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HAPPY SORRY DAY
Enough with the negativity! It’s time to jump aboard the sorry bandwagon:
We regret that we have but one Corey to give. On today’s speech - in which Kevin Rudd apologised even to children who were rescued from being bashed, starved and raped - Noel Pearson makes massive sense:
One of my misgivings about the apology has been my belief that nothing good will come from viewing ourselves, and making our case on the basis of our status, as victims.
We have been—and the people who lost their families certainly were—victimised in history, but we must stop the politics of victimhood. We lose power when we adopt this psychology. Whatever moral power we might gain over white Australia from presenting ourselves as victims, we lose in ourselves.
My worry is this apology will sanction a view of history that cements a detrimental psychology of victimhood, rather than a stronger one of defiance, survival and agency.
Sadly, the effect of the apology on those it’s aimed at is a secondary concern. This is more about smug white folks feeling nice about themselves. That’s why, despite it being an apology for allegedly terrible events, everybody is smiling.
(Corey art via Dan Lewis)
UPDATE: TOMORROW: Sydney Morning Herald souvenir Sorry Day edition.
UPDATE II. MM: “I know there are sceptics, but people of all affiliations should accept that this is an historic day tinged with sadness.”
UPDATE III. The Age reports:
In a historic gesture of reconciliation, Australia’s Parliament, will today say sorry to the stolen generations of indigenous children for a “blemished chapter in our nation’s history” — and vow never to let it happen again.
It happened again two days ago.
There’s an awful lot of buyers remorse about- most polls run at about 70-80% opposed to this facile bollocks, even ones on Yahoo and Fairfax, not exactly known for their conservative leanings. While the economy is going down the dunny (amazing in itself seeing as these dozy dickheads have only actually sat for one day), inflation and interest rates are rising quicker than an amphetamine-enhanced whippet and more troops are being sent to the lost cause of Fretelin, the most important item of business for our shiny new government is to open the doors to a lawyers picnic at public expense and pander to infantile leftists with a guilt complex and lazy pisshead sons and daughters of Eire whose great grandmother once beaned a koala with a stick.
BTW I’m back after a jaunt to Sydney, where I had the chance to marvel at how Bob Carr and Morrie Iemma have turned an industrial powerhouse into something I’ve only ever seen before east of Berlin when the commies were in charge- a truly hurculean effort. I popped in on Mr Blair as well, and he’s looking fighting fit, full of pith and vinegar and bright eyed and bushy tailed- amazing what going off the piss for a few weeks can do.
I’ve already had my Sorry Day: November 24th 2007.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2008 02 12 at 09:14 PM • permalink"In 1788 it was estimated that there were over 1 million Aboriginal people,” he told the gathering.
“They started counting us in the census in 1967. Today we number just over 500,000.
“We certainly need to account for what happened to the other 500,000,
From 1788? I’m guessing they died.
Frankly it’s a miracle that so many are that old. They must be over 250 by now.I heard on the midday Fairfax Radio news that KRudd’s Media Unit Manager and another Krudd adviser instigated a ‘protest’ against Nelson in Parliament’s Great Hall and both turned there backs while he was talking
Media Manager claims he “just turned around to answer his mobile phone”
Meanwhile down in Melbourne town, Victorian Acting Premier Rob Hulls (ex-Krudd mate from QLD) was busy egging on the crowd at Federation Square urging them to “show displeasure against the policies of the previous government” ... so when Nelson was speaking the crowd there was busy chanting “RACIST! RACIST” and “SHAME! SHAME!”
Ain’t reconciliation great?
#5
I watched it on Sky News. You couldn’t hear the outdoor audience but the commentators later made some mention of such silliness.
Whilst (regardless of your views) I can appreciate the effect this whole thing might have had on Aboriginals who watched it on the lawn of Parliament, it was almost nauseating to watch the heavily pierced dreadlocked white hippy chicks, tearing up. No doubt several Aboriginal elders would have looked at them with total disdain as well.
How frickin’ embarrassing. I work in a
propaganda factoryUniversity and we had hundreds of caring, sharing folks turn up to witness this great moment in our history. No-one seems to care that this will achieve nothing positive at all. It’s all about the symbolism!I’m quite sorry myself though.
I’m sorry for the poor kids who never got the opportunity to be stolen and who lost their lives or ended up being a world champion petrol sniffer.I’m sorry that no-one
stolesaved the next generation of hopeless, innocent souls like Dean Shillingsworth. Kids will continue to be abused, raped and murdered on a weekly basis and for that I’m truly sorry.I’m sorry that we have a spineless jellyfish for a Government these days that considers symbolism better than action.
I’m sorry that no-one takes into account the vast majority of Aboriginal folk who live quiet, normal lives in the suburbs, who work for a living and who don’t abuse their kids. I’m sorry that they are lumped in with the noisy, lazy, over-educated wastes of space that seem to be infesting our TV screens today.
I propose that every Australian be issued with a commemorative token.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2008 02 12 at 09:44 PM • permalink”...TOMORROW: Sydney Morning Herald souvenir Sorry Day edition..."
Will this include an apology to the country for what a thoroughly CRAPTACULAR newspaper publication it is?
Posted by Jay Santos on 2008 02 12 at 09:47 PM • permalinkDear Aboriginal “nation”.
