on refugees

i must say that i have great sympathy for those whose home has become so unsafe and antagonistic towards them that they're driven to the point of giving up everything they have in order to flee their country in search of safety. i couldn't imagine how dreadful life would have to be for me to sell my belongings in order to scrape together enough money to pay people smugglers to get me to asylum; usually in a country that wouldn't really want me there. it saddens me that so many australians lack even a basic compassion for these people. assigning them the derogatory term 'queue jumpers' demonstrates just how little the average australian understands.

now, having said this, the current case of the tamil people presently on a boat in indonesia has me baffled. they claim to have escaped from sri lanka to the jungles of malaysia so i'm puzzled as to why they didn't seek asylum there. they're now in indonesia so i don't understand why they're not claiming asylum there. surely if you're a fair dinkum refugee who had no choice but to flee your homeland, you wouldn't be fussy about where you end up but rather gratefully accept shelter in the first country you get to.

as i said, i have sympathy for genuine refugees and certainly feel that we have an obligation to treat them humanely, especially when they've fled countries such as vietnam, iraq or afghanistan which we've invaded. what does cheese me off is when people claiming to be refugees start issuing demands about which country they will accept asylum from. they should never forget that it is the right of each country to decide on whether they will be accepted; it's not their right to pick and choose.

perhaps there's some crucial point i'm missing here and would be more than happy for someone with greater knowledge than me to set me straight

long overdue update

crikey.. it's been ages since i last posted so i thought i should write a quick update.

flying home was an absolute ordeal. we left manila about half an hour late which is pretty much standard for arvo flights so i wasn't concerned. the dramas started nearly an hour into the flight when the pilot announced over the PA that there had been a power failure in manila which caused the air traffic control to lose all radar and radio so the plane would have to turn around and return to the airport there. groan. so we returned and landed and sat there. and continued to sit there. and then had our tea... and continued to sit there. eventually we were told to buckle up again as we were going to take off... over 3 hours later than our original departure time. of course, this meant we all missed our connecting flights in singapore. fortunately i was flying singapore airlines which is my favourite airline and they had things in hand. when we landed they had tables set up to tell us when our replacement flights would be leaving. ultimately, rather than landing in perth at 11.45pm on sunday night as planned, i landed at 6.30am monday morning.

this then brought on drama number 2... customs!! i was almost out the door to the foyer. almost. that's when a nice gentleman asked me to come with him. really? after everything else? being the compliant, friendly, law-abiding person i am, i complied with his request in a friendly law-abiding manner. he asked to check my hand luggage and proceeded to empty my bag whilst asking about my holiday - where had i gone? did i enjoy it? how was the diving? next it was my backpack's turn. i unlocked it and he proceeded to empty this as well. argghhh!! a lady came and took my cameras and memory cards away to look through whilst another person took away my empty backpack to be x-rayed. now, i'm seen enough episodes of 'border security' to know what was going on - they thought i was a drug mule which would ordinarily be laughable but wasn't quite so funny after the flight problems i'd had. i also had a job interview lined up for 3pm that arvo and just wanted to go home and get some sleep before it. obviously nothing was found so you'd think that'd be the end of the inquisition right? ahh.. you'd be wrong. i was told they wanted to do a frisk search and was given a card to read which explained my rights. naturally i had no objection so my shoes were taken to be x-rayed whilst a customs officer proceeded to give me a frisk search. sure enough, i was clean so i just had to wait for the sheila who'd taken my cameras to return them to me. i grabbed a chair and sat reading a book whilst waiting. eventually she gave everything back and i was told i could now repack my backpack. why is it a backpack which previously fitted everything comfortably is now full to overflowing? i guess that's just one of life's mysteries. i can't complain about the demeanour of the customs agents as they were polite. still, i don't know that i'll be as friendly and effusive if they search me again when i return from cambodia next month. i've a good mind to leave a few notes for them to find giving them a piece of my mind!!

so, once i was released from customs it was time to go home and get some sleep before my interview. long story short - i had three interviews that week and was offered two of the jobs. i turned them both down for different reasons and am consequently still unemployed. it's not a huge drama and something suitable will turn up eventually. i'm not eligible for the dole so am living off savings which don't take long to dwindle.

tomorrow i've enrolled to do the two day senior first aid course with st john so at least i'm putting my time to good use.

hopefully my next update won't be so far in the future