Miss Eagle's mind has been very busy with grammar. She has been trying to match a preposition to the word sell: sell out, sell off, sell up, sell on. The governments of poor fella my country want to sell off everything. They are selling up as if someone was about to foreclose and they needed the ready cash. They are selling on like a speculator whose sole mode of being is to broker a bob. But most of all they are selling out - selling us, its citizens, out. Selling icons that the governments and citizens of this nation built as things of great communal and national value. Things which have been integral to our lives and our national development.Ancient wisdom and ancient narratives serve us well. They serve us well because human nature doesn't change much. Thus the story told in the Book of Genesis Chapter 29 verses 29-34 is significant in this discussion.
Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field and he was weary.
And Esau said to Jacob, "Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary." Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, "Sell me your birthright as of this day." And Esau said, "Look I am about to die; so what profit shall this birthright be to me?" Then Jacob said, "Swear to me as of this day." So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
And into Miss Eagle's mind come names and faces: Steve Bracks, Morris Iemma, John Howard, Macquarie Bank.
Ah, poor fella my country. A birthright despised.