Suck my grossly distended testicles.I have seen numbers quoted from 10,000 through to 100,000 being bandied about as numbers affected.
I have seen it called genocide while the % of children taken were around 5% of the Aboriginal population.
For such a bunch of low/rubbery figures to be worthy of such drooling, mouth breathing attention shows just how low the bar to being aggrieved has become in Australia now.
What a farce.
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2008 02 12 at 09:52 PM • permalinkOK, that sorry thing has now been done. Therefore, I never want to see another plane writing SORRY in the sky. If I do, I have a stolen Stinger missile and furious intent. You have been warned.
I also never want to see a rock band tear of their outer clothes to reveal Sorry Suits on live TV. If I see that I’ll start a pirate whaling operation and leave the oceans red with whale goo.
Then you’ll be sorry.
Anyone catch Ironbar? An absolute hoot- “I’m here to say Halleluja! Tomorrow there’ll be no petrol sniffing, and little girls can sleep safe in their beds!" Spot on. I loved the little bloke in the really bad suit the ABC had on out the front of parliament, who appeared to be completely shitfaced.
ABC idiot just said “it took the ballot box to achieve what years of activism failed to do"- I don’t recall Kruddy making an issue of an apology (it was policy, but most people didn’t notice) and going by the polls it would have probably cost the smarmy little prick the election if he had’ve had the ‘nads to make it plain that it was his main priority. ABC also featured the lovely Therese groping some poor bloody picaninny who looked about as comfortable as if someone had dropped a death adder in her shreddies.
Nearly every bugger featured so far on the mid-day news is looking for a sling, and some dickhead from the NSW law society is claiming compo won’t be a given- maybe so, but there’ll be a shitload of claims and no poxy pettifogger is going to lodge said claims gratis, and they’ll get paid no matter the outcome.
Pickles, it’s going to be your shout.
Gee wiz what a suprise, green left weakly support compo as well.
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2008 02 12 at 10:18 PM • permalinkI know there are sceptics, but people of all affiliations should accept that this is an historic day tinged with sadness.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2008 02 12 at 10:43 PM • permalinkAs Murphy was wont to say “No good deed goes unpunished” One hundred and fifty years ago the Aboriginals and New Arrivals were doing what people normally do when no-one was looking, like boozing, whoring and fighting i.e generally having a good time.
Then along came the wowser do-gooders who decided that Aboriginals needed to be protected from the white lower classes. So in came settlements and white mans grub and out went their normal food of kangaroos, possums , squirrels, wild dogs, river and swamp fish and shells, lizard eggs, large ant eggs, witchery grubs,colo, wombat, snakes, lizards with red bellies and other savory morsels
From there things only went from bad to worse as the wosers became more efficient and got the governments (state) to become more involved until we reached the SORRY mess we have today.
Will saying SORRY help?
Not a bit, I’m keeping my old 78 copy of Patsy Cline’s “Who’s Sorry Now” for when the next report shows that things have only gotten worse since the Sorry statement was made in parliament.So, are we sorry for the ‘stolen generations’ (funny how the singular has now become plural) or all the bad things whitey has done to their duskier brothers and sisters?
For want of a laugh on this ‘sorriest of days’, check out the old Jakalene Xtreme thread for a good look at what we are getting ourselves into.
I hope there’s as big a kerfuffle on a truly sad day - Gilly’s imminent retirement.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2008 02 12 at 11:13 PM • permalinkOK I want a $orry too coz yous Black Fella mob are such a constant source of dismay, frustration, disapointment, and sadness to me. As an African myself you Mob have not a clue as to how good you have it. 98% of the residents of my particuler country of birth would crawl over acres of shit covered broken glass to get a slice of the opportunity this pampered lot get. 3.5 billion dollars per year later and all they want now is a word! Fucking Pathetic!! is all I can say.
My boss (who is a prize turd and has equal levels of trustworthy to brainpower -making her both a backstabber and not too bright) was late in this morning . She brought in a cheesecake for our team to pick at for morning tea. She was late because she watched the “Speech”. Enquiries were made as to what the occasion was, and she gaily announced National Reconciliation Day and when someone mentioned that it tasted nice, she stated “Thank Our Prime Minister!”.
Naturally I considered accidentally knocking the thing on the floor and a few nastier options however my better judgement told me that one of these, (urine flavoured cheesecake) may have the opposite of my intended effect and actually appeal to people with these sorts of levels of discernment.Can anyone come up with an occasion where I can bring in a cake which will annoy the shit out of her ? A standard ex inner city left winger whose only encounter with Aboriginal people and real issues they face would be on ABC docu/dramas ( like the 7:30 Report).
Hmmm. When is JWH’s birthday ?
I listened to Rudd’s address on the way to work. If he’s going to act as he says he will in that address then the plight of aboriginal children is only going to get worse.
Rudd made no exceptions in his description of the “stolen generations”. It was a brutal shameful act period.
He later said that the injustices (read stolen generations) will never never happen again. That tells me that there will be no more removals of aboriginal children from their families. I think “never never” will come back to haunt him. Didn’t some sage one day say “never say never”?
So according to this sacred screed Rudd is declaring that there will be NO more removals of aboriginal children in danger of neglect and abuse. Ane lots of people are rejoicing!!
