The past is littered with mistakes made by people, governments and empires. I do get annoyed that we get labled a racist country. On a world platform, the media rarely depict Australia as a tolerant country, welcoming many cultures of people. I remember being so so so proud of the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Although I didn't really agree that Cathy Freeman deserved to light the flame when she was yet to win an Olympic medal (I stand corrected if she had won a silver, but def not a gold) prior to Sydney. I really felt sorry for the likes of Dawn Fraser, Shane Gould and at the time Susie O'neil was an olympic champion. BUT, we chose race. Freeman lived up to the pressure to go on and win a medal. After that opening ceremony i read all the world's newspapers via the internet. The common theme was how Australia was a more or less a racist country and that we treated our aboriginals poorly. I was shattered. I was so proud that we did such a great job and a lot of the world's media chose to right, in part, about our perceived racism. Unfortunately, Australia's plight tends to be a one sided argument. As we all know, our government/people are not totally to blame for the plight of our people, on all occassions. Yes, there were mistakes made and are still being made. However, I feel as though it is very unfortunate that the blame, when portrayed by the overseas media, gets portrayed as being soley on the governments shoulders. We all know the problems that currently exist. There never seems to be the right solution. We hoped that Kathy Freeman would inspire both white and black Australians, which she did. To what extent, we just don't know. The olympics were an obvious display to the world that we have moved on and that this lady could inspire others of her race to achieve great things too. Mistakes have been made at all levels of nearly every government around the world at some point in their history. It is hard for some to move forward, and understandably so. But, when will our nation get the credit it deserves for its acceptance of other cultures and its attempts to resolve the many issues our aboriginals face. Is it just the governments job to fix the problems?
