[Alex]

Encourage self-sufficiency and a return to their traditional culture. Increase child protective services, and involve the community in the effort to stamp this out. The racially discriminatory law will be ineffective at best. Even if it were enforced, they would get their booze somehow. The aborigine community needs to change.

[gennickhif]

Originally posted by Caligastia Even if it were enforced, they would get their booze somehow. Actually - when I was in the outback a few years ago - there were some very successfully run "dry" camps. But these were deemed to be dry by the "elders" not the government.

While it is easy to dismiss - man - something has to be done. I saw some horrific things while I was there.

Not an easy situation - and personally I think more needs to be done than saying "they need to change".

[Mboxmaja]

Aboriginals can cope with drought, flood, famine, and anything the Australian continent can throw at them, but they can't cope with civilisation.

[Wmshyrga]

Originally posted by Bkeela
Aboriginals can cope with drought, flood, famine, and anything the Australian continent can throw at them, but they can't cope with civilisation. No. They can't cope with White Man's civilisation rammed down their throats whilst having their land stolen, their women raped and their children stolen...

Australia is still a massively racist and bigoted country and the treatment of the aborigines to this day is appalling.

I know, I've lived there and been to the outback and seen it first hand in places like Wilcannia and Redfern! The only equivalent I have seen in the West, are the Native American reservations around Tucson, and N AZ/S UT - but then, the same thing happened to them, didn't it?

Poor bastards!

[Veronnisa]

Originally posted by One_more_turn
I read somewhere that Aboriginals think very differently than other humans: very good instinct/sense, but weak logical and reasoning skills.
As demonstrated by this chap on Australian currency:


Writer, public speaker and inventor.
David Unaipon made significant contributions to science and literature, and to improvements in the conditions of Aboriginal people.

A Ngarrindjeri man, Unaipon was born at the Point McLeay Mission, on the Lower Murray in South Australia, on 28 September 1872, the fourth of nine children of the evangelist James Ngunaitponi and his wife Nymbulda, both of whom were Yaraldi speakers.

Unaipon received his initial education at the Point McLeay Mission School and as a teenager demonstrated a thirst for knowledge, particularly in philosophy, science and music. An avid reader, he was obsessed with scientific works and inventions and, with no advanced education in mathematics, he researched many engineering problems and devised a number of his own inventions.

In 1909 he patented an improved handpiece for sheep-shearing. Other inventions included a centrifugal motor, a multi-radial wheel and mechanical propulsion device; he was unable, however, to get financial backing to develop his ideas. He gained a reputation at the time of being 'Australia's Leonardo' for his promotion of scientific ideas. As early as 1914, Unaipon anticipated the helicopter, applying the principle of the boomerang. His search for the secret of perpetual motion lasted throughout his life.
http://www.rba.gov.au/CurrencyNotes/...d_unaipon.html


I've even met some who've worked out they wuz robbed!

[Vmysobfi]

Originally posted by Ecthy
I actually agree with Cali on the short term handling, though a lot would have to change also in Australian 'white' society so they'll have a chance in the long run. Believe it or not, there are some problems that can't be solved by White people.

[GrileVege]

Originally posted by Nugog


Actually - when I was in the outback a few years ago - there were some very successfully run "dry" camps. But these were deemed to be dry by the "elders" not the government.

While it is easy to dismiss - man - something has to be done. I saw some horrific things while I was there.

Not an easy situation - and personally I think more needs to be done than saying "they need to change". Yeah, true enough. I'd be all for a non-government solution like the elder-run dry camps that you mentioned.

[fujitsusi]

I think it's stupid to believe that the cause of the child sexual abuse is due to alcohol and porn, and I seriously doubt that removing it will stop the abuse. It's a dumb move, instigating a solution without properly defining the problem and only recognizing the symptoms is a huge problem.

If I were the government I would up security, create havens for children being abused, and encourage missionaries to enter the region.

[12Dvop4I]

Originally posted by Japher
I think it's stupid to believe that the cause of the child sexual abuse is due to alcohol and porn, and I seriously doubt that removing it will stop the abuse. It's a dumb move, instigating a solution without properly defining the problem and only recognizing the symptoms is a huge problem.

If I were the government I would up security, create havens for children being abused, and encourage missionaries to enter the region. Agreed.

And what does Aborigine culture have to say about child sex? What was going on before evil white people arrived?

[timgreyuvcz]

What's to be gained from infantalizing the kids, Ozzy?

[Deribasov]

I believe it is absolutely racist to ban an ethnic group from drinking alcohol or watching porn. Just as it is ageist to ban teens from doing the same.

I also am highly skeptical it will do anything to stop the sex abuse. I agree with Cali and others that there are far more sensible ways of stopping this problem.

This law is exactly the same as the laws passed against youth that are feel good distractions from solving the root problems. And in light of the racist comments here about Aborigines lacking reason, it seems this uses the same justification as well.

This is a clear example of how intertwined and related racism and ageism are.

[SergeyMaikov]

IMO, I think anyone that has completed HS and has demonstrated that they are relatively independent should be granted "adult" status. Concurently, anyone who cannot demonstrated that they are independent, regardless of age, should be granted "child" status...

