When a 10-year-old aboriginal girl was gang-raped by 9 men in Northeastern Australia and her assailants were given zero jail time, it was clear that the indigenous aboriginals, who had been treated so brutally by the Australian government, were in need of major help. Yesterday, new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took steps to repair what has been years of institutionalized cruelty towards the Aboriginal people: "As prime minister of Australia, I am sorry. On behalf of the government of Australia, I am sorry. On behalf of the Parliament of Australia, I am sorry. I offer you this apology without qualification." What Rudd did not mention, though, was cash reparations. Lowitja O'Donohue, an Aboriginal activist, told the IHT of Rudd's speech, "I was overjoyed and I think he delivered it in very genuine way...(but) I don't forgive them for my mother's grief and for the 30 years of not even having met her, and for the fact that they took our language and culture away." O'Donohue is one of the "lost generation" of Aborigines who were taken away from their families and placed with white Australians or in orphanages. [IHT, Times of London]

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