He then says that they will pursue policies to extend the longivity, education and employment opportunities of aboriginals to be on a par with the general community.
Does he have figures comparing the longivity, education and employment record of the “stolen generations” against those aboriginals who were not “stolen”?
As half caste kids were not looked on and treated too kindly by their tribal communities would this comparison not be relevant?
Rudd then says that every 4yo aboriginal child will have access to preschool education no matter where they live.
Sounds a little familiar doesn’t it? How is this going to work without children being relocated? Putting such facilities in every community is just not possible or feasible.
His statement is now set in stone and he needs to be held to it and questioned on progress for the tenure of his leadership.It’s also time the press published the toll of raped and killed aboriginal kids in communities like they do with the road toll to keep at the forefront of everyone’s mind the horror and reality of life for these little children. This is the real truth that has to be faced.
In his statement, Rudd also branded by implication every family that brought up an aboriginal child that had been removed as a monster. Every foster parent of children being looked after today has been similarly slurred by Rudd. He made no exceptions in is description and condemnation.
I would not decry any of those good people if they immediately returned those children to DOCS after Rudd’s dispicable effort.
Anyone else for a good fisking?
I thought Denis Jensen (one of several who boycotted) said it best:
“Saying sorry is not going to solve anything - it’s wallpaper,’’ he told The Australian Online.
“We need to be dealing with the very real problems in Aboriginal society. For a start, you’ve got life expectancy which in WA is under 50.“There was a court case involving the Commonwealth and the finding of that, upheld on appeal, was that in the case of the Northern Territory there never was a policy of removing Aboriginal children based on race. Based on that, what are you apologising for ?
“I struggled with this one. When you look at it, the federal parliament was not responsible for all the Aboriginal policy in all the states.”
I had the pleasure of working on Groote Eylandt over the summer of 2004-2005. Anyone who argues that throwing money at the problem will make it better just need look at Groote, where the locals as part of the agreement to mine there, receive monthly payments. During my three months I was woken numerous times in the middle of the night by the locals banging on my door. The first few times I answered the door to find guys offering their wives and on two occasions daughters for sex in exchange for alcohol. After a couple of weeks I learnt to stop opening my door. In my time there a robbery of the rec club occurred (stealing only alcohol I believe), a tribal war broke out and on my last day a local demanded that the mine pay for him to fly off the island because “they gonna shoot me”.
After those experiences, I came back a somewhat wiser person (not surprising given I was a student at the time) and have come to despise the tokenism that our current government has just displayed. There are far bigger issues facing the aboriginal population, none of which will be solved by saying sorry.
If it gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling, then sorry; but I still feel terrible about what I observed and it sickens me that it is probably continuing.
Pearson continues to impress.
My sorry contribution.
And can someone explain this under Aboriginal kinship conventions?
All three women praised the words of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
“I thought it was wonderful, a light shone upon us,” Ms Stewart said.
“I’m a descendant ... my grandmother was stolen, my mother was stolen and it’s a wonderful day today."
Sorry O/T. Hey AnthonyC I was on Groote Eylandt in 2005, nice place, lots of Crocs. I put paid to the myth that there are “no roots on groote” as was merily banging the local Bank Manager. Good days indeed, untill boss was killed by a croc then we all had to leave.
Black Fellas I saw were generally in better shape than the mainland due to the restrictions on grog. One or two even worked on the mine.#45 You know in the time I was there I never saw one croc, just a couple of slides on the beach. I remember that guy getting eaten by a croc, put a big halt on my mates thesis which was on the dozer fleet management system on Groote. Hell of an excuse to hand in his thesis late though, “my supervisor was eaten by a crocodile”.
Now there propsing to make it an annual holiday. It’s going to be a logistical nightmare finding 200,000+ jobs for Aborigines so that they can have the day off.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2008 02 13 at 12:21 AM • permalinkKrudd is happily judging the actions of the past by the standards of the present.
Outside of the cities, Australia in say the 1930’s was similar in many regards to a third world country today - in terms of wealth, economic development, transport, health, education etc etc. I know that, because my mum spent her childhood growing up in a hessian shack in the wheatbelt. No fridge. No electricity. Wood stove. Model-T for transport. The odd bit of shooting to bag a roo for dinner. Having a bath in the sink.
If you think that’s a bit rough, imagine how the blackfellas down the road were living. They didn’t always have nice cars and local schools and medical clinics and Landcruisers and proper clothes and TV’s and fridges you know.
I imagine that if you went to say the refugee camps in Darfur today, you’d find similar conditions to many a bush camp of 70 years ago. Except that the refos in Darfur probably have better access to UN doctors and UN supplied food and cleanish water, shelter (of a sort), clothing and the like.
If you took your average tilty-headed lefty to Darfur, the first thing they’d say (after they stopped crying at the fly-blown, malnourished kids and the sea of graves etc) would be, “We must do something about this!!”
To which I’d say, “We’ve been trying to fix shit like this in Australia for 100 years - and look where it got us!”
Sorry my arse.
Posted by mr creosote on 2008 02 13 at 12:29 AM • permalinkJust a suggestion: 1. We know that 45% of Australian voters will vote Labour no matter what they do. 2. Australia is a really big country.
