There have been two murders

in this state in the last two days. 

Murder is relatively rare here and two in rapid succession have caused more concern than usual.

"Are we becoming more violent?" one of the dog walkers asked me as he passed this morning. 

I don't know what the statistics are but it is something I too have wondered. We seem to see and hear more about such things now. The nightly news seems to be full of that sort of thing. Last night's news from Canada was genuinely horrific. I was not watching it as such as I was, as almost always, doing something else. I couldn't shut out the horror of it though as I thought of all those directly impacted by the violent death of at least ten people. Yet again I wondered what causes people to do such things. 

One of the things the government in this country, a relatively new government, wants to do is have a referendum on "including an indigenous voice in parliament". The arguments for this are not convincing but, given the general lack of understanding of our Constitution and how the political process works,  it may succeed. What it is not going to do is change the levels of violence in many remote communities. 

Murder has occurred there. A much needed and well respected nurse was killed in one of those communities several years ago. There is nobody doing the job there now and there are still discussions about the need for there to be two people doing the job at all times. I can't see that happening. It is simply too expensive because too many of these communities have an unemployment rate so high it could scarcely go higher. Children attend school sporadically even when they are supposedly being taught "in their own language" and "about their own culture". I wonder if that is not actually contributing to the problems rather than solving them. How do children in those communities learn the fluent standard English and the skills which will help them get employment? 

I am told, by more than one source, that the "language" these children are taught in does not, shall we say, "cater for life in the twenty-first century". It is not the language of their ancestors. The communication needs of their ancestors were different. And the idea that they are being taught "about their own culture" is equally incorrect. They are learning something about it but only those parts which are open to public view. Much of it lies behind closed ceremony and is being rapidly lost. Yet others keep saying that all this must not be lost, that it must be "preserved".

I think "preservation" is part of the problem. If you want to live it then it also has to be free to change and develop. If we don't do that then we will have frustrated and angry people who will do harm to others.