Feel this is terrible, absolutely shockingly terrible.... agreeing with
Garth almost whole way.
...
> (The Australian 12 June 2003)
> Violence in indigenous communities is endemic and getting worse, with
> extreme action required to stop brutality against women and children,
> respected Aboriginal leader Mick Dodson has said.
> COMMENT - Respected by who? And why the sudden change of tune? For
> years we've heard indigenous spokesmen demanding that whitey justice
> keep clear of indigenous famly business. The usual indigenous response
> to the extraordinary rate of black imprisonment is to claim
> discrimination and insist that courts send less abborignes to jail.
> The indigenous response to child welfare intervention is to complain
> that the children are stolen.
> Slamming indigenous leaders for their failure to make headway on the
> problem, Professor Dodson also made a plea for Prime Minister John
> Howard to help.
> COMMENT - No. For years theyve been saying give us money and land and
> we'll solve our own problems. Theyve had both money and land bigtime.
> If they dont want it this way any more then they should start by
> giving the money and land back.
> He said the level of violence against children was particularly
> "devastating" and "beyond comprehension" including abuse of babies too
> gruesome for him to describe. "Our children are experiencing horrific
> levels of violence and sexual abuse," the head of the Australian
> National University's Institute for Indigenous Australia told the
> National Press Club in Canberra yesterday. The problem was "at crisis
> point", as children suffered neglect, incest, pedophilia and assault,
> and babies fell prey to rapists, while women were "crying out for
> help".
> COMMENT - How can this dork have the efrontery to pretend he's just
> found out about these things.
> "We must acknowledge that the extent of violence in our communities is
> totally unacceptable. It is extreme and requires extreme action."
> COMMENT - Like what sort of action? Does he mean ATSIC should spend
> some money on the problem instead of funding trips and spurious land
> claims?
> Little research has been done on child sex abuse in black communities,
> but the Queensland Domestic Violence Taskforce has estimated 90 per
> cent of Aboriginal families are affected by violence. The taskforce
> said Aboriginal women were 45 times more likely than other women to be
> victims of violence.
> COMMENT - Up until now the lefty cultural relativists have been
> insisting its racist to say that sort of thing. And theyve convinced
> politicians to pass laws which prohibit observations that people of a
> particular race are inclined to engage in this sort of behaviour. The
> chardonay sippers only want to give them selves a pat on the back for
> doing there bit towards reconcilliation by taking a stroll across
> Sydney Harbour Bridge. But how can you reconcile with a culture in
> which it's routine for a teenage kid to invite his mates over to sniff
> a bit of petrol and stick there dicks in his primary-school sister?
> While mum's flaked out in the back room trying to numb the pain of her
> black eye with grog. And theres no real concept of "dad" - unless you
> choose to apply the term to one of the blokes who likes to pop over in
> the evening to give mum a nuckle sanwich.
> Another recent fedral government study, by researcher Paul Memmot,
> found the rates and. types of violence were getting worse in many
> areas. Professor Dodson called on the Government to work with black
> communities to combat family violence as "a national priority".
> COMMENT - Whats he want them to do? Jail the ofenders?
> It is not only indigenous leadership that should be tackling the
> issues, it requires strong political leadership from the Prime
> Minister down," he said. "This is not just our problem - this is
> everyone's problem."
> COMMENT - Bullshit. Its an indigenous problem.
> Professor Dodson said violence was spread by poverty and social
> exclusion, "which combine into a volatile cocktail of despair, anger,
> powerlessness and hopelessness".
> COMMENT - Now the excuses start coming out. Actuly he's got cause &
> effect mixed up. A dysfunctional culture fosters violence vandalism
> and antisocial behaviour. These things lead to poverty and social
> exclusion.
> Violence rendered other government programs "pointless" because it
> destroyed people's work, education and health. "Perhaps many of us are
> trying, but we are not trying hard enough," he said "I don't think
> those of us who are said to be leaders are providing the leadership
> that is required."
> COMMENT - Well he's hit the nail on the head there. Indigenous
> leadership is rock bottom hopeless thats for sure.
> Professor Dodson stressed such violence was not part of traditional
> culture.
> COMMENT - O well thats alright then. Course traditional culture is
> just a fantasy in someones head. Secret wimens busness The Woggle etc.
> Who is it thats been encouraging indigenous people to confuse
> traditional culture with real life?
> "But it is occurring principally because of the marginalisation of
> Aboriginal people, economic and welfare dependency high levels of
> unemployment . . . and the breakdown of community values.
> COMMENT - Again, he's confusing cause and effect.
> Indigenous family violence expert Boni Robertson applauded Professor
> Dodson's comments, saying child sex abuse was chronic but
> under-researched.
> COMMENT - Jesus don't tell me someone's going to tell us the answer is
> to do more research. This problem is fu*ken obvious.
> "We have to ask why this violence is happening, and it flows from
> suppressed trauma. If you really want to do something about this
> problem, you need to address the trauma that's fuelling the alcohol
> abuse and violence," she said.
> COMMENT - Seems to have caught the cause/effect confusion from Dodson.
> She's got it real bad. Trauma causing violence? She's joking. The
> violence causes trauma. That's the whole thing about violence.
> Yanyi Bandisha, from the Finke community southeast of Alice Springs
> and vice-chairwoman of the grassroots Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara
> Yankunytjatjara womens council, strongly endorsed professor Dodson's
> wake-up call. "At last, an Aboriginal man is standing up to talk for
> the rights of women and children."
> COMMENT - Strong endorsement? Pasive squeak more like. These people
> need asertiveness training.
> Jane Lloyd, chairwoman of the Northem Territory Domestic and
> Aboriginal Family Violence Advisory Council, said: "We are really
> encouraged by Mick Dodson's strong comments today, and hope that other
> indigenous men will follow and ensure that the safety of women and
> children is paramount."
> COMMENT - They can only hope.
> Ms Lloyd said Professor Dodson's claims about the levels of,
> violence.were not exaggerated. "It is at a crisis and it needs more
> than talk. There needs to be accessible and credible services to all
> indigenous women throughout Australia."
> COMMENT - Well talk is all that's on offer. She should take the matter
> up with ATSIC.
> She said domestic violence services were either not credible or
> non-existent in remote communities. "They are hardly there. There are
> huge gaps in delivery of what we would consider basic services in
> urban areas." Alison Anderson, the only woman on the board of the
> Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, said the peak
> indigenous body had a strong policy deploring violence and was
> developing an action plan with other agencies.
> COMMENT - Like I said above, talk is all that's on offer.
