I heard this program on PM the other day about the collapse into petrol sniffing of the aboriginal community at Uluru. In some ways a war zone would be better than this. Call it ‘disadvantage’ if you like, but I think that rather misses what is going on.
Club Troppo
Fearlessly dispensing political, legal and economic analysis (and some whimsy) since 2002
I recall a kid at school used to sniff petrol. I remember being at an assembly or something, and a mate of mine was sitting next to him. He was closer to the kid than I was. The kids eyes were bloodshot and he was pretty quiet. My mate jerked his finger at the kid and said, “He’s been sniffing petrol again.”
Apparently before and after school he would go for a ride on his trail bike, head off down to the back of his property and sniff petrol from the trail bike’s tank.
Wonder where the kid is today?
Summernats?
This prompts a memory of Noel Pearson’s speech to the Centre for Independent Studies where he spoke about the need to get the incentive and reward system in order for Aboriginal communities to address the collapse of morale and morals engendered by passive welfare. http://badanalysis.com/catallaxy/?p=1280
Pearson, if you read everything he says, doesn’t minimise the other factors which lead to Indigenous disadvantage. But his admirers like Rafe tend to ignore the bits they don’t like, and blame it all on “passive welfare”. The question of engendering economic opportunity in Indigenous communities is actually a complex one, as I’ve argued (most) recently in an interchange at JQ’s place.