A Quiet Protest For Tibet
TC and her Big Sis have made a small contribution to the protests surrounding the Chinese Government and their human rights record. I've taken the liberty of reproducing TC's post here.
I am very proud of what these two ladies have done. Please read:
Big Sis and I have been talking about the Save Tibet campaign lately. Everyone who owns either a TV, internet-enabled computer or radio would surely have heard about all the protests being carried out around the world concerning the Olympic Torch. The torch relay has successfully been hampered in many places by the protest of some very concerned people of the world, the most notable being the London and Paris protests. China has slammed these protests as being 'vile', even though they have been peaceful protests. Rather hypocritical of that particular government I say, considering the vile acts perpetrated upon their own citizens as well as the citizens of other countries like Tibet.
The protests have included one in which 37 people were arrested in London, and in Paris 5 were arrested including a local politician (kudos to him) and the torch was extinguished. The US protests were much smaller, but the most notable was the arrest of three protestors after scaling the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Anyway, as old hippies both, Big Sis and I have been discussing these protests with great fervour. Our hearts go out to the peoples of Tibet, as well as the many Chinese citizens who have had to live with human rights crimes themselves. We are both appalled at the injustices that these peoples have had to endure from the Chinese government over the years, and are in support of the protests that are going on. These protests have been handled in the most noble of manners, as any protest should. The people involved have brought world-wide attention to the cause, and in the true spirit of peaceful protests, there have been no documented injuries.
Now, Australia is about to have our turn to host the Olympic torch. On the 24th of April, the Olympic Torch relay will be conducted in Canberra. Free Tibet activists tout the protests as "fantastic" and say they are "delighted with the protests dogging the Olympic torch". They are promising a strong but non-violent protest in Australia".
So Big Sis and I were discussing how we would both like to run off to Canberra to add our voices to those who will be protesting here. However, sometimes what we want is not always practical. I simply can't afford either the time (I have a job to do here) nor the money to travel to the protest. Big Sis is quite ill and as she is often in a great deal of pain, such a trip just would not be sensible for her to take. As such we have decided to make a small and quiet protest of our own.
We took the clippers to our own heads, then after donning our orange colours we made the greatest sacrifice of all. We stood in front of a camera!!!
Does my head look big in this?
Two beautiful blooms.
This was not a great sacrifice for either of us, though. At least we live in a country where we're allowed freedom of speech without the fear of being either arrested or shot in the streets. At least we're not being forced to live in squallor, suffering from famine and disease, and being denied the right to the most basic of aid. Nor have we been encouraged to give up our babies to die naked and alone in hospital, simply because they are unlucky enough to be born with a disability. Nor have we been injected with a saline solution that will slowly and painfully eat away at our babies because we have fallen pregnant more than once. Nor do our children have to live without a legal identity, and thus the access to the most basic of educations. Nor do we have to watch our elderly neighbours slowly starve to death because their one son has died and they have no financial support in their old age. I could go on, but I won't. I will however, provide you with
some links so that you can read about these and many more human rights violations in China.
Please show your disgust at actions such as these. Visit the
International Campaign for Tibet website and do some reading. Then follow some of
these links and voice your own protest.
Free Tibet.
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Which way are we headed?
Strange title, but I didn't know how to title this entry. This will be a long rant, so grab a cuppa or something.
I'm going to be talking about two issues; the abuse of our children and the way racialism is helping this abuse in some cases.
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A Voice of DespairMANTATJARA WILSON: I am of the last generation, yet I am seeing my children die before me. I will get sick and die and leave some of them behind. But what is going to happen to my grandchildren's children? And all my grandsons? I cry for my grandsons.
In every corner of our lands, there is death and despair. We are the last generation. But what is the future for our children? What will happen to them when we pass away? We are all dying you know, even the young fellas and young girls are dying before their time. They are committing suicide by hanging or they kill themselves by other methods. (Whispers) My spirit weeps. I am grief stricken and devastated. I am telling the truth.
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Tinacee has spoken of what I'm about to talk about. I'm going to expand on this and maybe even offend some people. I might even (hopefully) make some people think about the state of humanity.
The story tinacee spoke of (
partial transcript here) is one that I watched as well. I don't like watching stories like this because I get too emotional and it really stuffs with my head. But I watch, or read, or listen anyway. It keeps me aware that there is shit going on beyond my tiny sphere of reality. Shit that is terrifying, immoral, wrong (in my eyes). Shit that should not happen in our world. This is 2006 dammit! Haven't we learned anything from history?
We have a History of IgnoranceThe story of paedophilia and child sex slavery in
Mutijulu is now being reported on commercial channels. 'REPORTS OF CHILD SEX SLAVERY IN ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY' - 'ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY IN MIDST OF PAEDOPHILE RING' - 'CHILDREN SWAPPED IN ABORIGINAL CHILD SEX RING' - 'GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS DO NOTHING ABOUT ABORIGINAL CHILD SEX CLAIMS'.
OK, it's being reported. However, there are thousands, hundreds of thousands of people in our 'society' that saw the word 'aboriginal' and switched off their conscience.
Let's change the headlines:
'WESTERN TOWN CENTRE OF PAEDOPHILE RING' - 'GOVERNMENT WORKER USING FUNDED VEHICLE TO ABUSE CHILDREN' - 'COUNTRY TOWN IDENTITY SEDUCES CHILDREN WITH DRUGS'.
Which headlines do you think would grab more peoples' attention? The race specific ones, or the others? I'm betting the second lot would. Why? Because we have been raised in a society that still considers there are two classes here. Accept it or not, we Australians in the majority still think in Black or White. Some of us will argue this is not true. Many of those arguing are the academics that sit in their offices, pushing political correctness to extreme levels. You see, in my opinion, political correctness is a really good way to prevent people from stating the truth in way that you and I can relate to.
Example:
An indigenous community has become disfunctional due to government irregularity (politically correct)
A small town of 450 aboriginals has become one paedophile's hunting ground because heads of government agencies are doing nothing when their employees that are witnessing this atrocity report it to them (politically incorrect).
The people we pay to employ. Those that are paid by the taxes that you and I pay, are not doing their jobs. In some cases, they can't do their jobs because those at higher levels prevent them from doing so.
You see, if word gets out about what the social workers and government health workers in Mitijulu are reporting, then questions will asked of those in the comfortable offices in Darwin and Canberra. These people will suddenly find that they have to explain why nothing is being done.
So what's the easy way to keep your comfy $80k a year job safe? Make it as hard as possible for the underlings to report this stuff. Make it as hard as possible to get things done to stop it.
While they do nothing, genocide is occuring through this inaction.
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If you haven't read
the transcript of the lateline story, I'll give you some choice pieces here:
'Senior Aboriginal women from the Mutijulu community, which is home to the custodians of Uluru, say petrol is being traded for sex with underage girls. They say other men in the community have made it difficult for people to expose the sexual violence, the drug trade and the petrol trafficking.'
"This story contains the oral and written testimony of six people - white and black - who all lived in Mutijulu and the central deserts between 2000 and early 2006. They are a doctor, a youth worker, a domestic violence worker, a park ranger, a school teacher and an Aboriginal elder. What they saw and experienced in this physically beautiful place will stay with them forever, as will their sense of guilt for having, in their minds, failed a people they love."
"I know that man sells petrol to children. The huge problem wasn't started by the children. The problem was started by the people who sell petrol to get children started on petrol sniffing and then to induce them to have sex with them for it. On our Lands, the police see this problem all around them, but they cannot catch the perpetrators. All Anangu people know what is going on, but everybody is too scared to speak out and report them to the police."
"I got his number plate number and I went straight to the police station and I gave them the details and I said, "Here is the registration number, this is who he is and this is his name." I told them what I had been seeing and I asked the police what they would be doing next. But the police are wary of going out at night - they are frightened of the weapons people carry, knives and axes."
"A National Parks ranger, who does not want to be named for fear of retribution, also followed the paedophile through the bush in his vehicle. He has provided
Lateline with a written statement. He believes the man in question was using his Commonwealth Government car to procure young girls. The park ranger lived near the paedophile in Mutijulu and saw underage petrol sniffers loitering inside and outside his house. He told
Lateline the man was employed as a ranger for the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. He notified the head office of Parks Australia in Canberra about the paedophile's activities, but the bureaucrats refused to stand him down."
