Hi Belly,

Maybe what is needed is a bit more of 'blaming the victim' - that the people themselves ought to be getting off their backsides and doing for themselves what other ordinary human beings do for themselves - feeding their kids, keeping their houses clean and healthy, trying to eat at least some of the right foods and get at least the tiniest bit of exercise, for their own health.

After all, if you own a car, whose job is it to keep it in running order. Yours. It's the same with a person's health - whose job is it if not theirs ?

And please, Mr Self-Opinion, don't give me any more of that horse sh!t about poverty - people up north get mining royalties, enough to pay off a house. At Mutitjulu, near Uluru, each household got $ 14,000 in national park royalties in 2011. That would pay off a house right there.

And while we are on the subject, where else in the world does some government authority build houses on the people's land, THEIR land, for them, and repeat the process every seven years or so ?

No - let's pass some of the responsibility - hey, why not all the responsibility ? - back on to the people ? That's an empirical, not a rhetorical, question. Why aren't we assuming that Aboriginal people in remote areas can do for themselves, look after themselves, take on ordinary human responsibilities, like other human beings ?

What sort of racism is it that says, aaaaw, don't expect anything like that from those poor, backward people ? They'll need an army of social workers forever, they are so useless - so quaint, so charming, so cultural, but so useless.

Pure racism, folks. Treat humans like humans. Expect from them as you would from other people. No excuses.

Joe

Belly,
Its a hell of a problem and we do not need UN bureaucrats coming here advising us. I know you did not suggest that.

You cannot do anymore for a drunk than put him somewhere safe, he has to decide to change. I would concentrate on the kids.

You said 'Tough love is true love' Yep I go along with that, but how? Can't actually drag them to school, we have tried enticement and tried penalising the parents. do we cart them off to a boarding school somewhere. Imagine what the Greens and 'do gooders' would say about that. We don't even remove kids from abusive parents because we are fearfull of a 'stolen generation'. Not game to act in kids best interests and get them to safety.

The community I spoke of near Newcastle was a few years ago now and I cannot recall its name but I was impressed with what they had done. What has happened since I do not know.

I am out of fresh ideas, wish there was a way to resolve the issue.

Hi Danielle,

A sense of hopelessness ? Maybe, but at least as much, a sort of arrogance - that many Aboriginal people feel, that they are entitled, they don't have to do anything, whites should be doing it all for them. They are the lords of the Earth.

I remember back in the seventies, when I was trying to work up a vegetable garden up on the community, I had this naive notion that people would reciprocate effort. No. Whatever someone else does, that simply means you can do less. If it was my destiny to grow vegetables, their role was to take them. There were people there, relatively young people, who had never worked a day in their lives - their short lives because they usually died of the grog back then.

Welfare is vital in small doses, but it kills in large, lifelong doses. But of course, try telling that to a social worker - their careers depend on keeping people in such a condition. And there's always more blackfellas for them when this lot die off.

Joe

Dear Joe (Loudmouth),

Claims of "passive welfare culture" and
blaming the Indigenous for not rebuilding their
communities is like claiming that the people of
Adelaide suffer power blackouts because they're
too lazy to generate their own electricity.

Aboriginal people have been marginalised from
mainstream society since the arrival of the British.

The barriers to Aboriginal employment are complex -
but they all spring from the same root cause -
dispossession, marginalisation and institutionalised
racism.

The dispossession of Aboriginal people's land and the
historic Indigenous people's concentration
in isolated parts of Australia have created pockets of
extreme disadvantage.

Much of the discussion on Indigenous employment is focused
on these areas. The lack of infrastructure and social
services are part of the problem and unemployment
is as high as 80% in these communities.

by Mr Opinion, ....What they want is their land back

You're kidding rant you!

Sure, they may want their land back, but, the conditions will be, their continued welfare payments, FOR NOTHING.

On the other hand, if their land is all they want, then tell us which part, of cause it will have to be land that has no developments on it, as all types of developments have been generating taxes, some of which has paid their SIT DOWN MONEY.

So, let us know what land, then we can fence it off, and set them free to hunt and gather till their hearts are content.

No tools, no cloths, no shelter,no weapons NO DOLE and all the alcohol they like, so Long as they make it from natal bush herbs, or what ever.

Now, do you think that's really what they would want. I DOUBT IT!

Dear Lexi,

Out of my deep respect for you and your tendency to always see the good side in people, I have to point out that:

* the Indigenous people doing best (as a proportion of those 33,000 uni graduates) are those who have lost most, and now form the bulk of the urban Indigenous population,

* and the people who are 'doing' worst are those who have suffered least from colonialism, and who generally have got their land back.

No ?

Put it another way:

* the Indigenous people whose health, education and employment rates are MOST similar to those of the rest of Australia, are those who 'lost' their land very early;

* the Indigenous people whose health, education and certainly employment rates are LEAST like those of other Australians are those who have re-claimed, and perhaps never lost (in their perception), their land, but who are most distant, alienated, segregated, from the rest of Australia.

Yes ?

Time for a re-think, Lexi. For all of us.

Love,

Joe