The Aborigines: Hard Paternalism

Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard has called the state of aborigines in the Northern Territories a “national emergency.”

With 29% of Australia’s Aborigine population living in various settlements throughout the Northern Territories, every one of said settlements have been found to be a breeding ground for untold violence and sexual abuse.

Prime Minister Howard’s plan is to take control of the territories and affect change through state administration, but already people are fleeing the settlements in fear of white paternalism seizing their children from them. Additionally, several Australians resent money being spent on the Aborigines whom they see as a financial and social drain on the country.

Visiting an outback aboriginal settlement can be an unsettling experience for the few city Australians who venture there. Large packs of scrawny dogs wander aimlessly in search of food through rubbish-strewn red desert camps. The report of a recent inquiry in the Northern Territory (NT), where many such camps are located, sheds light on their less visible human misery. After visiting 45 aboriginal settlements over the past ten months, the inquiry found violence and child sexual abuse rife in every one.

The report shocked Australia. Its respected authors, Rex Wild, a prominent barrister, and Pat Anderson, an aboriginal health-worker, blamed alcohol, drug abuse, pornography, unemployment and a breakdown of aboriginal culture and identity for the horrors they uncovered. Ms Anderson said alcohol was “totally destroying” families and communities. “Something needs to be done to curb this river of grog.” But the report’s headlines were quickly trumped by the response of John Howard, the prime minister.

Posted by mercenary
Six and a half billion people, caught in the imagination of one mercenary.

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