Hi Valley Guy,

The biggest problem with you open-border types is you can't comprehend English!

Now I can perhaps understand the wherefore and why of that. After all, if you open-border types have your way there will no need for English. The lingua franca for most of the West will very quickly become Arabic or some African dialect (with the huge influx of economic migrants)

So, Valley Guy, here is the news story you misread: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/07/201371410175504702.html

Notice this statement:
<<At least 60,000 refugees from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have now arrived in neighbouring Uganda...>>

The first thing you need to pick up on is:
*ARRIVED* DOES NOT EQUAL RESETTLED
*HOST* DOES NOT EVEN EQUAL RESETTLED

It only means there's a piece of Uganda these people are temporarily camped on.

And, here's another thing to pick-up on:
<<Aid agencies struggle to cope as refugee numbers ...>>

So even *hosting* in this case does not mean "hosting" in the normal sense of the word, since it is non-Ugandans (through aid agencies & the UN) who are picking-up the tab.

So it seems that Uganda is not a generous as you would like us to think,ay!

To me boat people have as much right to be here as anyone else.
Valley Guy,
Ok, does that then mean I have as much right as they have to get as much support as they get ?
Will the likes of you then put up your hand to provide that support for either the boat people or some of us ?
Will you put up your hand to have them as your neighbours ? Will you be happy to have a mosque close by & get woken at 3 am for prayer ?

ValleyGuy,

Perhaps we should do as they do in Africa. Refugees are feed and looked after by the UNHCR and the host country gives them no access to welfare, medical care, schooling etc. They are simply cheap labor.

As for the main post:

"Implicit in this is a patronising assumption that those living outside of the 'enlightened' inner cities are captive to an irrational racism so powerful that it cannot be countered by facts or argument."

Doesn't this sound like a pompous git?

Because >80% of Australians don't like women and children drowning at sea, we must all be irrational racists. I am happy to accept a viable solution from these latte sipping vegan air heads, except that to date they haven't got one. All these high minded "enlightened" effetes are capable of is whinging and pointing fingers.

I am tired of politicans pretending they care about people drowning at sea: if every asylum seeker boat sank within Indonesian territorial waters and Australia had no boat arrivals, no overflowing detention centres, no 'border security' problems, no multi-billion dollar cost, no dog-whistle political triggers, do you think the ALP or Coalition would lift a finger or spend a dollar to do anything about it?

I read that the coalition claimed a $1.3 billion budgetary saving from a 6000 reduction in the annual refugee intake. Were this money used to fund refugee camps closer to the source, it would probably assist a greater number and would also help those refugees without the funds to travel great distances and pay off people smugglers.

I'm sick of the stupidity of policy which encourages people to risk and lose their lives, enriches criminals and consumes vast public resources. It is hard this think of a less efficient means of helping people.

The rules are set by government and have caused the deaths. The rules must change.

i think the indons must think we aussies are dumb
maybe they are right

why wouldnt the people smugglers continue to profiteer when our leaders give them hope that the boat is one way to beat the Q
better still, let a few children drown and a few old ladies die and they have the silly aussies on their knees

we aussies have this mentality that seeks endorsement
is it the criminal blood in us that begs to be legit?
do you realise we always support the underdog
and we have no qualms in lopping of the heads of the successful landowners/entrepreneurs

i used to think julia was bad
now i know why kevin's colleagues removed him in the first place
he is nothing but a flip-flop immoral pretend to be church goer