> I also read recently that Australia is considering banning porn and alcohol from the Aborigine communities. I haven't really researched this topic at all yet, but apparently they think that banning porn and alcohol will help stop the rampant child sexual abuse that is present.

yeah...

don't get me wrong, i do have a problem with pornography and alchohol abuse and also with sexual abuse but...

i don't agree with their being different (more restrictive) laws in aboriginal communities than in the rest of australia.

in particular... if those people were given comperable quality of education, employment opportunities, and the right to report crimes and have the police follow up on the reports and actually take action to convict people for offenses i think that would be more likely to turn things around.

at present the educational system for them sucks.
the job prospects for them in their community sucks.
the police presence sucks. crimes often go unreported because the police don't convict offenders. instead... people take things into their own hands (tit for tat, basically).
the aborigine people have suffered many years of racism and hostility.
their suffering has been ignored.
the harms that have been done to them by settlers (both intentional harm and unintentional harm) has been ignored.

the government offers them stuff with strings attached (we will give you xxx amount of dollars in exchange for you signing your land over to us etc etc) and when they reject the governments claim people say things like 'they don't want our handouts' and 'we tried to help them but they wouldn't accept it' to excuse themselves from responsibility.

the aborigine people have very little rights in australia (some communities have more restrictive laws than the rest of australia). the aboriginie people have little imput from the government with respect to health, education, welfare, employment opportunities. the government leaves them to fend for themselves then all of a sudden gets indignant at what they are up to and threatens to take things away from them that are considered human rights in other states (e.g., the right to welfare and the right to watch pornography).

but then i'm a kiwi...

we have the treaty of waitangi (treaty between european settlers and the maori indigenous people) as our founding document. we are considered the world leaders in indigenous relations. i don't mean to gloat with that... one looks at the situation in new zealand... all the problems that we are having with indigenous relations and one thinks 'holy hell we are supposed to be the best in the world with this? look at all the problems that we are having!' but i guess the point is... the treaty of waitangi means that we have a legally binding obligation to try and put things right. we have a legally binding obligation to try. the aborigine... their suffering is ignored for the most part and the attempts to try and put things right... come with strings which would be considered human rights violations / unfair bargains except for the fact that... they are offered to the aborigine...

sigh.