Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ethan Allen Hawley]

Under cover of racist myth, a new land grab in Australia

Claims of child abuse are proving a fertile pretext
to menace the Aboriginal communities lying in the way of uranium mining

o Friday October 24 2008

Its banks secured in the warmth of the southern spring, Australia is not news. It ought to be. An epic scandal of racism, injustice and brutality is being covered up in the manner of apartheid South Africa. Many Australians conspire in this silence, wishing never to reflect upon the truth about their society's Untermenschen, the Aboriginal people.

The facts are not in dispute: thousands of black Australians never reach the age of 40; an entirely preventable disease, trachoma, blinds black children as epidemics of rheumatic fever ravage their communities; suicide among the despairing young is common. No other developed country has such a record. A pervasive white myth, that Aborigines leech off the state, serves to conceal the disgrace that money the federal government says it spends on indigenous affairs actually goes towards opposing native land rights. In 2006, some A$3bn was underspent "or the result of creative accounting", reported the Sydney Morning Herald. Like the children of apartheid, the Aboriginal children of Thamarrurr in the Northern Territory receive less than half the educational resources allotted to white children.

In 2005, the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination described the racism of the Australian state, a distinction afforded no other developed country. This was in the decade-long rule of the conservative coalition of John Howard, whose coterie of white supremacist academics and journalists assaulted the truth of recorded genocide in Australia, especially the horrific separations of Aboriginal children from their families. They deployed arguments not dissimilar to those David Irving used to promote Holocaust denial.

Smear by media as a precursor to the latest round of repression is long familiar to black Australians. In 2006, the flagship current affairs programme of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Lateline, broadcast lurid allegations of "sex slavery" among the Mutitjulu people in the Northern Territory. The programme's source, described as an "anonymous youth worker", was later exposed as a federal government official whose "evidence" was discredited by the Northern Territory chief minister and the police.

The ABC has never retracted its allegations, claiming it has been "exonerated by an internal inquiry". Shortly before last year's election, Howard declared a "national emergency" and sent the army to the Northern Territory to "protect the children" who, said his minister for indigenous affairs, were being abused in "unthinkable numbers".

Last February, with much sentimental fanfare, the new prime minister, Labor's Kevin Rudd, made a formal apology to the first Australians. Australia was said to be finally coming to terms with its rapacious past and present. Was it? "The Rudd government," noted a Sydney Morning Herald editorial, "has moved quickly to clear away this piece of political wreckage in a way that responds to some of its own supporters' emotional needs, yet it changes nothing. It is a shrewd manoeuvre."

In May, barely reported government statistics revealed that of the 7,433 Aboriginal children examined by doctors as part of the "national emergency", 39 had been referred to the authorities for suspected abuse. Of those, a maximum of just four possible cases of abuse were identified. Such were the "unthinkable numbers". They were little different from those of child abuse in white Australia. What was different was that no soldiers invaded the beachside suburbs, no white parents were swept aside, no white welfare was "quarantined". Marion Scrymgour, an Aboriginal minister in the Northern Territory, said: "To see decent, caring [Aboriginal] fathers, uncles, brothers and grandfathers, who are undoubtedly innocent of the horrific charges being bandied about, reduced to helplessness and tears, speaks to me of widespread social damage."

What the doctors found they already knew - children at risk from a spectrum of extreme poverty and the denial of resources in one of the world's richest countries. Having let a few crumbs fall, Rudd is picking up where Howard left off. His indigenous affairs minister, Jenny Macklin, has threatened to withdraw government support from remote communities that are "economically unviable". The Northern Territory is the only region where Aborigines have comprehensive land rights, granted almost by accident 30 years ago. Here lie some of the world's biggest uranium deposits. Canberra wants to mine and sell it.

