Lately on the news there is a lot of talk about Asylum Seekers but also many boats have been in trouble and saved by Australian boats and taken to where they have been heading or the closest port.

 The main issue of the story is many more people are being rescued from the open water, mostly asylum seekers. International waters are also known as ‘The High Seas.’ The law of the sea is that if a boat is near a stranded ship the  ship must go and help the stranded vessel. The world is divided into search rescue zones so every country pitches in and helps boats and ships out at sea. A boat near a troubled vessel must go and save it by law. It could cause problems that rescued people are taken to the closest port or to where they were heading because if they are asylum seekers they might bring something that hasn’t been introduced to Australia or a disease. I think the people from Indonesia shouldn’t be able to come unless the government lets them in like every other asylum seeker. I understand that there are more sea rescues than I thought so.

I don’t really want any international people to come into the country because sometimes they can bring diseases or cause trouble.

Recently Annice Smoel   travelled to Thailand.  She was arrested for supposedly stealing a bar mat, at a hotel in Thailand.  Her friends said they had put it in there as a joke but the Thai police didn’t find it funny.

Before going to another country you should do some research for that country or countries. Because even if you think you are doing the right thing you might find yourself in a lot of trouble.

Some laws in other countries are…

In Florence you cannot sit and eat or drink on steps near churches

In Afghanistan women and girls have to keep their full body covered

In the Muslim religion it is a serious offence to shake someone’s hand with your left hand

                 The main point of this story is that other countries have different laws and you are expected to obey them.  It is important to research the place you are going to because in the country or even place there are some different laws you might not know about. I think obeying all the laws in another country is a minimum respect to any country.

            So when you are going to another country you must do some research of that country   
 

Immigration is when someone comes from another country to live and work in that country. Migrants normally come over here to live with family or escaping their country because of war or a big disaster in the country.  They come here to work and live. Wait a second they shouldn’t get to work in Australia if fellow Australians have lost their jobs in the economic crisis.

On BTN this morning they said most of the immigrants are talented at something for example Plumbing or carpentry. So the Australian government lets them in. if you look around at least one person would be an immigrant. The government is trying to put a stop to ‘skilled immigrants.’ In the old days it was much easier to get into the country.

 And we needed fill the population but now we have a quite a big population so we don’t need anymore people.

            The advantages of having Immigrants are that if the start a business and they will provide more jobs for Australians. They also need to have houses and if they need builders the building industry will grow. I think that we should let skilled immigrants into the country so that our country is very successful.

I am for the decision of the government. I think that everyone should have a right to make a decision of what they are going to do. I also think that every house that could be threatened by a fire should get an underground bunker, because if they have no time they can just hop down in the bunker. But it might not be that easy. At first thoughts you would think we have to get out of here early, but when you are thinking hard about it you will think like you would have wasted your whole life. You think how hard you have worked for house, all the furniture; it would take the same amount of time to earn that back.

Leaving or not is a really big decision to make and it will be a hard one. You have to think risk dying and maybe not even save your home, or save yourself and your family and have to earn all your money all over again.  But personally I would leave early, because our family has lots of kids with big life’s ahead, my saying is ‘you can replace a house but not a family.’

If you didn’t know this was the biggest natural disaster in the history of Australia. Not even cyclone Tracy was as bad as this. Black Saturday killed exactly 210 people. Cyclone Tracy only killed 63. Black Saturday killed more than triple that. It was definitely was the worst. And a little advice NEVER jump in the pool when there are bushfires because you will just boil to death

Be ready when a bushfire is coming close be ready and have a plan, practise it.

Black Saturday affected lots of different places. One of those places was Kinglake. A family of six were badly affected by the fires. The kids were at school when the house got burnt to the ground. The kid’s parents were at home when the fires burst into flames. The kids were very worried that their parents wouldn’t have made the fires but luckily the two parents had got the things that they couldn’t replace and hid in their bunker/cellar. They grabbed some photos and got down in the bunker straight away.

They are trying to get on with life and now they are renting a house just a few minutes away. They don’t want to leave the bush and they think they never will.

One child from Kinglake west primary school had to run three km’s down the road and run into one house that in a matter of seconds it started burning so they had to run to another house and then that started burning so they had to run to the next house which had a underground bunker so at last they were safe.

The Black Saturday fires were very unfortunate and killed over 200 people we are thinking of those who died in the fires.

By Ben W