If the Islanders were white, we’d say they were greedy cowards

11 Responses to If the Islanders were white, we’d say they were greedy cowards

1. vlad redux says:

   20 April, 2022 at 10:16 am

   They have made a big mistake.
2. C.L. says:

   20 April, 2022 at 10:28 am

   I don’t blame Morrison for this – notwithstanding that I think a lot of the ‘standing up to China’ rhetoric from he and Dutton is loony nonsense.

   If the Solomon Islanders want to be slaves to the heathen Chinese just because we didn’t enter a bidding war with shinier beads and handsomer mirrors, f ’em.

   The truth is we should have taken over those islands a hundred years ago.
3. twostix says:

   20 April, 2022 at 11:00 am

   Seems a lot like we’re being “encircled”. Good thing we set the bar very high all the way up to “Why shouldn’t the Solomon Islands let China install tactical nuclear missiles that point at us if they want, it’s their country!!”
4. C.L. says:

   20 April, 2022 at 11:15 am

   Yeah, the double standard vis-a-vis Ukraine is hilarious.
5. Petros says:

   20 April, 2022 at 11:34 am

   Totally agree CL re taking them over years ago. Beautiful part of the world and their population could easily be absorbed into Australia. Ah well, some people have to suffer to learn. That includes us as well.
6. Petros says:

   20 April, 2022 at 11:37 am

   We should have been sending our best people up there for decades, not the Canberra losers whom they wanted to punish.
7. Chris M says:

   20 April, 2022 at 1:30 pm

   we should have taken over those islands a hundred years ago.

   Very profitable too! Or not. Maybe a good holiday spot seeing as PNG can’t get their affairs sorted.

   The thing is with any of these major long-term agreements what do the clear majority of locals want? If they weren’t given the basic facts and offered a free choice that is the problem. Albo might have put them all on Centerlink.
8. vlad redux says:

   20 April, 2022 at 6:27 pm

   I do blame Morrison and co – that’s how “responsible government” is supposed to work; it happened on their watch and someone has to carry the blame – or no one is ever to blame for anything (just like in Victoria).
9. Entropy says:

   20 April, 2022 at 9:09 pm

   But how could it have been prevented Vlad?
   We kinda demand transparency and accountability when we hand over foreign aid, which seems to be the problem.
10. vlad redux says:

    20 April, 2022 at 10:04 pm

    I don’t know how it could have been prevented, but it was ScoMo’s job to prevent it.

    Perhaps it would have come down to “the art of the deal” – to steal a phrase – and there’s also the fact that problems can be easier to solve if you get them early. Maybe if ScoMo and co had been managing the relationship better in the first place?

    I saw some Solomon Islands guy on tv – sorry, I’ve forgotten who – saying he tried to warn Australia about this a year and ago and no one would listen to him. ScoMo and co were too busy battling the China Flu to fend off China itself.
11. vlad redux says:

    20 April, 2022 at 10:10 pm

    Maybe ScoMo should have picked up the phone to whoever runs the place and said (in effect, but diplomatically and discreetly) what’s your price not to do it? Whatever it was, it would have been worth paying.