Working Papers are available free to mailing list subscribers for 24 hours. After this time most papers are available for .90c plus GST. This is the minimum price to ensure the maintenance of the working papers website. Members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, students and pensioners who would like a copy of a particular paper need only email their request to pbotsman@bigpond.com
Excerpts
"In my travels competition took me to places where sometimes I was met with abject poverty, whilst I simply swum. Why was my life so blessed when others just by fate had less opportunity than I? I guess I witnessed at a very young age how sport is an international language, a language that transcended borders, boundaries, cultural ideology, politics and even socio economic disadvantage. I have only discussed my career up to when I was seventeen. It is because when I was 18 I established my charity, “Fountain for Youth”. I didn‟t realise at the time that this may be my biggest accomplishment. An achievement not in the sense of doing something right, rather a stepping stone where my values that I had gained from sport could be transferred to something that is bigger than sport and in my opinion far more important."
"I
continued to win medals, breaking world records and continued
travelling around the world recognising the needs of people,
particularly children, in many places I visited. By this time my
charity had enough money raised to commit to larger projects, I sat at
a board meeting and stated that I wanted to help the world‟s neediest
children. I started to think of what impact my effort could have in
places like Africa or South East Asia. I then visited some of the
worlds neediest communities, places without access to planes and cars
that seemed to be a world away……..but now they were truly at my back
door."
"The communities that I visited had illiteracy levels
at 93%......that was staggering only seven percent of a populous being
able to read and write…Up to 80% of the children in these communities
have serious hearing impairments because of “glue ear”; middle ear
infections neglected from infancy. - these kids will never hear the
teacher in front of them in a classroom….that is, if there is a teacher
and indeed a classroom. Malnourished mothers are giving birth to babies
that are seriously underweight and this only gets worse throughout a
life born into poverty. Here diabetes affects one in every two adults.
Kidney disease is in epidemic proportions in communities where living
conditions; primary healthcare and infrastructure are truly appalling.
In this part of the world even the community leaders are afflicted by
clusters of chronic illness. Syndrome X…. the doctors call it,
diabetes, renal disease, strokes, hypertension, cancer and heart
disease. Some people die with four or five of these chronic illnesses.
Rheumatic heart disease among the children in these places is higher
than in most of the developing world. But I was not visiting
communities in the developing world, I was in the middle of Australia,
remote, yes, but this is Australia, a country that can boast some of
the highest standards of living of any nation in the world. How shocked
I was that Syndrome X was afflicting so many of the 460, 000 Indigenous
people of my country. As a result of these chronic illnesses and
conditions Aboriginal life expectancy has fallen twenty years behind
the rest of Australia. For some of my fellow countrymen life expectancy
had plunged to just 46 years. Australia‟s grim record on health care
for Indigenous people is by far the worst of any developed nation.
Developed? How can a country be "developed" when it leaves so many of
its children behind? Australia has not provided its citizens with an
equal opportunity for primary health care, education, housing,
employment, let alone recognition and a life of dignity."
"The
Governor of NSW, my home State, Professor Marie Bashir, an eminent
Child Psychiatrist, has repeatedly pointed out the national disgrace of
allowing the forty per cent of Indigenous children under the age of
fifteen to put up with health problems found in no other developed
nation."
"For Australia to heal its wounds that have been
weeping for 200 years we must not ignore the issue, we must start the
healing. Like many people in Australia I was completely unaware of the
huge gap in health and education outcomes let alone the differences of
life expectancy. I, as many had, made an assumption; Australia is a
rich country, don‟t we throw a lot of money at that problem? It
disgusts me to speak those words now but that was what I thought. This
was not just my lack of knowledge of this area but it is echoed
throughout my nation."
"An Aboriginal health expert, Shane
Houston says: "Aboriginal people are viewed by too many in the
Australian community as an unwelcome burden on the nation. Governments
say they have spent a lot of money on Aborigines but where do you see
the results in this squalor? So the mainstream concludes that
Aboriginal health is a waste of money. It is all the fault of the poor
blacks. My people are somehow expected to just extricate themselves
from this maze of life-threatening conditions. And if we can‟t manage
to do that, then many white people will shrug and say our end is
inevitable."
Visiting Aboriginal people, in their homes,
their communities, on their land, has allowed me to listen and given me
some idea of the problems that Aboriginal people face.I listened to the
concerns of mothers and fathers for the betterment of their children.
This unwavering strength, in the face of social injustice. Within these
communities I witness poverty, despair and pain.... but I also see
hope….hope from those men and woman who want more for their children."
"Just
this week Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd said that it was
'devastating' that a new report by our productivity commission showed
that Aboriginal people had made little progress to close those gaps
since 2000. He said this was 'unacceptable' and 'decisive action' had
to be taken. The truth is that none of the problems I have mentioned
can truly be rectified until our government and my fellow Australians
recognise the injustice faced by Aboriginal Australians and how they
are denied so many human rights. This has been highlighted once again
by what is called in Australia “The Intervention”, the Federal
Government's takeover of 73 remote Aboriginal communities. The
Intervention was constructed by the previous government and has since
been reported to have been assembled in the space of just one day. The
irony is that Aboriginal people had been campaigning for decades about
the living conditions and the neglect of their children within their
communities. The programs to protect and nurture the children, had been
grossly neglected and under funded by government over the last decade.
What appears to be a political stunt and a grab for government control
over Aboriginal people continues to this day under the new government."
"Once
more an Australian government has claimed it is doing its best for
Aboriginal Australians by taking over their communities, appointing
white managers, more government bureaucrats, promising all kinds of
things, if Aboriginal people will just sign over their communities
under forty year leases to the Federal Government.
And politicians
wonder why Aboriginal people do not trust them.The truth is for over
200 years Australian governments have neglected and patronized
aboriginal people. The Intervention is unlikely to provide any lasting
benefit to Aboriginal people because it tries to push and punish them,
to take over their lives, rather than work with them."
"As a
swimmer, who would have thought I would have ended up supporting
Flipper Ball, junior waterpolo for little Aboriginal kids in the mining
communities of Western Australia. As a swimmer, who would have thought
I would be back at university studying psychology and at the same time
working with young Aboriginal university graduates on a mentoring
program to help get more kids to complete High School and go on with
their studies. As a swimmer, maybe I was expected to just be satisfied
with the gleam of those gold medals.But all sportsmen and women know
the truth - there is something beyond sport. There is the challenge of
playing a part in the human family...to contribute and make a
difference. We can use sport and use our sporting status to improve the
lives of children and whole communities in so many places. We can make
it a fairer, safer playing field for everyone. In twenty remote
Australian communities and with thousands of Aboriginal children I know
life will have some extra opportunities if I commit to work hard on
this. I do intend to work hard at this for the rest of my life.
THAT IS MY PROMISE TO YOU --- BEYOND SPORT!
________________________________________________________________
“Dirty Little Secret”
Ian Thorpe
“Beyond Sport Summit” - London
Thursday July 9, 2009.
