SYDNEY -- Just as Australian Prime Minister John Howard was addressing world economic leaders in New York on the profits to be made from investing here, Afghan asylum seekers held in detention camps in the Australian desert were trying to die in hunger strikes.
The meeting between visiting Canberra officials and their Wall Street hosts stood in stark contrast with the plight of would-be immigrants, some of whom had sewn their lips together in protest against Canberra's refusal to accept them.
How long Australia can maintain its harsh stance on people fleeing from repression before the world insists on more humane treatment remains to be seen. Certainly it was hardly the time for political leaders to be in New York and London selling the virtues of Australia.