What a disjointed load of waffle.

Whatever it is that this author is studying at Cambridge, it is not communication.

The Author said:

>>when the capitalist reaps the profit, it is his and his alone, a product of genius, worth and enterprise; when a loss results (such losses are never the “fault” of the capitalist), the workers must carry him - it is the burden we must all share.<<

OR.. putting this the other way around.....

When the going is good.. we all should share in the reward....when the market is suddenly flooded with cheap goods from China,making the boss's business uncompetitive, the workers say "The Boss must now carry us, and help us pay our mortgages"

and there are those of you out there who deny 'original sin' :) good grief..wakey wakey.

Quite apart from Howard/Coalition "sorry" NOWWWW we can see if the 'politicized rhetoric' from labor, which USED that issue to:

a) Damage the Howard government.
b) Advance its own image and interests in the electorate...

will now actually DO anything more than just 'consult widely in the community' ...OH... MY....GOODNESS.. if ever I've heard 'This is in the too hard basket....push it aside now that we have power'.....that was it....
but you never know..they might suddenly 'get religion' on "Sorry" and actually say it...

The question is.... if that's all the Indigenous people want... well and good. Lets see if that IS all......

Unfortunately, history is a lot like eggs...once scrambled and cooked... most difficult to unscramble.

In my view there are some specific things which can be identified and fixed (like unpaid/withheld wages to stockmen and servants of large land holdings) with interest of course.... but the land ? hmmmm.. something tells me a lotttt of blood would be spilt if that ever became more than just a convenient topic for Gary Foley and company to make a fuss about.

Rather than apologise to the stolen generation Howard put the boot in when he sent the army into Northern Territory and turned all aborigines into welfare recipients on half dole money.

CDEP programs were cancelled so that the aboriginals income could be quarantined to stop them drinking, gambling and indulging in illegal substances. Now that there is no work what do the adults do?

There has been no increase in sexual abuse cases reported and the roving medical teams aren't experienced in picking up middle ear infections and other diseases that are endemic to aboriginal communities but uncommon in white Australia.

If I lived in squalor and among customs that included horrible abuse and was rescued from it I would probably be wanting to say thank you rather than waiting for a symbolic apology that changes nothing. The victim mentality that continues to keep many in bondage is not helped by the academics who refuse to acknowledge that not all white European culture is evil. The atrocious state of affairs and corruption in South Africa today testifies to this. Although because the blacks are the major villians it is not newsworthy among those who have a black arm band view of history. Government responsibility today is to put an end to old customs that see young girls and boys raped.

For Goodness sake!

John Howard did not commit atrocities against the aboriginal tribes of Australia. He might have been in the process of buying and selling 'you and me' to the highest global corporate bidder and he has paid the price for that. Neither Howard nor any Australian is guilty of crimes against aboriginals which occurred decades and centuries past.

If we are to say sorry to aboriginals for evil deeds and bad decisions our misguided ancestors enacted then in the same sitting, we would expect aboriginal leaders to say sorry on behalf of their ancestors for invading this land in waves over the last 40,000 years and butchering and displacing earlier tribes.

That would be fair. It acknowledges, as dubious as it might be, that we are ALL responsible for the barbarous and hurtful acts of our antecedends. Not just one party to the agreement.

The real issue of better health and education for aboriginal people is more important. Thus far that objective has not flourished. We feel nothing in common. Well now we do. We are all rotten invading eco-species with hearts of gold when it suits us. With something that powerful in common we ought to move forward in a competetive but respectful spirit. We all can emerge prosperous,creative Australians with the individual aims and ambitions we were born with.

However IMMIGRATION lauds wealthy migrants and sets up a class system mentality that not only alienates aboriginals but also middle and working class Australians. Our corrupted economic GROWTH strategy based more on growing votes&per-capita GST revenues rather than HUMAN VALUES means IMMIGRATION is failing. Only a few undeserving individuals with a stranglehold on our economy benefit. One of the things about the Election was that Australian's want a CHANGE and part of that change is to halt Immigration.

That is one more thing we and Aboriginal AUSTRALIANS have in common. We all must stand firm against unsustainable IMMIGRATION into drought and climate uncertainty. Every extra per-capita migrant coming here is undermining our environment, time&respect for eachother and the chance for a new age of aboriginal/whiteman cooperation&understanding.

We are back to the old leftie 'sorry' campaign again, didn't take long.
Going by this author's belief, I and millions of others could demand 'sorries' from the Vikings, Normans,Saxons and goodness only knows how many others who conquered and integrated or moved on.The Aboriginals are probably lucky it was England who took this country,at least the English were developing a conscience about the treatment of natives.
This very stupid 'sorry' business means nothing to any modern person now,apart from a mindless few. Grow up , move on and bury the whole inane subject.

