I know this is long but please read it : Refugees have been associated with opportunity for decades in Australia, we sought them out and even asked them to come here to help build this country, to populate it too. Historically refugees have always been displaced people people seeking to escape death, imprisonment , political or religious persecution and so forth. The earliest refugees I can think of were those led by Moses ( of Old Testament fame) escaping slavery from Egyptian masters to seek a "promised land" but I suspect even before then there were cave men fleeing their caves or hunting grounds because bigger , stronger people wanted it , every chance they were the folks who first started farming and grazing domestic cattle and sheep instead of spending all day chasing wild ones. Were the first farmers refugees? When all those famous people were making their names in our history books ,Attila the Hun,William the Conqueror, Julius Caesar their story was recorded but at the same times many thousands of faceless , nameless people (people history did not mention) were forced to move homes , looking for safety , in India the Dravidians were originally in the northern part but were forced over he centuries to move further and further south into the southern areas , the Celts of Europe were also displaced, many ending up in the most distant parts of England (Cornwall,Wales ,Ireland and Scotland, pursued by the Angle Saxons, Normans, Jutes etc invading their homes and driving them out During the years of religious division in England and other European countries many people left their birth places and went and opened up new areas in an attempt to both escape persecution or death and to create new homes where they could live with their own culture and beliefs (North America comes to mind with the English,Dutch ,German , French and other nationalities fleeing there) During the Industrial Revolution many people were driven from their traditional farm lands , the serfs were displaced and moved into cities by the thousands to work the mills set up there , these were refugees within a country , move or starve is a pretty good motivating force Sometimes in history it has been natural hardships that caused people to seek another place to live ,the potato famine in Ireland saw many thousands of Irish emigrating to other lands , times of pestilence surely also saw people seek healthier places to live. One thing I believe could be examined is the quality of those who become refugees, with the usual few exceptions of any population most have been people hungry for peace and a better way of life but not just in the monetary sense , people motivated to work hard and to get on in the new country, just look at he Australian example of the last 60 or so years , the "wops", "wogs" , "Dagos" and other New Australians are now our well established and respected families , many of them having contributed greatly to the prosperity of this country. More recently the refugees from Vietnam,Asia generally and now Africa too , all are desperate to prove themselves and to work hard to improve their lives and that of their families. Forget the often heard nonsense about them living off the dole. When I go shopping it is the Sikhs, the Africans who I see pushing the shopping trolleys around the car parks and back to the supermarkets , doing the hard manual labour our locals do not want but at the same time striving to learn the language and find a better job,anyone born here of European ancestors will remember how they were given all the menial tasks when they first came here , it is a fact of life the last ones in get the crappiest jobs until they can improve their position in society and you can be sure they will not want to live on the dole or any other such nonsense, that is ,sadly , a peculiarly local lifestyle adopted by some of our own lost generations , born and raised here and growing up to expect everything to be given to them for free. Refugees are not of this mind set, often they are highly educated and qualified in their own countries . The few I met from Afghanistan and Iran were doctors, dentists , pyschologists , hardly the dregs of society wanting to live on the dole.Some do come with a small wealth but it would be a fraction of their original worth.Think of the Jews (again) forced out of Europe selling everything they owned for a fraction of its worth just to escape the Nazi rising of WW2 era . The children I communicated with on Nauru were breathtakingly intelligent and motivated, and sad. In my mind refugees are the intelligent ones, those most motivated to succeed and survive and hoping to give back to the communities that accept them , here inTasmania there are attempts to reduce the "processing" time and get them all out in society as quickly as possible so they can get on with their lives , contribute to society and pay their own way. Unfortunately the two major political parties are still trying to play King Canute and stop the tide, like this is a new phenomena and one which can be controlled or stopped by imprisoning and beating up on anyone who dares come here seeking a better life ,are they really so dumb or is it that they see refugees as a political opportunity for themselves to play tough and make it look as if they are doing something , something history has shown countless times is impossible? Yesterday (August 25th 2013) there was proposal by the Greens to let folks out seeking work etc with a small financial aid of ,I think, $600 a fortnight , the replies in the paper showed our incredible stupidity on such mathematical matters "Where will the money come from?" etc when the major parties have and continue to spend billions , not millions but billions of dollars on all their inane insane proposals to "control the tide" - wake up folks a few dollars per head is much more economically viable than these wholesale extreme methods Labour and Liberal are proposing and have already proven does not work , except for the side effect of driving the innocent and defenceless displaced people insane with despair and depression I am not a political person, I have voted according to policy not party all my life , people who unthinkingly vote party are not thinking voters just sheep following blindly and irrationally. If you are a Christian "in so much as you do to the least of these so you do unto me"? Refugees are an opportunity being wasted in Australia under our current leadership, vote how you will by all means but just consider what you are saying about how you think people seeking help should be treated . Refugees have always been with us and always will be so long as there are political , religious , racist and economic leaders or forces in play. Good luck on stopping that tide Ron Co
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 23:36:33 +0000
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