My grandmother arrived with my grandfather, his work required that he travel often all over the world, he met her in France, (which is just a hop over the water from Portugal) and fell in love with her so took her home with him.

Brave woman, I could never have done that!!!

But he was based in France for 12 months, so.... they had a decent amount of time to get to know each other I guess.

She spoke English well,(spoke 4 languages actually)  she went to an English national school in both France and Portugal, this and was a nurse and worked here in Australia.

She came here legally, arrived with her paperwork, and did not attempt in anyway to free load, or toss her passport over board like so many do.  

Like my mother said, she was nursing people before she even got off the boat.

She left her whole world behind to be with him, and never saw her mother again, she died a few months later suddenly, (family said her mother had been sick for a while, but waited until her daughter had left ...didn't want her to look back of feel she had to stay back and nurse her so pretended she was well)  .... made excuses for a cough.
Heart problem apparently.

Back in those days, they were begging people to populate our nation, especially educated those from Europe, though now... the standard has somewhat dropped, as you may have noticed as per your reflection in the mirror.

Do you know of any squalid Portuguese communities here in Australia

There aren't many over here, Portuguese people I mean.

Most don't want to live here in Australia, and if they do, they usually go back home sooner or later.

Portugal is gorgeous.

Quite different to Iraq, Afghanistan, etc...

If the Libs are denying an anti muslim campaign they should look at the rubbish Cory Bernardi bombarded letterboxes with at the last election.
Having recieved some of that appauling material disguised as a questionaire (push polling) I have no problems saying there are some in the Liberal Party who are bare faced liars when it comes to denying anti Muslim propaganda.

adelcrow wrote on Feb 17^th, 2011 at 11:58am:


I reckon there is more hate and propaganda on the Muslim side than the Australian side :


Full-bred Aussie with a longing for sharia law
Sally Neighbour From: The Australian January 21, 2011 12:00AM

IBRAHIM Siddiq-Conlon has a message for Australians, whether they want to hear it or not.

"One day Australia will be ruled by sharia, no doubt," he declares. "That is why non-Muslims are worried, because they know one day they won't be able to drink their beer, they won't be able to eat their pork and they won't be able to do their homosexual acts, because one day they know they will be controlled."

Siddiq-Conlon sits on the steps of the NSW Parliament House, the location he has chosen to launch his rhetorical attack on democracy, which he describes as "an evil system of life".

"Right now in the Western world we're on the edge of a crisis, of extinction, because of democracy. OK, so don't tell me democracy has the answers and is peaceful. Democracy is the reason for the world's problems."

Siddiq-Conlon is the face and voice of Sharia4Australia, a group formed in Sydney's southwest to agitate for Islamic law, starting with the introduction of sharia courts and ending, in his ideal world, with Islamic rule.

While he claims to eschew violence, he unapologetically preaches hate. An online video posted by his group describes its members as "uncompromising [in] their disallegiance, disloyalty and hate for the disbelievers".

"I hate the parliament. I hate [democracy] with a pure hate," he says. Moreover, it is obligatory for all Muslims to reject democracy, because it is a challenge to God's law: "They must hate it, speak out against it, and if that doesn't work, take action against it."

Siddiq-Conlon formed Sharia4Australia last year, styling himself as the new champion for Islamic law in Australia.

mellie wrote on Feb 17^th, 2011 at 12:10pm:


Got nothing to say about the 5 points I raised? Shame  

mellie wrote on Feb 17^th, 2011 at 12:38pm:


Short as possible:

Please explain how the coalition's "deferred" expindeture of $500m on Indonesian schools will not re-appear in forward estimates considering they are committed to increasing foreign aid by 0.5% of GDP by 2015.  If you agree it will appear in forward estimates, how is this NOT added spending rather than a "cut" to budget forward estimates?  

I can have my mum call you and read this out to you and explain each word to you, if you like?

sir prince duke alevine wrote on Feb 17^th, 2011 at 12:57pm:


got nothing, mellie?

If Scott Morission, Tony Abbott, Uriah Hunt and Co were genuinely concerned about the human beings who were on these boats, as indicated above, then why didn't they demonstrate compassion and respect on the day of those funerals - and since!?

The simple fact is: those divisive bigots have form for putting political point scoring above all else - especially empathy and compassion!

No amount of doublespeak and weasel wording is gonna convince the genuinely-empathetic and compassionate majority otherwise!



XXXXXXXX

maybe someone was thinking they could spend the money on the homeless that are stillroaming our shores..fortunately none of them are overseas visitors though..otherwise there would be hue and cry

so maybe we do have an amount of money stored away for a rainey day after all,as  our overseas vistors are costing more and more and more each day.and we seem to have no problems drumming up the costs.

I wonder if there will ever be a line drawn in the sand, we have 3 more years of gillard.. so can we look forward to by the time they are done to having somewhere in the region of 12000 in detention,

I presume no one from the left is putting a cap on this.so its a growing concern only for those from the right I gather?