Blind arrogance or sheer ignorance

I am not prone to anger, but this sentence from the first front page article of The Saturday Paper got my blood boiling:

“These deaths weighed heavily on the conscience of politicians as they struggled in 2012 to find a policy that would stop people undertaking the journey.”

I can’t decide whether it’s blind arrogance or sheer ignorance from these politicians who think that a domestic policy is going to change why asylum seekers are fleeing their homes.

At best it’s turning a blind eye to their humanity and saying “f–k off, we don’t care, it’s too hard, go somewhere else.” Whatever it is, any domestic policy to discourage asylum seekers by its nature has to be punitive.

If these politicians were interested in saving lives they’d be creating safer pathways and standing up for the rights of oppressed people worldwide. Are they? Hardly.

They can barely see past their privileged noses in a scramble for power that sees principle rejected, fear and hatred fostered, and democracy betrayed, all in the pursuit of self-interest.

Rant ends.