A Less Than Merry Christmas

[Matty the Damned]

A boat filled with asylum seekers has crashed on the coast of Christmas Island. Christmas Island is in the Indian Ocean and is an Australian territory.

At this stage we understand that 28 people are dead. 7 are infants or children, 9 are women and 12 are men.

(link)

This situation is intolerable. The plight of those seeking asylum in Australia is the direct result of the policies of both major political parties.

I am ashamed to be both a member and a functionary of the Australian Labor Party.

MtD

/edit: corrected mangled link/

[tednlou2]

I saw this on the news tonight and thought about you.  This is very sad.  I heard they can't even be sure just how many people were on the boat.  They reported 27 found dead, so obviously another victim was found.  I can only imagine what it is like for someone in their country to give them no choice but get on a rickety boat to seek something better.

[anniebc]

I watched this on the news Matty and wept, how desperate they must be for a new and better life that they put themselves and their children through such dangerous risks in order to find it....so very sad.

In sadness
Jan

[fearless]

Absolutely devastating.

Asylum seekers also seem to bring out the very worst in us as well. when the story broke, i was reading both newspapers online for the coverage. the readers comments in the telecrap were abhorrent. i just hung my head in shame at what my fellow countrymen were saying

[GSOgymrat]

Just horrible.

[anniebc]

One onlooker said they were so close he could almost reach out and touch them, but the wild weather and waves that were thrashing them against the rocks stopped them from going in to help, he said he would be haunted for the rest of his life, all he and the others could do was watch the terror on the faces of those on the boat struggling, knowing there was nothing that those on shore could do they could do to prevent the deaths, he could hear them crying out...the poor man was in tears.

In sadness
Jan

[Jody]

An awful tragedy, the razor sharp limestone rocks and the rough seas and people, often terrorized in their countries of origin, are now facing the terror of death.  Christmas Island, part of Australia, is actually much closer to Jakarta, Indonesia than it is to Perth.  People, often forced to leave with nothing but the shirts on their backs and no place willing to take them are at the mercy of slave traders (yes - even in 2010),  criminals and of course mother nature.

So once a poor soul makes it on land in Australia they have a much better chance of gaining legal asylum and remaining in Australia, which might be paradise for a broken person.  It is an issue of great passion everywhere on earth, and probably always has been, with people looking down on others because of racial, religious, sexual or cultural differences and here in the US it is the Mexican border that draws the ire of so many of our population.  Other factors in play are less jobs, certainly less good paying ones in many towns and cities and that fear drives folks to say, and worse, do things that are not very kind.  But when people face the terror and tragedy those folks dying from an awful ordeal went through you'd like to think those folks sitting home and writing to newspapers would be a bit more gracious.  What if it were you?

But as Jan points out there were many kind hearted and good people who did so much at their own peril amongst the rocks and what not to try to assist any way their gracious hearts could.  That was nice to see as well.

Jody