Dear Jay of Melbourne,

Thanks. It was in:

Slavophilism, the messianism of backwardness, has based
its philosophy upon the assumption that the Russian
people and their church are democratic through and
through, whereas official Russia is a German bureaucracy
imposed upon them by Peter the Great. Mark remarked
upon this theme: “In the same way the Teutonic jackasses
blamed the despotism of Frederick the Second upon the
French, as though backward slaves were not always in
need of civilised slaves to train them.” This brief comment
completely finishes off not only the old philosophy of the
Slavophiles, but also the latest revelations of the “Racists.”

I assume Mark is a typo, and Trotsky meant Marx. I don't know who Trotsky meant when he used the word, Racists. Terms in ideological literature may have special meanings which are not the same as in the outside world. For example, 'feudalism' in Chinese communist literature means imperial China whereas western scholars uses feudalism that arrangement by which systems of obligations linked various centres of power before the emergence of a nation state.

We aren't obliged to honour our UN convention on asylum seekers, with either onshore processing or resettlement on the Australian mainland.
We should however, adopt modern space age technology that allows us to much more accurately discern just who is a genuine asylum seeker or a humbugging economic migrant, or indeed, member of the criminal cohort engaged in facilitating undocumented irregular arrivals.
We did need to take the sugar off the table, so that we can as a self determining sovereign nation, decide who comes and the manner of their arrival.
In which case, as a fair minded and just nation, we can decide to increase the intake; and focus exclusively on the most deserving/longest waiting, be they black, white, brown or brindle; believer or atheist!
Rhrosty.

The UN convention is a joke and outdated all anyone from Iran etc has to do is "I am an Atheist I am being persecuted" we have to accept what they say as true. That potentially puts MILLIONS of refugees on Australian soil at taxpayer expense.

<<The UN convention is a joke and outdated all anyone from Iran etc has to do is "I am an Atheist I am being persecuted" we have to accept what they say as true.>>

Spot-on Philip.

And a short time after we rubber stamp their application "found to be genuine", and released them into the community, we find them all in attendance at the local mosque and sending their children to the local Islamic school--surprise, surprise!

The jokes on you Oz

As the flood of asylum seekers has increased exponentially my sympathy for them has decreased.

Obviously not all of the people coming here are refugees from persecution and fear of death but are motivated by a wish for a better life and riches. That is why many of them throw away their papers and passports.

Australia cannot take such a flood. One way to divert them back to where they came from would be to refuse to process anyone who has no documentary evidence.

Rudd's Papua solution will also reduce the flood to a trickle which can be better handled by Australian authorities.

*Confected emergency - anyone?*

More a question of principles and reality, Poirot. The reality is that Australia cannot save the world, no matter how much people wear their hearts on their sleeves. So we've decided to take 20'000 a year. Why not just take them from refugee camps from around the world, rather than a boat race where many drown or can afford to pay? Hardly a sensible system and extremely costly, as we can be blamed for generating hope for them. So time to bring the outdated UN Convention up to date.