Archive for the 'Current Affairs' Category
The stupid is strong with this one…
Elizabeth July 14th, 2007
In light of the recent troubles in the Northern Territory, it’s a relief to know that local government is taking its responsibilities seriously. Phew, now we can all relax!
Darwin’s lord mayor has been found guilty of using stolen council funds to buy a fridge, underwear and a Darth Vader voice distorter.
Peter Adamson, who has been on leave of absence since December, today maintained his innocence and refused to resign from his elected position.
“I know, myself, that I at no stage stole or have been dishonest,” he told reporters outside court.
Adamson, 47, a former Country Liberal Party (CLP) minister in the Northern Territory government, was found guilty today in Darwin Magistrates Court of two of the four charges against him, including stealing and making a false statement in declaration.
The court found the mayor went on a “spending spree” with stolen council funds less than 24 hours before the end of the 2005/06 financial year, buying a $910 fridge and $1,800 worth of gift vouchers.
The fridge turned up in an East Timorese thrift store about four months later, while police found most of the items bought with the gift vouchers - including women’s underwear, the Star Wars character voice distorter, and a punching bag - at Adamson’s home or his council office.
Adamson signed a declaration last October in which he claimed to have donated the fridge to a “needy family” through St Vincent de Paul.
He also claimed to have given the gift vouchers to various organisations for the purpose of fundraising.
Read the rest at SMH.
More updates when I’m done weeping for the future of Australia.
Terrified families flee in panic
Elizabeth June 27th, 2007
PANIC about the Howard Government’s crackdown on child sexual abuse has spread widely throughout remote Aboriginal communities, where parents fear their children will be taken away in a repeat of the stolen generation.
Some families have already fled the first community to be targeted, Mutitjulu at Uluru, but the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, blames “liars” who have something to hide from police and military personnel for terrorising people and spreading hysteria.
“The reason people are scared there at the moment is because people are putting around that the army are coming to take their children away, that the army is coming in to shoot the dogs and the Government is going to take away their money and make them sit there and do what they’re told,” Mr Brough said.
Social workers and indigenous MPs in the Northern Territory are being swamped with phone calls from Aborigines wanting to know what will happen in their communities.
An indigenous MP, Alison Anderson, said she had been trying to persuade families in her huge desert electorate south of Alice Springs not to take their children and flee before police and troops arrived, which in some places could be within days.
“In one telephone hook-up last night people told me they were going to run away to a waterhole 50 kilometres away,” Ms Anderson said. “I have heard from many people thinking they may do the same thing. I’ve urged them not to panic and to stay on the communities and work with the people who arrive.”
Marion Scrymgour, a Northern Territory Government minister, said: “There’s a lot of fear, particularly among elder woman. Not so long ago - 30 to 40 years - children were being taken out of the arms of Aboriginal mothers. There is real fear that is going to happen again.”
Read the rest at the Sydney Morning Herald
I don’t have time to articulate my thoughts on this right now, as I’m knee-deep in boxes and packing tape, but I just wanted to register my complete lack of surprise. I can’t imagine the panic that I would feel if I was in these peoples’ shoes, especially considering our government’s shameful record throughout their entire lifetimes. How can Howard drop this landmine from Canberra and not communicate it properly to the people it will directly affect?
Just read Patrick’s post about why Howard is absolutely correct in comparing this mess to Katrina. I’m cranky.
I’m seizing control, says PM.
Elizabeth June 22nd, 2007
JOHN Howard will seize control of Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory, banning alcohol and pornography and using the military to attack the “national emergency” of alcohol-fuelled sexual abuse of children.
In the most dramatic revolution in Aboriginal affairs since the 1967 referendum gave the commonwealth power to enact special laws for Aborigines and include them in the census, the Prime Minister will forcibly quarantine half of the social security payments to most indigenous community residents so that parents spend money on food and rent instead of alcohol.
