Black Boy, Green Hair Australia Apologises
Today, Kevin Rudd is going to offer an apology to Indigenous Australians for the misdeeds perpetrated upon them by the nation of Australia.
At a time when there's public outcry over the mistreatment, abuse and rape of Aboriginal children within their own societies, Australia is inexplicably going to apologise for taking their children away.
I realise that indigenous affairs were handled extremely poorly, and that Aboriginal people are extremely upset by this terrible episode in our nation's history, but how do we justify apologising for the wholesale removal of children, from a people who apparently consider child rape a normal part of growing up? How can we stomach apologising to a culture which tolerates that kind of behaviour?
Clearly not all Indigenous Australians rape their kids, and not all are constantly drunk or high on paint and petrol, but an extremely significant portion of them are, and the rest seem to think it's someone else's responsibility to fix it.
Of course I don't belive that the stolen generation was particularly advantaged by the efforts of the government at the time, but that just means it wasn't done correctly in the first place. I'm inclined to suggest that rather than apologise for removing children, we should take what we've learned since that time, and try again, since they're obviously not doing anything about it themselves.
All citizens of this country should be treated equally, and have the same demands put upon them. No matter what colour your skin is, if you don't seek to educate your kids and keep them in school, if you don't exercise due care for them, feed them, keep a roof over their heads, etc. If you tolerate the sexual abuse of your children, or spend most of your time fucked up on mind-altering substances, then you should have your children taken away.
It's just that simple.
Despite the best efforts and extreme amounts of money expended, Aboriginal kids are still suffering. Given that it's happening on a fairly large scale, there's no solution but to remove the children en masse. Don't like it? well, I suppose we could always apologise again a bit later, in the mean time there will be less 6 year old bleeding vaginas, and I don't give a shit who we offend to make that happen.
If it were up to me, I'd demand that the intelligent, productive and respectable members of Aboriginal society (of which there are many) stop filing pointless Native Title suits for a while (we're not going to move Sydney), and begin working tirelessly to educate their own people and bring their standard of living up to a level in which children can thrive. If they can do that, then they'll have earned the respect inherent in an apology, but until then all they're doing is using it as another excuse for their people's failure.
A blackfella's gotta be accountable. It's not all whitefella's fault, but remember... if you want compensation at any point, the British government is that way -->
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Well, I think you have a brass pair for posting something like this with your name on it, these days.
I know you better than most casual readers, and we’ve sat together and appreciated Aboriginal culture and heritage, so I know your point of view is born out of frustration rather than disdain.
From that standpoint, I can’t help but agree with you. It’s not enough to wish something would happen to resolve the issues faced by Indigenous Australians, something drastic needs to be done.
I agree that the actions taken in the past haven’t resulted in great outcomes, but does that mean we should just sit by and watch these horrors unfold without taking any action in future?
As much as it pains me to say it — I don’t believe an apology is warranted either. Not yet, anyway.
I was pleased to see though, that Kevin Rudd stopped short of apologising on behalf of the Australian people. At the very least, he didn’t make society at large a part of the mockery.
I don’t know all of the history behind this article, but an apology could be helpful if there are plans to go with the it. Like, some kind of anti-raping and unfit-parent (and from the looks of it, inbreeding) law, you know, something radical.
I’ve never heard of a formal apology from Americans to the ‘Native-Americans,’ but if it were done now it wouldn’t take away their destroyed society, their lack of land, the fact that 1 in 3 Native-American women will be raped in her life, poor living conditions, and cirrhosis. Although, spending our money in their casinos is a big help, maybe the Aboriginals should give that a try.
To put you in perspective just a little bit, Max, there’s no such plan in our future, our Prime Minister simply wants to apologise to differentiate himself from the previous Prime Minister who flatly refused to. That’s all there is.
If an apology meant moving forward in a meaningful way, I’d be all for it. I don’t care who has to say they’re sorry as long as these children are looked after. Unfortunately, it won’t change a damned thing.
Another perspective-point for you. Australians would love — I mean LOVE if Indigenous Australians were even half as enterprising as Native Americans. Year after year, a completely unfair amount of money earmarked for Aboriginal small business grants, goes unspent.
I know all the woe is me stories, and they’re completely legitimate, but there has to be a line in the sand somewhere, right? Certainly they should seek as much compensation as they can from the British government who almost wiped them out when they invaded, but that isn’t even the contentious issue apparently. Nobody has to say sorry for that.
Instead we’re apologising for caring more about their children’s welfare than they do, and for caring about their future as a people, beyond the next lung full of tyre-air. Yeah, I can see how we should be real fucking sorry about that.
As I do more research, the less I want to compare Aboriginals to Native Americans. As you bring up, there seems to be an obviously carelessness for their own people. The sexual and non-sexual violence (especially towards women and children) with few consequences seems to be called a 40,000 year old traditional right.
There obviously can’t be another “stolen generation” of Aboriginals, but anybody in a sick situation needs to be removed and cared for. God(s) forbid, they might be offended if someone gets involved.
Hey I’m really glad you were interested enough to look up some stuff on your own. It’s an important issue for us, and (especially) for the kids involved.
Thanks for taking the time to do that, and for your subsequent post.
If I didn’t want to learn I wouldn’t be here. ;)