When will our leaders realise that there are limits to Australia’s population, or will they persist with the delusion that in this country there is a massive treasure trove of boundless resources waiting to be unlocked by an endless number of people who can exploit them without ecological consequences?

Many of our migrants are from densely populated countries which correlate with high pollution and political unrest and I see Australia going the same way if we don’t place a moratorium on the current immigration programme. A moratorium is easily reversed if it doesn’t succeed.

And what is it with migrants who continue to breed like rabbits? My lovely Afghani/Muslim friend gave birth to her sixth child three months ago. She thinks she’s forty six years old, however given the dire circumstances of her background she is uncertain about her age.

While we can persuse reams of papers published on behalf of the UN and similar bodies about population explosions, populations in the third world continue to increase, hence, I believe, a very valid reason for an increase in refugees. At least China has endeavoured to address the chronic population dilemma in their country but it appears that India has not and the forecasts show they will have the highest population by 2050:

1. India - 1,628,000,000 (1.628 billion)
2. China - 1,437,000,000 (1.437 billion)
3. United States - 420,000,000 (420 million)
4. Nigeria - 299,000,000
5. Pakistan - 295,000,000
6. Indonesia - 285,000,000
7. Brazil - 260,000,000
8. Bangladesh - 231,000,000
9. Democratic Republic of Congo - 183,000,000
10. Ethiopia - 145,000,000

contd..……..

contd....

We in a first world country who have failed to train enough of our young have failed to look at the ethics of stealing skilled migrants from third world nations - nations that spend money on educating their young and then have them snapped up by first world nations.

A study, carried out by the Centre for Global Development in Washington, looked at census records collected between 1999 and 2001.

The report suggested the loss of doctors often went hand-in-hand with civil strife, political instability and economic stagnation. It examined nine receiving countries: The UK, the US, France, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and South Africa.

The number of African doctors abroad in 2008 revealed:

Mozambique - 75%
Angola - 70%
Ghana - 56%
Kenya - 51%
Rwanda - 43%
Sudan - 13%

The dilution of Australia’s Anglo/Irish culture occurred many decades ago and during the second half of the nineteenth century, Afghani, Pakistani and Turkish camel handlers played an important part in opening up the continent's interior, facilitating the construction of telegraph and railway lines.

At various times in the 1950s and 1960s, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia were important migrant source countries.

There were also significant intakes of Hungarian and Czech refugees following unrest in those countries in 1956 and 1968 respectively.

Migrants have also settled here from Indochina after the end of the Vietnam war and again from Poland after martial law was declared in December 1981.

All these nationalities have contributed immensely to Australia’s prosperity and have helped build this country and many of my buddies have married "itches" and "Ities" and lived happily ever after.

As a result, we are already a league of nations and all the better for it, however, cultural disharmony, particularly religious disharmony and demands, seem now to be the cause of most countries’ problems taking immigrants. In addition, bringing in more people, whilst our capacity to provide for our own is dwindling I believe is not an indication of rational thought. Time I think to put the skids on immigration for the time being.

Jewely

I have been discussing the influence of geography on a culture with a Dutch friend of mine.

The Netherlands has one of the most cooperative cultures in Europe. They had to, in claiming land back from the sea one inland farm pumped water into another and so on until the water reached the ocean. Often described as "socialist" the taxes collected by the government goes into permanent housing, free education, health care and many other services that are not always government owned. It is a mixture of NGO's and even private services.

I wonder if, in New Zealand, the size of the nation also mattered. Maoris are right there, in your face, not isolated 100's of K's away like Aboriginals. The new colonists had to deal with the locals - also New Zealand was never declared "Terra Nullius" as was Australia - even though it was inhabited. Aboriginals were marginalised from the start.

This is just "top of head" thinking, but I definitely think that landscape has a great deal of influence. Then there's religion, white supremacy attitudes and so on.

