(First posted 22 November 2014)
Γεια σας και πάλι φίλοι μου,
That 21st Century Oracle ‘Wikipedia’ tells me that ‘Oxymoron’ is derived from the 5th century Latin oxymoron, which is derived from the Ancient Greek: ὀξύςoxus “sharp, keen” and μωρός mōros “dull, stupid”, making the word itself an oxymoron. The Oracle also tells me that “modern usage has brought a common misunderstanding that ’oxymoron’ is nearly synonymous with ‘contradiction’.”
Of this I plead guilty. It is the ‘moron’ bit that makes my sense of irony find ‘oxymoron’ a useful and appealing word even if laboring under a common misunderstanding.
For over a decade the Howard Government undermined Land Rights and Reconciliation. Around 2006 then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Mal Brough made claims that paedophile rings were operating on Aboriginal communities as part of, in hindsight, an orchestrated campaign of stereotyping and stigmatizing Aboriginal communities (and Aboriginal men in particular). In 2007 in a desperate bid for re-election the campaign climaxed in the announcement of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER or Intervention)
The NTER included a significant effort by the Federal Police (from memory several years with an expenditure exceeding $30Million) acting with extraordinary powers under the Crimes Act 1914. The Act inter alia forbids people questioned to reveal that they have been or will be questioned and to mention what they have been questioned about and should they so reveal, they risk years of incarceration. Despite this massive effort no more paedophile rings were discovered than there were WMDs found in Iraq. A straw giant.
When John Howard lost the election and when Kevin Rudd made that famous Sorry speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKWfiFp24rA
we all thought that we’d arrived at a Bran Nu Dae…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiShXMojKfY
The speech in hindsight was a political stunt. Its main purpose, it now seems, was to show up John Howard who had wedged himself into refusing to say sorry.
Mal Brough’s baton was handed to Jenny Macklin who proceeded to take ownership of the Intervention and to further tighten its grip on Remote Aboriginal Australia.
Her chutzpah knew no bounds and is epitomized by her using the Aboriginal Benefits Account (a money tree nurtured by royalty equivalents derived from mining on Aboriginal land) as a personal slush fund to further her agenda, such as building a community stores empire (Government owned Outback Stores) and (wait for it!) paying rents to Traditional Owners for compulsory acquired leases.
During the campaign for the election that saw the end of Jenny Macklin’s Protectorate of Aborigines, Tony Abbott pledged that if he won he would become the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs.
The first Abbott/Hockey Budget saw half a billion dollars cut from the funding of Aboriginal Affairs. Most of the cuts will have very little effect on places like Yuendumu.
The Warlpiri word Waralypa means rain that doesn’t reach the earth. Consulting the oracle I find:
“In meteorology, virga is an observable streak or shaft of precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates or sublimes before reaching the ground.”
Thus is funding and that capitalist myth the “trickledown effect” (which is right up there with “level playing field”)
I want to know…Have you ever seen the rain?…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEY8clFcm2E
Yesterday we had our first decent shower of rain in Yuendumu for quite a while.
Tu pelo tiene el aroma de la lluvia sobre la tierra…(your hair has the aroma of rain on the earth)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E3gvCTC2EQ
It isn’t all doom and gloom in Yuendumu. The much maligned (by me) Centrelink at Yuendumu (you know, the $2M plus building that arrived on the back of 5 trucks all the way from Bendigo?) is now run and fully staffed by Yuendumu locals. The little flame of self-determination flickers on.
….Long as I can see the light….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1809vqz3zA
Last July, our self styled Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs delivered a speech at The Australian/Melbourne Institute. The speech included the unsettling premise that:
“I guess our country owes its existence to a form of foreign investment by the British government in the then unsettled or, um, scarcely settled, Great South Land,”
The Adam Giles (Northern Territory) Government is very keen on empowering itself. The $7.6M police complex being built at Yuendumu (not to mention the half a billion dollars third prison , which in fairness to Adam Giles precedes his tenure) being but one facet of this.
The Abbott Government is very keen on empowering Aboriginal communities. How do I know this? I’ve been made aware that despite the budget cuts, $5M has been made available to ‘Empowered Communities’(EC) through ‘Closing the Gap’ (CtG).
An EC is defined as one “committed to enforcing individual rights and responsibilities including:
- Children attend school every day, are on time, and are school ready.
- Children and those who are vulnerable are cared for and safe.
- Capable adults participate in training or work.
- People abide by the conditions related to their tenancy in public housing – they maintain their homes.
- People do not commit domestic violence, alcohol and drug offences, or petty crimes and pay their rent. “
Sounds alright, but can you hear the dog whistle? Am I being a bit too cynical when I suspect “enforced rights” to be an oxymoron?
Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia
A bit like “coercive reconciliation” (The 2007 Intervention).
Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F69PBQ4ZyNw
Δύναμη στο λαό …Power to the people…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wos-dDxpJlQ
Μέχρι την επόμενη φορά
Frank