Isn't it a pity that the Oz reputation is not bad enough to STOP the damn boats coming?

What do we have to do to make it bad enough? What ever it is, lets do it quick time.

Dear Pelly,

I believe that its up to the people, individual
Australians to try to change things. Governments
can't effectively change all that much. They
inevitably can be influenced by voters however.
As I've said on another thread - facing the
fact that we do have problems and dealing with them
is not about being reactionary or anti-Australian.
It is about aspiring to social cohesion and respect
for each other and ourselves as Australians and as
human beings.

Social and political inequalities
feed separateness and can lead to intolerance
racism and reactionary violence. These problems
have to be dealt with.

Dear Hasbeen,

What a shame that many people don't realize
that the fleets of asylum seekers who try
to reach these shores, the few thousand who
try to arrive by boat each year, are only a
tiny proportion of the total number of immigrants,
and an even smaller proportion of the global
number of displaced persons.

If you have the time please read the following
website:

http://www.australiansagainstracism.org/code/resources09.html

It's worth a read.

Dear Foxy
I agree with you - it is up to individuals to do what they can to lead by example to effect change, or think and act locally as it were.

I just have an anathema to phrases like 'nation branding' purely on that basis, that there is very little governments can do about perceptions if media influence is strong and focuses on what is a small element in society.