I live in one of the greatest countries on our planet.
The weather is amazing, it is a wealthy country, we have great welfare and it is a country you can feel safe to live in.
As an Aussie, i am welcomed with open arms in most countries i travel to. Australians seemed to be viewed by most nationalities, as laid back, easy going people. We seem to offend no one on a regular basis. We seem to have no historical enemies. We are just good old Australian’s
So i was recently disappointed to see a statistic, that the Australian government is spending more money on anti terrorism, than mental health, when looked at against the death toll from those two issues. In the last 20 years Australia lists just 117 deaths due to terrorism ( not sure what terrorism that is. They must be including the Bali bombing in those numbers.) As against 22 000+ deaths from mental health in just the last 10 years. That is an average of just under 6 deaths a year to terrorism, and over 2200 to mental health issues a year.
How then can our country spend $1.2 billion on anti terrorism and only $3.5 billion on mental health care? If you do a breakdown. In 2015 the cost of saving each of those 6 lives that just might have been killed in an act of terrorism was an average $200 000 000 each. In that same year to help each of the 4.6 million people who actually were suffering from a real and existing mental health issue the government spent just $7600 per head.
Now my suspicion as to why such a disparity exists is, publicity. Turn on any news channel or program today, and you will hear all about the boogeymen involved in terrorism, around the world every day. For heaven sake Fox News ran a banner saying “War on Terror” for over a year on every program. Terrorism makes for good copy. Mental health issues are dull by comparison. Also we like to sweep, such unseemly issues, under the carpet, in a nice civilised country.
So while the news and our government have focused on saving 117 lives in the last 20 years over 22 000 people in just the last 10 years, have silently slipped under the radar, to pass away from a real and serious problem, that does actually exist in our country today.
I love my country. I love that we have a universal health care system. I love that we are safe in Oz. What i do not love, is our government pouring money into a maybe, when we have real mental health issues, that need better funding.
Please consider this next time you are watching the news. Governments around the world love a scared populous. A scared people are easy to control. Just 2977 people died in the 911 attack. 202 people died in the Bali night club bombing. Yet these 2 events have been used to strip us of a large amount of the freedoms we gained with the end of the cold war. The deaths of just 3179 people have allowed our government’s to bring in draconian laws to, hold people without charge, remove citizenship without appeal, tighten border controls, put tighter reigns on money movement and allow governments more rights to know where our money is going. These are just some examples. The list is actually almost endless.
We are being conned by a boogeyman, and government agencies are springing up the world over, to stop that boogeyman. All the while real issues like mental health get sidelined, and budgets lowered pro rata, to allow us to be scammed.
Footnote. I am not denying terrorism in the world today. Yes it exists. Yes it is horrific. However this story is written from an Australian perspective about Australian conditions today.