I suggest we draw a line across Australia, East to West or North to South, it doesn’t matter. Labour voters and head tilters to one side and the rest of us to the other. We become 2 sovereign nations. Toss a coin for which side or give up the part with all the resources to the Australeft, it doesn’t matter. In 25 years we have a big national conference and the winner takes all. Success criteria to include GDP per capita/violent crime rate/percentage below poverty line/total population growth. It’s the ultimate television reality event! The Lefties won’t be able to resist the idea. The more I think of it I realise what a genius I am.
Well I don’t care about Blair’s carping.
I’m pleased that Australia’s parliament has seen fit to apologize for a disgusting episode in Australian history. Its not that Australians will see aboriginals as victims today, only that it acknowledges the past rather than try to rationalize it or excuse it.
Australia is a country based on honour and remembrance, not carping and amnesia (that would be the UK)
Now Australia can start dealing with the problems in Aboriginal communities without cringing about the “Stolen Generations” policy or the other failed policies of the past.
By the way, how about a new policy of sending white idiot children like Corey to live in Aboriginal communities? It would be the making of him to be 160km from the nearest Coles or Big W.
Just imagine - Corey versus saltwater crocodiles: I’d watch a series like that.
#53
You don’t know WTF you’re talking about - presumably, you’re an urbanite?Try 400 km from civilisation, wherein (your) Telstra has to send servicemen on a weekly basis to repair vandalised public telephones under the ‘universal service obligation’ in such remote communities - talk about literally cutting ones own throat ...
#19 Mr H Beeb.
I am deeply hurt that you think I would be involved in some sort of carpet bagging ambit claim on the public purse.
As if..
On the other hand:
Today the Vacation Judge in the Supreme Court of NSW, the Hon Justice John Perry Hamilton, made orders restraining the Minister for Climate Change the Hon Phil Koperberg and the Conservation Trust of NSW administered by his Department on the application of Monaro farmer Peter Spencer.
Peter Spencer has claimed that the NSW Government at the request of the Commonwealth has destroyed the productive use of his land, by means of the harsh implementation measures both governments have adopted under the National Vegetation Initiative.
Acknowledging this the NSW Government has offered to buy Mr Spencer’s land under the Farmer’s Exit Assistance Programme. Mr Spencer claims that offer is at a significant undervalue. When the matter came before the Court on 4 January 2008 Hamilton J indicated that he thought there was an arguable case for injunctive relief by the Court, especially on the ground of unconscionable conduct by the State.
The Minister and the Trust agreed to the interim orders by consent today, allowing Peter Spencer to argue his case at final hearing, which is expected by the middle of the year.
Mr Spencer’s counsel Mr Peter King argued before the Court that Mr Spencer was “a genuine victim of the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol”. Mr King also argued that “notwithstanding the importance of the aims of Kyoto people like Peter Spencer should not be discriminated against”. He was being asked to shoulder “a disproportionate burden for implementing the Kyoto measures” he said.
Mr Spencer said to day “I am relieved that the Court has given me an opportunity to put my case on these questions. I believe it is unconscionable that the Conservation Trust has accepted my case that on the one hand the Native Vegetation Act 2003 has put me out of business and then on the other hand seeks to make a profit out of me by buying the land at a gross undervalue, only then to re-sell it later at a profit.”
In essence, Spencer is claiming just terms compensation for the carbon value of the trees the NSW govt has taken from him, in pursuit of a Cth purpose, being compliance with Kyoto.
If this bloke gets up and the Cth is forced to pay compensation for all the carbon it has “sequestered” by getting the states to stop tree clearing, KRudd and his junta will be that poor they won’t be able to pay attention, let alone compo for sorry business.
#37
How about a big meat platter for International Eat A Tasty Animal for PETA (IEATAPETA) Day on March 15? Say the name fast and she’ll probably think it’s some kind of profound Maori holy day.
Posted by blandwagon on 2008 02 13 at 01:06 AM • permalink#53
I’m pleased that Australia’s parliament has seen fit to apologize for a disgusting episode in Australian history. Its not that Australians will see aboriginals as victims today, only that it acknowledges the past rather than try to rationalize it or excuse it.
You really are clueless about what used to happen in the old days.
White women had their kids taken away by welfare, for the children’s own good. The same standard of care was applied to Aboriginal parent/s and, along with the bad conditions tolerated by aboriginal people, there was the added danger to children who were of mixed blood.
The reason that so many aboriginal or rather people who IDENTIFY as aboriginal are around today is because of the practise of child welfare all those years ago.
Some kids, black and white, had a bad time. But kids were not taken away just because they were aboriginal - they were neglected, they were adjudged uncontrollable, or there was a danger to them from others in the “tribe”.
Look at the result of throwing money at the problem. Who gets the money? The Aboriginal industry.
The intervention seems to be doing a lot of good. Damn the mongrels who put fear into aboriginal people regarding the intervention. These fear mongers should be prosecuted.
Kevin’s speech had nothing on John Howard’s “Motion Relating To Reconciliation”.
I’m much more iggerant than yer avrij ejerkated intelexual, and dunno shit about nuthin. But one thing I do know is that this will REALLY prove to be a sorry day, but not in the sense that krud was bloviating about. When the backslapping stops, and the compo suits start to come in, any residual goodwill the great majority of ordinary folk have will quickly evaporate. Look for a rerun of secret women’s business, massive corruption etc.....No Australian child will live in poverty...sound familiar?
