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The Karma of Culture

by Arasa

150 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-2887; ISBN 1-4120-5079-0; US$18.00, C$21.00, EUR15.00, £10.50

A rare hard-hitting and insightful book with wide appeal. It deals with the cross-cultural impacts of a culturally diverse immigrant intake, and the potential for Asian cultural and spiritual values to influence Western thinking about democracy, human rights, and societal values. The content is compelling and the arguments convincing.

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About the Book      About the Author      Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

Appraisal

"This book provides a thoughtful and fearless approach to some important and highly topical questions. What constitutes Australia's nationhood? What is her role in Asia and in the world? How can, and should, the burgeoning economies of Asia contribute to the development of Australia, not just as foreign investors and trading partners, but in terms of cultural and spiritual values? What is the nature of democracy, and how can democratic ideals be realized in Australia and in its Asian neighbours? What is the meaning of multiculturalism in the Australian context? These questions are raised in an intelligent and thought-provoking way."

"You give us valuable insights into your own experiences as an 'outsider' in a predominantly white 'Western' environment, who has been able to become part of that environment without losing your deepest links with your own culture. And you demonstrate that the influence of Eastern philosophers to which Australia is uniquely exposed among Western countries has the potential to counteract the West's slide into materialism and the spiritual impoverishment that provides fertile soil for cultism and fundamentalism in all their forms."

"This is a hard-hitting, insightful book that will appeal to academics, public servants, students, and many members of the general public."

Synopsis

Culture is ubiquitous. Culture is all-pervasive. Many (mainly Asian) immigrants take into white host nations strongly divergent, and historically durable, cultural stances and practices. In the migrant-receiving countries of the Western world, the core issue of a conflict between a sustained attempt by such immigrants to retain their cultures and the osmotic force of equal opportunity offering an earlier and smoother integration into the values and mores of the host people bobs up and down in the seas of social policy. Cultural diversity can therefore be de-stabilising to a hitherto cohesive society. The national identity which had evolved through the merging of culturally compatible tribes and peoples can now be seen to be threatened. Whilst this book is about Australia, the issues raised have relevance for all immigrant-receiving nations.

One's culture provides the template for dealing with life. Its base is laid in childhood, through the values imposed by family and community. The cultural practices of one*s tribe reinforce these values and associated perceptions. The impacts of nurture (experience) upon nature (inheritance), as one passes through life, are filtered through this network of cultural values. A conditioned belief among some in the West that a human zygote equates to a human being, contrasting with an older Asian belief that the human soul enters a baby's body at or after birth, is reflective of divergent cultural values.

The need for immigrants to reconcile their inherited cultural values and associated practices with the predominant values and practices of their adopted nation-state can create stresses on both cultures. The issues which arise from this cross-cultural impact are those of: equal opportunity; whether a unified people can arise from a wide tribal diversity; individualism vs the collective (the family), ie whether the individual or the family unit has priority in terms of rights and responsibilities; the definition of family, and its role in society; cultural hegemony and political sovereignty in a globalising nation-state; the place of the Creator in modern life; and whether Australia's 'fair-go' social and policy ethos needs an infusion of Asian values.

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About the Author

He is a Hindu and Christian ex-Malaysian Australian, of Sri Lankan ancestry, who has participated fully (and therefore atypically) in Australian civil society (and at leadership level), for more than half a century. His work and community life have taken him across almost all levels of the Australian people, and a variety of industries and occupations. He has thereby been able to observe, most carefully, communities of immigrants and Anglo-Celt and other Australians; segments of the business and public sectors; a trade union environment; the work-shy and other welfare dependants; the asset-rich age pensioners; as well as many of those unable to offer long-term commitment in human relations, even within family. A marginal member of society is often better enabled to identify the structures and operating inter-relationships of that society and, thus, its ethos and essence.

He writes under his birth name, Arasa (which means Raja), on advice from spirit guides.

His writing is based upon a cultural viewpoint drawn from Asian values, a worrying term for those so certain of the superiority of the individual-centred, recently-coined, rights-based paradigms of the Ultra-West (all immigrant-built white nations). The core values which formed him as a Hindu in multicultural Malaya (then a nation-in-the-making) have remained with him, in spite of his successful functional integration into Australia.

