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Ohhhh.... Found this, why is this not on the potential list?

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From the New York Times:

Australia’s Brutal Treatment of Migrants
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
SEPT. 3, 2015

Some European officials may be tempted to adopt the hard-line approach Australia has used to stem a similar tide of migrants. That would be unconscionable.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has overseen a ruthlessly effective effort to stop boats packed with migrants, many of them refugees, from reaching Australia’s shores. His policies have been inhumane, of dubious legality and strikingly at odds with the country’s tradition of welcoming people fleeing persecution and war.

Since 2013, Australia has deployed its navy to turn back boats with migrants, including asylum seekers, before they could get close to its shores. Military personnel force vessels carrying people from Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea and other conflict-roiled nations toward Indonesia, where most of the journeys begin. A boat captain recently reported that Australian authorities paid him $30,000 to turn back. If true, that account, which the Australian government has not disputed, would represent a violation of international laws designed to prevent human smuggling and protect asylum seekers.

Those who have not been turned back are held at detention centers run by private contractors on nearby islands, including the tiny nation of Nauru. A report this week by an Australian Senate committee portrayed the Nauru center as a purgatory where children are sexually abused, guards give detainees marijuana in exchange for sex and some asylum seekers are so desperate that they stitch their lips shut in an act of protest. Instead of stopping the abuses, the Australian government has sought to hide them from the world.

The Border Force Act, which took effect July 1, makes it a crime punishable by a two-year prison sentence for employees at detention camps to discuss the conditions there publicly. Australia and Nauru, which depends heavily on Australian foreign aid, have gone to great lengths to keep international journalists from gaining access to the detention center, in which more than 2,200 people have been held since 2012. Last year, Nauru raised the fee it charges for journalists’ visas from $200 to roughly $8,000; applicants who are turned down are not given refunds.

Scores of people who have worked at the camp have become whistle-blowers. More than 40, including medical personnel and social workers, wrote a public letter to senior government officials in July saying they would rather risk arrest than stay quiet. “If we witness child abuse in Australia we are legally obliged to report it to child protection authorities,” they wrote. “If we witness child abuse in detention centers, we can go to prison for attempting to advocate for them effectively.”

European officials have traveled to Australia on fact-finding missions recently. Mr. Abbott, who argues that aggressively intercepting the boats saves lives, has urged European governments to follow his model, and some European leaders seem so inclined.

“The Australian model may seem attractive to politicians,” said Leonard Doyle, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration. “Politicians love fences, but what fences do is create a market for smugglers and major humanitarian problems.”

The world’s war zones are all but certain to continue to churn out an extraordinary number of refugees and economic migrants in the years ahead. Those people understandably will head to the most prosperous nations, hoping to rebuild their lives. It is inexcusable that some find themselves today in situations that are more hopeless and degrading than the ones that prompted them to flee.
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Remember how it felt having the eyes of the world on us as the Tampa episode unfolded?
 
Did anyone watch the VMAs?
I want to change my avatar to one of Miley's outfits but I'm thinking I'll get banned for inappropriate content!

Trying to figure if Nicki vs Miley is fake
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Inigo Montoya said:
New Zealand announces shortlist for new flag design

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-01/nz-announces-four-flag-finalists/6740674

I like them all, I wonder which one will be the new flag...
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they are voting on which one of these they prefer then will have a 2nd vote as to whether they DO actually want to change the flag

As a Kiwi-born Aussie I prefer the two with the Southern Cross - the simple black/white with silver fern is too much like an All Black's jumper for me (the silver fern also gets used by the armed forces and Air NZ ... so it needs something more to stop it looking like a product logo

... and the Koru looks like a product logo to me also - too simplistic and whilst it's great to acknowledge our Maori culture its only one part of the mix that is New Zealand's heritage. It would be like Australia adopting the Aboriginal flag as our National flag ... doesn't really represent Australia as a whole and there would be people who would never want to recognise it as the national flag because of that ...

of the two remaining I prefer the red/blue flag ... I think because it still ties in emotionally to the old flag without totally dismissing it. Plus in Maori culture red is a colour used for mana (prestige) so its just not harking back to the colonial links to England but has a true significance.

(you can tell I'm a confused person ... my "we" and "our" can mean Aust or NZ depending on the topic ...I have a foot in both camps I guess ... which comes in very handy when the AB's tank in the World Cup ... or visa versa ;)
 
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