Article

2003-05-04 Down Under

Top players blow in for didgeridoo festival

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Posted by Fred Pruitt 2003-05-04 02:09 pm|| || Front Page|| [14 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 You mean the few shaken survivors from the Aboriginal Holocaust?

Posted by yellerKat 2003-05-04 18:16:24|| 2003-05-04 18:16:24|| Front Page Top

#2 I just cannot believe it's free: that's fantastic!

Some aboriginal festivals are extremely expensive for tourists (read rip-off).

Welcome one and all, come and have fun in Australia!!!!

I'll buy any rantburger I come across a beer!!!!

yellerKat is right though... the few shaken survivors from ATSIC more like it.

For the edification of rantburg, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission receives in excess of $1billion a year to fund Aboriginal projects. It is headed by Geoff Clark, an individual who frequently indulges in pub brawls and who has had no less than 4 separate individuals who claimed he raped them and who have attempted to take him to court.

Aboriginal politics in Australia is rife with corruption.

Recently the federal government decided to separate ATSIC from the ability to spend it's $1billion annual budget due to the fact that hardly any of the money actually made it through to the poorest aboriginal people.

Aboriginal communities still have some people who live with no running water and bad health care yet the government alone shells out on average $60,000 for every Aboriginal man woman and child living in this country.

So where does all the money go? And that's not even counting the hundreds of millions that Aboriginal Traditional Owners get from Mining company royalties.

Another problem of multiculturalism: turn a blind eye to corrupt and undemocratic feudal practices in aboriginal communities and you end up with malnourished, alchohol-dependant and poverty-stricken people who are rapidly losing their culture but who lack the ability to replace the loss with anything productive.

There is a "genocide" going on but it isn't the fault of the government: it's the corrupt aboriginal leadership who are strangulating their own people!

Posted by Anon1 2003-05-04 20:37:39|| 2003-05-04 20:37:39|| Front Page Top

#3 "Another problem of multiculturalism: turn a blind eye to corrupt and undemocratic feudal practices in aboriginal communities and you end up with malnourished, alchohol-dependant and poverty-stricken people who are rapidly losing their culture but who lack the ability to replace the loss with anything productive.

There is a "genocide" going on but it isn't the fault of the government: it's the corrupt aboriginal leadership who are strangulating their own people! "

Anon 1, You are DEAD wrong. It is the fault of the govt for enabeling the "aboriginal leadership". I live on a U.S. "Native American tm" reservation and have wittnesed how dependence on govt "programs" have devastated the intended recipients.

Posted by leonidas 2003-05-04 21:52:15|| 2003-05-04 21:52:15|| Front Page Top

#4 You are right, leonidas: it IS the governments fault to the extent that they enabled the corrupt indigenous leadership to exploit their own people.

I agree!

But the corrupt indigenous leadership must also take responsibility for misusing the funds that were *intended* to help their communities.

It was due to the PC brigade who didn't want a 'paternalistic' "white" state administering the aid but who wanted aboriginals to self-administer aid according to their own cultural dictates and power structures.

Unfortunately those power structures are the kind often that give all the decision-making ability to unelected, unaccountable tribal elders who are born, not voted in. It is simply corrupt feudalism all over again and that just leads to the poor old serfs getting none of the money.

You cannot absolve them of all blame and responsibility.

Posted by Anon1 2003-05-04 22:49:10|| 2003-05-04 22:49:10|| Front Page Top

#5 Hi Leo,
In Sth.Central Arizona I have the San Carlos Apache reservation to the East And White Mountain Apaches to the North,the best thing that has happened to these people is Indian Gameing(own and operate thier own casino's)this has made a great difference in the lives of Native Americans.
Reservations here in the U.S. are considered Soverign states with thier own governments,police,etc..
how does it work in Ausstralia?

Posted by raptor 2003-05-05 05:23:53|| 2003-05-05 05:23:53|| Front Page Top

13:27 George
05:46 raptor
05:23 raptor
23:10 Becky
22:49 Anon1
22:40 Anon1
22:10 Jabba the Tutt
22:06 True German Ally
21:52 leonidas
21:38 Anon1
21:35 leonidas
21:25 Anonymous
21:24 Frank G
20:53 Anon1
20:48 john
20:41 Becky
20:37 Anon1
20:37 Frank G
20:36 john
20:11 Anon1
19:49 Anon1
19:41 Anonymous
19:31 Steve White
19:21 rg117