David Davis

BAe Systems (I thought it was on OUR side?) is developing UAVs (drones) to “patrol the coastline”, to deal with “smuggling” and “illegal immigrants”. Never thought I would hear the term “Police Aviation” used seriously and without irony.

Does not sound very libertarian to me.

If you have nothing to hide...

...then you have nothing to fear...

As the man said once… “very interrrrresting” …

We finally got Abby’s “documents” in the mail, and practiced her alias and alibi a few times.  After a few last minute stops in Seattle to drop off post cards and check out some thrift stores, we got over the Canadian border halfway legal with no problem what so ever.  We got in touch with Leon at Shop-Task and he was gracious enough to host us, but under one condition.  He was throwing a Halloween party so we couldn’t stay without  costumes.  Sounds like a fair deal to me.

Vancouver is a beautiful city, with lots of nice upgrades with the winter Olympics coming soon.  There are also over 40 skate parks in the city, and we made sure to take advantage of a handful of them.  Value Village helped us put together the finishing touches on the Halloween costumes, and we got ready for the party.    We were only in the city for about 48 hours, but it felt like a lot longer.

the view from Shop Task

beautiful city!

these guys do it right!!

keeping it simple… NO CRIME!!

this spot was apparently for the Vistor King

out skating before noon, Canadians are crazy!

Leon pointing out an old stunt he fakee rolled to backflip

testing some RB flatrockers in the bowl

as if 45+ skateparks weren’t enough, skateboarders built this too in their spare time

Leon got the glasses for his costume but could barely see out of them

love it

rejected costume #1

rejected costume #2

Ellie (or Ely?  or Elly?) with the cobweb decoration

spooking up the loft

party time!  costumes below

rooftop view with a fireworks show later in the night

somehow I got cut, and for some reason somebody decided I needed a butterfly stitch haha

caught in the web

we moved the party to something John and Yoko were more familiar with

the vision

me, john, and yoko

zoolander and lady gaga

care bears patrolling the street

peggy bundy brought a pistol too

the old “abby’s face in a bowl”

spent the hangover morning at the elbow room, one of those places where the staffs job is to make fun of you and be as obnoxious as possible.  always a good way to cheer up your day.

… gott exempel gäller mer än någonsin när våra myndigheter inte svarar upp till djurskyddet.

Tänker då på det försök till insmuggling av nio valpar från Polen. Nio valpar som inte bett om

att varken bli födda eller avlivade utan enbart människors försök till egen vinning.

Djur är inte avsedda till att bli avlivade annat än i nödfall utan djur för sällskaps skull ska vara just till sällskap

för oss människor. Att vi människor förändrat djurens naturliga levnadssätt gör bara att det ställs högre krav på oss människor med vår intelligens.

Att smuggling är förbjuden beror på att vi vill skydda vårt egna djurbestånd och oss själva.

Läs mer om Natur och djur på http://www.semera.eu/Natur.htm

The UN is admitting failure in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  A new report even claims that UN forces have aggravated the conflict in North and South Kivu provinces with the UN trained Congolese Army and the rebel group the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Richard Dowden of The Guardian writes, “There have been signs that elements of the UN force are going local and also taking to trading minerals and abusing local people.”

But not everyone agrees with the findings.  Reuters South Africa reported Information Minister Lambert Mende as saying such accusations are “really what we can call an exaggeration. If the situation is now worse, what is that based on? How many people were dying before this operation? How many are dying today? he asked, arguing there could have been many more victims of fighting if the offensive had not taken place.”

The FDLR, an ethnic Hutu militia that relocated to the Congo after the 1994 genocide from the neighboring country of Rwanda, continue to wreak havoc in the region.  They have been accused of such crimes as murder, rape, pillaging, and taking advantage of the natural resources of the Congo including smuggling gold.  According to Sky News “Congolese records show only a few kilos of gold are exported legally every year, but the country’s own senate estimates that in reality 40 tonnes a year – worth £743m – gets out.”

It is a troubling problem that continues to fund and fuel the trouble in Central Africa from an international network of buyers from dozens of countries, including the United States and Europe, according to the UN.

The New York Times predicts the new UN report will force the US government to do more, including  “urging Congress to pass legislation that would bar American companies from buying Congo’s “conflict minerals,” which include gold, tin and coltan, a metallic ore used in many cellphones and laptop computers.”

Today’s post is from Eva at Parr Library:

Dirty Dealing: Drug Smuggling on the Mexican Border & the Assassination of a Federal Judge: An American Parable by Gary Cartwright

This fast-paced, mesmerizing story of the murders of El Paso lawyer Lee Chagra and John H. “Maximum John” Wood proves that truth really is more far-fetched than fiction.  I started out reading this on my brother’s recommendation because we grew up in El Paso.  What started as a quaint reminiscence of favorite hometown locales quickly became engrossment in the stories of these driven Lebanese lawyers, their human passions and weaknesses, and the greed and corruption of those they chose to associate with.  The Chagra family name was constantly in the newspaper when I was in high school and now I realize why.  Author Gary Cartwright uses personal interviews and court transcripts to bring to vivid life the saga of the larger-than-life criminal lawyers Lee and Joe Chagra, their drug-smuggling brother Jimmy, and the federal judge who had vowed early on to give the maximum sentence to anyone convicted of drug dealing.  Judge Wood’s harsh sentences and the ill will they generated probably contributed to his death at the hands of Charles Harrelson, assassin-for-hire and father of actor Woody Harrelson.  There are so many players in this story it can be hard to keep up, but the action is steady and compelling and makes for an exciting, too-wild-to-be-fiction tale.

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor says he jailed foreign journalists because they were trying to assassinate him, not because they were investigating his alleged involvement with diamond smuggling in Sierra Leone…. From VOA. Full story

This site may contain information about: diamond heart jewelry. The blog is also related to: diamond pendant.

Twenty-two people have been arrested today as a result of a joint police operation in France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.  The arrested persons are suspected of smuggling around 2000 illegal immigrants, mainly from Iraq, into the EU. During a house search also 7 possible illegal immigrants were discovered.

This pan-European investigation started eighteen months ago. In its course a smuggling route via Turkey to Greece and onwards via Italy, through Central Europe to Scandinavian countries was identified. Europol experts prepared several intelligence reports, facilitated the exchange of information and coordinated the police operations.

The main suspects and new criminal links were discovered in close cooperation with national experts after in-depth analysis. Europol also hosted several preparatory operational meetings and the involvement of both Eurojust and Interpol has been important for the success of the operation.

Investigators found out that illegal immigrants paid up to 2000 Euros for a trip from Paris to UK or Sweden. A trip in a truck cost between 700-1000 Euros. A trip in a car (more secure) with a driver is around 2000 Euros. Sometimes the whole family of an illegal migrant, or even their communities, had to cover the costs.

It was also again established that organised crime groups are very flexible and innovative when it comes to committing crime whilst using various means of transportation and quickly changing modus operandi. One of the methods used is hiding inside trucks.

Recently, a truck transporting flour was found to contain an additional 18 illegal immigrants onboard.

Today’s operation was the third in a row coordinated by Europol since June 2008. During the previous two operations 78 and 46 suspects were arrested. In cooperation with several EU Member States, Interpol and Eurojust, new operations towards these internationally operating criminal networks are foreseen in the future.

Just kidding about the bid; this one isn’t up for auction, however if you know of any indigenous peruvian people living in town I’d consider giving it to them.

In 1991 in Cuzco Peru I met a man named Walter, who made a living as a travel agent, taxi driver, and middleman connecting tourists with hotels and with hiking guides for the Inca Trail. Near the end of my stay there he told me that a relative of his had been building a foundation for a house and came across something special: an artifact. I didn’t believe him, but I said I’d look at it. In South America there are lots of crafts that replicate things from the past, and when I saw this I assumed it was a reproduction. I did like it though, so I traded him my tent for it, and  also paid him 200 somethings… I forget what the money was called. Anyway it felt exorbitant, for a reproduction. It survived several plane trips in my luggage, made it home okay, and it’s been living on my bookshelf ever since.

