John Howard's Lucky Day

A story from the Beeb about the unusually generous attitude of the John Howard government towards ten Sierra Leone athletes who applied for asylum at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March. I do not know what the ranking of Sierra Leone currently is on the list of 'at-risk' countries that is used by Western countries in determining such applications but the swiftness and the willingness of the Canberra powers-that-be to process these ten cases is at odds with their generally unwelcoming attitude towards non-white immigrants. The Sierra Leone government alleges that Australia is acting merely to poach world class athletes, which, at the risk of sounding too crass, is not that far-fetched. The Aussies do like their sport.