How Does Colonialism Continue to Express Itself in Contemporary Australia?
Colonialism is the belief in and advocacy for the control of one country by another. Despite the fact that Australia gained independence in 1901 from the British, there still exists some form of modern colonialism in the country. The various forms of modern day colonialism in Australia include: misuse of power by leaders, forced labor and low wages, racism, failure to get legal justice, land grabbing among, others. The effects of modern day colonialism in Australia are: increased suffering amongst its citizens especially those who feel that their human rights are being violated, disunity among citizens from different ethnic communities and lower living standards. The various forms of modern day colonialism in Australia and their effects to its citizens are discussed below.
Racism
Racism is discrimination against an individual from a different ethnic group based on the fact that the other person’s ethnicity is superior. It is believed that one out of five Australians has encountered racism as per the survey conducted by the SBS in Western Sydney University (Mosiqi, 2017). According to the survey, 31.6% of the people who took part in the survey had negative sentiments on the Australian Muslims, some claimed that they will be skeptical if one of their relatives was to get married to a Muslim. There were also negative attitudes towards the Aboriginal and Middle-Eastern Australians. 41.1% of the respondents felt that Australia is partly weakened by people from different races sticking to their traditions, they feel like it makes them hard to embrace and relate with people from other ethnic groups. 20.5% of the respondents claim that African Refugees have led to increased crime rates in Australia with some discouraging taking in refugees.
Australia has developed a tendency of denying racism discrimination yet speaking up can reduce racism. The effects of racism are felt by the affected people who get discriminated in the employment and housing sector. People from other ethnic groups such as indigenous, Middle- Eastern, Muslim, Chinese and Italian persons find it hectic in finding jobs and good housing. They have to apply severally as opposed to being an Australian citizen, this has led to poor living standards amongst the affected people. It has increased their chances of contracting high blood pressure, heart diseases, increased depression, low birth rates and increased levels of anxiety.
Colonialism
Colonialism is the control of a country by another while exploiting their resources. Colonialism can be expressed in form of land grabbing, which can occur within Australia or in other countries. There are claims of Australian private organizations being part of land grabbing in poor countries. Grabbing of agricultural land is done by private organizations who claim to have an interest in securing food supplies. This has led to eviction of landholders who have weak tenure rights leaving them with no place to stay.
A report by Oxfam shows that four prominent banks in Australia have invested in land grabbed from locals worldwide (Duncan, 2014). The increase in land grabbing is due to the escalating food prices globally. It is believed that there are more than 900 land grabbing global cases since the year 2000 from countries such as Asia, Indonesia and new guinea. There is an existence of a 19-year-old relationship between Westpac Australian bank and a Malaysian logging company. The company’s role was to foster palm oil development in the Turubu community but ended up carrying out illegal logging of an indigenous forest, there were claims of environmental damage, violence and sexual harassment.
The involved Australian banks have failed to adhere to their own policies and conduct aiding in practices that infringe human rights by investing in such businesses. Capitalism has led to global practices that are ruthless and affect others negatively. Private corporations and prominent banks in Australia have used their power and wealth to evade measures that curb such actions.
Power
Power is a vital element in ensuring that a country runs smoothly and experiences economic growth. Power tends to be misused by some leaders governing the country who put their selfish needs first, leading to modern day colonialism. Misuse and abuse of power has led to misuse of the country’s resources to benefit few individuals (Kaye, 2017). Misuse of public funds that could have been used for development for politician’s personal expenses such as conducting political campaigns is modern colonialism at its best. Politicians use their power to reform laws that will benefit their own needs, Kevin Andrews whose was a social security minister at one point tried to repeal gambling reform laws. Phil Cleary wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald in September 2015 that:
“Regrettably, so rife is partisanship and cronyism in public life that the system’s capacity to produce independent, objective thought on inquiries into corruption or malpractice it terminally compromised. How can the community have confidence in the findings of bodies such as royal commissions where those heading such inquiries are political appointees? This truth is brought into stark relief every time a new government is elected and the public is cleansed of political adversaries and heads of statutory bodies who were appointed by the previous government are hounded into submission.”
Public funds are misused and the minority have no voice when it comes to such matters because those in power have control over public funds, which they misuse or create laws that favors them in with regards to public funds.
