During the reign of the eeeevil HoWARd regime a asylum seeker vessel the SIEV X (suspected illegal entry vessel 10) foundered in international/Indonesian waters with great loss of life.
Refugee advocates and Labour pollies were in arms about it for years, school “learning projects”, etc. Culminating in a shocking book accusing the Australian government of deliberately sinking the vessel (which won awards from state governments), and the territory government of Canberra erecting their own memorial (covered by legislation in the territory parliament) on the shores of lake Burley Griffin.
Acres of print and hours of angst all aimed at demonizing the Howard government. Id hate to accuse those involved of politically motivated moral grandstanding… much.
Heres the results for the search SIEV X memorial
Fast forward to a few months back and the wrecking of SIEV 221 on the coast of Christmas island with subsequent loss of life. I thought Id have a google for a memorial…
Nothing.. lots on the disaster, nothing on a memorial (unless its well hidden)
Is it too much to ask lefties to be a little less selective in their moral outrage?
May 8, 2011, 8:30 am at 8:30 am
Frollick, if I recall correctly, it was called SIEV “X” not as “X” meaning “10″, but “X” meaning unconfirmed.
It was, after all, hundreds of kilometres outside Australian territorial waters.
May 8, 2011, 11:16 am at 11:16 am
800 for 4000, it simply does not make sense, note very little criticism from the media. Those that have perished in Australian waters have also not been full of angst”by the so-called media, but they still to this day bring up the drownings off the Indonesian coast, about 1200 nautical miles away.
May 11, 2011, 10:15 pm at 10:15 pm
When Background Briefing did a piece on the Christmas Island disaster the presenter referred to the (quote)”complex mix of reasons”(unquote) that had encouraged the rise in illegal boat arrivals. That selective moral outrage is thriving nicely, thank you for asking.