Scores of doctors will be drafted to examine all 23,000-plus indigenous children in the Territory aged under 16 for evidence of sexual abuse.
Over the next month, Mr Howard will flood indigenous communities with police and the military, who will offer logistical support to rebuild communities from the ground up.
The unprecedented power grab comes a week after the release of a report that revealed rampant and often-unreported child sexual abuse in Territory indigenous communities, with children as young as three exposed to hard-core pornography.
It described frequent attacks on children by family members and their friends after parties featuring drug use and binge-drinking.
[Re-posted from The Australian, story continues at the source.]
Some additional reading:
Howard announces sweeping changes to indigenous policy (stoush.net)
Son of Tampa - The Transcripts (Larvatus Prodeo)
Tampa, 2007 edition (Larvatus Prodeo)
Senator Andrew Bartlett’s response
I’m seizing control, says PM (SMH)
Escape plan for Aboriginal students (The Australian)
No one consulted me, says Chief Minister (SMH)
Howard’s announcement yesterday of these dramatic strategies has caused heated debate all over the country. It’s been really encouraging to see that so many people are motivated to discuss a topic that has been sadly neglected for so long, and I’ve been following a number of interesting discussions throughout the day.
Unfortunately, for every thoughtful and considered piece of commentary I’ve encountered in the blogosphere, there is another article that simply exists to deliver uninformed condemnation of Indigenous people as a whole. In making special laws for a subset of our population - whether those laws are right or wrong - our government has essentially created an “open mic night” for all those people who wish to make exclusionary statements of their own. I suppose it comes as little surprise that so many have interpreted Howard’s strategy as some sort of official sanction for otherwise unacceptable racist statements.
I don’t honestly believe that this was his intention, for what it’s worth, but I can’t believe it was unexpected or undesired either. However, there are plenty of other people out there who have already pointed out the connection between Howard’s announcement and the timing of the upcoming Federal election without me joining in for now. What really inspired me to write about this topic was the underlying resentment that so many of us seem to carry towards our indigenous people.
I grew up in a city in Far North QLD where the anti-Aboriginal sentiment was strong. A small number of Aboriginal people lived in parks and on the Esplanade, and it would be dishonest of me to say that they were pillars of society. These people only bothered to conceal their wine casks or beer if a police car approached, and they often took the bladders out of the cardboard cartons to make that process a little easier. Drunkenness in broad daylight was a daily thing, and there were certain parks that you simply didn’t walk through if you were by yourself. I remember being grabbed on the arm by a homeless woman as I walked through the park with a school group, and needing a teacher’s help to get free. I don’t know what the situation is like in Cairns now, but in the late 90’s that’s just how it was.
I never felt unsafe in Cairns, because I knew where I should and shouldn’t go. These people didn’t go out of their way to find trouble, but conflict within their family units was part of their everyday lives. My dad’s office was across the road from one of these parks, and it wasn’t unusual to see two people beating each other up from the foyer if I was stuck waiting for him after school. Interestingly enough, it was almost always the women who began and ended those fights. That was just my observation.
Many people that I knew in FNQ had a very hostile attitude towards Aboriginal people, no doubt as a result of the things they saw on the streets. It never occurred to them that these homeless Aborigines were just a visible segment of the population, and not at all representative of the average. Racist jokes were a staple of the backyard BBQ (”How do you stop an Aborigine from drowning? Take your foot off his head!“) and if you asked a local they were responsible for 99% of the crime in the city. I heard more blanket statements in those years than I’ve ever heard since - even after September 11.
So maybe that’s why I was especially angry to read the ignorant commentary that I came across today. No, the solution is not to bomb the NT. Or kill all the men. Or put them all onto a ship and sink it out at sea. In the space of just a few hours I came so many statements that dehumanised Aboriginal people in this way, and absolved the rest of us of any responsibility for the state they find themselves in now. It’s not only offensive, it’s ignorant and does nothing at all to help the victims of this abuse. Furthermore, I am willing to bet that these same people would not publish those statements if they were directed at Muslim people in our current climate. Racism is racism, regardless of the group at which it is targeted.
