FUCK OFF WE'RE FULL ?

Another classic.

This phrase is slowly getting thrown around by those who really don't have the slightest idea about how the world works. If you asked them how the inflow of asylum seekers affected the Australian economy and our bottom line, none of them could tell you with certainty what the deal was. You could expect a ho-hum stock standard response along the lines of "THEY TERK ERR JERRRBBSS" but when you respond with the current statistics on skill shortages in Australia, they wouldn't know how to answer. It's easier then to shrug it off and keep believing that they terk er jerrbss than spending some time actually looking into the economic impact of accepting asylum seekers into our country. The shameful thing is, people are innately racist and when offered legitimate information they try their hardest to find a reason to ignore it. Whether its a stubborn pride thing that they dont want to change their minds, it's still a shame.

So to begin with, let's look at something simple. Let's disect this phrase statement at the most basic of levels.

So we're full are we? As in, we can't fit anymore people in? Our country is not big enough to hold more people? Ok then... Let's compare the geographic size of the United States to the size of Australia.

Total surface area of the world: 510 million square kilometres

Total Surface area of Australia: 7.2 million square kilometres (1.5% of the earth)

Total Surface area of the USA: 9.6 million square kilometres (1.9% of the earth)

Ok, so the USA is practically the same size as Australia. If you want to get technical, the US is only approx 25% larger than Australia. If you find this hard to believe, you probably have never looked at an atlas. So just for you, here it is:

FYI, Australia is the 6th largest country in the world.

So now we know how big our country is, How many people can we fit in here? Well, how much does America fit in there?

Population of the US: 309 million people

Population of Australia:  22.6 million

Hold on... if the US is only 25% larger than Australia, why can it fit in almost 15 times more people? That's 1500% more, btw. One Thousand, Five hundred percent. If Australia is full, isn't the USA SUPER DUPER FULL?

"Well.." you might say, "A big portion of Australia is desert. It's uninhabitable."

To which I say "Las Vegas is built in the middle of a Desert too."

Humans have the capabilities to reclaim uninhabitable land as their own through the expanding of roads and infrastructure. In Cape Town, South Africa, in the 1940s they pushed the ocean back 194 hectares to reclaim the land. 70 years ago, The Cape Town foreshore was under the ocean. Now it is covered in buildings and infrastructure, and is a hub of activity.

So if things got desperate, this writer does not think we'd have too much trouble expanding roads, pipelines and trains. We do it anyway for the mining industry. Newman in Western Australia is a full city built in the middle of the outback

BUT - that's if things got desperate. Things are not desperate.

"Oh but wait! things are desperate! Australia is MAINLY desert, we can't afford to feed more people! We don't have the resources!"

Wrong.

This is another catch phrase occasionally tacked onto the end of the "fuck off were full" complaint, or complaints like those discussed in This Article. I encourage those who hear someone say this to ask them how much food Australia produces each year vs how much we consume. Chances are they won't have the slightest idea. But for our convenience, this writer has done the research for you (references to all legitimate information sources are at the bottom of this article)

In the period of 2009-2010, the value of Australia’s food EXPORTS was $24.3 billion while the value of Australia’s food imports was $10.1 billion over the same period. In short, we sent overseas more than double what we brought in.

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Joe Ludwig commented on the 2009/2010 report, and said Australia continues to be in a strong position as a food exporter.

“Australia is founded on a strong agricultural sector. This report confirms that Australia continues to produce far more food that we can consume with a significant food surplus of $14.2 billion in 2009-10,” Minister Ludwig said.

So what now?

 So now that we know we have enough food for everyone, and that we've got enough space for everyone - just how many refugees are we accepting each year, do we even need to worry about space and food? Let's take a look at the statistics found by simply googling "Australian Refugee yearly intake" and then finding the most current source. 

Took this writer about 5 minutes to find that Australia's current refugee quota is 16,000 refugees per year. And out of that 16,000 people quota, only 8,250 applications for asylum were submitted to Australian Immigration in 2010. This writer could not find information on what % of those applications were accepted. It is safe to assume that it is less than 100%. But for arguments sake, lets just say 8,250 refugees were granted asylum last year.

(Side note: The USA has a refugee quota of 80,000 refugees per year. Last year, 78700 claims for asylum were lodged to the US.)

So how does 8,250 new residents in Australia compare to how fast Australia is growing each year naturally through birth rates? Well according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2009 Australia gave birth 295,000 times. That means that we are contributing 50 times more people than the refugees, purely by having families. The birth rates have been around this level for years, and Australia has only grown and prospered during the past 20 years. Another 8250 (2% of the birth rate) is not going to have a noticeable affect on the economy. Not an economy that has a $14 BILLION food excess, in the 6th largest country in the world.

Besides, if we're really that full, maybe its time we start promoting the use of condoms a bit more? .... Nah.





The well-cultivated critical thinker:
Richard Linden and Linda Elder, 2008

• raises vital questions and problems,formulating them clearly and precisely;
• gathers and assesses relevant information;
• carefully interprets information to form well-reasoned conclusions;
• tests conclusions,evaluating against relevant criteria;
• thinks open-mindedly,avoiding the influence of untested or irrational concepts and beliefs;and
• communicates effectively with others,particularly in the development and testing of conclusions or solutions.

REFERENCES:

 Australian Food Industry:

http://www.daff.gov.au/ludwig/media_office/media_releases/media_releases/2010/december/australia_maintains_strong_position_as_food_exporter

http://www.daff.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/1866171/afs-overview-aust-food-industry.pdf

Population Data:

USA - http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/apportionment-dens-text.php

Australia - http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/94713ad445ff1425ca25682000192af2/1647509ef7e25faaca2568a900154b63?OpenDocument

Australian Bureau of Statistics - Birth Rates:

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/4D11AD4B275567B4CA2577CF000DEEC6?opendocument

Richard Linden and Linda Elder, 2008
http://www.criticalthinking.org/store-page.cfm?P=products&ItemID=156&catalogID=224&cateID=132

Too much money spent on refugees?

We've all heard it before:

"IM SO SICK OF OUR GOVERNMENT SPENDING MONEY ON HOUSING REFUGEES WHEN WEVE GOT PROBLEMS OF OUR OWN. HOWABOUT WE LOOK AFTER OUR OWN FIRST? I DON’T WANT MY HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS GOING TO THEM WHEN THERE ARE HOMELESS AND ELDERLY IN AUSTRALIA TO TAKE CARE OF!"

The above is a classic cry of someone who’s not once looked into how the Australian government spends their “hard earned” dollars, and instead has formed an impulsive opinion based entirely on anecdotal evidence comprised of a few 15 second video clips from the news and what they read in newspapers that are owned by the same company that produce the news on TV.

 

Didn’t our schools used to teach us how to think critically and analyse all available information before drawing conclusions?

It’s a shame that most people who are guilty of saying, or thinking something along the lines of the  above, won’t have the patience to read past the next sentence and absorb some legitimate information with which to base their opinions on. 

All one must do to overcome the myth that we are spending too much money on refugees and not enough in our own backyard, is to actually look at the budget itself. Most people will be quite surprised.

Let’s take a look at the Australian Budget for 2010/2011. And FYI, the Aussie budget is readily available to the public online and all you need to do is Google “Australian Budget for 2010/2011” to find it. Relevant links used to source this data are referenced at the bottom.

Now, below is how the government is spending your money in 2010/2011…

-------------------------------

TOTAL AGGREGATE EXPENDITURE on everything and anything:  $354.6 BILLION

This is the total amount of out going cash. The “final” figure on how much money is spent in one year.

-------------------------------

AUSTRALIAN SOCIAL SECURITY AND WELFARE expenditure: $114.9 BILLION

This is the “looking after our own” expenditure. This accounts for 32.5% of the entire spending.

--------------------------------

HOMELESSNESS expenditure: $4.9 BILLION

The current investment in the "White Paper" scheme. This accounts for 1.5% of the entire spending.

----------------------------------

AGED CARE approxmate expenditure: $883.7 million

The above figure is the sum of various (though not all) “Aged Care” initiatives throughout the budget. $36.8m of this is a capital measure, not an expenditure, though in this context they are much the same. This accounts for 0.25% of the total aggregate expenditure.

--------------------------------

AUSTRALIAN SPORTS expenditure: $324.8 million

This money is granted to the Australian Sports Commission. This accounts for 0.092% of the entire spending. 

--------------------------------

TOTAL EXPENDITURE ON DETENTION CENTRES FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS $ 202.2 million

143 million of that goes towards expanding the detention centres to stop the over crowding. $22 million of that goes towards improving basic amenities (toilets, showers, etc). This isn’t covering the cost of a white picket fence, it’s a cost to provide them with basic human rights while they are being detained and processed.

-----------------------------------------------

After having had a look at these figures taken directly from the 2010/2011 Australia budget, it does make you wonder what the hell these people are talking about when they whinge about how much we spend on refugees vs ourselves.

 Graphical representation of expenditure levels for different areas of the Australian 2010/2011 Budget

As you can see from the above graph, what we spend on detention centres is just over half of what we spend on sports!!

Detention Centre spending accounts for 0.057% of the total aggregate expenditure. Keep in mind that this is not 5.70% (~6 out of every hundred), it is 0.057% (~6 out of every TEN THOUSAND)... a tiny fraction compared to the 32.5% (~32 out of every HUNDRED) spent on our own backyards welfare. 

A little exercise and something to think about:

The government currently commits 1.5% of its expenditure towards homelessness.

The average Australian worker earns $68,900 per annum. 1.5% of this income is $1033. And yet the same people who complain that the government doesn't spend enough on the homeless, are the same people who wont even put a $2 coin into the cup of the homeless guy sleeping on a park bench in plain view of the city. $2 is a mere 0.003% of their annual income, btw).

As mentioned above, the amount spent on Refugees is a tiny fraction of what we spend in our own back yard. In fact, it is almost 600 times smaller amount than what we spend in our own back yard.

Comparatively, the average human (standing at 1.6m tall) is about 500 times smaller than the world’s tallest building, The Burj Khalifa in Dubai which stands at 828m. Let’s take a look at the Burj Khalifa…

 Now imagine a human standing next to it. For those of you that live in Perth, Western Australia - its the same ratio as if you vertically stacked FOUR Bankwest towers on top of each other then stood next to it. This is the same ratio of our budget that we spend on Refugees and Detention Centres vs The Welfare and Social Security of the Australian people.

 

 “What else is spent on the asylum seekers? I heard we spend around 2 billion on them!”

Not quite. 

Australia has allocated $1.2 billion towards border control & security – 63% of which is spent on airport security, not “boat people”. The rest goes towards helping Indonesia combat people-smuggling activities, a new and improved passport system for Australia, 8 patrol vessels, among other things.

It is also true that Australia has allocated $2.2 billion towards Australia’s Immigrant and Citizenship operations. This is for people with working holiday visas, etc who migrate from the UK, Europe, USA etc. Only a small percentage ($87 million – 0.024% of total budget expenditure) goes towards housing & integrating the legitimate refugees who have been screened, processed and granted asylum in Australia (and this is for the most part, refugees who have gone through the correct channels and not arrived by boat).

Keep in mind that this money is also spent on processing and screening these people to make sure they are legitimate refugees, and that they don’t bring with them any diseases like AIDS or TB. If we cut spending on these processes, it only increases the flow of illegal asylum seekers and increases the chance of people who pose a risk to Australian society getting in.

Either we maintain spending and continue to screen the people who come into Australia, or we cut spending and we let people that could cause us harm into our country. You can't have your cake and eat it too!

 Now it's unfortunate that a large proportion of those people who throw up uninformed facebook statuses (like the one at the beginning of this article) will not have read this far. It's also unfortunate out of those that DID read this far, are still trying to find a way in the back of their minds to dislike the idea of refugees / asylum seekers coming to Australia. But they'll still tell you they're not racist. 

A lot of people think racism has to be overt and 'in your face' white hoods etc etc - but its an underlying problem prevalent in Australian society today, and when people dont know where or how to find the correct raw information, or simply cant be bothered looking any further than the mainstream news that bundles it into a 30 minute soap highlight - then its no wonder people bare a grudge against refugees. Might be a time for them to take a look at themselves. If they're not racist like they like to say they arent, lets hope next time they are presented with a 5 second film clip of some angry minority protesting inside a detention centre, they ask themselves things like "What would cause them to revolt in such a way?" as opposed to "Why should we be helping these people??"

SO SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:

I don't ever hear people complaining about the Australian Sports industry getting priority over the eldery or the homeless, because it certainly gets priority over the refugees.

The well-cultivated critical thinker:
Richard Linden and Linda Elder, 2008

• raises vital questions and problems,formulating them clearly and precisely;
• gathers and assesses relevant information;
• carefully interprets information to form well-reasoned conclusions;
• tests conclusions,evaluating against relevant criteria;
• thinks open-mindedly,avoiding the influence of untested or irrational concepts and beliefs;and
• communicates effectively with others,particularly in the development and testing of conclusions or solutions.

