Comments on: Comments, corrections, clarifications, and c*ckups http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/01/comments-corrections-clarifications-and-cckups/ now with extra source Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:14:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Cathy Bannister http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/01/comments-corrections-clarifications-and-cckups/#comment-17057 Cathy Bannister Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-17057 The difficulty Tony Kevin has had convincing people of the SIEV X tragedy is this: even reasonable, intelligent people find their belief systems, particularly about democracy and Austrlian society, shaken to the core by the idea that the Howard Government might have effectively set up the whole tragedy. That and the fact that there are few witnesses (apart from those already discredited as 'queue jumpers' ) make it very difficult for people to believe. The concept is so totally unthinkable that people refuse to think it. <br /><br />My mother cancelled her subscription to the Canberra Times when Jack Waterford was publishing Tony Kevin's first articles. She just couldn't get her head around the evidence. It will take a lot of hard evidence to break through such a strong cultural barrier. The difficulty Tony Kevin has had convincing people of the SIEV X tragedy is this: even reasonable, intelligent people find their belief systems, particularly about democracy and Austrlian society, shaken to the core by the idea that the Howard Government might have effectively set up the whole tragedy. That and the fact that there are few witnesses (apart from those already discredited as ‘queue jumpers’ ) make it very difficult for people to believe. The concept is so totally unthinkable that people refuse to think it.

My mother cancelled her subscription to the Canberra Times when Jack Waterford was publishing Tony Kevin’s first articles. She just couldn’t get her head around the evidence. It will take a lot of hard evidence to break through such a strong cultural barrier.

]]> By: Marilyn http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/01/comments-corrections-clarifications-and-cckups/#comment-17058 Marilyn Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-17058 A couple of books due soon will expose more of the horrors we are supposed to be fogetting about detention.<br /><br />One by Linda Briskman is the people's inquiry due in September and is called Human rights overboard, published by Scribe.<br /><br />The second out in October finally tells the true story of what the bastards in the department did to those they illegally deported, the story of the Bakhtiyari family that not one main stream media outlet would publish. A couple of books due soon will expose more of the horrors we are supposed to be fogetting about detention.

One by Linda Briskman is the people’s inquiry due in September and is called Human rights overboard, published by Scribe.

The second out in October finally tells the true story of what the bastards in the department did to those they illegally deported, the story of the Bakhtiyari family that not one main stream media outlet would publish.

]]> By: Jack Lee http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/01/comments-corrections-clarifications-and-cckups/#comment-17059 Jack Lee Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-17059 Tony Kevin is being a little irritating in his attack on Mungo Macallum's summary of the Howard governments' amorality in the refugee issue. Amazingly I don't think Mungo meant that mandatory detention was bad, while drowning kids was good - i think he used it as a shorthand to typify the whole system - lest he start sounding like Dave Spart - of which SIEV-X was a part. Given the number of arseholes who've defended all this, the charge that Mungo is self-censoring is nasty and unwarranted. Kevin has a slightly off-putting tendency to accuse anyone who doesn't specifically mention these things of being indifferent to them. I'll generously take this as a measure of his passion about the issue, not self-aggrandisement connected with an event whose exposure he had something to do with. Tony Kevin is being a little irritating in his attack on Mungo Macallum’s summary of the Howard governments’ amorality in the refugee issue. Amazingly I don’t think Mungo meant that mandatory detention was bad, while drowning kids was good - i think he used it as a shorthand to typify the whole system - lest he start sounding like Dave Spart - of which SIEV-X was a part. Given the number of arseholes who’ve defended all this, the charge that Mungo is self-censoring is nasty and unwarranted. Kevin has a slightly off-putting tendency to accuse anyone who doesn’t specifically mention these things of being indifferent to them. I’ll generously take this as a measure of his passion about the issue, not self-aggrandisement connected with an event whose exposure he had something to do with.

]]> By: Jonathan Breck http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/01/comments-corrections-clarifications-and-cckups/#comment-17060 Jonathan Breck Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-17060 http://www.liberalnationalparty.com has been purchased by the bindiirwin.com guy. How embarassing for the new party. http://www.liberalnationalparty.com has been purchased by the bindiirwin.com guy. How embarassing for the new party.

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