To find the answer to the above question please read the above article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald.
Are we selfish and deluded?
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- Sydney Morning Herald
Published by auntyuta
Auntie, Sister. Grandmother, Great-Grandmother, Mother and Wife of German Descent I've lived in Australia since 1959 together with my husband Peter. We have four children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. I started blogging because I wanted to publish some of my childhood memories. I am blogging now also some of my other memories. I like to publish some photos too as well as a little bit of a diary from the present time. Occasionally I publish a story with a bit of fiction in it. Peter, my husband, is publishing some of his stories under berlioz1935.wordpress.com View all posts by auntyuta
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AuntyUta 
It is a terrible thing to read. AND it makes me feel selfish for not doing more where I can.
Most people in our society, Elizabeth, probably would not regard themselves as being selfish. And most people, I am sure, would be prepared to help someone at their doorstep who is in need through no fault of their own. I watched ‘Compass’ on ABC TV last night. Some people selfishly took a refugee into their homes. I was very impressed by their generosity and friendship.
I meant to say “unselfishly” of course!
That is an eye opener. Everyone wants to be heard most of the time but when it is time to act only a few remain. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for the comment, IT. I ask myself, whether a lot depends on our leaders and how they get the majority of voters to vote for them. There are rumours about that in future people won’t be allowed to take any asylum seekers into their home!
Excellent article, Aunty Uta. I wasn’t even aware of half of it. I actually don’t like Abbott, not one bit.
Well, Australians voted him in and we are a democracy. Still, I think it is good that we can speak out against the things we do not like. I cannot understand why we should have to resort to treating asylum seekers worse than criminals.
I thought too, that this is an excellent article.
Thanks for commenting, Noeleen.
Einen schönen Tag liebe Ute ja manche Menschen denken eben nur an sich viele Menschen wollen das Leid der anderen gar nicht sehen wir leben in einer Egoistischen Zeit.Ich hoffe es geht dir gut wir haben heute in Köln mal was Sonne sonst war nur Regen.Liebe Grüße von mir hab noch eine gute Woche.Gruß und Freundschaft.Gislinde
Thanks for your comment, liebe Gislinde. Heute nachmittag hat ganz Australien das Melbourne Cup Race verfolgt. Das findet immer am ersten Dienstag in November statt. Für dieses Pferderennen geben Peter und ich immer eine kleine Wette ab. Wir hatten diesmal Glück und haben etwas gewonnen! 🙂
Liebe Grüsse, Uta
Yes, for first world countries like the ones we live in, we are indeed fortunate. However, there are times when we have to fix our own problems. It may appear selfish because we are forced to draw back, focus more on the inside. But I also see it as putting the oxygen mask on yourself first in an airplane emergency, before helping the person or child next to you. How can you be of help if you yourself are depleted of oxygen?
” . . . . Yet our ”modest” aid cut is a huge loss for the world’s poor, 3 billion of whom earn less than 1 per cent of average Australian earnings. Even if some is wasted, our loose change makes so much more of a difference to their prospects than it could ever make to ours.
If we still insist we don’t have money to spare, and anything we make is rightly ours to keep, then we are a self-deluded nation. We will never convince anyone but ourselves that good people can live such privileged, selfish lives.
John Watson is a senior writer at The Age.”
I wonder, Mary-Ann, how can we say we are depleted of oxygen when we have so much more than the world’s poor? I copied in this reply just the last two paragraphs of John Watson’s article at The Age. ‘
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I compared the act of putting on the oxygen mask while on an airplane emergency to us fixing our internal problems before going out and dealing with what ails the world, Aunty. I think I did not make myself clear on my previous comment. There are many things troubling the United States. How can there be hunger and poverty comparable to a third world level here in the USA when we also see orchards of fresh fruits unharvested because the farmers did not want an oversupply in the markets. They restrict the amount harvested to keep prices “stable’ they claim. It’s such a paradox. We need to fix our own problems first. Or we might not have a decent society in our own country to speak of.
“The Abbott government is cutting $4.5 billion from the aid budget over four years because politically it is safe to do so. In a world in which Australians are the most advantaged of all people, that’s a depressing measure of national selfishness.”
This is what John Watson says in his article, Mary-Ann. He also says: “We think of ourselves as a generous people and many Australians are. But it’s a form of national psychosis when a rich, secure nation unblinkingly spends more on killing people than helping them.”
A stable and decent society, I think this is what we have and I hope it is going to remain stable and decent. I do not claim to understand a lot about economy, however it seems to me that the Australian aid budget should not be cut the way our present government wants to cut it.