http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_land_rights_in_Australia

Are you suggesting that like the book says we should give back 40% of the land area of Australia to the Aboriginals?

The book poses a solution directly addressing what Indigenous people really want: land, compensation, discreet non-dictatorial help and, most of all, to be left alone by white Australia.

Some of these things seem possible. There are already Aboriginal Reservations as I understand and they have been given significant support. But they still aren't satisfied so I think that we need to move on. Perhaps in 1973 the situation was different.

CM, this has always been about money and overbearance.
Those behind this push are the ones who stand to gain.
The blacks are indifferent to these unconscionable acts of imperious demands.
I don't understand why we are even entertaining these crazy demands, when the blacks have always believed that they nor anyone else actually OWNS LAND!
They have never understood or related to the concept.
Owning land is not in their history or beliefs, so why are we even talking about it, let alone actually doing it or acting on it.
Another wrongful decision by the Aussie public.
Oh, I hear the public didn't have a say in it, well they didn't get off their collective arses and speak up against it, so then you must have been for it.
Only an air head with little or no experience about life and the real world and who thinks like a child, actually believes this land grab is justified.

ALTRAV- I hope you're doing well mate. Thanks for your comments.

Joe,

All we are doing is discussing the poet Kevin Gilbert
and his work. I love his poetry and gave one example
of it on this discussion. . You recommended his book
for me to read.
I haven't got hold of the book as yet - so I haven't
read it and can't really comment on what he wrote.
But it appears that you've stirred up some emotions
here with your book recommendation.

Why do you think that is? - because a book recommendation
does not necessarily mean that you agree with what the
author has written. And besides times have certainly changed
since the book was written - as you pointed out earlier.

Again - why the attacks?

Dear Saltpetre,

«I'm afraid this does not compute:»

We usually speak of evolution as a process that heads somewhere.
Like any other school, this world is a dynamic environment where change is inevitable.
However, this change is cyclical, rather than heading in a particular direction.

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Dear David f.,

.

You wrote :

« At 94 most of my friends are dead. My daughter's husband just died. It doesn't seem right that the next generation is dying. I interact with ghosts on olo, people who I will probably never meet … »
.

I’m sorry to hear about the death of your daughter’s husband. Please assure her of my heart-felt sympathy and compassion to help her through. Sympathy is reinforced by being shared.

As for your age, David, one of my lifetime friends is exactly the same age as you. He was my religious instruction teacher when I was in primary school in the Queensland bush. He later became the Archbishop of Melbourne of what was then called the Church of England (now the Anglican Church), before being elected Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia. He is now retired but still going strong.

We continue to communicate regularly. My enlightenment (realisation that there is no god) – after a lengthy period of intense research and reflection – did not alter our close relationship, nor has the fact that we rarely see each other. The last time was more than a quarter of a century ago.

I lost another one of my best friends on New Year’s Day this year. He died of lung cancer. I accompanied him during the last three months of his life by e-mail. He was just one year older than me. Bas and I spent a year together hitch-hiking around Europe during our misspent youth. He was one of Australia’s champion rugby players but was kicked out of the national team after leading protests in Sydney against apartheid in South Africa. He loved opera and was a great pianist. I listen to his records occasionally.

In my mind, Bas still accompanies me every morning when I do my footing, as he used to many years ago. I can still feel his presence beside me. We encourage each other as always.

Love is eternal and true friends never die. They become ghosts – just like your friends here on OLO.

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