What are lowlife racist scum like Howson and Abbott saying with their continual references to the failure of the policies of the "Intellectual elites" ---as if Aboriginal policies of the last 200 years, including the last 30 years, haven't been governed more by racist political expediency than by 'Intellectual elites".
Are they claiming that they are part of an unthinking, dumbed - down, majority of people whose ideas on Aboriginal policies hav not yet been tested----give me a break----stolen children, the missions , government restricted areas for Aboriginal people, etc fully disproved the efficacy of proposals that are currently being put forward by Howson and Co.---of course, much of yhis misinformtion is aimed at bolstering the support of that arch lowlife Howard and his sponsors who want to grab all Aboriginal land-----I like that bit about private rather than communal ownership of Aboriginal land----that would simplify things for the Packers etc wouldn't it? When all the racist, assimilationist, crocodile tears are hosed away, this approach is simply another attempt at genocide of Aboriginal people----a Nazi by any other name, be it Bennelong or whatever, is still a Nazi. Laurie. ------------ . ----- Original Message ----- From: "Trudy Bray" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "news-clip" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 11:29 AM Subject: The Australian: Peter Howson: Black policies have bred failure The view from the other side. --- Trudy =========================== The Australian Peter Howson: Black policies have bred failure Peter Howson 21jan02 LITTLE noticed features of the third Howard Government are the new ministries covering, first, immigration and multicultural and indigenous affairs, and second, citizenship and multicultural affairs. The accompanying announcement, that the Government will enhance its efforts to promote the concept of citizenship as a unifying force in Australian society, recognises the need for a significant change of emphasis in tackling the serious problems within many Aboriginal communities. Papers presented at last year's Bennelong Society conference provide a basis through their identification of mistakes in policies of deliberately encouraging separate traditional Aboriginal communities during the past 30 years. As a one-time Liberal minister for Aboriginal affairs, I welcome the recent initiative of former Labor minister Gary Johns in publishing many of these papers in Waking Up to Dreamtime: The Illusion of Aboriginal Self-Determination (Media Masters). In a biting analysis, Johns's paper exposes the fallacies in the outdated support for a treaty and a form of separation (including even the effective application of separate customary laws) maintained in varying degrees by bodies such as Reconciliation Australia. His paper opens up the possibility of a more bipartisan approach, perhaps even persuading second thoughts among the intellectual elite with a fascination for primitive cultures. Recently, Tony Abbott rightly emphasised that the reconciliation some presently pursue has become a weapon to wield against the traditional concept of Australia. Future relationships with Aborigines need to be developed within one country and under one law, rather than pursuing a separatist agenda, which is counterproductive to achieving genuine reconciliation. The problems with the attempts to develop Aboriginal communities separately have been highlighted in a most moving chapter written by Anglican vicar Steve Etherington. Having spent 23 years living in Aboriginal communities, he is well qualified to provide a lesson to all genuinely concerned with reconciliation. The desperate situation he exposes in the more remote communities, despite the availability of services and the well-meaning and valiant attempts of many white helpers, reveals the failures of the past 30 years of well-meant but misguided benevolence. The lesson? On its own, benevolence kills. FOR example, he points out that tribal Aborigines no longer grow or find their own food, and are never required to become educated or build their own homes: they are, in effect, a kept people. Indeed, contrary to what was hoped, the communities are largely funded and run by white advisers who operate through Aboriginal committees but are the effective decision-makers. With this enforced, sudden and premature move to supposed self-management, and the rampant alcoholism, Aboriginal leaders have largely disappeared in what Etherington disturbingly characterises as the loss of a generation. In this environment, traditional cultural practices are much diminished, indeed sometimes forgotten. Present policies, he argues, are creating a disaster in remote Aboriginal Australia by establishing a group of people who are on permanent holiday at the community centres. Etherington emphasises the need to lift the abysmally low standard of education, particularly the learning of English and other skills needed to handle the outside world, which most Aboriginal parents want but find difficult to obtain. He also proposes to move beyond the sheltered forms of government-subsidised employment. Less than half of the 47,000 Aborigines living in sparsely settled areas are employed and a significant proportion of them are only employed because of the Community Development Employment Projects scheme. Communal land rights seriously inhibit both private enterprise and employment, and changes here could help, he believes, create investment and real employment. More realistically, perhaps, some of the $400 million expended annually under the CDEP might be diverted to create opportunities for productive employment in areas where real jobs exist. Another contributor, university researcher Stephanie Jarrett, draws on her experience living in an Aboriginal community to call for unwavering rather than reluctant state intervention in domestic violence. Her experience makes for horrifying reading for those concerned with human rights. The vitally important question of how to stop abuse of Aboriginal children - reflected in the very high rate of separations of children from parents - makes nonsense of the continued attention given the alleged forcible separations of children in the past. To date, the intellectual elites have provided few answers. The new evidence contained in this important book confirms that the separatist policies pursued for the last 30 years have produced much misery among remote Aboriginal communities. While Philip Ruddock announced last week that improved services would be provided to impoverished communities, they must also be accompanied by measures to encourage greater integration. Peter Howson, a former minister for Aboriginal affairs, is vice-president of The Bennelong Society © The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,3626136,00.html ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/ until 11 March, 2001 and Recoznettwo is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznettwo%40green.net.au/ from that date. This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