Foreign governments, especially the US, want the Northern Territory as a toxic dump. The Adelaide to Darwin railway that runs adjacent to Olympic Dam, the world's largest uranium mine, was built with the help of Kellogg, Brown & Root - a subsidiary of American giant Halliburton, the alma mater of Dick Cheney, Howard's "mate". "The land grab of Aboriginal tribal land has nothing to do with child sexual abuse," says the Australian scientist Helen Caldicott, "but all to do with open slather uranium mining and converting the Northern Territory to a global nuclear dump."

What is unique about Australia is not its sun-baked, derivative society, clinging to the sea, but its first people, the oldest on earth, whose skill and courage in surviving invasion, of which the current onslaught is merely the latest, deserve humanity's support.

www.johnpilger.com

www.guardian.co.uk

[mnhnhyouh]

Yep, this stuff is mostly true, and sucks.

It is the most embarrasing thing about being an Australian.

h

[Kimchi Cha Cha]

Ditto what mnhnhyouh said.

[itaewonguy]

yep its the worst!
the native indians of north america and the maori got it much better than the poor aboriginals of Oz..
watch Rabbit proof fence good movie..

[samd]

[Daami]

[/b]

[Matilda]

Yes, the situation involving indigenous communities around the world is a difficult one.... and not solved with any amount of compensation or apologies. We cannot simply erase history!

I am really tired of being held accountable for our nations history. I am a proud Australian - who is actually of convict, free settler and Maori origin. Infact, I could have received free education in NZ for my Maori blood (with my green eyes and blonde hair) but choose to work hard and be accepted into university on my own merits!

I am not going to hang my head in eternal shame for something that my ancestors may/may not have been involved in. Like I do not hold current day Germans, Japanese or white Americans accountable for past attrocities commited in their homelands.

Sometimes, I think we could all jump on the 'woe is me' bandwagon.... imagine if we decided to seek compensation from the British government for unfair sentencing in sending our convict relatives to Australia?

For petty crimes they had to endure brutal and unsanitary transportation half way around the globe.... on a journey that took 4 long months of which many did not survive. They were forced to build a new empire with tools and resources not fit for the job. They endured starvation, disease, improper medical care... and the displacement from family and friends for doing something so trivial.

Does pointing the finger solve problems? I am still proud to call Australia my home...

[Sleepy in Seoul]

As a South African once said to me, 'Australians are wonderful people; they are all hand-picked by judges.'

[Sapa]

I'd never heard so much casual racism before I went travelling round Australia.

I think on my 1st or 2nd day in Oz I met someone who said he wished Hitler had wiped out all the Jews!

I was amazed at the number of people who after talking for a short time were happy to drop into the conversation their disgusting attitude about aboriginal people.....they all stink, they're dirty, all alcoholics, don't give a shit about their children, moaning about benefits they get, etc .

[samd]

[Matilda]

Great post samd! I hear exactly what you are saying!

Yes, it took our head of state too long to apologise and I am sorry for what did occour in the violent start to our nation.

I honestly feel that our government and citizens do try to make a difference and care about the welfare of the Aboriginal population. I know that art and sport are alive with positive Aboriginal role models like Albert Namatjira, Nova Peris, Christine Anu, Cathy Freeman & Ernie Dingo.

If I truely felt Australia was a racist country - I wouldn't be moving back home with my Korean fiancee to start a family... I feel their mixed heritage will not attract finger pointing and they will be free to celebrate both cultural heritages.

Peace

[Kimchi Cha Cha]

Yeah, racism still is a big issue back home. I'm sometimes surprised when I go back home at the attitudes and level of racism some still harbour. Australia's a multicultural nation with people from almost every corner of the world but it seems the further you get out of the centre of our capital cities, the worse the racism is, particularly and ashamedly towards indigenous Australians.

Each new wave of migrants have also experienced racism, bigotry and prejudice, not dissimilar to what foreigners experience here in Korea. The Chinese during the Gold Rushes of the late 1800s, the Greeks, Italians and southern Europeans during the 50s and 60s, the Turks, Vietnamese and Chinese during the 70s and 80s, the Lebanese and Sudanese these days. There's a long, long way to go back home but I believe most Australians are decent people who judge on character rather than religion or skin colour, and Australia will continue to become a more open, inclusive society, and address the issues which still linger.