However, the simple fact is people can get along. It is always the small percentage who cause all the problems - whether they be politicians or local louts. Most people want to get along, but unfortunately the majority can be manipulated - as they were by Howard with his harmful detention centres. It took a great deal of covert effort for the truth to emerge about children locked up for years while being "processed".

Australia can take in its share of refugees, just like other western nations do. At the same time we can work on policies that suit our country such as how much population is sustainable.

“I wonder if, in New Zealand, the size of the nation also mattered. Maoris are right there, in your face, not isolated 100's of K's away like Aboriginals. The new colonists had to deal with the locals - also New Zealand was never declared "Terra Nullius" as was Australia - even though it was inhabited. Aboriginals were marginalised from the start.”

Fractelle: What is Terra Nullius? I googled it but had some problems with it. You mean a lot of Aussie land isn’t owned?

Aboriginals were nicer than Maoris, being nice is always going to be a disadvantage no matter what Gandhi said about it.

My experience with Maoris as with most things is actually taking their kids off them, but the place in Wellington where I was the longest the local Maoris’ would request I had their kids rather than letting them go to other Maoris’.

Freaky but where I was many tribes had come from other places to work at local Dunlop and General Motors and they would rather a Pakeha take their children than a Maori from another tribe. Yes I just wonder about the earth taking other people’s children and teaching them to say fish and chips funny.

I can understand a country helping each other because they are going down the plughole though.

Protagoras:”As a result, we are already a league of nations and all the better for it, however, cultural disharmony, particularly religious disharmony and demands, seem now to be the cause of most countries’ problems taking immigrants. In addition, bringing in more people, whilst our capacity to provide for our own is dwindling I believe is not an indication of rational thought. Time I think to put the skids on immigration for the time being.”

Ha! I made it before you put the skids on! But I would also tell Australians not to leave; especially not the Lebanese who have been fully corrupted by living here.

No one in/no one out with great big Do Not Disturb Signs on all Ports of Oz.

Oh… did you want it to work both ways?

Jewely,
Don't worry It will take quite a while before there is a stop to immigration, or even a reduction to Zero Nett. Plenty of time for you to get your kin here if you want.

I would like to know how we corrupted the Lebanese. We do not seem to have any problems with the non-muslim Lebanese, nor a great deal of problems with muslims of other nationalities. What did we do to make the Lebs so contemptuous to our society?

Jewlry

Back in the “dinosaur” era, I knew a couple of Lebanese families. Lebanese people, from many faiths, have been settling in Australia since the late nineteenth century though perhaps they were fairly inconspicuous in numbers, however, I find your “corrupted” bit very strange since I believe that most Lebanese, within a couple of generations, have almost completely assimilated which no doubt has made them even more inconspicuous.

A point I was endeavouring to make is the issue of sustainability. There is little point in people coming here if everyone goes down the tube together because of limited resources.

An excerpt, written by Dr John Coulter in the Sustainable Population Australian newsletter (and from many other sources) may reflect my own views better:

“Australia presently feeds about 60 million people, one third in Australia and two thirds in other countries. It does this unsustainably, using vast energy subsidies from fossil fuels, with massive soil loss to erosion and salinisation and with pollution of the majority of its rivers and water bodies. Some scientists, surveying this situation and recognising the inadequate resources being applied to reversal and remediation have suggested that in 25 years Australia may not have enough food to feed itself.”

One article mentioned that a proportion of 'boat people' are well-to-do young men who have the hard cash to arrive on our shores. Meanwhile a much higher proportion of those in refugee camps around the world are poor women and children who languish in these dreadful camps for years. What are we doing about them?

I also believe that developed countries should (in a non-coercive manner) ask developing countries to take responsibility for their ever increasing populations and that we drastically reduce our migration intake by giving priority to refugees and very substantially increasing our foreign aid directing that aid toward the causes of people becoming refugees.

Frankly, I’m fairly unperturbed about the current religious issue – it will eventually resolve itself, but as you said, you wore the black robe in an Arab country (when in Rome?)and on that note, I shall leave you to ponder.