Here's what the 'fine society' we are supposed to emulate did to children

[friendly_iconoclast]

"Look not to the mote in thy neighbour's eye", eh?

http://www.smh.com.au/national/lost-innocents-hope-for-new-beginning-20091114-ifl6.html


Lost Innocents hope for new beginning
CLAIRE HALLIDAY
November 15, 2009

...She is one of the so-called Lost Innocents – child migrants who ended up working as virtual slave labour in remote institutions run by religious and charitable organisations...

Tomorrow at Parliament House, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will apologise to 7000 child migrants for the abuse and neglect they suffered. He will also say sorry to the more than 500,000 "Forgotten Australians", many of whom suffered while in state care...

...John Hennessy was another child migrant shipped to Australia in response to a call by then-immigration minister Arthur Calwell for 50,000 unaccompanied British children to help protect Australia from the "yellow peril"....

...Child migrants who were brought to NSW, Victoria and South Australia have no access to redress...

And they kept this indentured servitude until 1970, or the age of 21

All part of the "White Australia" scheme...

[Why Syzygy]

1. Gun Dungeon? nt

[friendly_iconoclast]

2. A couple of posters in here like to remind us of the deficiencies of US culture,

specifically the availability of guns. They are Australian, and one of them said "we (Oz) have a fine society".

I'm pointing out some of what said 'fine society' has been up to...

[tblue]

3. These were white children sent to Australia. They were already taking the half-caste

from their aboriginal mothers. It's hard to think that a nation built on this kind of wrongdoing has any kinda good karma coming its way.

I had no idea about this. Until 1970?!!!

[depakid]

4. 40 plus years ago, black Americans were still being lynched!

and the nation is still chock full of racists, institutionalized racism in its prison system, not to mention religious fundamentalists in positions of power over public policy!

[friendly_iconoclast]

5. Which nation exterminated the entire native population of an island state?

Was it the USA, i.e. Hawai'i? No.

Not that the Native Hawai'ians haven't suffered under Euro-American colonization, but at least they are are still there, unlike the native Tasmanians, some of which were hunted for sport.

Australia managed to do in Tasmania what Hitler could only dream of doing in Europe.

And what is the alcoholism and child mortality rate amongst Aboriginal Australians again?

Not to mention life expectancy...

And does the name "Hillsong" ring any bells?

[depakid]

6. You have got to be kidding me- America was BUILT on genocide and slavery!

I think what's really got you hacked off is that the nation's more successful than America and got most of its guns out of people's houses.

Talk to me when your banks stop failing (no Australian banks have) when you have universal healthcare, unemployment in the 5% range, and $14,00 minimum wage and an economy that avoided recession, because the government has the political will to enact progressive economic policies that work for ordinary people.

[Katya Mullethov]

7. We have more people on welfare

Than you have in your entire country . That's pretty damned progressive aint it ?

[depakid]

10. Here's an interesting point

As part of the stimulus designed to help retailers and small businesses last Christmas, the government gave pensioners (the equivalent of TANF, SSDI and such) about a 15 hundred dollar bonus payment.

Gave the poor a finer Christmas and helped shield the nation out of recession. Win/win policy- which they repeated to lesser extent several months later with wage earners.

Of course, it helped that the government didn't have to shovel a trillion dollars to the banks.

[Katya Mullethov]

12. The ability to cheat the laws of thermodynamics

by burning money is an entirely differnt matter . And we dont really have that many people at home in the middle of the day either so I shouldnt have said that . It just seems like it .

[friendly_iconoclast]

8. Wot, all those Tasmanians comitted suicide then?

Things are just peachy in Aboriginal communities?

At least I acknowledge the States have problems.

Nor do I purport to live in Sunnybrook Farm, where the mentally ill don't commit murder.

Prosperity is thin gruel to nourish a claim of moral superiority. Are Saudi Arabia and Singapore thus
morally superior to Australia?

