Rewriting History

One of the things that really annoys me is the manner in which certain vested interests in the community have a habit accepted by everyone else as the norm, of rewriting history to serve their own purposes. Anyone who's studied Australian history over the last 6-8 years would have seen this activity in practice with what has been labeled the black armband of history being applied to Australia's past, whether warranted or not.

In the last year or so however, there has been no more blatant an attempt to rewrite history by the bleeding heart loony left (you know - the ones who still can't get over the fact that the communists lost) than the whining that surrounds Australia's dealing with so-called refugees arriving on Australia's shores. Probably the worst example of this rewriting, surrounds that of the Tampa affair. You know the one - where a Norwegian container ship came across a sinking ferry which had departed from Indonesia in an attempt to illegally reach the Australian mainland. And when told that they would be returned to the Merak, the port they had departed from, while the Tampa continued on its journey to Singapore, became quite "angry" towards a crew they outnumbers by over 10 to 1.

Now, you get the likes of David Marr and Marian Wilkinson in their book Dark Victory (with a title like that - you know they're not pushing an agenda....) carrying on like pork chops about how terrible the Australian government is to these poor innocent people just because the Government wants to (Shock! Horror!) protect the sovereignty of it's borders. What you won't see however, are people like this bothering to deal with the difficult question of whether these people are actually refugees or not. Why bother to confront the difficult questions when you can get all emotional instead (Won't somebody think of the children!!!).

As Alexander Casella points out in this excellent review of their book,

"Second, the right to flee persecution does not entitle a refugee to choose his country of asylum freely. Once a refugee has reached safety, further movement to other countries is no longer covered under the asylum umbrella. If such movement occurs, it is defined as "secondary movement", that is to say, movement for the sake of convenience and not to flee persecution. In other words, it is the movement of refugees who already have asylum and are thus in no danger from persecution, as opposed to the flight of those for whom it is an imperative necessity."

Wow. And I always thought it was just pure luck that meant that those boat people arriving in Australia from the middle east got here by pure luck rather than by bypassing the thirty-odd countries that lie between their homeland and here.

Another issues which the whining lefties never deal with is also pointed out by Casella.

"Thus Australian law provides for automatic detention for anyone entering the country illegally. On an annual basis, Australia has a quota of some 12.000 resettlement slots for refugees, divided into "offshore" and "inshore". "Offshore" includes refugees who are accepted from abroad, namely either from refugee camps or people in pressing need of asylum. "Inshore" includes two categories; the first is composed of people who have entered Australia legally and who have made an asylum request during the validity of their visa. Such cases are generally given bridging visas while their application is being assessed and are accepted for resettlement if recognized as refugees.

The second includes people who have arrived illegally, are consequently detained, and have made an asylum request while in detention. Such cases, if recognized as refugees needing asylum, are subsequently released and accepted for resettlement.

The system hinges on the fact that for every "inshore" case accepted, there is, within the annual quota, one "offshore" slot less for a refugee in dire need of assistance. "

So...does that mean that for every queue jumper that is allowed to stay in Australia, a genuine refugee who wasn't able to pay the $5 000 per person to people smugglers to get them to Australia is forced to miss out? That sucks. But then again, those people waiting in refugee camps somewhere overseas, don't provide anywhere near as good a photo opportunity or political mileage as those who are detained attempting to illegally enter Australia do they?

Of course, if those people who where so interested in seeing the right thing done would focus their efforts on those who actuality deserved their help rather than those who provided the prettiest pictures for the Australian media, they might actually get some good work done. But I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen....

And that's another thing, I'm sick and tired of seeing bullshit sob stories from the Australian Bolshevik's Collective (Your ABC - not if you're a white heterosexual mainstream Australian it's not....) about those people who have been denied entry to Australia as refugees - because they're found to not be refugees (see that whole thing about secondary movement) committing self-harm to themselves because they're not getting their way. People who are willing to commit acts of premeditated politically motivated violence and themselves and others in order to force a Government to change it's policies are just the sort of stable well-meaning citizens who can contribute to a healthy society aren't they.....

Hang on..... acts of premeditated politically motivated violence. Sounds awfully familiar doesn't it. Let me see here

The Intelligence Community is guided by the definition of terrorism contained in Title 22 of the US Code, Section 2656f(d):

—The term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.

—The term “international terrorism” means terrorism involving the territory or the citizens of more than one country.

—The term “terrorist group” means any group that practices, or has significant subgroups that practice, international terrorism.

Food for thought isn't it...

This rant was brought to you by the letters F for frustration, L for left wing and B for bastards. I now return you to the usual humerous but inane postings from myself.