Inspiration rating: 9/10
This book has inspired me to have faith in the humanity of our country to overcome our racial prejudice and welcome many cultures into our society
Finally a book that celebrates our
multiculturalism! With all the political
rhetoric about asylum seekers, this book is a refreshing perspective of our
real culture in Australia and how much our nation has thrived through
immigration.
Megalogenis does not include indigenous
Australian heritage, but instead spans the history of Australia (post
colonialisation) making reference to the 'impact on the 'locals' in the early
chapters. It is also a nice change to
see the reference to the Chinese culture in Australia, which runs quite deeply
through our history. I would love to see
an equivalent book marking the indigenous multiculturalism in Australia
acknowledging the diverse language groups and the external influx
to the composition of our indigeneity.
This book has a particular focus on the
economic impact of migration and I believe the author does this deliberately,
to give the book a central focus. But in
doing so, it does miss important details of the social impacts of the changes
at each stage.
This book is easy to read yet does not
compromise on facts: he has the evidence to back up his claims. There are wall-to-wall statistics, humbling
anecdotal stories and cringe-worthy references to our past mistakes. But overall, Megalogenis leaves the reader
with a strong sense of hope for social change in Australia, appealing to our
financial greed to open our borders and enable us to embrace our
multiculturalism, especially with our Asian neighbours. Let's face it we have more in common with
Asia than we do of the motherland...
Except from the book (p.196-7)
Sidney had a knack for riding out the
global busts. In 1921, he anticipated
the post-war slump in import prices and threw a 'million pound master sale' to
clear his old stock. He lost half his
fortune but was able to restock with cheaper imports and trade back into
profitability.
His strategy to cope with the Great
Depression elevated him to national legend.
In 1930, Sidney shouted Christmas lunch for ten thousand unemployed people
and gave each child a present. He
undertook an expensive reconstruction of his Bourke Street store in 1931 to
provide jobs and boost confidence. 'All
staff, himself included - except for those affected by a wages board - endured
a 20% pay-cut for eighteen months, so that no employee need be retrenched',
historian Anthea Hyslop wrote.
He urged the business community to promote
jobs, and to donate funds to public works programs, saying, 'It is a
responsibility of capital to provide work.
If it fails to do this it fails to justify itself.' The Myer method in the Great Depression was
the digger's own Gallipoli: self sacrifice and good humour.
A friend once advised him, 'You spendthrift
- you are wearing yourself out. You will
soon have nothing left to give.' Sidney
replied, 'He gets most who gives most.'
He died suddenly in 1934, at the age of
fifty-six, leaving behind a business of 5300 employees and 10% of his fortune
donated to a trust, to assist 'the community in which I made my fortune'. More than 100 000 mourners lined the city
streets to observe the funeral procession and 25 000 people attended his
funeral at Box Hill cemetery.
The young Robert Menzies, who was both
Sidney's friend and his local member of parliament, wrote in 1936 that Myer was
a true Australian pioneer. 'He rose from
being an obscure alien peddler to being one of the great merchant princes of
Australia.'
The Myer brothers were an anomaly in
Australia. They had fled the
nineteenth-century Russian pogroms against the Jews when many of their
countrymen had already settled in the United States. If they had delayed their migration until
federation, the dictation test might have denied them entry.
(I
believe these are the stories we should be telling our children about Australia's
history.)
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