Australia

This is one of the most powerful speeches I have ever seen given (I was able to catch the whole speech in bits and pieces as people were reporting about it through YouTube) and it is even more powerful once read.

Why? Rudd enacts with this as law an acknowledgment that white privilege is founded on government policies that sought to make Aborigine Australians extinct.

Here's the quote :

The uncomfortable truth for us all is that the parliaments of the nation, individually and collectively, enacted statutes and delegated authority under those statutes that made the forced removal of children on racial grounds fully lawful.

There is a further reason for an apology as well: it is that reconciliation is in fact an expression of a core value of our nation - and that value is a fair go for all.

There is a deep and abiding belief in the Australian community that, for the stolen generations, there was no fair go at all.

There is a pretty basic Aussie belief that says that it is time to put right this most outrageous of wrongs.

It is for these reasons, quite apart from concerns of fundamental human decency, that the governments and parliaments of this nation must make this apology - because, put simply, the laws that our parliaments enacted made the stolen generations possible.

We, the parliaments of the nation, are ultimately responsible, not those who gave effect to our laws. And the problem lay with the laws themselves.

As has been said of settler societies elsewhere, we are the bearers of many blessings from our ancestors; therefore we must also be the bearer of their burdens as well.

Therefore, for our nation, the course of action is clear: that is, to deal now with what has become one of the darkest chapters in Australia's history.

In doing so, we are doing more than contending with the facts, the evidence and the often rancorous public debate.

In doing so, we are also wrestling with our own soul.

Full text after the jump

Australia Says Sorry to Stolen Generation

Apology Speech by Kevin Rudd 13th February 2008 to the Stolen Generation.

Part 1. A little History
Part 2. Personal Interviews
Part 3. Footage from Australian supporters
Part 4. Apology Speech by Kevin Rudd

The Stolen Generation is a term used to describe the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, who were removed from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions, under various state acts of parliament, denying the rights of parents and making all Aboriginal children wards of the state, between approximately 1869 and 1969. The policy typically involved the removal of children into internment camps, orphanages and other institutions.

I have been moved to tears by the incredible gesture of Australia's Parliament under their new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.

Eleven years ago a study was published under the title Bringing Them Home | "Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families". The study was the height of a coalition of Aboriginal groups and human rights organizations who had fought for years to force the Australian government to blow the lid off the years of its genocidal policy against Aboriginal Australians.

Presented without comment, although I find it interesting that Australians use the term 'migrant' and not 'immigrant'.

This from the website :

Before you begin:

The following game is not real - it is a "Mock-Ad".

It is a 'what if' response to a challenge issued by Adnews to Amnesia.

The brief : How to change the 'negative' public perception of Migrants in Australia.

Amnesia's response is a 'part viral, part digital media campaign'

It is designed to hit at the heart of the matter and challenge perceptions in an interactive manner - we are using tested viral techniques and a game mechanic. "Mini-games' as a delivery format crosses all ages and genders and also has a suprisingly large percentage of female and older players making it perfect to carry a message.

The game is designed to appear tasteless (at first sight) in order to provoke a response by any person who has strong feelings either way - but the result of 'kicking a migrant' delivers the "real" concequnces both to our Economy and the social impact. Try it and see...

Go to the game.

From the department of "Things that make you go hmmmm" comes this doozie :

Gay Aussie hotel wins right to ban heterosexuals, lesbians
The Peel Hotel in Melbourne won an exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act to prevent insults and abuse directed toward gays in its bars and nightclubs, owner Tom McFeely told AFP.

"The hotel predominantly markets itself towards homosexual males, towards gay men and we want to protect the integrity of the venue as well as continue to make the men feel comfortable," McFeely said.

"When large numbers of heterosexuals or even lesbians are in the hotel that changes the atmosphere and many gay men can feel uncomfortable."

I would love it if this where a joke given the owner's last name is one McFeely and all I think of him being the insensitive evil twin of Grey Anatomy's McDreamy, but no ... 'tis true.

Goes to show women end up being second class citizens even within marginalized communities.

I was going to write a way more politically incorrect title but decided against it. The mentally challenged ought not be insulted by a comparison with the unfortunately elected idiot, aka Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard.

Anyway, there's no need to add to the Barack-lash. This one makes it's own sauce.

On Sunday, Mr Howard told Channel 9: "If I were running al-Qaida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats."

Senator Obama replied by challenging Mr Howard to boost Australian troop numbers by 20,000 in Iraq from the 1400 there now if he supported the war so strongly.

"Otherwise, it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric," he said. "I think it's flattering that one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world started attacking me the day after I announced."

BTW, Howard is supposed to be great friends with Bush. By his remarks, it kind of shows how these would get along.

Yet, the more pressing issue ought to be : What does it say of the people of the United States and Australia to have as leaders a George Bush and a John Howard?