The treatment of indigenous Australians in Australia is an issue which is pretty close to my heart as I have some Aboriginal ancestry which I am proud of as I am of all my ancestries - I'm quite a mix. It's always upsetting to have 'friends' back home make uninformed, ignorant, racist comments about a group of people they've never taken the time to know or even meet. It's a long road ahead but as Matilda mentioned there's many great, positive role models for indigenous Australians particularly in the last 20 years in the arts and sport. A lot of these role models endured hardships and prejudice but have risen to the top. The issues are huge but gradually and with time I believe they will get better. It needs a lot of work and people - indigenous and non-indigenous - to come together and work on the best solutions together.

On another note, I get quite sick of all the jibes about our convict past. Where did they go before the war of Independence, I wonder .... Studies have found that only 15% of Australians today have convict ancestry not that it's anything to be particularly ashamed of, in fact most people are proud of this as all that most of their ancestors did was steal a loaf of bread or something similar to feed their family. Most were decent people in cruel and harsh times, most of us probably would have done similar. The treatment of indigenous people has been shameful in all New World countries so I don't think others should be taking too many jibes at Australia as their backyard isn't that much better.

By the way, I have no convict ancestry but officer ancestry which is more shameful!

[Yesterday]

[slim dusty]

My two cents worth. I am not a scholar in this field, however, I am an ordinary Australian and would recommend to anybody interested in furthering their knowledge of this issue find out what Germaine Greer has recently had to say. Hers is a liberal, compassionate position on the side of the aboriginals

Many of these remote regions where the aboriginal people live are so inhospitable that white society could not exist there. The aboriginal people when left to their own devices turn to shit. In the cities, they behave like vicious dogs, and in jails I've been told they run the place. I do not dislike the aboriginal people, there are many I know about who were brought up in small country towns who did well in school and went on to benefit the community, however, those strife-ridden aboriginals referred to in that article are those living in remote regions and inner cities. On a personal note, my father has had much experience working with aboriginal people in the rural trade of stockman, and he has much respect for their bushman skills. I feel a great admiration for aboriginal art, story-telling, dance and music. I've socialised with them on a few occassions (drinking in parks - not a good idea), however my opinion on the plight of these people, and I refer to the lawless communities, is that, um, well, i dunno. Now that's typically Australian.

[blaseblasphemener]

99.9% of people don't have the first clue whether their ancestors from 250 years ago were a criminal, nor what constituted a crime in those days. Australians really need to laugh and make fun out of this part of their proud history, instead of giving it any kind of serious thought. Anyone who would put any stock in "Australians are decended from convicts" really is a putz.

It's amazing how govt's can f!ck up native issues. Canada, my homeland, is of course no exception. I wish we would just have a giant referrendum, and give each indian the choice of $250,000 and non-native status, meaning they can't live on a reserve and won't receive any more funding than a non-native in Canada would. Many reserves are horribly administered, with one family monopolizing or squandering the federal funding they receive. Many indians who are not beneficieries of these funds would I think gladly take a payout and move off reserves, to have a better life for their children.

I think the problem mostly boils down to, people ultimately are responsible for their own lives. White citizens with their best intentions, won't be able to fix what is broken in native societies. Natives themselves must have the will to do it. I've been around a lot of natives in Canada, and I'm not to optimistic about this ever happening in Canada. There is too much history of fetal alcohol sydrome, violence, degredation, and drug abuse to turn things around in a meaningful way. Just look at inner city America and ask yourself if Blacks there will ever break the cycle. Since the 60s, when Blacks were given unheard-of new rights to education, civil liberties, jobs, and economic opportunites, the rates of single mothers have tripled, up to as high as 75% of families without a father in the household. It's gotten worse, not better, since civil-rights legislation was brought in.

It's like Jack Nicholson's character in the Departed said, "Nobody gave the Irish a f!@#ing thing. We had to do it ourselves."