Boats or Cosmetic Surgery.....which is the greater risk?

The superbug: NDM-1 is in Australia.

I know it's not very exciting news, but I wonder if we are ready for the worst-case scenarios that could eventuate if this antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria takes a permanent, widespread hold. The first reported death has been recorded and while this is not to say that others haven't succumbed already the potential for widespread loss of life is real.

As usual, we should expect weeks if not months of international blame game commentary but it is pointless to waste time and resources finding the origin, this resistant strain is here and now we have to do something. The reality may be that the origin of this antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria was a country with widespread antibiotic availability, or a country with poor regulatory frameworks, or a random bacterial mutation, or whatever - either way it is, as I said, pointless.

Air travel would thus seem to be the unfortunate harbinger of worse things than a few boats off the Australian coast. As can be seen, we have to also watch out for Canadians - in a light-hearted, non-offensive, kind of way of course.

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Crying wolf...

Crying wolf...we all know the story. It's rather disappointing to see that asylum seekers continue to be used as a political bonfire by both major parties in Australia. Tony Abbott wants to be seen taking a strong stance while Julia Gillard is not really doing anything productive, in my opinion.

Border control is important for all the obvious reasons, but why do our politicians forget that refugees and asylum seekers are risking their lives because they find themselves in countries that have not signed the Refugees Convention.

In 2009, Australia has a very small number of refugees within its borders, compared to other countries with a similar population: Total Refugee population by country of asylum, 1960-2009.

Syria..............1 054 466 (that's right, over 1 million!)
Venezuela........201 313
Nepal...............108 461
Cameroon.........99 957
Netherlands......76 008
Malaysia............66 137
Australia............22 548

Taking a look at GDP per capita (PPP), we have the following:

#22 Netherlands..US$ 39,200
#23 Australia.........US$ 38,800
#86 Venezuela......US$ 13,100
#77 Malaysia.........US$ 14,800
#146 Syria..............US$ 4,600
#180 Cameroon....US$ 2,300
#207 Nepal.............US$ 1,200

Clearly we are much better placed than other countries to care for people who are genuinely seeking refuge.

The lack of infrastructure to handle population increases should be blamed on the people that are actually responsible for creating that mess: our politicians.

Let's bring an extinguisher to this political bonfire.

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