Sorry is such an easy word to say, but if you havent been in a situation of abuse and neglect. Then its understandable that Sorry is a hard word for you.

Thanks for proving my case:

Every extra per-capita migrant coming here is undermining our environment, time&respect for each other and the chance for a new age of aboriginal/whiteman cooperation & understanding.

IMMIGRATION MUST CEASE NOW well before PEAKOIL.

Speaking on behalf of all australian's and especially aborigines: We need extra migrants & their gas-guzzling SUVs in this country like we need a hole in the head.

I do not want anyone to apologise on my behalf for something I had no part in. They have no moral or legal right to do that. I am insulted by the suggestion that anyone believes they have a right to demand an apology or offer oneon my behalf.
If a wrong is done then the apology must come from the perpetrator and it must be offered to the person or people to whom the wrong was done. It cannot and should not be offered or accepted by descendants of either group. There has to be a point at which these things stop and that point has passed.
The whole 'sorry' business is not about being sorry or apologising. It is about politics. It allows some individuals to feed on media attention. If an apology was offered then they would find fault with it or demand more because they have become dependent on this issue just as outspoken 'activists' in other areas are dependent. It
is a way of life for some people and they would be lost without their 'problem'.

Communicat:

Australia as a nation is bigger than you or I. It also has a history that extends back far beyond our descendents, and far beyond even the first Indigenous Australians. It is a piece of land that has been around for millions of years and has seen a lot.

Australia isn't just the present. It is not just the people who live in her today. It is an amalgamation of the past and the present.

The country - as a nation of both past and present - should recognise its mistakes, apologise for the damage and hurt that echoes throughout generations of a culture that has been displaced - and get on with the healing process.

You're right, Sorry IS political. John Howard made it that way because of his arrogance and his hubris. It's a simple word that would mean so much to so many. Say it and get it out of the way so the country can move on.

Another example of Howards' divisive and exclusive legacy.

LET'S take the semantics out of this.I believe that forgiveness does more for the giver than it does for the perpetrator who is held responsible for a crime and now forgiven.As an Australian who went to school with aboriginals in North Queensland who lived in kero tin shacks on the river bank, as kids they were our equals, but the white adults, I was to realise when older, considered we whites as superior types of beings.The "white Australia" policy was universally supported by most whites then on the assumption that mixed races were likely to be deficient in intelligence to "civilised anglo/saxons".So I know, I personally, am not being held responsible for the crimes done to indiginees in Australia's history.But, as a polite and well meant gesture, saying SORRY does help -me- right the wrong that was done and I feel happy to help the present generation however I can.I am a citizen and MY AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT MUST APOLOGISE OR I WILL NOT SUPPORT IT!

SAYING SORRY !

Though not a labor voter, but just a retired old Cockie who in the wheatbelt district of Dalwallinu, in my young days nearly 150 K’s across and taking in the goldmining town of Paynes Find, had much to do with people of the Wongi and Yamagee tribes, finding them as gracious as or better as many white persons.

It hurts much in my ageing years to have my sons and their sons treating today’s Aborigines like low life, mostly caused I believe by Howard's political officialdom saying that we owe no apology to the Aborigines for occupying their homelands.

Though not a Labor voter, one does not only thank Kevin Rudd, our new PM for promising a declaration of apology in the coming days, but also Malcolm Turnbull, who has had the decency and commonsense to do
what Canada in the last few years - to ask forgiveness of the Canadian Indigines.

In an earlier Post, and as a qualified historian regarding WA history, did report how angry and desperate I felt to write how Midgericoo the ageing father of the exceedingly bright and popular Yagan was simply depicted in colonial reports as shot at 20 paces out side the Perthtown barracks.

Indeed, it has been so long, one could go on to suggest that as also has been suggested by a Roman Catholic Padre that following Canada we could offer our natives permanent representation in our Parliament similar also to Canada - and of course figures in New Zealand, but was part of an official Armistice with the Maories.

As having a natural bent for all types of history, and still regarded in our group as a portrayer of unecessary Old Pap stuff, might conclude that if the title also includes Left Wing Lunacy, might say the way some of our beaten Libs are still carrying on, must say I am now very proud to be among, what historians do call part of the Avant Garde, or the heralders
of coming change, despite the often raggedy arsed camp followers.

I spoke again to some aborigines today (real ones). One young man was telling me how his grandmother was the first to see white men and that they were treated very kindly. He told me how much worse off the generation are today without the missionaries teaching them about God. Many of the kids are being abused due to drugs alcohol and pornography. We need to say sorry for those taken for the wrong reasons but also say sorry for the last 50 years of State and Federal Government neglect in not taking away the abused children. The black arm band theory has led to multitudes of children being neglected and abused. Just look at the 12 year old girl left for dead by her aboriginal foster parents recently in Darwin or the young boy starved to death while his parents or carers boozed on. The symbolism might bring a smile to some academics but will not save one child from future neglect and abuse.

