Because I don't do that enough right?
I've put off writing this for such a long time, because I really didn't have any concrete to write about. Also, I didn't have any photos to supplement my blog which is slightly amusing considering how much I took last year.
These holidays have been pretty fun.
Refugees, asylum seekers or illegal immigrants. You can call them whatever you want, but lets talk about it because really I have nothing to talk about and I do feel a little more passionate about it than other issues. The Sydney Morning Herald wrote an article regarding public opinion on the issue following the news that the Australian navy has turned back asylum seekers coming by boat back to Indonesia.
I want to highlight a few statistics from the article. The article states that "only 30 per cent of Australians believe that most asylum seekers are genuine refugees while 12 per cent are unsure." That's okay. People have their own opinions; nothing wrong with that. The following is from the very same article the SMH then uses another statistic "During the Rudd government approximately 90-95 per cent of refugee assessments completed on Christmas Island resulted in protection visas being granted. 99.7 per cent of people from Afghanistan (the majority of whom arrived by boat) were assessed as genuine refugees. Grant rates for protection visas for people from Iraq, Iran and Burma, many of whom also have arrived by boat, were also high, ranging from 96-98 per cent."
Again this is not say that asylum seekers of today would have the same chance of granted a protection visa. It does show however, that the stigma that asylum seekers are simply illegal immigrants or that they are (somehow) jumping the queue is somewhat unwarranted. I could go further and say that people who has this opinion is bigoted and has been exploited by a fear mongering government and media.
That would be wrong. No one would do that. Wait...
I'm just going to leave that statistic there and you can draw your own opinion from there.
I am surprised however that the asylum seekers actively being turned back from Australia, essentially not giving them a chance to seek asylum in Australia. The lack of media coverage is not surprising. At the end of the day, this global humanitarian issue has become a Australian polictical issue, where the media has found that the Australian public simply does not care enough.
Lets forget about whether they are genuine refugees. Forget, the conditions that they are *possibly* from. If someone was asking you for help, would you at least give them the benefit of the doubt and ask them about their situation?
If you were in the opposite situation would you at least want someone to hear your story. Surely, you would deserve that.
At the end of the day, it feels like Australia has lost their empathy towards anything not sports or weather related. If it doesn't directly affect us, if it doesn't happen on Australian main land its not deserving of our attention. Okay, thats a little harsh, but my I'm sure you get my drift.
God damn, don't get me started on this weather.
Well that was a lot longer than I intended.
One of my new years resolution was to actually get muscle/get fit. As a example of me trying to commit I bought a weight set thats like way too big for me to use at this stage.
Actually its probably too big for me to use ever. But you know be positive.
So to to learn all these new exercise and how to do them safely I've gone on youtube and tried to learn from videos. (I mean, I have never ever done anything stupid and pushed myself too hard right? ) All of the youtube exercise video are by these massively buff guys who clearly knows what they're doing. They are however, so intimidating. Really, I much rather see some scrawny guy, (like me) struggle with like 4 kg but have his technique right. All I see when these muscular men do the exercise is, how unfit I am.
~TastyJacks~
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