GBMs
Yuendumu is a prescribed community in the Northern Territory. This means we are subject to the NT Emergency Response legislation, otherwise called The Intervention. There is a lot to say about this in terms of the reach of the legislation into aspects of daily life in an Aboriginal community. Things like compulsory income management, compulsory leases of Aboriginal land, banning of alcohol and X rated materials. And the implementation of Government Business Managers (GBMs) who live in the community, a role that we have never really understood.
Yuendumu has been a dry community, as instigated by the community, for over 20 years. Policing has always been an issue though and the community has found it hard to battle the grog-runners. The Intervention with the increased policing has been promoted as a way of reducing grog-running. But it has been galling for the community to be classified as having alcohol problems when its attempts to thwart the grog-runners were not backed up by adequate policing for over 20 years.
Today in the midst of all this we had a good laugh. Our GBM is going on an alcohol fast for the month of February – Feb Fast. He sent around an email to all and sundry in Yuendumu asking to be sponsored for this for charity.
Now as far as we understand it, just living in a prescribed community means that you are in an alcohol free zone no matter what. So we all laughed, in a kind of sad way.
Getting older
And one more final laugh from a friend’s email. Subject line – How True. Here’s the email.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1930’s 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and early 70’s !
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.
Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle..
Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds , KFC, Subway or Nandos.
Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn’t open on the weekends, somehow we didn’t starve to death!
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because……
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY ,
No video/DVD films,
No mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms……….WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
Lawsuits from these accidents.
Only girls had pierced ears!
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time…
We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays,
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Mum didn’t have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!
RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on
MERIT
Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully’s always ruled the playground at school.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!
Our parents didn’t invent stupid names for their kids like ‘Kiora’ and ‘Blade’ and ‘Ridge’ and ‘Vanilla’
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL !
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore
>:
