cast. There are, of course, the dinner ihealres for those moneyed individuals who like their schmaltz mixed with ribald humour.

If you are finding your feet in the Brisbane theatre scene the radio station 4ZZZ can tell you what's on and what's recommended. Or, if you want to be a participant rather tlian observer. La Boite, Camerata, The Arts and any of the other amateur groups would be delighted to hear from you.

-^OHN MC COLLOW

Under the Schonell theatre St, Lucia.

jfiB J:£L®DBMM? TWO OUTSTANDING MODERN PLAVS FOR $10.00 (Adults)

$5.00 (Students) AVAILABLE AT THE UNION SHOP (University of Qld.) OR BY RINGING 52 5888

52 5889

L 28

1 Summit ©anfcrencc ^ by Robert David MacDonald

Sally McKenzie Judith Anderson Steven Hamilton

director John Milson designer Stephen Amos

From Wednesday May 21 to Saturday June 7 Tuesdays to Saturdays at 830p.m.

2 Waiting For Godot

A Modern Classic . . . by Samuel Beckett Geoff Cartwright Duncan Wass Steven Hamilton Garry Cook

director Rick Billinghurst designer Stephen Amos

From Wednesday June 11 to, Saturday Julys Tuesdays to Saturdays at 830p.m.

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SPIKE MILLIGAN

Irish-born comedian SPIKE MILLIGAN, the driving force behind the notorious Goons and a major influence on British comedy, came to Brisbane recently for a series of performances.

What sort of theatrical ti-aining did you have when you were first starting out?

None at all. It's intuirive. It's like you have to leam to walk when you become a clown. When I was a little boy 1 went to a convent and when I was five 1 played the part of a clown in a nativity play. Quite unusual wasn't it? Tliey didn't know what to do with tlie boys, you see, so they made me a clown.

And I remember one of the most touching moments of my life, I didn't know it at the time, was the Mother Superior saying you mustn't go near the crib, see, in the end, when Jesus was being born. And I thouglit that was wrong, and I did go. I went and stood by the crib, I remember, and I took my hat off, and the audience applauded. So I thought it was strange, tlie first thing I ever did was a clown, and I've been one ever since.

/ noticed you have a couple of touches of Jimmy Durante and Groucho Marx. What other comedians have influenced your life?

They were the Monty Python of their day, you know, and 1 very rarely do them. But I feel like it sometimes, I put them in. Also a bit of W.C. Fields, you know, what­ever I feel like doing.

What did you want to be when you were young?

Taller.

Did you have any ambitions, career wise? None at all, I did remember wanting to

be a racing car driver or a pilot of a plane, that sort of thing. I really wanted to be a fighter pilot.

Do you mind telling us how the goons got together?

I just met Harry Secombe in the war, and when he came out of tlie army he went mto Windmill Theatre, that's the nude theatre, and met Peter Sellers tiiere. They got on well, and he introduced me to Peter SeUers and we got on very well. We've been very strange friends ever since, and that's how it happened, we just laughed at tliis new sort of scene we wanted, the old fashioned comedy was dead for us, and we wanted to break out, we didn't really know we were breaking out, but we did.

You've been in "The Life of Brian", what other parts have you played?

Yes, the film world, I can't stand it, and the television world is pretty traumatic too. I tiiink I'd rather like just to be a writer of books, comic poems for kids, adult verse, some serious poetry, dial's what I'd like to do 1 think.

What's Prince Charles' association with the goons?

None at all, he like us, it's nice to get fan letters from royalty, we got fan letters from Prince Charles - he's had liis hair cut since then, he was a nice mod when I saw him last with short hair.

The irrepressible Spike also has a serious side to his nature. JULIE GOODALL from 4ZZZ cornered Spike and asked him about his double life as a comedian and as a conservationist.

t

Are you a royalist? Semi-royal. Keep 'em worried I say.

What do you think of the Thatcher govemment?

I never tiiink of the Thatcher govern­ment.

Can you afford nor to? Well ye^ , I'm pretty independent,

I'm an Irish citizen, we are a disaster so 1 belong to a countr>' which is a disaster.

Are you actively involved in the con­servation cause?

Yes, I am, I belong to the Worid Wild­life and Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, Operation Jonah, anything, I belong to it. I'm not boasting by tlie way, you just asked me and I'm telling you. 1 help as much as I can, but I think we're going to lose the fight.

Would you say you live an alternative lifestyle?

Alternative to normal people. I'm a vegetarian, I play squash every day,

1 go out with my kids to discos, I'm on the

scene, 1 listen to a lol of the music they hype up, a lot of it is crap and a lot of it is good. I lament tlie passing of Cream, tliey were my favourite music group and Eric Clapton and I live a different lifestyle. 1 try lo be civilised, you know. And most people aren't.

/ presume that you are opposed to nuclear power?

