Australia's Dirty Little Secret - What they do with asylum s

[praxis1966]

Although I know it's best not to go knocking on your neigbor's door when your backyard is far from clean, I felt I had to post this. Australian Internment Camps (http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/10/ma_274_01.html)

[Deniz Gezmis]

Thanks for the link comrade.

[Ian]

I have been inside Villawood and met an Iranian poet who had been detained for 4 years for committing no crime, his face was the most powerful thing I have ever seen, not because of his anger, but because I saw a poet destroyed because of a fucking government that wanted to win an election so bad that they vilified refugees fleeing for their lives and said they were terrorists and other bullshit...

thankfully there is a large movement that has been dormant for awhile that is tryign to get the refugees freed

[praxis1966]

That's awful. Unfortunately, I'm sure things like this happen all the time. In the U$ we have thousands of asylum seekers locked away in federal penitentiaries, simply because their "papers" weren't in order. Most of them will never return to their home countries of their expatriation. These countries no longer want them, and the U$ won't grant them citizenship. This without mention of the horrible conditions the so-called POWs from the Afghanistan conflict must suffer in Camp X-Ray. They are forced to sleep in tents in the searing tropical heat of Guantanamo Bay, fed only once daily, and will probably never be released.

By the way Ian, I love it that you know Gramsci. Not many have read his work, much less comprehended it.

(Edited by praxis1966 at 12:57 pm on April 26, 2003)

[Umoja]

And Australians still mess with the Aborigines.... Seems like one of the most racist states, up there.

[MiNdGaMe]

Now you wonder why we burn flags, and they complain, aren't they just so "democratic".

[Ian]

I saw the greatest shirt ever, "Liberal Voters are Fuckwits", If you don't know the 'Liberals' are the party currentely in power in Australia, contrary to the name they are conservatives whose official policy, amongst other pleasantries, is denial of the genocide of the Aboriginal people.

[Beccie]

I wasn’t aware that Australia’s disgusting refugee policy was a secret. Our treatment of Aboriginal people is not much better, since the liberals formed government reconciliation has gone backwards.

It would be cool to get a shirt that says, “Liberal & Labor voters are Fuckwits”

[AussieCommie]

who here thinks john howards a fuckwit?

[CubanFox]

Plus, the Eyebrowed One also doctored photos of refugees throwing kiddies over the side on the boats to blackmail the navy into letting them in.

Just pathetic. He's feeding on the pathetic xenophobic racism that seems to affect so many Australians.

[Palmares]

Quote: from Commie01 on 8:07 pm on April 27, 2003

I wasn’t aware that Australia’s disgusting refugee policy was a secret. Our treatment of Aboriginal people is not much better, since the liberals formed government reconciliation has gone backwards.

It would be cool to get a shirt that says, “Liberal & Labor voters are Fuckwits”



Well sumed up! Liberal only took the name coz they thought the name 'conservatives' was somewhat demeaning.

BTW, [B] FUCK JOHN W(INSTON) HOWARD!

[praxis1966]

Well, while it seems most of the Aussies here are well aware of the situation, the international news media isn't paying any attention to it. Hence, the title of the thread.

[IHP]

Well, I was about to post saying that it's no secret, but the other Aussie members have cleared that up.

My uni orgainsed some bus loads of people to go the Baxter detention centre. I was unable to make due to...other commitments (a slight case of "pistols at dawn").

Its seriously the most disgusting policy. Even the Immigration ministers daughters has publically spoken out about this.

Unfortunately our british heritage allows this type of behaviour. The old conservative view of outsiders. Do any non-aussies know about the "white Australia policy"?

The argument against them I love most is "Theres no room for them." First of all has anyone seen the size of Australia? secondly our population is declining. about 1.8 kids per couple I think, we will have to rely on immigration to raise our population soon anyway.

Sorry, I have rambled on about this, but I get just a little angry.

--IHP

[praxis1966]

I must admit my ignorance to much of what goes on in Australia, but I deem it as important since they are members of the so-called coalition forces in Iraq.

ihp: Why don't you inform the non-Aussies about the "white Australia policy" you mentioned? I'm sure we all would love to here it.

[IHP]

Well, the policy was set up to descriminately block non-europeans. Those wishing to gain entrance to Australia had to pass a written test. I even remember a story where some none english speaking sailors were shipwrecked. They weren't allowed to stop in Austrlai because they couldn't speak English! I think even black American soldiers weren't allowed to stop in Australia until halfway through ww2.

Even chinese people already living in Aus (this was post-gold rush) were deported. The pacific islanders act was another racost document to "protect" the british way of life as they couldn't "particpate correctly" in a democracy.

Thats a basic outline. Theres a heap more to it though.

Does that enlighten you a little?

--IHP

[Beccie]

I wasn't aware that Monash organised a bus to Baxter. Probably because I am stuck at Caulfield with all the liberals...

I thought the liberal party were called "the liberals" because they support Liberalism ideology.


