Compton's Comment

South and North

^{Everald Compton | APRIL 2008}

During my days at a tiny primary school out in the bush well over six decades ago, the only subjects that caused me to rise above the ordinary were history and geography. With no television or bright city lights to distract me and having a teacher who was flat out looking after seven classes all at once, I had time to spend studying maps and reading history books. I couldn’t get enough of either of them and my fascination with both subjects has continued throughout my life.

It didn’t take me long to work out that the world was lopsided, with all the dynamics heavily in favour of the Northern Hemisphere over the Southern. Most of the world’s population, money and armaments were up in the North, and they had more land too. The only thing that the South had going for it was a lack of ice and snow in its inhabited areas.

I decided that much of the imbalance had been caused by the fact that every country south of the equator was, or had been, a colony of a European nation and had been plundered and pillaged by Europeans for centuries. It was very clear that an economic and social recovery from those sad colonial days would take a long time to achieve real results, but the road to equality had to start somewhere.

Having now travelled extensively for more than half a century, I have come to the inevitable conclusion that the fundamental issue to be faced first of all is that there is no nation in the Southern Hemisphere that alone has the potential to challenge the economic might of any of the great nations of the North, such as USA, China, India, Japan and the European Community. It would appear that the only way to overcome this deficiency will be to create an Economic Community of the Southern Hemisphere, based on the European model with one currency like the Euro. Such a large entity would unshackle our dependence on our colonial past and enable the South to become competitive with the North.

It could be called the Federation of Southern Nations (FSN) and should initially contain the most viable nations of the hemisphere – Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, South Africa, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. That’s not too many to get together in the first instance. The original Treaty of Rome that established the European Community had just as many nations involved.

Once FSN is a going concern, other nations can be added progressively. Indeed, the Pacific Island nations will only survive in an intensely competitive world if they join an economic union which will give them a chance to get their products into world markets at the right price. The same applies to the many basket case nations of Africa and South America who have no hope of prosperity in their current condition.

FSN will have some advantages over the North as we can dominate world trade in minerals and primary produce. Additionally, we can offer a better quality of life and far more hospitable weather, plus great tourist potential. (We could also have an absolutely unbeatable Rugby Union team.) A special benefit will be our ability to stop the brain drain, as our brightest young people will be able to prosper mightily by remaining in the South without having to seek wealth in the North as they do in such great numbers now.

A pipe dream? No, it is not.

It just needs a visionary leader to make it happen, someone who will show the same courage that New Zealand’s Edmund Hillary displayed when he conquered Mt Everest in 1953, despite the fact that everyone told him that it couldn’t be done, particularly climbers from the Northern Hemisphere.

If Kevin Rudd takes it up and irrevocably commits Australia to be the foundation member of FSN, he will gain immortality.

EVERALD COMPTON
Chairman
National Seniors Australia

Opinions expressed in Compton’s Comment are not necessarily those of the publisher.