Dear Belly,

As far back as I can remember - growing up in this
country we've always embraced the underdog, cut
tall poppies down to size and went to great lengths
to distance ourselves from what we saw as the rigid
class system of our British colonists.

But as experiences today and a raft of statistics
demonstrate - it's harder for those on the margins of
society to get ahead than many Australians would like
to believe.

And that's not a "Fair Go!"

I am going to agree with ttbn, that the notion of a 'fair go' is mostly a myth, and to the greater extent it has always been so. It is a falsehood that became part of the Australian ethos, a truism that was never true. From the first day of European settlement when no such thing was extended to the majority, be they white or black, through to times of war, when so many were needlessly sacrificed in the name of king and country, to today when the struggle continues for equality and fairness for many Australians, the poor and disadvantaged.

Steele compares us with America, and in relative terms we certainly have out done that nation in the fight for egalitarianism within society, but as a society that prides itself as being the land of the free, the US has failed miserably to live up to its own lofty principles of freedom and liberty for all.

Belly asks a couple of pertinent questions; what type of a society are we building? what type do we want? The right answers to those questions are not to be found in economic rationalism, or social division, nor through hatred towards others, or fostering a dog eat dog society, as many think is ideal. Rather its to be found through fairness and social justice for all. Unfortunately many of our political leaders fall well short when it comes to what is needed, for want of a better term, call it a fair go for all, something our leadership promises, but fails to deliver, time and again.

The victim industry is well and truly alive.

Dear Belly,

Thank you for your great questions: «what are we a country? community? hopefully both, and why is caring and sharing what we have wrong?»

As it stands we are nothing.

Having a community is wonderful, I support it, and in a community, caring and sharing just occurs, normally, our inherent goodness just shines - and as for taxes, in a real community we give them gladly, even more, rejoicing in the opportunity to help.

But we have no community because instead we have an imposed, impersonal and arbitrary framework, without shared values, that claims to include us whether we like it or not, which never sought our permission to be included, which instead of politely seeking to enlist our cooperation by trying to convince us of its merits, threatens what horrible things it would do to us if we refuse. Who would ever want to identify and cooperate with such an imposed framework? Certainly not me! Certainly not people of goodwill!

Hi Foxy,

//But as experiences today and a raft of statistics
demonstrate - it's harder for those on the margins of
society to get ahead than many Australians would like
to believe.

And that's not a "Fair Go!"//

I contend that, that has always been the case. The marginalised have always existed in Australian society and there has always been the belief by some, that simply through hard work and dedication one would miraculously rise above ones circumstances and reach a new pinnacle in life. For many that is not the reality, they have worked hard but the best they can hope for is a better life for their children than they themselves have experienced.

The majority of marginalised people I have dealt with in my life, and I have dealt with a few, are essentially good people who have been dealt a bad hand. There are those I would describe as rotten apples, but they are a minority.

cont.

cont.

A case study;

A bloke in his early 50's, looks like a man mountain, and mean as in appearance. He did seven years for rape, he faced court on that matter, years after the fact, was guilty as charged, and got what he deserved. Recently a niece of his came around and asked if he would go with her and collect belongings from her place, as she has busted up with her partner for the umpteeth time. At the place the niece went in, he waited in the car, next thing the niece is copping a hiding from the partner and his mate, man mountain intervenes and gives both blokes a dust up. The upshot is, he's arrested, and is now doing five months home detention, the magistrate took some mitigating circumstances into consideration and didn't put him away for twelve months.

My involvement is he has a house at $250/week and to help with the rent he wants a girl about 25, known to him to board, plus a interstate truck drive to stay two nights a week. Would I support his application to arrange that, having some concerns, and after meeting and questioning all, I agreed. It would be easy to dismiss him as a worthless violent thug and throw him to the lions, many would see it that way. Despite all what has happened I think essentially he deserves another chance in life, others would not agree. I talked about a lot of things with him, his childhood upbringing, all was a total disaster, he never had a chance in life from day one.