No such thing as a Stone Age mind Joe? The truth is that in physiological terms we all have a stone age mind in a modern skull, but that’s not the point here. You are saying that the mind of a Stone Age man and a modern man are the same…there is a field called evolutionary psychology that would disagree with you.

Have a look at this Joe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNW_B8EwgH4

Sog,
There may be some truth in what you say, but not entirely. If there were only two types, black and white, it could be somewhat acceptable. But there is a mixture, so how do you account for that? Are you saying that with a certain ratio of white heritage the person then gets values of possessions worth, if so what is that ratio and how do we take it into practice? How many more generations before you think aboriginals will have the mind set to integrate and adopt our values?

Poirot,
If access to grog is the problem, how do we tackle that. Prohibition, for parts of Aus or on ratio of heritage. Difficulties there! Do you know what happened to the kids raised at the mission. Have you come across any?

Belly,
Where are the jobs? Was not mining mobs willing to employ aboriginals and has that been successful? what about the areas where there are no mines or jobs, do we move them to where there are jobs? That would cause a rukus.

Do we just simply carry on and see if aboriginals drink themselves into oblivion and the few that survive integrate into 'Our' society, like some already have.

At least I would like to improve the lot of women and kids. I am not having a go at you people, I just see more questions.
It is one helllava problem.

Banjo>> There may be some truth in what you say, but not entirely. If there were only two types, black and white, it could be somewhat acceptable. But there is a mixture, so how do you account for that? Are you saying that with a certain ratio of white heritage the person then gets values of possessions worth, <<

Absolutely, 21st century denizens. Now consider the outback aboriginal communities, the ones with hardly any of “us” in them. These peoples carry a completely different value structure than their urban cousins with a not so homogenous blood line. Do you recall “going walkabout,” it is a real aberration of these folks, not so among the mixed race urbanites.

The unadulterated first Aussies mind is psychologically different from modern man. The "walkabout" is an excellent example of a psychological driver that motivates this race to up and leave a structured environment for no reason and without fore thought, they just go walkabout. I have seen some splendid candidates strive, accomplish, then ruin their prospects because of an inherent psychological motivation that they immediately act on.

Poirot to solve that problem we need to storm over those who think it is white man fault only.
I have watched generations steal cars to ram raid grog shops.
Saw many die in smashes and more get short prison terms, then do it again.
A *culture* developed, right here in tourist type near coastal towns.
This youths some not yet teens say *its better than home* prison or boys homes.
That is sad, ever walked in to such a home?
I have.
Saddest thing I ever did.
How did us whites fill that home/those homes with every form of dirt
Grog is a symptom, not the cause.
Think out side the square , do we want an end to this?
Do we want police cars to be the free taxi service to take these folk home,or a tool in helping the future we must demand.

G'day Belly,

I'm so glad really that so many people are concerned enough to contribute to this thread, to stick their oar in, good and bad, for and against, it's great. What to do, what the Christ to do ? Noel Pearson touches on one aspect today in his Australian article - that people must first and foremost take responsibility for themselves and their own future, and the future of their kids.

One thing that strikes me is the utter smugness of so many Aboriginal 'leaders' - apart from Noel Pearson, of course, I would die for him - that whatever problems afflict Aboriginal people, they have been caused by white people, you and me, and Aboriginal people don't have to do bugger-all - the white fellas have to come back and fix it all up - since it's all their fault.

No. That's not going to happen.

History is a bit like a hit-and-run accident. Some poor bugger gets knocked down and is lying there in the gutter. People rush to help and the 'victim' says "No ! The person who drove that car must come back and completely restore me to perfect health, like I had before."

Not going to happen.

Amy Wax has written about this beautifully (check out Google). History is a cruel b@stard - so much happens and the perpetrator doesn't come back. That's how it's been, even for Aboriginal people, for fifty thousand years.

So the sensible thing to do is to pick yourself up, if possible, curse the b@stard who did this to you, drag yourself off to hospital, get fixed up as best you can, and get on with life.

Welcome to the world. How many times do you reckon Syria has been invaded and pillaged ? Once ? Twenty times ? Fifty times ? Almost in every Syrians' life-time. Life can be a bitch.

[TBC]

[contd]

So - what to do in this case ?

Step 1: find ways to pass responsibility for people's lives back to those people. Find alternatives to life-long welfare and the dole [a.k.a. CDEP]. Ah, but how ?

Step 2: what sort of supports do those people genuinely need to do that ? Training ? TAFE ? Generation One-type programs ? Programs that connect real jobs with necessary training ? how hard can it be ?!

Step 3: surprisingly, that may be up to the people themselves.

Joe