Are you kidding"? I'm opposed to any

kind of power. 1 think moderation is the thing in life. And I can't see that the way the worid is going we can do anytiiing else but have a nuclear war. So why don't you take bets now, you won't be alive to take the results of the bet.

And the implications of the nuclear society as well, loss of civil liberties?

Wel! it is, the worid is in conflict over il, you never had any conflict when we on to gas in 1860, or electricity, wliich was tlie first lime there's been an actual resemblant of the type of power that they're using, which is very dangerous.

Does your lifestyle involve much travelling?

Vm not sedentary, althougli 1 like being al home, I like family, I like log fires, I like Sunday evenings when we play the piano, the flute, listen to some cla.ssical music for a change and not watch the*' television. Yeah, return to nomiality is what I try lo do.

Have yon had any criticism that some of your jokes are an ti-women?

Oh, that's a loaded quesrion, I could give a loaded answer. Well I don't think sexist, I rather like going out with them. 1 can't see that's anri, is it?

A'o, but Jokes about ugly women seem to presume that women should be attractive.

Come on, you need a sense of humour, now, I'm pretty ugly myself so 1 couldn't guard against that. No, Tm anti anything that's immoral, when I say immoral I don't mean only in a sexual sense I mean immoral in religion and the worid as a whole. I mean 1 can't stand an injustice. Well you have to because tlie world is full of injustice and there seems to be no way out.

Thank you, I've come to the end of my questions. ^

Well, it was very nice to talk to some­body from the university, I also like to talk to siudents, people who are very anti-tlie system are students and highly volatile, and pro-environmental. . .1 suppose 1 was reasonably brave dropping out, must have beeA one of the first droppers, and I wouldn't go along willi anything, I wen* my way, il worked out, I'm actually successful, bul no tlianks to the capitalist system as a whole, shall I say. I don't exploit my fellow man.

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Cockatoo Rock Spreads Wings The members of Cockatoo Rock

are brimming with ideas, as they out­line the band at present and its goals for the future. The band has a strong base to" work from. Their music now is excellent original material; thought­ful yet humourous lyrics, rhythms and melodies derived from an as­tonishing range of musical styles, and delivered wi th verve. Their eclecticism is evident as different numbers bring recollections of Captain Matchbox, Swing, Randy Newman and Blues,

"Have you heard of Spike Jones?" said Ken, the rhythn^ guitarist and vocalist. Without waiting for a reply, he rushed off to grab an album from Spike and his City Slickers. I quickly declare that not only had I heard of them but they were par­ticular favourites. "Oh. . .well, . .we are going to do lots of songs like, "That daring young man on the flying trapeze" . . . with lots of silly instruments." "Yes . . . silly instruments," echoed Tern, the bass guitar­ist, "and nice hats."

Last year people in the Popular Theatre Troupe began to talk about diversifying their style of entertainment. They became interested in rock music. The Troupe has been going since 1975, eniertaining people all over Queensland with their short, funny reviews. The Popular Theatre Troupe takes a topic, the Media for instance, and put together an hour of thoughtful, entertaining comment in skits and songs.

By introducing rock music into theatrical style review. Cockatoo Rock should be one of the most interesting bands to emerge from Brisbane. The line-up of the band at

present is: Roger on lead guitar. Tern on bass, Ken on rhythm guitar and vocals, David on violin, and Peter on drums. As well as the silly instruments, Ken also wants to work with banjo. The group Is presently looking for a woman to share the vocals, acting, and I suppose, some of the silliness.

Photography: Matt Mawson

The group has performed at various spots around Brisbane in the last few months. While getting the act together, they realised the importance of performing in front of people: to get experience in that situation and note audience reactions. They performed at the Rouge dance last

month, and their thoughtful, melodic music made an interesting contrast to the experimental new wave of the other bands.

On Anrac Day I spoke to three of the members of Cockatoo Rock about life, love and the future of rock 'n roll. They played several of their songs for me beginning with a song that's sure to be­come a classic, featuring the amazing line / / you can't have a poke or a bit of a joke, you may as wett be dead.

It's about the ancient sport of poking people in the eye with sharp instruments.

Not all of their songs are quite as silly as that one. They have songs about living on the dole like "Poverty Line" and "Charity" - a song in the swing style about a person too embarrassed to admit that he's un­employed. "Howling At The Moon" is reminiscent of John Cooper-Clarke. And for the smart-arse "R.D. Laing by Michael Caine"

Ain't life got a definite set of Bloody rules

Ken, who writes a lot of the material talked about a few of the ideas he has for songs, for instance, a humourous song about the police. Or vague living . . . vague . . .vogue . . . get it?

Richard Fotheringham and Errol O'Neill are writing material for the skits, but the group Is relying on workshops with Bomber Perrier which begin at the end of May to get the ideas really rolling.

Their debut gig will be at the refectory, University of Queensland on 25- July. Then they launch into a tour of northern Qubensland, followed by some dates around Brisbane pubs.