I was driving around the place today with the ABC on as usual -I like to swear at it- and never have I heard so much sycophancy broadcast.....and it goes on. If it was translated into actual, as opposed to metaphorical, tonguewashing, krudd or any other alp people would never have to wipe their arses ever again...today they got a lifetime’s clean.Watch out for a new, much meaner “Pauline Hanson” when the economy really turns. Two years I give it
Boy, what a steaming load! Three more years of this shit.
Posted by Mr Hackenbacker on 2008 02 13 at 01:23 AM • permalinkThis $orry business is a joke.
Why are we not laughing?
This time the joke’s on us!
To misquote Captain Renault: Australia has been defrauded. Round up the usual suspects.Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 01:29 AM • permalinkand vow never to let it happen again.
Yeah, that’s what they said about the Holocaust too. Achmadinejad-worshippers, anyone?
Posted by carpefraise on 2008 02 13 at 01:35 AM • permalink#53
...a disgusting episode in Australian history.
Take a moment and engage in a little light reading.
Whilst doing so, do attempt to consider the circumstances such legislation was designed to mitigate for and against.We’re gunna cook this big bugga and have a big feed
#71 - Pickles
Spent a very long half hour at the Borroloola Hotel buying a carton of piss and a pack of smokes in 2000. Getting in was no problem, but getting out was almost murder.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2008 02 13 at 01:50 AM • permalinkTomorrow, Rudd’s office:
Aboriginal affairs minister Jenny Macklin: What are going to do to help Aborigines?
PM Kevin Rudd: I’ve said sorry.
JM: But is that all?
KR: That all? I was on every TV station and in every newspaper in Australia. It was a great day for me.
JM: But what about Aborigines? You promised to reduce the gap between indigenous life expectancy the rest of the community. Aborigines are not living any longer.
KR: Didn’t say anything about Aborigines living longer. Just said we would reduce the gap. High interest rates, big jump in the jobless leading to a huge rise in suicides, collapsing health services, electricity costs way out of the reach of pensioners so they freeze to death. It all helps to reduce the gap.
JM: But we must do something. Indigenous children are being raped and murdered.
KR: I won’t get better media coverage that what I got yesterday so it’s time to look ahead. I know I sound cynical, but the media is only interest in ratings and newspaper sales. It has already lost interest in Aborigines as yesterday’s cause. They have moved on to my 2020 conference. It will be the biggest gathering of celebrities every seen in Australia and I’ll be at the centre of media coverage again.The sorry/stolen generation(s) campaign has been a most effective one, hasn’t it?
In the 10 years since the publication of the Bringing Them Home report, which is replete with claims unsupported by any evidence, thousands and thousands of part- Aboriginal Australians discovered that they were “stolen”.
Not rescued from abuse and neglect, not saved, not given a lifetime and even an education that they not otherwise have had.
Even though they may have the same feelings of dislocation and loss, other Australians who were taken from their families for exactly the same reasons are never to receive such an apology.
Advertising companies should take note of this successful propaganda effort. And take note of the way that many Australians who do not believe in this myth were bullied by the media, bureaucracy and government into not challenging today’s statement, though I suspect they may even constitute a near-, if not a majority of the population.
#25 Just before I turned the news off (because I started shouting at it) I saw Pat Dodson’s mug on the telly bleating about how compo was necessary but the apology was a small start.
Nah, couldn’t possibly be about more money.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2008 02 13 at 03:22 AM • permalinkRe: Update 3 - just as well they got in before Kevni’s Kybosh became a reality rather than still being just another bloody stupid idea.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2008 02 13 at 03:23 AM • permalink#38."Didn’t some sage one day say “never say never”?”
Yeah, that’d be Ian Fleming, I reckon.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2008 02 13 at 03:26 AM • permalink#72 this law provided the survivors for today’s merriment. While the non-survivors rest somewhere in unmarked graves.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 03:37 AM • permalink#64 Rod C, I was listening to Vega this morning just before 9 and they had some woman on who’s actually from Stolen Generationz.
Her grandmother was taken from Central Oz to Sth Oz, her mother was taken from her grandmother, and she was taken from her mother.
Not once did any of the people hosting this (that’ll be Dicko, Dave and Chrissy) why, specifically, were they all taken.
There was some muttering about records being lost or taken, or just not written down, but nothing specific, and nobody was game to ask the question.
I turned the radio off because I was shouting at it and not watching the road.
Sad thing is, I wasn’t even at the freeway and that’s a 4 minute drive.
Thank goodness I usually suffer from low bloodpressure - days like today would give me a bloody heart attack with the syrupy, malignant bullshit infesting the airwaves.
At least work was made a politics-free zone.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2008 02 13 at 03:41 AM • permalink#64, 65, 90
I have not heard any reports so I am blissfully ignorant of the events of the day.
Poor me. MP3 players will sell more now as people tire of “music news radio”.Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 03:51 AM • permalinkSo, who and what does a national “Sorry” day serve, and to what end (and I mean in reality, not the dubious goal of making people on both sides feel better for the next five minutes)? Even with compensation, how will life be any different for those apologized to?
A greater question for people to answer is whether a more advanced civilization must kowtow to every primitive culture they encounter. It isn’t just a rhetorical question: we are facing the more primitive culture of Islam and are asked to murder our own civilization for its sake.
