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Because firstly, we are soft on minors. I suspect this has not quite sunk in yet Helian, even though I brought it up many times. Children do not make good pirates. They do make half decent basket weavers, but manning a ship on open waters takes a bit more. It is our laws that are the cause of children being put on these perilous journeys.

They are weak and inexperienced. 50 people died off Christmas island last year. That can't be good for business. It's not the sort of thing you want to have children running.

Unless of course children get let off scott free, whereas adults get guaranteed jail time.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2011 at 6:21am:


I'm not trying to obfuscate friend, i know when i am, i always end up sticky.

What i would desire is for you to conflate the two: Your one eye with the rest of reality.

Your selfishness is mirrored by the people who send these kids. weird.

The level of others' standards (for better or worse) is no excuse for failing our own.

My (et al) point exactly.

jame-e wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2011 at 8:59pm:

Not sure what that's all about 

jame-e wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2011 at 8:59pm:

Good. Then we're agreed that using discredited means to determine age, which inflicts a gross injustice on minors, is an example of where we have failed our own standards.

THE Australian Human Rights Commission will probe the treatment of Indonesian 'fisherboys' amid concerns over a controversial X-ray technique used to assess their age.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/human-rights-probe-on-wrist-x-r...

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Another minor goes free after smuggling case charge is dropped

For a start, the treatment of minors here in our jails and how we percieve the treatment I feel is in no way a reflection of how a adventerous indonseian kid might see a excursion in what their fathers claim is their own waterworld backyard. In fact while many of us are more intent on removing blackheads and choosing what color undies we might like to wear under our skirt/shorts today when we were 12 years old - like my father (yes not that long ago comparativley speaking) they leave school at anywhere from 10 upwards to work for their family business. What ever tha business might be. And if we are willing to venture back in history all the way to 80 years ago (so so long ago, HAHA ) I will point out to you an example of a dear departed friend of mine who was the bastard son of Sir John Hargraves. He was sent out as a 12 year old, by himself on horseback to tension and rewire over 120 miles of fencing. No mean feat for a 12 year. He was thirteen by the time he got back............ It is not unusual for youngsters in tribal or village communities to be expected to undertake simple tasks that may be arduous, but not hard or complex in their nature to complete. It is no small feat to realise it is prolly those same kids who piloted the boat as well as plot the course for the journey that now declare they are only cooks. As far as why the "child" might be told to complete the task set out for him? There is prolly a range of reasons a couple that we wouldn't and indeed culturally couldn't neccessarily fathom as an advantage in the development of a maturing illiterate young man. For example

1) A prisoner in an Australian jail has made available educational resources that a poor fishing family father could never possibly afford to purchase for the son. Therefore it is "worth it" to see his son educated and he is financially compensated for the loss of his son while he is away at "school".

2) In times of hardship due to unseasonal weather, natural catastrophe, poltical upheaval etc it might be an advantage to "foster" one or a number of your children off to OZ educational facilities at no cost to the family. In fact by the time  they have finished the sentence they end up earning a tidy sum  to take home with them.

3) The bastard son needs to find his own way and this is the only way to be rid of the kid for a while by selling him of to slave traders.

And make no mistake these people are slaves that are traded - ask any of the newly arrived how they get on in general if they make it to mainland Oz without the authorities picking them up and they will tell you everyone along the line abuses them and treats them as slaves.

In my own opinion the Fed Gov should make the crime of bringing these refo's here in this manner a crime against humanity and declare them as dangerous criminals, pass laws where execution by stoning is the maximum penalty life sentence the minimum, and then sit back and watch how many people smugglers are willing to risk their own lives as well as the lives of the refo's....................

Either way it will settle to a trickle within a week.

The point I'm trying to make here is that our white bread mentaity just doesn't comprehend their sago and tempeh vibe. And just so a few of the unknowing amongst us have a slightly better apreiciation of how divergent our thought processesare to our northern nieghbours, once you observe the maps they display on school walls and in text books where the northern half of Oz is coloured in the same colour as Indonesia the picture becomes a little clearer about how the establishment in Indonesia percieves the northern half of mainland Oz.