2 Responses to “Alternative view on “sorry””

1. Steven on February 22nd, 2008 9:45pm

   Political correctness will come to the fore while we have Labor Governments in every state and the Commonwealth.

   The Libs have caved in and you’re now an outcast if you won’t say sorry.

2. paleneck on March 8th, 2008 1:11pm

   ~ Please read my comments on this piece of garbage knowing that I am a white middle-class man. I’d love to know who wrote it originallly, as this is what I’d say to them:~

   We apologise for giving you free doctors and free medical care and medications, which allows you to survive and multiply so that you can demand apologies.
   ~ Apologies for about 30% of Aboriginal people that live in remote communities that have inadequate access to health services. Also, apologies for reproducing. Apparently they’re not supposed to, although they did quite well before Europeans came - there were at least 750 000 of them before 1788, compared to 470 000 in 2004.
   (Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2004 Yearbook; NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs, 2003).~

   We apologise for helping you to read and teaching you the English language and thus we opened up to you the entire European civilisation, thought and enterprise.
   ~ Apologies for there originally being many diverse cultures which had their good points and bad points like every civilisation. Also, apologies must be given for not fully appreciating the benefits of European civilisation such as massive displacement from the best land, gun massacres, poisoned food and poisoned water holes. Also, in later days, unequal pay, exclusion from government positions and atomic testing near some Aboriginal communities. As well, apologies for not being counted as citizens until 1967 - was this part of some European democratic tradition?
   (Source: NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs, 2003)~

   We feel that we must apologise for building hundreds of homes for you, which you have vandalised and destroyed.
   ~ Apologies for the federal and state governments feeling the need to create inappropriate and/or inadequate housing for some in the community. Perhaps if they’d asked what was needed first it may have helped.
   (Source: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/press/pressitem.asp?ref=1622)~

   We apologise for giving you law and order which has helped prevent you from slaughtering one another and using the unfortunate for food purposes.
   ~ Apologies for their ancestors being slaughtered to enforce colonial law and order in far greater numbers than they ever managed to do to themselves. ~

   We apologise for developing large farms and properties, which today feed you people, where before, you had the benefits of living off the land and starving during droughts.
   ~ Apologies for their ancestors having the nerve to live where the largest farms and properties now exist. How terribly rude of them to live on the best land and within the ability of the land to sustain them. Its obvious that large tracts of dry-land salinity, dead rivers and algal blooms are much better outcomes. Perhaps you should read through the National Land and Water Resources Audit 1997-2002 to see what a success large farms have been. Also, apologies for their ancestors showing Europeans how to survive in this environment when they first arrived.~

   We apologise for providing you with warm clothing made of fabric to replace that animal skins you used before.
   ~ Apologies for their ancestors living as many people have done throughout the world and throughout time. Perhaps if they’d had the benefits of thousands of years of trade with all of Europe, Asia and Africa, along with appropriate flora and fauna such as cotton, flax and sheep, they could have developed a textile industry too. By the way, animal skins are quite warm - you’ll notice that that’s why animals wear them.~

   We apologise for building roads and railway tracks between cities and building cars so that you no longer have to walk over harsh terrain.
   ~ Apologies for their ancestors seeing no need to invest such massive amounts of labour.~

   We apologise for paying off your vehicle when you fail to pay the installments.
   ~ Apologies for your long-standing ignorance. In 1995, the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs stated that “There is no government program or policy which involves the distribution of motor vehicles or bicycles (or any other comparable consumer good) free of charge to Aboriginal people.” If that was the case then, do you really think the Howard government would have overturned it in the meantime?
   (Source: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/rsjproject/rsjlibrary/parliamentary/rebutting/index.html)~

   We apologise for giving you free vehicles, petrol, boats, firearms, fishing gear and other non traditional methods that you now use to carry out your traditional ways of hunting.
   ~ Now this one, I can’t disprove. Then again, the person who wrote this hasn’t provided any proof (such as a document) that it is true. It’s a bit like saying that the Howard government were alien reptiles in human bodies - prove me wrong.~

   We apologise for giving you free travel anywhere, whenever. We apologise for giving each and every member of your family $100.00 and free travel to attend an aboriginal funeral.
   ~ See previous.~

   We apologise for not charging you rent on any lands when white people have to pay.
   ~ Apologies for their ancestors being the original inhabitants of the land we’re all living on. It must feel terribly awkward not having to pay rent to their descendents.~

   We apologise for giving you interest free loans.
   ~ Apologies for your long-standing ignorance - again. In 1995, the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs discussed this issue: “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on low incomes have access to strictly means-tested concessional home loans from ATSIC. Interest on these loans starts at between 5% and 10% p.a. and increases by 0.5% p.a. until it reaches 1% below the Commonwealth Savings Bank housing loan interest rate. These rates are comparable with interest rates currently offered by public lending institutions.

