Saturday, September 11, 2004

Ignorance 

Example the first:
While walking from USyd to Broadway yesterday with my HCSRSS friends, we got to talking about how the people living in tents in Victoria Park had been forced to move by the council. From there, the topic turned to homelessness in general, in particular, the causes of it. Conversation recounted as best as possible from memory. Not verbatim, but the essence of it is there.

One of the girls said that she didn't understand why people were homeless, when there was public housing available for all. They must all be homeless by choice, she said.

Uh (WTF?!!) are you kidding? Who'd be homeless by choice? says I.

It's a matter of pride for those people, you know? There's this lady who lives in toilet of the park near my house, and she's so proud of it. One time, she was beating these girls with her hobo bag, and telling them to get out of HER park...

Huh? Just randomly?, says I.

Well...they were teasing her and all that, you know. But the point is, people like that, they just won't take any help from the government, you know? They're just too good to accept public housing.

Riiighhht....what about the waiting lists? (This is SO wrong...damn I wish I knew some facts and figures...but maybe it's different in NSW??!)

Yeah, well, I don't know...

So why don't you go ask that lady in the park if she's there by choice, then? (as if she would...as if I would either, but then again, I'm not the one spouting this crap)

Actually, people go up and talk to her all the time...but those girls she beat up...

Yeah, but they were teasing her. Just ask her nicely!

Well if you're going to talk to them, then you might as well take them into your home!

Moi: ...

Example the second:
I was watching Street Practice, which is like "Medical Rookies", but with law students instead of meddies, having their first contact with real clients at a community legal centre.

The scene is when the students get a tour around the area to see the legal centre's constituency, so to speak. They visit another community centre where the manager talks to them about the pressure they're under because of the high value of the land, which looks over the harbour. She talks about the tension that exists when there are people in public housing who can't even afford food living next to multimillionnaires. She tells them about how someone broke into the centre and stole...food.

Back on the bus, a Waverton-inhabitant girl says to her neighbour that her sponsor-child in Africa is ACTUALLY starving. I could see his RIBS, I mean here people exaggerate. One meal a day and think they're starving. They should see the people in the third world.





Both the protagonists in these examples are fellow law students, the cream of the fricking >99.5 UAI crop. Not that being a law student is any bar from being dumb as a rock, as yours truly can attest, but you'd think that beating 99.5% of your peers and/or hacking the system would mean you had some ounce of sense.

I'm ignorant too. I'm private-schooled, middle class, narrow-minded, molly-coddled, pretentious snob. I avoid hobos and Aborigines and muslim men and white trash and druggies and smokers and bikies and goths. I'm a bleeding heart...on Tuesdays. But at least I have enough sense to recognise my hypocrisy and admit my prejudices, ffs.

Baby steps.

# posted at 3:16 am

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