- A N N E JONES

RACISM in ROCK Let's commence the search: The great WHITE hope for the SO's. We can't

have them nigger bastards strutting their funky skunky sounds for another year. Can we?

Probably one of the more astute assess­ments of the racist overtones of rock music comes from Blondie's Chris Stein: "I think the anti-disco movement is a bunch of bullshit witii very heavy racist overtones . . .There's a lot of great disco music but there's also a lot of shitty, disgusting disco. There's also a lot of shitty rock 'n roll music and I think if someone came out with an anti-rock nx}vement, people would be horrified."

This quote highlights several key issues. For the most part, disco is looked on with disdain by the so-called rock establish­ment. It has been deemed as a subversive and worthless form of music. It Is only in the last few months that certain com­ponents of the rock movement have begun to re-assess their positkm with regard to disoo.

To some extent, the responsibility for this about-face can be lakl at the feet of people such as Michael Jackson. With ihs explorations into this form of musk: on his "Off The Wall" album, he proved that disoo ooukJ expand its foundatkms and be innovative at the same time.

Principally, disco operates on the rhythmic component of the music and as such the rhythm is emphasised at the ex­pense of the more traditwnal "front­line" sound components. This is where the basic conflict with rock 'n roll emerges.

The overbknvn guitar pyrotechntes of Led Zeppelin et al took a nose dive into

the compost heap while the bass amplifier was turned up a few notches.

The hostility of many rock enthusiasts to this trend recks heavily of the neo-fascist reply of a narrow-minded reactionist group who feel their position threatened.

The real subversive element of the disoo movement has more to do with the ordinary person than the music itself. What is dis­tasteful is the people who hit the local disco on 3 Friday night in their satin pants and new Stefan blow waves and go into their rehearsed Travolta imitations.

There is an element of pretense in this ritual which is most disturbing. The logical extensk)n of this concept is a stereotyping of people and a'numbing of their mental capacities. Under no circumstances could such an occurrence be condoned.

Disco music cannot be held responsible for this phenomena. If blame has to be laid, it must go to the general susceptibility of the in-vogue disoo crowd,

'Without trying to descend to stereo­typing, there is a degree of truth in the notk)ri that the dark races of the worM have a ^greater affinity with rhythm as opposed to their European cottnterparts.

These tendencies reached a climax in the mid-sixti^ with the emergence of several acts who represented the first nxives to take blade music out of the jungle (not using the phrase in^a derogatory manner) and employing the dIHmportant element of accessibility. Namei which spring to

mind include Al Green, Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, Smokey Robinson, the Four Tops and Marvin Gaye among others.

The disco sound of the latter seventies seems the logical extension of the ground­work laid by these people. Utilizing a vastly Improved studio technology, the more extreme elements of the sixties black music were refined to enable even greater acceptability with a mass audience.

However, as Chris Stein notes, there is also a lot of undesirable disco music. It is the producer-created disoo acts that would be most likely to fall in to this category.

Jacques Morali, the creator ofthe Village People and Gtorgio Moroder, the guiding light behind Donna Summer, are two prime examples.

it is peopte such as these who retain an

anonymity in the studk) and create weird and not so wonderful sounds. They then get a faceless act 0J^ stage to mime to their faceless music.

It must be noted however, that such criticisms could also be lakl at the door of many rock acts and their autocratic pro­ducers. They are simply using the same means to different ends.

Mr. Stein has hit the nail on the head with his assertfon that the anti-disco mova-ment is very much a racist phenomenon. Rock 'n roll has been the dominion of the white race since its inceptun and the in­creasing popularity of an essentially black form of music Is obviously unacceptable to these bigots. What's the next step -Richie Blackmore in a Ku Klux Klan outfit?

-TONYGILSON V ie30"

JT91M9S'

.music.

Pop Goes the Studio One Bubble

Rock reviewer TONY GILSON and photographer MATT MAWSON went behind the scenes of Channel 7's rock programme Studio One. They filed this report •

Studio One is currently the only locally produced rock-oriented show on Brisbane television. Only two months since Its inception, It has already topped the ratings in its timeslot

The show revolves around the axis of three personnel, Eric Summons (host). Axel Buettner (director) and Bill Holds-worth (researcher).

Studio One holds a unique position amongst its peers. One has shows such as Countdown and Sounds which cater principally for the Top 40 market while Nightmoves has adopted an alternative album format.

As such. Studio One's competitors have cornered a particular audience and thus lessened their potential appeal. This is where the basic difference arises. The musical content of the show shows no particular bias, including an equal division of new wave, top 40, rock, disco and lesser known acts.

The wide appeal of the show has already been reflected in the latest ratings survey. As Summons says, "the majority of our audience is between the ages of 14 and 26. We seem to lose some of the younger kids but we're going to try to do something about that by playing a few more MOR artists."

