A boat floating in politics.
Spin and whims.
The story of Spin and Whim in the land of Oz.
As an alien observation of the Oz boat affaire I can see it has it’s own history, and I believe it deserves to be boldly told.
By 1999 a new wave of refugees began heading towards Australia by boat. Most of them came from the Middle East. 3274 arrived that year, from the Middle East – Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq. Violence and persecution under the Taliban and Saddam Hussein in particular had sent millions fleeing to nearby Pakistan, Iran and Syria. By 1999, conditions for refugees in those countries were deteriorating, and anyone who could, was getting out.
Many came through Indonesia, a country which Muslims could enter without a visa. A busy, competitive trade in people smuggling quickly developed and the Indonesians seemed to be turning a blind eye to it.
Now in October 2001, and we have an Australian Conservative government that is seeing all the signs that the public, you know those we-the-people voters, are about to show them the door and this puts the fear of the big Goanna into them. Now we all know politicians are honest and trustworthy, and next to criminals show they draw the line and obey the law, unlike criminal who will do what it takes to win, either within or outside the law. So faced with shucks, being stripped of power and sent to the playground, they decide they need to find an issue of great public concern, something commoners would take to heart and make the party whole again. Now we have this issue of a bunch of unlawful immigrants, called boat people, trying to find a new home that is both above water and a good place to live, safe for their families and future. Could that be an issue for our humble voters???
Well the Conservative government view boat people as, aaahh, criminals who are getting into our country and giving us grief. Unfortuately Oz citizens are feeling sympathy for them!! We-the-people, while annoyed that they are breaking the rules, accept that their dire circumstances makes a good case for their reckless action, after all some of them die in their desperate attempt to make it to the land of Oz. So our conservative government thinks they need to expose the truth about these boat thugs to the law abiding, family friendly we-the-people and this is how they do it.
Stop the presses, those low down boat parents are throwing their children overboard when the Oz navey corner them:
STOP THE PRESSES THOSE LOW DOWN BOAT PEOPLE ARE THROWING THEIR CHILDREN OVERBOARD.
Beauty we’ve got the citizen voter’s “onboard” and we’ll win the day by making those nasty frightened, desperate, homeless and unlawful boat people look really, really bad, so lets do it!! Now don’t blame the press after all phone hacking hadn’t been in full swing at the time, no doubt they would have exposed the truth and it would have come out before that fateful election. You trust the press, don’t you? So the conservatives win the day and give us some more of their polite and often useless guidance as professional administrators, that makes up the government we the people deserve.
Fast forward and we have 2012, the boat people are yet again a prime political issue. The out of office Conservatives’ are rocking the boats again and ignoring the victims, feeding we-the-people with , keep Australia fit for rabbits and kangaroos and free of boat people. This time we have those Liberal Minded government who need to address the situation.
Faced with the same old problem, gees the voters are feeling a passionate sympathy for these illegal boat people coming form a county I was recently told is sinking (given that the global flavoured Icy Poll is melting and giving us a version of water, water everywhere but not a land insight). Our we-citizens are offering their empathy for frightened, desperate and discriminated people who risk everything to make it to our lucky country. What can we do? Where is our advantage? Yep paint them as criminals who will do nasty things to our country. Naahh, sorry the last administrator used that line to the crowd, you remember CHILDREN OVERBOARD….that won’t work again. The Oz media doesn’t like the Liberal Minded government and phone hacking is in full swing, so the honest account, for we-the-people, would hit the press so fast it would make the social media positively look slow and old fashion. Trust the Media don’t you?
Oh wait, those poor boat people are suffering and facing real danger, and yes us-the-people feel sorry for their suffering. Jumping kangaroos we can use that one in a honest and yep liberal minded way. Stop the boats we want to save them from drowning:
STOP BOATS AND SAVE BOAT PEOPLE LIVES.
Our honestly caring spin will get the wee-voters on board and there is an election coming, so Liberal Minded humanity makes it’s way into the Oz world. “Poor bugger me“…was a quote from an indigenous man looking for his Land Rights and it seems to fit the present boat people position. Condemned to transportation to a third country to wait, and wait and then, wait some more, families united in desperation, until our Liberal or Conservative rulers decree them worthy of joining our community or just ship them back and leave them to their fate.
So you see we have a very compassionate and caring lot we call our politicians, the nicest in a World that has a special, noble role, for colder brained humans. I think there some research being done on this type, not sure where they are classified inside or outside the wall of separation.
My account has its own spin, which you can clearly tell as I am a voter . And yes I wouldn’t, couldn’t be a politician if my life depended on it.
