By Pilger, John | ZNet, Nov. 7, 2009
John Pilger’s ZSpace Page
Thank you all for coming tonight, and my thanks to the City of Sydney and especially to the Sydney Peace Foundation for awarding me the Peace Prize. It’s an honour I cherish, because it comes from where I come from.
I am a seventh generation Australian. My great-great grandfather landed not far from here, on November 8th, 1821. He wore leg irons, each weighing four pounds. His name was Francis McCarty. He was an Irishman, convicted of the crime of insurrection and “uttering unlawful oaths”. In October of the same year, an 18 year old girl called Mary Palmer stood in the dock at Middlesex Gaol and was sentenced to be transported to New South Wales for the term of her natural life. Her crime was stealing in order to live. Only the fact that she was pregnant saved her from the gallows. She was my great-great grandmother. She was sent from the ship to the Female Factory at Parramatta, a notorious prison where every third Monday, male convicts were brought for a “courting day” – a rather desperate measure of social engineering. Mary and Francis met that way and were married on October 21st, 1823.
Continues >>
Tags: Aboriginal Australia, Afghanistan war, Australia, Australia and Vietnam war, escating war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Harold Pinter, Israel, John Pilger, occupied Palestine, Rudd government, United States
This entry was posted on November 8, 2009 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Afghanistan, Commentary, Iraq, Palestine, Uncategorized, US policy, war, Zionist Israel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Peace and Justice Post
Pilger: Breaking The Great Australian Silence
By Pilger, John | ZNet, Nov. 7, 2009
John Pilger’s ZSpace Page
Thank you all for coming tonight, and my thanks to the City of Sydney and especially to the Sydney Peace Foundation for awarding me the Peace Prize. It’s an honour I cherish, because it comes from where I come from.
I am a seventh generation Australian. My great-great grandfather landed not far from here, on November 8th, 1821. He wore leg irons, each weighing four pounds. His name was Francis McCarty. He was an Irishman, convicted of the crime of insurrection and “uttering unlawful oaths”. In October of the same year, an 18 year old girl called Mary Palmer stood in the dock at Middlesex Gaol and was sentenced to be transported to New South Wales for the term of her natural life. Her crime was stealing in order to live. Only the fact that she was pregnant saved her from the gallows. She was my great-great grandmother. She was sent from the ship to the Female Factory at Parramatta, a notorious prison where every third Monday, male convicts were brought for a “courting day” – a rather desperate measure of social engineering. Mary and Francis met that way and were married on October 21st, 1823.
Continues >>
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Tags: Aboriginal Australia, Afghanistan war, Australia, Australia and Vietnam war, escating war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Harold Pinter, Israel, John Pilger, occupied Palestine, Rudd government, United States
This entry was posted on November 8, 2009 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Afghanistan, Commentary, Iraq, Palestine, Uncategorized, US policy, war, Zionist Israel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.