(Edited by Commie01 at 10:09 am on April 28, 2003)

[Solla]

This is far worse than I had imagined. I am so angry now! How dare they treat human beings like that?!
A friend of mine was an exchange student in Australia and she was laughed at for being interested in the aboriginals. I think that sais a lot about Australian policy on them. I didn't know that refugees were so horribly treated though. It is so sad how little we know of the injustice around the world.

[praxis1966]

Does that enlighten you a little?Yeah, I appreciate it. As a matter of fact, I think it might be helpful if all the Aussies here hashed out their grievances. I mean, we're all well aware of the bullshit the U$ pulls, and Larissa keeps us informed of the S. American situation, but I think we would all do well to know more about the S. Pacific nations.

Again, thanks.

[IHP]

Any time, I'm always up for a bit of Australian policy bashing.

--IHP

btw, sorry for the spelling in my last post, I wasn't really paying any attention.

[Yazman]

Some facts.

-John Howard went to war even though 77% of our population disagrees with it.

-Treatment of Aborigines (aborigines is the plural word, not "aboriginals" ) has always been terrible. I think it was in the early 1900's, but there is this little thing you might hear of called the "stolen generation" in australian history. The Stolen Generation is basically an entire generation of aborigines who, as children, were taken from their parents (forcefully, usually parents were shot if they resisted the taking of their children) and placed into white australian homes. In Tasmania (one of our states) there are no native Aborigines there now. You know why? During the colonising days, part of the law down there was to "shoot aborigines on sight." Genocide.

-Refugees here are treated TERRIBLY. Not only that, but more than half of our population actually SUPPORTS the terrible treatment.

-Yes, there are a crapload of racist people here.

-During the gold rush days, chinese people were shot on sight if they were seen mining in "strictly white mines"

-There is a lot of nationalist propaganda, but nowhere near as much as there is in the US.

(Edited by Yazman at 8:59 am on April 30, 2003)

[Cobber]

Unfortunately in Australia, their is little to separate the differences between the Australian Labour Party [ALP] and the Liberal/National coalition government insomuch as their policies do not differ significantly. The ALP suffers from enough factional in-fighting between the left and the right, the right [with their majority] dictates alot of their policies, which is like the Lib/Nats is fairly conservative.

I think as voters, we duped into believing we live in a democracy, when in fact the parties have developed the perfect one-party system of government. Until a minor party can get representatives into the lower house, all we a voting for is the superannuation funds of our politicians.

[celticsocialist]

Quote: from Yazman on 8:58 am on April 30, 2003
Some facts.

--There is a lot of nationalist propaganda, but nowhere near as much as there is in the US.

(Edited by Yazman at 8:59 am on April 30, 2003)

Yazman I stayed in Brisbane for a while and I was amazed at the nationalism shown in the press. It seems that the only way the Aussie government will let people in to the country is if they can win Australia a medal in the olympics.
A trick alot of the politicians seem to do is when they are being criticized for something they accuse the person of being unAustrailian and all of a sudden the person is treated like a traitor by the media.
IMO the press there is far worse than even the more right wing tabloids in the UK. I made the mistake of thinking that the newspapers would be ok there because they were broadsheets! Its hard to say what was worse, the courier mail or th Australian.
All that aside Australia is an amazing country and I will be back as soon as I can.

[Ian]

I heard a funny thing from one english comrade I quite accidentely ran into at a mall in Parramatta, he was talking about how shit the Australian press was and said in a artful dodger type voice "I saw the news the other day and you Australians have the most biased news out of most of the developed world, they were talking about Saddam rejecting a US demand and they simply showed him laughing, WHY NOT FUCKING PUT DR EVIL IN INSTEAD!?"

Aussiecommie: I think most of us think that, IHP's foul mouth would come up with a worse insult than that however, not that my mouth is particularly clean :).

[praxis1966]

Now that I know all this, it makes me sick to think of the last Olympics. Parading the one token aboriginal woman on the team out as the standard bearer, like that is somehow going to cover up the racism that is so pervasive there. I wonder why that is.

The U$ may not be good for much, but that fascist son of a ***** Trent Lott was just run out of office for even hinting that he was a little rascist. (He made a comment about Jesse Helms candidacy for the Republican nomination for President at the guy's retirement party. Said something like "If he'd have won, we wouldn't have a lot of the problems we do now.")

What's really funny is Lott's the same guy Bush backed in the former's candidacy for Senate Majority Leader 2 years ago.

P.S. For those who don't know, Jesse Helms was one of the leaders of the opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1963 and made a whole lot of rascist comments about Martin Luther King during the 1960s.

[IHP]

I think most of us think that, IHP's foul mouth would come up with a worse insult than that however, not that my mouth is particularly clean

What the hell are you talking about? aye gerbil?

--IHP

[Ian]

I'm just saying you swear so much it makes me cry sometimes

[IHP]

No, I know that my mouth is known for its terrible outbursts....hmmm.

I mean where did I insult anybody?

--IHP