What's pissing me off about saying sorry to the Aboriginals is that they are already asking for more! I was reading that the "elders" were willing to accept the apology, but they want it to go even further and be compensated and have a whole other range of benefits at their disposal. And I've got quite a few problems with that.
Don't get me wrong, I can definitely see how this can be taken as a racist rant. But I'll say it now that this is not a racist rant. If you don't live within Australia and deal with Aboriginals first-hand, it can be quite hard to understand all the ins-and-outs of this delicate issue. My personal experiences with Aboriginals have, for the large part, been incredibly negative. More often than not I see them sitting in the gutter or the side of the road, Coke bottle in one hand, spray-paint can in the other. I've been spoken to like a piece of trash by them, talk down to by them, intimidated by gangs of them and just generally looked as if I'm some kid who they could beat up for a dollar. So my thoughts and beliefs of them is founded on personal experience, and I am certainly not just saying this to defend a racist view. I will definitely admit there are quite a few respectable Aboriginals, some who have achieved more than I ever could, which is admirable. But just overall, from what I've seen, heard and experienced, my view on them is drastically negative.
As far as I'm concerned, Aboriginals right now have so much served up to them on a silver plate that it's not funny. And their response is always the same: We. Want. More. God damn, we give you welfare, housing, discounted education and free-rides through school/tertiary studies, not to mention land rights and respect to your traditional titles. And we just give this to you. White Australians have to go through so much bureaucratic red-tape BS just to get half-way to where you are now. And how do they thank us? By protesting, instigating violence, acting inappropriately, resort to vandalism and destruction of property, and overall are just a nuisance to us here who don't have such a free ride in life. As far as I'm concerned, we've been apologising to the Aboriginals for the past 30 years.
And maybe that's just a personal problem I have with them. My life hasn't been a free-ride. I had to work my ass off and study my ass off to get to where I am today. My parents were never the type to just give me some money because I wanted it, or even in some instances when I needed it. And they aren't very technical-minded, so they weren't able to help with my engineering studies. Yet, while I break a sweat worrying about having 5 papers due on top of having to work, Aboriginals are able to stroll right through, pick a cheque for their weekly expense - courtesy of the government - while on the way to university despite the fact they didn't even complete high school. I'm sorry, but for a country that is so high on "giving everyone a fair go" - where the **** is my help and support?
And then there are land-titles, which I think are the only thing they really have a right to lay-claim to. I certainly would not like to buy a property, then just have people camping out on it whenever they please. But understand, Settlement on this continent was bound to happen someday. The world population just grows and grows and grows! Over-crowded nations were bound to spew out into new lands to expand their borders. Human curiosity and adventurous nature has always led us to travel around and discover new things. Technology is making it more viable to seek out new horizons and settle in places once thought of as "being too out-there". I'm sorry that we forced you off your land and into slavery, that is unacceptable by any means, but if Europeans didn't do it, then peoples from the Asian continent would have, considering they are just next door to us. Either way, settlement by a more developed culture was bound to happen.
Anyway, that's enough from me. This issue always revs me up and puts me on edge and doesn't exactly put me in a good mood.