REFERENCES:

Australian 2010/2011 Budget Aggregates:

http://www.budget.gov.au/2010-11/content/overview/html/overview_31.htm

Australian 2010/2011 Taxation & Spending pie charts:

http://www.budget.gov.au/2010-11/content/overview/html/overview_37.htm

Australian 2010/2011 Spending on Sports & Aged Care:

http://www.budget.gov.au/2010-11/content/bp2/html/bp2_expense-13.htm

http://www.budget.gov.au/2010-11/content/bp2/html/bp2_capital-08.htm

http://www.ausport.gov.au/about/feature_stories/breaking_down_the_sport_budget

Information on Australia's investment in improving homelessness:

http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/housing/pubs/homelessness/AGIPH_white_paper/Documents/0_foreward.htm

Richard Linden and Linda Elder, 2008
http://www.criticalthinking.org/store-page.cfm?P=products&ItemID=156&catalogID=224&cateID=132

Australian Refugee Situation

For the benefit of those who (a) Don't live in Australia, or (b) Live in Australia and still don't have much of an idea about what is going on with the refugee situation, I have written a brief summary of the current issue at hand and what has been going on for years.



Australia get a lot of people (officially referred to as 'asylum seekers', colloquially referred to as 'boat people') come to the Australian shore on rickety old boats after having crossed various seas to get here. Most of the time these people are refugees fleeing their own war torn, poverty stricken, or politically unstable home lands. However sometimes these people are not fleeing from risky areas and are merely attempting to 'jump the queue' and bypass Australian visa/border controls.


 For the most part, the Australian border security intercept these boats, apprehend the asylum seekers and detain them in detention centres either on islands off the coast of Australia, or in remote areas on the mainland. While other countries have mandatory detention for a certain period of time, Australia is the only country that will not release the asylum seekers until they are fully processed. It is what is known in Australia as Mandatory Detention and the system has been active since 1992.

Processing times can take anywhere from a few months to years (7 years in one particular case). Occasionally there are reports of the asylum seekers protesting with hunger strikes, rioting and starting fires within the detention centres.  Short video clips and photos of these protests consistently make it onto the evening news and into the newspapers. These short clips and small highlights provide the general public with just enough information to form an opinion that goes along the lines of "Why are we even helping these people when they just burn things and riot?" (see: Critical Thinking)

The small 5 minute news reports sell a dramatic story under the guise of providing reliable information to the public. A direct effect of this is a lot of very emotionally charged, impulsive and uninformed opinions which only leads to fuel the racism that exists in Australia today. We don't often hear the full story behind the riots, or the people who are involved, the kind of treatment they receive, or how long they have been waiting to be 'processed.' All we are shown is 5 second clips of some foreigners shouting in revolt behind a wire fence and occasionally fire and smoke nearby. It's little wonder why there is a strong resent of refugees in Australia. It's half the reason we have clowns like Pauline Hanson running for upper council.

(For those outside Australia, Pauline Hanson is a racist joke of woman who once worked in a fish'n'chip shop then decided one day to run for Prime Minister, and when asked on how to address national debt, fix the Australian economy and fund her proposed policies, she simply said that she would print more money.. LLOOOOLL)





The well-cultivated critical thinker:
Richard Linden and Linda Elder, 2008

• raises vital questions and problems,formulating them clearly and precisely;
• gathers and assesses relevant information;
• carefully interprets information to form well-reasoned conclusions;
• tests conclusions,evaluating against relevant criteria;
• thinks open-mindedly,avoiding the influence of untested or irrational concepts and beliefs;and
• communicates effectively with others,particularly in the development and testing of conclusions or solutions.

References:

Richard Linden and Linda Elder, 2008
http://www.criticalthinking.org/store-page.cfm?P=products&ItemID=156&catalogID=224&cateID=132

Trash Journalism

Before I get onto the topic of people's opinions on the Australian Government's expenditure on refugee's and 'boat people' vs the Australian Governments expenditure in our own backyard (as promised in my entry: Critical Thinking - A forgotten art?), I'd just like to give an example of the kind of trash journalism I wrote about in the same entry.

Mainstream media present stories as "truth" but they bundle it with so much melodramatic garbage that it becomes more of a soap opera than an actual legitimate source of news and information. Perfect example, Australian 6:30pm news program "A Current Affair" hosted by Tracy Grimshaw and Co:

(http://aca.ninemsn.com.au - 4th June 2011)

They've taken a fairly mundane "who gives a shit" story about someone's loud neighbor, added a few fancy (this writer refuses to use the word "clever") phrases like "Nightmare on Noise Street" (genius) and "ALL OUT WAR" (is it really?) and suddenly this shit story is their TOP story on the front page of their website and the feature of our 6:30 nightly news?

It's this same kind of main stream media sensationalism that is shaping the average Australian's views on legitimately important issues such as Australia's stance and expenditure on refugees, our involvement in the "war on terror," the global economic crisis, and information censorship among a whole range of other issues. As mentioned in my previous entry, People buy into the 5 second highlight reels offered up for consumption by our key media outlets without giving it much thought, and subsequently base their opinions of the tidbits that they have heard or seen on TV.