Today I figured I’d put it up for auction with all the other stuff: I’d make the LVB $20, tell the story and play with the possibility that it might be real. I thought I’d better do a little bit of research first, so I poked around online, and um… guys, I think it might actually be a real Chimú vessel! For one thing these artifacts seem to be surprisingly common; you can buy one from a dealer for a few hundred dollars. For another it’s definitely hand-made, and matches the colour and texture of real ones perfectly. I’ve sent an email to the Museum of Anthropology to see what they think I should do.

The Chimu people lived on the North coast in Peru from 900AD until 1470AD when they were conquered by the Incas. So my bric-a-brac might be anywhere between 500 and a thousand years old!!!

Getting rid of ‘everything’ is such an interesting process. I go through layers of feeling attached to objects because of memories they evoke, the monetary value they should have (or the replacement value), what they say about me. Each time I let go I feel light, and then along comes another challenge. Of course, if this thing turns out to actually be a Chimú vessel then it probably doesn’t belong to me, so I still need to let it go. It’s enough, I think, that I’ve played a part in its story, and that it’s played a part in mine.

To be totally honest though, I’m not letting go 100%; this auction is serving to disburse all these objects, but the blog is also serving to capture their memory. This winter when what’s with me in the van will be all I possess, or even years from now when I’m all wrinkly, thinking back on my former lives, I’ll still be able to come here and see their images. In that sense they’ll always be mine.

UPDATE: The MOA never got back to me, but an antique restorer did… he said he couldn’t be sure from the photograph but thought that it certainly could be real. He had nothing to say about the fact that I may have smuggled a (perhaps stolen) historical artifact from its country of origin or how best to rectify that.

The smuggled spiders worth $2M were sent to Brazil’s national museum: ‘A British pet shop owner was nabbed at the airport in Rio de Janiero this week after customs officers found 1,000 live spiders in his checked baggage. Police say it’s the biggest seizure of wildlife ever made at the airport. The spider-smuggler now faces up to a year in jail and a $2 million fine if convicted of animal trafficking, the Guardian reports. The spiders were sent to Brazil’s national museum.’ -Guardian

Museum “Espaço Memória e Fronteira”

ticket: 1€

Melgaço’s extensive border with Spain (either by land or across the Minho River) made this municipality a possible way of leaving and entering Portugal unnoticed, especially before the opening of the borders when Portugal joined the European Union in 1986.

Memory and Frontier building

The museum “Memory and Frontier” is dedicated to the contraband history that used to be a part of the municipality and also to the illegal emigrants who left Portugal during the dictatorial regime years, searching abroad for a better life and job opportunities in order to be able to send money back to their families.

Contraband was most common during the decade of 1940. The ground floor of the museum features some original objects in exhibition like a small boat, a coffee toaster and a republican guard uniform. Any product with an interesting price difference between Portugal and Spain would be smuggled: coffee, soap, rice, almonds, and chocolate for example.

The emigration part starts with a ramp towards the second floor symbolizing the search of a new life. The second floor shows the visitors the causes of the emigration, the preparations to the journey, passports and suitcases. Once you reach the second floor the documents are dedicated to the arrival and adaptation to the destination countries. Melgaço was a way towards France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Switzerland but many Portuguese also emigrated to USA, Brazil and Venezuela during this period.

The museum is linked to the center of the town (Vila – Melgaço) by a pedestrian bridge over the small river “Rio do Porto”.

Note 1: I actually liked visiting the museum: it displays interesting objects, it is well organised and it is quite interactive with motion detectors locating the visitor and adapting the soundtrack. Unfortunately the sound and texts in the museum are in Portuguese only.

