mickijo - I am fascinated to learn that you think you were born into a mono cultural Christian society that was essentially peaceful.

When there were no white people on this island continent it was definitely not Christian as to whether it was mono cultural - you can take that up with people who know more about indigenous people than I do - but I doubt it!

Thus, you could NOT have been born before the so called 'discovery' of Australia that others have called an invasion.

The group of people who invaded or discovered Australia - (take your pick) not to mention all of those who followed, contained people who were from countries other than England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. (and I can assure you that THEY are not mono cultural)

Thus you could NOT have been born into anything else other than a multi national, multi ethnic world where I can assure you not everyone believed in Christianity - well not on this continent anyway!

As for peaceful - the indigenous people here warred among each other constantly and when others came there was no love lost between the old and the new or among the new arrivals either.

Wake up and smell the roses - there have been migrations of peoples around the world for as long as there have been people it has always been a way of voiding incest and the production of genetic defects!

The "utopia" you say you were born into has never existed anywhere except perhaps in the recesses of your mind.

EasyTimes: "C J Morgans a bong smoking hippy… hardly a revelation! Hum us a few bars of “Kumbaya” will you CJ it would be totally 'Groovy Man' "

Er, you missed by about 30 years, old chap. Now that you mention it, however, I'd also prefer a household of "bong smoking hippies" living next door than a bunch of hateful xenophobes such as you appear to be.

mickijo: " 'Australia is a Multi Culture ,multi Ethnic country. Well it may be now but when I was born into it and grew up in it ,it was a Christian country with strong laws that covered ALL . It was a good, peaceful nation where the streets were safe, no gangs allowed and newcomers came, worked, raised families, went to church if they wished, stayed home if they wanted"

I don't know where you grew up, mickijo, but half a century ago when I was born it doesn't sound like the same place. For a start, my parents were certainly not Christians, and I went to school in suburban Sydney with kids whose parents had been born in all sorts of exotic and far off sounding places. As I got older there were gangs of mods and rockers, surfies and rockers, bodgies and widgies, sharpies and skinheads, bogans and surfies etc etc etc. The laws were much the same as they are now, and they applied to everybody, as they do now.

ET and mickijo should perhaps phone home, because maybe somebody from the planet whence they come is missing them. It's certainly not Earth.

CJ Morgan: I would rather have a couple of stereotypical aussies living next door to me then motley crew of refugee’s!

While protagonists of skid row like CJ Morgan and his dazed band of misfits seem to unbelievably think that having more refugee’s is a great idea I tend towards a more sensible option, which is help the people in their home countries instead of transporting them and their problems to our shores.

Not only that but cracking down on countries like China who go into Africa with a no questions asked attitude when pouring in investment money. (China is at the centre of the problem in the Darfur) The corrupt regimes on the horn of Africa much prefer to deal with China because they don’t make silly demands like those horrible westerners such as “you must spend your oil royalties on your poor and not buy guns with it” China just gives them the money and says if you want to fight one another and cause ethnic conflict you can because we don’t care!

This is the same sort of attitude the lefties have when bring refugees to our shores “if you don’t want to integrate or learn English and you only want to make a token effort at being Australian that’s ok because we don’t care"

As a great man once said "We will decide who comes to this country and under what circumstances they come"

When he said that Easytimes, he wasn't actually referring to you, thank goodness.

How about a little test? Who here knows a refugee from Sudan personally?

I'll start: I do, and I seriously do not know what all the fuss is about. She speaks 4 languages, and is just about to graduate from a major university in Science. And I for one am glad that our country could give her that opportunity. She doesn't fit whatever stereotype people seem to have in their heads about what it means to be African, but then people rarely do on an individual level.

Anyone else know an African refugee personally?

Aha Bugsy! Your Sudanese friend has obviously taken an Australian uni position that belonged to an Aussie kid.

Four languages? Why, she could have gone anywhere else but here - clearly a country shopper!

Seriously, over the past couple of years I've known a couple of dozen Sudanese refugees and they've been quite a mixed bunch. All of them are at least bilingual, some have gone on to win uni scholarships, but most have cheerfully been providing labour in jobs that Aussies don't want - like in abbatoirs, fruit and vegetable picking etc.

As I said before, I've seen no evidence of the criminal or antisocial behaviour that the dog-whistlers would have us believe is common among African immigrants. But I don't suppose we should let truth and actual experience get in the way of a good racist stereotype.

"As a great man once said "We will decide who comes to this country and under what circumstances they come"
Posted by EasyTimes, Saturday, 6 October 2007 10:04:01 PM

No genuinely 'great' man would ever need to say something like this.