There’s a weird vibe around town this evening. People acting crazy, driving badly. You know. On Triple J’s Hack I hear some statistics that make me furious. So angry I feel compelled to swear repeatedly, so little kids shouldn’t read this and everyone else has been warned.
The federal government (pack of arseholes, especially that turd Vanstone) pulled an election-winning stunt last time around; they convinced 77% of Australia to turn away a boat full of refugees. They succeeded in this xenophobic exercise because:
But 77%. Jesus Fucking Christ.
Anyway, the stats which made me see red relate to what they’ve done to turn the boat away. The arseholes set up offshore detention centres (i.e. prisons) to complement the many we’ve already got onshore. It’s how much money they’ve spent on this horrible exercise. They’ve just decided that 25 of the 36 potential refugees are actual refugees. Big surprise. It’s cost them *millions of dollars per refugee, per year* to find this out. They’re now finishing off a new refugee prison on Christmas Island that’s costing $330 million. That’s not counting running costs. With maybe just 50 potential refugees this last year, it’s hardly worth it.
It’s simple maths. Just let them all in. Even including any more refugees who might come, we can afford to put them all on the dole for life if we can afford this bullshit. Plus we’d actually be helping people and offsetting the very low Australian birth rate that the arseholes are so concerned about.
This is not difficult stuff. So far we’ve had racism in action, and not enough swearing.
yay iain – more swearing needed. loud and public. i agree its time to stop being silent and thus complicit in this shite
Yeah, that mild disaster is what got my arse into gear to become a member of the Refugee Action Collective. Have a read of “Dark Victory” by David Marr (ABC Media Watch presenter – though I’m not sure if he continues to host that program at present) and Marian Wilkinson. It exposes just how the Australian public was deceived, and to what lengths the Howard Government went to, in order to win votes, and to deflect any possible responsibility for a series of tragic events. The “Children Overboard” scandal was only one part of many hideous lies and disgusting actions (or inactions) perpetrated by the Howard government over a period of several months. You’ll remember the “Tampa” crisis, which involved the rescue of 438 mainly Afghan and to a lesser extent Iraqi asylum seekers (whose boat was in severe distress) by the Norwegian freighter Tampa, in the Indian Ocean. In this instance, both the Australian and Indonesian Government refused to allow the captain of the ship to disembark the asylum seekers on Australian or Indonesian soil. The captain of the ship did everything he could to assist the asylum seekers, but was still forced to accommodate them for 8 days on a very hot and over crowded deck with little water, and much less food. Many ppl were very ill and required urgent medical assistance, however the Howard Government continued to maintain that they could not land on Christmas Island, or any other Australian soil.
Unfortunately, as you are probably aware, it does not end there. Two months later (October 2001) 353 asylum seekers died when the so called “Siev X’ (to name only one of the many boats) sank, inside the Australian aerial border surveillance zone. 120 passengers of the fishing boat survived the initial sinking, but of that figure, only 44 people survived after having spent 20 hours in the water. This action contravened international law which states that if a vessel is in distress, nearby vessels MUST attend, to offer assistance. Howard insisted that the Government and navy were not aware of the boats distress however, as it turns out, the Navy WERE aware of this tragedy, and did not respond. (Why the fuck did the media only gloss over this fact when the subsequent inquiry found the navy to be fully aware of what had happened not long after the boat had sunk?) The inquiry was unable to determine whether or not the navy had passed on the information to the government. The needless death of 146 children, 142 women and 65 men was nothing less than murder, and besides a few disciplinarian actions, the bastards got away with it.
None of these tragic events couldn’t have occured in a more opportune period of time. Howards main platform for re- election was Border protection. During the Tampa crisis, Howard launched his campaign dubbed “The Pacific Solution” (doesn’t that remind you of another atrocity which occured around 60 years ago in Poland, Germany etc?)
The Pacific solution includes a number of policies to combat the “problem with boat people”. Its basic premise began with the establishment or funding injection of 2 detention centres in nearby countries. One is in the Republic of Nauru, one is on Manus Island (in Papua New Guinea). In return, both countries receive Financial aid, and other assistance. A third detention centre is on Christmas Island. Residents of these centres can be detained indefinitely, and many have been there, since the incident with the Tampa.
The cost of this “solution” is several hundred million dollars annually. In May 2002, the government budget set aside a total of 1.5 billion (US) dollars. (Amnesty Int. figures).
OK..reading back what I’ve written is looking a little too much like an assignment, but it was good to get the juices flowing. If you get a chance to read the book mentioned earlier, we have a copy you are more than welcome to borrow.:)
Ps, In relation to the children being “thrown overboard”, the inquiry found they were in fact thrown, but only because the boat they were on, was sinking, and they had no alternative. The navy were present, and they instructed the parents to do this..Fucking incredible, isn’t it?
I hope all with you is well
Etoile xxx
To clarify the above post, the children who were in the water, were there due to Siev 4, (the boat in which they travelled) not Siev X as referred to above. After feeling a niggling doubt of the exact events, which took place in relation to whether the children were in fact THROWN, I later read an article, which suggested that it was inconclusive. My apologies for that mistake!
Essentially, the big question at the time was whether Peter Reith (the Defence Minister during this period) had purposefully manipulated the truth or if he misunderstood what had happened. [ROFL]. The same question is posed regarding Immigration Minister during this period, Philip Ruddock..[Again, ROFL]. Personally, I’d like to see Howard, Reith, Ruddock AND Downer (who was also implicated in this mess) attempt to travel in a 19m x 4 m vessel along with 420 fellow passengers on a boat which could barely transport 100 passengers safely, to Indonesia.
howard is an arsehole