Hi Eselam I have only just seen this thread now.
I think that some of your comments are unfair and lack cultural understanding. Firstly, Australia has one of the smallest populations of homeless people. Until the last government a few years ago changed some policies, people hardly even had to work to survive. My parents didn't work for years and with hardly any money we spent years travelling around.
i do agree but the one thing i never said was that australia has a great deal of homeless people. thats the more reason why they should be helped. they are not many. Rudd has money to give away and has no money to help the small number of homeless people.
I am 21 and I live at home with my parents. I have never had to pay rent. I know like two people who had to pay rent to their parents and that is because those families were big and the amount of rent they paid didnt hardly cover the expenses that the parents still spent for those children (the ones paying the rent who still didnt have to pay for their own food etc).
one of the differences you would notice if you compared a muslim family and a non muslim family (not of any particular faith) is that muslim parents work all their lives to provide everything for their kids, be it when they are 18, 21 or 25. where as the non muslim parents, in this case those of your friends, they want their children to pay rent due to one of the reasons being that they can not save any money to maybe have a holiday or what ever. so they are putting more love into their money than into their child. they love their holiday more than the child (talking about the lesser fortunate families). if your family for example was less fortunate, god forbid, the same thing would happen to you, god forbid also. in islam we do not send our parents to some retirement village but their child takes them into their own home. same with the child, he doesn't pay rent no matter what or how less fortunate and he takes care of his parents also no matter what when they get older unless ofcourse they need medical treatment and need to be in a hospital 24/7.
Old people are given pensions. Because of the global economy pensions will not be feasible to people who were born after 1960. That is why we have supperannuation. We save money during our working life so that we have enough to keep us alive when we retire.
but some people will never get any superanuation due to being physically dissable since birth or childhood. they too get payed the same as our pensioners. wouldn't they have to pay rent, have kids to take care of, have a wife or husband?
you as well as many other australians have probably never realised this, but this govenrment gives you only for survival and not for any saving or to have some extra money in your hands and pockets. if you haven't realised this, then here it is. but you must take into account that being homeless and having payed heaps amount of tax are different things. while for the governemtn they are the same, whether you have worked all your life or whether you were homeless all your life and never had a job, once you retire you are all equal. thats injustice right there.
What I do agree with is the situation with Aboriginal people. The government has tried many times to help them. Do you know that their welfare is far higher than what anybody else is paid? Do you know that they are granted financial support higher than anybody else who wants to study? The problem is that the government and social agencies have tried to help these communities from a western perspective and have not understood the needs or culture of the Aboriginal people. As a result, Aboriginal people have dismissed our efforts. They don't want to be westernised, they want their old culture back and their land. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening any time soon. I do hope that their situations improve though. I don't want to sound like a horrible person but it might interest you to know that there have been situations where Aboriginal communities have been given housing etc. and completely neglected it.
i do know all about what you have mentioned and i would like to say that, once again the govenrment is to blame. while the aboriginals have more benefits than the rest of us, it is quite observable that their lifestyle is different to what the govenrment wants them to live like. having said that, sometimes it is more wiser to just observe and land a hand when you see may be needed. just now the govenrment has made plans to build more homes in the territorry, and i can tell you that after some time it will happen again and again.
I wouldnt be too quick to judge only the western government on this particular scene of neglect.
i agree. every country neglects it's people, thats what man made laws do. in my home country and that of all other muslim majority countries, you would have found a big building, much like a hospital and a hotel at the same time. this was for the travellers. they could stay there to rest, get checked up, be cured of any illness and be on their way. all this was done for free paid by the govenrment of islam, taking note that the islamic govenrment does not tax muslims but only non muslims who live under it's rule. now thats just a small thing done only to help travellers, let alone talking about the help to the resident muslims, where all the laws were the same, no injustice done to no one. some old folks from my country still know where that hotel for travellers building is. i don't know if it still stands though.
if you compared the islamic laws to any of the western countries and it's laws you would see a big difference. but most of the time the laws of islam are labeled as backward or outdated, when infact you would be very surprised.
i will ba talking about another thing, i would appreciate your participation in this thread especially your views on my next question, which may be a little bit latter on.