by barry 110 Replies latest jw friends
We were all boat people, except for the Aborigines...
Actually, being serious, the whole asylum seeker/boat people issue is not a simple two sided argument. There is no simple solution to this complex issue. No pm can magically wave his or her wand and have a solution to make everybody happy, and neither can 'Jehovah'. But at least someone's trying to do something.
@julia
Doofdaddy, I don't believe the media.
mP:
Of course they destroy their papers. If they were really in fear of their life they would be happy just to leave Afghanistan and stop at the first country but they instead continue to shop and want everything. Theres nothing wrong with Indonesia or Malaysia, they are perfectly safe if you are really on the run and scared of death.
So why dont they stop in India which by our standards is a shithole but its relatively safe and sifnificantly better than A.
Still thinking , Bob Carr recently said they are economic refugees an i would agree with that in most cases the real refugees are the ones in th ecamps in Indonesia , Hong Kong and other places waiting for years to be given residency anywhere they are welcome even in a poor country.
Why don't these boat people just fly to Sydney and claim refugee status? It would be much cheaper than paying up to 10000 dollars to a people smuggler and they would be safe. The obvious reason is that they then wouldn't be able to destroy there documents the very documents they used to get into Indonesia in the first place. The flight to Sydney is only a few hundred dollars more from anywhere in the world compared to the flight to Indonesia. Barry
@still
I don't think the number of asylum seekers is excessive enough to warrant this behaviour.
mP:
Well invite one to your house and pay their bills instead of telling other tax payers to pay more tax.
@barry
Why don't these boat people just fly to Sydney and claim refugee status?
mP:
Because you need a visa to get on a plane to come to Australia. They wouldnt get out of the airport.
Yes, so much easier and safer to just get on a plane, but they'd have to go through our whole visa proces just to get through the international check in at their airport. If they have documents but aren't able to get holiday visas, it's often because the Aust govt doesn't grant visas to single travelers from certain countries because they don't trust them to not disappear into to the cities. I've actually heard about Indian men wanting to travel alone being refused holiday visas, for instance.
You know I never thought about it like this, but that would probably be why they destroy their documents if they have them. Years ago it was women and children with no documents and Iraqis who'd be killed if they went back, but now they seem like middle class Sri Lankans.
Still
You never know...one day you may be in the same boat.
mP:
How do these boat people get the money to pay the people smugglers unless they are all criminals of the worst kind ?
Given people in Afghanistan only earn at best 1000 a year, how exactly do they manage to save tens of thousands for just the boat ride from Indonesia. It requires significant money to pay each stage of the trip from A to I. The government is just importing criminals.
The Liberal party with John Howard as the leader didn`t have a problem with thousands of asylum seekers boarding Indonesian boats , skippered by indonesian personell ,feathering the people smugglers nest resulting in the human tragedy that has unfolded.
This problem didn`t exist until Kevin Rudd dismantled a program that was working.
The Labour party got rid of Rudd because was a bullying dictator,although he had a charismatic charm to the electorate.
Julia Gillard proved to be poison to the electorate ,so the party resurrected Rudd ,who convinced the party he had changed his style.
Since he`s been back he has reneged on his policy of climate change
He has virtually admitted without saying so his border protection policy was wrong
He has dumped his carbon tax( the greatest moral victory of our time) for an ETS , which starts a year from now,claiming it will only be 6$ ( can he also predict BHP share price a year from now ? We could all be millionaires ) The pink bats fiasco, where a few people died ,the fuel watch fiasco ,the school hall fiasco ,etc.etc.etc.
And now we have the salary sacrifice / novated lease fiasco within the car industry , something that has been around for decades and built up an industry that employs indirectly thousands of people in the car and associated businesses, and helps out ordinary workers on middle wages as tax concessions / cut off overnight with no consultation to those going to be affected.This guy looks like mr sheen,acts like mr sheen but he has no polish.
And I dont think I have even touched the surface of his incompetence
They say a nation gets the govt. it deserves ,well God help us if we get Rudd back again .oops I dont beleive in God .Geez we are up shit creek.
smiddy
They are not criminals. What they do is, the entire extended family gets all their resources together to send just one person. The idea is that if they can get just one person over, then that person will become a citizen and be able to pave the way for the rest of the family, or at least send money back to the family. I know people who've done this. These families are dirt poor but they'll work, save, sell and hock for years to raise the money.
@ smiddy: what about Tampa? Children overboard? Nauru set up? These all happened during john howard's reign, so the problem is ongoing...
