MANUS AND NAURU - NOT ONLY AUSTRALIA'S CONCENTRATION CAMPS, BUT NOW THE DEATH CAMPS TOO!

There are too many politicians and journalists in Australia who have remained silent for too long.

Another death on Manus - and someone who was desperately in need of assistance and attention - and the responses from the politicians?

Silence all the way.

And the citizens of Australia?

A vague stirring.

Will it lead to a campaign to stop this criminal activity on the part of the government and its loyal opposition?

Probably not.

Where is the humanity, human rights, protections, assistance, and all the other issues which need immediate attention?

One can't even quote Alan Paton any more - no doubt the generations of today have not heard of the famous South African book "Cry the beloved country."

This is probably not exactly genocide, but it is not far removed from what genocide is and what it does.

Those of us who care are too old or worn out to be able to actively campaign as once we might have done, and we hoped later generations would fill the gap, but alas it has not happened.

People should be marching in the streets throughout the country and screaming from the roof tops till everybody is awakened to the criminal activities taking place in their names.

I despair, and at 90 I see no solutions in my lifetime.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A CONCENTRATION CAMP AND A DEATH CAMP?

Basically one could start with the premise that a death camp is designed to lock people up and systematically kill them, as the Nazis did in Auschwitz-Birkenau and other places. A concentration camp is where you lock people up indefinitely. They will either be let out one day or they won't.

Take Gaza and the West Bank as modern (?) examples. In order to get rid of the Palestinians - not by sending them to gas chambers but by keeping them in prison conditions and killing them off by provocation in small numbers at a time with the aim of total demoralisation so that they beg to leave of their own accord - presumably the theory is that eventually there will be less and less Palestinians and the Israelis can occupy Gaza and the West Bank totally and incorporate them in Israel and Palestine will be history.

Unfortunately for the Israelis the Palestinian population is increasing more rapidly than the killings so plan A is not working very well.

Also bit by bit the outside world is starting to wake up to the criminalities of the state of Israel, and at last there are more and more protests around the world.

Take Manus and Nauru. Lock up asylum seekers and throw away the keys and leave people with no hope whatever of any future. This will deter asylum seekers, people smugglers and human rights defenders who see these concentration camps for what they are - hell holes.

Concentration camps were an invention of the British in South Africa during the South African War of 1899-1902. The British made themselves hated by the Afrikaners who were incarcerated and who died of ghastly diseases and other issues of helpless incarceration.

Think of other parts of Africa and Middle East areas around the world and consider how you feel about concentration/death camps.