I read on Crikey today that a local tit tabloid recently published a double page featuring women in bikinis on yachts, and placed on the page was an “ad” asking for “Australia’s Hottest Asylum Seeker” to contact the magazine for a photo shoot.
The text reads :
We’re looking for Oz’s hottest asylum seeker, so if you’ve swapped persecution for sexiness, we want to shoot you(with a camera-relax!) Send your pics and a short story about your tragic past to:xxxx
It’s not funny. It’s not even tasteless. It’s just purely disgusting. I am very glad to learn that Zoo‘s circulation and readership has plummeted in the last 12 months. Because stupid shit like this makes me ashamed to be living in this country, and I can’t believe that there are actually people out there who are dumb enough to pay money for this. It’s bad enough that people seeking asylum in Australia are constantly labelled as “illegal immigrants”, and that a majority of politicians has no problem with “processing” asylum seekers (it is legal to seek asylum in Australia, remember!)offshore, ideally in countries like Malaysia that aren’t part of the refugee convention. Anyone who helps an asylum seeker is automatically labelled a “people smuggler” these days, but as someone said on Twitter the other day, by that measure, Oscar Schindler would have been a people smuggler too.
Hundrets of people have drowned just in the last few months while trying to get to Australia to seek asylum, men, women, children. It baffles me that most of our politicians can think of no other solutions than to either “turn the boats around” or introduce “offshore processing” (as if the current processing location of Christmas Island wasn’t offshore enough). A country of 22 million should be able to deal with 30000 refugees per year, and its politicians should at least make an effort to think up humane ways of dealing with these people.
But when I see repugnant shit like this Zoo page, I want to lose faith in humanity.
As a medico, I understand your stance on asylum seekers, Martin however I am far more cynical and always feel a prevailing air of political correctness whenever this subject is raised. I would willingly celebrate welcoming refugees however I am puzzled as I see them happily sitting cross-legged on the approaching vessels appearing well-groomed, well-dressed and well-fed. If we were seriously invested in the placement of those in need why are we not looking to refugee camps in Africa where the starvation, absolute lack of all medical care and the worst attrocities the world has seen, are an everyday occurrence. Australia has the second-best welfare system after The Netherlands . Real refugees are not selective in where they go mainly because they don’t have the means to even think about getting there. They are being housed in camps with no water and dying children. Even Burma or most Indonesians are too poor to organise and plan a back-door entry into Australia (or any country, for that matter). Shouldn’t we choose our refugees if only to ensure the most needy are given homes. These are not people who you will still find on welfare after 5 years (apparently 95% of our refugees are). These are people who will work judiciously – they know nothing about welfare systems or the need to speed the process up while Labor is in office etc. Just my opinion. I have noticed how reticent people are to voice their true thoughts on this matter as I bring it up in many different situations and people clam up. Again, I have more I would like to add but want to hear what others think.
You’ve said a lot of dumb shit already, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt, so in which universe is Australia the best welfare system ? And based on what exactly ?
That’s a bit rough. I’m very new to blogging and just giving an opinion. I don’t ever profess to be right in my opinions or facts and there are only a couple of subjects that I feel strong enough to comment on.
Anyway, I saw it on a site somewhere and so have researched properly. The Wall The Street Journal have a site called Market Watch by a Robert Powell which says the same thing “Still pension experts say there are two countries better than most, The Netherlands and Australia”. When I read it previously the Netherlands was considered the best with Australia next.
The same site mentions that the OECD has recently studied 30 pension systems and the aforementioned results can be found in pdf file on the OECD site. I know you were being rhetorical but can I still say “in this universe”.