He has lunched with a Governor-General at Government House, shared the head table as guest speaker with a couple of State Governors and Federal Ministers at different times of course. He has dealt officially with captains of industry and commerce, senior public officials and ethnic community leaders.

Contents

Introduction Sets the stage

Chapter 1 Be True to Thine Self Examines the imperatives of migration in terms of relative benefits, mutual obligation, and the ingredients required for successful integration. Asks whether Asian cultural values impede acceptance and equal opportunity in Australia, especially in the higher echelons of power.

Chapter 2 Unity in Diversity?

Discusses issues of cultural diversity, multicultural policy, national identity, the links between immigration policy and ethnic community relations, ethnic discrimination and the plight of the indigene. Asks whether the retention of ethnic cultural values delays the creation of a unified people within the nation-state.

Chapter 3 A Silent Slippage!

Examines the progressive deterioration of the Australian family and thus the fabric of society, in terms of the causal factors: and whether these are ever reversible. Contrasts the white Aussie family*s societal values (extolling the rights of the individual, with the State replacing the family) with those of Asian communities.

Chapter 4 Keeping the Bastards Honest

Discusses whether the promises of representative democracy, based on individualism, are matched in reality, and why western concepts of democracy might not be appropriate for Asian nations. Touches upon the quality of the almost universally distrusted Australian politician, the prevailing deficient democracy, the adequacy of official policies in a time of economic and cultural globalisation, and asks whether a dependent nation-state can protect national cultural integrity and sovereignty.

Chapter 5 Here Comes the Neighbourhood

Examines Australia's relations with, and its fear of, coloured neighbours, and the issues arising from its perceptions of these neighbours. Identifies the extent to which the search for spirituality (as distinct from religiosity) by white Australians has resulted in Asia's more mystical approach to the Creator impinging upon Australia.

Chapter 6 We Are One Presents an overview of the nation - and where it might be going.

Endorsements

Writing from the perspective of an Asian Australian, Arasa addresses some of the fundamental questions confronting human kind at the present time. The clash of collectivism and individualism is seen as an East/West issue. Here is available, perhaps for the first time, an insightful 'take' on Australian society written by an ''nsider' who, paradoxically, is an 'outsider' as well, enormously interesting and not uncontroversial." - John Western, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Queensland, Qld.

"Ratnam's book is a wake-up call for a more independent national policy on immigration and multicultural policy. Coming from a well-informed former migrant, who has embraced this country as his own, his message has particular value. Impressed with the depth of (his) analysis." - Professor Bob Birrell, Director, Centre for Population & Urban Research, Monash University, Vic.

This is a book that every Australian should read. It provides a unique insight into the society and culture of contemporary Australia from someone who has been both an insider and an outsider in Australia. It has a refreshing honesty in an age in which 'spin' and euphemism too often combine to hide the true nature of things. You may not always agree with what the book says but you will be compelled to sit up and think more deeply about our contemporary world .

"I think that the book has that element of honesty and insight that much of what is currently published does not. I hope that it will be read widely." - Associate Professor Greg Melleuish, Head, School of History and Politics, Wollongong University, NSW.

DONATION

The net proceeds from the sale of the book by Trafford Publishing will be donated to an established Australian charity.

More About the Author

Previous writing by the author

The following are extracts from reviews of the author's previous book "Destiny Will Out":

• Emeritus Professor Sociology Jerzy Zubrzycki: "The author is well qualified to comment on burning issues of ethnicity, tribalism and cultural hegemomy."
• Associate Professor Greg Melleuish (History and Politics): " honest, insightful, and marked by a genuine perception of the workings of Australian culture and society." "provides an intelligent and spiritually perceptive man*s views and reflections on how Australia has changed over the past 40 years ."
• Jason Soon (in 'Policy', for the Centre for Independent Studies): "authentic testament of the migrant experience in the midst of the White Australia Policy.*; "interspersed with charming homilies and thoughtful commentary about Australian society and its reaction to the substantial contact with people of non-European origins."
• Dr. John Atchison (Classics, History and Religion): "A rare blend of experience, reflection, and strong judgements, grounded in keen insights."
• Probus News: "Totally fascinating and thoroughly recommended."
• Robert Purves (Barrister-at-law, UK and Australia): "Full marks for the penetration and perspicacity or your observations, the lucidity of your English, and the wealth of detail."
• C. Rajadurai (Retired University Bursar, Malaysia): "I enjoyed your language, particularly your humour and quotes."
• Philippa Cairns (ESOL Co-ordinator, New Zealand): "his experiences of emigration to Australia and subsequent struggles to understand and come to terms with the culture are where he affords insight and sympathy with the new immigrant's plight."
• Prof R Birrell, (Population &Urban Research): "a valuable book."
• Dr. Katharine Betts (in 'People & Place' for the Centre for population & Urban Research) "Arasa has some pungent insider's comments."
• Noel Purves, Retired school principal: "thoroughly enjoyed it. It is well written, informative and slyly witty."

