I will remind you of what has happened so far. My name is Sharbut Gula, I am a PHD from Kabul University. My research is in socio-biology, particularly in how we deal with the world and each other. As a yound female, life was carefree with a brother Jalup in farmland and forests around Kabul. My Professor Abdur, is pushing me in my research to find out some mysteries. Now continues the story …..
The onerous task set by Professor Abdur for me in Australia, was to quantify and qualify their advances as a society. I was to look at the changes in awareness of the environment and each other. An awareness that led to the logical way humans now act on the earth, and a care for each other. The money humanity saved from conflicts has been wisely used in educating the world population. We are largely free of war. Populations seem to be in tune with their habitat.
I knew that my PHD was going to add considerable knowledge and insight into my professors work. It scared me that I would not be able to find good information. If I can, his request will make my PHD a beneficial tool for world management. I was still daunted by the difficulty of unravelling how a paradigm shift in human caring occurred. Little did I know, this study would involve me in intimate human emotions and consequential events.
I had studied historical records about Sydney in Kabul. I found references of an incident which seems to be pivotal in the evolution of human behaviour in that land. This incident verified by Abdur involved a changes in human thinking, but little was known about how it occurred. It was my task to fully understand its gravity and the people involved. My research was hopefully going to find the trigger in man’s thinking about the world. I had worked hard for this opportunity. I was hoping I could live up to the saying “A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.”
Australian and the Afghani people have had a close and supportive relationship for the past 200 years. Ever since my country provided the sustainable transport system for Australia’s dry inland. We provided camels in the early 19th century. Both Afghan and Australian societies have rich customs that developed due to harsh climatic environments. In Afghanistan we developed a strict system of customs to allow civilisation to develop in an organised manner. This is enshrined in Kabul’s early writing on the meaning of life from 1500BC. In Australia Aboriginal customs were developed over tens of thousands of years that protected food sources, family relationships and order. The Australian culture is now a mixture of many different races. I was to research culture from Indigenous people and how that changed on the arrival of the new settlers from Europe in the 19th century. In full trepidation I boarded a plane to Sydney.
In my first weeks, I made a lot of friends in Sydney. I spent my time travelling around Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and enjoying the senery to get my bearings. On one trip, I went to the Blue Mountains on the outskirts of Sydney. I was sitting in a coffee shop in Katoomba and next to me was man with a nice smile who had good cloths but they seemed very well worn. His hat and jacket must have been worn for many years or picked up in a second hand shop. We soon got talking, his name was Adrian and he told me he lived in an old shed. I told him of my project and interest in indigenous culture. Adrian took me back to his shed and showed me a couple of books he had. He said “I could borrow one”. Over a warm tea, Australian style with honey, we chatted for some hours. I learnt that Adrian had originally come from England. He had a strict upbringing by a army major. He told me he had rebelled and now lives a simple life, reading books in front of his pot belly stove. Something seemed quite aluring about this lifestyle. For me life was going to be much busier. Reading the book on my way back to Sydney inspired me to learn more about the lives of remote communities of 1st Nations people. Back in Sydney I soon made more friends both professional and casual, as well as some distant relatives. My professional friends assisted me in locating early records from the first European settlers in this country. Documents, diaries and books from disparate locations needed to be matched with dates to verify events. Documenting my findings I was adding value to the socio-biology profession.
My research has been carried out by reading diaries and government literature written during the founding of Sydney Town on a land that had previously been called Terra Australis. These include documents from England and Europe on the decision to send the first fleet on its long journey. I will tell you more about these events and my excitement as I put the various pieces of information together.
Australians have become leaders in a respectful and rational approach to development of the human race. They have gone on from their humble beginnings to provide the world with social and scientific services. Things may have been very different had humanity continued on the path we were on in the 16th century.
Australia has since the 1st fleet been a beacon of enlightenment for the human race. The unique social experiment sanctioned by King George 111 was not well understood. Results are clear to see now in the way we treat each other and our environment on a world scale. I have read numerous documents and letters between royalty and intellectuals in libraries from London, Paris and Sydney. You could see in these documents how a new type of world evolved. Diary entries I read showed a real desire for peace and knowledge. The letters written by royalty showed an acceptance of change. My PHD brings together a number of different ideas from this correspondence. There appeared to be a paradigm shift in human responsiveness to their environment at around the late 1700’s. This shift caused a social revolution that contributed to peaceful and caring behaviour on the planet. Somehow humans were able to use logic to overcome their instincts of territorial fighting. Wars and degradation so prevalent before this time, diminished. I found it fascinating to look at the passive endeavours that could only have occurred through cooperation of different peoples. As I near the completion of my research I understand why Australians are still at the forefront of human endeavours.
Australia currently exports social systems and services to other nationalities to enable a better and more sustainable life on earth. The type of services offered by Australia and desired by other nations has contributed to human happiness. First I will tell you some more about my home in Kabul.
Remember, It is my first attempt at writing such a story and I am open to suggestion. I will release the chapters over time. Comments received or encouragement may alter future chapters.