[VemyhemiHef]

Physical readiness does not equal mental readiness.

[LClan439]

Originally posted by Japher
IMO, I think anyone that has completed HS and has demonstrated that they are relatively independent should be granted "adult" status. Concurently, anyone who cannot demonstrated that they are independent, regardless of age, should be granted "child" status... Yup.

[ZESINTERS]

Originally posted by Nugog


From what I saw, alcohol is a huge problem.

It is hard to describe, without being labeled "racist", but there does seem to be a propensity towards alcoholism in the Aboriginal people.

From memory, none of the Aboriginal's who worked in the organisation I was involved in (a private one, not a government one) drank at all. I can remember a few conversations regarding it, and the general opinion, from the team members who were Aboriginal, was that alcohol was one of the biggest problems their people faced. This was their opinion - not mine.

But their opinion probably does not count, as they were trying to make something of their lives.......... That makes them almost as bad as White people....almost.

[MadMark]

I love the David Lange quote in your sig...never heard that one before. Funny that a Labor PM would say such a thing.

[WrinnaArraple]

Of course these changes won't solve the massive, almost hopeless problem facing remote indigenous communities of outback Australia. There is a Federal election, likely in September, and Prime Minster John Howard, thanks to Industrial Relations reforms, looks to be facing defeat.

Most Australians, those living in the capital cities anyway, are not as racist as foreigners, especially ex-tourists, self-righteously like to believe. Their main exposure to Aborigines is to be molested for cigarettes or money in town, or else see documentaries on TV highlighting their desperate plight. Because there is nothing they can reasonably do about the situation, they pay their taxes and put it out of mind. Therefore, anything that could improve things, such as Howard's new initiative, could attract voters back to his cause.

There is no doubt that Aborigines are Australia's deep shame. We murdered them like stray dogs during early settlement days. We caused the genocide of all Aboriginal inhabitants in Tasmania. We destroyed an entire generation thanks to enforced relocation of children. In recent times we have just thrown money at them and looked the other way, hoping things might improve, but they have gotten much worse. To the point where they probably have the lowest standard of living anywhere in the entire world.

Australians pride themselves on their sporting achievements and general reputation, so this issue is a deep stain of guilt upon the soul of your average Aussie.

The only solution to the problem will come from grass root initiatives. The communities need to rouse from their petrol sniffing induced daze and want change.

I agree though that a ban on alcohol is essential. It might be racist - whatever. One thing is sure - the resistance to alcohol that whites have inherited through natural selection during several thousand years of agrarian society - the aborigines totally lack. Alcohol to them is as destructive as crack cocaine or heroin is to the white.

[adoreorerie]

Originally posted by Nugog


From what I saw, alcohol is a huge problem.
As it is amongst bogans, poor whites, the First Nations in Canada, Scots and Irish...


Alcohol doesn't provide a solution to being poor or destitute but it certainly dulls the pain for a while.

Given that all Kooris/Aborigines weren't even properly Australian citizens until the late 1960s, that their children were forcibly removed and given to white parents, that they were cut off from traditional languages and culture, forced to become Christians, and robbed of valuable land and brutalized by a corrupt police force and government in Queensland (for instance), it's a wonder that alcohol and drug abuse isn't even more prevalent.

The franchise:

The first Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Garran, interpreted it to give Commonwealth rights only to people who were already State voters in 1902. So no new Aboriginal voters could ever be enrolled and, in due course, the existing ones would die out. The joint Commonwealth/State electoral rolls adopted in the 1920s give some idea of the number of Aborigines who voted for their State parliaments but were barred by the Commonwealth. The symbol ‘o’ by a name meant ‘not entitled to vote for the Commonwealth’ and almost always indicated an Aborigine.

Garran’s interpretation of section 41 was first challenged in 1924, not by an Aborigine but by an Indian who had recently been accepted to vote by Victoria but rejected by the Commonwealth. He went to court and won. The magistrate ruled that section 41 meant that people who acquired State votes at any date were entitled to a Commonwealth vote. Instead of obeying that ruling the Commonwealth passed an Act giving all Indians the vote (there were only 2 300 of them and the immigration policy would see there were no more) but continued to reject Aborigines and other ‘coloured’ applicants under its own interpretation of section 41.

Some of the Commonwealth officials got even tougher. They came to believe that no Aborigines had Commonwealth voting rights. Besides refusing new enrolments they began, illegally, to take away the rights of people who had been enrolled since the first election in 1901.

It was not until the 1940s that anyone began to battle for Aborigines’ political rights. Various lobby groups took up their cause and in 1949 the Chifley Labor government passed an Act to confirm that all those who could vote in their States could vote for the Commonwealth. The symbol ‘o’ disappeared from the electoral rolls. But not much was done to publicise the change and most Aborigines, told for so long that they couldn’t vote, continued to believe it.
http://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/Aust...y/aborigin.htm


This is a kick:

There’s an irony there. Some of the strongest opposition to Aboriginal rights came from the outback. But equality with the Aborigines has brought its white settlers better electoral services than they ever achieved on their own.

[Adamanta]

Australia

[erepsysoulptnw]

Originally posted by Heresson
Australia Beats a country run by intellectually challenged antisemitic homophobes any day.