Aboriginal leader asks court to spear policeman to death.
January 27, 2002 9:58 PM   Subscribe

Aboriginal leader asks court to spear policeman to death. Ahahah ahah hah ah ahh HAHAHAA (more inside)
posted by holloway (38 comments total)
 
HAHAHA HHAAAA HAHA HAHahah ha ha ha ha ahha ahah ahah ahhahh haha aha haha hah

aha hah ahh AHAH HA HAH AHAH AH AH AH HAHAA AHAHA AHAA AHA aha aha aha oh aha haa ha ha a

AHAH AH AH AH AH HHA AAH AH HHAHAH AH AHahAH AH AH HAAHAHAHA AH AHAAHAHA AAHAHA AHAHAAHHA AHAAHAHAAA A AHSAHAHAHAH AH HAA HAH A HAHHHAAAHAA AHAH AHAAaa hahahah ahahaaaa ahhahahah hahaha

*wipes-tear*
posted by holloway at 10:02 PM on January 27, 2002


That's a bit uncalled for.
posted by mkn at 10:04 PM on January 27, 2002


Rather easily amused?
posted by dai at 10:08 PM on January 27, 2002


Are we laughing at the wacky natives?

Holloway, this maybe is funnier to you because you're from NZ and a little more up on the Austrailian/Aborigine politics? Maybe you could explain for those of us who don't get it?
posted by malphigian at 10:11 PM on January 27, 2002


oh dear, someone put a wee-wee pad under holloway, please.

As for the case, just have the judge sacrifice a virgin and be done with it.
posted by jonmc at 10:13 PM on January 27, 2002


jonmc: you wet yourself when you laugh?
posted by holloway at 10:17 PM on January 27, 2002


no, he pees on you. :)
posted by techgnollogic at 10:19 PM on January 27, 2002


technologic-lets not get kinky here...
posted by jonmc at 10:24 PM on January 27, 2002


no, he pees on you. :)
Oh, dear God.
posted by Catch at 10:25 PM on January 27, 2002


Sounds like some asshole cop was getting his kicks out of hassling the natives. The natives are pissed, and want him punished under their law, since the "crime" occurred on what they perceive to be their land.

I fail to see the hilarity.
posted by Optamystic at 10:27 PM on January 27, 2002


Sounds like a policeman put out an illegal fire on Gov't property and "the natives" want to 'cook um, eat um'.
But way to rock the establishment, Optamystic.
posted by Catch at 10:37 PM on January 27, 2002


Tips hat.
All in a day's work, Catch.
posted by Optamystic at 10:41 PM on January 27, 2002


What's wrong with you guys? Have a little respect for other people's customs. Yes, it's a ridiculous idea, but the principle is a sound one. Grow up and get a little empathy.
posted by ashbury at 10:45 PM on January 27, 2002


MetaTalk (thanks ashbury).
posted by sennoma at 11:05 PM on January 27, 2002


But Ashbury, this is OUR culture. Please be more understanding toward it.
posted by Doug at 11:27 PM on January 27, 2002


Doug, "our" is an inclusive term. It's my culture, and ashbury's, and Miguel's (see MeTa thread) as much as it is yours or holloway's. As has been pointed out many times, we each have the same stake in the kind of place that Metafilter will be. I do not want the Metafilter "culture" to be such that issues of land rights and human dignity are greeted with sophomoric laughter and crude jokes.
posted by sennoma at 11:37 PM on January 27, 2002


Sennoma: I agree that the land rights issue is important, and shouldn't be ignored. That's the problem I have with this thread...I bet most people making jokes haven't read the article. So they're making jokes about a group of people who want to execute someone with spears because they only read the headline. That does suck, cause there is a bit more to the story.

But I'm sorry, you aren't going to convince me that I should take the spear comment seriously. I don't care if they aren't from my culture...they're sick. Just like I think those for the death penalty in America are sick. It's a rodoculous idea that I should have respect for someones custom of killing another human being with a sharp stick.
posted by Doug at 11:47 PM on January 27, 2002


Here's a video with Darren Bloomfield, the activist in question, and a brief description of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy(Req.Real).

I think it would be great if this thread could be salvaged and turned into an intelligent discussion, as there are so many interesting issues involved. Specially as the great majority of MeFis belong to countries with native populations and a spirited tradition of debate on their rights.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:47 PM on January 27, 2002


I mean here(please scroll down a bit), dammit.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:48 PM on January 27, 2002


I don't care if they aren't from my culture...they're sick.

I agree. Relativism goes against basic morality. How could you be against the death penalty in the U.S. and say "But it's OK for the natives". It has little to do with history, either."You shalt not kill" is a pretty ancient moral precept, no?

I think guilt plays a very large part in the sensitivity to aboriginal claims. Australians(and Americans)still feel guilty about the expropriation and murder of their native populations and activists such as Bloomfield have craftily learnt how to exploit that sensitivity.

Note how Bloomfield relishes the High Court and causing it problems : "I look to it every day for inspiration"...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:06 AM on January 28, 2002


I'm sorry, you aren't going to convince me that I should take the spear comment seriously

Doug, fair enough, I think that goes well beyond reasonable too. (Disclosure: I find the idea of state-sanctioned killing, aka the death penalty, abhorrent.) I was reacting to the sophomoric laughter above.

As I said in MeTa, my feeling is that Bloomfield is pushing boundaries here, as many activists do, hoping to be met somewhere in the middle where a reasonable legal and practical compromise can be worked out. I could be wrong, though, and he might really be calling for a death penalty (which, as I understand it, some systems of Aboriginal law do provide for). If that's so, then I disagree with him as vehemently as I disagree with any proponent of any death penalty.

