On Sun, 25 Nov 2012, Carl Turney <carl@boms.com.au> wrote:
Read about the Stolen Generations. That sort of thing is unethical by any set of ethical standards apart from those which are actively racist.
Sorry, but that statement strikes me as being directly at odds with substantial empirical evidence. Many families adopted those children, loved them, and strived to raise them as equals to their own children.
That is entirely irrelevant to the issue of whether children should be forcibly removed from parents who care for them well.
There were true beliefs by many at the time that pure Aboriginal races and cultures were unlikely to survive in the long term.
If such beliefs are relevant to the matter then it's clear evidence of racism.
The survival rate of forcibly removed Aboriginal children was far greater than their cohorts who remained in traditional settings.
The issue is not the overall survival rate but whether children were removed from safe family environments for no good reason. If the number of children moved from unsafe environments to safe environments exceeds the number of children moved from safe environments to unsafe environments then that's not an argument for moving all children! The correct thing to do is to only move children who are in unsafe environments.
In spite of the numerous accounts of sexual/physical/psychological abuse in foster homes and orphanages, I understand it was still significantly better for them (overall) than if they had not been removed.
The issue is not whether the damage that was done to the entire Aboriginal population by removing children from their families was worse than the damage that would have been done if no child had ever been removed from abusive parents. The issue is whether all children should be removed from their parents in a supposed effort to stop abuse. There is also the issue of whether there are other interventions that could be done to improve things which didn't involve removing children from their parents.
I myself strive to not speak out on a subject, or take a passionate stance on one, until after I've adequately studied all major sides of it.
That's a good idea, why don't you do that.
But that's probably because I'm a Mensan with multiple and diverse degrees.
Thanks for demonstrating that being a Mensan is irrelevant to any ability to do anything other than logic puzzles. Consider what abilities are required to be successful in the FOSS community before trying to boast about such things. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/