Eric Summons holds the limelight.of the show, being tbe only on-camera face. However, Studio One Is the result of a co­ordinated team effort. As researcher, Bill Holdsworth has the responsibility of pro­viding background information for the videos put to air.

His background includes writing for RAM, Rolling Stone and Semper. Summons describes Holdsworth as a "virtual walking encyclopaedia on rock", able to provide ,some of the most trivial information on various artists.

Summons relies heavily on Holdsworth's "U.P.I.'s" (useless pieces of information) but says "at the beginning I relied totally on Bill but now I read, all the rock news­papers and now have some knowledge of the music we're playing". But Bill Is still a very big part of the show.

Studio One's director Axel Buettner, of course looks after the technical side of •the show. Locked away in the control room upstairs, he holds the responsibility for what is actually put to air.

The content of the show is the result of weekly Tuesday night meetings between Buettner, Summons and Holdsworth. Froni

there a play sheet Is formularised for the next show.

However, as was the case with the show we observed, the play sheet often falls behind time, requiring last minute re­scheduling.

One criticism that could be put to the show is Its total studio orientation. However, this could soon change, as "we could enter into an agreement with local bands where we would make a film clip for them and then show it on air"

Studio One recently took the innovative step of conducting a request show. Such a move only invites further chaos, but the favourable reaction has led to the request show becoming a regular institution with Studio One.

The show is a live-to-air affair, made in

(heyl heyl) Studio One. Surprisingly there is little glamour to the setup. The flashing set is propped up In the barren wasteland of the studio next to Fiona's cardboard computer. Three cameramen beam down on Summons with Holdsworth doing ska­like dances in the background.

The show was recently the victim of the repressive hand of Joyner-like morality. They have been forbidden to show Human League's "Circus of Death" or any material from the new Iggy Pop or Slits albums because of their nasty connotations.

Studio One may not possess the fanfare of Countdown, the pretentiousness of Sounds or the trendiness of Nightmoves, and as such is a refreshing change for rock through the medium of television. It goes to air Saturday mornings between 10am and 12 noon.

-TONY GILSON

NUMAI^ COMETH

British electro-rocker Gary Numan, creator of the synthesizer-based chart successes "Are Friends Electric?" and "Cars", is presently touring Australia. He will be at Brisbane's Festival Hall on Tuesday 27th May. .-

Numan (real name Gary Webb) vvas the central figure of the band Tubeway Army. His lyrical concerns are clones and .robots. Unfortunately he tends to promote himself as a clone/robot and his inane posturing has alienated many people who might otherwise be attracted to his music.

Numan's music is his strongest asset He employs steady pop rhythms and technical wizardry to create a futuristic, yet accessible, pop sound.

The Touring Principle, as Numan's present tour is called, promises to be quite a spectacle. He is bringing 10 tons of lighting equipment along with mechanical robots, revolving pyramids nd lasers. His Brisbane appearance, despite Numan's second-rate Bowie Imagery, Is likelv to be one of the best shows of the year. ,

-MATT MAWSON

SEMPER IE 31

music.

ROBERT FRIPP: God Save The Queen/Under Heavy Manners (Poly­gram)

This is probably the first single album released as a double album. "God Save The Queen" is the Fripper-tronics side while "Under Heavy Manners" is the Discotronics side.

Fripp defines his system of Fripper-tronics as "that musical experience re­sulting at the interstice of Robert Fripp and a small, mobile and appropriate level of technology, viz. his guitar, Frippelboard and two Revox recor<kfs." Frippertronics is, basically, a self-fepeating feedback system which "builds up that big wall of sound that we're all beginning to love."

"God Save The Queen" is a continuation of the areas explored on "No Pussyfooting" and "Evening Star" but with a few new tinges as well. Gone arc Eno's various tape distortions while Fripp relies entirely on his own capabilities.

The three tracks on "God Save The Queen" were recorded live on the 1979 Frippertronics tour. They are all improvisa­tions and consist only of the basic Fripper-tronic loop.

"Red Scorer" and the tille track are both very impressive but il is the 13 minutes "1983" that steals the limelight. On this cut Fripp obtains some amazing sounds from his instrument that could only be described as dazzling.

NEW RELEASES TONY GILSON looks at Robert Fripp's latest delve into Frippertronics, Public Images repackaging of the bulky "Metal Box" set, and a rare promotional collection of recent Ska singles.

"Under Heavy Manners" is a total contrast to its partnering album. It is Fripp's newly-discovered Discotronics, described as "that musical experience resulting at the intcrslice of Frippertronics and disco". Buster Cherry Jones (a noted U.S. disco bass player who also played on Eno's "Here Come the Warm Jets") plays on both tracks alongside Paul Duskin on drums.

On the title track the Talking Heads' David Byme (referred to Absalm El Habib) renders his most psychotic vocal ever com­mitted to tape. His voice is also subjected to the Fripperlronic tape echo set-up, producing a most interesling effect.

