Sport as a life saver
30.11.2005
By Colin Tatz
Knowledge bank: Young people from indigenous cultures - societies which did not until recently have a history and culture of suicide - set alarming records of suicide.
These young people could be helped through sport. Millions of Dollars are now being spent on prevention of suicide.
To really make a difference, it is vital to learn to understand these youths on a deeper level. How can sport be a factor in preventing suicide in indigenous cultures?
Colin Tatz provides us with expert knowledge from his presentation at Play the Game 2005: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
As for saying sport is a good idea to help them, how about educating them to have a skill and then giving them a job each. I know of white people who have lost their jobs in the past,(yes they had a job) and after losing their job they committed suicide. It's not a culture thing to commit suicide, it is the hopelessness of life that causes a person the commit suicide, regardless of their colour or race. For goodness sake start seeing aboriginal people the same as every one else in this country, and start treating them the same as everyone else. Perhaps they should all take a boat out to the middle of the ocean and come back with some refugees, better still if the government and the people of Australia didn't know they were aboriginal,that way they would be looked after like the refugees, have medical tests, treatment if necessary, which I am sure most of them need,nice computors etc, a and the food of their choice. Perhaps we could do it another way, tell all the refugees or asylum seekers, or whoever they say they are that they have to go and live like our aborigines do. We could give them all the houses that we think are good enough for our indiginous people, and build new ones for our aboriginies that would have been given to the refugees, and not to mention they wouldn't have to learn English because we wouldn't be giving them any jobs, there arn't any to be had in the communities, maybe thats why they all commit suicide.!!
Do you think that say an Ethopian who comes here who has never seen water from the tap or sat in a chair, let alone speak English or have been educated should have priority over our indiginous people.
So sport, yes it is a good thing for everyone, that is as a relaxation after a good days work.
I don't mean to be unkind, but how would you feel if you lost your job and so did everyone else in your family for, let's say 5 years, I think you might think about suicide too. You might even have a few drinks to face another day.
Perhaps we could start thinking of spending millions of dollars on preventing you from committing suicide, as long as it did not include getting you another job.