CANBERRA, Australia (AP)– Australia’s prime minister announced plans Thursday to ban pornography and alcohol for Aborigines in northern areas and tighten control over their welfare benefits to fight child sex abuse among them.
Some Aboriginal leaders rejected the plan as paternalistic and said the measures were discriminatory and would violate the civil rights of the country’s original inhabitants. But others applauded the initiative and recommended extending the welfare restrictions to Aborigines in other parts of the country.
Prime Minister John Howard was responding to a report last week that found sexual abuse of children to be rampant in indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. The report said the abuse was fueled by endemic alcohol abuse, unemployment, poverty and other factors causing a breakdown in traditional society.
“This is a national emergency,” Howard told Parliament. “We’re dealing with a group of young Australians for whom the concept of childhood innocence has never been present.”
The plan angered some Aboriginal leaders, who said it was the kind of government behavior that has disenfranchised Aborigines and created the problems in the first place. They also complained they had not been consulted; the government had not previously indicated it was considering such action.
| This is obviously a distressing problem, but there must be a better solution. This certainly wouldn’t fly in the GOUSA. |
I can understand making areas ‘dry’, or at least heavily strict the sale of alcohol not where just where there are Aborigines, but anywhere where there is a big booze problem…. but why ban porn? And what exactly do they plan to do, have special bars, filled porno magazines, films, and unchecked internet access then put a big sign up saying “Sorry, no aborigines”? And what if you are only aboriginal? Do you get access to porn and not to booze? Or booze and not porn? I have to say, i’d hate to have to decide one over the other… it’d be like trying to choose to between cigarettes and coffee….
Here’s an interesting little study. One such study may not be 100% convincing, but it may make you think …
http://www.slate.com/id/2152487/
I’m not sure what the problem is with having original abs, personally.
Seriously though, I’m sure the problems are real. I just can’t imagine that this is really the solution. There’s gotta be a better way to teach people of all races, creeds, and colors not to fuck kids. It’s a pretty simple message.
Had to look it up but indeed here we have another group of indigenous people trapped into a life of degregation, alcoholism, abuse, poverty and such by recognizing their traditional property rights.
http://tinyurl.com/3aotog
I don’t know of any example on earth/in history where a conquered group of people has ever benefitted from this atavistic notion.
We did the same and get the same with Indian Lands. Back East some tribe had an official list of something like 14 members. Soon as the casino was allowed their membership swelled by 100’s and now its in the 1000’s. Why should some dead notion from history encourage such racial identity. We would all be better off if Americans were Americans. If you want to keep your rights/heritage/homland—–dont lose a war.
It always is a question.
What is for your own good, ? What is paternalism and what are just plain control issues ?
Many if not all of the world’s major events and wars often involve alchohol at some point.
In North America and Canada the aboriginal Indian population was first introduced to whiskey by the white man – as a means of control over these poor people . It was called firewater as the potency was tested with a flame.
These poor people might have been better off with adultered whiskey all in all.
In our day and age not only alchohol is a problem – but a plague of diabetes and other health issue,
Many are related to the use of refined foods and large amount of sugars- soft drinks , refined foods etc etc.
The historical diet of these early Canadians was game – fish , waterfowl such ducks and geese and game such as moose, elk and deer.
Their metaboliism was never chosen for refined sugar and foods.
The natural game foods – such as fish – pickeral ,walleye and bass as well as larger game such as the standard deer are certainly preferred.
Should be ban Coca Cola sugar soft drinks from the Canadian Aboriginals as well as alchohol ?
I don’t see how banning porns can help fight child sex abuse???
Is there are market in porn “from” Aborigines?
#6 – Hell Yeah!
In North America and Canada the aboriginal Indian population was first introduced to whiskey by the white man – as a means of control over these poor people . It was called firewater as the potency was tested with a flame.
It was a fair trade, they got whisky, we got tobacco…. I reckon simply in numbers there has probably more people of European descent who have died of smoking related illness that native North Americans who have died of alcohol related illness, but I may be wrong.
Guess they’ve never heard of racial profiling in Oz.. Or if they have they don’t have a problem with it.
6. Lol.. Aborigine porn.. Welcome to the land down under..
The biggest, dumbest mistake the Australians could make was to not, at least, consult the Aborigine community.
I can tell you I saw first hand that Canada’s Inuit themselves have banned liquour stores and banned even the right to bring liquor (without official permission) into most of their communities.
They will voluntarily tell you that their troubles began with the use of alcohol. From fuzzy memory, understand that these native peoples lack a specific gene that allows alchohol to be processed in a less harmful way.
