The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > The current state of the Northern Territory intervention > Comments

The current state of the Northern Territory intervention : Comments

By Amanda Midlam, published 31/1/2012

Successful solutions won't be found if the government response flies in the face of Aboriginal culture.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. ...
  8. 10
  9. 11
  10. 12
  11. All
exalting tribal culture adds greatly to the problem rather than solving it. No wonder those in the know treat the 'experts' with contempt. Do an honest study of cultural practices and you will no longer idolise it.
Posted by runner, Wednesday, 1 February 2012 12:15:56 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
All the do gooders forget one thing, it's our money that was being pissed away by these people.

Enough is enough!

Personally, I would like to see all welfare quarantined as its intended purpose is to help people get by, not provide a replacement to income.

After all, what do the indigenous leaders expect.

They say we stole their land some 200 years ago, so, that was 200 years ago.

We didn't have electricity, motorized transport or running water and sewage.

What do you think they would have achieved in the 200 years had we not come along.

And remember, these every day things that make our lives comfortable are also being provided FREE OF CHARGE to many of these people. They just choose not to move with the times.

Their problem, not ours.

I say again, it's time for them to decide who wants to be Australian and who doesn't!
Posted by rehctub, Wednesday, 1 February 2012 6:33:14 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
insults and bile.
Good old Rainier back on the beat.
just tell us what is so insulting in my last post ? In fact, tell us what other untruths I have posted. Unlike yourself I'm not abject to being proven wrong. I'm big & ugly enough t accept it. Are you up to point out my moral wrongs ? Please don't let us wait. Or is it that you find the truth insulting, in that case no-one can help you sort things out.
As I said earlier, the ball's in your court.
Posted by individual, Wednesday, 1 February 2012 6:40:13 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Don't worry about it, Individual, ad hominem attacks are a sure sign of how p1ss-weak somebody's argument is. I wonder what Rainer's real name is, behind 'Rainer', by the way, or where she is from ?

You have a point, that the content of much Aboriginal Studies, and single Aboriginal Culture units, is very problematic. I've been to a compulsory session on 'cultural awareness' and was appalled by the rubbish that was put across by a couple of young lecturers (one of whom I had nursed as a baby), neither of whom had majored in Aboriginal Studies herself - in fact, I'm not sure if either one had actually done any Aboriginal Studies at all. But that didn't matter because 'they were both Indigenous' (at least their mothers were), and 'as we know, knowledge is in one's blood; one is born with culture.'

No. No-one is born modern. No-one is born Old Stone Age either. Environment shapes how we think from birth.

But in its defence, I would respectfully suggest that Old Stone Age Studies can be valuable and fascinating, just as New Stone Age Studies would be most valuable for anthropologists, agricultural historians and economists and students of religion.

But these fields of study most certainly should be taught only by people who are qualified to do so. Far too many lecturers in Aboriginal Culture and Indigenous Studies generally do not have qualifications in Indigenous Studies themselves. At one campus that I am aware of, out of about a dozen Indigenous lecturers, only one has a degree in Aboriginal Studies, and only a handful of the rest have a single unit in the field. So unsurprisingly, lecturers lecture in quite a dogmatic way, frowning on any independent thought or analysis, or criticism. Whether it is true that studfents have been failed for merely disagreeing with the lecturers is not for me to say.

But it is no wonder that so many students compelled to enrol in such units come away very dissatisfied.

Joe Lane
Adelaide
Posted by Loudmouth, Wednesday, 1 February 2012 11:56:46 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
rehctub:

.#...I say again, it's time for them to decide who wants to be Australian and who doesn't…#.!

...Well, methinks that is precisely the point of the article! Un-included as Government policy! All Aboriginal communities are not cloned on each other, (LEEMAA above); and when Government intervention policies include all communities and individuals in the basket as though they were cloned, as the article points out, is at best unhelpful and at worst, exacerbates social cohesion by forcing people to disconnect from established locations, in order to participate in Government benefits (such as housing) !

To explain the differing principals under which white communities exist; if , as Abbott intends in his next term, all (sic) unemployed under 35yo, will be forced to relocate to areas of employment,or risk losing the dole, like it or not. would you like that situation to confront you; imagine you have lived in your home town since birth. You, no doubt, would consider the mandate confronting! Now, paint your skin black, and you are currently an Aboriginal, sharing similar stark choices!
Posted by diver dan, Wednesday, 1 February 2012 12:12:54 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
DD, nobody has to live anywhere othe than where they choose.

Many people choose for different reasons, work commitments being just one.

The whole point is, if one chooses to live where there are no job prospects, then either move, or, stay put, but don't expect the tax payer to support your choice.

It is simply time to stop the wasted welfare, regardless of the color of ones skin, or, their cultural heritage.

Another issue is where parents choose to bring up their families.

You see have a family comes with certain responsibilities and, being able to provide for them, edcate them and guide them towards finacial independence is just part of it.

This is where the baby bonus has been such a bad policy, because, not only do these parents get paid to have kids, but they are allowed to raise them in dead areas.

The fact that many parents choose to have their families in places without these prospects, that again s a personal choice.

Unfortunately, welfare dependancy often filters down from generation to generation, in fact, welfare is often seen as a right, rather than a privilege, and this is the mindset that must change.

The days of free lunches must end.
Posted by rehctub, Wednesday, 1 February 2012 12:51:36 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. ...
  8. 10
  9. 11
  10. 12
  11. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy