The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Australia's moral compass: child refugees > Comments

Australia's moral compass: child refugees : Comments

By Paul McDonald, published 18/8/2011

By sending child refugees to Malaysian refugee camps, is the Australia government breaching its responsibility to protect and care?

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. All
My first comment would be: why are these unacompanied minors coming here? where are their parents? what are they coming here for? we must remember most of these children are Muslim from extremist countries, in these countries children are being trained as suicide bombers, are they coming here to be trained into that order of thinking, we have to be very careful with the do good approach that they are only children. Would you send your children on some leaky boat to some other country unless you had an ulterior motive behind it? they are coming here for a better life so we think, are they, or is there some other reason? Why do we not hear more about the many people from various countries waiting in line to come here legally, instead of the queue jumpers. The Government is doing the right thing, perhaps in fifty years we will know the truth
Posted by Ojnab, Thursday, 18 August 2011 11:22:02 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
To the best of my knowledge, the eldest son of a family will be sent to safety in order to continue the family line. These children (some of them) carry the future existence of their families, on their shoulders.
Posted by ruthie2011, Thursday, 18 August 2011 12:48:49 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I worry, too, about our moral compass. Mostly I worry about all those ageing Australians who forty or fifty years ago give birth to a disabled child. Devotedly they continue to care for that adult child for whom there exists no place in this country while parents are alive. Their great wish is to humanely transition their dependent person into alternative care while they are able to supervise. Their person will possibly have a cognitive age far lower than the child refugees. Yet this country feels it has a greater responsibility to families who abandon and risk the lives of their children than to its own citizens who have cared for decades and into their dotage.
Posted by estelles, Thursday, 18 August 2011 2:31:43 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Ojnab
You as the right question, why are these unaccompanied minors coming here? But you give the wrong answer.

Consider, if you are a parent, how desperate you would be to put your child into the hands of people smugglers, risking a potentially lethal boat journey for the uncertain prospect of a new life in a country far away where they may never see their family again. That’s how desperate these kids’ parents are (if they have parents). You say the kids come from countries where children are trained as suicide bombers. This is a rather sweeping generalisation, but let’s assume its true. If the options for your child were suicide bombing or risking the trip to Australia, which would you choose?
Posted by Rhian, Thursday, 18 August 2011 2:51:33 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Yes! Estelles you are right, these minors should be home with their parents, if these people want to come here, including children, then they have to put up with the laws of Australia if they want to come illegally. Our committment as you say should be to look after our own, especially in the case you mention but these people would be put on the back burner in preference to these illegal immigrants including young adults.
Posted by Ojnab, Thursday, 18 August 2011 3:01:34 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
When ever I see one of these pieces, I can't help thinking of a line from James Michener's Hawaii. One of his characters in the pre WW11 era of the book said when discussing major land holders in the islands, "The missionaries came here to do good, & they did very very well".

This says it all from my experience with NGO aid agencies. In quite a few years in the Pacific I saw very little of value for the locals done by the churches, other than a couple of nun run small hospitals.

Other than these, about the only ones I saw worth their space was some of the American Peace Core people. A few of them did much to help, although many of them were bit too much the idealist, & too impractical to achieve very much.

The last church do good scheme near here saw the church with a large grant to develop a half way house for prisoners. Somehow they over rode planning approval, & local resistance for an unsuitable sight. Still it did the job, when it closed on 3 years. The profit on the property when sold, was over a million. The pay for do gooders is quite high. I wonder if they got to keep the grant as well.

Paul, why don't you trot off to the countries concerned & do good. What ever you have to spend would go much further, & do some real good.
Posted by Hasbeen, Thursday, 18 August 2011 3:02:02 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy