General Chat

Linda - mum will be wishing she was back in hospital after a couple of days at home:-))

Sue xx

I've just had a look at the photo you sent. She's beautiful, Linda.

Hello SueMaid, Yes, we can offer them help. But they have to be prepared to accept it. For instance, there's an Aboriginal community in Far North Qld. which I won't name. My best friend's sister came over from New Zealand to nurse at the hospital there. Her comments on how the services at that hospital are mistreated are amazing. First of all, appointments are made and the patient/client doesn't arrive. Happens often on a daily basis. Patient needs to be transported to a larger hospital quite some distance away for special tests or treatment. The Flying Doctor airplane is arranged to pick the person up. Plane arrives, client is nowhere to be found even when someone is sent with a car to pick the client up. That trip costs the Qld state govt $600 each way.

What is lacking here is a mutual respect from both sides. The white person doesn't respect the black person because of the black person's lack of respect for the services provided for them by the white person. I can't think of another way to phrase it.

I think that too often the decisions made to try to remedy these problems are knee jerk because of some particular situation that has arisen. Govts are rarely ever proactive, more often they're reactive and this is not a good way to make policy.

Another thing I would like to comment on here is that the 'stolen generation' was, in most part, done in order to try to make the lot of the aboriginal better. Certainly, there were people involved in it who took part in order to take advantage of the disadvantaged, but unfortunately life is like that. It happens in many places, cultures and histories. I can't recall at this time what the actual date was that the powers that be (missionaries?) first started to take the kids away from the families but it was a long time ago.

I personally know a woman who was one of the 'stolen generation' and she was invited for the big 'sorry' get together in Sydney by Kevin Rudd. She didn't accept the invitation. When I asked her why not she told me that if she hadn't been taken from her community she would never have had an education, probably would have been pregnant by the time she was 14 and would never have had the lifestyle that's she's been able to enjoy over her lifetime. This woman is now elderly, by the way, and has children who are now educated and out there trying to encourage aboriginal children to be educated and their parents to allow them to be.

Pam xx

Linda are you volunteering to take over the night shift?

Good Morning Pam, How's the shoulder today, and did the hose get fixed?

