to stomatjora who wrote We didnt put them there...yes the Govt did.
REPLY the government did so on behalf of us whether you asked them to or not. So we ie our past government created this and left it as a legacy to us and our present government.
But now...they - the Aboriginals - REFUSE, DONT & WONT move.
REPLY that applies to some, not all but in any case why should they. The places they were moved from have changed (no home to go back to) and the younger ones are born on Palm.
So as to the present issue and how to solve it....the past is really irrelevant to any solution.
REPLY The past is very relevant as maybe people there don't want to be pushed around and told where they should live any more. After all most are only there because a previous government told them that is where they had to live.
How does your commnent in any way address the situation as it stands now???
REPLY See above.
Simply put - and for whatever reason - the Aboriginals of Palm simply refuse to be the architects of their own recovery. They see all attempts as white intervention in terms of either being racist (ala atomboy), paternalistic and anti-self-determination
Yet they simply refuse to do the things NEEDED to change their situation for the better
REPLY Better is a value judgement and your idea of better may not be the same as that of the people on Palm.
For crying out loud...a major section of the community is against the alcohol control WHICH EVERYONE IMMEDIATELY ACCEPTS AS THE SINGLE MAJOR ISSUE NEEDING ADDRESSING because they demand the right to drink themselves stupid and for us to impose it is a racist effort. Fact is they want the income from the bar and canteen.
REPLY Alcohol is a problem for many people. For anyone from outside that community to ban alcohol there IS racist and IS paternalistic. If they want to take a decision to ban alcohol themselves then so be it but to impose that from the outside is an insult.
At some stage the buck passes along to them. When do they accept that their present plight is due to their mismangament??? To their faulty decisions??? To their defunct, outdated and dysfunctional cultural axioms?
REPLY Now you are just getting culturally insulting. Anyway the government who put them there never intended or prepared them to do anything to look out for or further themselves. Development on Palm was never the plan for their future, they were put there to die out but did not they bred instead.
Surely...surely at some stage that has to occur.
REPLY Maybe, but if it does it will be at it's own pace in it's own time.
