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NEITHER YES NOR NO BUT HOW ?
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... (continued) ...

Yet, to many of us, It seems so simple. They just have to do the same as we do. But they can't. Why not? What's wrong with them? If we can do it they can too. They just have to read that article about SEED on the Harvard Magazine that David VK3AUU posted here in his penultimate comment. And with all those privileges and hand-outs they get, it should be easier for them than it is for us.

Unfortunately, as Darwin pointed out some 200 years ago, only those who adapt survive. That is the law of nature. Aborigines are close to nature. If they heard Darwin’s message perhaps they might understand.

Personally, I would find it difficult to walk in the footsteps of an aborigine. To see the world through his eyes. To hear what he hears. To smell what he smells. To feel what he feels. To think as he thinks. To know what he knows. To perceive what he perceives. To survive as he survives.

If I were lost somewhere in the Australian outback what a fantastic feeling of relief I would have at the sight of an aborigine coming towards me. I wonder how he would feel if he were lost in our urban environment and he saw me coming towards him.

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I just love these Australian /Americans (dare I guess Indigenous Australian) that speaks so freely with statistical backup, yet knows nothing of what he speaks.
The approach if anyone had bothered to read the text was one of dreary and bigoted (anti-white) statistical drivel about American politics and racial integrity. One doesn’t get the true gist of his intent until he links his dreary dialogue to the point of his argument lack of indigenous representation.
The main point I am getting at here is just because an article can quote opinions using a large amount of (speculative) data doesn’t mean they’re right or even accurate for that matter. The simple FACT on this election that it was won in the secondaries at the end of 2004 seems to be overlooked here.
It was blatantly obvious that with an unheard of anti Republican Senate swing, and an obvious house of Reps landslide that the USA was going to elect a Democrat as their next leader. The Republicans were going to be hard pressed catching the lost ground that would have still lost them the election.
The battle for the presidency came downs to an Obama v Clinton affair nothing to do with race.
Stick that in your peace pipe and smoke it

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THE STOLEN GENERATION
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For 80 years, from 1788 to 1868, the British government deported about 165 000 convicted criminals as free, white slave, labour to its colony in what we now call Australia. Slavery ended officially, world-wide, when the last country to abolish it, the USA, finished liberating 4 million black African slaves in 1865.

Then, during the 100 year period from 1869 to 1969, the Australian and State governments implemented what has notoriously come to be known as the "stolen generation" policy whereby about 100 000 aboriginal children (mostly of mixed descent) up to 5 years of age were removed from their families and placed in special institutions or white families. This represented perhaps 20% of all aboriginal children.

The governments considered the aborigines were uncivilised and incapable of raising their children. The police had the right to remove any aboriginal child that was suspected of being "neglected".

Today, 13 February 2009, is the first anniversary of the apology presented by the socialist Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, to all Indigenous Australians:

"...We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country..."

Lest we forget ......

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REDUCING INDIGENOUS DISADVANTAGE
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The Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, Jon Stanhope, says there has been enormous progress in the ACT in reducing the gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

"Things are changing quite significantly and dramatically; you see it in terms of the levels of achievement, particularly of Indigenous children in our primary schools," he said.

"We still have issues, carrying it through into the secondary sector, but we're reaching a point now where the outcomes achieved by indigenous children in our primary schools are getting very, very close to those outcomes achieved by non-indigenous.

"That's a major change."

Let there be hope, Stephen. And there is hope. Patience my friend. It may not happen in our lifetimes but what are they on the time scale of 50 000 years of aboriginal isolation from the rest of the world ? Just two infinitesimally tiny blips. No time at all.

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SLAVERY TODAY
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Despite the fact that slavery was abolished officially some 150 years ago, according to the United Nations estimates, there are about 27 million slaves in the world today.

The two main forms of human trafficking noted by a recent United Nations study are sexual exploitation and forced labour. The numbers have increased exponentially since abolition.

Happily though, Australia has managed to avoid the phenomenon. The numbers here are quite modest. Nothing like those 165 000 white slaves deported by the British Government as forced labour to colonise the country - those so-called "first settlers" whose landing at Sydney Cove we joyfully celebrate on Australia Day.

On 12 February 2009, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)published the results of a study of human trafficking in 155 countries. As it so happens, the report was published on Darwin's 200th birthday. Apart from that, there does not appear to be much to celebrate.

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