'The Zero of the Signified" is a twelve minute instrumental featuring Jones, Duskin and Fripp playing over a live Fripperlronic tape. It makes for a most interesting comparison between the two styles explored on the album(s).

To my way of thinking, Robert Fripp is the most vital and criminally underrated guitarist to emerge since the demise of Hendrix. He is taking a traditional instmment and discovering new and unique sounds. This record will probably not sell in vast quantities thus leaving the brilliance of the album(s) to be enjoyed only by the enlightened few. Oh well, maybe next year.

-TONYGILSON

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD: Second Edition (Virgin import)

"Second Edition" is the latest statement from John (Rotten) Lydon's post-PistoIdom band. It is also a repackaged version of the "Metal Box" set.

Since quitting the Pistols, Lydon has moved furtiier and further away from conventionally structured rock music. PlL's first album was a shock to many criticis and fans, but that record remains a confused and ineffective effort, since being dismissed by the band themselves.

However, "Second Edition" sees the band with a much more potent exploration of the ideas only hinted at on the first album. Lydon and co. have totally dismissed the notion of melody construction and have

opted for a rhythmically dominated sound. Jah Wobble's bass work remains in a

similar vein to the band's previous work, but it is Keith Levine's guitar/synthesiser work and Lydon's vocal that have broken

new ground. One need only look at the totally

anarchic synthesized percussion on "Career­ing" and the "aquatic" guitar sound on "Memories" as evidence of Levine's ex­perimentations.

Lydon himself has several highlights on the album. The falsetto at the end of "Albatross", the treated vocal chorus of "Memories" and the cutesy voice used on "Bad Baby" are all unlike anything ever done by the man.

"Second Edition" is an inspiring and inspired album. At a lime when bands such as the Clash have compromised them­selves to the point of irrelevance, PIL have gone out on a limb and experimented with their sound. Perhaps the best description of the sound comes from Lydon huiisclf:

"It's dance music for white folks". Read between the lines and youll probably discover what "Second Edition" is all about.

-TONYGILSON

"The Beat Box" is a five single package created by Festival Records to promote the cause of ska/bluebeat Down Under. It is not commercially available and is sent out to critics, TV hosts and other media manipu­lators.

The five bands featured are the Specials,

Madness, the Selector as well as the lesser known Bad Manners and the Beat.

All five bands are working wilhin a par­ticular style of music but they have all managed to develop an individual sound. These bands all seem to emphasise the rhythm and keyboards al the expense of the more conventional front line instruments, explaining the danceable nature of the music.

The singles included by the Specials, Madness and the Selecter ("Rudy", "My Giri" and "James Bond") to my way of thinking are nol the best examples of the bands' work,

However, the Bad Manners' "Ne-Ne Na-Na'Na-Na Nu-Nu" is a splendid Utile pop song which just demands to be danced to. The Beat are probably the least in­teresting of the five bands.

In listening to Madness, Specials and Selecter albums and comparing them to these singles, I am convinced these bands make greal little pop singles but have diffi­culty transferring to the long player format. I suppose the juke box mles eternally anyway.

-TONYGILSON

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Q/nion This summer, three new Brisburg fashion houses have been quick to

capitalise on social trends, and, in their own way have created a uniquely Queensland look that will be a must for the fashion-conscious woman.

The look for '81 Is big, but Is not simply a reversion to the layered tent styles of a few years back.

This season the trendy Queensland woman will have clothes that allow her to revel in all aspects of her femininity.

* • #

Bjelke's of Brisburg have produced an exquisite range of tailored day-wear. Countless tiny pintucks run from the shoulders down the front, terminating just above the bust-line. This serves not only to emphasise the fullness of the bust and the blossoming new life within the fashionable woman, but also to emphasise the essential frailty of the female shoulders.

Two major variations of this garment are also offered. In one, the pintucks continue down the back of the dress, conforming to the woman's own contours in a tight, figure-hugging fit before broadening to the hips.

This style, not recommended for the larger woman, serves dual functions. It defines the muscleless inner strength of a woman, and provides a delightful contrast to the maternal fullness of the front view.

The other variation is the addition of soft, flouncy butterfly sleeves, essential to hide broad shoulders and those firm, overdeveloped biceps that sometimes result from lifting baby after he/it gets too big.

Bjeike of Brisburg's fabrics are light, lacy, and in the most becoming pastel shades - pretty pink and baby blue.

In contrast, the House of Knox has produced a colour­ful range for the more active woman. Bold, geometric and in every colour bar red, this innovative range is for the truly liberated.woman, proud of what she is.

Sure to be a favourite this summer is a kaftan-inspired dress. With no shaping, the fullness of a woman's body is emphasised by the garments colour. All feature bold designs, either circles, diamonds, arrows or spirals all centred to a point just below the navel. Even from a dis­tance, the observers eye is drawn to the centre of a woman's being, to that develQping new life so essential to a mature woman's personality.

