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Post by Farmduck on Jan 26, 2018 5:55:49 GMT 10
Today 26 Jan is Australia Day. So how old are we today? Well we're 117 years and 25 days? Huh? If today's the birthday shouldn't that be an even number of years? Yeah, logic would suggest that, wouldn't it. 26 January 1788 was when the First Fleet of British settlers and convicts arrived in Sydney Cove, to establish the first British colony in New South Wales. BUT .......
Australia was founded by the federation of the 6 existing colonies on 1 January 1901. To me, this should be Australia Day. 26 January isn't even the day the first British settlers arrived. The first ship of the First Fleet arrived on 18 January 1788 and the rest of the fleet arrived over the next 2 days. They all landed in Botany Bay but decided that it wasn't a very suitable place for a settlement. They sent a ship up the coast to find somewhere better. They found Sydney Harbour and the decision was made to move everyone there, about 20km north of where they had originally landed. Despite the 10 or so freshwater rivers and major creeks that run into Sydney Harbour they decided NOT to camp near any of them because .......?
So, rivetting as all of this is, this thread is about how 26 January has become the high point of the Victimhood Outrage Season.
more to follow ........
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Post by Farmduck on Jan 30, 2018 3:16:48 GMT 10
I really couldn't give a rat's ass about what happened 200 years ago. I know that lots of crimes were committed, many of the worst ones by European colonial imperialists. But I'm not an Orthodox Jew so I don't believe in the concept of inherited guilt. I think people can only be held responsible for their own actions. If we intend to extend necessary social programmes for Indigenous people, it should be on the basis of demonstrated current need, not some perceived White Guilt.
There's an Indigenous-oriented site (I say Indigenous-oriented because it covers Indigenous issues but I know nothing about the people who run it or write it) that invites people to sign up for their newsletter. Their wording would stop me from ever signing up, despite my long-running interest in Aboriginal issues.
Really? That's the starting point for this conversation? Well, in that case, leave me out.
Aboriginal activists and wannabe politicians have helped to create such a toxic environment around the discussion of Indigenous issues that I can't see much real progress likely in the near future. They often use the type of aborted logic we associate with 3rd Wave Feminism, such as the example raised by Cathy Newman in her recent interview with Jordan Peterson: only 7% of CEOs of the FTSE100 companies are women. Therefore, sexism. How many times have we seen the Australian incarceration rates raised? Indigenous people are 7 times more likely to be in jail than non-Indigenous Australians, therefore, racism. Shouldn't the first response be, "How many of them are guilty?"
I've crunched so many numbers on Indigenous crime and imprisonment that, in the end, most of my venom is aimed at the reporting of these issues, not the people involved.
I've been putting off a deep dive into Indigenous issues on this site for a long time. I think it's about time I started to lay out some of what I know. It's difficult because you need to start with 20 disclaimers: "I'm not trying to be racist, etc, etc" and 20 footnotes for each paragraph: "I meant XYZ, I wasn't implying that All blah, blah blah." This why nobody ever touches these issues and the only safe approaches are the approved White Guilt narrative or the full Pauline Hanson. In politics, nuance is the first casualty.
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Post by bob on Apr 9, 2019 9:06:52 GMT 10
lance the boil farmduck - lance the boil!! - I'll put the salve on!!
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digger
Junior Member
Posts: 50
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Post by digger on Apr 9, 2019 9:48:41 GMT 10
It's called Invasion day around these parts - found to be true by the supreme court of Australia - see Marbo debate
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