ABC’s running an online poll asking: ‘Did Brendan Nelson botch his reply to Kevin Rudd’s “Sorry” speech?’ Link
beneath contempt doesn’t even begin to describe those taxpayer funded propagandists
(results are 75%yes atm- as you’d expect)
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2008 02 13 at 03:59 AM • permalink#84 Saint
Where’s a contact for Rooters who published that shit?
Someone should take them to task.Ask the fucking editor to google some of the shit he’s made up and see what they find.
It’s called RESEARCH and FACT CHECKING.
Who was that fucktard NYT journo (I think) we talked about years ago who fabricated an Australian doctor to quote about something? He was sacked, wasn’t he?
#95 Reuters has a pile of blogs at
http://blogs.reuters.com/ although I only read FaithWorld. Try maybeThe Good the Bad and the Ugly http://blogs.reuters.com/gbu/
Reuters Editors
http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-editors/Hey they even have one for their photographers...hooray for Pallywood.
They moderate comments though and don’t know about responses. But a few avalanches every now and then might do them good.
#93 please translate the below from the said poll?
It was a fair speech balancing settler achievement and good intentions with Aboriginal suffering past and present.settler achievement???
That was my mum’s people they arrived early.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 04:48 AM • permalink#95 kae you should take over all rooters reporting you know how to say things precisely.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 04:51 AM • permalink#37 Wacko.
You should add to the list of dates for your office party, March 5 2008, when John Howard will receive the 2008 Irving Kristol Award at a splendid pissup in Washington. That should make your boss’s head pop.#94 Today was a group madness.
Yes, it was. It was Australia’s version of the herd pathology we saw when Princess Diana died - something most Britons now find deeply embarrassing to remember. It was also disturbing.
The broadcast of the Leader of the Opposition’s speech, for example, was cut in Perth because the mob - led by a sorryist - shouted it down. A smug WA Premier, Alan Carpenter, said afterwards it was unfortunate that Dr Nelson had “missed the mark.” Elsewhere, Rudd’s own staffers encouraged people, through their example, to turn their backs on Brendan Nelson. (You know, in that “traditional” gesture of Aboriginal contempt invented a few years ago). Rudd says he has “counselled” these cretins - both of them senior Labor press secretaries - who were almost certainly trying to create anti-Coalition images for tonight’s news.
Public servants were on the taxpayers’ clock while attending or watching this “historic” occasion; universities fell into goose-step and their deans and department heads advised - I’d say, in some circumstances throughout the country, insisted - that staff and/or students tune in to watch proceedings; school students were also forced to watch, compelled - like Diana idolaters - to place metaphorical teddy bears outside the gilded gates of Kevin’s Palace of Sorriness.
We also now have a one-party state wherein the media are completely and utterly dominated by Labor sycophants. But there was no “stolen generation”. It is an historical fabrication. Today was a day of tremendous disgrace to Australian opinion leaders, Laborites, leftists, educationists and journalists - all now happy to be propagandists for the government.
The following headline tells the story of what today was really about:
Rudd leaves Howard off list of Aborigines’ ‘great friends’.
But John Howard, through the Intervention he initiated - with its compulsory medical checkups, vaccinations and sexual abuse investigations - has almost certainly saved more Aboriginal lives than any other prime minister in Australian history.
As I say, Wednesday 13 February was a disgraceful day in the history of this country. To paraphrase one of the former occupants of The Lodge - the one who gave the green light to the East Timor genocide (100,000 dead, no apology) - the whole extravaganza will go down in Australian history from “sorry day” 2008 as KRudd’s crud.
#91. Stackja1945.
Yes the iPod is excellent for that. The only thing I heard on the radio, about the collective ‘Rudd $orry’ event, was a gushy sounding young reporter telling a radio host that; “grief counsellors and emergency personal will be on hand if they are needed for this stressful and emotional day” or words to that affect. My car does not have ‘barf bag’ accessories, so a CD was immediately procured.#102 excellent analysis- I wish I could have articulated it as well as you have done.
But I’ve been rendered speechless by the ABC coverage of this shameful day- what with PM’s woman who ‘fell in love with Kevin Rudd’ and ABC TV’s ‘reverential silence’ while the Kruddster spoke.
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2008 02 13 at 05:23 AM • permalinkThe ABC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the ALP and 1st order of any new Conservative government should be its privatisation.
No more fucking about, if Krudd can ram through this crap then selling off the ABC will be a walk in the park.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2008 02 13 at 05:27 AM • permalink#99 kae no apology needed I am sure. Here at timblair I am sure again, we allow such precise language when it is needed.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 05:27 AM • permalink#103 I do not use Ipod but another brand of MP3 player, but still one must be prepared to turn off one media and use another media and not need to throw something somewhere in frustration.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 05:31 AM • permalinkABC cheered the defeat of LBJ and the success of the VC in 1968.
So now finally can we turn them off?Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 05:36 AM • permalinkI think Rudd has also sucked Nelson in to his bipartisan “war cabinet” to combat disadvantage. How is the opposition supposed to keep the government accountable on indigenous affairs when the opposition leader is party to the decisions? Perhaps Nelson wasn’t forewarned and felt he couldn’t refuse at the time, but he should find any way he can to weasel out of it. There’s a reason we have oppositions.
