Austrailia, for once you can take advice from us

As in the US.

I'm not really up to full blogging rah rah rah 100% (I'm a very tired Xands) but I saw this story and...well...

As the unofficial official vice representative of the American Stop That Shit Outreach Coalition, a few tips might be in order for the world's Most Hotly Debated Landmass (is it a continent or an island, geography book?):

1) Don't ignore your native population. It turns out they're not as afraid of you as you think (see: Native Americans in the US)
2) Saying "sorry" then proceeding to do little to nothing doesn't really cut it for most, if not all, minority populations (see: Congress apologizing for...anything)
3) Prohibition does not work (see: US Constitutional Amendment 18) and I'm a little hazy on how it's going to stop high rates of child sexual abuse? (That's a new case for us, we're looking into it)

All that aside, this is still interesting. I do get much enjoyment from my news feed.


Aborigines Angry After A Year of "Sorry"

This time last year, Aborigines in the Northern Territory boarded buses for the three-day drive to Canberra, drawn to the nation's capital by the promise of a single word: Sorry.

It was uttered three times by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, as he apologised to indigenous Australians for past injustices.

In the public galleries of parliament and at live sites around the country, the "sorry speech" was met with applause, tears and thanks.

Australia's Day of Atonement, as some called it, was deemed a triumph.

But 12 months on, I was in Alice Springs to watch a group of Aborigines embark on the same journey, this time to protest at the foot of Parliament Hill.

There is deep-felt resentment that not more has changed since the apology, and fury that the Rudd government has not only kept the rudiments of the previous government's Northern Territory intervention in place, but extended elements of it to Queensland.