Note 2: unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take photos inside the museum. Here you have a couple of photos I found in the municipality webpage (site in portuguese)

• View Photo 1
• View Photo 2

No sooner had Ozawa stepped out of the tiny interrogation room than that hard arse came in and took his place. He sat down heavily in the chair opposite mine, crossed his sinewy arms, fists tucked under his armpits, and glared at me, exhaling short, angry bursts of air out his nostrils.

What’s eating him, I wondered.

It was uncanny how much he resembled Ozawa. His mannerisms and looks right down to the buzz cut and stubble on his chin copied from pages torn from his boss’s book.

“Have you been working with Ozawa long?” I asked, looking up from the form.

“Excuse me?”

“How long have you and Ozawa been working together?”

The unexpected question had the same disconcerting effect on him as it had on Kuroda earlier: his eyes darted towards the door, his arms unlocked, then locked again.

“About three years,” he said hesitantly. “Why do you ask?”

“Just curious,” I said, putting the pen down. “You do judo, or something?”

His arms, while on the slender side, were muscular. He also had something of a cauliflower ear.

“No, I, uh . . . I, uh . . . I do karate.”

“Really? With the squad, or at a dojo?”

“At a dojo.”

“You don’t say. I used to go to one myself. Not karate, mind you, but kickboxing. It’s been ages, though. Too busy.”

When he replied that he’d been too busy to go himself recently, I apologized.

“Come, come, there’s no, there’s no reason for you to apologize to me,” he said and, for the first time, managed a smile. We chatted for a few more minutes during which I learned that his family name was Terahara. He had come from Osaka and had been working as a narcotics agent for about four years.

Now that Terahara was disarmed, and no longer breathing down my neck, I got down to filling out the paperwork.

It resembled a job application more than anything. There were sections for work history, educational background and so on. It also asked about my family: where the members had been born, where they currently lived, what they did for a living, and so on.

Background means a lot to the Japanese. The more stable, the better. If you are drifting in and out of jobs, or worse unemployed, meaning you weren’t attached to a group or organization that might keep you on the straight and narrow, then the cops will eye you differently. As a gaijin, I already had one strike against me going into the interrogation because so many Japanese, and the cops in particular, suspected that your typical foreigner was stoned out of his gourd half of the time.

I filled in the blank for my name: Boncoeur, Rémy Youssef. Sex: Male. Date of birth: Showa 41, June 13.

For each question I was being made to answer, I decided to shoot the same question back at Terahara. Marital status: single.

“Terahara, are you married?”

“N-n-no.”

“Word of advice: play hard to get.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re what, twenty-seven, twenty-eight?”

“I’m twenty-eight.”

“Don’t even think about getting married until you’re in you’re early thirties. Play hard to get.”

“Um, okay.”

-

注意：この作品はフィクションです。登場人物、団体等、実在のモノとは一切関係ありません。

© Aonghas Crowe, 2009

Man gets 14 years in immigrant smuggling case

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MEXICO

According to a report released by Mexico’s 5th National Addiction Survey, consumption of cocaine is on the rise. At the same time, the use of other drugs has only increased slightly. According to the survey, addiction to illegal drugs in Mexico grew 5% in 2002 and 5.7% in 2008. (October 2009)

MEXICO

Three narco banners signed by La Familia Michoacana were found in Petatlan, on 19 October 2009. The banners were unique in that they announced support for a new group, la Familia Guerrense.

MEXICO

A recent survey by the National Survey on Security Issues (ENSI) shows that women participate in two out of every ten crimes committed in Mexico. Most of the crimes women participate in are robberies, but their involvement in organized crime is rising. (October 2009)

MEXICO

Custom’s agents seized $115,000 USD from two women, who were attempting to cross into Mexico, with the cash strapped onto their stomachs. The seizure occurred on 19 October 2009 on the II International Bridge in Nuevo Laredo.

