"The report describes the health conditions and outcomes among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as “a disturbing picture”.

RUBBISH

It is not a "disturbing" picture.

It is SHAMEFUL picture.

Yes, SHAMEFUL.

As I have pointed out previously Aborigines on average die 17 YEARS younger than the average for non-Aboriginal Australians. Aboriginal life expectancy is worse than Gaza.

See:

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/statistics/index.html

Using ANY of the generally accepted measures of population health and welfare, Aborigines lag behind. They experience higher infant mortality rates, are less likely to complete school, experience higher unemployment, have greater incarceration rates and higher levels of substance abuse than the general population.

I wish Keim and McGree had focused less on obscure UN committees and more on spelling out the truly appalling conditions in which most Aborigines live.

Steven,

There isn't just one 'gap': in the cities, Indigenous people who are employed, can expect to live almost as long as other Australians, while in the remote communities, thegap can be forty years and more: ask around, people who have lived and worked in remote communities will tell you that there are funerals all the time, sometimes weekly, sometimes more often. Ask them how old these poor people were and your answer will usually be 'under forty'.

I lived and worked as a labourer in one fairly well-off community here in SA, back in the seventies. Very few of the guys my age are still alive. Many of my friends died long ago, in their twenties and thirties. A handful were still living into their fifties. And it's not much different for the women either. As well, quite a few children and teenagers died, some from drowning in the Murray, a couple from petrol-sniffing, one in a horrific car fire.

Why, you might ask (I hope you do, otherwise how do we know what can be done about early deaths ?):
:grog, for one - one Saturday afternoon, I was chatting to one bloke and he said, 'you know, you and me are the only sober blokes on this place.'

: This community is only twenty km from towns, and most of the men worked. In more remote communities, good food is far more expensive and hard to come by (in the absence of vegetable gardens, orchards, chook-yards, milk-cows and small killing flocks) and almost nobody is genuinely employed, putting in eight hours a day of solid work.

: so diet and exercise are way below par in remotecommunities.

: With poor housing, hygiene in remote communities is bound to be pretty casual.

Many of these conditions apply also to the lifelong-unemployed in country towns and outer suburbs.

Joe

TBC

The only sure way to reduce poverty in all its aspects is education. Not only the academic, but also the social and ethical, together with teaching of responsibilities. Better health and living standards tend to follow on as education provides wealth and money to afford these things.

[continued]

If this is correct, then we can't say we don't know the reasons for the gap. There is no mystery about them. The question then becomes: what to do ? Who is supposed to do it ? And the elephant in the room is: what can the people themselves do about their own health, how can they be more self-determining in living more healthy lives ?

In communities with ample water, growing much of their own food would be a start. A couple of thousand dollars would buy much of the basic equipment: seed, fertiliser, forks, piping. Another couple of thousand would pay for a small Husqvarna cultivator on larger gardens. A thousand dollars would be all that would be needed to set up a chook-yard. Over time, a thousand dollars might be all that is needed to put in a fruit orchard. A few thousand dollars would get you a couple of milk-cows, shelter sheds and water-troughs. Ten thousand dollars over time, and you could do the lot.

So money is not the issue. Controlling grog and drugs, and communities organising themselves might help. A recreation officer/health educator could organise fitness clubs for the unemployed population, sports activities for kids and young adults, while many others could be engaged in the gardens. It's not rocket science. But it would take an imaginative approach to leasing suitable land adjacent to housing areas for the gardens, chooks, orchards, cows and sheep.

Self-determination should not be a fraud, a smoke-screen for the re-colonisation and re-segregation of Aboriginal people. But if it is clearly not working, and doesn't look like ever really working, then surely Aboriginal people must have other options, including the dreaded move to the towns and cities: and THAT hasn't done much harm to the people already working there.

Joe

“‘“The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health”””.

Bit of sloppy drafting there, if it’s reported correctly. Nobody or no organisation or state can grant the ‘right’ to a high standard of physical and mental health. All that can be offered is TREATMENT (of the highest standard attainable, perhaps) of physical and mental health problems.

When people decide to distance themselves from modern facilities, become addicted to alcohol and other mind-altering substances (aborigines), or find themselves in prison (mostly for drug use and offences related to drug use) they have deliberately distanced themselves from the mainstream and, also deliberately, distanced themselves from mainstream medical care which is, for Australia, the highest in the world.

As for illegal entrants – the only people in detention – they receive the necessary medical care, even though they are not morally entitled to be here, let alone enjoy the benefits Australians have. As for mental care, this is largely a con to gain release and, even if sometimes it is not, that’s too bad. Like many other people who have brought on their own medical problems – physical and mental – they can hardly blame the Australian health system for what they have had no need to incur.

Like all other UN reports, the one these authors are relying on should be treated with the contempt it deserves. The UN would be much better employed looking into the shocking conditions in the countries of most of the UN fat cats infesting that corrupt organisation, which continually criticises Western democratic countries like Australia.

The authors, one a mouthpiece of “Australian Lawyers for Human Rights”, they other law a ‘reformer’ and human rights warrior, would also do better by picking on some other country, rather than on their own country’s standards, which surpass the rest of the world.

So Leich,-in a nutshell:

1)Aborigines are bringing this upon themselves-so ALL of them do not deserve any better care.

2)Refugee's/Illegals shouldn't be here anyway so THEY don't deserve any better.

3)UN is useless. (Here we agree).

3) Authors: One a human rights lawyer-the scumbag!.!.!.!
One a law reformer/human rights warrior-trouble making barstard!.!.!

4)Nothing wrong with our system-it is the best.

Right. Sorted.
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