It was a good program. Glad you enjoyed it too.
Juni
ON DISCOVERY CHANNEL TONIGHT - AUSTRALIA REVEALED
by juni 62 Replies latest jw friends
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Sunnygal41
Stephanus,
of the "doesn't have kangaroos bouncing down his street everyday" class.
I found it fascinating, nevertheless, Steph. One point they did make is that most of the population live around the coastline, as the interior is too inhospitable.............they showed the truck trains and the 5,000 mile long fence they are maintaining to keep the dingo out of cattle and sheep herds.......and, one reason Aborginals make up 2% is that they've been genocided for many years..........they were there before Europeans made it a prison colony..........
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Dansk
Hey Stephanus:
did you know that United Kingdom shipped out people who were basically unhappy with status quo
That rules you out then, buddy!
Ian
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Stephanus
.......and, one reason Aborginals make up 2% is that they've been genocided for many years....
That depends very much on the state. In New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, Aborigines were treated as citizens and had the vote. In Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, Aborigines were denied the vote and were treated like cattle or children. Section 41 of the Constitution was included as a condition of South Australia's entry into the Commonwealth; SA wanted to guarantee that its universal suffrage worked at both State and Federal levels. But in the 1920s (IIRC), the Federal Parliament passed a law that overrode Federal voting rights for Aborigines. Aborigines in NSW, Victoria, SA and Tasmania were still able to vote in their respective State elections, but not in the Federal ones. This was reversed by Federal Parliament in 1962, and in 1967 a referendum passed that transferred Aboriginal Rights from the States to the Federal government.
IOW, the "genocidal" stuff happpened in places like Queensland. That the Myall Creek Massacre could have happened within living memory in this country is a great cause for deep shame. I once argued over this incident with one of the silliest people I know. She found nothing wrong with rounding up and summarily executing a hundred of the local Aboriginal men because one of them may have raped a white woman. I was absolutely furious, and reminded her that under British Law (where our legal codes come from), the rule of Law is paramount. If someone commits a crime, he should be found, brought before a court to be tried, and then if convicted, justice brought to bear. You don't just round up the nearest large group of people and kill them!
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Stephanus
Hey Stephanus:
did you know that United Kingdom shipped out people who were basically unhappy with status quo
That rules you out then, buddy!
"Francis Rossi for PM, because he can maintain the Status Quo!" LOL
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TopHat
That same pioneering spirit still permeates Australian society.
In fact, I believe Australia took over where America left by building on the spirit of early settlers. You see that only in your romantic movies about your Wild West, we live it every day. Why don’t you come over for visit and see for yourself?That is what I will be doing next year zacor. I hope to spend two weeks on the east coast of Australia with the family. From what I see in documentaries...I will like it there.
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hambeak
My only familiarity with Australia is from Crocodile Dundee.
Not really lol. I am intrigued by the unique wild life there but all those poisonous bugs and that awful spider that is lethal. And the snakes YUCK! Is it true a lot of people have homes underground out in the outback
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Stephanus
I am intrigued by the unique wild life there but all those poisonous bugs and that awful spider that is lethal.
My father used to be the local "wildlife expert" in this area, so people were always popping in with jars full of bugs, spiders and reptiles for him to identify. He had quite a collection of dead things in formaldehyde in jars. He was particularly amused when someone brought him a Funnel-Web Spider (the deadly one) on Christmas Day. He even made up a song about it!
Is it true a lot of people have homes underground out in the outback
Yes, mainly in some of the opal fields in central Australia. After mining out the opal, the shafts and tunnels left behind make good places to retreat from the heat. The rock is firm and doesn't tend to drop on your head at awkward moments, but it is reasonably easy to dig through, so turning an old opal mine into a 4 bedroom luxury home is a relatively easy thing to do. It makes sense, because like any far flung community, using local materials is a lot easier and cheaper than importing bricks and timber, etc.
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Leolaia
Lots of gollywog dolls on display in NT and QLD shops.
Plus lots of paternalism I saw. Spent the morning in an aborigine town in the bush and guess who was running the police, the bakery, the store, etc.? Not aborigines. At least in Normanton I bought ice at a store that looked like it was run by an aborigine family. And in Burketown I met a woman who lived there all her life who seemed quite close to some Aborigine friends...but who knows... at one of the roadhouses, the owners were very polite and courteous to the Aborigines who come to fill their cars up with cases of beer (no doubt obliging for $$$), and at the same time complaining once they left how lazy and stoopid and drunk they are, etc.
It was pretty surreal.
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Stephanus
Plus lots of paternalism I saw. Spent the morning in an aborigine town in the bush and guess who was running the police, the bakery, the store, etc.? Not aborigines. At least in Normanton I bought ice at a store that looked like it was run by an aborigine family. And in Burketown I met a woman who lived there all her life who seemed quite close to some Aborigine friends...but who knows... at one of the roadhouses, the owners were very polite and courteous to the Aborigines who come to fill their cars up with cases of beer (no doubt obliging for $$$), and at the same time complaining once they left how lazy and stoopid and drunk they are, etc.
It was pretty surreal.
There are some very big problems involved in the whole thing. There are lots of causes, and probably lots of solutions. But they aren't easy ones. The easy ones have all been tried. "Just sit in Canberra and throw money" has been tried for at least my lifetime. When you just give people money, when they've got no opportunities to spend it in order to make a difference and there're no jobs to help foster some independence and self-esteem and self-reliance, then sitting around drinking beer all day is probably as good a thing to do as any. Sad to say, it's not unique to here. Ottawa throws huge sums of money at Canadian Aboriginal communities, with pretty similar results, or so I understand. One thing I do know, solutions aimed at easing "the White Man's Guilt" aren't working.
It's strange, but yesterday afternoon, when I left this board and had a chance to calm down, I took my youngest to his Grandma's to work in her yard for some pocket money. Mum showed me photos of my nephew and his new baby. Then she showed me a picture that came with a plea for donations towards "indigenous health", a picture of some aboriginal kids all sitting on a log, all smiles. And said something about "aren't they beautiful?" I was wondering if it was a set up; if she'd been reading this thread and was taking the mick - it just seemed very strange, what with the timing. There was a bit of banter and I ended up saying that the only Aborigines I ever knew or hung out with wore suits and ties and were my co-workers in Sydney office blocks.
So what's a real Aborigine? The tourist authority version that the documentary programmes always show, painted up in ceremonial paint, or taking people around the scrub sampling bush tucker? The one's you've seen buying beer and the ones both my barber (hostile to Aborigines) and my mother(sympathetic towards Aborigines) have observed, lying out in the scrub somewhere in Northern Australia, passed out and surrounded by empty beer cans? The ones I know who have jobs in offices in Sydney?
I wish I had some answers. I find that the more I study and look at these issues, I end up with just more questions.
