Candles
in the Darkness
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The greatest threat to Australia today is the current government.

9/24/2014

2 Comments

 
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The greatest threat to Australia’s security is the current government.

Rule by dividing and terrorising the Australian population with misinformation and racially charged political stunts.

Add to our desperation by making us poorer, less able to afford education and health-care.

Continue to blame the previous government for budget shortfalls without tackling the wealthy who exploit the nation.

Perpetuate the torture of children in government care - their physical and sexual abuse.

Alienate and disenfranchise young people, especially young men.

Fail to represent over fifty percent of the population – women.

Belittle and mock human rights.

Expunge ourselves of our international obligations – shipping our poor and desperate to compete with the poor and desperate in Cambodia.

Do we feel proud?

Do we feel safe?

We have never been more afraid in our lives.

How many of us are wise enough to know the real extremists are the men in suits who are throwing away our security for political point-scoring? They know exactly what they’re doing: Play the ‘Security Card’ as their predecessor played the ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction Card’.  All lies. All spin. All designed to make this nation fearful and force our children to grow up afraid and without hope. Such is the banner of Team Australia.

Let us hope those of us on Team Humanity can hold on long enough to bring about positive change.

Hold this government to account.

A true leader will unite people, not single out and persecute minorities. Destroying in a few short months a nation which was one of the most integrated and peaceful in the world.

Ask yourself why the government talks about human rights as though they only belong to white, male, Australians.

Ask yourself how a Christian country can bomb a country in abject poverty and disarray? Do we not hold Christians to account as we hold our Muslim brothers and sisters? Did Jesus tell Christians to slaughter the non-believers? It would seem, by our actions, that he did. And yet, I find it impossible to locate the scripture which insights me to hate my neighbour as Team Australia would have me do.

Lets look forward to the truth emerging from the spin and am comforted that Abbot and Murdock cannot control the internet, or what young people will discover in the months ahead.

They will vote for a government which will give them:

A safe and stable place to live

Clean air and water

Renewable energy

Hope of finding a stable job and not just a short term contract.

Affordable education

Affordable health

A fairer tax system where the wealthy pay their share and big business pays fairly for resources.

Gender equality.

A sense that Australia respects its international obligations and can be relied on to work toward a better world.

None of this is possible with the current government.

And a people without hope is a terrorised nation.

And so it is that the greatest terror threat we have on these shores today sits in Parliament House with a PM on his door and an armed guard designed to keep us, and the truth, out.

 

(I know that government should have a capital G, but I cannot bring myself to give it one. It would imply a respect I cannot feel. So for the grammar purists, I apologise)

2 Comments

 What Constitutes a Child in Abbott's Australia?

8/19/2014

2 Comments

 
Mr Abbott,

Free ALL Children from Detention. Now. Without delay.

An educated man would see little purpose in punishing a baby.

A decent man would protect frightened women and children.

A civilized man would not pull a child out of school and incarcerate her.

These children and their parents have obeyed the law. They have fulfilled their international obligations and kept the conventions set down by the United Nations.

Have you Mr Abbott?

It seems to me that you see fit to free only children incarcerated by your predecessor. And only those on the mainland. And only those who are under the age of ten. You draw lines of distinction outside the Australian definition of ‘child’, outside the international protocols on the treatment of children, outside the recognised concept of ‘last resort’.

You do your country no favours in breaching what is decent.

You are responsible for the torture of children on Nauru.

You are responsible for the sexual and physical abuse of children on Christmas Island and Manus Island.

You do not represent the people of this nation.

How can the torture of children represent us as a nation?

These are your policies, enacted by your government, adhered to despite public protest and international condemnation.

You are breaking laws Mr Abbott. Laws agreed upon by civilized nations designed to make this world a safer place. A place where women and children have no need to run from fear.

But there are, as I write this, two children running. Two lost and frightened children who were loved by their communities and accepted by their fellow Australians. You took them to an adult prison without bothering to verify their ages. You and your government.

So don’t congratulate yourself, Mr Abbott. Not now. Not yet.

Not before you find in yourself some humanity. Some humility. Some empathy.

And let them ALL. Every child, woman and man, locked inside the gulags of your making. Let them ALL free.

2 Comments

Tell me you didn't know

2/24/2014

1 Comment

 
Tell me you didn’t know.

Pretend it’s not happening.

Block your ears to their pleading

Cover your eyes so you cannot see them

Put up fences to keep your distance

Close your mind to stop thoughts

Oranienburg

Auschwitz

Dachau

Manus Island

Nauru

Christmas Island – a gift from you

Tell yourself you’re not responsible

Tell yourself it’s all their fault

Try not to see the children’s faces

Try not to think about the children

Try not to hear them

You will write your own history of this time

And they will write theirs

1 Comment

Do We Care Enough to Heal Ourselves?

2/18/2014

0 Comments

 
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For those wondering about what is really happening on Manus Island I encourage you to look at the report by Mark Davis, a reporter from SBS. It’s one of the most disturbing reports about asylum seekers I’ve ever seen.

One man is dead. 77 are injured.  Several are missing in the jungle with possible injuries

People working for the facility (the Australian guards) have been evacuated to the boat provided for their safety, leaving the asylum seekers without protection from the mobs of locals and PNG police and militia who broke in to the prison.

It seems like the scenes we see played out in Afghanistan, or the Congo, or Sudan. The exception being that WE are the care givers here! WE abduct these men and hold them hostage on Manus and now we’ve left them to a fate, decided by disgruntled locals and underpaid local police.

The Government tells us:

 WE are in charge.

WE decide what happens to the asylum seekers who seek our help

WE have a duty to protect our sovereignty and our borders.

IT DOES NOT TALK ABOUT:

OUR  duty of care.

OUR signature ratifying the right to seek asylum and our DUTY to provide shelter and assistance.

Our willingness to use our navy and military for political point-scoring.

Our willingness to turn a blind eye…

Our desire to punish the weak and desperate.

The lies it tells us and the vilification it perpetrates on those who speak up.

The crimes it commits in our name.

What is happening on Manus Island is a crime. We are breaching our international obligations and allowing people in our care and protection to be killed and beaten, or to run for their lives in terror.

WE ARE RESPONSIBLE!

It’s time to stop this moral emphysema. This decay of soul.

Time is running out for the men on Manus.

Tonight I wonder who will be waiting for them in the darkness with machetes.

0 Comments

I am NOT complicit!

1/16/2014

16 Comments

 
 If I don’t open my mouth and speak up then I will appear complicit.

And I am NOT complicit.

I believe in human rights, that refugees have a right to shelter and protection, not persecution and detention.

I believe women are equal and should have equal representation in government, media, sports, work and opportunity. I know this is not the reality. But it needs to change.

I believe we have an obligation to this planet to care for it. It has nurtured us for millennia. But if we don’t stop our insatiable exploitation of its resources it will die. And we with it.

I believe the purpose of the economy is to serve its people, not enslave the people to the economy.

I believe governments are answerable to their people.

I believe History teaches us lessons which many ignore.

Things need to change.

I need to speak out.

One candle in the darkness looking for others.

I know you’re there. Perhaps together we can build a better world.

This is the first of many candles, match- strikes, flares and calls out into the wilderness. Born of a feeling of frustration and hopelessness with our current government and a society which seems blind and apathetic in the face of the suffering of others.

Please feel free to join me.

An ocean of flickering lights will bring hope to many, including ourselves.

We CAN change the world!

16 Comments

    siobhan colman

    Shining a light in the darkness.

    Human rights

    The Environment

    www.siobhancolman.com



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