Getting to know the problem
A self-titled ordinary bloke was chatting to a mate the other day and the conversation went so:
"If you have been wondering what ails us, you need look no further. Forget your studies in political economy. Stop your pondering and meditating. Get real and listen up: it's the blacks — we'd all be a darn sight better off if they weren't ripping us off."
"Oh, but that's racist."
"Racist be dammed. I'm just calling it the way I see it. And I'm not alone neither. There's lots more who think the way I do."
"How, actually, do you think?"
"You're not having a crack at me, are you? I'm just an ordinary bloke trying to make my own way in the world."
"No. I'm interested. I truly am. What have these people done to you to cause you to speak in this way?"
"That's not the point. It's just that they get it easy while I get it hard."
"How do you know they get it easy?"
"Well, they do. They just do. We're throwing money at them all the time. But what do they have to do to earn it? Sweet F. A. — that's what."
"Excuse me", says a third voice now joining the conversation, "I couldn't help overhearing. I'm the local member here, and I do believe that you have a point. The millions we have spent in the black community have not worked well for us. They're still dying early and filling up our jails as much as they ever did. So why throw good money after bad? Since we have a responsibility to control the purse strings, we need a new approach.
"Tell me: when you pay your kids an allowance, you expect them to help around the house — rake up the leaves or something — don't you? It's quid pro quo right along the line.
"We need to have the same approach to our black friends. (They're very like children, aren't they?) We need to demand that they look after the money we give them much better than they do now. If you want your allowance, we can tell them, then pull up your socks. You'll have to earn what we give you. For starters, stop dying so early. Live on to a ripe old age like the rest of us. And that death in custody thing simply has got to stop. They're all keen on a bit of a hit and giggle every now and then, but there'll be no more money for drinkee winkees if they keep hanging themselves at the rate they do now. Jesus, it's getting embarrassing.
"And another thing. If they want to go bush and walkabout a bit that's OK. They can walk from here to Timbuktu if they have a mind to. It's a free country, isn't it? Let them play at being native. But if I go off camping, you won't see me claiming the turf the caravan's parked on: 'Nice spot. I think I'll have it.' With no beg your pardons. But that's what Mabo means. They invent some mumbo jumbo and say it's sacred. Sacred my arse! Their only religion is the bottle shop."
The self-titled ordinary bloke speaks up once again:
"Thank you for sharing that with us ... As I was saying: forget your studies and listen up. It's the unemployed — we'd all be a darn sight better if those dole bludgers weren't ripping us off. They get it easy while I get it hard. We're throwing money at them all the time. But what do they have to do to earn it?"
"Let me tell you about the unemployed", says the local member. "Now there's another group of layabouts we could well do without ..."
Dave Riley