MEXICO

PGJE agents in Silao, Guanajuato, chased a group of kidnappers to a safe house on 19 October 2009 where a kidnapping victim was held. In the resulting shootout, seven were wounded (one police officer / six gunmen) and two were killed (one officer / one gunman.) One of the gunmen, Jesus Trujillo Martinez, was one of the Zetas who escaped from prison in Cieneguillas, Zacatecas earlier this year.

GUATEMALA

On 21 October 2009 Guatemalan Minister of Defense, Abraham Valenzuela, admitted the weakness of the army in combating the drug trade, human trafficking and smuggling throughout the country. Noting a lack of personnel and equipment after the army downsized from 31,000 to 15,000 after 1997, Valenzuela added that there are 43 border crossings between Mexico and Guatemala that are either uncontrolled or informal.

GUATEMALA

Over 20 separate bank transactions executed between 18 and 20 February 2008, completed by three individuals for two textile factories, led investigators to discover that elements of Los Zetas have purchased arms and vehicles, and rented ranches in Guatemala. (October 2009)

GUATEMALA

On 23 October 2009 Mayor Amílcar Rivera of Mixco asked President Álvaro Colom to declare a state of emergency and to militarize public transportation in Mixco in order to combat extortionists gangs who siege buses and commit a variety of crimes aimed at commuters and drivers. This comes after the assassination of two bus drivers on 22 October 2009.

HONDURAS

Interim Honduran Cabinet Minister Rafael Pineda said on 21 October 2009 that Honduras would lodge a protest against Venezuela over suspected drug smuggling flights originating in that country. Pineda claimed that three Venezuelan-registered aircraft landed in remote parts of Honduras over the last week. The Honduran government will present the protest to the United Nations and the Organization of American States.

HONDURAS

On 20 October 2009 Honduran authorities seized a Russian manufactured bi-motor aircraft with Venezuelan registration in the Rio Platano Biosphere located in the municipality of Dulce Nombre de Culmi, Olancho. Authorities believed that the plane, which was found on a 1500-meter long airstrip, delivered approximately 4,000 kilograms of cocaine at around 21:45 hours on 19 October 2009. Several area residents reported hearing numerous vehicles leave the area.

PANAMA

Authorities captured 18 suspected gang members including 11 members of “Los Sopranos” in a raid in the San Felipe neighborhood of Panama City on 16 October 2009. According to the Directorate of Judicial Investigations (DIJ), 15 of the individuals detained were wanted by authorities on pending charges.

COLOMBIA

Authorities captured some 40 FARC operatives at the conclusion of Operation ABC, named after the geographical focus of the operation in Arauca, Boyaca and Casanare. Elements from the FARC’s 10th, 28th, 38th, 45th, and 56th fronts were targeted, including financial backers, fighters, and support structures. (October 2009)

PERU

There is no adequate government policy to deal with contraband smuggling in Peru, according to one official, who claims that there are at least 100,000 individuals engaged in illegal smuggling activities in the country. (October 2009)

PARAGUAY

Senator Miguel Carrizosa, head of Congress, has accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez os “interfering in internal affairs” after Chavez told a crowd at the ALBA summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia that Paraguay’s conservative right wing political party is prepping a coup against President Fernando Lugo. (October 2009)

BRAZIL

All South American countries with Amazon territory will meet on 26 November 2009 in Manaus, Brazil.

Today is October 28, 2009.  It is the 301st day of the year with 64 to go.

Today’s History

In 1885, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbour.

Today’s News

I Don’t Work Here But…
… I was wondering what happened to my paycheck.  A New Jersey man pleaded guilty on theft charges after it was discovered he was receiving paychecks from a company he never worked for.  He interviewed for the company in 2002 and got the job, but later changed his mind.  The payroll department never removed his name and the man received steady paychecks until 2007 when auditors finally caught the mistake.  The man had received more than $470,000 in pay. 

