To be or not to be - that is the question

And that brings me back to the issue of racism in Australia - cause for frequent complaint by our indigenous population. It always amazes me that the "fair-skinned Aborigines" the hapless Andrew Bolt referred to, do not claim that part of their heritage which is not Aboriginal. Clearly they have British, German or some European blood in them, so why do they only claim Aboriginality and not the glories of Shakespeare, the music of Bach and Beethoven and the art of Leonardo da Vinci?

That brings me to a suggested solution, not for the fair-skinned Aborigines who have made it anyway - in the anti-discrimination bureaucracy if not in some other industry - but the dark-skinned Aborigines whose children experience such dreadful problems in the northern areas of Australia. Australian Aborigines, like the tribes in southern Africa, had no written language - their learning problems are different to the Jewish immigrants from Europe, or the Vietnamese boat people, both groups of which fled from horrific tyrannies in their countries of origin, yet prospered within a generation in Australia

Why aren't Australian Aborigines prospering despite the billions of dollars expended by successive governments on their welfare? I believe it is lack of language skills, and that symbolic gestures like apologies, changes to the Constitution and referendums will not solve their problems. In my view what they need is deep immersion in the richness of the English language so that they think at a more profound and complex level in our increasingly complex world, and not just have the smattering of words for their thought processes which is all that is available to tribes which had no written language. My suggested solution applies not only to Aborigines but to all groups of non-European migrants who may complain of racism

I often see advertisements for how one can learn a foreign language in a couple of months by listening to audio tapes for several hours a day. Well the English of Shakespeare, Keats, the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen, not to mention Queen Elizabeth II, is like a foreign language to the Aboriginal school children playing truant in our north. So catch them and immerse them in audio tapes - get them to listen for hours and let them watch the old films of Laurence Olivier in Shakespeare's plays and other classics until these children begin to think with the complexity of Shakespeare's thoughts.

Start with Dickens - it is around the 200th anniversary of his birth - so highlight that by showing Aboriginal children the many films made of his books, get them to read Dickens, if need be read to them. And don't make the excuse that the books are too long - their white contemporaries are reading Harry Potter books that are voluminous. And surely underfed Aboriginal children will identify with Oliver Twist and his plea "Please Sir, can I have some more?" And for a break, let them (or make them) listen to the music of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart for at least an hour a day. I have been told such music helps mathematical ability - not sure why - but that is the theory

The old missionaries who taught Aboriginal children had it right - they educated and thus liberated them so that many became the activists of today. I am sure some of these activists will be highly critical of my proposed remedies but everything else, symbolic gestures, the intervention, have failed. Deep emersion in English is relatively cheap compared to the billions already spent. Aborigines may still experience racism and disadvantage, but at least they will have a means to deal with it. It is worth trying - it worked for me. Racist insults melt away if you can respond with a quote from Shakespeare