The Aboriginal Problem

I am so sick of hearing of the problems of the Aboriginals. I am not indifferent to them - I do believe they have legitimate grievances and a right for some kind of compensation but they just never shut up about it.

When the original settlers, or should I say conquerors, arrived in Australia they set about oppressing the natives - a group of stone-age hunters and gatherers. Needless to say, they were no match for the superior firepower of the British. For sure, they got a raw deal - in every state and territory the Aboriginals were tricked, enslaved, murdered and subjugated. In Tasmania,  they were entirely exterminated - no doubt they were more troublesome there and would not cede their land for firewater.

It took nearly 150 years but eventually they were granted full citizenship and attempts were made to rectify the injustices of the past. In 2008 the Prime Minister even took full responsibility for the past governments' actions and apologised for it all.

I come from a mixed background, Greek and UK immigrants over the past 100 years. They arrived, they worked hard and they made lives for themselves all while facing bigotry. I say this because I, nor my family, did not have any part in the deeds done to the Aboriginals at any point in history. We owe nothing more to them than any other person.

The Aboriginals maintain a victim culture nowadays, preferring to whine and bitch about all the terrible things that happened to them after the Dreamtime ended because of the white man.

At UQ today there was a stall set up run by Aboriginals demanding equal rights and treatment. I heard their reasons and they are a bitter and broken group of individuals - they are so busy lamenting their lost culture that they forsake any chance of rebuilding it, or developing anew. As for rights, they have the same rights as any citizen - they can still walk into a bottle shop and buy a cask of goon despite clearly being alcoholics. As for treatment, we treat everyone differently - the disabled receive extra rights, children receive additional protections, criminals are looked on more unfavourably, non-english speakers are given more patience in order to understand them, women and minorities given more opportunities; we have to treat people differently in order to solve embedded injustices. Equal treatment for Aboriginals? Maybe if they were equal. They aren't worth less - they are less able on the whole, which is why we shouldn't treat them equally.

I have a monologue on the "traditional owners of the land", but that can wait for another day. Today I just wish to express my discontent with the works of Aboriginal activists and their complete stupidity.

Getting a job will help. Getting an education will definitely help. But what will solve the problem is if they grow up and start acting like responsible adults and less like a petulant pre-pubescents suffering from middle-child syndrome.