My unhappiness with this particular forum is not a matter of the racism issue - which has by now been blown out of proportion, je crois. Aboriginal history is important though to know and learn from - but I think you need to look beyond what happened to also WHY it happened, especially with the stolen generation. It was the government policy of the time and a carefully thought out plan. They believed they were giving the children a better future, education, religion, etc the way missionaries in countless countries have done in the past and continue to do today.
I don't believe land continues to be stolen as Rashidi suggests - many landmarks and other 'property' has been returned to the original owners and protected against any further development, but obviously not for their exclusive use - it's not like towns can be destroyed to restore the land to what it was.
I see practical work being done, in my non-outback region, to improve life for Aboriginals and restore their culture, and know some local ones personally (who I am sure endure the jealousy of some others in the community who think they receive cheap or free housing rental just because they are aboriginal - and in a way they do but that's another long story.)
If you just think of Australia as a whole, of course it doesn't look like much is being done to help them.
And the Prime Minister saying 'sorry' isn't going to help them out practically. Mes amis d'Alliance Francaise believe it will never happen, because if he did say sorry, it would immediately unleash huge claims for compensation all around Australia that could never be funded.
I don't think that Australians should more than 200 years later still be blamed for stealing the land though by people outside Australia - after all, the original government and settlers were BRITISH, and entire generations of people and governments have passed since them and their policies. (Of course that doesn't excuse their actions).
Je pense que ce serait comme si un group des Aussies a visite la france et raler contre les gens francais a cause de la Revolution Francaise, et de dite aux eux que apres tout, ils ont tue leur gens - that they killed their own people, after all, meme couleur as them, etc.
You guys would look at us like we were absolument fous and then tell us to piss off, I'm sure, if we did that.
And what happened to la terre/les maisons des gens qui etait guillotined? I guess it just got stolen.....
Somebody said you can't make comparisons with France - but I think you have to make comparisons with SOMEthing you know, or else how do you come to understand? How do you measure something? Some comparisons at least are unavoidable.
Like how can you you understand how somebody else feels if you don't put yourself in their shoes/position?
It is all the other untouched lies still sitting at the top of this forum that make me feel sick.
What is it about some of you people that you would prefer to believe the worst of a country you say you love, even want to live in? i.e., you would rather believe the lies of Rashidi hidden in among a bit of truth, unproven statements and comments from a couple of people who obviously haven't been here long (and probably some who haven't lived here at all) - rather than the truth which can be backed up by Australians who live here, and undoubtedly plenty of other FDUers on the forum (par exemple, anybody who lives here can see there is nothing in the 'reputation for police brutality' statement from Rashidi, even though Redfern was a terrible thing - and has the author measured all the ghettos of the world to be able to say that Redfern is the worst????)
Peut etre ce serait un bon moment de regarde un vieux forum a propos de ce sujet de racisme - oubliez Rashidi et voir ce que des VRAIES gens pense.
http://www.francedownunder.com/forum/vi ... ht=racisme
And all that stuff about Pauline Hanson being responsible for inciting 'acts of violence'....for goodness sake, she used to run a Fish & Chip shop! Even her own family didn't support her!
And as for her one day being Prime Minister....an absolute joke (as those already living here would know). Her reputation has never been worse, and after all she's been to prison for electoral fraud. Her few supporters left might LIKE to think she'll make a comeback, but she's not even worth media attention any more, not even worthy of conversation.
She did a lot of international damage while she was in politics, but surely everybody knew she was never going to win. She said a lot of stupid things - as quoted by Rashidi - I believe that - as she said stupid things about most subjects. Current Affairs programmes seemed to have her on their show sometimes just to show how radical/stupid she was, rather than to give her any serious air time.
And as for the KKK (he forgot to mention we have had a few little religious sects) if they were in Queensland, does he really think with our tighter and tighter anti-discrimination laws that they would be able to exist?
And as for Nazis - I'm sure they would go anywhere to hide and there probably weren't too many countries where they didn't try to go.
I don't believe Australia is a haven for anything, and as for being outside the law.....every year I notice more rules and regulations than before (some strange, admittedly)...but law is a definite thing. Just try and avoid a simple speeding fine or traffic infringement and you'll see!
And so much for that 'Nelson Mandela' of Australia thing.....how can you be the 'Nelson Mandela' if nobody knows who you are? - so far I haven't found anybody who's heard of him, even those who've studied aborigines....
And those who suggested the Government does nothing for Aboriginals obviously haven't had to fill in all the Government forms that always ask 'are you of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin' - if you are, you get funding.
Some of my friends have lived among the Aborigines in the Northern Territory for some time in the past and worked as teachers, I discovered one day when I asked one of them why they remarked that 'Aborigines stink' - they meant literally. One said that you could always tell when the aboriginal kids entered the classroom, without even looking up. The smell would enter first. Bathing is still not part of a lot of their lives - their ways are not our ways and in modern times the misunderstandings of what they really need still continue.
Like the well publicised (a few years ago I think) story on TV about a large amount of government funding which was given to Aborigines at a certain remote community - new houses were built and supplied to them, but several weeks later the houses were all but destroyed and the floorboards were all ripped up.
Nothing much was explained on tv why - it was only much later from my Aunt (who has travelled the outback for 30 years as a bus tour hostess) that I learned many dislike even today having 4 walls around them, so they simply ripped all the floorboards up because they needed firewood. The houses had no value. Just like cars you can see abandoned in the outback quite frequently. Once it stops, it has no further use.
One more example of well meaning intentions going wrong. I'm not saying that all Aborigines currently living in tin humpy huts in the outback or on the fringe of communities prefer it that way - but some do.
Kate