Transcript Australia - iWeb Academy

Australia
Part One The Land and the
People of the Dreaming
I. The Land
1. The natural environment of
Australia
• The continent of Australia lies
between equatorial South East Asia
and the Antarctic. It is the largest
island in the world, and is also the
smallest, flattest and driest
continent in the world.
2. The distinctive features of the
land: the Great Dividing Range
and the Great Barrier Reef.
3. The distivctive animals of the
land: the platypus(鸭嘴兽), the
kangaroo, the koala, the
wombat(毛鼻袋熊)
II. The Peoples
1. The Peoples of the Dreaming belong
to over 500 different groups or
nations with different languages
and cultures but they were bound
together by their belief in the
Dreaming.
2. The “Dreamtime” is most often used
to refer to the “time before time”, or
“the time of the creation of all
things”, while “Dreaming” refers to an
individual’s or group’s set of beliefs
or spirituality.
3. It is based on the central principle
that people who live on the
continent have special
responsibilities to the land --- that
the land owns them and that they
hold it in trust as the home of their
creator.
III. The Impact of
Colonization
1. The concept of Terra Nullius: the
term is from Latin, which means a
land that is owned by no one. The
British declared the Australian
continent Terra Nullius to justify
their invasion of the indigenous
people’s land
2.The impact of colonization on
the indigenous people
• the indigenous people were
dispossessed of the land they
had lived on for tens of
thousands of years;
• they were killed in violent
skirmishes and massacres;
• they contracted the diseases
brought by the white settlers
and as a result, their population
fell drastically.
IV. The policies of
segregation, exclusion
and assimilation
1. By the mid-1800s the
government of violence changed
to policies of segregation and
exclusion.
2. By the beginning of the 20th
century the policy of protection
had been replaced by the policy
of assimilation.
• It was founded on the belief
that the white culture was
progressive and superior while
the indigenous culture was
inferior.
3. The double loss of traditional
culture and exclusion from
mainstream Australian society and
culture led to Aboriginal people
being labelled as lazy, stupid and
drunken and dirty.
Part Two Religion in
Australia Today
I. The Dreaming:
The Dreaming means that people
do not own the land – the land
owns the people who have
responsibilities of guardianship
towards it.
• However, Australia still can be seen
as a religious society, as over three
quarters of the Australian population
is associated with some form of
religion.
Part Three From Penal
Colony to “Free Migration”
I. The beginning of the penal
colony
1. The first period of the
colonization of Australia, lasting
from 1788 to the 1830s, was
based largely on the “unfree”
labor of the convicts.
• New South Wales, Tasmania and
Queensland were established as
convict colonies; Victoria and South
Australia, established in 1830s, were
settled as “free”, or non-convict,
colonies.
•
Western Australia, established
in 1828 as a free colony, turned
to convict labor in 1850 and
become a convict colony for 19
years until 1869.
• Convict partnerships were not the
only form of family of this era. There
were also “free” families of people
who came over with the transported
convicts, families of soldiers or
administrators of the colony or
people who arrived as “free settlers”.
II. From convict transportation to
“free”migration
1. By the early 1820s there was
pressure from the majority of the
“free’ settlers in NSW to replace
convict transportation with “free
migration” and to establish a “free
market” economy.
2. The 1930s and 1840s formed
the early years of the modern
(non-convict) system of the
Australian Political Economy.
3. Wakefield Scheme:
• It was devised by Edward
Wakefield, a convict and theorist
on colonization, to solve the
problem of labor shortage in
colonial Australia
• His proposal on the development
of colonial Australia was that
land should not be freely and
cheaply available.
• It should be sold at suffient
price to ensure that only men of
capital could afford it. The
money earned from selling land
should be used to assist selected
migrants to Australia.
Part Four Australia as a Liberal
Democratic Society
I. Difference as the central
value of the Australian society
• Ausrtalians understand and conduct
life upon a basic commitment to
difference. The emphasis is upon the
principle that there are different
ways if thinking and knowing about
the world: there is neither absolute
truth nor one single way to run the
country.
• The end
II. The formation of Australian
political system
1. The “Washminster”form of
polity:
• It is a mixture of the U S.
