Family drama reveals detention contortions - Eureka Street

Over the past few months I've been attending a weekly vigil at the Darwin Airport Lodge Detention Centre.

The Darwin Airport Lodge is listed as an 'Alternative Place of Detention'. There has been a lot of criticism about locking children up in detention centres so the government swapped a few words around and now everyone's happy. The dumb ass Australian public who want to punish people for seeking safety but don't want to be seen to hate children are satisfied that an 'Alternative place of detention' is far more caring and humane than a detention centre. The government invents some crap about creating a deterrent in order to prevent drowning at sea and the Australian public are overjoyed. We get to condemn the evil people smugglers, punish, confuse, condemn and antagonize asylum seekers who risk their lives to find safety simply because the last mode available to them is by sea and continue to feel righteous about ourselves because we are doing all this so that we can assist the refugees who go through the appropriate channels first. What a joke!

Meanwhile there are real human beings who had the misconception that Australia is a safe place with laws that could protect refugees from persecution. When they get here and realize the bitter truth they are crushed! They are completely confused by the lack of humanity in the way they are treated, the lies they are told and the brutal way they are herded up without being told what is happening and shoved around like cattle! We condemn them for not following rules that don't actually exist and then place them in a system that arbitrarily creates and dismantles it's own rules on a whim and expects them to be aware of every policy change being applied to their lives. Reality is continually altered and readjusted by an authority they have very little access to, time is warped by waiting and disappointment, justice is overridden by the incapacity for detention facilities to hold the numbers that are being held for artificially long periods in order to create the illusion of an appropriate length of time one might wait in a queue that never existed and people never know where they will be moved to next. Maybe Melbourne, maybe Sydney maybe Nauro or Manus Island... Maybe sent back to danger because there's no space in the waiting room and nobody wants to asses your claim! 

In the midst of all this there are children! My daughter recently asked " If the people that I go to visit love Australia, why doesn't Australia love them? Why don't we adopt them they could do nice things for Australia?" 

Over the past few months I have met many lovely people, many people who have far greater respect for our country than most of the citizens I have met but they are broken... first by the horrors they have fled but now even worse their sense of hope for any kind of future is being stolen from the by us! No amount of rationalization  can mask the injustices we are perpetrating against these people and the to subject innocent children to these conditions is inexcusable!

If you have any sense of justice you might like to read the story below about Ranjini and her family. How have we come to this place where we as a nation are prepared to rob children of their childhood and their potential to flourish and grow? We are poisoning the roots of our own future!

Here's a story from Eureka Street... food for thought.

Family drama reveals detention contortions - Eureka Street

"...Ranjini's story is another indictment of a collective failure or refusal to imagine the injustice endured by others. We allow ourselves to be distracted by endless abstractions peddled by politicians and the media because if ever we acknowledge the humanity we share with refugees, then we may be compelled to treat them accordingly.
Still, sometimes, despite our best efforts, a name surfaces, photos of a smiling woman emerge. A baby arrives."

 (Author. Fatima Measham)

STOLEN FUTURES Legislation

Recently the country didn't hear much about the new 'Stronger Futures' legislation brought down on Indigenous Territorians by Jenny Macklin.
You didn't hear much about it but that doesn't mean nobody's been talking! The problem is nobody's listening and even if they wanted to nobody's reporting it!
There's a tacit understanding amongst those who are aware of what's going on here and they'll tell you about it if you're interested.... If you're interested!

They'll tell you about "That Other Agenda".

....THAT'S RIGHT Winston!  "That Other Agenda!" We all know what it is... deep down we know!

Here's just one man speaking clearly... If you listen carefully to Mr Jeff McMullen you may hear something about us that you may not like.... The message is simple and clear and is being spoken loudly all around us. It may not be broadcast widely through your usual media sources... but they have another job to do!



"Walk With Us" book launch Sydney - p3: Jeff McMullen from 'concerned Australians' on Vimeo.

Singing hypocricy

On Friday I attended my child's School Assembly.
Wow! They've changed a lot since I was a kid! The Children are actually involved in running the school assembly, there are awards, and performances and it's heaps of fun. The principal still addresses school discipline issues but there is an amazing amount of collaborative work involving the kids as well.

