Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Sex Offenders On-line

The news from America today reveals that US government authorities have begun searching networking sites and discovered that on MySpace alone there are more than 29,000 convicted sex offenders who have their profiles listed and who actively trawl the web. This figure is at least four times greater than the authorities had previously estimated.
Probably no other country has done this kind of analysis. In Australia where I am writing this blog there is no system for doing the cross-reference required. The email address of child sex abusers is not recorded anywhere and the government is not prepared to update its records to make such a search possible. In New Zealand it is even worse because they do not even have a paedophile register.
What both countries do know is that child sex abusers increasingly use network sites to meet and groom potential abuse victims. Just yesterday two more Australians were arrested in Sydney and Perth for trying to groom children on the net.
The American survey is a wake-up call. Trying to educate parents and children on the dangers of the net is only part of the solution. Something has to be done inside the net itself.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

When Money is not the Answer

The amount of money being paid by the Roman Catholic Church to the victims of child sex abuse continues to make headlines. The wealthy churches of California have this week agreed to pay $660,000,000 to around 500 of its members which works out at about $1.3 million for each person. It has also been stated that this is not the end of all the possible payments. Similar large sums have already been paid in Boston and other American states. The Irish Catholic church faces a similar crisis and has paid out €.5.5 million already this year to claimants.
Reading the responses in American papers it is striking that a number of the recipients see the gift of money as almost irrelevant. What most of them are seeking is a genuine apology and some proof that the situation has changed. Having suffered themselves their greatest anxiety now comes from seeing other children suffer in the same way.
And regrettably cases still continue and many more payments will have to be made. Within the church the debate against priestly celibacy and male domination continues. Perhaps some of these recent events will be the precursor to change.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Is it Racism?

New Zealand Maori Member of Parliament, Hone Harawira caused a ruction when he called Australia's Prime Minister Howard a "racist bastard"for his new policy to invade the Aboriginal communities and change their behavioural patterns. He was called to task by his own Maori party for the personal attack, but they also noted their belief there is deep-seated racism in Australia's general attitude to their Aboriginal population.
This would be hard to deny because the Aboriginal people have suffered serious injustice ever since the first colonialists arrived. From 1910 to 1970 an estimated one-third of all Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their family and forced to live in a European community in an effort to 'civilize' them. In the eyes of the government at that time Aboriginal's did not even exist and were not included in the census until 1967.
The policy over recent years has been segregation and separate development. It is a policy which did not work in the United States or Canada and is not working in Australia. Living on reservations does not contribute to human development but to despair. Look no further for the high rate of alcoholism and suicide in the Aboriginal population.
It is good to know that Australia is at least attempting to do something to protect the Aboriginal children from abuse, however misguided the methods used. But let us hope that this is not the end and that it will lead to a more sympathetic policy toward the whoe Aboriginal population

Monday, July 2, 2007

Howard's Heavy Hand

Sign in a Supermarket in Alice Springs:
"Spend $60 in the liquor store and get 20cents off a litre of petrol"

It is getting close to election time in Australia and Prime Minister John Howard has just discovered that the indigenous Aboriginal people are in trouble. Mr Howard, it should be added, is a slow learner. Most thinking Australians have been telling him that for decades.
The report that moved the Prime Minister to action was called Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle which translates into – “Little Children are Sacred". It details the sad and often appalling stories of child sex abuse on the reservations of Northern Territory. This is not news. When I was in Australia speaking at an international conference eight years ago I was approached by two Aboriginal elders from Western Australia who sought help in trying to prevent the sexual abuse of their children. They recognised that some of this was caused by the actions of their own people but they were equally concerned at the abuse of children by white Australians some of whom were officials and others who regularly visited the reservations to find children. They had approached the police and social agencies but had received no support from any quarter.
Whatever support they wanted, I am sure it was not the kind of thing the Prime Minister is proposing. Using his power to make political decisions in the Northern Territory (It is not a State and therefore under federal control), the Howard solution will be to send in the troops and enforce the locals to give up the booze and live a better life. They will also be forced to learn English.
It is Iraq thinking and will not succeed. The desperate plight of the Aboriginals is the consequence of years of neglect and external abuse. Historically they often been treated like children and sometimes like animals and not as responsible humans. It is only in recent years that they received the right to vote.
Yes it is time the government acted but not in a way which further strips the Aboriginal people of their dignity.