Posted by Sigismund on September 16, 2008, at 3:22:42
In reply to Re: Australia's treatment of Refugees, posted by Partlycloudy on September 15, 2008, at 16:15:14
We watched it on TV last night. It was a program about the guards at the detention centres. I wasn't very interested in that and only watched it by chance. After it was over we looked at each other and said 'And that happened in Australia'.
I felt ashamed that I had done nothing to prevent it. Ashamed and angry as well. Many Australians voted for Howard when he said 'We will determine who comes to this country and the circumstances under which they come', and won the 1999(?) election over the Tampa affair. Many too (often people from the churches) did their best to shelter refugees, teach them English, find them jobs and so on. At the very last election a Liberal minister stated that Sudanese refugees were not integrating, and shortly after there was an attack on a Sudanese refugee.
Still, it wasn't just Howard. I think everyone knew that. It was what we had become....a less generous society. Howard just had a good feel for the times. Or so it seems to me.
poster:Sigismund
thread:852091
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20080728/msgs/852234.html