Death at sea

The deaths that occurred today on the shores of Christmas Island are horrible. But totally expected. It is what happens when people take a leaky boat into the heart of a storm. What amazes and heartens me is that over 40 people were saved but they were all sold a lot of bullshit that they were going to make it and what happened was totally avoidable if they had chosen a more wise course.

We are not happy to take people in via the seas. We are willing to take people from the refugee camps. The problem is that every person who comes in on the sea, spends money to break the order, and risks their lives and the lives of the Australians who have to rescue them, detain them and process them cost someone in a camp their chance. 

My friends who have come here through the proper channels via the camps, through the refuge process are exemplars of the right way. By the son sponsoring the rest of the family into Australia allowing them to contribute to our society, by teaching our language to all of his family and the other people he has sponsored into this nation since, by the family providing jobs, shelter, and chance we are blessed by their presence. But the tragedy today will forget the right way again and take places that people who have been in the camps for years should have had. 

However the real villains here are the people who sold the poor fools the dream of Australia and its tolerant laws. These are people that need to be exposed more than any other and deserve to be published in the Jakarta times for sending people to their deaths. In a world where Wiki-Leaks is leaking the misconduct of politicians, senior public servants and diplomats the leaks that really need to be seen are the ones that tell of the real villain's here. The murderers, the organized criminal fraternity, and in the case of today's deaths the people smugglers who sell dreams of illegal action, and send people to their deaths in rough seas. 

It should be remembered that in the old days of Australia sinkings were a common occurrence with thousands dying from the nature of the storms that surround our nation. It is not a place for the unprepared, and storms, sinkings and dying are not unsurprising even if we as a nation mourn for the people who would have been rejected if they got here.