Numbers Game: Refugees.

We're wasting millions on asylum seekers.

• We could save $80 million dollars a year if we processed our asylum seekers in Australia as opposed to using offshore "solutions". $80 million is also the cost of building a new hospital.

We are being flooded by "boat people".

• "Boat people" (beware of people who use this term without irony) made up 1.5% of Australia's immigration intake since the first arrival of "boat people" from Vietnam in 1976 (Dept. of Immigration).
• The number of applications for asylum last year was 922 500. South Africa received 222 000, the US received 47 900, Ecuador received 35 500 - Australia received 6 206, which is 0.67% of the world's total.

Boat people are "queue jumpers".

• If such a "queue" existed (the UN has confirmed it doesn't), it would take all the refugees in the world 188 years to resettle (UNHCR).

They should stay where they are and fix they're own problems.

• A report in 2009 showed that 1 in 4 of the world's refugees were from Afghanistan. 96% of of these are hosted by Pakistan and Iran - both developing countries.
• The other countries that are the largest sources of refugees are Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar - all experiencing war, torn apart by violent and corrupt governments (UNHCR).

The "Malaysia solution" will serve as a "big blow" to people smugglers.

• Labor's proposed Malaysia solution would see 800 of Australia's "boat people" traded to Malaysia in exchange for 4000 refugees in Malaysia currently in a state of limbo and living in poverty. Trade? Refugees are people. People should not be traded like commodities. This is not a "solution".

Multicultralism in Australia isn't working.

• My parents and my two sisters moved to Australia in 1981 after walking to a Thai refugee camp from labour camps in Cambodia and living in the camp for ever a year - almost 30 years later, they have 3 university-educated daughters who pay their taxes and are politically aware and involved. To say that refugees contribute nothing is to purposefully ignore the reality of the situation to strengthen your bigotry.

Now that we're done talking numbers, let's start talking about refugees as if they are human beings. We, are the luckiest people in the world by virtue of the fact that we were born in the First World. Refugees aren't so lucky. They are living through our worst nightmares because were unfortunate enough to have taken their first breath in the world's most dangerous places and are feared and loathed in Australia because they dared to hope. Dared to hope. Dared to dream.

Wake up call.

I've been seriously ill twice in the past 4 months. This second affliction I have just recovered from has me questioning the way I've started my year. In the past bed-ridden week I have copped it from 15 different people - friends, family, workmates - about getting too stressed out and needing to take it easy.

It hasn't exactly been smooth and they're (annoyingly) right. I find myself taking things too seriously - things I never used to let bother me now keep me awake at night.

Lately I've found myself getting too consumed in the big picture. It is good sometimes to stand back and and reflect. However, I'm starting to find more and more that thinking too much about the big picture can mean that the simpler joys, or small victories, can pass you by. We try so hard to just get through the day, with "phew, glad that's over" a catch-cry that is all too common these days. But if we look for the Small Victories, we don't just get through the day - we win the day.

Today, I made my best friend smile by reminding her I was on her side.

What was one of your small victories today?

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Gen Y Not?

I both loathe and pity this girl.

I refuse to name her for a couple of reasons:
a) I'm sick of the amount of attention her story is getting - people making money from teenage angst (that's you, Channel 9)
b) If she is genuine with wanting to move on with her life, everyone knowing her name and associating her with previous "scandal" is not going to help
c) This entry is not about her

The 7PM Project ran a story tonight about Generation Y that used her story as the spring-board for the following question: is Generation Y obsessed with fame without doing anything to deserve it?

This, on top of recent articles about Generation Y being "infected" with narcissism, made me incensed. Can a whole generation of people truly be encapsulated with one word, one feeling, one identity? And if you can - is it fair?

My answer lies in history.

The term "adolescent" is relatively new. While there are a myriad of different explanations for what it means, one thing that everyone can agree on is that it is a turbulent time, when you are at the whim of your hormones and trying to carve out an identity amidst the pressure of family, friends and sworn enemies. It's a rite of passage where boundaries are tested - a time all must go through to reach the goal of maturity.