Wow!  Why can’t something like this happen to me!  I can just sit my lazy ass at home and get a paycheck.  It’s unfortunate that he could spend up to six years in jail and he will have to pay back the money, but man, oh man, what if he never got caught!  This dude was getting paid $97,000 a year and he didn’t have to do not a damn thing.  Some people have all the luck.

Forget Checked Baggage Fees
A Norwegian man is under arrest after attempting to smuggle several animals into Norway.  The man was going through customs when officials noticed that his body was in “constant motion.”  They asked him to step aside so they could conduct a search of his person and belongings.  When the man removed his pants officials discovered 10 cans taped to his body and inside the cans were exotic rare albino geckos.  The man also had 14 socks taped to his chest.  The socks contained live royal pythons.  He also had a tarantula in his bag.  Norway does not allow reptiles as pets. 

Snakes, lizards and tarantulas, just the sort of thing that would make somebody lose their mind when they’re just trying to do their job.  Customs officials said they were horrified.  That’s not even a strong enough word.  I remember one time I was working at TSA when a man came through and a sugar glider jumped out of his shirt.  When I say I was gone… I was gone.  I think I ran all the way to the damn Delaware border I was so terrified.  Then there was the guy with the monkeys in his jacket.  That wasn’t scary though; it was just sad.

God Don’t Work Here
A Florida man is suing the Home Depot he was fired from because he was wearing a button that said “God” on it.  He had been wearing the button since March 2008, but only recently did management take offense to the button.  The button actually has a picture of the American flag on it and a line from the Pledge of Allegiance:  one nation, under God, indivisible.  The man said he started wearing the button to support a brother who is in that National Guard and will be making a second tour to Iraq shortly.  Other employees say the guy recently began reading the Bible on his lunch break. 

Not sure what the Bible and a lunch break have to do with anything, but I can see both sides here.  Yeah, we want to be all separate church and state, yeah, sure, if that’s what you want.  But then again, it is the Pledge of Allegiance, and don’t we make kids recite this most days of the week?  In fact, we force kids to do it to the point that their parents have filed suit to excuse their children from having to repeat it if they don’t want to.  It’s not like he was in the aisles proselytising to people who are looking for light fixtures, but management stated the button was too political and not at all like wearing a cross or yarmulke.  Okay, yeah, it’s political, it’s the damn PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE!  So what if I just go to Home Depot, start taking shit off the shelves and then walk out.  You might be like, “Ma’am, where is your money?  You have to pay for those things.”  I’ll just blithely reply, “Oh, I don’t have any money.  I don’t carry it.  It has all that religious stuff on it.  And since I’m the anti-christ, I don’t like to carry things that say GOD!  It offends me.  In God We Trust.”  Somehow, that won’t fly, will it?  Yeah, this is getting ridiculous. 

Today’s Thought

Truth is not introduced into the individual form without, but has within him all the time.  ~Soren Kierkegaard

 A man has been arrested in Norway trying to smuggle two dozen snakes and geckos into the country by hiding them under his clothes.

Customs agent Helge Breilid said the 22-year-old Norwegian citizen was apprehended in the southern town of Kristiansand after getting off a ferry from Hirtshals, Denmark. He said the man had 14 royal pythons and 10 albino leopard geckos under his clothes.

Breilid said the non-venomous snakes — the smallest species in the python family — were hidden in stockings duct-taped to the man’s abdomen. The geckos were in boxes taped to his thighs.

Customs officials found the reptiles, which are not endangered, during a search following the discovery of a tarantula in one of the man’s bags.

An 18-year- old charged over a bid to import a kilogram of cocaine and an attempt to resist arrest will be tried in the Crown Court next month.

A kilogram of cocaine was found in the luggage of the 18 year-old.

Alexandro Ene, who does not have a fixed address in the UK, appeared in the Brent Magistrates’ Court today after Heathrow Airport security officers seized the Class A drugs which he allegedly tried to smuggle.

Mr Ene was arrested last night when a hammock saturated with cocaine worth an estimated £40,000 was discovered in his luggage.

