In case you were wondering, Rabbit Proof Fence is a very, very good movie! I put off watching it, because I was told it was depressing and about kids being stolen from their mother; and, I was still, and seemingly forever, having problems with my Ex who had taken our children from me by force of a type, so .. yeah, I have to approach those sort of movies with caution.
But, even though that is, in essence, what it's about, it is so much more than that, too. It could be worth crying over, but, the way it's filmed, it is not a tear jerker. It is not high drama, to make you grovel. In fact, there is something of that, for want of a better description, cheeky Old West flavor to it, as the girls outwit the man tracking them.
The little girls who they selected to act in the movie perform gorgeously, too! I
All the way around, from a social,historical, and entertainment perspective, Rabbit Proof Fence isa movie that should be seen!
Oh,,and to the person who made the rude comment on my blog about slavery: YOU should really watch the movie!. It might surprise you to know that it was bad, and it continued on until the 1970's, and it wasn't in America, and it happened to people who are, by your standards, surprisingly dissimilar to Africans.
Then, you should read about the English orphans who were sent to live in Australia, during WW I... or II .. or both. The ones who were not really orphans, but, they had been told that their parents were dead, and their parents had been told that they were dead. Then, many of them were systematically starved and worked until dead. Many of them were raped, and the ones who were put into forced labor to build their own orphanage, with the blessng of the Queen of England, were the worst treated as far as any records go. They were often beaten across the back with shovels, leading to some of them being paralyzed and left to starve or being put out of their miery. They were raped- by the priests who were supposed to be caring for them. Well, not all of them, but, a significant number.
Oh, but, wait - those kids were mostly white, so it must have only been by choice, as indentured servants, that they were there, right?
Please! Read some history! Not history based on your personal "racial" prejudices, but, the sort of history wherein you acknowledge that we are all humans and equal - including that at some point, all people of all colors and ethnicities have suffered greatly at the hands of their own people, or some other people. Then, eventually, they had to get mostly over it and get along, anyway.
Because here is the truth: I am irish, Cherokee, and Chinese. By your standards, I should have every reason to hate the English, and to demand money from them for past crimes. But, to my way of thinking, any Englishman around today wasn't involved in what happened back then. They owe me nothing,but basic human kindness and if they won't give that, I walk away.
Why should grudges be held? Why should any of us pretend our ancestors did no wrong, and only wrong was done to them and only by other people's ancestors?
The blacks were mostly sold to slave traders by their own people. Not only, but, mostly. There are records which confirm that! The whites were mostly stolen from their people by other whites, and there are records that also confirm that.
However, it was mostly the American Indians who were slaughtered and had their bones sold on the street as if they were trinkets! And it was mostly the Chinese who were imported under false pretenses and then forced into slavery in mines, on the railroad, and in whorehouses.
How dare you quibble and say this one was worse, or that one was worse? It should be enough to say, as my blog was intended to say: Yes, I am not alone! They, too, understand what it is to have ancestors with that sort of history; to feel different and out of place at times; and, sometimes, to have people attack them for no other reason than that they are "different".
Thank you for listening. Still, really - don't email me again!
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Blogs by HopelesslyHopeful:
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Herodotus
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Feb 22 @ 4:03AM
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Some people call everything depressing What the film does is speak to the human spirit No matter how much these girls were bullied and racially abused, like the tide they kept returning Its hardly possible to be more positive and more self affirming than that You can only crush the human body not the spirit That can never be imprisoned if you will it so
As for the Brits and Aussies responsbile for that racist and evil policy they should forever turn in thier rotten graves.
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Blondino
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Feb 22 @ 4:16AM
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I have seen that movie,,, its a shock and an eye opener to see how these children were treated
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Stolen Generations <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
This Disgusting letter Sums Up the Attitude
"It is absolutely necessary that an Aborigines Act should come into force, for the protection of whites as well as blacks.'
Letter from the Police Inspector's Office, Palmerston to the Commissioner of Police, Adelaide, National Archives of Australia, A1/15, 1911/1882
The Commonwealth adopted the Aboriginals Ordinance. Under this, all legislation enacted under the South Australian government's period of control remained in force. A Chief Protector was employed to administer the Ordinance. They were accorded the following powers:
legal guardian of all Aboriginal and half caste children until 18 years of age;
to keep any Aboriginal or half caste person within the boundaries of a reserve;
to forbid marriage between Aboriginal women and non-Aboriginal men, unless permission was granted;
to restrict the removal of Aborigines from one district to another.
http://www.abc.net.au/federation/fedstory/ep4/ep4_institutions.htm
Only thing I disagee with is your use of the English
you should read about the English orphans
it was British orphans from all over Britain , of which England is just one part.
The Lost Children
All across Britain, at children's homes and institutions, kids were being told the same thing: you're going to a new land, a new life, a new family. Many were illegitimate children. Many were dropped off by single mothers who'd fallen on hard tim
Good blog
and The Queen came into power 1952 so before that it was King George , she is King of United Kingdom & half Scottish too.
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Somerled
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Feb 22 @ 8:15AM
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I don't have the context for the overall blog, but I did see the the Rabbit Proof Fence twice. It was an excellent and touching movie. I especially enjoyed the scenes with the real girls at the end -- a nice conclusion. Kenneth Branagh did the perfect representation of the supremely cocksure and condescending white man carrying his "burden". In this country, a boarding school was set up in the 1870's or 80's at Carlisle, PA to assimilate native Americans into our "superior" culture. As is often true, there was a mixture of misguided good intent interspersed with acts of abuse by individuals who used their power over the unprotected in vile ways. That having been said, the abuse of the helpless by the empowered happens quite uniformly throughout all ethnic and racial groups. It just depends who has the power and who does not. But, thankfully, conscience does find expression among all peoples -- it does triumph from time to time.
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leprichaun_magic
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Feb 22 @ 8:52AM
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That was a great movie .I saw it a while back ,,it made quite an impression on ,me [mans inhumanity to man ]interesting blog ty
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HopelesslyHopeful
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Mar 6 @ 7:38PM
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Blondino: I was making a point in mentioning the English orphans in specific, because this all started with someone trying to tell me that nothing bad ever happened to the Scots or the Irish, they were never slaves, etc. because they were white. So, my point is that, yes, even the children of the English, themselves, suffered at the hands of the English in much the same way that the Africans, Nigerians, Indians, American Indians, Chinese, and etc. did.
Also, wrong Queen! You know, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother? King George's wife? She signed most of the papers, gave most of the orders, etc. I don't remember all the details now, but, she was also awfully influential with the way the Irish and Scottish were treated in America. She also denied doing most of it!
There may be a reason why George went mad!
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