Too all you righteous screaming raving lefties with those pious and holier than thou attitudes searching for that comfort blanket of discovering racists under every rock,just face a few realities.

Every race has it's good and bad genes,it is just hat some races have have more than their fair share.To know the difference will make us a more successful society.

The Chinese,Vietnamese,Koreans,Indians and some Europeans are generally intelligent,industrious and civilised.I have no problem with them.

I don't have a problem with the colour of the skin,it is the attitudes and the ability to intergrate with our society.Before you scream racist one more time,just ask the French how they feel.

Intergration isn't as simple as feel good intentions of our common humanity.There is a lot of language and understanding that goes with it.Everyone must have a compentent grasp of English.Ignore it at your folly.

Well put Memumza Bighor (top name BTW),

And I also agree with Arjay on the "ask the French" matter. Most of us have friends from foreign lands and consider ourselves not to be racists but have reservations about letting in people from places that simply have no intention of integrating or adapting our Australian customs.

Integration is a TWO WAY street. If the foreign party in question chooses to come here only for the improved welfare conditions yet has no intention of learning English or seeking out Aussies to make friends with then no amount of liberal philosophy or cries for racial equality will improve the situation. And, unfortunately, we have many immigrants in Australia who have come her for this very reason.

Our system is too simple to rort and they know it. We should wake up to it, make the qualification harder, including English literacy as a requirement, get rid of family reunions as a basis for immigration and be selective about which countries we accept them from. If (e.g.) Lebanese people are statistically not proving to be good candidates, stop letting them in.

You're NOT a racist simply because you don't like the state of social decline our country's in, or the ratio of Middle Easterners in our prison system and CHOOSE to speak out about it. That is what a DEMOCRACY is all about.

And lay off with the labels and name calling - from both sides of the debate.

On Van Nguyen: He took what he considered the 'easy road'. Instead of getting a proper job and making an honest living, renegotiating the loan terms, reducing his expenses, or even reporting his 'creditors' to the police "if" the were intimidating him, he opted to be a Big Man in the Viet circles and take the risk of being a mule.

The acclaim he'd have received if he'd succeeded would've made him a hometown hero, settled his and his brother's debts and no doubt established him more firmly in the Vietnamese heroin trade in the years to come.

It has nothing to do with what Johnny Howard did or did not do, it has everything to do with what Van Nguyen chose to do.

He CHOSE to be a hero,
He CHOSE to take on his brother's debts,
he CHOSE not to find legitimate work to settle those debts,
he CHOSE to seek out an opportunity to become a courier,
he CHOSE to get on the flight and go to Cambodia,
he CHOSE to go through with the deal when he got there,
he CHOSE to strap the bags of heroin to his body
he even CHOSE to continue his mission after reaching Singapore where he had to option to dump the drugs and acknowledge it was too big a risk,
he CHOSE to ignore the risk and attempt to bring the shipment into Australia regardless of the misery and death he would impart in return for his own gain

He was not a young boy who made a "silly mistake", he was completely motivated by personal gain. He was solely responsible for his own well being the minute he decided to take on the mission.

The only ones I pity are his mother and those innocent friends and family. That does not include his dozy brother, he can live with the consequences of what he has done.

did van nguyen ever wonder how his being hanged (a well publicised punishment for trafficking in singapore) would affect his mother? did he ever consider the young lives he may have damaged? we will never know. sadly his mother is now being punished for his crime. the death penalty is silly. life imprisonment is a harsher punishment (think about it!) than death. i don't mean imprisonment in a ritzy australian jail, but imprisonment in an asian jai. what a silly boy! people die! they die of diseases, accidents or herion overdoses. no-one can live forever! my friend's 4 year old died the other day. she didn't get one line's publicity in the paper. all this to do is simply about a legal death sentence. i don't like murder, certainly not legalized murder. (very hypocritical, don't you think?) - perhaps we'll have to put some pressure on countries that have the death sentence.
all that these deaths do is bring misery to the remaining loved ones. is THAT the idea? van was no angel. either is khoa. van knew what he was doing... playing russian roullette. he lost.

deeley

Very sorry to hear about the death of your friend's child. And he/she will only ever get to page 14 or so. Tragic.

Van was a perpetrator of crime, and so was his brother. Their mother was fully aware of her sons' circumstances. I do not pity her. She has allowed the media to make a martyr out of her sons and herself. Pathetic.

A minute's silence for a well known drug runner? The Beattie Government should be ashamed. I will never vote Labor againSo are we to look forward to 2 mins silence when they shoot the Viet drug runners in Vietnam? And nine mins silence when the Bali Nine are shot?

My father and his brothers fought for this country's freedom. A minute's silence is reserved for people who fought for this country and its people - us!

I do not give a stiff sh*t about Van's family. Sure as hell they will get a "New Idea" article out of this!

Thinking of your bereaved family
Kay

hi kay
i think i'm with you. perhaps i didn't make myself clear enough. i'm saying, in effect 'van is dead - others die too - tough' but i sometimes think that death is too good for some. i think there are better ways to punish. sadly, like her or not, kim is a mother, and she will live in regret for the rest of her life. i wonder how khoa will live the rest of HIS life. pretty mixed up i think. (more trouble!) at any rate, i still think that the death penalty is legalised murder.