I really want to like Hugh Jackman and Deborra Lee-Furness. Jackman is a handsome, incredibly talented Aussie who married an older woman and has been loyal to her for 18 years and they have two adopted children. It all sounds pretty much idyllic. Maybe it is, privately, for them.
But unlike Cate Blanchett, who is also an extraordinarily talented Australian (though I'm not sure she sings and dances like Jackman), I suspect Hugh Jackman might support the current Coalition Government.
The reason I say this is that during the launch of his new foundation for the arts, he refrained from criticising the Abbott Government for cutting huge dollars from arts funding. He said that he thought funding should come from a number of sources. What does that mean? That it's okay for the second richest country in the world not to support Australian performing arts? We might be the second richest country in the world but if what Hugh Jackman said is true, then we're certainly not the second most cultured or civilised!
Jackman and Furness haven't criticised the Coalition Government for anything at all. I hope this is because, being ex-pats, they haven't kept abreast of the political situation in their home country and not because they actually approve of the Coalitions's actions.
I have two adopted Korean children but I felt extremely uneasy when Jackman and Furness posed proudly for photos with the Prime Minister Tony Abbott, when he promised to make it easier for Australians to adopt children from overseas.
I mean, one does wonder how people who adopt children and especially people who set up Trusts specifically to support the overseas adoption of underprivileged children, could support a government that treats refugee children so cruelly or that cuts funding to unemployed youth, or to education or health? How does that make sense? I find it strange that people are able to separate these decisions from the humanitarian and human rights consequences.
That there are now children permanently languishing in dreadful conditions in New Guinea and on Nauru due to the actions of both Labor and Liberal Governments, surely deserves as much response from Jackman and Furness as those languishing in third world countries due to poverty, war and persecution.
One would think that such successful and hopefully humane people would be aware of the Abbott Government's bad track record on asylum seekers, climate change, deforestation, social services, education, health and the arts.
Possibly the worst action by the present Government is their continued financial support of fossil fuels including CSG and other Unconventional Gases such as Tight Gas. Everything the Coalition Government does shouts support for the rich and a complete lack of support for basic human need and the environment.
I strongly suspect that Jackman and Furness are supportive of the Abbott Government and billionaires such as Rupert Murdoch and Twiggy Forrest. Forrest has invested in Jackman's new arts foundation. Why do I find this so very disappointing? I really do want to like Hugh Jackman because he's so talented and apparently one of the few decent, really handsome guys in Hollyweird.
Jackman has referred to taxpayer's money as being limited and that money for the arts should come from other sources. I guess it depends on what kind of arts he's talking about. Big, ridiculous, block buster movies shouldn't necessarily receive government funding but the arts as a whole are, I believe, a basic human need.
A country without the arts becomes...well... hard nosed and perhaps even a bit sociopathic, really. The arts can help us reflect and maybe question ourselves and also our country's actions. The arts can help us become more humane and God knows, we need more humane in this cruel world.
Come Hugh Jackman, read my blog. Educate yourself about what this Government is doing and use your squillians to help us become more humane and to help save our world for our children.
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/hugh-jackman-returns-to-perth-stomping-ground-to-launch-foundation-20140517-zrfxl.html
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