[LINK] It's Queensland - (sorry to Qlders)

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Jan Whitaker
> Sent: Wednesday, 18 May 2011 8:22 PM
> To: link at anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [LINK] It's Queensland - (sorry to Qlders)
> 
> 
> At 06:27 PM 18/05/2011, Ash Nallawalla wrote:
> 
> >Yes, that also caught my eye. From the last two months:
> >
> >Rate of NT crime rising fast
> 
> Seems to me from that list that it depends on:
> 1. whether there is an election looming
> 2. whether the PD is in cahoots with one of those parties
> 3. whether the PD budget is under pressure
> 
> Jan

We could just call it FUD...

Fear is a powerful patriotic economic motivator...

Oooooh, I'm so scared. Quick let's go to the pub and blow all your
salary getting drunk before someone mugs us for it.....

And, FUD also sells newspapers, gets politicians elected and gives the
kids nightmares.

Err, that's Fear giving the kids nightmares, not the politicians.

RANT/


Although in the NT, I think there might be an indigenous social
integration problem that might be being exacerbated by being handled
with doll outs, isolation and imprisonment instead of anthropological
and psychologically relevant mediation.

If you were homeless, why wouldn't you bash your neighbour or a passing
tourist to get free room and board for six months courtesy of HM.

Quickest way to get attention is to throw a tanty in the Smith Street
mall. Our indigenous community are not aware of the impact of negative
feedback on the backpacker community through inappropriate public
behaviour.

But then Australia has for the last decade been shielded from the
unfortunate facts that at one time placed Palmerston NT as the town with
the highest number of suicides per capita, globally.

But with the various outreach programs being attempted, I'm sure those
problems have all disappeared now. In fact you never hear about suicides
any more, mainly because the Government realises that whenever suicides
are reported on, a spate of additional suicides occur.

On a personal basis, I am agnostically inclined [unless someone starts
the church of the Hydrogen Atom, in which case I might subscribe], yet
believe that unless an social equivalency for religious ethics and
community belonging can be introduced into our regional centres, crime
and unfortunately suicide will continue to be major issues.

Maybe we could look at providing persons in Palmerston a free Cable TV
feed... With free WiFi... (just joking - almost).

Unfortunately, as told to me by an elder of the Gagadju people at Yellow
Waters in 1994, the Internet is not good for the young people of his
tribe as it sucks their souls away from the living land of the people.
This will not be an easy hurdle to educate around, over and through.

N.B. For linkers unfamiliar with moi, I called Darwin NT home for a
great deal of almost sixteen years [that is, when I was in Oz].

/RANT

/body