Ian Thorpe - Dirty Little Secret

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Excerpts

"In my travels competition took me to places where sometimes I was met with abject poverty, whilst I simply swum. Why was my life so blessed when others just by fate had less opportunity than I? I guess I witnessed at a very young age how sport is an international language, a language that transcended borders, boundaries, cultural ideology, politics and even socio economic disadvantage. I have only discussed my career up to when I was seventeen. It is because when I was 18 I established my charity, “Fountain for Youth”. I didn‟t realise at the time that this may be my biggest accomplishment. An achievement not in the sense of doing something right, rather a stepping stone where my values that I had gained from sport could be transferred to something that is bigger than sport and in my opinion far more important."

"I continued to win medals, breaking world records and continued travelling around the world recognising the needs of people, particularly children, in many places I visited. By this time my charity had enough money raised to commit to larger projects, I sat at a board meeting and stated that I wanted to help the world‟s neediest children. I started to think of what impact my effort could have in places like Africa or South East Asia. I then visited some of the worlds neediest communities, places without access to planes and cars that seemed to be a world away……..but now they were truly at my back door."

"The communities that I visited had illiteracy levels at 93%......that was staggering only seven percent of a populous being able to read and write…Up to 80% of the children in these communities have serious hearing impairments because of “glue ear”; middle ear infections neglected from infancy. - these kids will never hear the teacher in front of them in a classroom….that is, if there is a teacher and indeed a classroom. Malnourished mothers are giving birth to babies that are seriously underweight and this only gets worse throughout a life born into poverty. Here diabetes affects one in every two adults. Kidney disease is in epidemic proportions in communities where living conditions; primary healthcare and infrastructure are truly appalling. In this part of the world even the community leaders are afflicted by clusters of chronic illness. Syndrome X…. the doctors call it, diabetes, renal disease, strokes, hypertension, cancer and heart disease. Some people die with four or five of these chronic illnesses. Rheumatic heart disease among the children in these places is higher than in most of the developing world. But I was not visiting communities in the developing world, I was in the middle of Australia, remote, yes, but this is Australia, a country that can boast some of the highest standards of living of any nation in the world. How shocked I was that Syndrome X was afflicting so many of the 460, 000 Indigenous people of my country. As a result of these chronic illnesses and conditions Aboriginal life expectancy has fallen twenty years behind the rest of Australia. For some of my fellow countrymen life expectancy had plunged to just 46 years. Australia‟s grim record on health care for Indigenous people is by far the worst of any developed nation. Developed? How can a country be "developed" when it leaves so many of its children behind? Australia has not provided its citizens with an equal opportunity for primary health care, education, housing, employment, let alone recognition and a life of dignity."

"The Governor of NSW, my home State, Professor Marie Bashir, an eminent Child Psychiatrist, has repeatedly pointed out the national disgrace of allowing the forty per cent of Indigenous children under the age of fifteen to put up with health problems found in no other developed nation."

"For Australia to heal its wounds that have been weeping for 200 years we must not ignore the issue, we must start the healing. Like many people in Australia I was completely unaware of the huge gap in health and education outcomes let alone the differences of life expectancy. I, as many had, made an assumption; Australia is a rich country, don‟t we throw a lot of money at that problem? It disgusts me to speak those words now but that was what I thought. This was not just my lack of knowledge of this area but it is echoed throughout my nation."

"An Aboriginal health expert, Shane Houston says: "Aboriginal people are viewed by too many in the Australian community as an unwelcome burden on the nation. Governments say they have spent a lot of money on Aborigines but where do you see the results in this squalor? So the mainstream concludes that Aboriginal health is a waste of money. It is all the fault of the poor blacks. My people are somehow expected to just extricate themselves from this maze of life-threatening conditions. And if we can‟t manage to do that, then many white people will shrug and say our end is inevitable."

Visiting Aboriginal people, in their homes, their communities, on their land, has allowed me to listen and given me some idea of the problems that Aboriginal people face.I listened to the concerns of mothers and fathers for the betterment of their children. This unwavering strength, in the face of social injustice. Within these communities I witness poverty, despair and pain.... but I also see hope….hope from those men and woman who want more for their children."

"Just this week Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd said that it was 'devastating' that a new report by our productivity commission showed that Aboriginal people had made little progress to close those gaps since 2000. He said this was 'unacceptable' and 'decisive action' had to be taken. The truth is that none of the problems I have mentioned can truly be rectified until our government and my fellow Australians recognise the injustice faced by Aboriginal Australians and how they are denied so many human rights. This has been highlighted once again by what is called in Australia “The Intervention”, the Federal Government's takeover of 73 remote Aboriginal communities. The Intervention was constructed by the previous government and has since been reported to have been assembled in the space of just one day. The irony is that Aboriginal people had been campaigning for decades about the living conditions and the neglect of their children within their communities. The programs to protect and nurture the children, had been grossly neglected and under funded by government over the last decade. What appears to be a political stunt and a grab for government control over Aboriginal people continues to this day under the new government."

"Once more an Australian government has claimed it is doing its best for Aboriginal Australians by taking over their communities, appointing white managers, more government bureaucrats, promising all kinds of things, if Aboriginal people will just sign over their communities under forty year leases to the Federal Government.
And politicians wonder why Aboriginal people do not trust them.The truth is for over 200 years Australian governments have neglected and patronized aboriginal people. The Intervention is unlikely to provide any lasting benefit to Aboriginal people because it tries to push and punish them, to take over their lives, rather than work with them."

"As a swimmer, who would have thought I would have ended up supporting Flipper Ball, junior waterpolo for little Aboriginal kids in the mining communities of Western Australia. As a swimmer, who would have thought I would be back at university studying psychology and at the same time working with young Aboriginal university graduates on a mentoring program to help get more kids to complete High School and go on with their studies. As a swimmer, maybe I was expected to just be satisfied with the gleam of those gold medals.But all sportsmen and women know the truth - there is something beyond sport. There is the challenge of playing a part in the human family...to contribute and make a difference. We can use sport and use our sporting status to improve the lives of children and whole communities in so many places. We can make it a fairer, safer playing field for everyone. In twenty remote Australian communities and with thousands of Aboriginal children I know life will have some extra opportunities if I commit to work hard on this. I do intend to work hard at this for the rest of my life.

THAT IS MY PROMISE TO YOU --- BEYOND SPORT!

“Dirty Little Secret”

Ian Thorpe

“Beyond Sport Summit” - London

Thursday July 9, 2009.

Further information
Ian Thorpe's Foundation for Youth