Child Abuse? Blame Porn

Juliet Samuel | June 21, 2007

Australia's Aborigines are being sent to the naughty corner:

Australia's prime minister announced plans Thursday to ban pornography and alcohol for Aborigines in northern areas and tighten control over their welfare benefits to fight child sex abuse among them.

Some Aboriginal leaders rejected the plan as paternalistic and said the measures were discriminatory and would violate the civil rights of the country's original inhabitants. But others applauded the initiative and recommended extending the welfare restrictions to Aborigines in other parts of the country.

Who knew that ending child abuse was as simple as banning porn and booze for indigenous populations? The decision comes in response to a report tying high rates of child abuse with alcohol abuse in the same populations. That report finds that alcohol abuse was a "key factor in the collapse of aboriginal culture." Some Aborigines can think of another key factor:

The plan angered some Aboriginal leaders, who said it was the kind of government behavior that has disenfranchised Aborigines and created the problems in the first place. They also complained they had not been consulted; the government had not previously indicated it was considering such action.

The ban on pornography means that all publicly funded computers will be audited periodically. And all this requires more police, so Howard wants officers shipped over from Australia’s other states.

"I'm absolutely disgusted by this patronizing government control," said Mitch, a member of a government board helping Aborigines who were taken from their parents under past assimilation laws who uses one name. "And tying drinking with welfare payments is just disgusting."

Comments

|6.21.07 @ 4:24PM|#

What exactly is the status of the Aborigines in Australia? Are they 3/5th of a citizen or something?

|6.21.07 @ 4:26PM|#

I am stunned that this kind of behavior still occurs in an English-speaking nation.

And I mean English-speaking in the loosest definition of the word...

|6.21.07 @ 4:26PM|#

The status of the Aborigines in Australia is about the same as the status of the aborigines in America.

|6.21.07 @ 4:27PM|#

Let me preface by saying I disagree with this action, and it sounds pretty blatantly racist, but I find it ironic that Aborigines who are totally dependent on welfare are complaining about govt paternalism.

|6.21.07 @ 4:33PM|#

It looks like the Ozzies are catching up with the U.S. as far as the ban on porn on public computers. We can't get porn at the library here either.

Then again, why would want to look at porn in a library anyway? I mean, it would take quite a pair of cohones to want to rub one off in front of all those people.

|6.21.07 @ 4:33PM|#

To be fair, the magazine Underaged Aboriginal Babes may have contributed to the sexualizing of Aboriginal children.

GILMORE|6.21.07 @ 4:34PM|#

Who's this Juliet Samuel? What the fuck. At least say hello first. And post photo. Hot photo.

Also... it so happens...my first name is Romeo.

(Please be a woman this time, please, please, please)

|6.21.07 @ 4:35PM|#

As this story shows Australian Aborigines have many of the same problems as Indians in America.

CHIEF DRINKSALOT|6.21.07 @ 4:38PM|#

Yeah. We have same problem pretty much.

The stupid fucking White Man.

|6.21.07 @ 4:39PM|#

The status of the Aborigines in Australia is about the same as the status of the aborigines in America.

They can open casinos and sell fireworks, too?

|6.21.07 @ 4:39PM|#

GILMORE, Warren is shocked and outraged at your comments.

GILMORE|6.21.07 @ 4:48PM|#

Warren, alas, it was not meant to be

For though fond nature bids us lament, nature's tears are reason's merrimen

Now, bring Juliet forth; her lord is come.

|6.21.07 @ 4:48PM|#

They can open casinos and sell fireworks, too?

Forgot about that. So they're even worse off.

No, the white fella controls all the gambling in OZ.

|6.21.07 @ 4:49PM|#

Drinking and flogging the tube steak are the hallmarks of any great society. Don't Australians want the aborigines to join civilization?

Paul|6.21.07 @ 4:54PM|#

But are they still allowed to smoke?

|6.21.07 @ 4:57PM|#

crimethink, I don't see anything in the story that would indicate that the particular Aborigines who are complaining are the ones who are totally dependent on welfare.

|6.21.07 @ 4:57PM|#

The status of the Aborigines in Australia is about the same as the status of the aborigines in America.

Well, they both face the same social problems, probably to the same degree (i.e. the white man destroyed their culture and stole their land, leaving them without the social institutions that prevent things like alchoholism and child abuse)... But I haven't heard anything as blatenlty paternalistic as this happening in the U.S. for a very long time.

Oh, and check out my rocking blockquote!

GILMORE|6.21.07 @ 4:58PM|#

But are they still allowed to smoke?

