EVEN the most brilliant plans to tackle the alcohol abuse crippling Northern Territory towns like Katherine will never succeed until two critical issues are acknowledged and acted upon by the community.
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The first obstacle is how we react to the alcohol-induced antisocial behaviour that is accepted as par for the course on our streets.
There is nothing normal about seas of smashed glass, language that would make the most hardened sailors squirm, drunken daylight brawls and people relieving themselves in doorways and behind industrial bins.
Unfortunately, the skin colour of those involved seems to have desensitised the community to that painful reality, which is dangerously written off as being part and parcel of Territory life.
How differently would we view the situation if the bodies sprawled across footpaths were white?
In 2006, a 62-year-old indigenous woman collapsed in a pool of her own vomit at a Brisbane bus stop after suffering a stroke.
Despite the incident occurring in the middle of the day, she was ignored by passersby for more than five hours because of stereotyping.
If the community abandons its prejudices when it weighs up the normalcy of antisocial behaviour in Katherine, it will see how bad things truly are.
The second problem involves those doing the drinking.
Like any addict, if they genuinely do not want to walk away from the bottle, no amount of humbugging, financial intervention or mandatory alcohol treatment will make them do so.
Until these two monumental hurdles can be overcome, the millions of dollars being thrown in an impotent attempt to combat alcohol abuse will, quite literally, continue to be pissed up the wall.