Arasa's next book is Hidden Footprints of Unity, to be published by Sid Harta Publishers of Melbourne. ISBN: 1-921030-29-1 (Refer www.sidharta.com.au) It is essentially a memoir, focusing upon his vision of the inter-connectedness of mankind, and offering a glimpse of the diverse approaches taken by fellow Australians to find God, and to peer into the Void of the future.

A professional appraisal said this:

"What a beautiful mind! Hidden Footprints of Unity is a substantial work from an intelligent and spiritually perceptive man. Arasa has skillfully navigated his way through a vast array of subjects: the 'strange sensitivity to skin colour by most adult whites, the search for the Divine, the desire by some to peer into the Void, the issues of a divisive tribalism and the imperatives of an evolving new Australian national identity'. He has produced an eminently readable memoir, uplifting, provocative, and well written. He writes with a light touch on complex issues. His use of pertinent, often amusing, quotes adds a further dimension to his vision of the inter-connectedness of mankind."

"Arasa's ideal is the Aussie family of man, evolving from the recently achieved cultural diversity. There are signs (footprints) that exist, but we must seek in order to find them. This memoir by an Asian immigrant reflects half a century of observation and analysis during an intensively interactive life in a fast-changing Australia."

It has been endorsed to date as follows:

Chapter 4 "Which Way to the Cosmos?'

"I find the concepts in Hidden Footprints of Unity most appealing, coming as they do from an agile mind which has managed to embrace cultures usually seen as competitive, or even enemies. This book should prove a precious contribution to mutual understanding." James Murray, SSC, recently retired Religious Affairs Editor, The Australian

Chapter 5 'Peering into the Void' "As for your writing, it takes us out of our norms, our comfort zones, and reminds the reader that what we assume is objective historical reality is often mere permeable ideology, an arbitrary sense of order imposed upon the flux of life." Paul Sheehan, Columnist, 'Sydney Morning Herald' and renowned author

Chapter 2 "The power of pigmentation" "The value of Chapter 2 lies in its use of personal experience of living in Australia. One is struck by the author's sincerity and, at times, tolerance in recounting the lack of magnanimity at the hands of colleagues and acquaintances." Jerzy Zubrzycki, Emeritus Professor Sociology, ANU.

Chapter 6: ?No question is more likely to provoke a quarrel between friends than some aspect of population policy. Are there too many Australians? Are the ones we have the right kind? Raja Ratnam is doubly privileged to reflect on such matters. He was a Malayan Hindu arrival when White Australia prevailed. By the 1980s, he was a senior public servant dealing with high policy.

His comments strike me as contrary and contradictory. He can be as anachronistic in his portrayal of Aussie customs as he is penetrating in his glimpses into how all Australians have managed the personal strains of living in a new place with even newer-comers. He is at his most perplexing when retelling his professional involvement with immigration policies. No one will read through this chapter without crying out ?Too right? before having to stop themselves slamming the book shut with a shout of ?What rot?.

Yet his retrospect and his prognosis are conveyed in a congenial voice, one that should contribute more to the sense of communal responsibility that he champions. Meanwhile, his neo-Liberalism seems set to demolish what Australia retains of these values.?

- Humphrey McQueen, historian and renowned author

'The Slippery Slope' is Arasa's next book. It is about the deterioration of the family in Australia and the diminution of commitment within family. It has already received the following endorsement:

"what I liked about the style of writing is its unpredictability. The author cannot be read as belonging to any particular intellectual 'tribe'. Overall, it is very stimulating and different to other pieces of social commentary written in this country. That is its real strength."