Modern Day Slavery
Slavery in modern times doesn’t have to be someone being chained but rather it is the psychological form of slavery. An example of modern day slavery is forced labor and human trafficking. Individuals from poor countries such as Asia either travel to Australia to find jobs or are tricked by conmen who claim they have job opportunities that pay well. The immigrants are then employed under poor working and living conditions. They are also underpaid and forced to work for long hours with insufficient sleep, are denied of adequate health care and healthy meals. The employers go to an extent of confiscating their passports or making some of them work under debts and threats to their families, such that they have no way of escaping and have no choice but to endure the harsh conditions.
Another form of modern day slavery in Australia is in children orphanages known as orphanage tourism. Some orphanages purport as voluntarist’s who desire to do good yet they are medium for child trafficking (Linda, 2017). The children in the orphanages are not registered with the state hence do not receive education while the orphanages receive donations which is meant to support the children. A number of Australian companies’ have slavery in their supply chain but are unaware of it. This leads to violation of basic human rights and increased suffering for such people who have no means of escaping their tribulations.
Cultural Imperialism and Hegemony
Cultural imperialism is the means by which a few cultural products attain dominance in a foreign country with foreign culture, this is normally associated with political ties or economic power (Trevor, 2014). Some think that projects started by Australia in some underdeveloped countries are free. That is not the case because there are some rules and policies that have to be adhered to. This might include embracing their culture partially such that some buildings are named after them and signed agreements that will see products from Australia used either in the building or running of the projects.
Cultural hegemony is a way of promoting a certain culture over another so that the developed countries views become norm. Most immigrant to Australia are left with no choice other than to ape the Australian Culture so as to fit in. It is seldom to see immigrants settling in Australia and practicing their culture due to fear of being viewed differently by others, whose view the Australian culture as superior.
Conclusion
The government should enact measures that will curb land grabbing by private organizations in Australia because they lead to environmental degeneration which is a global crisis and displacement of local people violating their right to have shelter. Destruction of forest so as to acquire land leads to extinction of indigenous species which is vital to ecologists for research purposes as indicated by Libby Robin (Sheila, 2008):
“The cumulative work of Australian ecologists, plant and animal alike, focused predominantly on the development of non-indigenous food species. Acclimatization and the development of improved varieties of imported species along with pest, pathogen and weed eradication, were the sciences that were perceived as serving ‘national needs.’ Indigenous flora and fauna had rarely been the subject of study and the lack of ground work in that sort of biology made respectably quantified ecological work even more difficult.”
Modern slavery act should be adhered to strictly by companies who should aim at knowing their supply chain well in order to avoid participating in modern day slavery. The government should also form organization that deal with modern slavery and prosecute individuals who practice the act.
The government should enact laws that prevent the misuse of state powers and prosecute politicians who do so. Public funds should also be utilized well for the good and development of the country and not the selfish needs of some politicians.
References
Duncan, R., 2014. Australia's banks grabbing land form world's poor. [Online]
Available at: https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/australias-banks-grabbing-land-worlds-poor
[Accessed 21 May 2018].
Kaye, L., 2017. The serial misuse and abuse of state power. [Online]
Available at: https://www.google.com/amp/s/theaimn.com/serial-misuse-abuse-state-power/amp/
[Accessed 21 May 2018].
Linda, R., 2017. Modern Slavery In Australia Is Hiding IN Plain Sight: Just no longer in physical chains, but psychological ones. [Online]
Available at: https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffingtonpost.com.au/amp/linda-reynolds/modern-slavery-in-australia-is-hiding-in-plain-sight_a_22114200/
[Accessed 22 May 2018].
Mosiqi, A., 2017. Is Australia racist? Here are the 10 stunning stats. [Online]
Available at: https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/hindi/en/article/2017/02/27/australia-racist-here-are-10-stunning-stats
[Accessed 21 May 2018].
Sheila, C.-W., 2008. Ways of seeing 'country': colonial, postcolonial and indigineos perception of the Australian landscape. Volume 35, pp. 68-70.
Trevor, M., 2014. Neo-colonialism in the modern age. [Online]
Available at: medium.com/@trevormolag/neo-colonialism-in-the-modern-age-39138aaf2d82
[Accessed 22 May 2018].