Just something to be aware of.





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The well-cultivated critical thinker:
Richard Linden and Linda Elder, 2008

• raises vital questions and problems,formulating them clearly and precisely;
• gathers and assesses relevant information;
• carefully interprets information to form well-reasoned conclusions;
• tests conclusions,evaluating against relevant criteria;
• thinks open-mindedly,avoiding the influence of untested or irrational concepts and beliefs;and
• communicates effectively with others,particularly in the development and testing of conclusions or solutions.

References:

Richard Linden and Linda Elder, 2008
http://www.criticalthinking.org/store-page.cfm?P=products&ItemID=156&catalogID=224&cateID=132

Critical Thinking - a forgotten art?

I see it all the time. Impulsive, emotionally driven facebook status updates questioning (with some level of vented frustration and aggression) current issues and events that sometimes just don't make sense given the evidence presented. One popular outcry goes something like "Why is the Australian government spending all this money on refugees when we have our own people to look after!"
I intentionally used "!" instead of "?" in the above paraphrase because this question is usually more of a pointed statement than a legitimate request for information.

And if all you do is watch the prime time news, with their 5 second video clips that make a good story - for example, refugee riots at the detention centres - it's easy to understand why some people form a fairly negative opinion of refugees as a whole. The prime time news is very good at several things: glorification, alarmism, sensationalism, and vilification - just to name a few.  If it's not big enough, they'll word it so it's bigger. If it's not scandalous enough on it's own, they'll film themselves chasing down their story's antagonist shouting rhetorical questions (all the while thinking to themselves that this is making "great footage") after the person has asked them to leave them alone because their questions are pointed and designed to incriminate. Everyone loves a good villain, right?

It's what sells advertisement spots when the masses who have had a hard day at work come home and want to watch something entertaining. It's a shame most people have forgotten the 'critical thinking' skills drilled into them throughout high school English classes. But then again, after a hard days slog at the office, who wants to think critically? It's much easier to just get swept away in the drama of watching a few 5 second clips of people shouting behind a fence, overlaid with intense music that sounds like the presenter of the story took it from the "Music not quite good enough to play on a soap opera" folder in their station's music inventory.

So given that the mass media are continually attempting to pass off sensationalist journalism as "the truth," it becomes more and more apparent as to why the average Joe gets frustrated with the current state of affairs - small events are taken out of context and fuel is added to the fire that feeds a vicious cycle: The mass media's sub par reporting is made to entertain the average Joe, which then shapes his or her opinion on an issue with minimal information, which then becomes popular opinion, which is then catered to by mass media with similar entertaining 'stories' in an attempt to sell more advertising spots, which then shapes Average Joes's opinion with minimal information, and so on and so forth...

As such the importance of being critical of the information offered up by mass media is crucial. I've spoken to plenty of people who like to believe they're informed, particularly regarding the Australian refugee situation and what the government expenditure is on the issue - but when questioned further, they couldn't quote me one legitimate reliable source of information, and seem to take it personally when I tell them that the Australian Government spends more on Australian Sport than accommodating the refugees, this is quickly followed up with something like "Well I'm allowed my opinion."

And sure, everyone is allowed their opinion, and in the opinion of this writer it would be best if their opinion wasn't based purely on what they read in the Sunday Times Newspaper and see on the 6 o'clock news read from a teleprompter by people like Sandra Sully. Remember, these sources of information are run by companies whose main goal is profit - they're going to write stories in a way that sells, not in a way that tells the raw truth. This may seem like stating the obvious to some, but it makes me wonder why then so many people don't go even a little bit out of the way to search other more legitimate sources of information and facts on which to base their opinion.

My next entry will address a common catch cry of the average frustrated Australian bogan, "Why is the Australian government spending all this money on refugees when we have our own people to look after!"

And until then, this writer will leave you with a small list of characteristics of a "well-cultivated critical thinker" (compliments of Richard Linden and Linda Elder, 2008).....

The well-cultivated critical thinker:

• raises vital questions and problems,formulating them clearly and precisely;
• gathers and assesses relevant information;
• carefully interprets information to form well-reasoned conclusions;
• tests conclusions,evaluating against relevant criteria;
• thinks open-mindedly,avoiding the influence of untested or irrational concepts and beliefs;and
• communicates effectively with others,particularly in the development and testing of conclusions or solutions.

References:

Richard Linden and Linda Elder, 2008
http://www.criticalthinking.org/store-page.cfm?P=products&ItemID=156&catalogID=224&cateID=132