I stand by my view that there is no moral or legal right for anyone to apologise to anyone for a situation over which they had no control.
For once Howard had it right - we can regret what happened in the past (and I think he did) but we cannot take responsibility for it. We have no right to apologise for the actions of other people, often long dead.
Is there some sort of superstition attached to this?(Like a religious group baptising their ancestors?) Or a belief that 'all will be well when we apologise'? If that is the case then a lot of people are going to feel let down and disappointed. Far from unifying the nation an apology is going to deepen some divisions and cause others.
I also regret what happened in the past but my ancestors would have no reason to apologise for their actions - to the contrary.
Ask Australians to sign a document saying they regret what happened and the vast majority would without hesitation. Ask them to sign a document apologising for something they did not do and it would be a very different story.

We are back to meaningless chatter about saying 'sorry' for things done in a time when none of us were here. I have no doubt that the stupid argument will roll on and on , while one side will say, 'it wasn't us' ,the other side will say 'you owe us'.
In the meantime, according to today's paper, there has been sexual and violent abuse of women and children in 97 -yes ninety seven- aboriginal communities across Australia.
Bullies are making sure that no one reports them and the filthy abuse goes on unchecked because the authorities are paralysed by political correctness.
Poor children poor women.

So because our skin is not the same colour as the aboriginies' skin, it is implied that all those of our colour, are responsible for any damages caused by any people of our colour, to any of those of their colour. Racism.

And of course we really believe that the socialists who propogate this nonesense go home in the evening with heart-felt concern for the lost generation, and bend over backwards to help aboriginies when they meet them in the suburbs.
Considering that the average man sticks his finger up at you and 'tailgates' you with his high-beam on if you accidentally cut him off in traffic, I doubt very much that same man spends even .00001% of his life worrying about aboriginies. Socialists are part of the set called "the average man".

Arguement falls into two schools of thought :

- those who seek continued racial discrimination ;

- those who seek no racial discrimination ;

Those for continued racial discrimination argument it is essential racial discrimination continue so as to compensate previous victims of the practice... which creates current practice victims, for whom we need compensate later, which will create new victims, who will need be compensated later...

Purported objections to racism and racist behaviours when examined frequently are just arguements supporting the practice... with a change to the flavour.

Little of arguements in these columns addresses issues needing to be resolved in keeping with the principal of ending racsim.

Comments about "the intervention" whether for and against, rarely addressed underlaying fundamantal human rights principals - and failures, concerning care for children and families.

Why as major landlords are Land Trusts in the NT, SA and WA not required to issue tennants of public funding housing projects basic valid leases to their homes ?

It must be acceptable to deny ALL tennants around Australia - particularly publicly funded housing tennants, any valid leases for their homes...

Why are tennants of major landlords the Land Trusts in the NT, SA and WA all denied valid leases ?

Apparently because giving them leases gives them rights..

“A refusal to say “sorry” to dispossessed Aboriginals”

Correction, the supposedly “dispossessed “ died around 150-200 years ago.

The current aboriginal population are as “disposed” (forfeited by conquest / colonisation) as current Anglo-Saxons, who lost their lands under the Norman invasion of 1066.

“Grand historical crimes which require an apology by the perpetrator’s descendants have certainly spun a commemorative industry that does imply responsibility at first instance.”

Only if one also holds the view that the descendents of Hitler and Stalin are responsible for the crimes of their despotic ancestors.

“Peter Costello was technically a manager on autopilot, a zombie in the Treasury with about as much historical agency as King Canute over waves.”

Actually Canute used the waves to demonstrate to his followers how he could not influence the tide, despite the “Divine Right of Kings”.

I would suggest any Treasurer who understands the limits to government intervention in things which they really cannot and should not influence, demonstrates a wisdom which should be a mandatory requirement for all wannabe politicians.

As for “Minimal government is the slave to the invisible re-ordering of market forces: it is these forces the neo-liberal zealot worships; while governments are merely obstructionist goons who should abdicate.”

Better the government with minimalist attitudes who understands the limits of their capabilities than the arrogant, meddlesome fools who demand we all fall in line behind the socialists flawed and failed belief that “government” has inherited the “Divine Right of Kings” since the move to “constitutional monarchy”.

Dearest Margaret (famous for sharing Ronald Reagans views on “minimal government”) said

We want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the state is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the state.

But let me not show bias, Lenin

“While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State.”

Benoy should stick to "scholarly" pursuits and leave the real world for "real" people to handle