Page 2    Articles by Raja Arasa Ratnam


Published by www.ezinearticles.com

  'Personal morality'      This article contrasts 2 situations. In the first, an individual obstructing the path of a military tank is unharmed. In the second, an individual standing in the way of a large construction vehicle is reportedly run over and killed when she attempts to protect her home from destruction. Was there scope for a personal morality to be displayed by the second driver?  

   'Separate legal rights for minorities?         The claim by some Moslem immigrants in Australia for Australia's legal institutions to be modified to incorporate sharia law raises this issue - would this not lead to the proliferation of a range of diverse legal rights for ethno-religious minority communities which choose not to integrate culturally into the institutions of the nation they chose to enter?  By what right could these communities refuse to accept the nation's institutions and social mores? 

   'Western democracy: a sham?'         This article arises from the attempt by the nations of the West to impose what is known as Western democracy upon certain other nations of interest.  Having experienced the operation of this form of democracy over more than half a century in Australia, the author concludes that it is a sham. A right to vote, without any means of having any kind of input to polices, or to the selection of candidates for election, is akin to choosing between 2 grey cats in the political dark.

    'Asylum seeking - the greatest migration racket?'     This article contrasts what the author describes as the front door entry into Australia of selected  migrants and refugees, and the side door entry of selected  humanitarian entrants, with the back door entry sought by a seeming flood of asylum seekers and their very vocal and technical law-minded supporters. The article also contrasts the legal arrivals by air who possess both documents of identity and short-term entry visas with those who are unlawful (illegal?) arrivals by boat but who are without (by choice?) any of  the documents of identity which had got them to Indonesia to take to the boats. What seems to be lacking is a sense of sound policy by politicians and an adequate awareness of justice to the community at large by local supporters of the boat people.

    'Racism — decidedly a meaningless term'        The author argues that the term is a construct of the European colonialism of recent centuries. The article examines the relationships which prevailed between white colonisers and their coloured subjects in establishing his thesis. He argues that, since prejudice and discrimination can be triggered by a wide range of dislikes, it would be preferable to be more specific in expressing these dislikes through utterances (that is, statements of prejudice) or actions (indicating discrimination).  Skin colour prejudice is surely different from ethnic prejudice, from tribal prejudice, from political prejudice, from personal prejudice!  To categorise these as 'racist' is certainly meaningless.

Family of Man?       This article is essentially an appeal to those who have been hurt by behaviour expressing prejudice, as well as to those who may have caused such hurt, to be mindful of the imperatives of egalitarianism, of equal opportunity, and of personal dignity.  The author seeks the progressive integration of potentially disparate cultural values into a cohesive set of values which proclaim the unity of mankind.

East—West Relations: Early Cultural Shocks — Part 1       When a number of young, educated Asian youth, mainly from British colonial territories, arrived in Australia soon after the end of World War Two, the bilateral cultural shocks were clearly evident. Expressions of colonial Christian superiority clashed with the quiet confidence of the Asian youth, and their pride in their durable civilisations. This had implications for Western nations seeking a renewed toehold on the Asian continent.

Early Cultural Shocks in East-West Relations: Part 2       The sudden opening of the hither-to white British nation to the able-bodied European migrants needed to develop Australia after the end of World War Two was not well received initially by the host populace. Even British migrants were subject to some utterances of prejudice. However, it was the almost simultaneous arrival of educated middle-class Asian youth which led to discriminatory behaviour and public expressions of prejudice. 

Part 3 Early Cultural Shocks in East-West Relations         Official Australian policy against the entry of coloured people was harsh. This article describes the impact of ingrained prejudice, especially against an Ambonese lady who had arrived with her children as wartime evacuees. (Her husband had died in the war.) The first Minister of Immigration's attempt to deport her and her family after the war, in spite of her re-marriage to a white Australian and their baby (the author was a short-term neighbour of the whole family), was denied by the High Court, after the community rebelled against the Minister's decision. The Australian people had a better sense of fair play.

Early cultural shocks in East-West relations: Part 4

The large variety of Asians entering British Malaya early in the twentieth century caused no threat to the Malay people; whereas the invasion of Australia by the British was disastrous to the indigene.

What was it about the sudden arrival of a number of educated young Asian students in the modern Australian nation which could cause mutual cultural shocks, leading to displays of prejudice, rising to discrimination by the host people, thereby causing some confusion to the youths? How do the values and practices which represent culture impact upon others in a Western milieu?