Well it's bedtime again,
Enjoy your day Sue, Allan, Pam, and Berona when she arrives,
Sleep well CC, and Linda,
~~~~~~~~~~to Diane, and Carole,

Goodnight,
Tec.

Good night Tec, and I must also go

Take care all and it has been nice chatting.

Allan

Hi Tec, No the hose isn't fixed yet because the drag for the water line isn't fixed yet. But the plants seem to be surviving despite all this.

Should is taking 2 steps forward then 1 step back. I just have to be more aware of what things I do that cause the backwards steps. Pain the the .... hm, shoulder.

Sleep well all of you who are off to bed.

Pam. xx

Pam - a very emotive subject and I guess it could be an discussion with pros and cons endlessly given. In a town not far from us there is an area of homes built for Aborigines. It is within walking distance of shops and all facilities including a hospital. Unfortunately the lovely houses have been trashed by the people living in them. The landscaped gardens and play area are ruined. A few years ago the local council revamped the whole area - repairing and renewing many areas including new play equipment etc. Within 12 months they were all destroyed again. I guess this leaves a bad taste in many people's mouths.

CC - my email address has been given to various people I have contact with through my work and I have stipulated that it not be passed on as it is my personal email address. I recently received an email from a local government organisation and they had sent the email to various people showing all our email addresses. I have now started a new email address just for work. I let them know in no uncertain terms that I was not happy.

Sue xx

CC, Yes, I agree. We have people other than indigenous who hang around in front of pubs, clubs etc causing trouble. But the police will quickly deal with them. They're barely game to even approach the indigenous who are causing these troubles because of the 'racist' backlash that inevitably follows. So where do you go from here?

Pam.

Well, I'm finally here - after reading all of to-day's posts.
Linda - In case you didn't see my congrats before - I hope you have many years of enjoyment out of your little grand-daughter.

Sue, I know what you mean. We have the same problems here in Queensland. I recall years ago when my Dad was alive and living in northern NSW he was quite tickled about the new administrator that had been put in to Purfleet, an Aboriginal community village on the southern outskirts of Taree.

The new administrator was not only a woman, but an aboriginal woman. She started off by telling them that any house that had floorboards taken up (used for firewood) or doors taken off (again, used for firewood) would not be repaired at the expense of the govt. The next thing was that each household would only be eligible for one broken window to be fixed per year unless they could indicate the person who broke the window and such person would be held accountable to pay for the broken window.

She was very successful. But you know, if it had been a white administrator who came in and made those rules all hell would have broken loose. Some had tried it in the past and it just hadn't worked.

But trashing of houses etc. is not uncommon in any state in Australia. It's not only aboriginals who do it, either. It's a lack of respect for other peoples property. Seems like if they've been given something without having to work for it, then it has no value for them.

Pam.

Hello Berona,

Welcome. Nice to see you live. haha.

Pam.

The authorities have been buying houses in various suburbs of Sydney and re-locating indigenous families - to get them out of Redfern, which is renowned for them.
One home was not far away from me and I passed it often. The street was full of 'settled' homes - all about 40-50 years old with established gardens and lawns. This home was like that until the new family arrived. There are quite a few in the 'family' and none of them have a job. They all spend their time at the local tip, taking home what other people have dumped. They then put it out the front (without any repairs or cleaning) and put a price tag on it.
The gardens and lawns have become dirt but it's barely visible for the amount of junk that is covering it.

If they had worked and tried to fit in, the neighbours would have accepted them, but instead, they are complaining that the value of their homes is brought down by the sight of this one.

It's very disheartening to see this.

Yes, Berona. It is disheartening.

CC I'm sorry if I sounded a bit over the top. But I do find that often it's only the stuff that's a one-off sensational situation that is reported world wide and then it's blown up by journalists to make it sound like this is the norm, when it isn't. And yes, it is a very emotive situation. We currently here in Australia in most States have the situation where our electricity prices are skyrocketing, our property taxes and rates are skyrocketing etc. etc. etc. and this is because there just isn't enough money to go around to pay for everything. And then we have on our doorsteps even in well populated towns all this blatant waste and destruction which, if we were to do it the council or other powers that be would be down on us like a ton of bricks and we'd have to pay for the breakages ourselves or face a court which would then insist that we paid for them.

Berona, I'm very familiar with the area in Redfern that you refer to. I used to work withing spitting distance of that area for 4 1/2 years and boy oh boy, the things I saw that happened there. And up in the park just up the road. Not for publication.

Pam.

Sorry CC, hats and gloves are out for me. Will just have to accept me in my muu muu, thongs, and Akubra.

That's about as dressed up as we get up here. lol

Pam

Now CC An Akubra is a bush hat made from rabbit fur. You might be able to see a picture of one on the net if you google it. Distinctly Australian and worn mostly by bushies (outback) people in Australia. It's often a hat that tourists love to buy to take home, esp. Americans and Germans. I guess because it is distinctly Australia. I don't know if it's the same thing or not, but you know the Australian soldier's hat with the brim turned up on one side? Then it's like that except it doesn't have the brim turned up. That side of your face would get very sunburned if you wore it like that. Also, if you're familiar with golf and golfers, it's the kind of hat that Greg Norman wears, he being the Queenslander that he is.

Pam.

Sorry for the previous posting delay. I got sidetracked into cleaning down the vanity basin in the bathroom. Now my hands smell of bleach so I'll have to find my lemon scented hand lotion to get rid of the smell.

I've enjoyed the 'intelligent conversation', too, CC. I think we can all learn from each other in here and that's a good thing.

We sometimes get programmes over here which show the sorts of riots and things you get over there with the people that have come into your country from elsewhere and I wonder at times if this is just a one-off incident. It probably is.

But you know, it's a thing that seems to be inevitable if you bring people in from other cultures and allow them free reign of their own culture within your own country. There has to be some sort of defined line where the twain can meet. We have to be accepting of them but they have to be accepting of us, too. I think personally, that we're just asking for more trouble which in the end could lead to something like civil war when we don't insist that, if someone comes to our country to live they have to accept that our culture has precedence. If they don't like it, freedom here is a wonderful thing. They can go back to where they came from.

Pam.

Hi All,
I've just read all the latest postings, and I agree with Pamela,
I live in a fantastic city that has a diverse and multicultural population,
I see the majority as nice, polite, helpful people in times of need,
BUT!! I also see people who think it's alright to be destructive, and rude. Some people think it's their god given right to demand all the same things that other people have worked hard for, but they want it for free.I'm all for helping those in need, but let's get it into perspective. We also have to learn to do things for ourselves. Hollzy

For about ten years, I did 'respite care' - every fourth week the child in foster care would stay with me to give him and his carer a break from each other.
Something I found very common with a lot of them was the fact that they were born in this country - and in many instances so were their mothers. In my book, that makes them Australian - but whenever their grandparents would see them, they took great pains to impress upon them that they belonged to the country from which the grandparents had migrated. No wonder they grew up confused.

Hello Hollzy. I guess what we're saying is that there's good and bad wherever we go. We all have differing opinions on what is a very sensitive subject - there appears to be no right or wrong.

Pam I can remember stopping in Taree on holiday when our family was young. The children swam in the Manning River with some Aboriginal children from Purfleet. Children being children they didn't see any difference between them and neither did we - it was a joy to see them splashing and laughing together. However I don't see the situation through rose coloured glasses and I know there are many problems. I agree that our government isn't proactive enough where these problems are concerned but I don't know what the solution is.

Sue xx

Once again CC you snuck in while I was typing:-)) So does this mean the hospital visit was a success? I hope so.

Ah - funny you should say you miss your little girls. OH showed me a photo of our three when they were little on a swing set in our backyard. They looked so carefree and lacking in responsibility. I sometimes wish those times were back - the three of them have had their tough times.

Sue xx

Are you trying to contact the spirit world CC?

Could you ask 4xGt Grandfather Edward who his father was, and where was he born?

Tec.