Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Have you been drinking?
"Have you been drinking?" the Shire worker asked the Aboriginal man and woman who walked into the Civic Center just in front of us. "You can't come in if you've been drinking."
The woman turned away, but the man said, "No, I haven't been..."
"Yes I think you have!" said the man, "You can't come in." Reluctantly, (but also clearly inebriated) he turned away also.
A woman worker appeared from the left, and pulled us aside.
"Come in", she said. "There's no charge tonite. Please sign in, and here are your three free drink tickets. Enjoy the show and the buffet."
What is wrong with this picture?
We had been excited to attend last weeks Boab Festival Kimberley Art Competition, in no small part because we hoped to purchase a painting by the Aboriginal man who was our guide on the Leeuwin trip. And I think we were stunned and shocked as the above scenario unfolded.
Yet we believe it is symptomatic of what is happening in Australia today.
The big national news here (notwithstanding scares about terrorist doctors) has been the Howard government's "intervention" in the Northern Territory to rescue Aboriginal children from child sexual abuse. After 8 years of doing nothing, with the election looming, Mr. Howard has sent Federal Troops into small communities in the N.T. to take control of the communities. And this week, there has been a firestorm in nearby Halls Creek, Western Australia, where a dozen men and teenagers have been arrested for having sex with underage (<16) girls as young as 11. (We have seen many family members from Halls Creek visiting Derby relatives this week as a result.)
This has been a brilliant political move- after all, who can oppose stamping out child sexual abuse?- but some say it is a cover for abrogation of Aboriginal land rights, and to take the focus away from the current government's lack of progress in improving the lot of Aboriginal children.
What is immediately apparent to us is that the policy is inherently racist. There is no equal push to detect and treat child sexual abuse in European communities. In fact, the diversion of social workers and resources to Aboriginal communities might be giving a free pass to non-Aboriginal child abusers. It is easy to go into a remote community with the Army and look like something is being done- but whether there will be a sustained push to improve the conditions that predispose to child abuse and neglect is another story.
The original report (that so embarrassed the government that they HAD to do something) said that "rivers of grog" were a major factor leading to child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities. And the Government has indeed declared Communities "grog-free zones", which their soldiers will enforce (causing the heaviest drinkers to relocate to nearby towns and cities).
But the problem is deeper than that. The son of the Premier of Victoria this weekend was drink driving and wrapped his car around a utility pole, putting his best friend in the ICU with head and facial injuries. This is not the first time this teenager has been in trouble over alcohol. He will receive a small fine only, and some points on his license. His father has been quoted as saying, "I really don't think he has a problem with alcohol."
It really all comes back to accepting responsibility and consequences.
Which brings me to several conclusions.
1) As we've said before, the average Australian (90% of whom live in the big cities) has no clue about conditions of poverty and despair in Aboriginal communities.
2) But if they do have an opinion, what we hear is that its the fault of "drunken Aboriginal people on the dole".
3) Yet ALL of Australia tolerates levels of drinking that are far higher then we are used to, and with even fewer consequences than we see in the (overlawyered) U.S. (not to mention Scandinavia or New Zealand)
4) If you are drinking, what happens to you depends on who you are are and the color of your skin.
One of my students this week mentioned how shocked and guilty she feels about the situation here in her own country. But she feels inhibited about speaking out, afraid she'll be perceived as racist.
In our discussion, I pointed out that the Government should and could intervene in a non-racist way. No matter what color you are:
1) Children should be made to go to school, with truant officers and consequences for parents who don't educate their children.
2) Any child at risk of abuse should have a family investigation, and support and intervention as needed
3) Welfare should be a temporary situation, with training and job placement an expected outcome in a short term of several years. (If only Nixon could go to China, then only Clinton could declare "welfare should not be a way of life".)
4) Dole payments should be vouchered, like Food Stamps, so they can not be spent for alcohol, gambling or tobacco.
5) Alcohol intervention programs should be funded and available to all who need them.
6) All communities should be encouraged to pursue economic development with equal resourcing.
At this point let me emphasize that these are good policies for the U.S. as well. Certainly we could add health-care equality to the list as a specific U.S. problem. And we have our own share of racism in places like Hurricane Katrina/New Orleans/ South Side Chicago and many other cities...
Yet amidst all this social distress in the Kimberley, there are real moments of beauty. We sat in the outdoor movies last Friday, with about a million local kids under a spectacular dark starry sky, watching Spiderman 3. There were at least 4 brilliant shooting stars during the picture. And early Sunday a student and I went birdwatching, enjoying a dozen brolgas, and a flock of huge white pelicans in the local lakes.
Derby, Western Australia, often makes me feel like when I was a kid with a friend down the block, who gets into trouble a lot. Sometimes he is mean to me, and he is always in the Principal's office; but on occasion, often enough to tantalize, he can be a really sweet kid, who has so much potential, if only he could just change his attitude, and come right...