Some snippets from a good article in today’s Australian by David Moore (former chief of staff to Mal Brough)
The sorry debate has been ‘hijacked by those who want to salve their consciences but who can’t stomach the hard decisions that have to be taken’.
and
‘The Whitlam and the Fraser governments, which championed policies that were never going to work (and in some cases still do), should apologise. While they railed, rightly, against an apartheid system in South Africa, they created one in Australia. Instead of moralising and commentating, they should face up to their share of the responsibility.’
Recent sins more worthy of an apology
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2008 02 13 at 05:48 AM • permalink#65
kae,
I used to listen to the ABC too but shouting is no longer enough, so I tried 3AW, but Neil Mitchell is even worse, but in a different way.
being on the road all day, I have to listen to somet, so, now it’s ABC classic FM or 3MBS classic for me.
Try it, if you have access to it, it’s a bliss!We’re sorry that when you burn yourself, cut yourself or break a limb you have access to antibiotics, pain killers, anti-inflammatories and antiseptics so that the chances are you don’t die a painful death
We’re sorry that you have access to dental health care so you don’t die from septicemia when you get a hole in your tooth
We’re sorry that we only raised your life expectancy at birth from 32 to 62
We’re sorry that you have access to medicines such as worm tablets so that you don’t spend your lives with a 3 foot tape worm in your lower bowel which gives your outer rectum a good clean every night
We’re sorry that it’s no longer acceptable for North Queensland aborigines to eat people
We’re sorry that it’s no longer acceptable for tribal elders to rape 14 year old boys as part of their initiation ceremony
We’re sorry that it’s no longer acceptable to beat women into sexual submission with a nulla nulla
We’re sorry that it’s no longer acceptable to take 12 year old girls as wives
We’re sorry that it’s no longer acceptable to kill other males who compete for the tribe’s women
We’re sorry that it’s no longer acceptable to burn down 100 acres of bush because you’re too lazy to hunt the ‘roo AND cook it
We’re sorry that it’s no longer acceptable to forcibly abort children at the whim of the tribe witch doctor because the stars are not quite right
We’re sorry that it’s no longer acceptable to kill new born twins because they are devil children by abandoning them on ants nests
#109 Nelson is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. Oppositions have to be patient sometimes and wait. Menzies, Howard ... Labor falls over eventually. Chifley and Keating for example.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 06:02 AM • permalink#112 but they will take the money, whether you are sorry or not.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 06:14 AM • permalink#111 Orion
Hi - ABC Local for me, I need the traffic reports, I commute almost 3 hours a day. Sux. In fact I’ve worn out my poor old Toyota 98 Corolla - 300k, the motors burning oil…
I’m getting a new car next week. 2008 Corolla - Golly, in ten years the standard fitting and features have increased so much!! (Thank heaven for a helpful, liquid rellie!)Following on from:
George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-four
The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. ...When Oldspeak had been once and for all superseded, the last link with the past would have been severed.The purpose of sorryspeak is as a medium of expression to make all other modes of thought impossible.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 06:22 AM • permalinkThe genie has been released from the bottle. What are the chances of putting him back?
Posted by surfmaster on 2008 02 13 at 06:48 AM • permalink#105
Hear! Hear!The past week has seen a running public-paid advertorial for $orry on Radio National - even the Yartz programs had mandatory ‘black arts’ & associated $orry angles, FFS!
Toymota couldn’t have asked for a better advertorial!
Let ‘em go the way of the US NPR - a subscription-only shoestring budget ...
You call that a “Sorry?”
That’s not a “Sorry”
Now “THIS is a “Sorry!”
(with apologies to C.Dundee)
Posted by MentalFloss on 2008 02 13 at 07:02 AM • permalink#122
Like their SEC. 2. DISCLAIMER.
Nothing in this Joint Resolution authorizes any claim against the United States or serves as a settlement of any claim against the United States.Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 07:07 AM • permalink#123 pity ‘clever’ Kevni forgot to include that bit
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2008 02 13 at 07:12 AM • permalink#124 again as #116
The purpose of sorryspeak is as a medium of expression to make all other modes of thought impossible.Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 07:20 AM • permalink#118 kae, the other day you mentioned blacks could not speak English, just heard some poor thing mumbling something. Now I understand your comment.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 07:23 AM • permalinkStack.
Didn’t you believe me?Today they interviewed some “stolen” person who whined that
“... got no language, got not kulcha..”
s/he was speakin’ pretty good English, isn’t that a language? You can get a job with English, can’t you? (And the desire to work.)
There are aboriginal people who can not speak or understand English. It’s 2008 for crying out loud. The language of Australia is English (though the multiculties would have you believe otherwise, and the outlay by government departments on printing brochures etc. in many, many languages* belie that fact). If you cannot speak English, let alone read or write it, how the hell can you function in Australia?
Another point is that there is a ridiculous push for Aboriginal kids to learn their language - now the problem is that there are hundreds of languages - many, many tribes and each have different languages… tribes side-by-side know each other’s languages because they overlap, however, tribes living farther away don’t know each other’s language. So, which language should be taught to these kids in school? Surely there is enough to learn without this - and surely it’s the job of the parents and the grandparents to teach these kids to speak their languages?
*at great cost to the taxpayer.
