Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Careful with the banjo comment, I love my banjo, and I voted Greens Gazinator you need to find somwhere else to throw around your racist comments.

Shows what great diversity we have in this country a Banjo playing Green
My silvers are starting to take off with the warmer weather the SP that I got from you are around the 100mm size

warmer weather!!~!!! WTF, I am freezing my nads off here

You will live in the Scottish Highlands.

Not that there is anything wrong with Scotland

Really everything boils down to information and education, you can't believe the spin that the major parties throw at us, nor the large corporations.. Look at all the noise the mining industry made about how investments would move elsewhere if we had a mining tax.

Levels of investment in the resources sector continued to increase well after the announcement of the mining tax, things didn't move backwards...

And as to illegal immigrants, once again look at the figures, over 300,000 legal immigrants last year, with around 4000 boat people. Doesn't really compare... Last year 333,000 people sought refugee status in Europe, 50,000 in the United States, 35,000 in Canada and 4,750 in Australia. Not many coming here by world standards.

Thought you'd be used to that weather by now Monya..

We need to stop seeing asylum seekers as a burden but as an asset.
King Island needs workers.
Mayor Charles Arnold says he would like to begin repopulating the island with around 200 asylum seekers.
"We're ideally situated to offer something for these people. The big thing is that we have the infrastructure," he says.
http://www.sbs.com.au/vote2010/news/133 ... um-seekers

hey monya barking up the wrong tree there with the big R comment
obviously its easier to say that than looking at the facts
wouldnt wont the facts getting in the way of a good R story would ya .

dont see how me saying that illegals need to go through the right channels is racist ,it is the law of australia to use the front door not the back door, what about the other werthy immigrants that are already in the cue and are waiting to come ,they have just as much right to come here as the ones that come on boats etc . just like if i do something illegal i go to jail
god help us if we cant speak up a for the people going through the legal channels you bleeding hearts
i know many and have many immigrant mates and love them to death and hope that more come through the legal front door

I'm not sure that you understand Gazinator, I think the point is that these people don't have a lot of choice, they are fleeing for their lives. It's not like they can sit and wait in their original country and fill out immigration applications and wait for the results... They are desperately fleeing..... They do not have the luxury of being able to try and follow the legal channels open to most others..

earthbound
i totally understand i am one of the luckiest people in the world living where i live
but where do we start and stop ,there are plenty of people in the cue that are in the same predicament as the ones on the boats etc
both of my sets of inlaws are migrants to this great country one set from old croatia and one from england , which they made better and they, like me think you should come here legally like them in the cue and when its your time its your time

and this mining tax that people think mining companies should pay need to think of the 200 odd small companies in amongst the 3 or 4 big ones
these small struggling mining companies keep many small businesses going to. so have a little think about them instead of just thinking of the how we can shaft the big boys because the little ones will get caught in labors cash grab aswell and all it does is bring the small miners down
anyway there is nothing like good robust conversation with a difference of opinion

Firstly, totally agree there is nothing like a robust conversation with a difference of opinion. I think it would be fair to say, considering the thoughts you have shared that it is pointless convinicing you what many here are saying, but I'll try anyway:
1) Those seeking asylum in Australia do so out of desparation and coming via boat it would seem demonstrates their desparation.
2) The notion they are jumping the que I find somewhat shall I say interesting. Your life is in danger, and you have the option of maybe making it across the border (for arguements sake) and then spending upto 15 or more years getting your application processed, living in appauling conditions and risking your life in that refugee camp aswell, with a POSSSIBILITY of being accepted as a refugee. Having kids myself now, I can fully understand why people decide to risk their life and that of their family so that their kids do not have to live that life.
3) Where do you start and where do you begin - well you start by understanding (at least trying to) where these people have come from and what they have had to endure and then demonstarting some empathy. Where do you stop - well I would argue, you don't. When you cease demonstrating empathy, you cease being human.

You say you have family from old Croatia and England, and I do not for one minute assume to know their circumstance and or when they arrived in Australia, however from 1949, Australian immigration policy was to encourage the intake of people from Europe, (Croatia included). Once again, without knowing your families set of circumstances, if they came from this era, I think it a bit unfair to compare their experience with that of current asylum seekers.

And thus my point. These people are seeking asylum from persection, torture and from immediate threat of death, making them desparate enough to flee their country by whatever means possible.

I think it interesting that there are people who know me, my family and friends and where we have come from, and they say very similar things (read identical) to what you have expressed. When I then ask the question, "so what makes it ok for my family and all our other friends to have done what we did?" More often than not, the reply is, "Well you guys are different". I don't ask for a clarification, because I don't think I need to.

Once again, you have a right to your thoughts and opinions, as do others on this forum and anywhere else. I got over being angry, frustrated, disgusted, hurt and embarrased about this topic a long time ago, now I just feel saddened that these opinions and thoughts seem to be so set and unchanging.

Thanks for your comments vlt and thanks also for sharing your story. It is sad to say but I do also think that Australia has a streak of racism. I must say not everyone, or even the majority, but unfortunately the very small minority do tarnish it for the rest of us. I am a teacher and a counsellor, and have taught in many rural schools as well as a handful of city schools before. For those that have met me, or spoken to me over the phone, they will also know that I am extremely occa. During my time in rural Aust. life was definiately not a walk in the park. There was not a day that went by where I did not get a racist remark thrown at me intentionally or unintentionally. What got to me the most was not so much the kids, they are kids after all, but when they would come from adults - people who should know better. What was worse - when it came from fellow members of staff. We then had kids, and not wanting our kids to be exposed to that stuff on that level, we moved out of rural Aust. Even here, we cop it. Was walking my boy home from town and a car drove past, did a u'bolt at the roundabout then the driver yelled out, go home you towel head (i was wearing a brown beanie and am asian - go figure), he then did another u-bolt and proceeded to to taunt us until he realised I wasn't going to bite. Lucky my boy was only 1 at the time and didn't understand.

For the whole, we live in a great country and should be proud of who we are. Those few in the minority should be ashamed of themselves and do not deserve to call themselves Australian.

Eloquently put Quachy... And nice to hear a little more about your background.

The best analogy I can think of to try and comprehend this topic from another angle is perhaps in a hospital emergency room. On any given day there will be a number of people sitting waiting to have their range of different problems dealt with. No doubt some people may have been sitting there for some time waiting their turn in the queue. Now say someone arrives there with a life threatening injury, should they have to sit and wait their turn in front of less serious cases?

Someone with a bad cut requiring stitches might easily be able to wait with no serious threat to themselves if the wound has had some immediate first aid already and the bleeding is stopped. Someone else walks in the door with serious life threatening injuries and they will be rushed straight through in an attempt to save their life..

Would you consider them a queue jumper? Should they be turned away, or told to go to the end of the queue?

Now perhaps this doesn't translate exactly to the situation of asylum seekers, but let's not mix up asylum seekers and people seeking immigration. Perhaps a doctors surgery would have been a better analogy, where people have appointments booked and they are waiting in the waiting room, I am more than happy to wait longer if someone comes in with a serious injury requiring urgent attention..

A very good analogy I think

on the minning tax
i work as a loader operator in a underground mine
we had a state of the nation address by the mines CEO
his first words were that the tax made no differance one way or the other
and the way they are spending money at my work (then & now) $1 bil
proves to my work mates and me it was blown out of proportion by the libs and media


they didn't care one little bit

The world wants our resourses. Let them pay for them, and the mining companies will still make a profit, big time
We sell our gas, coal, iron ore so frigging cheap its a national anal routing given by the rest of the world