Casey's have also produced a range of padded swim-wear. Water-resistent quilting in the front of these delight­ful one-piece swimsuits makes even the infertile woman appear to be in the spring of motherhood.

« * *

Incidentally, ladles, nutritionists have admitted they were wrong about beer. They say it is now permissable to indulge In the amber as often as we desire. Extensive studies have indicated that, after prolonged usage it pro­duces an extended stomach so much like pregnancy. This means that even those unfortunates who cannot give life have the desired new shape.

-NELLE TYCHO

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Don't lettie for leu: the advantaoei of our ideal are in toun pocket.

"9if&ppor BEHIND THE BANANA CURTAIN: 1980). Paperback $7.95.

Journalist Hugh Lunn has just released his second book about the unique state of Queensland - Behind The Banana Curtain. His previous book, Jo/; (UQP 1978), was a popular success, and now Lunn has gone further into the nature of Queensland and Queenslanders with reprints of some of his most popular features for the "Australian". Ironically, cartoons arc provided by the "opposition" (Courier Mail cartoonist Alan Moir).

Lunn has a talent for llnding the unusual, even the eccentric aspects of Queensland life - eccentricities which many people believe constitute normality in this stale.

If there is one thing which lypifics this book it's the abundance of "characters". There's the archetypal bushie - "so tough he washes liis hair with Solvol", a playboy tennis star, an uncomfortably nonchalant shark attack victim, and the usual assortment of politicians. Reading some pieces will leave you with lillle doubt that the Queensland sun can still turn people troppo.

Lunn has spent a lot of time travelling about the state, either in the Premier's private plane, or some death-defying commercial fiighls through cyclones. He has trekked across the centre on cattle drives, wandered north and west and generally done his "roving reporter" bit to procure his stories.

The book has a number of features on Queensland politics as well as sections like A little Xenophobia, Copping the Raw Prawn, and An Innocent Queenslander Abroad.

Behind the Banana Curtain is written from a personal point of view. Lunn is usually involved in his story and writes in the first person, rather than the third which

Hugh Lunn. (University of Qld Press,'

BEHIND THE BANANA CURTAIN

Ofdwings by AUn Moir

journalists more commonly use.l found this form irritating with its continuous use.

The other criticism must be that the appeal might be limited to Queenslanders alone. Perhaps its cultural cringe, but I can't see many people outade this state even believing it - at worst it might be regarded as a chronicle of a very bizarre Banana Republic (which is what it is).

Nevertheless, the writing is good, des­criptive, and sometimes quite humorous. I'd like to think these pieces are all figments of Lunn's imagination, but they probably aren't. Oh well. I guess I can always move to NSW.

-KJAZ PERRY

THE BORDER ISSUE: Press, 1980)52.50.

POETRY IN QUEENSLAND 1980 (Border Image

The Border Issue, as its sub-title suggests, .-s an annual anthology of Queensiand poetry, now in its fourth number. There are some excellent poems again this year, and the new fomiat is a move towards some­thing more attractive in packaging.

I do nol want to deal here with the hand­ful of poets who are already well-known and widely published elsewhere. For the most they live up to expectations and function as a comparison for the main body of writers, while of course, their absence from these pages would be a failure of the book to give an overview.

No, I want to turn to those who do not appear often in the pages of our Uterary magazines, it is for their benefit that The Border Issue was first started. The overall standard of writing has improved over the years. Several writers have been in more

than one issue and have learned from being in print that some things work better than others. It is interesting to see how many people who first published in The Border Issue have gone on to pubUsh more viridely and been accepted even in the clique-ridden southern slates.

Among those of special interest are Robert Handicott, Madonna Staunton, Andrew Leggett (again), Silvana Gardner (who should have had a book published by this if any publisher worth his oats bothered to read her work!), and Rose aark.

Hie editors of The Border Issue invite submissions for the next issue. The closing date is 31 December 1980 and the address is 146 Jubilee Tee., Bardon 4065.

-CORNELIS VLEESKENS

W

CINEMA RED HILL COMMUNITY ARTS CENTRE: 60 Waterworks Road, Red Hill. Screens films every Sunday night at 7.30pm, ad­mission by donation. 25 May, "The Maturing Woman", "Psychoactive", "Me And My Little Girlie". UNIVERSITY OF QLD SURF-RIDERS' ASSOCIATION: Surfing Flix, "Hawaiian Safari",

On the first and third Sundays of evern month. Starts Spm, admission $2.

and 2 hot shorts. In the Abel Smith Lecture Theatre, University of Queensland on 8 May at 8?m, admission $1.50, lucky door prize. SCHONELL CINEMA: For de­tails see advertisement in this issue or phone 371 1879.

