The Age is reporting that 10 of the athletes were granted permanent visas to remain in Australia. The athletes were granted permanent visas after proving to the Department of Immigration they were legitimate refugees. Their four other teammates will find out this week if their applications have been successful. This is fantastic news… and proof that without political interference (ie: Tampa, SIEV X, West Papuan’s), that the system works!

Secondly, on the linking function. You’ll have to do a a href link. Ask Mr Squiggle… he’ll show you how!

Finally, don’t forget to support Make Poverty History!
PS: I’ve only been wearing the wrist band for almost a year… I’m glad to see you have all been paying attention!

Idle thoughts - why can’t I insert links in the comments, looks like WordPress have some powering up to do, although I don’t know that any commenting system has that function. Maybe we should start a revolution!

BGE

I want everyone to be able to have a life free from major hardship, simply having access to the things most of us take for granted, such as a roof over our heads, good food, clean drinking water and medical care. This apparently is called having a daydreamy fairy fuzzy land ideal. Why? Because at the end of the day there IS poverty, disease and death and violence. There ISN’T a way that you, me and Jo Blo can stop a war that has been going on for decades, feed millions of starving children and help billions of dying people live.
I understand why the athletes in question want to find refuge in a country that has even more than just the basics, I really do. And I wish that our government would do something more to help all the needy people of the world, we sure as hell have plenty of land.
But what happens when the whole of Sierra Leon departs and is let into Europe, the USA and Australia and the whole of Bangledesh is packed up and sent elsewhere and so on?
Then are all the third world countries left bare and baron and Australia takes on a war that started there but ends here?
With all the help that goes out..tell me what can we do? There is no such thing as utopia, there is just life.

The massive medal haul at the Games kinda makes me cringe. Together with a debatable one-sided television coverage, others could be excused of thinking Australia is not only sports-addled but also bad winners. I am starting to think that Australia’s apathy for anything other than sport leads us to accept social injustices in the world community - A community we so desperately need to be part of.

I am not saying that we should be shameful of being the best in the Commonwelath or dismiss the achievements of individual athletes - they’re certainly worthy of praise but there is more to being a mature nation than watching Australians winning in sport.Let’s flex our Commonwealth superiority in other fields - if this means helping other less fortunate people with a grim and (quite frankly) shantytown future, then so be it.

This is probably the most political I’ll ever get, so for those not use to it, the normal BGE will be back soon.

BGE