Yes. Government supplied cigarettes. But if they go back to smoking that dried lizard bile and dancing around fires tripping out, they're totally kicked off welfare

GILMORE|6.21.07 @ 5:00PM|#

Oh, and check out my rocking blockquote!

Dude! high five!

(two white guys hi-five)

Homer Simpson|6.21.07 @ 5:14PM|#

Wow. Pr0n. Is there nothing it can't do?

|6.21.07 @ 5:16PM|#

But I haven't heard anything as blatenlty paternalistic as this happening in the U.S. for a very long time.

No, here in the U.S., the government just "misplaces" their trust money and fucks over another two generations of American Indians. Hey, but at least they can crack open a beer.

Urkobold™|6.21.07 @ 5:52PM|#

REX RHINO, YOU PATHETIC AMATEUR! WATCH AND LEARN! THIS POSTING IS THE ULTIMATE POWER IN THE BLOCKQUOTING UNIVERSE. FEEL THE AWESOMENESS AS THE URKOBOLD NESTS ONE QUOTE AFTER ANOTHER AFTER ANOTHER AFTER ANOTHER AFTER ANOTHER AFTER ANOTHER AFTER ANOTHER.

|6.21.07 @ 6:42PM|#

Australians drink a lot. But Australians in the Outback drink so much it even shocks other Australians. (You don't buy a round of beers. You buy a round of crates of beer).

Whites drink indoors and fall asleep on the floor. Aborigines drink outdoors, fall down in the street and get arrested.

M|6.21.07 @ 10:00PM|#

Whites drink indoors and fall asleep on the floor. Aborigines drink outdoors, fall down in the street and get arrested.

"When the working women in the poor districts come to the doors of the public-houses and try to get their husbands home, simple-minded 'social workers' always imagine that every husband is a tragic drunkard and every wife a broken-hearted saint. It never occurs to them that the poor woman is only doing under coarser conventions exactly what every fashionable hostess does when she tries to get the men from arguing over the cigars to come and gossip over the teacups." ~ G.K. Chesterton (1910)

|6.21.07 @ 11:44PM|#

This isn't nearly as simplistic as article pointed out. Many Aboriginal communities have *asked* to be dry, as there has been a long and ghastly history of alcohol and substance abuse, as well as child abuse in them. A lot of these remote communities are rapidly disintegrating and are also totally reliant on welfare to survive. The worry among indigenous and non-indigenous people in OZ right now is that if something isn't done quickly, these people will be gone in less than a generation, mainly due to chronic health problems.

As the organisation who pays for the continued existence of these camps, the government has demanded a greater say in how they are run. The Federal Government has power only in the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory, as they are not states, like the other six.

I am not comfortable with all of this intervention and I can only imagine how it looks to an outside, but let me tell you -- if you've ever been to one of these places and see how attrocious the conditions are, you might be inclined to think that something ought to be done.

The main thing is to get the level of health and education up to more or less the standards of mainstream society. Once that happens, these people might have some bloody hope. Several prominent Australian Aborignal leaders have called for all of this intervention, but want it happen in a way that Aborginies can then wean themselves off the welfare teat.

It is a difficult and complex issue and will take much time to solve.

|6.22.07 @ 12:22AM|#

but I find it ironic that Aborigines who are totally dependent on welfare are complaining about govt paternalism.

I wouldn't say its ironic. I think of paternalism as constraining the range of options a person has, on the premise that it is "for your own good". Giving someone money doesn't constrain that person's options. However this new anti-drinking policy is aimed at doing that.

Of course taking money in taxes from someone to fund welfare for others constrains the purchasing options of the taxed person, but it isn't "for that person's own good".

Robert|6.22.07 @ 12:35AM|#

"The worry among indigenous and non-indigenous people in OZ right now is that if something isn't done quickly, these people will be gone in less than a generation, mainly due to chronic health problems."

I can see what alcohol could have to do with that, but what does it have to do with porn? Or with child abuse? And what does porn have to do with child abuse? (Let alone gambling, as the guy on the BBC brought into the discussion.)

|6.22.07 @ 12:52AM|#

This stuff just makes me scream.

As any social worker worth a light bulb joke will tell you, they have got to want to change.

No amount of money, paternalising, banning, etc from us dumb white people will do one iota of good unless the communities in question want to change.

When that happens, nothing we do will stop them.

|6.22.07 @ 8:23PM|#

Ironically, the original inhabitants of Australia can't get any Aussie porn, while here in America, I can get as many copies of Pouch Party and

|6.22.07 @ 8:23PM|#

Dirty Digeridoos Part 7 as I want!