One may ask however (I know I sure as hell do), how mature it could possibly be to lump a group of people together as soon as a chosen "representative" gets it wrong? We've all been taught that we should never generalise - it's wrong to assume that all black men have large penises, that women aren't capable of doing the same things as men, that all Muslims are not terrorists... yet as soon as a naive and shortsighted teenage girl plays with power and flirts with fame and victimises an entire football (none of which I endorse, in case you're wondering), the integrity of ALL Gen Y is questioned?

When the Baby Boomers started their waves of change in the 1960s and 1970s, they were branded troublemakers and shit-stirrers by older generations - those that had achieved "maturity". Yet the legacy that they have left - equal rights for women, the dismantling of the White Australia Policy and the formation of normative frameworks that would condemn discrimination and embrace difference and diversity - is one that we have all appreciated and should never be underestimated. Amidst the moral panic they produced amongst their elders, the Baby Boomers proved themselves to be revolutionaries achieving feats we are still celebrating.

I guess I'm trying to say is that before you condemn us to being stupid or apathetic, please remember that those that had been accused of the same (or worse) were still able to produce something inspiring and core-shaking.

We are the generation who (similarly to the Baby Boomers) have witnessed wars that needn't be fought, watched regimes that prey on fear and capitalise on hate develop without a finger lifted by leaders that have the power to save millions of lives and do nothing. We are the generation who said "no" to the shortsightedness of the representatives that approved such idleness. We are the generation that have planted the seed for change, have seen Australia's first female Prime Minister take office and helped a black president write a new chapter in history books.

We are not the disengaged youth that buy into every flashy fad that YOU sell to us. We are not our mistakes, nor should our mistakes decide what you think we are.

I leave you with a request from Pulp that has been granted to those before us but is one that we need to yell and demand instead of suggest. It should represent not only the thoughts of Generation Y but the generations of rebellious youth to come.

We don't want no trouble, we just want the right to be different. That is all.

We are rebels. We are rebels with a cause. Many causes. The first may be to piss you off. The rest? You just have to wait and see.

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What are you thankful for?

I have always loved the idea of Thanksgiving.

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia. When I did my year of exchange in Michigan in high school, I looked forward more to Thanksgiving than I did Christmas. There's something about Thanksgiving that seems to carry more weight than other holidays - and I'm talking not just about the turkey, the first snowfall of the year or the flowing of drinks and merriment.

It is probably the absence of presents. It means the holiday stands out as a time to reflect on and celebrate the things that mean most to us. It probably doesn't sound like a lot, especially when you have grown up with the tradition. But I think the message of the day is important, and beautiful.

I struggle to think of a time, since arriving home from my year in Michigan where I made time to stop and smell the roses. With life taking us in all different directions - peaks, troughs, laughter, tantrums - things can really get away from us sometimes. Moments of clarity where you do appreciate and give thanks for all the blessings that make it worth getting out of bed are rare amongst all the obstacles thrown our way.

So while it is still the last Thursday in November for the next few hours, I am going to have my own Thanksgiving day - being thankful for all that makes me smile. I will bask in the joy of knowing that there are things in my life to be thankful for. In my case, those "things" are many and beautiful.

So happy Thanksgiving, one and all! I hope that your celebration (whether it is part of tradition or a thoughtful reflection) is as meaningful and heartwarming for you as it will be for me.

We are saved...

...from the wrath that was the McCain/Palin onslaught!



This was a speech for the ages, one that not only African Americans will look to as the epitome of hope and courage, but the rest of the world will look to this historic moment as the start of a new beginning - free from the shackles of old bigotry that was the Bush administration. As I sat on the floor of my boyfriend's lounge room, I knew that this was a moment that I would be proud to tell my grandchildren about years from now; as a time that the world stopped to see that faith and hope was blind to race, gender, religion and sexual orientation. As a proud Australian and world citizen, I cannot find the words to express how happy I am that so many dreams were realised yesterday, and that the best man for the job won.

The world is and will be a step closer to being a better place now. Obama/Biden is the dawn of a new, bright and hopeful day.