"in many ways, it is an immigrant addition to that style of social commentary practiced by Conway and Horne. but the author*s 'outsider' status gives him the insights that they lack."

-Assoc. Prof. Gregory Melleuish, Head, School of History & Politics University of Wollongong, NSW

Please visit Arasa's personal website http://home.iprimus.com.au/topsy12.

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Excerpts

Introduction . The Trauma of Transplantation

He thought he saw an Elephant That practised on a fife: He looked again, and found it was A letter from his wife. ?At length I realize?; he said, ?The bitterness of life!?

- Lewis Carroll

Near the end of my life, I feel compelled to make sense of the totality of my experiences. This, I believe, is not unusual for those of us who have sought meaning in the events and outcomes of daily existence. We ask if there is an identifiable pattern for each of us in the tides of Life, Destiny or Karma; or in God?s Will.

My government is, of course, in no position to reject demands placed upon it by its military mentor and much sought after saviour, and by those whose continuing capital injections are vital for my nation-state to survive. We have never been independent financially and ideationally. Militarily, we act freely, but on a wink and a nod. Our relations with other nations are, in essence, effectively determined by the USA. Our Middle East policy is an example. Our enemies are defined for us too. So, we are at risk of being involved in yet another clash of cultures, but a more dangerous one now. In the meanwhile, we hunt suspected terrorists. We do this without respect for those human rights which we normally attempt to shove down the necks of Asian nations.

Chapter 2 Unity In Diversity

She tried to found a salon but only succeeded in opening a restaurant

- Oscar Wilde

My relatives and friends, whether living in South East Asia, the USA, Britain, or Australia, speak a lot of English at home and in their ethnic community relations. Some have given away the Hindu religious taboo against beef. Some ignore the social taboo against pork. Yet, in almost every way, their life in their countries of residence is governed by their social customs and cultural traditions.

Ultimately it is a matter of pride. It is pride that most sustains a culture transferred by migration into new lands. Other culture-retention causes are a sense of identity ( who am I?) and psychological security (to whom do I belong?). Except for the natural loners of the world, social alienation can be destroying. It is therefore good to know that others of one?s people are available to assist or merely to provide psychic and social support. Then there is simple prejudice, based on a sense of superiority or simple difference, reflecting a ?them and us? dichotomy.

Chapter 3 A Silent Slippage

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.

- Edmund Burke

Anyone brought up surrounded by what is known as Asian values, in that escalating culture war between East and West, will be quietly despondent about the deterioration in Australian families. What are the changes which have emerged, like a slowly rising volcano from the deep seas of a violently disrupted ocean? When and how did these changes come about? What impacts of these changes are manifest, and what are their consequences?..

Before world war two, some young Asians who had married white women whilst in the West, had been accused by their new white relatives of ?going native? on their return home. Going native refers to the Asian essentially fitting back into the traditions governing relationships within the family, the food eaten, the clothes worn, and such like. So, when white wifey says to Asian hubby, when they are in his parents? home, ?Darling, get me a drink, please?, all hell breaks loose if the guy gets up (as he might have done in wifey?s home overseas) to get that drink. That she should even make such a request confirms the Asian parents? perception (through their exposure to expatriate colonials) that whites are essentially uncouth, and affirms the unsuitability of the white wife.

Any effort by young adults to re-invent the wheel would lead to the accumulated knowledge, and some wisdom, and a lot of practical cunning of the older generation, to be wasted. The logic of traditional roles and responsibilities cannot even be transmitted, much less explained. It is already said that mankind is on the road to repeating the mistakes of its grandparents, because the intermediate generation is ?up itself? about its vast new wisdom and infallibility. But I demur. I think that it is only that the young bull (and cow), having challenged the old bull (and old cow) with new perspectives, forgot to take full responsibility for ensuring that the paddock is in good shape for the next season.

Chapter 4 Keeping The Bastards Honest

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others

-George Orwell

A colonial subject dreams of the day when the hated, arrogant, oppressor has gone. His people will be free to rule themselves. But, before his reluctant departure, the coloniser sets up a new form of government. In doing so, he is quite certain that the people are not yet ready to govern themselves. Has he not been preparing them for that great day when they are able to rule themselves in an acceptable manner? (I was told that this was taught to children in British schools.)