MUSIC CAXTON STREET JAZZ CLUB: 17 Caxton St., Petrie Terrace,

RAN TAN BUSH BAND: 17 Caxton St., Petrie Tee. On the second Sunday of every month, at Spm. MUSICA VIVA AUSTRALIA: Beaux Arts Trio. Saturday 31 May at 8.15pm Mayne Hall, St. Lucta. Beethonven: Trio in B

MUSICA VIVA

flat major, op. 11;Shostakovitch: Trio, op. 67; Schubert: Trio in B flat major, op. 99. Tickets are $7.50, $6.50 and $3.00 for pen­sioners and students. HAYDN SOCIETY OF OLD: Music of Haydn and his con­temporaries from the Early Music Society on Wednesday, 21 May at 355 Wickham Tee., Brisbane. Begins at Spm, admission $2.

ABC PUBLIC CONCERTS: Saturday, 24 May, at Brisbane City Hall, 8pm conducted by Cavdarskl.

PERFORMJNG ARTS

LA BOITE THEATRE: "The Man From Mukinupin" by Dorothy Hewett from 23 May to 21 June at 57 Hale St., Brisbane, discounts for students and 4ZZZ subscribers, REDCLIFFE MUSIC AND ARTS SOCIETY: "Brigadoon" by Lerner and Lowe. Between 23 May and 7 June at Mousetrap Theatre, Redcliffe Showgrounds. Enquiries 284 0204 and 284 7295.

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phone 284 7295. IGNATIANS SOCIETY: "Oklahoma" by Rogers and Hammerstein until 24 May at St. Ignatius Church Hall, Kensington Tee., Toowong, En­quiries 370 1812.

Miici^Ai CAXTON STREET FLEA - ^ . * ! : MARKET: 17 Caxton St., Petrie

Tee. Every Sunday Bam-12.30pm, ring Karen; 36 0297 for info.

\/BUALARTS

AUSTRALASIAN UNION OF JEWISH STUDENTS: Every Tuesday, 10am to 2pm in the Relaxation Block, common room 3, at the University of Qld.

WORKSHOPS BOSTON GALLERY: Mixed ex­hibition of North Coast artists; I. Burton, P. Burton and J.

TN COMPANY WORKSHOPS: °^'^°^'?"9^„ ^' ^ ?,°^i^" ..^*-Theatre workshops are avaUable Clayfield. Runs until 23 May. for people of all ages. Reserva­tions and enquiries, phone 52 , ^ 7559. ARTISTS GUILD: Workshop on the use of the palette knife on 25 May. Enquiries Mr. E. Whisson, 269 7397.

MARKETS

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY: Meetings are held at 335 Wickham Tee. at Spm. 23 May, Bridge between Science and Religion by Betsan Coats; 30 May, Pathway to Harmony by Betsan Coast; 6 June, Kabbalah — western Occultims with Voyen Koreis.

COUNTRY MARKET: at the Closeburn Hall, near Samford -opens Sunday 25 May.

MURRUMBA DRAMA FESTIVAL: At the Mousetrap Theatre, Redcliffe Showgrounds on 26, 27 and 28 June. Enquiries

RAY HUGHES GALLERY: An exhibition of screenprints from Patrick Caulfield at 11 Enoggera Tee, Red Hill. Runs until 22 May. CEMENT BOX THEATRE: "Summit Conference" by Robert David McDonald, from 21 May to 7 June, at University of Qld. LUNCH BOX THEATRE: 2 anti-nuclear plays at the Cement Box Theatre on 20 and 21 May at 1pm, admission 50c.

ADVERTISE IN

SEMPER Phone

371 2568

The Anomalies of TE.A.S. Most Students don't know much

about T.E.A.S. because most students aren't eligible for it. There are 97 rules which the Commonwealth Education Department can use to exempt a student from the scheme.

The Whitlam Govemment abolished ter­tiary tuition fees and introduced the Tertiary Education Assilance Scheme (T.E.A.S.) in 1974 with the aim of creating a revolution in access to tertiary educalion. It was envisaged that universities and C.A.E.'s would be more open to working class people. Tiiere is no way of knowing if tliis would have occurred or nol because the Whitlam Government was removed from office when its programmes for reform were in tlieir infancy. The Fraser Governnient has tightened up T.E.A.S. so that each year, fewer students are eligible and those who are get less and less.

There have been no increases in T.E.A.S. allowances for three years now and the maximum allowance is $45.15 per week -more than $30 below tlie Poverty Line. To get die princely sum of S45.15 a week, students must almost be able to jump through hoops of fire. Tliey must be married, over 25 years of age, or have sup­ported themselves for two out of the previous five years. They must not change courses, be more than six months behind with ^eir course, or earn more than SI500 per year.

If students cannot prove independence, their T.E.A.S. allowance is means tested on parental income. If tlie combined family income exceeds $9,400 per year, the allow­ance is reduced. The allowance for married students is means tested on the spouse's income.

