Crime and Punishment. Originally dispatched on 15 September 2014
Goede middag vrienden,
My early education took place outside the “Empire on which the sun never sets”. I knew very little about inglaterra. My country of birth (The Netherlands) is know by all and sundry as ‘Holland’, similarly Great Britain or the United Kingdom was known to us Argentines as ‘England’.
I do recall learning in historia of the English attempts at gaining control of the Rio de la Plata, and of the brave denizens of Buenos Aires throwing boiling water from the rooftops onto los ingleses.
I vividly remember in our history books, the famous painting of the red coats surrendering to General Liniers, which thanks to the magic of the internet, I can now share with you all.
To those that want to sharpen up on the history of the British Empire, I can very strongly recommend the Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser. The genesis of all that happens in Afghanistan, the Crimea, India, Africa, Borneo etc. etc. and just about all the “trouble spots” in the world is all there for everyone to read in those books. When the U.S.S.R. invaded Afghanistan, I exasperatedly exclaimed to a mirror “Haven’t they read Flashman”? They quite clearly had not. Neither had the coalition of the willing. Yes indeed,
fools rush in where angels fear to tread… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4BlDZjnLXs
In ‘Flash for Freedom’ Sir Harry is about to betray the escaped slave ‘girl’ Cassy to the slave catchers (to save his own skin). When she realises this, she chases Flashman across the icefloes of the Ohio River wielding a kitchen knife. The emancipists assumed that Flashman had saved Cassy. It was this ‘heroic’ effort that inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe’s scene of Eliza saving her baby from the slave catchers by crossing the icefloes of the Ohio River. After reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the illustration of Eliza clutching her child whilst crossing the river stayed with me in the recesses of my mind.
A girl of about 12, together with some friends went on a crime spree in Yuendumu (numerous break-ins and petty thefts). Her father decided to put a stop to this and gave her a hiding. As a result he is now doing a long stretch in gaol where he has joined the many Warlpiri men that are incarcerated. His daughter in his absence has gone on to vandalize the dialysis facility and set fire to the youth centre office. A whole generation of Warlpiri children is growing up without male role models in their immediate families. The long term effect on the Warlpiri social fabric of this, can only be guessed at.
Fairly recently I witnessed what may well have been a crime. A legally sanctioned crime that is.
A police vehicle and an NT Government vehicle pulled up outside the Yuendumu Clinic. A while later I saw a lady emerge carrying a baby. The image in my memory came alive, except there were no icefloes and it wasn’t the child’s mother rushing to the vehicle. Both vehicles drove off in a westerly direction, I don’t know whence, and I
don’t know why… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO4dxvguQDk
There may well be a perfectly rational and acceptable explanation for what I saw. I don’t know if I witnessed a legally sanctioned crime or not. It all happened in a flash.
What I do know however is that at present a larger number of Indigenous children are being removed from their families and societies than during the now infamous so called ‘Stolen Generations’
An Apology is meaningless if the authorities don’t learn from their mistakes and continue to repeat them.
Sometime in the future yet another apology will be called for.
Sorry seems to be the hardest word….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2e4NlnLr28
…sorry, sorry, sorry…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drNqZWzj5GY
……. It’s never too late to say sorry….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSpjH4bOaBY
Tot de volgende keer,
Frenk