So back to classes, exhausted on this Monday morning, we were informed that Kevin Rudd, Australia's former Labor Prime Minister and current Foreign Minister, would be joining us for lunch. At first we thought it was a joke, but no, the man himself would be gracing us with his presence.
As many of my American friends may have no idea, Kevin Rudd was PM of Australia from 2007 until June 2010, about the time that we arrived in Perth, when he was betrayed by his own party and ousted from his position, to be replaced by Julia Gillard (Australia's first female PM). Rudd was responsible for many positive initiatives, notably his "I'm sorry" speech to Indigenous Australians and the "stolen generations" and his stance of climate change mitigation.
So at about noon today, our group assembled to meet with him. He arrived with his entourage and entered the hushed room, cracking jokes about quiet Australians, and immediately began to shake hands and introduce himself. Everyone was starstruck and smiling and queued up to shake his hand. He then gave a brief but powerful speech about the relationship between Australia and Indonesia, calling the two nations the Odd Couple. He stated that the countries provide an example to the rest of the world of a white, Western, Christian nation getting on quite well with a large Muslim country, in spite of their enormous differences and heritages. He called on the Australian students to continue their work and studies in Indonesia and to be part of both countries' futures. I felt moved by his speech as I feel so many people in the US State Department need to hear and heed his words, and I told him that as we took a photo after.
Here's K Rudd in an American sandwich, with Taylor from Burlington, Vermont! I think he's doing Richard Nixon.
In the US, and Australia as well, there is so much anti-Islamic banter and fear that it drowns out everything else. The media parade surrounding the 'Ground Zero Mosque,' spurred onwards by Rupert Murdoch (an Australian) and Fox News, is an apt example of the absence of a dialogue and simple understandings of the Muslim faith. Granted, Indonesia is a quite secular nation and the amount of radicals are relatively small, but people tend to overlook such basic facts and rush into the big news stories of Sharia Law in Aceh, stonings of a teacher who called her class teddy bear Muhammad, etc. Stories that sell, in other words. When we had a lecture on Islam last week, the lecturer steered clear of talking about the radicals because that is what reporters and students always ask about. The story is not in the radical Muslims in Indonesia, but instead in the working example of a pluralist society, working to maintain connections between 17000 islands, 300 languages, and an acceptance of one's faith.
It's too bad Rudd was ousted, as his replacement is a weak followup, kissing the mining companies' asses and weakening climate change legislation. Rudd was immensely popular with Australia's youth, but perhaps he is better off now in his position as Foreign Minister, using his engaging speaking style and prowess of history and geography to inspire young Australians to move beyond race, colour, and religion in order to become better citizens of the corner of the planet they inhabit, an island of white Anglophones surrounded by Asians.<c>
As many of my American friends may have no idea, Kevin Rudd was PM of Australia from 2007 until June 2010, about the time that we arrived in Perth, when he was betrayed by his own party and ousted from his position, to be replaced by Julia Gillard (Australia's first female PM). Rudd was responsible for many positive initiatives, notably his "I'm sorry" speech to Indigenous Australians and the "stolen generations" and his stance of climate change mitigation.
So at about noon today, our group assembled to meet with him. He arrived with his entourage and entered the hushed room, cracking jokes about quiet Australians, and immediately began to shake hands and introduce himself. Everyone was starstruck and smiling and queued up to shake his hand. He then gave a brief but powerful speech about the relationship between Australia and Indonesia, calling the two nations the Odd Couple. He stated that the countries provide an example to the rest of the world of a white, Western, Christian nation getting on quite well with a large Muslim country, in spite of their enormous differences and heritages. He called on the Australian students to continue their work and studies in Indonesia and to be part of both countries' futures. I felt moved by his speech as I feel so many people in the US State Department need to hear and heed his words, and I told him that as we took a photo after.
Here's K Rudd in an American sandwich, with Taylor from Burlington, Vermont! I think he's doing Richard Nixon.
In the US, and Australia as well, there is so much anti-Islamic banter and fear that it drowns out everything else. The media parade surrounding the 'Ground Zero Mosque,' spurred onwards by Rupert Murdoch (an Australian) and Fox News, is an apt example of the absence of a dialogue and simple understandings of the Muslim faith. Granted, Indonesia is a quite secular nation and the amount of radicals are relatively small, but people tend to overlook such basic facts and rush into the big news stories of Sharia Law in Aceh, stonings of a teacher who called her class teddy bear Muhammad, etc. Stories that sell, in other words. When we had a lecture on Islam last week, the lecturer steered clear of talking about the radicals because that is what reporters and students always ask about. The story is not in the radical Muslims in Indonesia, but instead in the working example of a pluralist society, working to maintain connections between 17000 islands, 300 languages, and an acceptance of one's faith.
It's too bad Rudd was ousted, as his replacement is a weak followup, kissing the mining companies' asses and weakening climate change legislation. Rudd was immensely popular with Australia's youth, but perhaps he is better off now in his position as Foreign Minister, using his engaging speaking style and prowess of history and geography to inspire young Australians to move beyond race, colour, and religion in order to become better citizens of the corner of the planet they inhabit, an island of white Anglophones surrounded by Asians.<c>
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