Moorooka you have conflated a lot of issues in this post. Viets came here from a war from memory to escape death and prison from the communists ( thats what communists do) . Morrison is the star performer on the boats great job scott keep it up.
The issues are directly related, that is:
If we choose to fight overseas wars then we should accept the consequences which among
others are refugees who were losers in the conflict. In the case of the boat people who came here from Vietnam,
they had two options following the US & Australian withdrawal of support:
(a) hit the boats and migrate
(b) be rounded up by the Communists and detained indefinitely in a re-education centre
(the Vietcong version of the Stalinist Gulag)
I have experienced an instance of a Vietnamese boat person who made his way to Australia
by boat having been at sea for 17 weeks and having lost his wife and 3 children by starvation
as well as thirty something out of the initial 55 who set off from the Mekong Delta. He arrived
at my shop looking for directions to his Aussie friend whom he fought side by side with in Vietnam
against the Vietcong.
On the fall of Siagon he( Joe was his western name) and his family went from safe house to safe house until they eventually found a boat willing to take them to Australia for his life's savings.
I went with him a few blocks away and knocked on the door and hid Digger mate half drunk opened the door and when Joe went to embrace him his "friend" moved back and says " mate, there's nothing for you here" and closed the door.
I took Joe back to my shop and found him accommodation with a recently arrived Vietnamese family
and within a month he had two jobs working 16 hours a day and within 3 years he owned his own restaurant
and employed 5 or six others
.I spoke to him a few years ago and he was still very disappointed with his
"friends" reception 36 years later but that did not deter him from becoming a millionaire through hard work.
For me Joe's case exemplifies our double standards on going to war and its consequences and, with all
probability, Joe eventually figured out better than his digger "mate".
It is easy for bloggers venting anti-refugee sentiment on these boards without having experienced
the horrors of war from either side of the fence.
