Thread: Waking up Australia to compassion.

Originally Posted by Milton477

Australia owes migrants nothing, on the contrary, we migrants owe Australia big time for allowing us into this big beautiful country so do your bit & don't try to change it to suit you!

What a bizarre statement, unless you are an Aboriginal we are all migrants !

And are you suggesting that Australia doesn't owe anything of it's current prosperity to immigrants like Frank Lowy?

Steve

Originally Posted by gusthedog

So it's not a cheap shot to call me the opposite of a patriot? (Which is unpatriotic by the way) Donating my time? How do you know I don't? And yes people can have opinions absolutely. But they need to see people as people. It's easy to dismiss 'boat people' as queue jumpers etc because they are different. They speak a different language and have different coloured skin. I wonder how different our opinions would be if they were English, Canadian or Americans trying to come here?

The world is a bad place at the moment. Stopping arrivals by boat will only happen by dealing with the situations within countries where people are being persecuted. Turning back the boats just makes us inhumane. It's not our problem so someone else can deal with it.

I know, let's send them all to Papua New Guinea where 1 in 2 women under 16 are raped. There's a great spot to bring up a family.

DO NOT label people racists and bigots for simply having an opinion. That is what you did and in the vast majority of cases you are wrong and just showing your ignorance. That sort of behavior is what makes sensible conversation about a topic like this almost impossible.

Does tossing those labels around amongst your fellow countrymen who are showing concern for the future of their country make you unpatriotic? I'll leave you to consider that one.

Great to hear you are donating your time. Have you thought about opening your house to a refugee family? Maybe you already have? That would be one less family that won't be shipped somewhere that doesn't meet with your approval. Perhaps you can let us know how you get on with that? Leading by example is a powerful thing.

I don't see many people simply dismissing boat people in this thread as if they don't matter or are of little consequence. There are plenty of opinions on what does and doesn't work and what is and isn't good for our country, but most are reasonable and don't require an emotive reaction like yours.

Have a think about this country, what it has to offer and how many we can offer it to before we start to go backwards at a rate of knots. It might be a big island, but the vast majority of it is uninhabitable. We are in the process of moving from a manufacturing economy to a service economy, so we (just in the next few years) will see (as one example) Holden and Toyota ceasing manufacturing. This will happen. That's 30,000+ jobs lost.

You got a plan for those 30,000 families and how they'll survive, or are they just racists and bigots and not worthy of your care and attention? They'll be lost at sea in their own way in the next few years.

There is so much more to this than you have obviously ever considered, and considering it is what every real Australian that cares anything about their country should be doing. Both sides of the argument need diligent consideration not just the side that eases your mind and soothes your heart right now.

"What a bizarre statement, unless you are an Aboriginal we are all migrants !"

Now this is a crock.

Originally Posted by Gerokent

"What a bizarre statement, unless you are an Aboriginal we are all migrants !"

Now this is a crock.

I am not Aboriginal. I have never migrated anywhere and now I am considered an immigrant in my own country!

Gerokent, you're quite correct.

Originally Posted by gusthedog

The problem with placing a number on the issue or a percentage is that it doesn't solve the underlying problem. Personally I think we should take as many genuine refugees in as we can. But continuing just to do that is problematic as some have stated as Australia by itself cannot solve all of the underlying issues. We cannot deal with all of the worlds refugees and I'm not saying we should. We need to work harder as a global community to solve the issue. Why are people trying to get here by boat? Solve that one and then we solve the cause of the issue. Not band aid the problem.

I'm not in the big house that gets to decide how many people we can let in. But I do know that the majority of Australians are not willing to sacrifice even a little to help others in need.

Now I wait for the post-war analogies and how I've offended those whose relatives died to protect our way of living. That's usually the next step after calling me a bleeding heart

Interesting Statement, I would beg to differ, any time there is a disaster be it local or abroad Australians open their hearts and their wallets every time, be it Sunami, cyclone, earthquake or bushfires, so to make that comment is just plan wrong.

From the posts I have read, most people just want to know that the people who are coming here are doing so for the correct reason, and not to exploit our people or our country.

Here I was thinking the "Stop the Boats" idea was to stop the loss of lives at sea...how nieve of me..

Just because we dont have an open door policy doesnt make us heartless and uncaring race of people.

Cheers Ean

Originally Posted by Gerokent

"What a bizarre statement, unless you are an Aboriginal we are all migrants !"

Now this is a crock.

Or descendants of migrants of course

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

I am not Aboriginal. I have never migrated anywhere and now I am considered an immigrant in my own country!

Gerokent, you're quite correct.

Unless you materialised here you are a descendent of migrants.

Originally Posted by SteveFarmer

Unless you materialised here you are a descendent of migrants.

So are aboriginals.