bonnie Posted January 22, 2012 Posted January 22, 2012 The Grim Legacy of Compassion * by: Patrick McCauley * From: The Australian * January 14, 2012 12:00AM Perhaps the most significant document defining Australia is the Constitution. It lays out the essential principles upon which our country is based. Most of these were developed in countries other than Australia. They were the result of thousands of years of social evolution. If we are to consider changing these basic principles to include recognition of the pre-occupants, what are we recognising? Are we to say that these people have greater rights than other citizens? If so, what are these rights? If we are to recognise them as pre-occupants only, and not as a race, then how will we unlearn the race that they all clearly belong to? And surely this lack of recognition of their race is but further patronising. Yet to recognise the indigenous peoples as having special rights may open the floodgates of positive discrimination to many minority groups all clambering for special recognition. We have, as a nation, already been manipulated by accusations of racism that have led to the policies of self-determination and land rights that have proved tragically destructive for the modern Aboriginal people. We have enacted laws that forbid citizens to freely talk about Aboriginal issues. We have seen senior journalists vilified and made to publicly apologise for daring to question the Aboriginality of wealthy, privileged, public Aboriginal figures. Whitefella intellectuals and academics have had major and inspired work silenced, sidelined and vilified due to fear of accusations of racism. Yet all this effort and pain has not been able to get Aboriginal children to go to school, has not reduced the percentages of the Aboriginal population in jail and it has not been able to cure the generational diseases of alcoholism and drug addiction. In fact, it would almost seem to work in reverse, that the more compassion and recognition of special status afforded the indigenous population, the more they slide into further disease and discontent. The politics of victimhood is addictive: focused firmly on the past but unable to dream of a future where it does not exist. Aboriginality is worth a small fortune in modern democratic Australia. If you divide the annual state and federal budgets spent on Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders by the number of citizens identifying, you can calculate the taxpayer cost of each indigenous citizen in the hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. That's in the millions of dollars for each lifespan. So Aboriginality is a significant economic as well as a social issue for each Australian taxpayer. Middle-class Aboriginal filmmakers with a revolutionary agenda are funded through ideology, nepotism and savvy representation while the isolated and uneducated are very often underrepresented. Everything that has defined Aboriginal politics during the past 50 years or so has been squarely aimed at separation. Land rights, native title, the permit system, self-determination, the brief flurry with an Aboriginal revolutionary government. The tent embassy, as the community development act of the century, most clearly defines the overwhelming Aboriginal politic of a separate state. Quote Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this. Quotes by Susan Gottesman
Moderators lazarus Posted January 22, 2012 Moderators Posted January 22, 2012 Can you post a link please. It would be good to get some context. Quote Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence. Einstein
bonnie Posted January 22, 2012 Author Posted January 22, 2012 Australian Human Rights Perhaps instead of trying to improve the quality of medical care for the poor in the states,greater emphasis should be on ones own country and what is called cherry picking Quote: The current status of Indigenous health in Australia can be briefly synopsized as follows: * The health status of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is poor in comparison to the rest of the Australian population.10 There remains a large inequality gap in Australia across all statistics. For example, there is an estimated gap of approximately 17 years between Indigenous and non-Indigenous life expectation in Australia11. For all age groups below 65 years, the age-specific death rates for Indigenous Australians are at least twice those experienced by the non-Indigenous population12. Your excellent health care for all doesn't appear to take care of all Quote: * Indigenous peoples do not have an equal opportunity to be as healthy as non-Indigenous Australians. ‘The relative socioeconomic disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people compared to non-Indigenous people places them at greater risk of exposure to behavioural and environmental health risk factors’13 as does the higher proportion of Indigenous households that ‘live in conditions that do not support good health’.14 Indigenous peoples also do not enjoy equal access to primary health care and health infrastructure (including safe drinking water, effective sewerage systems, rubbish collection services and healthy housing). Quote: * There has been very little progress in reducing this inequality gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous Australians over the past decade, for example in relation to long term measures such as life expectation. Many have the answers to make the US a perfect country,why aren't they implemented at home? Quote: * While there have been improvements on some measures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health status, they have not matched the rapid health gains made in the general population in Australia. For example, death rates from cardiovascular disease in the general population have fallen 30% since 1991, and 70% in the last 35-years16 whereas Indigenous people do not appear to have made any reduction in death rates from cardiovascular disease over this period. Unless you are cherry picking why has this not been corrected by the excellent health care for all Quote: Indigenous peoples in Australia experience socio-economic disadvantage on all major indicators. For example: * At the 2001 National Census, the average gross household income for Indigenous peoples in Australia was $364 per/week, or 62% of the rate for non-Indigenous peoples ($585 per/ week) Seems to need a little work Quote: * At the 2001 Census, the unemployment rate for Indigenous peoples was 20%; three times higher than the rate for non-Indigenous Australians Why would this be true? Seems a similar problem to the racist,uncaring US Quote Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this. Quotes by Susan Gottesman
bonnie Posted January 22, 2012 Author Posted January 22, 2012 These human beings must not count is quality health care for all.How could this happen except in the US? Australia's Indigenous health crisis in-depth | Oxfam Australia Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the Australian Constitution; ... Achieving Indigenous health equality relies on investment in … www.oxfam.org.au/.../​australias-indigenous-health-crisis-in-depth Australia's Indigenous health crisis in-depth The figures paint a staggering reality: * Indigenous men and women die up to 17 years earlier than other Australians * Indigenous children are dying at more than double the rate of non-Indigenous children * Many Indigenous people suffer chronic diseases which are entirely preventable and have virtually been eliminated in the non-Indigenous population * Access to primary healthcare remains extremely poor. The health crisis affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is urgent – but it has existed for a long time. At its core it’s a crisis of inequality, the type of inequality that can’t be reversed with a quick fix. How did we get to this? The appalling state of Indigenous health today is a result of decades of neglect and inadequate services. Poverty caused by high unemployment, poor housing and education, discrimination, unresolved trauma and a lack of empowerment have all contributed to the situation. A 2007 report by the Australian Medical Association uncovered evidence of inherent discrimination in our health system. It found that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders do not benefit from mainstream health services to the same level of other Australians because they either are located out of the reach of Aboriginal communities or the medical attention they receive is culturally intolerant and unwelcoming. Quote Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this. Quotes by Susan Gottesman
bonnie Posted January 22, 2012 Author Posted January 22, 2012 And the problem here is what? AFN National Chief presentation to Health Council on First Nation ... ... continue to impede and suppress First Nation citizens. ... the same quality of health care as ... the barriers to health care for First Nations in Canada. ... media.knet.ca/node/5915 ... continue to impede and suppress First Nation citizens. ... the same quality of health care as ... the barriers to health care for First Nations in Canada. ... The three main recommendations of the report are particularly applicable for healthcare and First Nations in Canada. Among the recommendations, the report states: “Inequity in the conditions of daily living is shaped by deeper social structures and processes. The inequity is systematic, produced by social norms, policies, and practices that tolerate or actually promote unfair distribution of, and access to, power, wealth, and other necessary social resources.”3 Our challenge is to enlist the help of this Government to work with us to effectively address the challenges and issues that exist in First Nation communities and which continue to impede and suppress First Nation citizens. The WHO report also notes that unsafe drinking water, access to housing, high suicide rates and the inequitable distribution of power, money and resources directly impacts life expectancy. ...... First Nations have been facing these challenges for too long. We hope that the international spotlight on the very same issues that plague First Nations will encourage a change in Government response. It is in this spirit that I offer my address to you today. Since the 2003 Accord on Health Renewal, we have made some progress. Nevertheless, as the WHO report also acknowledged, serious gaps remain between the health of First Nations and non-Indigenous Canadians. I thought there was universal quality medical for all. . Last week, a study in Canadian Medical Association Journal asked: Do First Nations receive the same quality of health care as other Canadians?4 In answering this question, it examined two aspects of treatment for kidney disease. They concluded that First Nations patients are not receiving the same quality of health care as other Canadians. How can this happen? Quote Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this. Quotes by Susan Gottesman
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