Oh, and- Mote, meet beam:

[depakid]

9. You're a real piece of work- belittling your own genocide

and history of slavery and Jim Crow. America killed PLENTY of whole tribes off! And stole land illegally.

What is it about this apology that bothers you? It's an acknowledgment of past mistakes and a willingness to work to solve the current problems.

I was at the last apology in Canberra on the lawn of Parliament aside in 2008- it was very moving scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUVnAp4lXfI

Meanwhile- you enjoyed growing the world's largest and most expensive prison system- where so many of the nations African Americans languish, and were on your way to crashing your economy! Not to mention, still torturing people.

Fact is- Australia's on the rise, it has the strongest economy in the developed world, the healthiest banks and one of the healthiest populations- while America wallows in decline toward third world status. And there's apparently nothing the Democrats can do about, even when they're in power.

Australians also don't have mass shootings every couple of weeks- nor slaughter families with firearms every day.

[friendly_iconoclast]

18. Just pointing out that Australia might not be so great for non-whites

It's easier to have a more harmonious society when you have a more homogeonous society.

Not that you don't have racial/ethnic violence. Cronulla, anyone?

Australia isn't quite as obsessed with racial purity as Japan, I must admit

[taurus145]

34. America was BUILT on genocide and slavery!

I an shocked! Surely you didn't intend to post that! Such intellectual dishonesty from you? I can't believe it!

Read a little history. Virtually every nation in the world, Oz included, either began or expanded in almost exactly the same way.

Come down off your high horse and read a little about the stolen generations. Read some of Henry Reynolds' writings. Oh! By what means did the new Australians deal with the roughly 250 aboriginal tribes or nations made up of between 350,000 and 400,000 souls?

[rd_kent]

11. Why is this in the Guns forum?

[Merchant Marine]

13. People are trying to counter-troll depakid

n/t

[depakid]

14. Said by someone who's been at DU for less than six months....

:rofl:

[eqfan592]

15. Ahhh, the time-on-forum attack.

Truly the act of someone who feels no real confidence in what they are saying and is desperate. You're like an open book depakid. Your insecurities are laid bare to the rest of the forum.

We all are laughing at you, depakid. Laughing. At you. Enjoy that thought. :)

[depakid]

16. The pleasure's mine- laugh away

as you sink into third world status, shoot each other up ever day and bankrupt millions of your citizens over health care.

And you can't even manage to fix that, despite 60 votes in the Senate and an overwhelming majority in the house!

How does the saying go- he who laughs last....

[friendly_iconoclast]

17. I believe the term 'wowserism' describes your ouevre here lately

Though 'incessant moralizing' would apply, as well

The "Ugly Australian" bit is no more attractive than the "Ugly American" one.

[depakid]

19. You're the one who started the the hate thread!

Can't help that you don't like how much better Australians have it with things like a month's vacation time and higher wages. Don't want to hear about it? Don't start lame threads dissing Oz.

[friendly_iconoclast]

20. Something about the Morning Herald article inaccurate?

The "White Australian" movement didn't exist?

There's a Native Tasmanian cultural revival going on as we speak?

That Warmley fellow didn't off his father and sister after being in a revolving door system of jails and mental
health institutions for years?

Aboriginal Australians don't live a largely Third World existence at the edges of your 'fine society'?

While you incessantly trumpet acknowledged flaws in my society, it seems you don't
care to have some documented flaws in your own aired out in public.

[eqfan592]

21. Yeah, but that's at the cost of various civil liberties, it seems. Thanks, but no thanks. (nt)

[depakid]

22. At least you admit it

Unlike most gun proliferation folks, who will argue til they're blue in the face that the policies they support aren't causing so many excess deaths and injuries- and increasing crime and the size of the prison system.

[eqfan592]

23. I don't believe I made any such admition.

Because anybody who thinks what you stated is delusional in the extreme. :)

The post of yours I replied to was about wages and vacation time, not about any of the bat-shit crazy stuff you just spewed about.

