Great post Eggs. I have to say that Australia is one of the most culturally diverse places that I have ever visited. A lot of us uptight Brits think that the Aussies are openly racist and I did come across a couple of examples of what our PC society would construe as racist whilst over there, but in the Australian context they are not.
My mates husband works with a Pakistani lad who he openly calls ****. When my mate said to her husband "You can't call him that!!!" her husband replied "he calls me Pom, I call him ****." These guys are the best of friends, maybe the more relaxed attitude over in Oz enables these guys to be relaxed enough in each others company and the company of others to be able to call each other these names as a term of endearment rather than a derogatory term.
We could look at Australia's Aboriginal Alcohol problem from another direction. How many of us have moaned on Accyweb about our alcoholics being given extra benefits? How some people have no intention of working but are given handouts at every turn? That these people let their kids run wild? I'll be the first to admit that I have. What is the answer to these problems????
There are no easy answers, cutting benefits so that people don't have as much money to spend on alcohol, drugs, fags or whatever their poison is, may or may not help. I do think that looking at children's school attendance could be tied into the benefit system along with taking children for health assessments, vaccinations, development checks (as in France). If this system works to promote the health and welfare of the children in order to improve future society then who among us can reasonably object?
If it works, the government may even try it here...
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