Indeed, in day-to-day life, what scope is there for cultural differences to be displayed, since the celebration of culture is normally a private matter?

Since the early Asian student arrivals accepted Australia's institutions and social mores, what else could either side rightfully expect from the others?

Why do cross-cultural conflicts occur? Part1

The mutual cultural clashes in the immediate post-Second World War period between Asian students and the residents of the then White Australia offer a window of opportunity to understand why such conflicts occur.

This article asks why these students experienced the prejudice and some discrimination in those early years. Although acculturated in the communalism of Asian societies, they had little difficulty in adjusting to the individualism of a Western immigrant-created society. Although they were anti-colonial, they were not anti-British or anti-European. They were also conditioned to life in multicultural, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic societies. They did not anticipate the treatment they then received in Australia.

Australia's 'them' and 'not us' stance needed explanation.

Why do cross-cultural conflicts occur? Part 2

The initial prejudice and some discrimination by the immediate post-Second World War Australians against young Asian students is readily explainable. A few centuries of successful  domination by European nations had led to an erroneous belief (based mainly on ignorance) that white people are genetically superior to all others. This was aided to a degree by certain academics during the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries; their knowledge of the historical civilisations of Asia must have been abysmal.

 Add to that the entry of the foreign faiths of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and possibly Confucionism, and the foreign foods. After more than a century and a half of antipathy to dark skin, they were confronted by the presence of confident, well-dressed, well-spoken Asians of a range of colours, including that of the feared 'yellow hordes of the North.'

My view is that, officially, Australia is not yet comfortable about dealing with the people of the Indian sub-continent, having limited their immigrant entry for about 25 years after the introduction of a global non-discriminatory entry policy.

The good news is that, as each layer of the colour- and religious-prejudiced join their Maker, the level of cultural tolerance in Australia rises. It is at a high level today.

Culture as a weapon in Inter-tribal warfare

Like sparrows and chickens, or kitten and pups, the babies of mankind make the same sounds all over the globe; and respond alike to comparable stimuli. Each human culture requires uniform behaviour from its members. Good conduct is uniform across cultures.

Where then do the differences between cultures arise? Isolation, fear of 'the Other,' the influence of self-selected shamans and other priesthoods, or divisive power-hungry rulers? The major cause is religious dogma, intended to keep tribes separate, through assertions of superiority.

Is war between civilisations divided by religion, as postulated by Prof. Huntington, probable?

The Tyranny of Culture — the imperative of migrant adaptation

Culture can be worn loosely or tightly. While free to pray, celebrate their festivals, dress, cook, and eat as they wish, people may simply choose to co-exist with those of other cultures, or integrate with them. Few nations require all their residents to assimilate into one inseparable people; ethno-cultural diversity is acceptable in a free country.

However, immigrants in a nation offering equal opportunity will  find it advantageous to modify or discard those practices within their traditional cultures which are incompatible with the institutions, values, and social mores of the host-nation. But that requires the co-operation of the relevant priesthoods and their political affiliates.

Freedom denied: life under colonialism

Identifying the urge for freedom as innate, being governed by fellow citizens is contrasted by governance (and the associated cultural denigrations) by foreigners. Bishop Tutu's story about how the Bible-carrying missionary took control of African land is followed by samples of bad behaviour by European colonisers (including Winston Churchill); how the concept of racism, a white colonial cultural construct, arose; how certain academics in Europe in the 18^th to 19^th centuries sought to prove that the white man is genetically superior to all others; and therefore that Europe could not have learnt anything from the 'black' peoples of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China, the foundation civilisations; and how European scholars to India sought to demonstrate that it was the (now non-existent) 'Aryan' who had brought the learning for which India is famous.

Some pros and cons of colonialism

Contrasts the brutality of the Japanese military occupation of Malaya with colonial British rule. The latter is briefly contrasted with the treatment of black people in the USA until recently.

While highlighting the demise of colonialism, especially the destruction of viable, durable local industries, the loss of political freedom, and the racism so evident, Britain's legacy is also recognised. These are the (now universal) English language, and concepts of law and order (and some justice).

Drawing upon the extensive record of successful governance in Asian societies by their own leaders (long before that of Europe), attention is drawn to the changes made to post-independence democracy structures to reflect traditional Asian governance values based on communalism.      

