Bits and bobs

I was going to blog about Big Day Out but the moment has passed. Suffice to say I had a fantastic day with some good friends I hadn't seen in a long time and the music was absolutely top notch.
Bjork in particular was resplendent onstage - she came out to a royal trumpeting parade and unleashed a perfect set on the punters including a laser show and confetti(!).

But what I really want to say is this: we are a racist country.
I know, I know, nothing new there. But successive discussions I have had with people over the last week or two about apologising to the Stolen Generation have made me - well, sad.

It saddens me that people still use terms like "them" and "us".
It saddens me that people are so worried about their own hip-pockets that they would prefer not to say sorry - just in case there are complications with compensation.
It saddens me that there are so many people out there who say "I'm not racist but..."

In a discussion I had with a friend of a friend last night, she told me the school she was at had put so much emphasis on Aboriginal rights/history/studies that by the time she got out of school she was sick of hearing about anything to do with Aboriginal people. For me, that's a sorry state of affairs.

As Thom so eloquently put it recently - saying sorry does not mean taking the blame for something.
In much the same way that when someone you know tells you that a family member of theirs died, you say sorry not because you caused the death but because you feel empathy.

And that, dear readers, is something that is severely lacking in our country right now.