This morning the Advertiser leads with a story about aboriginal people in the West Parklands having their stuff confiscated. It's a tricky issue. One dimension of it is that, it seems to me, the Adelaide City Council often likes to sweep these issues under the carpet.
I noticed for example when I used to bus to work in the CBD that at Big Race times, or Festivals aboriginal people were often moved on so that (I suppose) visitors didn't have to confront a social problem that we find intractable.
Went to see Miss Saigon last night. Hellishly expensive tickets (which I didn't buy) for a very indifferent show. Had two wonderances about why this might be so
- Although it'd had rave reviews; are we so starved of top-end theatre that we willcall anything "good" even when it is not
- The production lacked energy, the music is ponderous at the best of times but I thought with the exception of the eponymous Miss Saigon, the principals were poor. The Engineer...around whom much of the show revolves was almost unintelligible and his definition of the role curious to say the least.
- We had the scary thought at half-time that because the last burst of theatre we had was in London have we been spoiled. Are we now witnessing the treue gap between Australian and international theatre? Will nothing ever seem quiet good enough again.
2 comments:
It's such a tough call.
Reacting to something is always worse than preventing it happening in the first place.
There shouldn't be homeless people in the first place but I pedal to work most days and see homeless people drinking and sleeping in and around a children's playground - that shouldn't be happening either.
It needs the wisdom of Solomon to address the issue.
Coupled with this is the question of whether these people are actually homeless some of them at least are not.
If they actually choose to live in the parklands then should they be allowed to in a way that they wouldn't if they were not aboriginal. There is no easy answer...who does this 'parkland' actually belong to.
In some people's living memory...there used to be an aborignal encampment down where the Torrens Lake now is...Pinkie Flat...it was shrouded in mystery and children were afeared to go there!! But it looks to me to be exactly the sort of place where an aboriginal camp would have been...but we have moved them on. I wonder how much we paid them for their land!
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