Whither Goest Thou? Speculations on the Hereafter

Commencing with the advice of a clairvoyant (with an excellent track record) to his client not to be in a hurry to get to the 'Other Side,' and not to expect to meet God there, but that there would be great opportunities for learning there, the article proceeds to speculate about the transformation of physical existence on Earth to a condition of non-existence in the 'hereafter'; the nature of the latter; where humans go after death; and how the place might look. The clairvoyant had also said that it would not be that different from Earth.

Also discussed are the nature and value of psychic experiences involving the spirit world; and how the reality of the 'hereafter' might vary with one's beliefs.

Another possible determinant of human lives.    

Since, nature, nurture and chance events do not together provide an adequate explanation of what determines the life-path and life-experiences of humans, attention is turned to destiny.

This is discussed in terms of an ongoing entity, the soul; the mechanism known as reincarnation or repeated rebirth; and the law of causality, all working in concert, in conjunction with the operation of free will.  A way station or recycling depot (Heaven?) is implicit.

What is postulated is that one's current life would be influenced by the residue resulting from one's actions in one or more past lives; that, through the exercise of free will during these lives while paying off one's karmic debt, one would shape the river of life for the next life; and that in this river would be embedded the joint impact of nature, nurture and chance events of that next life.

A personal destiny — a rationale

The concept of a personal destiny, linked to free will, is introduced. The logic is that one creates the river of life-experiences and events in a future life through the way one lives in the present life. One's present life naturally reflects how one has lived in past lives. In each life one paddles as best as one can through the rocks and other impediments that one has carved out in previous lives, while exercising free will, and paying off one's karmic debts. One naturally has a choice as to how much debt is paid out, how much learning one accepts or absorbs, and what one wants to achieve in future lives.

I have naturally drawn upon my own confusing disasters in this life, while adapting what I have gleaned from the Upanishads, which both enlighten and sustain me.

Speculations on the Hereafter — some issues

As a 'wannabe' philosopher and freethinker, I speculate on a range of issues relating to our probable existence after Earthly death. Will we meet God? My clairvoyant friend said 'No.' So does Hinduism. What is the way station or recycling depot in which we will probably reside while awaiting rebirth? Is this Heaven of Home?

Then there arises the issue of our relations to one another in our ethereal forms in what must surely be an insubstantial universe or domain. How am I to access the learning promised me in my life between Earth lives?

What is the objective of all this learning or the chain of rebirths by human beings? A progressive purification of mankind? To return to that Ocean of Consciousness from which we are said to have arisen? What a wonderful complex of mysteries.

The Determinants of a life-path: some issues

Noted in the article are the following: the combined influence of nature, nurture and chance does not adequately explain a human life; there are moderately predictable patterns in outcomes both of individual and societal behaviour over history; and that unknown forces could be distributing the outcomes of human behaviour along the Bell Curve.

Yet, nature could be modified in the uterus. Strange behavioural linkages have also been observed between an individual and older relatives who are not biological parents. Unknown factors also exert inexplicable influences in some situations.

A concept of a personal destiny is postulated, drawn from Hinduism. Its implications are then touched upon.

Something from nothing — with a bang

My parents told me when I was a boy that the universe had neither beginning nor end. I contrast an ancient Hindu cosmology — that the known universe is renewed every 8.64 billion years and that the Cosmos (with its multiple universes) is renewed every 311 trillion years — with the Big Bang Theory of modern day scientists, and before that with the Stationary State Theory. Necessarily, the Hindu cosmology presented has been pared to its core, for it is exceedingly detailed and complex.

The issue is whether the Big Bang Theory and the Hindu cosmology are internally consistent. If they are, shrinkage to that dot which commenced the Big Bang, and complete periodic destruction of all that is in both our universe and the Cosmos as a whole are unavoidable.

The conundrum of religion

Beliefs and practices intended to propitiate fearsome forces as well as to obtain specified benefits, associated with self-selected shamans and their successors, the priesthoods, evolved into institutional religion. The forces were initially those of nature; later they included what people were told are gods and related entities. The creators of plausible explanations and the linked superstructures, both physical and theological, were the increasingly powerful priesthoods.

Religion has been the major cause of the destruction of the implicit bonds between humans, all of whom are believed to have been the products of a universal creator. In the name of religion, people are killed, civilisations destroyed. The greatest war of all — that between the major civilisations — is now on the horizon.

Yet, religion has uplifted mankind, offering much needed hope. The more sensitive of mankind is, however, gradually moving towards a humanistic spirituality, rejecting divisive institutional religion. Is this the way to go for mankind to earn its place in the glorious mystery of the Universe?