AUSTRALIA

From your own point of view it useful to say "Sorry" after years of wrong policies towards a minority? Why, What else is needed?

Say sorry is not enough when this kind of actions are made with a minority.

In the case of the Stolen generation 100 000 aboriginal children were kidnapped from their parents by police and welfare officers. The children were raised in institutions and churches controlled by whites , and some of them were "adopted" by white families. This practice remained active in Australia by 100 years. The indigenous parent lost the rights under their children.

The situation becomes more and more complex because the children had to learn english and white customs, and people told them that their parents were bad people or were dead.

The idea of the government and church was to educate children to live like white, and work for whites, in this process the children were victims of sexual abuses, physical abuses, food and bad living conditions, bad education levels. the consequences of the politic of kidnaping are devastating, including suicides, abuse of alcohol, use of drugs, incapacity to create relations with the community, mental illness, no abilities parenting, maternal, families and communities were abruptly divided, there was also lost of cultural identity. In the adulthood they suffered: insecurity, lack of self esteem, feelings of worthlessness, depression, etc.

So here we can se the size of the damage caused by the government, and how they ruin the childhood of 100 000 children, and the consequences created in them future. I think that say ¨sorry¨ in these cases only help to assume the responsibility of the actions made but it is not useful to nothing more because it will not change the past and the damage made will not be repaired saying ¨sorry¨

I believe that when governments will assume the responsibility of past wrong policies they must assume a posture more committed with the damages caused, there is evidence that will no be compensation fund, and it is unfair, because minorities must be compensated by all the suffering, with programs that will help them to have a better life quality (education, health, home, food, etc). It would help them to compensate only a little the bad things caused by the wrong policies.

Sources:

Australia: la generación robada o stolen generation

http://www.ciberjure.com.pe/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=3318

http://www.eniar.org/stolengenerations.html