"I then requested that the NT police provide female staff, or persons who could liaise with the allegedly affected women and children, to secure statements to allow the laying of charges. I also requested they establish a formal CIB investigation...This did not occur and the NT police did not, in my view, have any real capacity to deal with issues affecting these women."
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I urge you to read the transcript. It is important that you read it.
If these activities were happening in suburban Brisbane, in Adelaide, Perth, Sydney...anywhere where the population was predominantly White, there would be an absolutely HUGE outcry. We Whiteys would not stand for it! But because it is a 'Blacks camp', it seems that it doesn't really matter.
The Broad PictureHow far have we come as a community since White people came to Australia?
Why do we still differentiate between Black and White?
Why do we have policies and welfare systems in place that cause resentment over who gets more?
How can something that would not be tolerated in 'civilised society' be allowed to continue somewhere else?
How can we spend Billions of dollars supporting another nations' agenda while our people are ignored?
The story about what's happening in Mutijulu is one of many that are being hidden from our eyes by the very people who shove tax cuts, interest rates and petrol prices in our faces.
While we worry about how we can afford to get to the beach on the weekend, children are being raped under the eyes of government employees.
While we get indignant about our actions in Iraq (yep, I'm guilty too), our fellow Australians are being killed off by inaction here.
Our leaders promote racialism by subterfuge. Let me give an example. In our local paper there is a letter to the editor that reads in part:
'...sick and tired of the little idiotic things people have to complain about (like evolution and those role models...
...People grow the hell up. Leave people to their beliefs and disbeliefs, there are more important issues that cloud xxxxx and its surrounds. Like the whole racism thing and ...
...Here are a few questions I'd like to ask the public and the government, so here goes:
What's the payment difference between Austudy and Abstudy? ... How come aboriginal people can sit in a park, or worse yet, in the council grounds and drink, etc?...Why do aborigines get loans at a lot cheaper interest rate? The list goes on...'
My opinion is that the author of the above has been given the fuel to feel hard done by. Our Govt (in my opinion) promotes racism in Australia by practising what has been coined as 'reverse racism'. That is, make it look like one side gets more than the other. It doesn't matter which side you look from, the 'other side' gets an unfair advantage.
What we as humans need to do is look at who is suffering and why. If we look hard enough and cut through the crap, it's our kids. OUR kids. Not 'their' kids. Not 'the Black kids', not 'the White kids'. OUR KIDS. Our children.
We as people need to completely wipe out the B & W attitude that has been perpetuated over the years by successive governments and social groups and get to the point of teaching our kids that they are the future of our world. We need to teach our kids that it's not 'us and them'. We need to help these kids and teach them that they don't need to suffer at the hands of paedophiles. They don't need to have NIKE shoes to be a valuable part of society. They don't need to fight over who gets what and how much. We as adults need to make ourselves accountable for what's happening to our future. We need to take a good, long, hard look at which way we are headed and whether we really want to keep going in that direction
If you have better things to worry about, then don't
click on this link. However, if you feel that we need to do something about what is happening in Mitijulu, or you think that our country/society is headed in the wrong direction, click on it. Send a message to the someone who is supposed to be listening to you. If you don't think that will help, then send a letter to your local paper. Send a message to your favourite current affairs program. Be bold and rant in your blog about how we are heading down a dangerous path. Do *something* to let people know how you feel.
While we do nothing, children will continue to be raped by paedophiles. Indirect genocide will continue in our part of the world. We will continue to be fed propoganda to keep the real issues out of sight. It's time we all woke up and realised that our 'Lucky' country isn't that lucky at all. It's just that the real problems are being hidden from us.
On a final note, at the beginning of the Lateline story, Tony Jones reported that they had been handed the following information.
A dog had been found wandering through a community in outback Australia recently. In its mouth was a human head. It was discovered that the remains belonged to a woman who lived in a tin shack just out of town. It appears she died and was savaged by a pack of dogs. It was also revealed that the victim was a known petrol sniffer and aboriginal.
The story appears to have not been newsworthy as there are no reports of this in mainstream news.
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