Australian Aborigines Restrict Alcohol Sales To Address Crisis

nytimes.com:

HALLS CREEK, Australia Since Halls Creek recently became the latest Aboriginal town in the Australian outback to restrict alcohol sales, its doctors and police officers have been getting more sleep thanks to a steep dropoff in nighttime brawls.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[mathme]

The Aborigines also have a terribly high rate of FASD.

[victorsays]

Alcholism is a BIG PROBLEM for the Native American too. History is ver heavy on the heart of people, who have been collectively destroyed and are reminded of such everytime they stand at the checkout counter with magazine of blonde blue-eyed women staring back at them from the vaunted pages of American magazine.

It is unimaginable to feel what these people feel. I pity them. They are destroying themselve, instead of destroying their enemies.

[violimo]

Reading most of these posts shows you know diddly squat. I happen to live in Western Australia and know the situation is more complex a problem to solve. Aborigines have full rights, millions of govt. money has been given to various projects including welfare payments and free medical care.. The policy of not interfering has led to a terrible problem of child/baby sexual abuse, petrol sniffing and alcohol abuse. Not all Aborigines have problems. To me they are a brilliant race and I'm proud of them. The article in question is about light at the end of the tunnel. Some tough love. Halls Creek is now a dry town and a safe sanctuary. The Aboriginals there can have a more peaceful sleep at night. Hopefully it may mean the next generation won't have to live through the hell of alcoholism and associated problems.

[natturnerx]

this propagandistic article is classic disinformation : it mischaracterizes the r.acist social policy known in australia as "the intervention" as something the aboriginal community is regulating upon itself, instead of a paternalistic policy being imposed upon them by w.hites, which it is . but see http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=6898824720794 . its time the international community put a.partheid australia on its agenda - that r.acist regime does indeed need an intervention.

[bismillah001]

Alcoholism is such a big problem among the Aborigines­.. It is really a shame, but not entirely surprising consider the way they've been screwed over historically by the British/Au­stralians. When I was in Perth, probably 70% of the Aborigines I saw were drunk or drinking. There is a difference, though, between the ones who live in big cities and those who live in rural areas. It's just so depressing­.. I hope these bans can have a positive impact on peoples' lives.

[alexolife]

The Aborigines are Australians, too. Everyone blames the British because they were powerful and therefore must've been inherently evil, but nobody thinks about solutions, let alone the fundamentals. This debate is very much like the "pro-life vs pro-choice" debate: when you boil it down, there are two positions, both based on positive attitudes, that fundamentally conflict despite their good intentions:

Option 1.
The Aborigines are left alone by the government, free to roam the desert in what the West would call poverty. Their cultural traditions are not impinged on by any Australian that is not also an Aborigine. They are not made subject to Australian laws and do not have any of the rights other Australians might have. They are culturally and legally isolated.

Option 2.
The Aborigines are assimilated into mainstream Australian culture, like anybody else. Any parts of their cultural heritage that conflict with Australian laws will become illegal and they will be prosecuted for practising them. They will be forced to go to school and learn English. Traditional systems of tribal justice will become irrelevant, except where illegal, and they will be subject to the same legal/penal consequences as would be applied to any other person in Australia for committing crimes, regardless of whether or not the crimes constitute traditional practices. They will, however, have equality of opportunity regarding legal rights, as well as employment, education, marital status, taxation, Medicare and any opportunity available to any other citizen.

[alexolife]

Neither of these options is fully in place at the moment, which makes the whole thing a bit messy and hypocritical (and leaves it open to a lot of debate), but the core issue that everybody seems to forget is that you can't promote equal rights in a society of laws AND allow one specific culture to evolve unchecked. Both are value systems and they are therefore mutually exclusive. You have to choose one, and you CANNOT choose both. So far, Australian governments have continued to choose parts of both, based mainly on political reasoning, for most of their history.

The only MAJOR problem I have with the NT Intervention is that alcohol has been banned on the basis of race, rather than being banned for specific people. The blanket approach solved some abuse problems, but was undeniably racist. I guess the situation essentially became a problem because governments had prioritised the "leave the Aborigines alone to pursue their culture" part of the first option, while still supplying them with money and alcohol (as in the "equal rights" part of the second option). Prolonged isolation from law and education combined with alcohol, petrol and children would likely have lead to some kind of abuse in any small community, regardless of race.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

I bet if the US banned alcohol again, it would solve all our problems with homelessness, child and spousal abuse, crime, etc.

[longtimegone]

Yet we continue to brand as "backward" any nation with the audacity to ban or restrict it and deem the open sale and consumption of it as a necessary sign of progress and Westernization. Makes you wonder, huh?

[raptorpanic]

It makes me wonder what sort of terrible backwards mormon education you must have recieved to actually believe that.

[who38]

Are you aware that in the early 1900's, it was possible to buy heroin, marijuana, and cocaine over the the counter in the U.S.?

[Snafu]

If you ban it in the US , that action will just bring about a return of a new mafia, crime will sky rocket, violence will increase, more youth will drink it since the age limit will be thrown out so sellers will sell it to anyone, people will be poisoned by bathtub gin...

those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

[BryantG]

Recall your American history, we tried prohibition back in the 1920's. It did nothing to address the problems you mention and in addition created rampant gang violence. I suspect Australian aboriginal problems are rooted in poverty as opposed to alcohol.

[Hnorc]

Sure, we've banned drugs and everything is peachy.

[brooklyncitizen]

Banning is not the solution and it won't happen.Two things Americans love : their drugs and their guns.

[WorkingClass]

Looks like a tea party.

[Libertarian78]

Australia is still 40 years behind the developed world in ra.cial equality.

[loki]

The blacks of Australia have always been forced to do things other citizens are not. This so called free country has in the last century alone have abused the aboriginal people of Australia many times, like ordering all the Aboriginal children to be forcibly taken from their parents them to be raised by "whites" .
Most areas have passed laws in the past about Alcohol use by Aboriginals, and more recently because a few of the Aboriginals were accused of child molestation, there was a large ban on all porn sold to aboriginals. This is a country that calls its self a free democracy and yet they make laws restricting a large population of their country and openly promote discrimination and hate towards other cultures besides whites.

[Imhotep40]

Australia is just following the same standard set by the U.S. regarding Native Americans . . . .

[AuntiepoppyCock]

true true

[plzchuteme]

Sadly.

[kindGSL]

Australia and the U.S. were both colonies of the English so don't blame the Americans, blame the English.

India could tell us a few things about that.

Do the Australian natives have treaty arrangements or are they just invaded?

[brooklyncitizen]

It's not following the US- it's set its own standards. Indian kids/ Native americans weren't forcibly removed from their families to be raised by white americans. IT is a very different culture and Australia is still in a sort of 1950's time warp with very racist practices.­..not Jim Crow but still overtly racist.

Aussies travel a lot and the world knows them as rollicking and fun and all but I've met some hard-core bigots from down under.

[BrettnCalgary]

It all sounds familiar to me, our Canadian record for dealing with natives is abysmal. There were residential schools here too, and they were sinkholes of abuse and racism. Some reserves restrict alcohol sales as well for the same reasons.

[FebM]

good!