The woman turned away, but the man said, "No, I haven't been..."
"Yes I think you have!" said the man, "You can't come in." Reluctantly, (but also clearly inebriated) he turned away also.
A woman worker appeared from the left, and pulled us aside.
"Come in", she said. "There's no charge tonite. Please sign in, and here are your three free drink tickets. Enjoy the show and the buffet."
What is wrong with this picture?
We had been excited to attend last weeks Boab Festival Kimberley Art Competition, in no small part because we hoped to purchase a painting by the Aboriginal man who was our guide on the Leeuwin trip. And I think we were stunned and shocked as the above scenario unfolded.
Yet we believe it is symptomatic of what is happening in Australia today.
The big national news here (notwithstanding scares about terrorist doctors) has been the Howard government's "intervention" in the Northern Territory to rescue Aboriginal children from child sexual abuse. After 8 years of doing nothing, with the election looming, Mr. Howard has sent Federal Troops into small communities in the N.T. to take control of the communities. And this week, there has been a firestorm in nearby Halls Creek, Western Australia, where a dozen men and teenagers have been arrested for having sex with underage (<16) girls as young as 11. (We have seen many family members from Halls Creek visiting Derby relatives this week as a result.)
This has been a brilliant political move- after all, who can oppose stamping out child sexual abuse?- but some say it is a cover for abrogation of Aboriginal land rights, and to take the focus away from the current government's lack of progress in improving the lot of Aboriginal children.
What is immediately apparent to us is that the policy is inherently racist. There is no equal push to detect and treat child sexual abuse in European communities. In fact, the diversion of social workers and resources to Aboriginal communities might be giving a free pass to non-Aboriginal child abusers. It is easy to go into a remote community with the Army and look like something is being done- but whether there will be a sustained push to improve the conditions that predispose to child abuse and neglect is another story.
The original report (that so embarrassed the government that they HAD to do something) said that "rivers of grog" were a major factor leading to child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities. And the Government has indeed declared Communities "grog-free zones", which their soldiers will enforce (causing the heaviest drinkers to relocate to nearby towns and cities).
But the problem is deeper than that. The son of the Premier of Victoria this weekend was drink driving and wrapped his car around a utility pole, putting his best friend in the ICU with head and facial injuries. This is not the first time this teenager has been in trouble over alcohol. He will receive a small fine only, and some points on his license. His father has been quoted as saying, "I really don't think he has a problem with alcohol."
It really all comes back to accepting responsibility and consequences.
Which brings me to several conclusions.
1) As we've said before, the average Australian (90% of whom live in the big cities) has no clue about conditions of poverty and despair in Aboriginal communities.
2) But if they do have an opinion, what we hear is that its the fault of "drunken Aboriginal people on the dole".
3) Yet ALL of Australia tolerates levels of drinking that are far higher then we are used to, and with even fewer consequences than we see in the (overlawyered) U.S. (not to mention Scandinavia or New Zealand)
4) If you are drinking, what happens to you depends on who you are are and the color of your skin.
One of my students this week mentioned how shocked and guilty she feels about the situation here in her own country. But she feels inhibited about speaking out, afraid she'll be perceived as racist.
In our discussion, I pointed out that the Government should and could intervene in a non-racist way. No matter what color you are:
1) Children should be made to go to school, with truant officers and consequences for parents who don't educate their children.
2) Any child at risk of abuse should have a family investigation, and support and intervention as needed
3) Welfare should be a temporary situation, with training and job placement an expected outcome in a short term of several years. (If only Nixon could go to China, then only Clinton could declare "welfare should not be a way of life".)
4) Dole payments should be vouchered, like Food Stamps, so they can not be spent for alcohol, gambling or tobacco.
5) Alcohol intervention programs should be funded and available to all who need them.
6) All communities should be encouraged to pursue economic development with equal resourcing.
At this point let me emphasize that these are good policies for the U.S. as well. Certainly we could add health-care equality to the list as a specific U.S. problem. And we have our own share of racism in places like Hurricane Katrina/New Orleans/ South Side Chicago and many other cities...
Yet amidst all this social distress in the Kimberley, there are real moments of beauty. We sat in the outdoor movies last Friday, with about a million local kids under a spectacular dark starry sky, watching Spiderman 3. There were at least 4 brilliant shooting stars during the picture. And early Sunday a student and I went birdwatching, enjoying a dozen brolgas, and a flock of huge white pelicans in the local lakes.
Derby, Western Australia, often makes me feel like when I was a kid with a friend down the block, who gets into trouble a lot. Sometimes he is mean to me, and he is always in the Principal's office; but on occasion, often enough to tantalize, he can be a really sweet kid, who has so much potential, if only he could just change his attitude, and come right...
