tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post4096149604569911340..comments2024-02-11T19:28:27.997+11:00Comments on Personal Reflections: Australia's Aborigines - A Note on DemographyJim Belshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-18523526289922064692006-12-22T05:58:00.000+11:002006-12-22T05:58:00.000+11:00That's a vey good example, Lexcen, and a very good...That's a vey good example, Lexcen, and a very good point. <br /><br />Fred Hollows did a remarkable job because of his dedication and focus. However, he wasn't able to address the broader problem of poor eye care among some aboriginal communities especially in remote areas because those problems linked to broader questions such as living conditions including simply proper access to water. <br /><br />One of the points in the Taylor report on aborginal eye care was that over and beyond improved access to health services we also needed to fix the things that were creating the problems in the first case. <br /><br />Following release of the Taylor report there was a meeting of aboriginal representatives at the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists to discuss the report. A key point made there, and this bears upon your second point,was that smaller indigenous communities were simply being overwhelmed by the number of people with an interest in their affairs. They couldn't cope.<br /><br />Finally, and going back to your first point about Fred, in the midst of all the talk about things that have not worked, it would be very interesting to scope the things that have worked. <br /><br />It would also be interesting to factor in a time perspective. It now takes 13-15 years to train a medical specialist from first entry to university. Before you can even start, you have to have a sufficient number of school students with the interest and necessary academic skills.<br /><br />If I am right that Charles Perkins was the first aboriginal university graduate, even if I am wrong there can't have been very many,we have a zero base in 1965. <br /><br />To move forward from this point, the number of aboriginal students in year 12 must first be increased, so that's a performance measure. Then the proportion of these going to university needs to be increased. So that's a second performance measure.<br /><br />With time, the number with both an interest in and the capacity to do medicine increases. As these numbers increase, so do the numbers with an interest in doing a speciality outside general practice. <br /><br />Fifty one years sounds like a long time, but it only equates to 3-4 specialist training cycles. The length of specialist training has in fact increased over the period, so call it 4-5. <br /><br />Given these very long pipelines, I would expect to find (I do not know but will find out at some point)very few current specialists of aboriginal background, but with a much greater number in the pipeline. If this is correct, then we can expect to see many more over the next ten years.<br /><br />Medicine is a special case because of the length of the timelines, but somewhat similar arguments hold in other areas as well.<br /><br />Studies of business formation that I have looked at in the past suggest that business builders often have parents who were business builders in small amd medium enterprises. Further, business success depends upon access to capital and this often comes through networks from people with previous business success. <br /><br />Again, I suspect that there was pretty much a zero aboriginal business base in 1965. Further, as I remember it, the initial attempts to kick-start aboriginal businesses using Government seed money had a pretty dismal record because of the absence of business skills among funding recipients.<br /><br />It would be interesting to look at the position now. I suspect that we would find significant development in independent aboriginal business interests over the last twenty years, although I also suspect that its still smaller than the national average. <br /><br />This has become a very long comment, but as always you keep me thinking!Jim Belshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-55962925706332137282006-12-22T00:54:00.000+11:002006-12-22T00:54:00.000+11:00Jim, have you ever considered how one man, Fred Ho...Jim, have you ever considered how one man, Fred Hollows, could do so much to help the aboriginal community when so many bureaucrats, with so much money could do so little?Lexcenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17856993035719777231noreply@blogger.com