RBG
Isn’t kiddy porn more of a religious and suppressant thing? Most of its use in the US is by the priests, ministers and cop types. So maybe banning religion and overly suppressive personality types would be a better solution.
Yes, this was a dumb way to address a most likely real problem. Consulting the Aborginal Leaders first would be wiser
Lets remember that the Australian President is a big fan of Bush.
#11 have you ever seen Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator?” The most represented profession is teachers, which is pretty much the opposite of the personality type you talk about. There are perverts in all walks of life.
Tony Blair did something like this. No concrete action, but he said that the black crime problem was one of culture that they needed to fix themselves. That probably wouldn’t fly in America either.
As someone who actually lives here in Australia, I would point out that where alcohol is banned (and there are already parts of Queensland where this is the case), it is illegal for ANYBODY to take alcohol into banned areas, not just Aboriginals.
In fact, there was a bit of a rucous when a government minister flew into such an area on a visit, and had a bottle or two of red wine on the plane.
Our biggest problem is that many of these communities don’t want any interference, but do expect the government hand outs to continue. Some communities are virtually a 100% welfare state, with almost complete unemployment and nearly everyone on some form of welfare.
Its a real problem, and I for one don’t know exactly what the solution is; You can’t force people to live better lives, you can just keep trying.
#12
The government did, in fact for years – the tribal leaders are a large part of the problem. More interested in advancing their power and political interests.
The next thing you’ll see is the goverment taking the kids from the aborigine reserves and place them in Anglican boarding schools in an effort to help educate them into being better Australians.
Oh wait, the Canadians did that and they screw it big time.
#17 Believe it or not, that was done routinely in Australia during the early stages of the 20th century, right up to the 60’s. This is reffered to in Australia as ‘the stolen generation’ and while it is a source of national shame here, the Howard government has steadfastly refused to apologise for this.
Paternalistic is the kindest way you could describe the Howard government’s treatment of health, unemployment and social justice issues that plague our indigenous population, so that this policy is ham fisted is no real surprise. The inherent prejudice in the premis that it is an ‘Aboriginal’ problem is distasteful. The issue is not caused by race but by peoples reaction to it. Past bigotry has removed options from a group of people who now find themselves with a large gap between themselves and the rest of society in many ways. This gap is possible to bridge, but requires help.
Any person, from any race that had faced the same generational history would likely be in the same situation. Any solution that is not locally generated should not be locally focused. i.e. if the Govt wants to link welfare payments to school attendance it should be instituted across all Australians, not just specific communities. That a particular racial group is disadvantaged means we should look at whether there the prejudice that caused it originated. In rectifying we should tailor solutions to the situation, not to the race. Tailoring legislation to a racial group increases the distance that group stands from society.
This article makes it sound as if some sort of racial profiling is happening and that Aboriginals can’t drink and look at porn while the whitefella next to them can. The ban is being intoduced to some Aboriginal remote communities where the problems are rife and it applies to all in the area.
As an Aussie, I’m in two minds about this. Obviously we have a sad history of assuming we know what;s best for our original inhabitants and it’s rarely worked. However the abuses outlined in the report are horrific and justify the labelling of emergency. All sorts of solutions have been tried and lately they usually involve the tribal elders but the problem continues to worsen. Something has to be done NOW and if these steps help then I’m for it provided that long term strategies follow. Unfortunately that last step rarely happens.
17 I’ll say. It lead to apartheid in Canada where one race legally gets free education, no taxes, land, money, health care, investment programs, guaranteed private and government jobs, fishing and other rights… and the others don’t. I think I’ll leave the land of my birth and go to the land of my forefathers and see if I can get such a deal too.
RBG
Having lived in outback Australia I can say that this is a good thing. These communities seem to be above the law, where such things as murder, assault and rape are not punished, due to elders crying racism to anyone who tries to.
I think banning alcohol will make a big difference, since much of the violence and unsocial behave is fueled by massive alcohol consumption.
It would also help to level the welfare payments in line with the rest of Australia, why should they get higher welfare payments, low interest loans, cash grants quarterly. People are so worried about offending them that they are scared to take steps to put them in line. If that means alcohol/porn bans and welfare payments cut, Then so be it.
Just do what the Spartans did – take the children away from their parents at an early age, and raise them in a commune
#13/JRT, sorry dude, the industry I work in directly tracks and deals with porn and DV victims. Cops and priests are accountable for a majority of these crimes. Your TV show have not reflect that since the police are involved and able to warn their own, just like the priests have their own kiddy porn network and protection system
#20
Don’t forget the “free” rapings by the Anglican priests.
24. And the millennia of slavery & retribution before that.
RBG