A clever Aussie cartoonist (that breed of insightful political commentators) recently claimed (more in relation to politicians at the national level) that ?these days we have second-rate spivs, second-rate charlatans, grandstanders and dilettantes?, who meet the basic requirement of being polished liars. In saying this, he cites the bent codes of parliamentary conduct and broken promises by governments (the non-core ones, of course). I demur - he is a little harsh.

Relevantly, the debate about a republic brought out those who believe that Parliament should appoint the head of state, with the prime minister having the right to get rid of him. How much more despotic might one want to be?. Fortunately for future generations, the majority of the people did not trust their elected representatives enough to accept that view. We want the right to elect our own head of state. We might also want our head of state to be able to get rid of his (or her) prime minister in specified circumstances, in the national interest!

Chapter 5 Here Comes The Neighbourhood

Her frocks are built in Paris, but she wears them with an English accent

- Saki

Under the Pacific Rim Strategy (the successor to Japan's failed wartime Co-prosperity Sphere which, as a resident of Japanese-occupied Malaya, I was happy to see fail), Australia was to supply minerals, energy and foodstuffs to a region dominated by the U.S.A. and Japan. More recently, a writer suggested that Australia's attractions to the super-rich Asians were only beautiful beaches, casinos and good oysters! What about our women, I challenge.

Is it surprising therefore, that, progressively, there will be support for Prof. Klugman (who advised Malaysia), Camdessus (the former head of the IMF) and Soros (who demonstrated how one brings down a major currency) in their advocacy of constraints to financial market conduct, in the interests of the non financial sectors of an economy. ?Market forces? have been one of the mythical constructs of economics (the science of forecasting the past, because few economists can even agree on what is likely to happen in the future, or the policies required to achieve specified outcomes). The concept achieved a mystical status when powerful corporations and other institutions of the capital market realised their capacity to dominate or manipulate an amorphous and unorganised arena of commercial intercourse, through a claimed homage to these allegedly untouchable forces. Comparable mystical status applies to priesthoods intervening between man and his Creator, and to political parties intervening between citizen-voters and their governments in Western democracies. The reason for the constraints sought on financial market conduct or operators is the welfare of ordinary human beings. We have enough trouble coping with the priapic conduct of nature gods, the erratic impacts of planetary gods, the irascibility of more intangible tribal gods, the relative incomprehensibility of (and the apparent competition between) the gods of the major religions, faiths and sects, and the unknowability of the more mystical cosmic god of all mankind.

Chapter 6 We are one

?The whistle shrilled and, in a moment, I was chugging out of Grand Central?s dreaming spires, followed only by the anguished cries of relatives who would have to go to work. I had chugged only a few feet when I realized that I had left without the train, so I had to run back and wait for it to start.?

- S.J.Perelman

Racism is, of course, a mental illness, manifest in response to an intolerable situation. Its origins lie in a schizophrenic belief in the inherent superiority of one?s kind. Having one's public spaces filled by previously unacceptable foreigners is bad enough. Now the ?white race? is being challenged by the Australian blackfellow wanting to sail his own boat. And coloured foreigners are also chanting, ?What about me?? whenever opportunities occur on the ladder of personal progress. (Where will it all end?) However, in the light of the after-image of the savage display of white colonial brutality, I do wonder if the Aussie indigene will ever be able to say ?I have a dream?.

More emphasis on mutual obligation in marriage, including the obligation, first to the children, and then to the extended family and to society, is absolutely essential. Marriage should be recognised as between a man and a woman, with the objective of producing children, who will be guided and shaped by the parents into responsible citizens. We should remember Kahlil Gibran?s wisdom about our children belonging to Life. They are not the property of individuals, or of any twosome who have chosen to co-habit. They are the carriers of essential nutrients, in the form of moral values and appropriate conduct, for the sake of the societies of the future..

Nirvana cannot be found on earth. And life will continue to be a conundrum, with Destiny playing its unpredictable part. In our search for meaning in the Cosmos, we should be free to follow our own paths, for the way to the Celestial Abode above is manifold.

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Catalogue Information

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