Today’s Dispatch is from 9 November 2012. (As always you can use Google Translate)
Dia duit arís mo chairde,
Paddy and Murphy bought a small truck. They drove out to the countryside and bought a load of cabbages from the farmers. They paid € 2.00 for each cabbage.
They drove back to Dublin and started knocking on those magnificent doors
http://youtu.be/QZN4qLSwS5U People are Strange…. The Doors…
They very quickly sold the cabbages. Their asking price? € 2.00 for each cabbage.
Back they raced to the country side and acquired another load of cabbages. They paid € 2.00 for each cabbage.
Back in Dublin they again did a brisk business and sold the whole load. They sold this lot at € 2.00 for each cabbage.
“Patrick there is something not right, we’re not getting anywhere”
Patrick thought for a bit. “Maybe we should get a bigger truck”
Before writing their business plan (so as to get a loan to buy the bigger truck), Patrick and Murphy went to a Rory Gallagher concert:
http://youtu.be/GazzTFxXGeE
A Dispatchee kindly alerted me to the following:
Northern Territory: Addressing The “Crime Problem” Of The Northern Territory Intervention – Alternate Paths To Regulating Minor Driving Offences In Remote Indigenous Communities
Thalia Anthony, and Harry Blagg, 2012
Report to the Criminology Research Council Grant: CRC 38/09-10
For the sake of brevity I’ll cherry pick the 90-page (excellent) report (the emphasis are mine):
“…This study of the incidence of Indigenous driving offending was conducted by the authors in the Northern Territory from 2006 to 2010 on two central Australian communities. It demonstrates how new patterns of law enforcement, set in train by the 2007 ‘intervention’, inevitably led to a dramatic increase in the criminalization of Indigenous people for driving related offending….
Our research suggests that the criminalization of driving related offending represented an attempt to construct a new form of coercive, neo-assimilationist governmentality in the NT through which the state seeks to discipline, normalize and incorporate elements of the Indigenous domain into the mainstream. In Simon’s (2001, 2002) phase the state is effectively ‘governing through crime’: amplifying and dramatizing a particular crime problem (child sexual abuse) to legitimate an aggressive annexation of Aboriginal space….
….the processes and outcomes have been solidly fixated on eradicating key cultural differences between mainstream Australia and its Indigenous Other. Over the lifetime of the study we witnessed few indications that the state was effectively uncovering, let alone prosecuting, cases of child sexual abuse and/or family violence, but we did see significant changes taking place in the physical layout of the community and a significant increases in the numbers of Indigenous people being prosecuted for failing to adhere to new rules. The issue of driving and roads became a site of contestation and conflict between mainstream government and Indigenous communities…..”
The report is based on two Warlpiri communities, Yuendumu and Lajamanu.
Since the mid-2006 to 2010 the incidence of driving criminalisation increased 250% in the NT.
The prison population includes 25% driving offenders.
More than 80% of the prisoners are Indigenous.
“Mr. Attorney-General there is something not right, we’re not getting anywhere”
The Attorney-General thought for a bit. “Maybe we should build a bigger gaol”
…Walk with me, talk with me, tell me your story, and I’ll do my best to understand you….