Where's Ashcroft?

Baxter
Originally uploaded by BLP.

Having made trips to both Sydney and Adelaide over the past week, I'm quite happy to report that air travel in Australia is quite civilized. The security juggernaut has not infected this continent and thus, there are no horrifically long check-in or security lines, no shoe removal, no being stripped half naked because you've got a tooth with a filling in it. In fact, at the electronic kiosks, one can check in for a Qantas flight with nothing but a frequent flier card for identification. And once you're in the air they feed you. No matter the length of the flight, if it's breakfast time, you get breakfast, if it's dinner time, you get dinner. Plus, after 4pm, booze is free even for us suckers who fly coach. And it's not like Australia has nothing to fear from the "war on terror". The bombing in Bali in 2002 demonstrated that Australians are not untouchable. Plus, Australia has the largest Muslim country (Indonesia) as a neighbor (well, distant neighbor), and keeps sending troops over to Iraq. Yet to date, Qantas, the world's second oldest airline, has never lost a plane, and has the best safety record of any airline.

On the other hand, Australia has its own Guantanamo Bay (several actually). These aren't holding grounds for suspected terrorists (or should I say suspected arabs), but rather detention centers for illegal aliens and refugees who are seeking entrance into Australia but have no way of demonstrating their refugee status. Unwilling to return to their country of origin, but unwilling or unable to demonstrate that they're refugees, they're essentially in purgatory in a big camp in the middle of nowhere. Australians seem rather torn on this issue - the idea of holding largely women and children indefinitely in jail is distasteful, but most are also unwilling to simply open the gates to anyone with a sad story (whether its true or not). There are periodic protests at these centers (including a recent on at Baxter Detection Center), and the issue comes up every election cycle.