Sorry

You can't base your judgement on what these people "achieved" by comparing them with modern society. That's like comparing how a tree grows with a mushroom.

No, that would be like comparing a grapefruit with a dingo. That's just silly.

A better analogy would be comparing a fully developed oak tree to one with stunted growth which has stagnated at the sapling stage.
 
Ok, please list what western civilisation has given the aboriginal people that betters their life compared to what it was before white settlement in a fundamental oh-my-god i can't believe they ever fucking lived without it way. Go.
 
Had that argument with my former boss about a gold mine that he was investing in in Asia.

Me : You will be destroying their environment, polluting their rivers, and eliminating their language and culture.
Him : We'll be giving them jobs and opportunity.
 
I actually think it's an incredibly important step in the growing up of our nation.

When it come to good things, we're all over it. Anzacs? Wooo! Yeah! Heroes! Shows what great people we can be! Kokoda track? Wooo! Shows how tough we are! Beating England 5-0 in the Ashes? Wooo! Yeah! Heroes! Russel Crowe winning an Oscar? Wooo! Yeah! He might be a Kiwi, but we made him great! Taking children from their parents? Woo...I mean, what, that's got nothing to do with me, not my fault.

If you really want to be able to take pride in your country means that sometimes you've got to acknowledge the bad stuff, and hopefully use it to grow.

It might have been officially an apology from the government, but I'm sure that most people will be using it as an apology from the people.
 
It might have been officially an apology from the government, but I'm sure that most people will be using it as an apology from the people.
Just as while it's officially an acknowledgement of past wrongs, most people with any kind of direct personal stake in the matter will be viewing it as an admission of guilt.
 
It damn well should be an admission of guilt. The Federal Government of this country (I am speaking historically, and not of any particular administration) has a lot to be guilty about when it comes to this matter. The reality is that the Australian public was almost entirely unaware that these things were going on, so should have no obligation to feel guilty. That being said, having heard so many negative responses to the idea of Parliament saying sorry, I feel quite comfortable in saying that over the course of these policies of assimilation, that the Australian public probably would have been right behind it. If they are still taken in by all the old rhetoric and bullshit that was used as justification at the time, when there is now enough contrary evidence to remove almost all doubt; I am sure that none of us would have had much of a chance to make an informed opinion had it been a public issue.

Australia has a very colourful, nasty bloody history, but, by jove, doesn't the rug look nice.
 
Ok, please list what western civilisation has given the aboriginal people that betters their life compared to what it was before white settlement in a fundamental oh-my-god i can't believe they ever fucking lived without it way. Go.

I reckon Aboriginals and other subsistence-based indigenous cultures like Innuits and the few remaining jungle tribes have a better chance of surviving possible worldwide catastrophes than modernised "civilization" does. If the oil and coal ran out tomorrow "civilization" would be finished within weeks.
 
No, that would be like comparing a grapefruit with a dingo. That's just silly.

A better analogy would be comparing a fully developed oak tree to one with stunted growth which has stagnated at the sapling stage.

My analogy still works because mushrooms and trees are both highly successful organisms even though they have evolved and live in a completely different way. Your analogy fails because you are still looking at things from an imperialistic viewpoint in which success or achievement is measured only in terms of technological advancement and the subjigation of other races and species. The very fact that Aboriginals were able to survive in Australia for 40,000 years with very little impact is an achievement in itself.
 
I walked into the tearoom at smoko to be confronted with calls of "they should apologise to us" and then someone turned off the telly so i proceeded to call them all a bunch of fucking rednecks!! I'm gonna get in touch with someone from the local aboriginal centre to see if they can send someone around to try and educate these people, I like them most of the time but when they make ignorant racist remarks like this i become enraged!!Especially when i think of my father who's aboriginal and a Vietnam Veteran and also the greatest father a guy could wish for! when i hear these kind of remarks it's so confronting that it's almost like having a brick smashed against your face.
 
The biggest thing that worries me is the compo thing, I mean if it is financial you know the majority will sadly piss it up against a wall, if they compensate they should do so in another way.

AlsoI understand the sorry thing, but should the gov't now start apologizing for everything the parliment has done since federation to try and protect the children? Again I know what happened was fucked up, but hasn't it now swung too far the other way, look at the few events late last year in northern QLD for examples
 
I walked into the tearoom at smoko to be confronted with calls of "they should apologise to us" and then someone turned off the telly so i proceeded to call them all a bunch of fucking rednecks!!

You don't like their opinion so you start calling them rednecks. You don't see just how ignorant or intolerant you're being yourself there? :Smug:
 
The biggest thing that worries me is the compo thing, I mean if it is financial you know the majority will sadly piss it up against a wall, if they compensate they should do so in another way.

AlsoI understand the sorry thing, but should the gov't now start apologizing for everything the parliment has done since federation to try and protect the children? Again I know what happened was fucked up, but hasn't it now swung too far the other way, look at the few events late last year in northern QLD for examples


As far as I am aware the apology has nothing to do with any ability to claim compensation. If there is compensation, how can we say how someone is to spend it? How many people own baby funded widescreen televisions? I understand your concern, but how can compensation be prejudiced by existing social problems that we have been unable to solve?


The policies were never about protecting children. They were about forcible assimilation that amounts to genocide according to internation law.
 
I couldn't personally tell someone off for their beliefs because I'm a coward, but I've come pretty close on occasion. Sure, it's their opinion, but their opinion is wrong.
 
I agree, Spiffo. It is very difficult to respect someone's opinion when it is clear they have done very little research into what they are talking about, and at times, perhaps have not even really thought about what they are saying.
 
The biggest thing that worries me is the compo thing, I mean if it is financial you know the majority will sadly piss it up against a wall, if they compensate they should do so in another way.

Southy,
people were accusing Rudd of using weasel words to exclude the possibility of compensation.

I think that the words were very carefully chosen to say sorry, to commit to never repeating it, but to not open the "floodgates" to compensation.

I also think that under current Oz law, compensation can only be made for physical disability, not "pain and suffering", so I doubt any cases like that would get up.

Even if they did, how anybody who proved a case in court spends it is neither here nor there.

If it was, then we'd be able to confiscate Paris and Britney's fortunes as they don't know how to be responsible.