   However, the number of such loans is very limited and only about 359 Aboriginal families Australia-wide, assessed against strict eligibility criteria, took out such loans in 1991-92. All loan recipients pay between 20% and 30% of their gross income in loan repayments. Some 97 per cent of borrowers meet their monthly repayments.”

   In time, perhaps all Australians will be able to rort the system in proper, well-established ways. There’s sure to be many offers to help them all work out how to establish family trusts, negative-gear property, claim rental improvements as rental maintenance and turn personal trips into business expenses.
   (Source: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/rsjproject/rsjlibrary/parliamentary/rebutting/index.html)~

   We apologise for developing oil wells and minerals, including gold and diamonds which you never used and had no idea of their value.
   ~ Apologies for their ancestors not developing things they had no use for.~

   We apologise for developing Ayers rock and Kakadu, and then handing them over to you so that you get all the money.
   ~ Apologies for their ancestors living there originally. Perhaps if someone had asked permission to develop, things may have worked out better.~

   We apologise for allowing taxpayers money paid towards daughters wedding ($8,000.00 each daughter)
   ~ Prove it.~

   We apologise for giving you $1.7 billion per year for your people, which is $48,000.00 per aboriginal man, woman and child.
   ~ Apologies for your inability to do simple division. $1 700 000 000 divided by about 470 000 people is $3617 (and 2 cents). Also, apologies for your inability to name the exact source of your figures - the population figure used here is from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2004 Yearbook.~

   We apologise for working hard to pay taxes that finance your welfare, medical care, education, etc to the tune of $1.2 billion each year.
   ~ Apologies that the federal and state governments pushed their ancestors to remote regions so that only about 30% of their people today live in major city areas. About another 30% live in remote or very remote regions (only about 13% of everyone else lives there). Perhaps there’s a need for extra resources when you live that far out. Apologies once more for your inability to name the *exact* source of your figures - this seems to be a recurring theme. The percentages used here are from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2004 Yearbook.~

   We apologise for having to approach your taxpayer funded aboriginal affairs department to verify the above figures.
   ~ Apologies for a couple of things here. One is your inability to grasp that everything in government is paid for through taxes. We ALL have taxpayer funded departments looking after us and we ALL pay taxes if we have to (except when we know the correct rorts - see above). The other thing to apologise for is the inability to mind-read. Do you have a specific source for your figures - for example, is it a state or federal department? When was this “verification” done? Are the figures per year, every year or have they been averaged over a number of years? Do they apply to all Aboriginal people or just some? Do you have any written correspondence from said department to “verify” it all, or even part of it? Do you, in fact, have anything except a bunch of half-truths, single examples and/or straight-out lies that you really collected down at the local pub? And you, the people who unthinkingly pass all this garbage on - do you have anything that resembles the ability to critically think about “facts” that you think “sound right”, whether they actually are or not?~

   For the trouble you will have identifying the uncle toms in your own community who are getting richer and leaving some of you living in squalor and poverty. We do apologise. We really do. We humbly beg your forgiveness for all the above sins.
   ~ Apologies for the federal and state governments’ support of the people in those communities who do wrong. Also, apologies for the non-indigenous people who benefit from the backroom deals with these same people. Heaven knows, the rest of Australia has an excellent record in identifying the white-collar criminals and sleazy council-developer deals throughout the country who get rich and leave some of us living in squalor and poverty.~

   We are only too happy to take back all the above and return you to the paradise of the outback, whenever you are ready.
   ~ Perhaps if you can deal with all of your personal issues of insecurity first, we can find a way of acknowledging that we’re all human beings who have to deal with the issues of the past first before we can make a decent future together.~

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