Speaking though an interpreter translating from his native Romanian, the defendant confirmed his personal details but he refused to enter a plea to the charges he faces.

At the request of the prosecution, the case has been referred to the Islington Crown Court, where Mr Ene will stand trial on the 3^rd of November.

Ms Scarcher, his defence counsel, did not file a bail application and he will, therefore, remain in custody until his next court date.

If found guilty, Mr Ene could be facing between 10 and 15 years imprisonment.

Under English law, an attempt to import any Class A drugs carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Cell problems

Mr Ene’s case was originally scheduled to be heard at the Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court, which deals with offences that occur at the Heathrow Airport. However, it was transferred to Brent, as the Uxbridge Court’s capacity to house defendants remaining in custody has been limited due to the flooding of its basement cells.

Moral Maze: even if we eliminate people smugglers, the people needing smuggling won’t disappear.

Kevin Rudd has an unnerving resemblance to Alfred E. Neuman, the gormless cover boy of Mad magazine. Periodically offered for higher office, Neuman’s election slogan is always the same. “You could do worse … and always have.”

This week about 260 Sri Lankans, including 27 women and 31 children, are docked in western Java. They were seeking asylum in Australia, and are now refusing to leave their boat after being intercepted – at Rudd’s request – by the Indonesian navy. These people, and another 75 fleeing the brutal civil conflict in Sri Lanka who remain at sea in international waters, would have featured large in the Prime Minister’s discussion with his Indonesian counterpart in Jakarta last Tuesday.

I’ve written about boat people and stand by my view that community anxiety about such asylum seekers (only 3 per cent of those who seek refuge in Australia) is a proxy for the frustration many Australians feel about the refusal of successive governments to develop a national population policy.

But knowing why hysteria ensues each time a leaky vessel enters Australian territorial waters doesn’t tell us how we should respond to the men, women and children on board seeking our protection and whom history suggests will overwhelmingly be found to be genuine refugees.

We all know what’s right. We know in the same way we know that if a young, scared-looking woman pounded on our door in the middle of the night seeking refuge from some unseen persecutor, that we must let her in. Refusing to open the door – or, having seen her approach through the blinds, unleashing the dog to drive her from the gate and into the arms of our none-too-savoury neighbour – doesn’t absolve us of a duty to help. It simply adds “weasel” to the charge sheet.

Yet, in policy terms, this is what federal Labor is doing. This year, the Government has allocated $654 million to what it loftily describes as a “comprehensive, whole-of-government” approach to “combat[ing] people smugglers”. We need to stop kidding ourselves. Even if we eliminate people smugglers, the people needing smuggling won’t disappear. Just because people don’t suffer on our patch doesn’t mean they aren’t suffering.

And anyone who thinks our Indonesian “friends” are not exploiting this Government’s determination to do whatever it takes to deny less than 300 people on-shore processing of their asylum claims needs to consult the dictionary definition of realpolitik.

The international convention on refugees was developed in response to the outflow of Jews from Europe after World War II and in light of the deaths of a third of the 937 men, women and children who embarked on what a later Hollywood movie would call the Voyage of the Damned. Having fled Nazi persecution in 1939, the SS St Louis was forced back to Europe after being denied entry to Canada, the US and Cuba.

Australia signed the refugee convention in the 1950s but if we can’t honour our obligations, we should have the decency to formally withdraw. Better still, we could elect federal politicians with the will and capacity to lead, rather than grovel to the lowest common denominator. The Prime Minister still has the moral authority – not to mention the electoral margin – to open a new policy and rhetorical chapter on asylum seekers and population issues more generally.

Should he fail to do so, Australia’s policies on refugees will remain just as Alfred E. Neuman said: “Like steer horns. A point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.”

Source: The Age

I changed the names of my friends to protect their identity.

I can finally add illegal immigrant smuggler to the list of things I’ve done.

