re: Ann: MARKET UPDATE BATEMAN ENGINEERING RE......

re: Ann: MARKET UPDATE BATEMAN ENGINEERING RE... DearJacobbabyface

In my opinion the TO's aren't interested in the dough. And revolving group of TO's, but with a core, see all the threads and all the posts. They're the conditions they allow me to post, especially what I post re their Culture.

The situation here is different from what you seem to imagine. For starters there's so much work that most able bodied adults are employed., and grog and petrol are long gone from the equation...and that's when the TO's indeed have used the clear air to begin taking control of their own lives.

The TO's are intersted in sustainable economic development, particularly so re the sea. They describe themselves as "salt water people", although they live on land their focus in terms of recreational and historical economic activity (eg. the four or five hundred year long Trepanf trade with the Makassans)is on the sea.

They are entering into a joint venture in aquaculture for example that will be probably wrecked by seabed mining and have already invested, just in the physical infra-structuer alone, $23 million, in eco-tourism. One of our strategies is to have the trepang industry firmly established along the west coast of the Eylandt and surrounding Bicketrton Island as a priority for when decision time comes for the NT Government re GOT. We reckon we've got between five and ten years.

I'm have run this past my wife and a couple of her sisters...their response- not a direct translation but an accurate summation: we already have a plan for what we want to do, we don't want one foisted on us by an initiative that threatens our cultural foundations or wrecks the sea. We want to decide our own destiny.

They also swore a lot it in Anindilaykwa which is quite funny sometimes given the direct translations into English(eg. "ibinyimi"= bite your bum, not directed at you, but more like us uttering "bloody hell" to nobody in general).

From my wife verbatum: "We won't budge on GR or any other mining company. We won't have anybody interfering with our ancestory [any more]."

Can I put this to you "dveloped", "primitive", "civilised" are all culturally laden terms- civilised to us means, very generally speaking, democracy and material advancement, which equals functionality (OK it's a gross generalisation, certainly not all encompassing). Civilisation and functionality to them is based on spiritual values and following Ceremonial Law.

This situation here is not about colonialism enforcing spiritual beliefs to keep people repressed and in the Dark Ages so to speak. In fact in Australia I'd say it's the direct opposite, it's about destroying traditional spiritual beliefs and replacing it with our own, and to our own minds a "better" religion; non-secular materialism...bringing them into our world by means which we view as supportive and humane endeavour...such as what you're doing.

This is about them rejecting what the Mainstream (the colonialists) attempts to foist on them: our "quality of life". Quality of life to them is about cultural maintenance. But they do go off to work in droves, and they do invest in their own immediate and future economic well being. They seek balance between the incursions of the west and their own cultural imperatives... they're very much realists in that respect.

The CM I refer to in my posts is the Chief Minister of the NT, at this point in time Paul Henderson.

Jesus, what is this forum turning into? An effete debating club? I like it though.