(This dispatch is from 7 September 2011. I do not believe things have not improved)
G’day mates,
http://youtu.be/ACuv1eMTSb4
the future looks bleak with
no sign of change
darkness in the eye and down
in the soul
all across the wire to those in control
holding so much
with no show of heart
you think it’d be crazy
to watch it all fall apart
watch it all fall apart
Two NEW!!!! products being launched onto the Northern Territory market:
NEW!!!! Four hours English only policy with EXTRA added Culture!!!
NEW!!!! Closing the Gap policy with NO ADDED Intervention!!!!
In the . . Dispatch (of 10 Jan 2015, I was a bit unkind to our illustrious Chief Minister.
I’ve thought about the things he said at Kalkaringi. He very much wants remote Aboriginal Children to have the same educational choices and opportunities as his own children.
Strewth, well I nevah’ Paul Henderson is in favour of bi-lingual education!
I should not have doubted his sincerity! He’s dinki-di!
Paul Henderson’s children are given the choice and opportunity to be taught in their mother tongue.
Paul Henderson wants Aboriginal children to have the same choice and opportunity.
Goodonya mate! You’re doing your job!
http://youtu.be/1MsKW84b-7E
Things in Yuendumu are getting better:
http://youtu.be/hcuKWq9_Id8
The blue NTER ‘Prescribed Area’ (No Alcohol No Pornography) signs were up for over three years. No one in authority did anything about them.
When they were painted over (“If U want Porn go to Canberra”) they lasted two weeks.
So when they mysteriously re-appeared: a new record, they lasted only a week! Someone is doing their job!
Next time a Yuendumu Warlpiri resident asks to get their sewerage unblocked we are likely to witness prompt action, in record time. Someone will be doing their job!
We are being seriously derelict here in Yuendumu. Instead of co-operating with those that are doing their job and trying to ‘Close the Gap’ some of us keep taking the piss and refuse to surrender our sense of humour. They don’t understand why losing your sense of humour would be such a serious matter. They don’t have one.
Remember Nick Leeson the ‘rogue trader’ who singlehandedly broke the Barings Bank? And what about the ‘rogue soldiers’ that were entirely to blame for the torture at Abu Ghraib prison? And now the ‘rogue reporter’ who was the only phone hacker at News of the World.
Then there is the self-appointed ‘rogue two dog policy enforcer’ whose dog massacre at Nyirrpi was narrowly averted by loud whistle blowing by the Yuendumu and Alice Springs chapters of Wikileaks.
Not to mention the self-appointed ‘rogue sign remover’.
Or are these patsies that are following orders or acting in the (mean)spirit of their masters? They are all just doing their job!
http://youtu.be/HG-8uZg2uV0
When the shit hits the fan, they will conveniently distance themselves from these ‘rogues’
Remember “I’m not a crook” Richard Nixon?
Remember how John Howard was always squeaky clean? It was always his lieutenants that were the fall guys that had done the dirty deeds.
“No we didn’t know anything about training ex-SAS personnel as wharfies in Dubai” “No we didn’t know anything about the AWB bribes”
Remember how we were weaving a better Australian social fabric, embracing and celebrating diversity, multiculturalism, virtually free University studies (before Universities became businesses), Land Rights and self-determination for Aboriginal Australians, a quarter of a million Australians walking across the bridge for Reconciliation, bilingual teaching in remote Aboriginal Australia und so weiter.
Oh, had I a golden thread
and a needle so fine
I’d weave a magic strand
Of rainbow design
Of rainbow design
Then along came John Howard with his dog whistle and his merry men and proceeded to unravel the cloth, the magic strand, undoing all social progress since Federation. He was just doing his job.
John Howard’s “me too” successors were and are too politically wedged to be able to repair the loom, even if they knew how to, even if they wanted to.They’re just doing their job.
In English we have the words ‘widow’ (Warlpiri: ‘kalipuka’), ‘widower’ (‘warlukuta’ ) and ‘orphan’ (‘yapunta’).
About a month ago a five year old Yuendumu child was tragically run over in Alice Springs. As far as I’m aware, there is no English word for a parent that has lost a child. Warlpiri has such a word, it is ‘yultu’
About a week ago the young lady yultu, came and asked me if I could help her out. She was brandishing an on the spot fine for not wearing her seatbelt… $420. She will be able to pay it by instalments deducted from her ‘Income Managed’ (IM) Centrelink entitlements. Mercifully the Intervention Legislation is preventing her from spending her IM money on alcohol, gambling, tobacco or pornography, that way ensuring she will have enough left over to eventually pay off her fine. The Yuendumu police woman that wrote out the ticket was doing her job.
Yuendumu (that was declared a ‘hub’ or ‘growth town’) is getting a new Centrelink building later this week. I believe it will arrive in kit form on the back of trucks and assembled by an interstate ‘fly in fly out’ crew assisted by an Alice Springs crane-hire firm. They are all doing their job.
Just as I was starting to despair, things are looking up. Yuendumu is moving forward. We’ve never had it so good. We ain’t worried, we’re sittin on top of the world http://youtu.be/15o9o6Gh4UQ
Hoorooh!
Frank