[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Oh, That Rush! He's Such A *Kidder!*

[Shaun Hately]

On 4 Oct 2003 at 23:05, bluesqueak wrote:

> Is this similar in other countries? Do people get treated 
> differently because they are the first of their background in a 
> particular job or the first to reach the top in a particular field? 
> Do they get noticed more if they're the first? Do the media talk 
> about them more, and concentrate more on the background than the 
> ability?

Definitely the case here in Australia, and I think it is in most countries, and I think 
it's going to be that way for the forseeable future. In Australia, it's generally 
reported in a way that is intended to show what a step forward this is - what a 
good thing it is that people from a particular background are now enjoying 
success - and that's true to an extent.

But what annoys me is when the media gets it wrong (-8

I'm part Koorie - Australian Aboriginal. Now - the Koorie in Australia have been 
seriously discriminated against - I'm 28 and I'm part of the first generation of 
Koorie to have grown up as an Australian citizen - that right was denied to 
Koories until the late 1960s.

The thing is, because of that heritage of discrimination, over the last thirty years, 
there have been a *lot* of firsts - Sir Douglas Nicholls, first Aboriginal to govern 
an Australian state (1976). But some are not true - and are known not to be true 
by historians, and the media still reports them as 'Firsts' - for example, I remember 
articles when I was growing up about the first Koorie to become a Commissioned 
Officer in the Australian Army (this would have been around 1985). I knew at that 
stage - I was 10 - that these news reports were ridiculous and untrue, and a basic 
check of military history would have shown these journalists it was untrue - 
Captain Reg Saunders became the first openly Koorie officer in the Australian 
Army when he was commissioned a Lieutenant in 1944, and served with 
distinction as a company commander in Korea. Since that time, it's become clear 
that one of Australia's greatest war heroes from World War I, was probably part 
Koorie as well - he was the first Australian soldier to win a Victoria Cross in World 
War I, and was commissioned shortly thereafter - he went on to win the Military 
Cross twice, and after the war became Mayor of a major city - Captain Albert 
Jacka, VC, MC. The thing is - sometimes when the media writes about 'Firsts' they 
seem to be rewriting history - and I don't much like that.



Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia