How many Syrian refugees should Australia take?

[pietillidie]

No, it's not a straw man. It's communication; doing what we're doing right now. And it complicates more simpleton views of the world.

Don't be distracted by the "language" as some divorced entity; that's just the first thing you notice when reading about something, as you're doing. Cleansing is as cleansing does, of course.

The lack of solution for this other impure group, aside from cleansing the streets of their vile uncontrolled desires by prosecuting them and shipping them off is revealing because of its behavioural intent.

The moral sincerity test is always the responsibility you take for the less desirable. Punishing, dumping, containing: These things without a commensurate commitment to developing speak volumes.

As I say, gone are the development lessons and triumphs of Asia; it has since become a pretend badge of honour to bomb, shift or contain, rather than develop.

[Mugwump]

^ I do not really recongise this "development triumph" of ours in Asia ; it seems to have been the achievement of the various Asian peoples themselves ; a strong social order, fairly benign government and free markets and free trade, and preferring the language of self-development, opportunity and education over that of victimhood. Credit to them. They are certainly outcompeting most of the West (or at least Europe).

[pietillidie]

^Germany and Japan were obviously already industrialised, and needed security, technology transfer and trade access. Not to mention the role of the, ahem, Marshall Plan in rebuilding the former, and the security following the divide with the Soviets.

Both, of course, had excellent internal infrastructure and social organisaton.

The Asian Tigers needed much more direct help.

On all accounts, though, the intention was to get trade, stability and self-sufficiency going.

To underscore the point, controversy still remains about there being too much support for, and forbearance with, early authoritarian regimes. The most notorious was of course, Suharto, but it applies more pertinently to the Asian Tigers.

Korea's support was huge, and so Taiwan's, whose GDP was propped up by US transfers for a couple of decades, while the security contribution was on top of that.

The posture in all cases was support for development and trade, with the blind free market nonsense luckily pulled in by indigenous forces, enabling more balanced development, giving rise to the rift between neoliberal development, which focuses on the first half, and other development models which emphasise the role of the second half.

Where is that posture towards that great region from North Africa to Russia? Trillions spent on wrecking the joint and propping up dictators without a development posture. At least Park Jung-hee and Tiger colleagues were committed to development, tyrannical excesses notwithstanding.

Not having an intention to help people move forward is a moral fraud, if not an outright violence. And in this case, one which will keep imposing massive instability costs on this crass new denialism.

[Mugwump]

The West trades heavily with the ME and Russia. It's just that (more or less) all they have worth buying is crude oil and gas. I don't think it's the job of Western governments to run an industrial policy for them, especially as they are mostly hostile to us ...?

[Morrigu]

Oi PTID don't you ascribe your negative connotations to terms I use everyday and assume as fact ( your uninformed fact) that they are used in a derogatory fashion!

Like round them up - I asked a colleague today to " round them up" as I was ready to start an education session on critical bleeding!!

[pietillidie]

^Hmm. I thought the bits about "stemming the flow", "mopping up" and "disinfecting the region" were also quite revealing!

(As an aside, Morrigu, it looks like we're moving to Ireland for the adventure of it in a week's time...).

[stui magpie]

[Mugwump]

^ Somehow I don't think there is too much risk of that in PtiD's case. The best advice would be to take an umbrella.

[Morrigu]

[pietillidie]

^Ha, awesome

We are chasing up a few job opportunities for the Beloved One, so we could end up anywhere from Dublin to Cork or Galway, with those obviously being the best for IT. I definitely hope to avoid the suburbs of Dublin or Cork, but one gets a grim feeling when it comes to the Beloved's job aspirations....

Part of me has the selfish desire to live by the sea for a while, fishing and working online It's funny you mentioned the Antrim Coast because if we do end up working remotely, which is still a possibility, we were pondering somewhere from Sligo north with fibre Internet!

The Connemara is definitely on the agenda once we get sorted! You don't have any keen fishos in the family who live on a nice lough by any chance?

I may not have mentioned, but while the old fella was a Yorkshireman, mum's (father's) side are all O' ~ from County Cork and the SE, so I will playing up maternal roots this time

Shall keep you posted on this - thanks for the enthusiastic advice!

[pietillidie]

[Morrigu]

[Wokko]

[stui magpie]

^

they're Irish, they're not meant to make sense.

I remember reading an article years ago from an Irishman living in Australia, comparing the two countries. Apart from the obvious weather comparison, one that stuck with me was the observation that a farmer in Australia might have hundreds or thousands of acres of land with sheep, cattle and crops where a farmer in Ireland would likely have 10 square feet of mud and an elderly pig.

[Morrigu]

^ And then there are tales of drop bears and Nessie appearing and leprechauns at the end of the rainbow with pots of gold

Nah Wokko everyone is fair game!!