No one compels them to be drunks. No one forces them to be useless parents. Some aborigines are doing very well. They've made good choices, even though it's not always easy. Others spend their lives in misery because they make bad choices. Australia is not North Korea where people are forced to live in effective slavery. The country where I was born was occupied by many different nations. So who do I sue? The Germanic tribes, Vikings, Romans, Dutch or French?
The children of alcoholics tend to become
alcoholics, way above the average rate.
No, nobody forces them, but that fact doesn't
contribute anything to understanding the problem.
Indigenous populations world wide find themselves
in similar dire straits, if their land is taken over by
a much more powerful culture. Canadian Eskimos
or the natives of Borneo. Is this not so?
I'd not be confident that if I were born into
the indigenous population of Australia that
I could or would have had the capacity to
choose my way into the kind of prosperous life
I have. Perhaps you could do it.
I've no idea how to solve the problem.
Ways that are not going to work include throwing
money or blaming them for their choices.
Ultimately I think, individual success
rests on the story the person tells himself.
That the society says about itself.
The Jewish people for example have a
powerful narrative that have fostered success
in the face of great hardships.
How a new narrative for the Australian natives
will ever come about, I've no idea.
Meantime, treating them with Christian compassion
may be the best one can do for them- and I do think
that it's a minimum respect for the responsibility
the conquering race has for their victims- who were,
after all, doing fine until the invaders showed up.