I do think that the allegation about the attempted hit-and-run by the police officer should be taken seriously, and Miguel's link (thanks M) seems to indicate that it is.
posted by sennoma at 12:07 AM on January 28, 2002


The INFOKOORI database links to Koori Mail, "Australia's National Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Newspaper", which has some good resources. Also the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
posted by j.edwards at 12:09 AM on January 28, 2002


I have to say... isn't it unbelievably insensitive for a man, a supposed leader and spiritual spokesman, in the 21st century to assume it's ok call for the barbaric death of another man because he violated a spritual ceremony? Empathy? Sounds more like boomer guilt talking (which god knows I am guilty of more often than not).
posted by victors at 12:12 AM on January 28, 2002


[Here's a more complete version of the story from the Sydney Morning Herald].
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:25 AM on January 28, 2002


Sounds more like boomer guilt talking

*pleads, er, guilty*

Well, a little. If it hadn't been for holloway's egregiously stupid FPP, we'd have got to this part of the discussion faster. As I said above, I would disagree with any call for a death penalty.
posted by sennoma at 12:28 AM on January 28, 2002


egregiously stupid FPP

um, ok, while we're confessing...

so the real theme of this thread is:

judging people is wrong the world over. OR
people are stupid the world over OR
people ridicule/fear things they don't understand the world over OR
we all need to get a life OR
then you die
posted by victors at 12:41 AM on January 28, 2002


Sounds more like boomer guilt talking

For a really hilarious example of false sensitivity, this extract from a wedding ceremony, conducted by a white Australian official outside the Aboriginal Embassy Tent in question, has to be unbeatable.
It sounds laboured and insincere , like so much well-meaning, guilt-ridden advocacy for aboriginal rights.[via pelp]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:29 AM on January 28, 2002


Miguel, I don't see the hilarity here either. The people being married are Aboriginal, and the official was asked to perform part of the ceremony in language. From the article:

Over the 27 years that Arthur and Rose have been together, the Tent Embassy has come to be of great significance as they've marched, protested and gathered peacefully with people who've shared their beliefs. Now they wished to show their respect for the site and pride in their heritage as Ngiyampaa people.

It's entirely likely that neither Arthur nor Rose speak their own language, as earlier gummint policies did a lot of damage to Aboriginal languages, so they asked a friend to conduct the ceremony. (Regarding that friend, you cannot tell if someone is Aboriginal by looking; it's a concept that involves more than skin colour. In any case, I don't see what the friend's colour/ethnicity has to do with anything; she's just a friend of the family who happens to speak that language.)

I didn't even think the ceremony was all that laboured; sure, it seems to have lost something in the translation, but I'm sure you are familiar with that phenomenon. There certainly is much "well-meaning, guilt-ridden advocacy for aboriginal rights" about, but this does not look remotely similar to me. It's just, you know---someone's wedding. No big deal.
posted by sennoma at 1:52 AM on January 28, 2002


For the record, I am all for spearing policemen to death.
posted by dong_resin at 5:22 AM on January 28, 2002


> I am all for spearing policemen to death.

How barbaric! It's much nicer to poison or shoot or electrocute them.
posted by pracowity at 5:42 AM on January 28, 2002


For the record, I am all for spearing policemen to death.

And I am all for laughing uproariously while the policeman-spearing occurs.

Not, and I want to make this perfectly clear, at the people doing the spearing, regardless of their racial background and/or socio-economic status. Unless those people are really funny for some reason unrelated to the aforementioned racial background and/or socio-economic status. Then laughing at them is probably okay too.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:50 AM on January 28, 2002


For a really hilarious example of false sensitivity

Hey I never said any of this thread was funny but not because it's not possible to make light of the situation. But whatever, I'm sorry: I meant humourless self-righteous boomer guilt in denial.
posted by victors at 6:32 AM on January 28, 2002


hWah--hwah--hwah...

((shakes head))
posted by Quixoticlife at 6:50 AM on January 28, 2002


It all started out with a beach umbrella...
posted by karaleah at 10:13 AM on January 28, 2002


How could you be against the death penalty in the U.S. and say "But it's OK for the natives".

There was a Christoher Hitchens article in the December Atlantic Monthly that posited that the tendencies of the [very very] Left to denounce and support the same actions by different parties basically boiled down to the following: "Nothing will make us fight against an evil if that fight forces us to go to the same corner as our own government." I think there's a little of that element here. What if the perpetrator had been a kid instead of a cop?
posted by lizs at 2:19 PM on January 28, 2002


These weren't literal remarks by any means. It was statement made with the intention of throwing light on the past and current situation of Aboriginal land rights. They were made to draw attention to the fact that the aborigines were dispossessed, murdered, and had their lands taken away from them and are still trying to seek some reparation for past wrongs.

They were saying "how would you like it if it was your land that had been taken away and your people killed" by making reference to what happened to them.

This has nothing to do with the death penalty, or discussions thereof. It's a political statement designed to make people think and to grab a few sounds bites. Although at the rate at which the original story was truncated and plastered on the "what's weird" news links I suppose it has been misinterpreted as much as it has been understood.
posted by lucien at 5:29 PM on January 28, 2002


Fame at last, Holloway, Catch and fellow posters! This thread has just been linked by pelp, which is only the most linkalicious web site in the world. So all was not lost, after all. ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:16 AM on January 29, 2002


[Sorry. Scroll down to find link, enjoying the links along the way and below. (Good thing we kept the rough stuff over at that other place. Everybody smile and whistle...)]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:46 AM on January 29, 2002


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