Independent Reading Post #8: Intrusions and Invisibility (Prompt 5, Ch 16-17)

A few sections ago, Bryson wrote about how both the United States and England have influenced Australian history and Australian customs today. However, this section makes more clear the role that Americans have played in recent years in shaping Australian cities.

While Bryson and Allan are searching for their next destination, Bryson notices many plazas full of American businesses, especially McDonalds and KMart. Observing this in such a remote, otherwise vacant area of the country, Bryson comments, "In the 2 million or more square miles that is the Australian outback, I don't suppose there is a more unfortunate juxtaposition" (250). Allan, clearly thinking the same thing, looks at Bryson and says, "You Yanks have a lot to answer for, you know." Bryson ponders Allan's comment and writes in the following paragraph, "We have created a philosophy of retail that is totally without aesthetics and totally irresistible. And now we box these places up and ship them to the far corners of the world... [the shoppers of Alice Springs] were no doubt delighted to get lots of free parking and a crack at Martha Stewart towels and shower curtains. What a sad and curious age we live in" (250).

I couldn't agree more with this opinion that American businesses have been dispersed too far into some of the more remote regions of the world, thus completely disrupting the life and culture of the area. Residents and tourists alike would probably prefer to experience the Australian Outback without being bothered with obnoxious McDonalds signs raised 100 feet in the air. In fact, the Australian Outback would be one of the last places that I would expect to see American enterprises, as I would have thought that even the greediest of businessmen would have enough respect to leave a natural area uncontaminated with the smell of hamburgers and french fries. Having seen hundreds of American fast food chains and businesses scattered throughout the otherwise lush green areas in Costa Rica, it was saddening to read in this section that there are many other parts of the world that have experienced an identical path of American development.

The treatment of the Aboriginee people was another saddening issue that was brought up yet again in this section of the book. From 1910 to the 1970s, Australians instituted a program in which Aboriginee children were taken from their parents, educated, and brought up in the city in an attempt to reduce their prosperity and well-being. Despite the fact that Aboriginees have the highest hospitalization rates, suicide rates, child mortality rate, imprisonment rates, and unemployment rates in the country, the way that the white Australians sought to combat this problem was unethical and heartless. These children were often told that their parents had died, and upon reaching the age of sixteen or seventeen, the children were told that it was time for them to establish their own lives, either in the city where they would forever be outsiders because of their culture or in the traditional communities that they were town away from at a very young age.

Although this section contains many somber details, Bryson's reflective view on Australia in this section is important, as it informs the reader of several issues of which even many Australians are blissfully unaware.