Rewind back one day and I had just gotten off work at around 6. I was dropped off at the subway and made my way to Toronto, where I eventually met up with my friends from last weekend. Trust them all to have eaten already though. I feel weird eating alone with a group of people.

Anyhow, for some reason, John felt compelled to go to a straight strip bar. Now, him being a gay guy who had never seen…female genitalia, I was worried about his reaction. Why he wanted to go, it beats me. We made our way to Philmore’s, as it was close by, and went inside. Toro didn’t mind at all. After all the guy strip bars we forced him to go to, I told him I’d buy him a lap dance at this place. (Later he chickened out and said he didn’t want one.)

I don’t know what it is about female strip bars, but they come straight to me from a group of guys. Some woman who wasn’t all that attractive came from behind and sat on my lap.

“Hey…do you want a private dance?” I pretend I can’t hear her well.

“Why don’t you help my friend here loosen up” I say, pointing to John beside me. He’s shiny and nervous ever since he stepped inside. His hands are cold and clammy.

“This is his first time at a strip bar and he’s nervous.” John gives me the look of death and without another word, the woman shifts over to sit on him. I think John had a heart attack. I still have the bruises on my arm from him grabbing me. I was just relieved cos she smelled of B.O.

Anyhow, fast forward past her grinding herself onto his lap and a couple levels of his sanity and we made our way out of that place. It was amusing at the very least.

———-
The next day
———-

The next morning we woke early and made our way to Niagara Falls, although Toro had to stay because of work. With John, Vix, Noodle and I, Vix driving ever so slow, we first passed for food and about 20 minutes later, I fell asleep cos of the lack of sleep from the night before.

The loud yelp from John woke me up about an hour and a half later, and I saw we were driving towards the border.

“What the hell. How’d you do that,” I say.

Apparently Vix took the wrong exit, and in his panic, missed the exit afterwards. We waited in the line to the US border, wondering what to do as I told them to calmly explain that we took a wrong turn and needed to turn around. The reason to our nervousness was Noodle was a landed immigrant. Granted, he’d been in Canada for almost 8 years, but laziness prevented him getting his citizenship or PR card previous to this incident.

The border officer listened to our situation and yet told us that we would still have to be screened anyhow.

Damn.

John, Vix and I passed fine but she then looked at Noodle. After some speaking into walkie talkies and such, we were instructed to go into the US customs and immigration office.

Double damn.

It was a big building, compared to the Canadian one. Packed with workers and people being investigated, I duly noted the fact 100% of the people working there were white, and 96% of the people told to go there were of some ethnic group. Almost every group was represented. *shifty eyes* After about 35 minutes of waiting, another officer looked at our situation.

“No VISA eh? You shouldn’t even be here.”

Erp.

Now, Noodle isn’t the most bright person in the world. We were afraid he didn’t know the whole situation, or that nervousness would cause him to make up excuses. After Noodle was interrogated, they took his prints (they slammed his hand on the table because he was tense), and his mugshot (the officer yelled at him for smiling for the camera).

Finally we were allowed to go, a different officer escorting us to the car.

“You know, next time, you could have your car seized and you could go to jail.” He thought we were honestly trying to bring Noodle into the States. We didn’t bother telling him we just wanted to turn around.

When we were coming back to the Canada side, we were instructed to go to the Canadian custom and immigration office as well. Vastly different, the waiting room was a small, empty, well-air conditioned space, with two small kiosks for customs and immigration. The man looked at our situation and papers as we explained.

“Well then,” he said to Noodle. “Because of your laziness, your friends are going to have to stay and wait here for another 12 hours.”

I looked at him. “You’re exaggerating, right?”

“Well, ok. Maybe 8 hours.”

We were out of there in 5 minutes.

———
About 2 hours later
———

Hurray, we made it to the casino. After kissing the ground, we attempted to forget yesterday’s and the morning’s events. It went well, that is, until I walked up behind John and seductively whispered in his ear; “Can you still feel that woman’s groin rubbing into your leg?”

I think he still hates me.