Friday, February 29, 2008

Aborigines in Australia: A New Hope

For centuries, the Aborigines living in their own native land, a vast nation called Australia, have been living under suppression and poverty that you may think is not relevant with the status of the developed nation of Australia. For years, they lived under poverty; they lived without their rights been recognized; they lived miserably and denied of citizenship, and yet they are the first and true Australian. They accounted to only 2.4% of Australian present population.

According to factual history, British began colonization of Australia in 1788, bringing smallpox from the Old World, killing half of Aborigines population. By the turning of the 20th century, there were only 150,000 left.

Over the century, they faced a lot of problems and until the leadership of John Howard, the only significant improvements were that they were given the rights to vote, benefits of welfare with terms and condition - known as Contract of Shared Responsibility Agreements, and other minors.

The new dawn has come. Ever since Kevin Rudd won the election recently, Australian government had changed dramatically. Credits for Rudd to bring Australia into Kyoto Protocol and he representing the government issued a formal apology to the indigenous population for the Stolen Generation.

Now, it is time to act to reverse what is wrong and what is bad. The Aborigines have a poor record in terms of health issues. Cancer, heart diseases, mental problems, diabetes, suicide and infant fatality are extremely high as compared to the group of Australian. Low income (poverty), poor education, substance abuse, social pressures, violence, poor comunication and geographically remorse are the contributing factors. Others include crime, unemployment, and even political representative. Currently, no representative from the Aborigines in the Parliament.

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