Hi There Lexi,
This has been a vigorous debate about riots and parenting. I was watching the ABC news the other evening, and apparently the behaviour of the youth concerned in the riots, deteriorated with the Police Force "Stop and Search" policy. We have been talking about this in W.A. for quite a long time, and so far, the policy hasn't come to fruition.
I am in two minds about this., too often I hear that when a crime has been committed in our State, people seem to automatically scream "Aboriginals or Muslims yada yada yada.....", how terrible.
If W.A. and other states bring in this stop and search policy, I would bet my back teeth that the above mentioned people will be the first to be stopped and searched.
Education is a must for most people, and they should all be inspired to do the best they can, in order to do well in their future lives. Sadly in some indigenous 'camps', the parents are drunk, and the kids are not 'seen off' to school. Parenting really needs to be revised, I too had a teenager who came home, threatening me that she has rights, and she would report me to the Welfare if I didn't let her go out (she was all of 13), so too did I find the Phone No. and told her to feel free and report me...it worked, her argument was that she had rights and also respect, which so far in her young life had not been practiced by her....I told her that respect is earned, not just given automatically., thankfully, she is now 38, and a mother of two, one of whom is just like she was.....ah ....Mothers' revenge is soooo sweet.
Cheers my friend
NSB

Lexi (continued)
I really believe that children should be disciplined by their parents, unfortunately because of a minority of 'child abusers', the majority have had their rights as parents to discipline their own children taken away. Nowadays, one has to run the gauntlet of screaming 2 y.o.'s and Mothers bargain/threatening their kids with either 'time out' or plea bargaining. Sitting on the naughty chair/step means nothing to kids, I have watched young kids just doing as they please despite the threats of the parents, shopping in large supermarkets has been like running the gauntlet in a war zone.
My kids were punished (of course the punishment had to 'fit' the 'crime'), but if one is consistent with the punishment, eventually it sinks in and the kids know eventually, that the parents mean what they say.
Oh, I am so glad that am getting older.
Cheers Lexi,
NSB

Just perused an article on the riots by Mary Ridell of the London Telegraph Group. Here's some of what she wrote:

"...The real causes are more insidious. It is no coincidence that the worst violence London has seen in many decades takes place against a backdrop of a global economy poised for free fall. The causes of recession set out by J.K. Galbraith in his book The Great Crash of 1929, were as follows: bad income distribution, a business sector engaged in "corporate larceny", a weak banking structure and an import-export imbalance.
All these factors are again in play. In the bubble of the 1920's, the top 5 percent of earners creamed off one-third of personal income. Today Britain is less equal, in wages, wealth and life chances, than at any time since then.......Britain's lack of growth is not an economic debating point or a stick with which to beat the Government, any more than our deskilled, demotivated, undereducated non-workforce is simply a blot on the national balance sheet. Watch the juvenile wrecking crews on the city streets and weep for all our futures. The "lost generation" is mustering for war.....The Government may congratulate itself on its prudence but retrenchment also bears a social cost. We are seeing just how steep that price may be.
Financial crashes and human catastrophes are cyclical...."

May I? Banjo has it right, remember being poor in 1950 was not just a trip the the welfare office.
We here in this thread have managed to get Climate change/ upper class living, or maybe not, and a lot of other things.
Lets not blame poverty, not lack of jobs.
Look first at parents some of these kids are products of parents, just like them!
Who had kids too early, never prepared for them/considered them as humans or thought about their best interests.
My Mum, Dad did, we went hungry not enough of most things but we got an education at home and at school.
WASP education, get a job, work honestly, never thieve, pay your bills ,buy asap a block of land own it build on it make being one of the normal your dream.
I just wish, truly, I had the words to tell you even then and even in a small country village,one we did not come from.
How it felt to be considered white trash, because we out numbered the whole town in one very poor very big family.
This country needs more understanding, if some one feels poverty makes them a victim they alone can fight it.
Being a Criminal is being a failure.
Stop please propping up this victim thing get out there and help but we all every one of us, are accountable for our own actions.
Lexi, I once fished often, unless I am wrong the worm is found on the hook end not holding the rod.
Will check that with my servants, the one holding my thongs and meat pie will do.

Lexi, sorry but that is a load of *^#@%cks. It's not about where we have "been", it's about where we are going. You need to get out in the world before you start pontificating about how you perceive our youth. Dream on for goodness sake.

Gerald Celete said this would happen a few years ago."When people have nothing left to lose,they lose it."

As long as we let the Private Central Banks counterfeit our currencies via "quantitive easing" thus destroying our currencies and economies,then the riots will only get worse