Anyway I'm straying from the issue I wanted to raise. During school assemblies, everyone stands to sing the National Anthem. I have to admit I haven't even heard it for years, we used to sing God Save the Queen.
We did sing Advance Australia Fair during my last years at school but... well... I wasn't there that often! I don't recall ever going past the first verse anyway. I am sure I've heard it before but a lot has changed in this country since I heard it!

So we're standing at attention... I sing heartily for the first verse... then "La da di da da da dada, da da de da da daaaaaaa" (I tried to keep the tune but didn't really have a chance so I just shut up and listened!)

And was horrified to hear these words...

"...For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair..."

I don't often think of myself as a particularly patriotic person, I tend to oscillate between various states of mind when it comes to the role of obtrusive political systems, Governments, nations etc... For practical purposes though I do understand and respect the role of nationhood. The Laws, and the significance of documents such as our constitution, a flag under which we might affiliate and an anthem which reflects the spirit of the people of the land we belong to. I get why we might need such things as a means of cooperating and unifying etc... These are the structures that allow us as individuals to align ourselves with our countrymen under a code of honour of sorts. We respect the basic tenets of our society. And that's why Constitutional Law is taken so seriously, or to deface a National Flag is considered to be extremely offensive.

So how is it that we have allowed our Government to pervert the laws of our land to such an extent that they can change them whenever the law does not suit their own agenda, in this case their anti Refugee Policies?

If Nationhood means anything. If it is expected that we, as free thinking individuals, should willingly stand in obedience to the symbols of our nation and sing a National Anthem; then surely the words contained in this song must have meaning!


As I watched my child proudly singing I felt a deep sense of shame! We have sold our children a lie and they are loyally singing it to us in their morning devotions! Whatever shall we do about this terrible treachery?

Change the National Anthem?

"For those who come across the seas...
We've not a crumb to spare.
Steel bars and razor wire,
are all, that you'll, find there!"

If I advise the School that I do not want my child to sing the National Anthem it is not because I don't love my country! It is because I cannot bear the thought that our children are being used to propagate a myth!

Peace!

Book of the week

WE ARE ALL BORN FREE

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures
(Amnesty International UK section 2008)

 (We Are All Born Free)

Yep... just as the title suggests, it is a pictorial presentation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
This is a Children's book which presents a 'Simplified Version' of Thirty Human Rights Articles, The book is full of great drawing paintings and various other forms of cool images produced by 22 esteemed illustrators and artists.

Human Rights are not complicated. They are basic... Fundamental expectations that we would hope could be applied to all people regardless of where they are from, regardless of ethnicity, religion etc... etc...

Having attended the Federal Government’s round table discussion on human rights last year I was dismayed to learn that the overwhelmingly supported recommendation for an Australian Bill of Rights has been completely sidestepped.

Here in the NT most people are acutely aware of the fact that the Federal Government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act in order to impose their “Northern Territory National Emergency Response” better known as “The Intervention”.


We have also witnessed the arbitrary axing of Bilingual Education for Indigenous children which, if the decision referred to any actual evidence at all, it was based on erroneous data and nonsense.

Article 26 (part of) “...Our parents have the right to choose how and what we learn...”

Of course if our country has such little regard for the rights of it’s own citizens it should be expected that we would have little concern for the welfare of Asylum seekers or refugees! For those unfortunate enough to have had to flee their own country they may find insult and contempt added to their list of injuries when seek refuge in this Country!

Although most asylum seekers will be granted refugee status and be allowed to stay once they have endured the interminable wait for processing. They’ll enjoy very few basic rights while they are waiting! Here in Darwin Children have been detained for months with very little opportunity or space for play. Although it had been intended for children under 16 to attend school, it has taken months for them to actually have the opportunity. Now we hear that children will be released from detention while awaiting acceptance, but they’ll likely be a year older before that happens... Apparently they may finally taste freedom in June next year!

Article 14 “If we are frightened of being badly treated in our own country, we all have the right to run away to another country to be safe”

A couple of months ago I drove by some Asylum seekers who'd jumped the razor wire fence of the detention center, just so they could stand by the road and hold signs begging for justice and compassion... They cried as drivers abused them for slowing the traffic and making them late for work... I heard that they were taken away soon after that... Who knows where they are now.



Additional Links related to this book

http://www.franelessac.com/docs/teachersnotes/We%20Are%20All%20Born%20Free.pdf