My soapbox: Asylum Seekers

Right. I am hopping on my soapbox. If you don't want to hear my opinion about asylum seekers, look away now!

This "issue" [it's not an issue - they are PEOPLE] has been getting my blood boiling for awhile now. Every few days there's another news report about asylum seekers protesting, suicides in detention centres or more "boat people" coming. And of course this last week there was the tragedy of 27 people losing their lives off the shore of Christmas island.

Here's some good links:

Mamamia's 10 thing's you need to know about Asylum Seekers. Written Dec 17, 2010. (#1 - it's not illegal to come here on a boat seeking asylum!!)

Amnesty International's website Re-think Refugees

Great piece by Matt Granfield: Open letter to my dad

Me, I'm angry. Why does Amnesty International need a website for something happening in our, wonderful, civilized country?? How, oh how, did we not know that boat was off the shore of Christmas Island before it crashed and 27 people died? How were they not transported to a different boat 10ks off shore? My heart breaks when I think what people have endured, and then we lock them up??

I'll post more on this when I've calmed down. *goes out to hit something*

Grammatical help

The Prince & I call ourselves two of the "Four horsemen of the apostrophe". There's nothing worse than bad apostrophe placement!! So of course I love this video of The Apostrophe Song by Cool Rules. I particularly like the rock & acoustic versions available on their iPhone app. There's even resources etc. I taught a lesson on apostrophes to a 4/5 class on teaching rounds - now I would play this song. So much better!

& I can never spell definitely!

The Oatmeal also has the awesome i.e. vs e.g. poster - very helpful, along with other awesome stuff!

~~

Rose: 24 degrees & sunny today! Yay!

I'm also thankful for a government that will pay me to be a student at a university. So few people in the world get that privilege. I love study, but would never be able to do it if I had to pay full price! Thanks HECS! =)