47 replies to this topic

[scram]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/13/1183833772710.html



Here's the cliffs notes.

Jeffery Lee is the last remaining member of the Djok Aboriginal people in Australia. He maintains stewardship over a piece of ancestral land that has now come to be called the "Koongarra Uranium deposit".

In recent years, the price of Uranium has gone absolutely batshit, causing the value of his mineral lease to be worth an estimated $5,000,000,000 dollars (billion)

His only concern is not harming the land, so he is presently pressuring the Austrailan government to incorporate the land into a park, so it can never be mined or altered in any way.

"There are sacred sites, there are burial sites and there are other special places out there which are my responsibility to look after," Mr Lee told the Herald.

"I'm not interested in white people offering me this or that … it doesn't mean a thing.

"I'm not interested in money. I've got a job; I can buy tucker; I can go fishing and hunting. That's all that matters to me."

Is he:

1) An absolute hero of principle

or

B) Completely retarded to turn down such an obscene sum of money to protect what amounts to 12 square KM of land. $5,000,000,000 could do an awful lot to help his people. Like, an absolute one-time subsidy that could bring each and every one of them completely out of poverty and into the middle class.

[El Guapo]

Ummmm, if he is the last, then who is he going to bring out of poverty?

[scram]

He isn't the last Aborigine (a people who typically live in a social and economic state a few big steps below American Negroes- think Indians on Pine Ridge). He's the last of his particular clan and happens to control one of the richest uranium deposits on the planet.

[king_tanner]

A

He is in a place where he wants to be, why ruin it by selling it?

Anybody other than an aboriginie takes the money though lol

[DrawingDeadInDM]

With 5 Billion, he could easily buy hundreds and thousands of square miles/kms of land and put a big ol' turd hut on it and have plenty of money left over..

Besides, does he know what Uranium is? Who in their right mind would want to live on a potential Uranium mine?

I admire him, for the fact that he wants to keep his ancestral land fully in tact.. but, I would have to think that everybody's got a price.

[speedz99]

That's just so incredibly hard to answer in a definitive way. I could just as easily argue either side of it.

Man...usually I can pretty easily pick one side or another.

[speedz99]

With 5 Billion, he could easily buy hundreds and thousands of square miles/kms of land and put a big ol' turd hut on it and have plenty of money left over..

But it wouldn't be sacred.

Besides, does he know what Uranium is? Who in their right mind would want to live on a potential Uranium mine?

Not all uranium is dangerously radioactive.

I admire him, for the fact that he wants to keep his ancestral land fully in tact.. but, I would have to think that everybody's got a price.

You think he's holding out for 6 billion?

[El Guapo]

He isn't the last Aborigine (a people who typically live in a social and economic state a few big steps below American Negroes- think Indians on Pine Ridge). He's the last of his particular clan and happens to control one of the richest uranium deposits on the planet.

Why would he want to help all aboriginals if he were not of there tribe? That would be like me wanting to help all 1/4 Irish American living in the US. Does not make sense.

With 5 Billion, he could easily buy hundreds and thousands of square miles/kms of land and put a big ol' turd hut on it and have plenty of money left over..

Besides, does he know what Uranium is? Who in their right mind would want to live on a potential Uranium mine?

I admire him, for the fact that he wants to keep his ancestral land fully in tact.. but, I would have to think that everybody's got a price.

I did not think of it that way until you said it, but yeah!

[DrawingDeadInDM]

But it wouldn't be sacred.

Right..but he's got no one to pass his 'sacred' land on to anyway.

Not all uranium is dangerously radioactive.

Is that like Marlboro Ultra Lights aren't as bad as Marlboro Reds?

You think he's holding out for 6 billion?

I think they should treat him like the US government did the Injuns. Introduce him to firewater..get him all liquored up for like a week straight.. and I figure at that point, you can offer him 3 dozen goats, 3 tons of clean mud, some really nice thatch and a case of Budweiser.

