i probably shouldn't respond to these posts about australia because it makes me so mad! the only thing i agree with is that 'australians aren't smart either'.
i take a dim view of gross generalisations about other races in this country. i see lots of indians/chinese/arabs/insert-race-here working back-crushing hours in convenience stores, driving taxis, cleaning, yada. if 'indians' want 'elite office jobs' and they are qualified, let them have them. (i certainly don't want one.) if 'indians' are medically trained, let them be doctors in our hospitals. (i certainly don't want to be one.)
if you have to leave your country because of war or persecution, find the courage to get on a boat, leave your family, your homeland, your language, your culture behind, and make a mighty long, perilous, horrific ocean crossing, then i reckon you deserve every chance. what you don't deserve is to be locked up in a detention centre for years, charged for the experience and then often spuriously, randomly deported. both amnesty international and the human rights commission have found australia's mandatory detention policies (and conditions in detention centres) - particularly with regards to children - to be 'inhumane'.
most australians in this country are, at best, 2nd generation migrants. what makes us more worthy of citizenship in this country than someone else? we were here first? well, we treated our indiginous people (who really were here first) absolutely deplorably and shamefully, and now we are doing the same thing with legitimate refugees.
and but there for the grace of god do we all go.
and, on a lighter note, so goes motif!
good luck, safe travels, i hope it's everything you want it to be - and more
- lulu