permaculture

[Fiona Campbell <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

On Friday, June 6, 2003, at 09:59  AM, Toby Hemenway wrote:
> BTW, I plead guilty to the charge of living in a self-centered nation. 
> Much of what goes on outside the US has no effect that the average 
> American can feel, and is not reported in our news (the average 
> person's source of info).  We're also about the only major power 
> that's a couple thousand miles from any other, so international events 
> reach us only with great muffling. (That's why Europeans are so damn 
> savvy, all those jostling countries!) And the near-constant warring in 
> much of Europe from 1870-1945 only encouraged our isolation--the 
> majority of Americans wanted no part of it, and still don't..

I think you might be referring to my earlier email Toby. It was not 
intended to be insulting to Americans, nor was it my comment 
originally, I simply used it to make a point I was writing about.

 As for living in a self-centered nation, well, Australia could 
certainly be described that way too. What you say about US residents 
being unaffected by outside events likewise could apply to Australia as 
we have been geographically isolated, even from our Asian/Pacific 
neighbours, until the arrival of mass air travel. Our isolation from 
the world ended in the Second World War when the Japanese bombed 
Darwin, our northernmost capital, and was reinforced just recently with 
the bombings of Australians and others in Bali, Indonesia.

> Our isolationism is also a testimony to how stable the US is. Most 
> citizens feel safe enough to ignore everything, even domestic 
> politics, that doesn't bump them in the nose. Foolish, but 
> understandable

Similarly here, though Australia has become more world-aware these past 
20 years thanks to people having enough affluence to travel overseas 
and to the country's need for trade to bolster its economy.

...Russ Grayson
Sydney, Australia