What do the English riots and social problems in remote Australian Aboriginal communities have in common? Well, there are probably a few things but one of them is that they have brought both critics and defenders of the welfare state to the fore. For the defenders, the riots are a protest against the welfare cuts of the new Tory Government. They are an overflow of the stress of poverty exacerbated by the fear of lost entitlements. For the critics, on the other hand, these generous welfare measures are part of the problem. They encourage people to think that the world owes them a living, and enculturate them into a "something for nothing" mentality which disempowers them and disengages them from society. This same debate has been going on for years in Australia, particularly focused around the problems of Aboriginal communities. Noel Pearson, a prominent Aboriginal leader from Cape York, has long been a critic of the welfare state, seeing it as destroying the ini
'Contemplating the teeming life of the shore, we have an uneasy sense of the communication of some universal truth that lies just beyond our grasp.' - Rachel Carson