Rightee-o everybody, here we go. I won't rush it. Now just repeat after me ... I swear by almighty God ...' 'I swear by almight God ...' 'that I will remain faithful ...' 'that I will remain faithful ...' 'and bear true allegiance ...' 'and bear ...'
I'd become "naturalised" eighteen years before the publication of John Pilger's book "A Secret Country", and thus couldn't have benefitted from receiving a copy at the end of my naturalisation ceremony but I believe every "New Australian" should, even though it's not an 'easy' book and neither Labor nor Liberal would ever consider giving away free copies.
This is a patriotic book in the best sense, written in the belief that Australia deserves not old bromides and stereotypes, but the respect of critical appraisal. With "The Fatal Shore" by Robert Hughes, it is an essential text for anyone wishing to understand the real Australia obscured by the advertising industry's image of a nation of 'white Anglo-Saxon Crocodile Dundees with the wit of the cast of Neighbours'.
New or old Australian, here's your chance to read this provocative book for free at www.archive.org: simply SIGN UP, then LOG IN, and BORROW (go straight to "Chapter 6 - Mates - The Rise and Rise of the Silver Bodgie, Sir Peter and the Dirty Digger, Goanna and Nifty, Bondy and Others" - such as the Queensland of Sir Johannes, Russ Hinze and Sir Terence Lewis, and you won't be quite so proud to be an Australian!)
I got my second-hand copy at Vinnies and, when I came to page 350, I found a bookmark which was an unsigned handwritten note that read,
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Dad, please, please, please, don't forget to feed Zoe as soon as you get home as she will be starved by then. Give her your tea scraps and a licorice bullet for sweets. Make sure you watch her during the night and when she starts hanging around the top of the stairs she needs to do a big wees before she goes downstairs on my two pillows on the towel to go to sleep. Dad, let her have the ball for a little while when you come from work, otherwise she'll have withdrawal symptoms and could get really sick!! (Tennis withdrawal, nausea, green ball.) That's what she'll suffer from (I looked it up in the Wimbledon Champions reference book.) They say it's quite gross to see and we all know you haven't got a real strong stomach, Dad. Check her water and give her fresh water every day. Make sure she has plenty of hobbies.
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I don't know who or what Zoe is but, judging by the licorice bullet, she may not be, as first thought, a dog, and I hope that the recipient of this note - Dad - finished the book after having watered, fed and kissed her.
P.S. Other books by John Pilger:
Hidden Agendas
In the Name of Justice
Distant Voices
Heroes
The Last Day
Freedom Next Time
The New Rulers of the World and documentary
