mhaze,

There you go, throwing us all into a spin again with more gobbledygook. Please do us all a favour and stick to being just an engineer.

Dear Paul,

The subject of National Reconciliation exemplifies
the arguments of those who insist that there is no
such thing as "objective history".

In discussing the past (and recent failures) we can
see from a few of the posts here that when we begin
to look critically at things or offer suggestions
in resolving problems the product becomes unacceptable
for one or another camp of readers.

It seems to become political, nasty, and personal,
- explanations seem tantamount
to sympathizing and excusing and all too easily lead onto
the questionable practice of stereotyping people that
don't agree with their viewpoints. And this of people
they've never met of know little about.

These people seem reluctant to modify their judgements.
And, continued stereotyping of any persons however,
can encourage "counter-stereotyping" and the result is
usually a complete breakdown in communication.

Thank You for having raised this topic for discussion.
I look forward to our next one.

Foxy,

I don't know if you realised it but you just ended with:

" ............................. the result is
usually a complete breakdown in communication.
Thank You for having raised this topic for discussion.
I look forward to our next one."

I hate giving credit to the OxleyMoron, but "Please explain."

Dear Hasbeen,

How's it going old cock?

You are sitting there helping yourself to copious taxpayer funded medical services and pottering around in you taxpayer funded Men's shed with gay abandon yet labeling Aboriginals as bludgers and wife beaters. How many times did you lay into your wife mate?

Granted there are indigenous health programs specifically structured toward remote communities buy the amount of Medicare expenditure per person is significantly higher for non-indigenous Australians.

The most up to date figures I can find show that across Australia the average annual support from Medicare is $837 to non indigenous and $626 to indigenous.

GP spend - $232 vs $174

Other unreferred - $49 vs $73

Pathology - $108 vs $73

Imaging - - $127 vs $66

Specialist - - $91 vs $40

Operations and other - $239 vs $200

Now one may think the lack of imaging facilities and access to specialists facing many indigenous people may be contributing to the discrepancy between the two, but the figures are almost at the same ratios in the major cities.

So mate you are part of the cohort getting more than their fair share. What on earth are we going to do with you?

SteeleRedux,

I don't think Phil is the sort of guy who would take handouts and depend on the government to help him with health care.

If anybody offered it to him he would just spit in their eye. That's the sort of guy Phil is!

"offer suggestions in resolving problems the product becomes unacceptable for one or another camp of readers."

That might be true but I'll have to withhold judgement until someone offers some concrete suggestions for resolving the (alleged) problems rather than empty feel-good platitudes. I was sort of hoping that someone here might have a crack at it...but alas.

Mr O wrote: "There you go, throwing us all into a spin again with more gobbledygook."

I'm sorry, I'll try to write a monosyllabic post so that you can try to keep up. But even then you might struggle. Last time you asked me if I was an engineer I answered with a simple "no". But even that seems to have been too hard for you to follow.

SR, since there are a multitude of aboriginal specific health programmes, its not surprising that they access the community's general health system less often than those who don't have access to race based programmes. This has been known for two decades.
I was going to ask you for evidence for your numbers but that seems futile these days.... http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=20923#369157