I think that I was irked most about Kevvie’s demonising speech when he projected the “Noble Savage” lie. That grated. Kevvie is a snivelling weasel.
Now question is asked: Who was here first? So we believe someone got here sometime then someone else sometime then possibly some Europeans. Do we find the first ones somewhere and say sorry? This day started silly and is getting sillier.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 07:37 AM • permalinkI really thought Nelson could handle the job but he’s lost me. Today he should have kept his mouth shut with a simple “we support the government’s apology” speech. Any other response was always going go down like a lead balloon. Ditto Kyoto, ditto Labor’s IR laws. Just sit back and accept that they are the inevitable consequences of Labor’s win.
What they need to keep alive from the Howard era is the Liberals’ economic and security credentials and every now and then remind Australians that their country was a major player in international affairs under the Howard. That denies Labor and its camp followers oxygen to attack the Libs as yesterday’s people while keeping the Libs as a credible alternative government when Labor stumbles, as it is certain to do
Think Malcolm Turnbull’s performance after the budget in May will decide Nelson’s fate. If Turnbull performs like a leader in waiting, Nelson is stuffed.
#131 Didn’t you believe me?
Kae I have lived in suburban Sydney, only known, mostly English speakers, sheltered I know, so now to find out the wasted lifes of some makes me angry. My parents knew hard times but never thought of themselves in need of an apology.
Kae you are precise again.Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 13 at 07:43 AM • permalink#134 Nelson’s just a rebound leader. Once the libs are over the shock of being dumped a new and better leader will emerge. there are several names that come to mind.
I’m forlornly clinging to the hope that Costello will be drafted into the leadership and not quit parliament.
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2008 02 13 at 07:44 AM • permalinkJust talking with a friend about what the kids are being taught at school these days. Indoctrination! Her son refused to attend the assembly for the “Sorry”.
My mother taught school for over 50 years (still temps now). She never ever showed me an opinion or told me how I should think. Same with the kids she taught. I believe she gave the two sides of the argument, taught tolerance, and what is right and what is wrong. I had to make up my own opinion.
She’s in her 70s now, and I am only now, in the last 2 or three years finding out what she thinks about things and her opinion.
She was the same about by friends and boyfriends. Never passed an opinion or a criticism of any of my friends or boyfriends. (Was always there when the world came crashing down for me, though...)Wonder how I became such an opinionated, grumpy old woman?
Jeepers Guys
Check out some of the comments at Bolta blog. I’ve seen some argy-bargy over national issues but none has whipped up so much out pouring of disgust at Rudd and his apologists. This is one big brawl that’s not going to go away. The lies now told by Krudd and the promises will now be held against his throat. The MSM itself with their shameless bias has now been trapped in a corner.
Stay tuned..same time.. same bat channel
a sophisticated people may have lived in the remote and inaccessible Kimberley region of NW Australia as long as 60,000 years ago, before being wiped out by the aborigines
Terra nullius Australis, anyone?
Check out this article written by( of all people) former Keating minister Gary Johns on (of all places) ABC Online:
‘My understanding is that the Australian Government is apologising to the ‘stolen generations’ because the children of the union of black women and white men (rarely the reverse) were in previous generations not accepted into either society, and the white society did something about it’.
For good deeds there should be no apology
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2008 02 13 at 08:09 AM • permalinkYou call that an a apology? That’s not an apology. This is an apology!
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2008 02 13 at 09:18 AM • permalinkHappy Sorry Day, all. Get your t-shirts here.
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2008 02 13 at 10:15 AM • permalinkThe only thing more pitiful than waiting for an apology (resentfully, remorselessly) is providing one when its demanded.
One of the most valuable lessons I learned as a kid was that nobody outside of your immediate family really gives a shit about your problems (and most of the time, not even they do). If somebody you don’t know says they do give a shit, then ask them to do something (see valuable lesson above for outcome).
The other useful lesson I learned a long time ago was that most apologies are meaningless. For instance, in crowded Hong Kong today I had about half a dozen people say sorry for lightly and often unavoidably brushing against me (on escalators, in the train and in lifts, waiting in the taxi queue, etc). I paid no attention whatsoever to any of these (besides the 18-year-old girl with the long hair and legs who said sorry in a low, husky voice...). But mostly it’s a reflex. I doubt if people even know they’re saying it sometimes.
As the Krudster knows, the stock answer when someone says sorry to you in Chinese (duibuqi) is bu keqi (or its equivalent). That is, don’t mention it. In Australia, there is I believe a similar tradition: it goes like this. “Sorry, mate”. “Yeah, no problems, mate”. End of story in most cases (unless said exchange involves a turd in yellow sunglasses and a stupid cap, in which case you break his nose with your elbow. After which you say sorry).
The world has enough victims (not including my victimisation at the hands of pretty 18-year-old Chinese girls in Hong Kong who can murmur sorry into my ear as often as they like), and it’s about time rational people said apologies like the one discussed here are an insult. Any Aboriginal who truly believes an enormous burden has been lifted from their shoulders, please contact me because I have a very large building in Hong Kong I can sell to you cheap.
I’m glad I’m in Hong Kong while all this goes on. And I await the Krudmeister coming to our fair city and saying sorry to the Chinese.
Bwa ha haaaa, that picture is excellent.