I have witnessed alcohol-fueled violence between Indigenous Australians first-hand, but I don’t pretend to know the extent of the problems being faced in the NT. The statistics paint a horrible picture of widespread child abuse and domestic violence in communities up there, and I agree completely that the situation deserved our complete attention a long time ago. I totally support the government’s decision to do something meaningful to protect these children and I hope that the issue doesn’t blow over in a couple of weeks because we’re distracted by something else.
However, I don’t believe that Howard has got it right. It’s pretty hard to ignore the fact that these decisions have been made without any consultation with community leaders or even Clare Martin, the NT’s Chief Minister. Instead we have a disturbing paternalistic intervention that does not address the two biggest contributors to their predicament: Addiction, and the horrific events of the past 200 years that began the cycle of this widespread addiction. For the record, non-indigenous Australia is responsible for most of those.
Andrew Bartlett has responded to the news on his blog, and I found this part most interesting:
Professor Boni Robertson, who compiled a similar report in relation to Indigenous children in Queensland in 1999, has been reported making very critical comments about aspects of the plan. “When is this knee-jerk nonsense going to stop and when are they going to start proper consultation with our people so that we can get it done properly?”
You can read a short summary of the report here. It includes this list of “important points made by the Inquiry”:
- Child sexual abuse is serious, widespread and often unreported.
- Most Aboriginal people are willing and committed to solving problems and helping their children. They are also eager to better educate themselves.
- Aboriginal people are not the only victims and not the only perpetrators of sexual abuse.
- Much of the violence and sexual abuse occurring in Territory communities is a reflection of past, current and continuing social problems which have developed over many decades.
- The combined effects of poor health, alcohol and drug abuse, unemployment, gambling, pornography, poor education and housing, and a general loss of identity and control have contributed to violence and to sexual abuse in many forms.
- Existing government programs to help Aboriginal people break the cycle of poverty and violence need to work better. There is not enough coordination and communication between government departments and agencies, and this is causing a breakdown in services and poor crisis intervention. Improvements in health and social services are desperately needed.
- Programs need to have enough funds and resources and be a long-term commitment.
I don’t pretend to have any of the answers. These people lack the funds and resources to make positive changes through self-determinism alone, but there is no excuse for our government to bypass the indigenous community leaders who really are willing to get their hands dirty. All I know is that Howard’s approach is treating the symptoms rather than the disease, and I don’t see much evidence of long-term policies to complement his new laws.
And if today’s reading taught me one thing, it’s this: In order for there to be long-term improvements there needs to be a shift in attitude from non-Indigenous Australia as well. Unless we improve our understanding of these issues we cannot hope for people in remote Aboriginal communities to understand ours. We could all start by showing a little respect for our fellow Australians in the way that we write, and resist the urge to make simplistic generalisations that ignore our role in this mess.
“Australia” up for sale
Elizabeth February 9th, 2007
A Kuwaiti firm has said it was negotiating with regional and international investors to sell all or part of the “Australia” segment it had purchased in Dubai’s The World property project.
Investment Dar, a publicly-quoted company on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, two years ago bought the Australian continent on The World, some 300 islands shaped like a world map off Dubai’s coast.
The company said in a statement posted on the KSE website that its subsidiary, Oqyana Real Estate, which is managing the project is “holding talks to sell all or significant parts of Australian continent.”
If the negotiations were successful, the company expects to make profits of about 1.5 billion dollars or more “based on available information,” the statement said Sunday.
The company had been planning a 3.5-billion-dollar real estate and tourism development project on its part of The World islands.
The project would comprise more than 1,500 apartments with panoramic views, 90 water homes, 170 canal homes and more than 150 exclusive beachfront mansions, housing in all up to 15,000 people, as well as top class hotels and retail facilities.