[depakid]

24. Ah a denialist then- guess I should have lnown

Rational people would trade their gun obsession and the fear that drives it for a life of fear for a safer, healthier and more prosperous society.

Other prefer to die or go bankrupt with their gun "rights" on- not caring one lick about the others that they endanger in the process.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

25. Pot meet Kettle.

[eqfan592]

26. Big time. (nt)

[depakid]

27. Gotta have those guns- no matter who it hurts, no matter what the cost

that would be the take home message.

[proteus_lives]

28. Who are my guns hurting?

They've never been fired anywhere except a range. That's the problem. You could be against criminals and crazies having guns, hell I'm against that too. But no, you want to strip the 2nd Amendment rights of millions of Americans who have done nothing wrong.

I simply don't get that. Why punish people who committed no crime?

So I ask again, what cost? My guns aren't hurting anyone. I'm willing to wager that all of the firearms owned by RKBA Democrats on DU have never been used to in a crime or illegal shooting.

[taurus145]

31. I have dozens of firearms

and not one has been used for any illegal purpose.

Well there was that one time with the rabid skunk in my back yard. I shot him after dark. That's technically illegal here because it was after dark.

I convinced Animal Control to come pick up the carcass for testing. Who wants to handle a skunk, alive or dead?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

35. There are no societal costs to my possession of firearms.

[rd_kent]

32. What is so hard to understand about actual facts?

Gun ownership and proliferation in the US has risen dramatically in the last 20 years yet the crime rate has gone down. That is a fact. Not opinion, fact. You can check out the stats at the DOJ website for yourself.
No one is saying that guns are the REASON crime is down, but you have to be just as honest and say that guns are NOT causing MORE crime, because it just is not true.

[eqfan592]

33. I've shown him the numbers before.

But he can't stand reality. He would rather live in his "guns are evil" fantasy land.

[taurus145]

30. So. I've been here for less that a week - registered.

But then, I've probably got underwear older than you that don't have holes in 'em yet. I've been observing this board for at least 6 years, probably more.

Time on site as a registered user is immaterial.

To use your reasoning, Obama isn't qualified to be president because of his relatively short time in elected office before his run for the White House. As we country folks like to say, that dog won't hunt.

[proteus_lives]

29. I wish I could buy you a beer.

A Foster's in fact. ;-)

Well, well, well. I guess the utopia that Mr. "I wish I was Australian soooooo bad" preaches about isn't so spotless. I'm shocked, I tells ya. Shocked.

[friendly_iconoclast]

36. Thanks. I thought it was time to say: "Here's the pill in all this jam."

BTW, I wonder if there any Aboriginal Australian DUers?

I would like to know what Australian society is like in their words, without the sugarcoating or relentless
"Our culture is superior to yours!" wharrgarbl.

I know of a few Native American DUers, or ones that at least live near a rez. They've been pretty candid about the problems
of the various Native nations.

[proteus_lives]

37. It is wharrgarbl.

It's why I don't take the "America is the most evil and warlike nation of all-time" crowd seriously. Every evil of our culture is a human evil. I think the "Hate-America" crowd suffer from a form of American exceptionalism. Like us, the Ozzies wiped out the natives. Like us other countries raise empires of different forms and have problems with them. Even the Brits (Nervous nanny-staters they are now) once ruled much of the world with an iron fist. The Mongols? Peaceful types in Asia now, 700-800 years ago? Not so much. CoughGenghisKhanCough.

Each culture is unique. But superior? No, certainly not.

Aboriginal Australian DUers? I wonder as well. They would make a cool addition!

[friendly_iconoclast]

38. Not only did Australia have Jim Crow laws, it had Freedom Riders!

Found this site by one of the Aussie Freedom Riders, who were inspired by the American ones:

http://www.freedomride.net/index.html