Washington system of government
and the British Westminster system.
This means that the political
structure of the government is based
on a Federation of State with a three
tier system of government.
2. The three-tier system of the
Australian government
• The Australian federation has three
tiers in its government system: at
the federal level, there are the
Australian Parliamant and the
government.
• In the second tier are the state
governments and their
legislatures. In the third tier are
the local government bodies at
the city, town and shire levels.
3. The advantages of the pluralist
form of government
1) It enables the citizens to
exercise their political right to
choose their own government;
2) It secures transparency and
accountability of the government;
3) It provides for an alternative
government which can competently
take over the state affairs should
any government collapase;
4) The citizens can exert their
power through major interest
groups.
4. The Constitutional Crisis of
1975
• It was caused by the dismissal of
the Whitlam government by the
Governor-General, which was
elected by people.
• When the Senate refused to
pass the Supply Bill granting
money for the operation of the
government, Sir John Kerr, the
Governor- General dismissed the
Whitlam government.
• This dismissal was generally
interpreted as a flouting of the
uncodified conventions of
government and caused political
and popular animosity.
5.Whistle-blowers: they are often
experts in both senior and lower
levels of bureaucracies. They
discover in their branch of the
organization some problems of
corruption and inefficiency and try to
expose them.
6.The relations between Ministers
and Heads of Department:
• Theoretically speaking, the public
servants should be under the
authority of the elected
ministers
• The Minister is responsible for
making policies, and the Head of
Department is responsible for
implementing the policies.
• As the Head of Department tends to
be an expert specialist who has been
working in the area for a long time,
the minister is often in danger of
being influenced by the adminstrative
expertise of the Head of
Department.
7. Reasons for the increase of the
government role in Australian
political economy before 1980s:
1) the expansion of education,
health and social welfare
services;
2) the introduction of social
security programmes;
3) the increase in government
regulations of business and
finance and the supply of labor;
4) the intriduction of a more
complex system of justice and
law and order.
8. Political economic changes in the
shift to economic rationalism
1) financial regulations; 2) the
privatization and corporationization
of public service; 3) the end of
centralized wage fixing system; 4)
cuts in the size of the public sector
and the sale of public assets.
Part Five From Racism
to Multiculturalism
I. Ethnicity and inequality
1. In mid-19th century migrants
were predominantly British, and
those who benefited from
assisted migration were almost
all from Britain.
2. By the 1870s, the Chinese
constituted the third largest group in
Australia, after the Britsh (including
the Irish) and Germans. Chinese
migrants were subjected to racism at
many levels. (target of physical
attacks)
3. Pacific Islanders experienced a
differnet history of racism in
Australia. They were kidnapped by
the “Blackbirders” and sold as
indentured laborers to work in the
sugar industry.
• The Pacific Island Laborers Act
of 1901 was part of instituional
discrimination – the White
Australia Policy.
4.The White Australia Policy: it was
officially adopted by the
Commonwealth of Ausrtalia in 1901, in
the Immigration Restriction Act. It
was made to stop Chinese and other
non-British migrants from entering
and settling down in Australia.
• This was mainly achieved through
a dictation test in a European
language. The White Australia
Policy was officially abolished in
1973.
II. Multiculturalism from
1973
1. It was adopted in 1973. It was
comprised of three areas of
policy: Cultural Identity, which
means the right to express and
share one’s cultural heritage;
• Social Justice, thr right to equal
treatment and opportunites; and
Economic Efficiency, the need to
maintain and develop the skills of all
Australians regardless of their
backgrounds.
2. Freedom Rides
• In the mid-1960s, an aboriginal
university student led a group of
white university students to the
outback of Australia to demonstrate
against racial segregation.
• Their activities helped to raise
the public awareness of racism
and segregation in Ausralian
society, and demonstrated the
need for social change.
New Zealand
Part One Land, People and
History
I. Land
1. Situated in the southwest Pacific
Ocean, New Zealand is a large, long
group of island, which is made up of
two main land masses, the North
Island and the South Island,
separated by Cook Strait.
2. New Zealand is in the southern
temperate latitudes midway between
the Equator and the South Pole. The
capital city, Wellington, is the
southernmost and windiest national
capital city in the world. The climate
is maritime.
