Civilisation?

It is interesting to be back again in remote Australia where the incoming population exists pretty much in parallel with the indigenous one. These "first people" struggle to fit in with our modern world and are often disparaged for their lack of ambition and success. There is also a lot of alcoholism and drug use in their communities.

Yet in their own past they were clearly deeply in tune with their environment and respectful of it in a way that we are only now beginning to learn. Especially as our impact on the planet is becoming apparent, and our realisation that material wealth doesn't make us happy, I often wonder how things might have been different…