did the man really say these things.
if so he must have good reason don't you think?
ant
>From: tassy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [recoznet2] Issues Pearson Raised
>Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2000 10:11:45 +0800
>
> Hi!,
> Sorry for sounding too intellectual earlier. It's not what's
>really necessary. Here's a few of the statements he made people have
>found objectionable, and the response to them.
>
> Pearson: "Our motivation to welfare reform must be based on the
>principle that dependency and passivity kills people and is the surest
>road to social ruin. "Australians do not have an inalienable right to
>dependency"...."They have an inalienable right to a fair place in the
>real economy." (Herron-speak?)
>
> On drugs, he called for: "the restoration of social order and the
>enforcement of law" (Zero Tolerance?)
>
> Reactions: Kim Bullimore, Indigenous Student Network: "Pearson
>doesn't attack the federal government over mandatory sentencing or the
>increasing number of Aboriginal deaths in custody or Howard's refusal to
>recognise and compensate the stolen generations -- all instances of
>current government policy discriminating against Aborigines"....
>"Instead, he has given a speech that reinforces racist prejudices about
>Aborigines and welfare payments."
>
> "He argues that welfare payments should be cut to Aborigines, but
>puts no responsibility on the government to provide employment".....
>"And then he pretends that Aboriginal alienation and poverty can be
>solved by more police and more punishment and imprisonment. Indigenous
>Australians are already the most incarcerated people in the entire
>world."
>
>
> Michael Mansell, well-known aboriginal activist: ""You take away a
>people's country, you dominate them on a day-to-day basis, you prevent
>them from running their own land, their own communities, and you are
>bound to get symptoms of alienation".
>
> "We've heard [Pearson's arguments] all before"..... "The only
>difference is it's coming from a black person who is part of the
>oppressed group, rather than from the oppressor."
>
> John Hewson, Former Liberal Party leader and architect of the GST:
>"... all those in the [welfare] debate] to listen to Pearson".
>
> Hewson said that Pearson's ideas closely matched the welfare reform
>proposals he advocated in the early 1990s, adding, "This carries so much
>more authority than when whites say it".
>
> Hewson's statements are particularly revealing. They indicate how
>far to the right Pearson's ideas actually are. And what is more to the
>point is why he chose to use the Ben Chifley Memorial to attack what he
>called "welfare dependency". He must of been aware of how the right-wing
>media and politicians would abuse what he had to say. And why, to the
>exclusion of land rights and self-determination, he chose to link crime
>to welfare payments, and to turn the issue to one of individual morality
>rather than community life, which is the "common sense" of conservatism
>in this country, and has been since the days of the convict emancipation
>movement in the nineteenth century.
>
> Once again, I still think that Pearson's comments can be seen as
>playing a progressive role by some people. In the 1950's and 60's for
>instance, people made a lot of noise about more law and order for Gay
>and Lesbian people, schizoprehenics, and indeed for aboriginal people;
>these things were debated a lot during that period, in the newspapers
>and the popular culture, and perhaps it is good that people like Pearson
>raise these issues from time to time to remind us of the real
>misunderstandings and mistrust that exists in society, and hence the
>need for a reconciliation. This is a point made by Palestinian activist
>and highly original scholar Edward Said about Imperialism in his book,
>"Culture and Imperialism" as well, by the way, which I read and
>thoroughly enjoyed. I think about that a lot, what role the right-wing
>plays in public debates, and what wider purpose it might be serving.
>
> Cheers,
> Matthew Davis
>
>
>
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