Dear Foxy,

Eddie Jakubowicz has spent at least the last thirty years of his life doing valuable voluntary work.

I wonder if Alt Rave has ever done a day's voluntary work in his life.

Back to topic: could it be that one essential component of any attempt to Close the Gap is that the people themselves have to make an effort - first and foremost, to get their kids to school; secondly, to look for work themselves (at least, to provide their own kids with some sort of work-oriented role models) - and if there isn't any work in their 'community', then to move away temporarily to where the work is.

I can't believe that there isn't work in 'communities': the places are usually swarming with outsider bureaucrats and professionals, not to mention all sorts of tradespeople. Why can't local people aspire to take on those roles - and if not themselves, then their kids in a generation or so ? [Mind you, this has been discussed endlessly for fifty years].

As well: if you check out almost any remote 'community' on Google Earth, you will notice, maybe a kilometre out of town, the sewage ponds. So those communities have flush toilets; so they have running water; so they have the means to water vegetable gardens and orchards. In fact, they could probably open them up on the old sites where missionaries and bureaucrats operated earlier vegetable gardens and orchards.

Yes, that may be difficult to initiate since traditional Aboriginal society was a foraging society, not a farming society, and the latter requires a very different mind-set. But surely it's worth the effort ?

Cheers,

Joe

Dear Joe,

One thing that I am hopeful about is that the government
for the first time has developed 16 new "Closing the Gap"
targets. They have overhauled the old agreement and
have established new targets to address some of the most
pressing issues facing Indigenous Australians.

The government is supporting the initiatives led by
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to
address the priorities identified by those communities.

Hopefully this will make a difference. Ken Wyatt seems to
have the right approach - which will succeed where others
have failed in the past.

Again Thank You for your comments about Eddie Jaku.
He is a truly exceptional human being. And the people in
Sydney who gathered to hear him speak recently (over 6,000)
also agree.

loudmouth,

is doing voluntary work a basic requirement for assessing a person and their viability or as a valued member of society?
I can't recall if I have "ever done a voluntary day's work in my life", although I suspect I have.
What I do know is that because of my preference/love of working, whenever I am/was approached to contribute, mostly with my time, I have always responded and followed through with giving money, rather than my time.
Whether you or miss rosy cheeks like it or not everyone, charities or clubs and yes even people, prefer money more than anything else.
So shut up with your low brow innuendos and pathetic attempts at point scoring.
Based on that little bombshell, it gives me the right of reply.
Now I don't particularly care about Eddie watsisface and his plight because anyone in Europe around that time and Foxy knows exactly what I'm on about, were treated the same way.
My family were not exempt from the German machine/threat, they too had to escape, and family members were also killed and or mistreated and abused, so excuse me if I don't give a rats about just another whinging Jew who feels he was mistreated and feels the need to garner sympathy from a privileged and impressionable society and individuals who were not privy to such atrocities.
You can feel sorry for him, there is nothing wrong with that, but don't feel you have the right to criticise, if you or your loved ones, have not experienced any life threatening events such as he has recanted, where-as, I DO!
Foxy, he is his own person, just as I am my own person.
He gave his opinion of his events, I gave my opinion in response.
You just refuse to accept any other versions of life but your's.
SAD, VERY SAD!

ALTRAV,

Yes it is sad - very sad indeed.

But you are totally clueless as to
the reasons - why.

cont'd ...

Eddie Jaku contrary to your description is not
just "another whinging Jew".

His philosophy is that - life can be beautiful if
you make it beautiful, It is up to you.

He doesn't whinge at all. He's made a vow to smile
every day. And Shares his wisdom and lives the
best possible life. In fact he believes he is the
happiest man on earth.

[Deleted for profanity]