Neariy every student who receives T.E.A.S. will have had problems with tlie Scheme.

The university and the Commonwealth Education Department do not agree on. what constitutes a full-time student. Many people are forced to repay large sums of money because they drop a few credit points during the semester, oblivious to tlie fact that the governnient will no

SEMPER

longer classify them as full-time students. The University administration says a

sludent is full-time when enrolled for 33 or more credit poinis. For the purposes of T.E.A.S., however, science students, for example, must be enrolled for 35 credit points.

Many students have only just received their first T.E.A.S. cheques for the year even tiiough they applied in February or March. This has caused much hardship because tlie beginning of the year is ex­pensive for studenis who must buy books, bonds on houses and pay sludent services charges. A number of students have had to ask for loans from the university adminis­lration, througli the Counselling Services.

Perhaps llie worst aspect of T.E.A.S. is the fad lliat tlie Education Department does nol aclually use independence as the criterion for determining "independent" status (i.e. to decide which siudents should get the maximum allowance regardless of parental income). There are innumerable sad cases of studenis who want to leave home but cannol because they will gel no T.E.A.S.

A student eariier this year was thrown out of home; his parents refused to support him in any way and yet his T.E.A.S. allow­ance must still be based on his parents' income. Because tliey eam about $15,000 per year, the sludeni is entitled to nothing. Many students are in the same posiiion -they have parents who refuse to support them or who are unable to support them.

Other students do nol want lo be supported by their parents because there are too many strings attached or because they feel they should be independent once they leave school. Unemployed people receive the dole on an independent basis once they turn sixteen. The Governnient, however, tliinks siudents arc lale developers and cannot be regarded as independent of their parents until they turn 25.

The Union's Welfare Officer sees a constant stream of people who have T.E.A.S. problems because they can't get It or have broken one of the 97 exemption rules. Many of the people who work in

EDUCATION With LYN TAYLOR

the T.E.A.S. section of the Education Department are quite helpful and sym­pathetic bul usually sympathy is all they can offer because they have no discretionary powers. The rules are so liglit tliey cannot make exceptions for sludenis with special cases. The Siudents Assistance Review Tribunal hears appeals from siudents who feel they have been wronged but again Ihey are bound by the rules.

Under the presenl Government T.E.A.S. will probably not improve. As eady as 1977, the Government set up a committee, aptly named the Butcher Committee, to investigate the feasibility of introducing a studenl loans scheme.

Under such a scheme, students would have to borrow thousands of dotlars to pay tuition fees and live wliile they were doing their degrees. The loans would be repaid on graduation.

The scheme was again suggested by Professor Blandy in his appendix to the Williams Report. (The Williams Committee conducted an enquiry into post-secondary education and the repori was tabled in Pariiament lasl year). The Governnient is slill considering the implications of the Williams Repori.

The Victorian Liberal Party recently passed a motion calling for the replace­ment of T.E.A.S. with a loans scheme and the reintroduction of tertiary tuition fees. This year saw the reintroduction of fess for overseas students, so the future for fees and T.E.A.S. under the Fraser government does nol look promising.

The Opposilion has promised fees would not be reintroduced and that the levels of the T.E.A.S. allowance would be raised if they were elected. However Senator Button

(llie Shadow Minister for Educalion) could

not or would not say lo whal level T.E.A.S. would be raised.

One of the demands of the Australian Union of Students is that T.E.A.S. be raised to 120 per cent of tlie Poverty Line in order to allow studenis to leave at least at the "poor" level.

The Federal Govemment continues to claim that T.E.A.S. is meant to be a supple­ment only and tliat students should obtain part-lime employment lo help support themselves. This is not realistic in 1980 when part-time jobs are practically non­existent and when the workload in many university courses is so heavy tliat students cannot afford the time for part-time jobs.

There is no doubt that T.E.A.S. is a very important factor in access to tertiary education but obviously, it is only one factor amongst many. Tlie people who would be worst affected by tiie abolition of T.E.A.S. and the introduction of a student loans scheme are those people who are already under-represented in post-secondary education i.e. women, migrants, blacks, working class people and mature-age studenis.

The white, middle-class, young; Australian male would certainly be seen as the best credit risk by the lending institutions. Students in professional courses such as Medicuie and Law would be reviewed more favourably for loans than Arts siudents because they have a higher rate of graduate employment.

T.E.A.S. will never improve if studenis are content to say nothing about it. The students vote is a large one and students need to make their voices heard. Increases in T.E.A.S. have only been won when A.U.S. has co-ordinated mass student action around tlic issue. Improvements in tlie scheme will be difficull for any one studenl union to achieve.

Those who favour education for the elite only, of course, are fully aware of this and this is one reason why tlicy fight for the fragmentation of studenl unions. There is a petition on T.E.A.S. currently circulating. Make sure you sign it. Make sure you inarch in the next T.E,A.S. march.

^ 5

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