One of the key differences between lefties and conservatives is that the former are motivated mostly by their emotions, the latter by their thoughts. Lefties seek out emotive issues and deal with them, er, emotionally.
And the issue of how best to deal with asylum seekers is even more emotive than most. That's why this story about claims of bullying by Asylum Seeker Resource Centre CEO Kon Karapanagiotidis is hardly surprising.
The article linked above has some pretty shocking allegations. If they are true, there's one line in it that goes a long way to explaining why such a toxic culture has resulted under his rule. That is that Mr Karapanagiotidis is "described by many as a charismatic leader".
Dunno about you. But whenever I hear or read that term, I'm thinking "cult". And they never seem to turn out well, now do they?
Of course it's possible that complaints made against him are completely unfounded; all part of some sinister conspiracy to topple him. But that would be an even worse reflection on the organization, wouldn't it?
Either way, the whole sorry saga makes you wonder why journos are so often happy to report what these activists say as the unvarnished truth.
"Either way, the whole sorry saga makes you wonder why journos are so often happy to report what these activists say as the unvarnished truth."
ReplyDeleteThe explanation lies somewhere between 'If it bleeds, it leads'(source unknown) and 'After politics, journalism has always been the preferred career of the ambitious but lazy second-rater'(Gore Vidal).