The World is up the coast from three artificial islands being built in the shape of palm trees, one of which is already completed.
It is located four kilometres (2.5 miles) off Dubai’s shores halfway between the landmark Burj Al-Arab hotel and Port Rashid.
via SMH
Prehistoric lovers found locked in eternal embrace
Elizabeth February 8th, 2007
ROME, Italy (AP) — It could be humanity’s oldest story of doomed love.
Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua, just 25 miles south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of “Romeo and Juliet.”
Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric pair are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, as their teeth were found intact, said Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig.
“As far as we know, it’s unique,” Menotti told The Associated Press by telephone from Milan. “Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging.”
The burial site was located Monday during construction work for a factory building in the outskirts of Mantua. Alongside the couple, archaeologists found flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife, Menotti said.
Experts will now study the artifacts and the skeletons to determine the burial site’s age and how old the two were when they died, she said.
Although the Mantua pair strike a rare and touching pose, archaeologists have found prehistoric burials in which the dead hold hands or have other contact, said Luca Bondioli, an anthropologist at Rome’s National Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum.
The find has “more of an emotional than a scientific value.” But it does highlight how the relationship people have with each other and with death has not changed much from the period in which humanity first settled in villages, learning to farm the land and tame animals, he said.
“The Neolithic is a very formative period for our society,” he said. “It was when the roots of our religious sentiment were formed.”
The two bodies, which cuddle closely while facing each other on their sides, were probably buried at the same time, an indication of a possible sudden and tragic death, Bondioli said.
“It’s rare for two young people to die at the same time, and that makes us want to know why and who they were, but it will be very difficult to find out.”
He said DNA testing could determine whether the two were related, “but that still leaves other hypotheses; the Romeo and Juliet possibility is just one of many.”
via CNN
With apologies to the involuntary single people reading, I know February is hard enough without stories like this!
Hospital keeps baby until parents pay
Elizabeth January 27th, 2007
AN Indonesian clinic is keeping a baby until his poor parents pay the bill for his delivery, a report said Thursday.
Pedicab driver Sutrisno is 2.2 million rupiah (about $320s) short of the 3.5 million rupiah bill owed to the clinic, The Jakarta Post reported.
Mr Sutrisno, 33, has paid 1.3 million rupiah to the Murni Asih clinic near Jakarta after borrowing from friends.
“I don’t know where I’ll get another 2.2 million rupiah from,” he said.
The clinic in Bojong Nangka allowed his wife Sumarni, 30, to leave after she gave birth last week but is keeping the baby boy until the bill is paid, the Post said.
“We’ll take care of the baby and will return him to his parents as soon as they’ve paid the 3.5 million rupiah in full,” clinic spokesman Fendi Sihombing told the Post.
He said the parents had initially agreed to the arrangement.
“We didn’t take the baby hostage,” he said.
via news.com.au
Victim mugged for his beer
Elizabeth December 21st, 2006
The article below needs to be preserved for the sake of history, and to inform those who are unfamiliar with my country. This crime is about as Aussie as a koala fart.
A man was punched in the face and had his beer stolen during a robbery in Melbourne’s north-east early today.Two men left the Northcote Railway Station and were walking east towards Arthurton Road just before 12.30am (AEDT), when three men approached them, a police spokesman said.One of the trio asked one of the men for a beer, which he was carrying in a plastic bag.
The man handed over the beer but when he refused to hand over more the group surrounded the two men and punched the man not carrying the beer in the face.
The offenders took six cans of beer before fleeing.
“The victims said one of the men had a chain wrapped around his hand and believed that another was also armed with a knife,” the spokesman said.
He said police were searching for three men described as a Caucasian, Asian and an Aboriginal man aged between 17 and 20.
Anyone with any information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333.
via SMH
I think everybody reading this has experienced a craving like that. Why are we so quick to knock the innovators in society?
