aboriginals and the modern world

In all the yelling about Aboriginal affairs in Australia I think the major point has been lost. To quote from my favorite movie (Brazi)

"we're all in this together"

One way or another the modern world was going to catchup to the Aboriginal people as people moved about the world. I know its unfashionablehionable to say this, but indeed the Aboriginal people came here from somewhere else at one point too.

Now I'm certainly not saying that the past has been great or that the Governement is yet on the right track with how to properly deal with the situation, but as some Aboriginal leaders (and some who are not leaders) are beginning to say aboriginals need to take responsiblity for them selves and stop destroying their own family's and their own communities. Drug abuse, and even the sexual abuse of their own children seems to be tearing at their core.

While one group argues about the stolen generation, another group (often mostly women) are trying to ferret their kids away from the communities to get better education and escape the dreadful cycle of abuse and poverty.

Yet despite pouring billions of dollars into the problem (for instance:

The Rudd Government and the states are pumping an additional $4.6 billion into indigenous communities over the next six years as part of the Closing the Gap program)

nothing seems to come of this or other monies. Perhaps there is some local corruption going on at some level in feeding this construction, but you know, they do need houses. A very valid suggestion (backed by at least one Aboriginal Leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu) is for them to build their own homes. This seems to engender some ownership of the homes and prevent them from destroying them.

For example:

Ms Limbiari, 57, said a refurbishment of her house would not solve the overcrowding problem.

"I have a two-bedroom house, but I need a bigger house with at least four bedrooms because there can be up to 40 people living here, when all my family turn up and just stay," she said. "I can't just kick them all out. I need the family and to see the children -- they make me happy. We need the government to build more houses in Tennant Creek."

which underscores another problem, Aboriginal culture (based around a different time) has totally different values. Some Aboriginal people complain about this, and rightly point to this as being the cause for the destruction of what is regularly done for them.

Everyone who knows much about welfare (and even my grandfather who doesn't would never accept handouts) knows that it can create a sub-culture based on welfare dependence.

But while Aboriginal community leaders spruke on about "economic empowerment" and claim they are "locked out of the economy" one has to simply look at where Tennant Creek is and ask just how could you make a living there?

Considering that in "white fella" communities such as Lismore unemployment is high for skilled school and university graduates because there is no economic activity there, just how can anyone with a grip on reality expect uneducated illiterate Aboriginals to fare well when they can't even speak English properly?

"There's a lack of knowledge that Aboriginal English is a separate dialect and also a lack of information about how to deal with children who have a hearing loss," she said.

Well folks, guess what, here in Europe the national cirricula is taught in the national language, and dialects are not specifically considered. Secondly what a lot of shit, Aboriginal English as a dialect may impress the linguistic academics but the Aboriginal people may have their own language (which should be addressed within the cirricula as in any bilingual nation) and when learning English it should be English not some gutter pidgin slang street l33t crap.

But reading that above article suggests something else interesting:

The tests fail to account for language or cultural differences and label the students as having low IQs, which enables the school to then claim disability funding for the students.

now ... that's starting to shape up as a similar concept to the construction above ... everyone wants to suck on the welfare nipple ..

So with Aboriginal kids doing badly in schools:

The gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students widens as students progress through school, with the proportion meeting national benchmarks in reading falling between Years 3 and 5 and those passing in numeracy falling between Years 3 and 5 and from Year 5 to Year 7.

its no wonder they simply can't get any job and fall into the problems of:

Senior Arnhem Land elder Bakamumu Marika said young people were turning to cannabis out of boredom. "People just get bored stiff. They've got no work to do, no training, no jobs,"

So before the international press pounds you brainless with meaningless mumbo-jumbo comparisons to quite different situations like:

Comparing the treatment of black Australians to apartheid South Africa, Mr Pilger said nothing had changed since Mr Rudd's historic apology in early 2008.

"Near the end of apartheid, black South Africans were being jailed at the rate of 851 per 100,000 of population," he said.

"Today, black Australians are being jailed at a national rate that is more than five times higher. "Western Australia jails Aboriginal men at eight times the apartheid figure," he said.

Come on John, there's some substantial differences between the two situations as well as the simply observable ones. We need to look carefully at what is happening in reality.

So before you form some opinion based on simply reading stuff, I encourage you to go out and deal with Aboriginals. My cousin taught Aboriginals at Mooree and I've done some university level research on the community issues (created by the division of Jervis Bay into ACT and NSW thus dividing a community). At the very least try expanding your reading before you make any decisions.

I applaud leaders like Noel Pearson, but I really have some questoins for Noel ... such as just were is the sustainablity of this?

Sure, be independent but if you can't afford to buy the stuff you need from the activities you have you either need to scale back your wants or change what you do ... basic economics.