No. No. No!

We keep hearing that we need to work with Aboriginal elders and the like, as indeed this author espouses, but that is the problem!

Without getting into too much of a leftist bash (I don't want to be strung up after all) it is the policies that the left established that have led to this situation.

Noel Pearson had the courage recently to directly link leftist ideas to the situation, and I praise him for his honesty.

We need to run their communities, but this shouldn't be looked at as some sort of racism. It is simply a fact that western Europeans are better at governance than all other cultures.

We don't seem to fall to corruption anywhere near the level of our African, Asian, Arab, or Indigenous brothers.

Remember ATSIC? Where did all the money go? I know it went down their throats or up their arms, but we're talking billions here, of taxpayers money.

We are entitled to see results.

The title of this article is right but many of the words don't live up to it.

We needed drastic action, that is being done. Hold off the criticism, give it time to work. If only you types were as critical of your own policies we wouldn't even be in this situation.

I can't believe how many people I just offended!

[as the music plays, we see the 'White Warlock' sprinting off into the distance, before the leftist establishment, represented here on OLO by the FrankGol's, Rainier's, among others, with their holy book of values and allowed thoughts, catches up to him]

Stay tuned...

No. No. No!, White Warlock

Your assertions – in order of presentation are:

1. Working with Aboriginal elders and the like is the problem.

2. It is the policies that the left established that have led to this situation.

3. We need to run their communities because western Europeans are better at governance than all other cultures.

4. We don't seem to fall to corruption anywhere near the level of our African, Asian, Arab, or Indigenous brothers.

5. ATSIC’s millions were spent on alcohol or drugs.

6. Drastic action is being done but we must not criticize.

So, now let's examine the quality of your evidence and the argument in support of your assertions. But wait! What, nothing? Not a sausage? Not even a hint of how he knows all this? Not a fact or figure in sight?

Is that the sound of cowardly feet I hear sprinting off in the distance? Oh well, that’s the right for you – when you want them to engage in debate, they’ve left.

Some Good News

One of the initiatives of the Martin government has been to extend secondary education to Year 12 in some remote communities. A measure of its success is that last year 11 students completed their Northern Territory Certificate of Education at Maningrida Community Education Centre, bringing the total graduates for the last 3 years to 23. This is a good news story which needs to be built on.

In April over 500 members of the community celebrated the students' graduation, and that of 3 indigenous staff members who completed the Certificate III in Indigenous Education, in a moving ceremony. For more see my plog: 'Labor View from Broome' http://laborview.blogspot.com/

The Arnhem Land Maningrida community was featured on SBS's Living Black this week about its program to improve community life which pre-dates Howard's latest quick-fix approach.

While obviously well-meaning, the underlying problem with this article is that it's a classic case of the author treating Aboriginals as though they have the same aspirations, abilities and capacities as he has. Unfortunately, this is where the idealism expressed in the article dramatically diverges from the reality.

The fact is that Aboriginals are where they are because, in the main, they want to be there. In other words, at their core, they're essentially uninterested in developing themselves. Trying to help Aboriginals in this situation, is like pitting a novice chess player against a Grandmaster and expecting that the novice has a chance to win: everyone knows that the GM will wipe the novice off the board and neither will have a fulfilling experience.

So, by all means express hope for the future, but when he asks why all the recommendations are not being addressed, there are probably thousands of reasons why many of them won't work in practice (nowhere near enough governance in Aboriginal communities, tyranny of distance works against getting infrastructure, past rorting of funds leaves a bad taste in the Government's mouth as well as a loss of confidence, the tribal culture is just such an impediment to progress, etc etc etc).

You can tell that the author has never really had to grapple with these issues.

No, it's not time to be visionary, it's much more important to get more critical of the process and actually plan and fund things that have a realistic chance of working!

As an American knowing only a little of the history of what took place in the white-aborigine early encounters, I fear that I have little significant to offer to this debate. I would like to offer up a question, did the whites drive the aborigines into desert, God-forbidden areas? Do you expect more of their abilitities to cope with the wastelands in which they live than you could with your brilliance and creativity?? Why do you think that any human being does not want comfort, peace and adequate food and shelter? I may be wrong but it seems to me, uninformed as I am, that in Australia you have surpassed the lack of sensitivity toward your aborigines that we have shown toward our natives in America.

Mr Howard is doing the best thing, but why in blue blazes - with such a long fortunate period in politics - has he not done it previously?

As an old Black Jack McKewan follower, somewhat similar to young Barnaby Joyce, do not relish politicians as one did in the 1930's, too much success gained by either stealing the agenda or jumping in on the grouter - something which could never be hidden in our Bush districts, the local pub discussions would usually see to that.

Whether the public has really got dumber possibly through what is called consumer satisfaction through cheap Chinese wares and Chinese hunger for our quarry stocks, but reckon the old hands would have seen through this corporate culture which we thought we had got rid of as a result of WW2, but no way, with Howard's mob it is back again as sure as we can still say Bob's yer Uncle.

alk would wajumping in on the grouter and finally become so popular with a naive publicbnally en enjoys politics, but would rather be on the outside looking in,