Thursday, March 30, 2006
"The Adventure of Two Dingo"
Just heard the foreign minister being simultaneously offended and dismissive of an Indonesian cartoon portraying him and John Howard fornicating in dingo form, and I was so curious I had to go looking for it...
(From news.com.au)
This piece of low brow satire (whose ability to invoke discomfort in its subjects makes me smile just a little bit) has been prompted by Australia accepting the asylum claims of refugees from Papua, offending the Indonesian government. You can read an ABC article about it here. I do feel sorry for the single Papuan who was sent home, though... conspiracy theorists in Indonesia are apparently suggesting that he's an Australian spy.
If he didn't deserve refugee status before, that single claim ought to get that decision reversed on the spot because I think he just became a target.
The other thing that bothers me about the government's conduct in this is that their public statements in no way seem to condone the decision by the Immigration Department to grant those people asylum in the first place. They are very much taking a "sorry, that's our law, it's not our fault" line. I suppose in a way they have to for diplomacy reasons, but I wish that, having actually done the right thing with regard to a group of refugees, they'd stand up for the decision a little bit...
(From news.com.au)This piece of low brow satire (whose ability to invoke discomfort in its subjects makes me smile just a little bit) has been prompted by Australia accepting the asylum claims of refugees from Papua, offending the Indonesian government. You can read an ABC article about it here. I do feel sorry for the single Papuan who was sent home, though... conspiracy theorists in Indonesia are apparently suggesting that he's an Australian spy.
If he didn't deserve refugee status before, that single claim ought to get that decision reversed on the spot because I think he just became a target.
The other thing that bothers me about the government's conduct in this is that their public statements in no way seem to condone the decision by the Immigration Department to grant those people asylum in the first place. They are very much taking a "sorry, that's our law, it's not our fault" line. I suppose in a way they have to for diplomacy reasons, but I wish that, having actually done the right thing with regard to a group of refugees, they'd stand up for the decision a little bit...
// posted by Cass @ 1:32 PM 
Comments:
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Nah, they can't help not being proud of this decision. It would undercut all their good work on getting the indons to stop snake heads over there.
That's the cynic in me talking.
I did find it delish that Downer had to say 'don't like it but hey free speech' because to do anything less would cast him as a hypocrit.
I'd say he was more offended however by the Australian editorial that labelled him a disgrace and recommended he be sacked. You know life's not so good when your 'rah, rah the Liberals are great' biggest supporter labels you incompetant.
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That's the cynic in me talking.
I did find it delish that Downer had to say 'don't like it but hey free speech' because to do anything less would cast him as a hypocrit.
I'd say he was more offended however by the Australian editorial that labelled him a disgrace and recommended he be sacked. You know life's not so good when your 'rah, rah the Liberals are great' biggest supporter labels you incompetant.
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