3.The North Island
• It is one of the three parts of New
Zealand. It is famous for spectacular
volcanos and the thermal region.
About three-quarters of New
Zealand’s population live on the
North Island.
II. People
1. The Kiwi
• The Kiwi is the name of one of the
native birds in New Zealand. It is
flightless. In colloquial English the
Kiwi, capitalized, is also used to refer
to a New Zealander.
2. The Resource Management Act
• It reflects New Zealanders’
environmental awareness. Under the
Act, law governing land, air and water
resources are combined together to
ensure the sustainable management
of natural resources.
• It focuses on the effects of
human activities on the whole
environment as well. The Act
came into force in 1991. With it,
New Zealand leads the world in
environmental legislation.
3. Maoritanga
• It is a the Maori word for “Maori
culture”. It refers to all the elements
of the rich cultural heritage of the
indigenous people in New Zealand,
including their language, customs and
traditions.
Part Two Poplitical System,
Education and Economy
I. Government
1. The Parliament
• Since 1950 Parliament has had a
single chamber, the House of
Representatives.
• Its functions include passing laws,
supervising the government’s
administration and receiving petitions
from citizens with grievances.
Currently there are 120 MPs, all
elected by voters. Six of these are
Maori MPs, who represent Maori
voters only.
2. New Zealand has no written
constitution. The Constitution Act
1986 defines the relationship
between the legislative (Parliament),
executive (Government departments
and agencies) and judicial (the courts)
roles of government.
3. For more than half a century,
the two main parties in the
House of Representatives have
been the National Party (centreright) and the Labor Party
(centre-left).
4.The Parliamentary election in 1996
was held for the first time under the
proportional representation system
known as MMPR (Mixed Member
Proportional Representation混合成员
比例代表制).
• Under this new election system,
each voter has two votes, the
first one for a candidate in their
electorate, the second one for a
political party.
• The second vote, when counted
nationwide, decides the number
of seats each party will take in
Parliament.
• MMPR offers an opportunity for
a range of parties to gain seats
by achieving at least 5% of the
party vote.
• Neither the National Party nor
the Labor Party has held a
majority of seats in Parliament
since 1996. Government has been
a coalition of at least two parties.
5.The Ombudsman (政府特派调查员) is
appointed by Parliament to
investigate people’s complaints
against government departments and
local authorities, and to ensure that
appropriate official imformation is
freely available to the public under
the Official Information Act.
II. Education
1. Education in New Zealand is
compulsory between the ages of
6 and 16, and tuition in state
schools is free to New Zealand
residents.
2. An elected board of trustees
governs each shchool. State
schools charge fees to foreign
students who are not New
Zealand residents, except for
exchange students.
3. The largest school in New
Zealand, the Correspondence
School, provides distance
education for students from
early childhood upwards.
4. State schools may be coeducational or single-sex, while
private schools are often singlesex, and are usually connected
to a religion.
5. There are 9 universities in New
Zealand. Any citizen or
permanent resident may attend
university when they are over
20, even if they have passed no
exams.
6.There are 23 polytechnics in
New Zealand, which provide a
range of vocational and academic
courses that cover a large
number of subjects at various
levels up to degree level.
III. Economy
I. Agriculture
1. New Zealand is a rugged country,
with little flat, naturally arable land,
and its reputation as the world’s
largest farm has been the result of
hard work.
2. Forestry and Fishing
• Forestry and fishing constitute
new natural resource-based
industries with exciting
potential for further
development.
• Forests cover more than a
quarter of New Zealand. Forest
products are important earners
of overseas funds. Australia,
Japan and Korea are the largest
customers.
• New Zealand’s Exclusive
Economic Zone extends 200
nautical miles seaward from the
low water mark around New
Zealand and its offshore islands.
• It is one of the largest fishing
areas in the world. There are a
rich variety of sea species in
the zone, of which 100 have
great commercial values.
3. Energy: Rivers, geothermal steam
contribute to the supply of
electricity; Natural gas; windmills to
produce electricity.
4. Overseas trade: with less than 4
million people, the nation’s wellbeing depends largely on meeting
international standards of quality
and competitiveness, and doing
business free of trade barriers.