18 Comments on wednesday april 11, 2007 : field report
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Don’t Have to Live Like a Refugee!
“Mateship.” Hear, hear.
I believe I’ll crack a tube or two in honor of this fellow at my next opportunity.
Nice reminder not to judge anyone on first impression.
Having said that: The report itself was real hot and cold for me. Some very nice photography was mixed in with just enough of those out-of-focus, camera-sideways zoom and tracking shots to make me reach for the Dramamine. Have we learned nothing from all those terrible 40-year-old rock documentaries?
While I applaud Ian’s efforts, I think they will bite the hand that’s feeding them. Muslims are NOT our friends. They consider treachory a virtue. Australia is waking up to a fifth colum of jihadists infidels.
You sound like a candidate for one of the barbecues Ian is describing. Though it would probably be a waste of time in your case.
Never trust anyone who claims to be a card-carrying member of a group whose name he can’t spell.
Although I do not agree with how this was stated, I understand the point. Bloggermouth is saying that Afghanis have very different values which they will import and which will eventually either be adopted by Aussies or will lead to clashes and social problems. This is a legitimate concern. Fundamentalist shariah Muslim tribal Afghan culture has some repugnant aspects (honor killings, enslavement of women, etc). And Europe has shown us that Muslim immigrants do not easily assimilate and can be very costly to society. And when these immigrants are under-educated (these Afghans are illiterate and don’t speak English) they tend to form a permanent underclass.
These points are usually considered “conservative”, since conservatives are fearful of change and diversity pretty much by definition. And since liberals tend to think of and love the individual, they also sometimes ignore larger group effects. But liberals, or at least liberal intellectuals, should be wary about embracing this sort of immigration except in very small numbers.
I’d also like to say that Ian Skilling is a warm hearted, generous, beautiful, giving, and loving person. But I wouldn’t want to put him in charge of my country’s Dept of Immigration.
You sir, are an intolerant, prejudiced racist. have you listened to anything that farmer said? You are the scum of the earth.
But you’re only saying that because you need to believe that you’re a good person, even though if we were to analyze you we’d surely find you aren’t.
I agree that people need to wake up to the barbarity of Islam, but there are certainly individual Muslims who, like Christians, ignore their “holy” book.
All religious people pick and choose what parts of their holy books they want to live by, and then many turn around and claim it’s a book given to them by their god and therefore all correct.
But in the case of many Muslims, the barbarity is often not due to their religion but rather their barbarity is due to their traditional culture, which Islam merely sanctions.
For instance, female genital mutilation is common in many Muslim countries, but is not required by the Koran.
That said, the Koran does support slavery which is why you have it still in Saudi Arabia.
Good report, Dominic Allen, well done.
And good on you Ian Skiller for being a decent human being.
Bloggermouth: For shame, for shame.
What a kind, considerate humanitarian Ian is & my impression of what most Aussies are like. I had to chuckle though when he said \”we teach them how to speak English or Australian\” like they were totally different languages & @ 252/266 pounds, that\’s one hefty Afghani! Ian looks like he packs a few shrimp on the barbie ;^)
Also wondering if his cherry trees bear fruit in a drought?
lp
I cannot thank Rockboom enough for communicating what big news companies think is unimportant and what is swept under the rug. The story today was very good. Thank you, and this is why I feel a sense of pride when I wear my rocketboom tshirt.
I envy you wade, I\’ve been waiting 3 months for my t-shirt!
Every night, just before leaving, the janitor at RB sets out a pile of cotton and some pots of dye. And the next morning, without fail, there is a shirt, perfectly woven and beautifully sewn, waiting for the next lucky viewer. So you may have to wait 3 months or even 3 years, but in the end it\’ll be worth it.
This guy in Australia is just doing what farmers in America do, namely he is pursuing self-interest and sprinkling other talk to make it seem altruistic.
People like him don’t want to admit it, but the truth is that using cheap foreign labor is about profit, profit, profit, and not about being a nice guy.
If Australia or the USA were to let in people just because their country is a mess, the 1st World would quickly be overrun with foreigners who likely wouldn’t respect local people or laws, which is what you see in Europe where foreign Muslims want to impose Sharia law and they’re a major source of crime.
Every single country pn the planet has rules about when it’s OK and not OK to let in foreigners, even Afghanistan does. Those rules and the reasoning behind them have to be respected.
Businesspeople should never be the ones to set immigration policy. Time and again they show they don’t care about their fellow citizens, their country, or law and order. They care about short term profit.
Here’s a web page on a similar theme:
http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/mexico.html
I think a lot of people are missing the point here.
I think we have to resist trying to draw this story into the bigger picture. It’s a small-scale tale of humans trying to get by and bouncing off one another in the process. One day Ian saw five very strange-looking guys get out of a car, including at least one he was worried could throttle him. These were guys he knew had probably been in the slammer for a while to boot. And somehow he connected with them, because they were not crazy nuts come to slay him for a vengeful God but merely hungry men looking for work. And on that level they made some connection. Ian and his mates took on the job of educating them, and perhaps more importantly, they got to know them as people. I’d be interested, after a few of those barbecues, to talk to those guys about sharia and the ways their ;last country’s laws treat people, women especially, and about the lessons about humanity they may have learned from the portly beet-red guy they drove up to that day in the Camry.
Nab and Zach, you guys make some good points, and I read your posts over a couple times each and they made me think. And, you can spell.
You\’re right, it\’s mostly a story writ small, about keeping an open mind and heart. But Mr Skilling did talk about politics and immigration policy, so that is part of the story too.
Spell? My spelling sux. Are you making fun of moi?