TERRITORY man filmed himself speeding at 150km/h while masturbating at the wheel of his drug-laden car

[Vertmorpheus]

Nice commercial if you can get it that far in bulk is worth top dollar... some hardheads up there, the local sunny bush just doesnt cut it, if they have a choice. Why you'd take it that far and into a federal territory when you could hang a couple right and take the quiet way to the Isa, where its sold before it arrives, I don't know.

BUt then Corbies sent it to Bali, eh? Classic.

I took exception to the use of the term "natives" not so much as teotz meant it, but more in relation to the pervasive attitude even within Australia that there are "real Aborigines" and "the other ones in towns n that". I know a bit about native americans. Not much, I've not made a special study of it, but read a few books, had a few chats, Mum went over for some first nations gathering years ago and made us some firm friends... its not such a big world as you'd imagine. Any rate, Teotz does seem to know a bit about stuff, native americans included, I am sure he is not of the belief that any and all "native americans" live at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and exclusively hunting and gathering...same goes here.

Second exception was "natives buy street ganja?" as if they/we have some kind of magic pudding kinda arrangement, where it just turns up from the sky, or something. Or maybe we get it free and noone told me? Bastards, wouldn't surprise me.

When the article usesthe term "indigenous communities" they refer to (generally speaking) developing country - standard corrugated metal and prefab lil towns, topping out on average at say a thousand residents. There is no magic formula for what is an "indig community" vs"just some piece of shit regional township" but typical features include minimal govt servicing, infrastructure, chronic shortages of essential goods and when available theyre marked up very heavily for various reasons... most "real" ones are essentially "white aussie" free zones mainly because few white aussies could stomach living there. Most come under the divine rulership of something called a Lands Council, think Council of Elders but it only overlaps in a general sense with the actual "elder" people of the community, you dont have to be old or particular respected to work on one. Not all "aboriginal communities" (which are btw generally 75 percent hybridised stock, but its a term of convenience) are in the outback, but those out that far are considered to have the greater challenges in relation to available resources... its hard to be malnourished in a township with beach access and a bit of scrub to hunt for grubs in, etc.

Think "Indian Reservation"... yknow bout Pine Ridge? Think along those lines.

Theyre what you have left when you suddenly have to start paying your slave labour force, so you boot them off your farms and they have to take up residence in former mission stations, creekbeds and whatever shithole lil bare patch noone will kick them off of. Where you send your bastards, rape borns and regrettables to avoid embarassment, and a conveniently out of the way place to ignore the plight of some people the govt has really let down.

On the other hand, a very small percentage of indig aussies live way out in the middle of nowhere, or in shithole shanty towns, the bulk are urbanised, generally educated to a fairly high standard, drive cars, eat ramen and watch YouTube like anyone else Then theres urbanised but poor/fractured/disadvantaged indig people, who're in much the same boat as urban homeless/deprived/villified in any major city or town anywhere on earth.

There ARE places approaching Aboriginal communities WITHIN major towns and cities... certain suburbs, you may have heard of Redfern (which actually started as a housing project for white poor people, but kinda backfired as these things do) in Sydney, most cities have somewhere similar even if its not so well defined.

Then theres the term as used int he sense you took it Meme, ie a community meaning "local chinese community" "local italian community"... its not meant in that sense, in this case, generally in australia we use indig community as a geographical descriptive, rather than a social definition.

Fortunately this is Australia, we're not bigots just disorganised, so most urban "poor" areas are populated by a fairly diverse range of people. Now days the "average" aussie is preoccupied with Muslims, Arabs, etc..they have a hard time working out the difference, there, so they just stick em all in together. Suddenly the heat is off the blackfellas for a while, in some senses, as while he might look black, he doesn't look like a INSERT RACIAL INVECTIVE HERE.. we're reliably Australian and generally held to be a lil too denseto pose any real threat beyond say assaulting you en masse with our legions of mythical cousins, defrauding your welfare system despite being apparently favoured by it, and binge drinking in your local parks (thus meaning your binge drinking whitebread kids have to get drunk at home, instead of in the park).

Just remember that us "natives" can and do use the internet... please do not refer to us by default in the "third person" as if we equally by default could not possibly be in the reading audience.

VM

[mark80]

There ARE places approaching Aboriginal communities WITHIN major towns and cities... certain suburbs, you may have heard of Redfern (which actually started as a housing project for white poor people, but kinda backfired as these things do) in Sydney, most cities have somewhere similar even if its not so well defined.

by back fired do you mean that housing porjects in genreal fail? or that housing projects for white people fail?

[rahli]

In 2005 the Northern Territory indigenous population had the highest birth rate in the nation. This high rate of births adds to the near 30% indigenous representation in the Northern Territory population. At that time around 72% of indigenous people were living on Aboriginal owned lands outside of major community centers. Even given such a high representation in the Northern Territory population, indigenous people still remained the most disadvantaged population in Australia according to a 2001 report on indigenous funding (Westbury, 2005).

Currently in the Northern Territory over 44% of land (approximately 600,000km²) has been returned to traditional owners under the Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Aiatsis, 2008).

The recent Blue Mud Bay decision has also granted exclusive rights to all a intertidal waters ajoining land granted under the Northern Territory Land Rights Act.

Link

Aiatsis. (2008). Site accessed 04/04/2008.

http://ntru.aiatsis.gov.au/research/resour...es/NT/nt10.html

Westbury, N (2005). Shifting our Thinking: The Future Engagement between Governments and Indigenous Australia post-ATSIC', Public Administration Today, 24 - 31.

Edited August 6, 2008 by rahli

[Vertmorpheus]

You mean Redfern? It was originally started as "Affordable" council housing for working shits from the westie regions, then got navy accomodation etc tacked onto it... then it all went sour and noone would live there so it took on its present nature.

In general, planned housing for "marginalised peoples" backfires... its typically built with the same ethos as battery chicken farms, miles from anywhere you can work, shop or relax. Insert Macquarie Fields, Suicide Heights or any ghastly UK council estate. Housing Commish areas here, old school ones before they took to scattering em across more likeable suburbs.Race doesn't comme into it much, though obviously there does tend to be a clashing of various subcultures or cultures, as if all people earning less than 10 k a year are somehow mates by default, haha.

If they actually made these projects viable and liveable, well, cashed up types would just resent the hard up being given such a tasty free lunch I guess...damned either way they think about it.

Good info from Rahli there, important to remember when dealing with figures of indig population is that the further you get into "old country" the higher the rates of reporting are..ie... if I hadda grown up in the North Shore of Sydney, I'm probably not as likely to lay claim to my ancestry as if growing up in say...Townsville, and TI, as I did. Like in tassie... they went from basically no blackfellas to quite a few, far out of breeding rates..because more people took to identifying on principle, etc. So then it applies to their kids..yeah... kind of an exponential effect... if I stay in this town long enough to have another couple kids, well it would show on local stats the we had a doubling of the indig population here... its true, and its not, if ya get what I mean. True now, but no truer than the same happening 50 years ago..just that back then we'd have been "half indian/italian/jewish" instead ;) Those figures are also sadly indicative of a trend common to all basically under-stimulated small town n subregional peoples, ie, girls getting knocked up once a year from age 15 because its not like there's much else to do, or anywhere to buy frangers.

VM

[apothecary]

Reruns?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/28/2348674.htm

[ThunderIdeal]

i'm living in arnhem land at the moment, apparently the level of car insurance claims here is higher than anywhere in the country. i don't think people who grow up here get much of an education, or much experience behind the wheel. there's not much violence, but people shouldn't leave doors unlocked like they do because street drunks are known to steal cars (keys in ignition) or walk into peoples houses to take beer.

never been to the more civilised parts of NT but i reckon it'd be similar, with more booze.

[rahli]

Welcome to the top end.

Hope you have fun.

[gromit]

Welcome to the top end.

Hope you have fun.

LOL maybe Darryl Somers should recreate this for the next NT tourism ad.

You never never know!

[rahli]

More reruns?

If not he's still a wanker

[Legba]

Pair go for drunken dip after car crash

A COUPLE who allegedly crashed their car into a power pole in Darwin did not think about insurance claims or calling the police.

They wanted to get wet.

Officers had to rescue the man and woman from the sea shortly after 8.30pm (CST) yesterday after they got into trouble off Nightcliff Jetty.

Police went to the scene following a report that a maroon Ford Falcon had slammed into a pole on Casuarina Drive.

"It was soon established that the two occupants of the vehicle were swimming in the sea near the Nightcliff boat ramp jetty," police said in a statement.

When it appeared one of the swimmers was struggling, the officers dived into the water - known for crocodiles - to help them.

The pair was brought to shore and the male driver was breath tested, returning an alcohol reading of .065 per cent.

The man was taken to Royal Darwin Hospital to be medically assessed and was summonsed to appear in court at a later date.

He will face charges of driving with a low-range blood alcohol content, driving an uninsured vehicle and driving without due care, police said.

can some1 send me a darwin stubbie. they must kik ass...

Edited September 3, 2008 by Legba