But as Pearson points out, the scale of a problem is very different when it comes to the disintegration of whole communities and when what may pass for progressive policy can actually be shown to be extremely destructive in practice. Just as it made no sense years ago for complacent, white Australians to blame Aborigines as a race for most of their social problems, it makes no sense now to blame inadequate government funding or even historic injustices as the only causes for a still unfolding disaster. Perhaps it's too much to expect that we can step outside the narrow boundaries of accepted debate even as we desperately try to flaunt the uniqueness of Aboriginal culture in the effort to make Australian society more interesting to Olympic visitors. But it's not as if the deteriorating trends in Aboriginal communities are surprising. Children of alcoholics are more like to abuse alcohol or drugs.
Illiteracy is an extra.
Petrol sniffing is just another step down a very brutal, violent road. Combine it with no jobs and no hope and the dead-end destination is clear enough. Forget, though, the lure of political rhetoric or even the emotional appeal of national reconciliation, necessary and inevitable as that may be. Indigenous people around the world have always been trampled in the rush to progress. Protection will be limited at best.