SYDNEY -- Pangs of guilt are creeping into the Australian psyche in this self-indulgent time of year. The annual spending frenzy, known to some as Christmas, is being contrasted with the wretched life of hundreds of refugees detained on Australia's Indian Ocean territory, Christmas Island.
The conservative government of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, still basking in the glory of November's re-election, has been hauled over the coals by no less than U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and his high commissioner for refugees, Ruud Lubbers.
The occasion was the 50th anniversary celebrations in Geneva of U.N. efforts to resettle refugees. Instead of a pat on the back Canberra might have expected for its 50-plus years of settling immigrants from almost every country in the world, the Geneva noise was decidedly shrill.