As much as some posters here carry on about all the 'nasty racists' who don't want these poor, desperate boat people here in Australia, I wonder do they 'care' as much about all the would be refugees stuck in terrible situations all over the world?

We can't be seen to be allowing these boat people to stay in Australia just because they have have the money and the means to come here by boat? How fair is that to all the others?

I believe it has been shown again and again that it is a dangerous journey- people have died trying to float here. That is not a racist comment, merely a fact.

Bronwyn,
I am intrigued by this portion of your post:
“You're obviously not aware that the situation in question is being described in terms of 'ethnic cleansing' and 'genocide'. Over a quarter of a million Tamils have been rounded up and herded off their land, during which time an estimated 20 000 were killed. Hundreds are dying every week in the camps they've been herded into, and not all are dying from disease and starvation. They're being murdered both in and outside the camps. They've been told their land is riddled with landmines and that there are plans to install Sinhala populations in former Tamil area”

You have clearly accepted lock stock & barrel the Tamil account of events, but you should know there are at least two sides to any conflict.

Mindful as you no doubt are that Singhalese sympathetic sources say :Tamils are terrorizing us.
And Tamil sympathetic sources say: Singhalese are terrorizing us.
And being a fair minded person as you no doubt are, I am curious as to how you were able to determine which account was correct.

I mean, was it a case of infatuation at first sight ; as soon as you saw an Tamil asylum seeker, you were smitten and thereafter read all you could to understand your love. Or, was it the case that you read the stories first and then sought out someone who matched the characters in the story, who just happened to be…Tamil.

And that leads us to an even more intriguing question:
As Andrew Bartlett has testified in an earlier thread. Some of the persons granted asylum have been Singhalese (fleeing Tamils!).
What if the first asylum seeking you laid eyes on had been…Singhalese!
Would you now be writing :The Tamils have terrorized the Singhalese ,stolen their land and cattle & tried to impose their rule?

PS:
“You're obviously not aware [Horus] … Hundreds are dying every week in the camps”

You’re obviously not aware [Bronwyn] that 3000 people A DAY die from malaria, in Africa,in or out of camps

Suzeonline,
you are quite right, those that support the illegals do not have any feelings for the genuine refugees that are in camps in various countries. They are ignored. You can decide for yourself why this is so.

Bronwyn, you are also right in that I do not have any empathy regarding those that cheat and deceive others to get here. Look at the 78 Tamils, they deliberately sabotarged their boat so they would get picked up and since then they have tried everthing they can to get what they want. They tried intimidation and now refuse to disembark. They implied that they were fresh from Sri Lanka, when they have been safely in Indonesia for some years. This exposes the lie that they were fleeing persecution and death on the boat.

No, my feelings and sympathy go to those that are genuine.

TZ52HX,
You talk a lot of rot and do not have one factual item to back up what you claim.

You say there are thousands of asylum seekers that arrive by air, well show us the figures. I will give you a tip, the numbers would be on the DIAC website and while you are there tell us the number that are successful. I think you will find it is much lower than the illegals that come by boat. If you don't understand why then I will tell you later.

In the meantime tell me why you hate the refugees from camps and support the charlotans that falsely claim to be refugees. My preference for giving help is reverse to yours.

I guess it was only a matter of time till someone here tried to use the race card to back up their arguments. Congrats to suzeonline. Congrats for falsely implying that others here have called her and others "nasty racists" on this thread. I went back and read many of the posts here and so far, unless I missed a post or two, I have not discovered anyone who called people racist, or made an implication.

It seems suzeonline is the first person to bring up the subject of racism. Congratulations to her, but she can do better than play the race card.

*shows an appalling inhumanity by anyone who is happy to subject people to this type of life.The world needs to share the load and provide safe asylum for people in danger or those without a future.*

So TZ, as you accuse us of inhumanity, perhaps you had better suggest
what your solution is, in real terms.How many millions should
Australia take?

I remind you that the global population keeps
increasing at 80 million a year, most of them people in danger,
without a future, so even if we take 20 million, that equates
to around 90 days with of extra human breeding. We could take
40 million, that would still only solve the problem for 180 days.

Next the question of Australian sustainability. This is a hot and
dry continent, with clapped out soils and a fragile environment.
The more people we load it with, the more that suffers and becomes
unsustainable.

But lay out your concrete figures, so we know what your values are,
so we know where you are coming from in terms of philosophy.

Yabby

<< Bronwyn, I am sure that you are very caring, very sweet, with a huge sense of empathy. But I really think that you don't have the foggiest, when it comes to what is going on in the third world. >>

Yabby, stop trying to paint me as some helplessly emotional female ditsy. I'll guarantee I'm no more ignorant than you are when it comes to understanding the third world. Yes, I do have a strong sense of empathy, but my views are also entirely pragmatic. What sort of future security will Australia have, in a region where the power balance is shifting away from Western dominance, if we put up the barricades and turn our backs on our neighbours in need? We have to take our fair share of the region's refugees. Our current intake is not enough under the circumstances. I know 'Australia cannot solve the world's problems', but it can at least help out with those on its doorstep.

Horus

<< You have clearly accepted lock stock & barrel the Tamil account of events, but you should know there are at least two sides to any conflict. >>

Yes, I do know that Horus, and I also know they rarely BOTH have right on their side, despite the fervent belief on both sides that they do. I don't profess to know the whole story as the history of this civil war is a long and complex one and I've no doubt as you say there is right and wrong on both sides. But I've read credible accounts from neutral observers who've had long associations with Sri Lanka and who have a good understanding of the current situation. Despite what you say, it is the Tamils who are currently the ones being persecuted in large numbers. I'm sure if I was reading regular accounts of the Sinhalese being rounded up and killed, I'd have sympathy for their plight too, but at the moment that is clearly not the case.