A couple of weeks ago, 60 Minutes ran a story about the riots in Sydney’s working class western suburbs. They interviewed some of the teenagers and young adults who had been involved in taking revenge on the police. One week after the story aired, 60 Minutes aired several letters from their viewers, all along the same line: “These kids have no respect for the good and noble people paid to protect them” “What a lazy bunch of excuse-making adolescents, put them in military service!” “Why don’t they get a job?” “You don’t hear Hillary Swank complaining about her background, she pulled herself up by the bootstraps”.
What annoys me about most responses to events like these working class riots is that they serve no purpose. Most people who wrote to 60 Minutes simply commented how horrible these kids are. There was no end to the holier-than-thou moralising. Perhaps it boosts 60 Minutes viewers’ self-esteem to go on about how much better people they are than the kids of Macquarie Fields. Perhaps they feel better about themselves for going on about how they abide by the laws, so so should everybody else. But other than a boost to the ego by putting someone else down (the usual action of schoolyard bullies), it gets us nowhere. Some right-wingers are pragmatic, others just like to carry on about how horrible the drug dealers, the criminals, the abos, the immigrants, the gays etc. are. Many on the Right are as bad a set of whingers as those Lefties who still won’t acknowledge that removing Saddam and the Taliban is at least some sort of improvement, even if it was done for oil.
I look at the kids of Macquarie Fields and see a bunch of kids with passion, dedication and skill. Forget about the legalities and effects to others for a sec. How many of us have the knowledge to get a car started without using keys? Think of how clever these kids are to decide upon the task of breaking into a car and then figuring out how to do it. Think of the problem-solving skills this involves. The ingenuity. And think too of the dedication to make a plan and follow through with it. This doesn’t make them cleverer than us, and it certainly doesn’t make them geniuses, but there are some admirable qualities underlying the illegality of their actions.
I’m not condoning what they do or making excuses. There are better ways to do things. But just think, now if someone could sit down with them and take the time to talk to them about better ways to use their abilities, skills, knowledge and strength.That’s why education is so important. But even in ‘good’ schools, education is still heavily biased towards academic pursuits. Kids don’t learn manual skills. Nor might a car thief learn about careers that might allow them to use their ingenuity in more legal ways. And if they don’t learn about these things at school, then they’re unlikely to make these choices themselves. Just as I only chose journalism at Uni because it was my parents’ jobs and so it was the only job I knew anything about, these kids are surrounded by people who acquire cars by using the aforementioned skills and knowledge, so why would they look further? It works they figure, and they know how to do it. Most people don’t look further than their own community for models of how to conduct a life.
And sure a few of the pluckier ones manage to become ‘self-made people’ And don’t we all just love those stories like Hillary Swank, the girl from the slums made good. Don’t they just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The underdog triumphs and proves the system really does work. Never mind she happens to have talent pouring out her ears or even the lucky breaks. We get to the point where we expect everyone to be an Ali Baba. Social mobility is good, as Mark Latham says.Everyone should do it. Why not? It’s clearly easy. That’s why so few people do it. Yeah sure I admire Swank and Latham for their hard work too. But in a way I admire the hard work of the Macquarie Fields kids too. And I’m interested in finding practical ways of helping more of them find better ways of life, not just the select few who wind up as feel-good 60 Minutes stories.
And let’s not forget that the other major problem is the lack of respect for other people in their community. I met people in New Caledonia who face similar problems, but who, for the most part didn’t commit crime. They had a very strong sense of community that bound them together. But this sense of community is not there in Macquarie. The social fabric has been ripped apart. Research suggests that urban planning has an effect on whether youngsters will seek out physical activity together. Perhaps that’s a factor as the housing in MF was badly done, as Munro suggested. I have my own theories about it, but changes won’t come under a Right-wing Government, because it’s about economics. But ignoring that, improvements need to start now. There needs to be programmes, facilities and clubs put in to help people re-establish the social fabric of these areas.