Australia and Asia – reading between the lines

Bad Language and National Cohesion

Older native-born Australians frequently muse over how this country has changed, most thinking for the better and some for the worse. What is rarely in dispute is the centrality of our values, standards and core institutions. Yet something that is widely overlooked by Australians of all ages is the importance of language as a bonding agent that keeps a community together.

For a language to fulfil its true role precision is essential – otherwise nuance, wit, praise and criticism can go undetected, with the national tongue reduced to gibberish that we spray each other with every day. The more diverse our community, the more significant accuracy becomes.

The myth of a failed Japan

Whiff of Success: The Intriguing Tale of Sandalwood

Keeping Japanese Whaling in Context

Japan’s continued whaling may be more influenced by national politics than tastes.

Recently, in Tokyo, a group of Australian business people sat down to dinner with their Japanese counterparts. Somehow the topic of whaling arose and the visitors asked how many Japanese regularly ate whale meat.

The answer was, very few. Of the Japanese present, half had tried it once, largely out of curiosity, and the others, never. By any measure, it was not a significant part of the Japanese diet. As a consequence, the Japanese pointed out, it was well and truly time that their country put an end to whaling, though that was unlikely to happen any time soon as a result of Australia taking Japan to an international court over the matter.

The consensus was that this would simply make the Japanese industry more intransigent and delay a decision that should have been made years ago.

Australia’s enmeshment with Asia: The unseen evolution

The Australian, on January 15, ran a one-page feature article by Rowan Callick called “Dysfunctional diplomacy”. A balanced piece of journalism, it looked at where this country stands in the international community and at turbulence in its relations with major nations like China, India and Japan. Early on in his article, Callick highlighted the fact that,

“The government has focused its diplomacy on three multilateral goals: gaining election to the UN Security Council, an ambition that colours Australia’s approach to other foreign policy issues; nuclear disarmament; and creating a new Asia-Pacific community. All these aims remain distant.”

Australia losing perspective on Asia

Statements like the following from a former Treasury official hardly inspire confidence in Australia’s capacity to stay on top of the Asia game:

No Need for Protocols: Main Game is Voluntary Cooperation

When a controversy blew up last week about The Australian’s reporting of Somali raids in Melbourne, the government immediately suggested it might introduce tough new protocols to control the media.

It was a silly reaction because the newspaper had been more than cooperative. The government should have sought to build on a positive, rather than respond to it with a negative. And anyway, the failure rested with the AFP, not the newspaper.

Facing Up to the Reality of China

When the Stern Hu case in Shanghai broke in the Australian media a fortnight ago, outrage was understandably widespread. For most Asia hands, though, who had been involved with the region for any length of time, the biggest surprise was not so much what China had done. Rather, it was the shock that Australians felt that anything like this could happen.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of this case and the way it is being handled, two vastly different systems are at work here. Australia’s is based on democratic principles of justice and fairness, while China’s places less emphasis on the rights of the individual and more on protecting the national interest – however that is interpreted and by whatever means are deemed necessary. Neither side understands the other fully. But China is huge and important, and clearly isn’t going to be led by the nose to our way of thinking.

China’s quest for resources

When it comes to undertanding our resource exports, Australia has a patchy perspective.

Banner headlines like ‘China’s bid for nuclear supplies: Australian uranium sought’ (The Sydney Morning Herald, April 22) attract a lot of attention these days.

Most Australians react positively, recognising the benefits for our national accounts at a time of global economic stress. Understandably, the issue of Chinese ownership of key resource deposits is raised in the next breath. Nothing wrong with that, though it’s usually to the exclusion of reporting and debate on the broader China picture. Regardless of what we sell to that country, there’s much more to what China’s doing than just our relationship with it.

Australia’s Asian Neighbours

To keep the economic crisis in perspective, we need to look beyond the stereotypes in getting to know our neighbours.

In recent years, Australians have been dazzled by China’s high economic growth rate and the riches it has bestowed upon us. Many hoped, even assumed, that the good times would keep rolling on. Chinese industry would continue to consume huge quantities of our resources and in return send back two things: loads of cash and an ever-expanding range of reasonably priced goods, from electronics to clothing. Most Australians give little thought to what was happening inside Chinese society, behind the economic façade. The Beijing Olympics provided a respite of sorts, but it was as brief as it was spectacular and was then quickly overshadowed by the global financial crisis.

Seeing Beyond the Words in Language

No matter how widely and deeply the English language empire spreads, foreign language study will always be essential to Australia’s destiny, as much for that disposition as for the ability to communicate.

The Australian‘s Higher Education Supplement ran an article on January 21 by Luke Slattery ("Let’s get more competitive"), which looked at warnings by Glyn Davis, vice-chancellor of Melbourne University, that the market for education never stands still.

‘To the extent that he sees a continued role for tuition in English, the world’s lingua franca,’ Slattery wrote, ‘Davis is optimistic about Australia’s role in the export education industry. But he is wary about competitive pressure.’

No quibbles with that. But ponder Slattery’s own view that followed.