[scram]

Why would he want to help all aboriginals if he were not of there tribe? That would be like me wanting to help all 1/4 Irish American living in the US. Does not make sense.

If you were an Aborigine living in Australia (I think there's about 450,000 of them in total- man, woman and child), your perspective might be a bit more "enlightened" as far as cultural kinship.
Comparing the Irish in year 2007 America to Aboriginals in Australia isn't valid in any realm save for the furthest unrealistic reaches of philosophical dogma.

[El Guapo]

If you were an Aborigine living in Australia (I think there's about 450,000 of them in total- man, woman and child), your perspective might be a bit more "enlightened" as far as cultural kinship.
Comparing the Irish in year 2007 America to Aboriginals in Australia isn't valid in any realm save for the furthest unrealistic reaches of philosophical dogma.

OK I'll compare it to Native Americans. Do you think that some one from the chippewah tribe is going give part of their money to someone from a seminole tribe. I don't.

[speedz99]

Unless either of you is an expert on inter-tribal relations in Australia, this all seems pretty much like guesswork.

[scram]

OK I'll compare it to Native Americans. Do you think that some one from the chippewah tribe is going give part of their money to someone from a seminole tribe. I don't.

Kinda close, but still no cigar.

Australian Aborigines in the present day tend to view themselves as one body of people. While they have different sub-groups, traits and individual histories, their overall economic condition is perceived (by themselves and others) as a collective- much more closely to that of "American Blacks" as opposed to, say, people from Mississippi versus people from Oklahoma.

[El Guapo]

Unless either of you is an expert on inter-tribal relations in Australia, this all seems pretty much like guesswork.

I'm more of an expert on infamous mexican warlords

[LongLiveYorke]

B

right?

[scram]

A persons convictions *can* be without price.
Lets take the ancestral land thing out of the equation.
Consider for a minute that the mineral in question in Uranium.
It isn't worth $5b because of it's status as a coveted ingredient for making Vegimite.
Some people might be a wee bit hesitant to empower large entities (and in turn, nation-states) with tools that can, oh, ****... I don't know... Potentially destroy entire civilizations- even all of humanity?

[vbnautilus]

He is wise to recognize that there is something more valuable than money.

It's unfortunate that most of the rest of the world has lost this perspective.

[Tactical Bear]

A persons convictions *can* be without price.
Lets take the ancestral land thing out of the equation.
Consider for a minute that the mineral in question in Uranium.
It isn't worth $5b because of it's status as a coveted ingredient for making Vegimite.
Some people might be a wee bit hesitant to empower large entities (and in turn, nation-states) with tools that can, oh, ****... I don't know... Potentially destroy entire civilizations- even all of humanity?

Do we have any reason to believe that's why he's refusing to sell? I'm too lazy to read the article, but I'm willing to bet the 18 dollars in my pockets that his reservations have very little to do with a hesitancy to empower nation-states with an increased ability to destroy entire civilizations or some altruistic feeling of duty with respect to the negative consequences his decision could possibly have on the already volatile relationships between nuclear-capable countries. (<--- terrible sentence)

He just doesn't want white people -- who have, very likely, fucked up his entire tribe's way of life -- destroying his land. It's his fucking land, and its importance is derived from the fact that it's HIS land (their land), and hasn't been befouled by the same governments and persons that have consistently marginalized his tribe/people. It's very difficult for me to understand his choice, because I'm a white guy whose happiness is dependent in large part upon his material wealth. There's no single thing in my life, except (maybe) my family and a few friends, that I'd be unwilling to trade for 50 grand or so. So I can't imagine having something worth more than 5 billion dollars.

But if he does have something that valuable, then cool. Good for him. His principles and convictions are strong, and that's something I can respect. Doesn't even really seem that difficult.

[GWCGWC]

I only read the cliffs notes.


In the US, history suggests that we would just take the land lease under the guise of national security.

Immanent domain anyone??

[DoinSublime]

He is wise to recognize that there is something more valuable than money.

It's unfortunate that most of the rest of the world has lost this perspective.

-Mark