Re: Litigation Down Under?
Grant O'Neil (poneilgdo@ALPHA2.CURTIN.EDU.AU)
Sat, 25 Jan 1997 09:37:06 +0800
Short answer - thankfully here in Australia there is not the same level of
litigation madness that is apparently such a huge and growing problem in the
U.S. Sadly we are rapidly catching up. The more interesting point to me is
the comment on contrasting activity levels and maturity between our two
nations. While I can't claim enough contact with young people from the U.S.
to be any sort of authority, superficial observations lead me to the
conclusion that it seems to balance out; our kids are more advanced in some
areas, yours seem more advanced in others. Heck, even between individual
kids here there are huge differences; there are some scouts in our troop
(11-14 year olds) who I would happliy take out for a day of abseiling
(rapelling) with no reservations, yet some of my venturers (14-18) I am
constantly edgy about what dumb and/or dangerous things they're likely to do
on the same activity.
> I can see some of my Bears (8-9 year olds) involved with some of
>these activities, but only some! I did Whittling Chip (preliminaries for
>handling a folding pocket knife) last week. Fortunatly I did have my "fits
>in a briefcase" first aid kit. Most of the kids paniced at the matching
>the answers test (Two safty rules at a time taken right out of their Bear
>book with the endings of the sentences flip flopped....) Cutting a face in
>a potato was a major challenge.
Interesting case in point. Alan has pointed out that flying activities are
not as restricted here as they appear to be in BSA. However, at cub level we
do not have any award work involving knives. Another example is that I
understand rifle shooting is a common activity in BSA; here it is
specifically prohibited. Different cultures...
YiS
_ .
Grant O'Neil _r| Ll\
Assistant Venturer Leader | |_|__\
2nd Ballajura Venturer Unit => \ |_|_ /
Swan Valley District ~~ `_'
Western Australia v
poneilgdo@alpha2.curtin.edu.au
http://student.curtin.edu.au/~poneilgdo/
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
