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The World is Watching

1/21/2014

3 Comments

 
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This morning I woke up to see that our treatment of asylum seekers and refugees is so bad it has drawn the attention and condemnation of the Human Rights Watch in the US.

"Successive governments have prioritised domestic politics over Australia's international legal obligations to protect the rights of asylum seekers,"

"Too often, the Government has attempted to demonise those trying to reach Australia by boat and has insisted that officials refer to all asylum seekers who do so as 'illegal maritime arrivals'."

And yet our mainstream press seem unaware that the term ‘illegals’ bandied about by politicians for their own gain is in fact a LIE. And I thought that’s what good journalists did. Seek out those in government who lie to their people, to bring truth forward, rather than bury it under political spin. Instead, our papers are the flunkies following the bully in the playground, holding the voiceless and the helpless and the desperate down so the government can rain down punches.

How is it we can claim pride in this country?

We, who invented the apartheid system long before South Africa.

We who refused, until 1967, to make citizens of our original inhabitants, who stole their land, who demonise their struggle, who STILL make exceptions under the law for their continued subjugation in the Northern Territory.

We, who swindled the East Timorese out of gas and oil in the guise of aid.

We, who have cut our overseas aid despite promises made to the starving and the desperate.

We, who turned away escaping Jews in the war, forcing them to return to Germany and Poland and Holland and the holocaust. We weren’t the only ones who turned our back on those asylum seekers. Many countries did. But we can’t turn around and pat ourselves on the back for our spirit of ‘mateship’ can we? And we can’t pretend that it all stopped with World War Two. There have been genocides and holocausts around the world since. In Africa it is epidemic.

Yet we are still turning the desperate away.

Please tell me what makes a person coming in to Australia by plane more deserving than someone struggling across the sea by boat? Is it their money? Or their ability to forge documents well enough to fool airlines? Or their sheer luck in having an Australian embassy at which they can ‘get in the queue’? Maybe they were given time to collect the documents they needed and had the money to do so. But how much time does a woman have with militia at her door and hundreds dead in her village? How long would you stay to arrange the right documents?

And the children we promised never to imprison?

“…we've got over 1,000 children in closed detention, in isolated conditions, Christmas Island and in other detention centres around Australia.

"On Nauru, we have 850 people of whom about 125 are children and similar numbers, slightly greater, on Manus Island.

"Our concern is, as a matter of law, children should not be detained except as a matter of last resort and we are clearly not at the last resort level." Professor Gillian Triggs, Australian Human Rights Commission president.

So this Australia Day what will we be celebrating?

Will we be congratulating ourselves on a job well done?

Like the first Australians, I’m inclined to wear a black arm band.

Out of respect for all we have lost.

 


3 Comments
Jo van Kool
1/22/2014 01:36:26 pm

One of the problems seems to be that many don't 'get it' and tend to simply see Abbott et al as 'being tough. Good on 'em.' There is so much confused thinking about the refugee situation, not helped by the secrecy. To say ' no boats have come' as Morrison did yesterday,would seem to be untrue, as why is the Navy in so much trouble for 'burning hands etc when turning the boats back'? But then again how can we know anything for sure? The one thing I am sure of, is that there are some in detention right now who can't go home and are not allowed to leave their place of detention to start a useful life anywhere.They are therefore without hope. This is wrong, Mr Morrison. Wrong!

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Michael link
1/22/2014 05:39:49 pm

Siobhan,

It's so wonderful to be able to read your work and share in your ideas online. I really admire what you have to say and look forward to being challenged and extended in my own thinking as I follow your work.

Lots of love,

M

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Maria
2/19/2014 08:42:55 pm

Hi Siobhan,
First let me say how appropriate your web page looks, particularly regarding the topics raised in your blog.
I am an average "Jo Blow" cocooned and consumed by the day to day struggles of work / life balance and yet I listen to the news, hear the spin on refugees and asylum seekers and our Governments response to them and I am torn. It is a complex, convoluted situation. The Government says we will take asylum seekers from the refugee camps - many of these people live in appalling conditions in these camps for months or years waiting in a queue but why does it take so long to process their applications??? Then there are the refugees who for whatever reason cannot (because of geography or imminent fear for their lives) or choose not to head to a refugee camp and languish in a queue but rather take the risk and yes it is a very grave risk, to pay unscrupulous merchants enormous sums to try to "jump the queues" and seek a safe haven and a better life.
What I think we all forget here is that these are PEOPLE, not commodities. They had lives filled with the mundane "hurly-burly"just like us, but WE have not had terror or war inflicted upon us as a country, WE have not had to grab whatever we could and flee for our lives (bushfire victims have some sense of such panicked decision making and uncertainty). We live in the lucky country. We need to show the kindness and compassion that our Anzac spirit has left as a national legacy and national identity. I'm sure if every person actually met an asylum seeker / refugee face to face. that spirit of generosity would be there in spades. It is because these people are locked away potentially indefinitely and we never actually hear their stories or see their faces, that it is so much easier to disengage with their plight and believe whatever government / media spin is fed to us. I am ashamed and guilty that I am one of the ignorant ones. Thank you for helping me to take the time to think about this issue and initiate a more active response.

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    siobhan colman

    Shining a light in the darkness.

    Human rights

    The Environment

    www.siobhancolman.com



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