philperth2010 wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 6:44pm:

is there any pics of him..

I am hoping against hope he is a full blood aboriginal....

well done Ken I am sure you will be a credit to the govt...to my way of thinking your aboriginality shouldnt come in to it...anymore than if you were of Greek parentage..you are Australian and if this is a first... then shame on us...

The record of Aboriginal health is particularly ironic when you look at Aboriginal eyesight. Aborigines have the sharpest vision ever measured of any humans on our planet, but they're also the humans most likely to be blind when they die. Professor Hollows told me the story of how he corrected an elderly (50 years old, old for a Aboriginal!) Aboriginal man's vision back to 6/6 with glasses. 6/6 is what the average white person has. But his patient said "Thank you for trying, but this is hopeless. I used to be able to see much better." And when the good Professor told him the average white person would think 6/6 was excellent eyesight, his patient expressed sympathy for the poor white people who had such hopeless vision, and who would never know anything better.

Your doctor/optometrist measures vision by two numbers. Average vision is 6/6. The number on top is your seeing distance, measured in metres. The number on the bottom is the seeing distance of the average human. If your vision is 6/6, this means that you can see clearly at a distance of six metres, what the average person can see clearly at six metres. (20/20 is the American version of this - they measure their distances in feet, not metres.)

3/6 means that if the average person can see an object sharply at six metres, you have to be as close as three metres away to see that object clearly. 3/6 means that you probably have to wear glasses. Some people are lucky - they have vision which is better than average. If your vision is 6/5, you can see objects at six metres which the average person can see clearly at five metres.

But Professors Fred Hollows and Hugh Taylor have found Aborigines in Western Australia, whose average vision is 6/1.5 ! This means that they can see at six metres what the average person can see at only 1.5 metres. But Professor Hollows also discovered a very cruel fact. About 5% of Aborigines in the Outback will be blind when they die. If a Aboriginal is lucky enough to live longer than 60, one in 4 will be blind, from trachoma and cataracts. This blindness from trachoma is easily prevented, and the blindness from cataracts is easily fixed with a simple operation. But the medical treatment is not getting to where it's needed.

White people die of preventable diseases in Australia. What's the difference? White people don't look after themselves by drinking and eating bad food and die before their time as well. Would it be fair to say that it's an individuals own choice if they don't look after their own health?