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The Face of Innocence
It's a curious thing that here in Australia two of our least useful citizens occupy more of our time than practically any of the 23 million or so others. What's even more bizarre is the way in which we, as a nation, have formed opinions as to their guilt or innocence in the matters in which they have been involved. I'm discussing David Hicks and Schapelle Corby. Consider this: very little is known about Hicks except that he is educationally subnormal, joined the Taliban at a time when they were seen as freedom fighters and supplied by the USA, and then spent five years in a US Military prison without trial, for 'terrorist' activities. Those are the only facts that exist in the public domain. Everything else is speculation, including the 'psychological profiles' that have been published by people who have never met him. Yet on the slimmest of evidence he is widely held to be a traitor and a terrorist. He has even been described as such by members of the former government. Corby, on the other hand, was caught with drugs in her luggage, was tried in a court of law and found guilty of smuggling drugs into a country she had visited seven times before. Her half-brother is a known associate of drug dealers and one of them visited Corby in her cell. Past associates have made public statements as to her familiarity with drug trafficking. She is widely held to be innocent. In both cases the opinions seem to have been formed on the basis of appearance. Early photographs of Hicks were nothing more than mug shots showing a young man of unappealing appearance. Corby is very photogenic to say the least and was widely filmed for all to see. Glamour-style photos of her were published world-wide and much was made of her one-time job as a 'beautician'. Much less was said of her rather less glamorous activities while living in Japan. There are, it seems to me, two possible reasons for these apparent dichotomies. One is that a (large) section of our population is happy to accept Hicks is guilty because the predominantly white, Christian, American military says so, and is equally unhappy to accept that Corby is guilty because the brown, muslim, Indonesians say so, despite the fact they have proved it in a court of law. The other is that we like the look of Corby, but not Hicks. We've done this before. In 1980 a coroner's court accepted Lindy Chamberlain's story that a dingo had carried off her baby, Azaria. There was an uproar and public opinion demanded 'justice'. There was a subsequent inquest and trial resulting in Lindy's conviction for murder. There were, at the time, two overriding public points of view. One was that dingos did not attack humans (now a point of derision in itself following subsequent attacks) and the other with regard to Lindy Chamberlain's appearances in front of the camera. According to the mass of popular opinion, including the media, she 'looked' and 'acted' guilty. These days, of course, everyone you meet 'always knew' she was innocent. It's interesting, to me at least, that appearance coupled with the barest of facts, should have such an impact. It's as if the villain/hero relationship of the movies has now become our perception of how things really are. To be innocent in the eyes of the public, it seems, all you really need to be is cute.
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PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
The Cool Cook
Taking the heat out of the kitchen
www.all-about-cooking.com
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