Given his recent announcement concerning spades, I think its safe to say our beloved Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is bit of a tool himself. Hes defended instructing his staff to refer to asylum seekers as illegals by saying he wants to avoid clever language and call a spade a spade. Umm... well, pretty much everything is wrong in that justification: First off, most obvious is that it is NOT illegal to seek asylum from persecution, famine or war. Fact. Secondly, as a leader and a politician, abandoning intelligent discourse (including big words) and dumbing things down into digestible Boganese is not in the national interest - lets educate Australians, not cater to their prejudices. And thirdly, perhaps most worrying, is that while the origins of that particular spade-calling idiom can be attributed to the Greek philosopher Plutarch (Scotty would refer to him as a hack, no doubt), admittedly long before the terms use as a racist epithet, its still a really loaded, inappropriate phrase to utilise here - particularly given the xenophobic reactions many ill-educated Australians hold towards refugees. And thats the very reason why its now eschewed in the US. Nice one, Morrison. Speaking of spatula digging implements, someone should pass you one and then prod you out into a secluded pine forest at gunpoint. Maybe you could beg for asylum, mercy or help?
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 03:41:34 +0000
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