Howver, his psyche did balance itself out by brown-nosing the Israelis
and the Australian Jewish lobby. --ED
--- In Zen_Forum@yahoogroups.com, mike brown <uerusub...@...> wrote:
>
Hi Audry and Artie, It's quite a different situation in Australia
regarding Aboriginal people. When the conservative leader John Howard
was in power he refused to say 'sorry' to the indigenous people despite
being called upon to do so for a number of years. His argument was
similar to both yours: that he wasn't personally responsible for the
crimes committed by people of a different generation. The Aborigines
point, however, was that policies enacted by a different government
still affects Aborigines today (for example, taking 'half-blood'
Aboriginal kids from their mothers and putting them into foster care or
Christian missions - just because they had white blood in them).
Furthermore, people living in Australia today live on the land that was
traditionally Aboriginal land and was taken without payment. Does kinda
make a point that white people living on land taken from the native
people (nearly always by force) do share responsibility with those
people from a different generation. To say, "Sorry" is to recognise that
there is no 'break' from the past (how convenient for whte landowners,
eh?) and that we continue to enjoy what was once somebody elses without
due recognition. Mike
