The novel depicts a young Afghan man who works hard in his job as a mechanic but is very poor and probably always will be. The parents dream of a bettere future for their son where he can shake off the grime of his present life and enter a clean and civilised society. So they sacrifice everything and send him on the treacherous, life threatening trip to the promised land – Australia.
Firstly, is this an accurate depiction
of the asylum seekers that Australia receives by boat? This story of
an economic migrant does happen yet when someone is found to be an
economic migrant they do not receive refugee status, we are not
expected to help these people, they were never granted asylum in the
first place. The numbers suggest that this is not the typical story
of a refugee where well over 90% of asylum seekers that arrive by sea
are given refugee status which means that they are fleeing
persecution. Human rights dictate that it is not illegal for them to
seek asylum in Australia by whatever means they choose and as a
signatory to the UNHCR refugee convention we must protect them.
Bob Carr was one who claimed last year
that most asylum seekers where just economic migrants, every fact
checker out there shot him down in flames.
So if we were to have a more accurate
depiction of an asylum seeker that arrives by boat then this graphic
novel is hardly graphic enough. I ask, where are the depictions of
war, oppression, violence, slavery, abuse, threats and famine? To
depict this Afghan man as representative of asylum seekers or even representative of Afghan men seeking asylum is a gross
and insensitive injustice to those fleeing such persecution. Maybe
the opening panels should look more like this:
 |
| we took in Vietnamese refugees back in the day |
The story goes on to depict the journey
from his homeland and through dodgy people smugglers to where he
finally boards a rickety and overcrowded boat bound for Australian
waters. They travel through rough seas before gratefully being picked up by an Australian Customs or NAVY boat. Oh how I wish the typical story would end with the refugee being welcomed...however...
The graphic novel concludes with the
asylum seeker being processed and then flown to an isolated island to
remain indefinitely in detention surrounded by disease spreading
mosquitoes, no privacy and his own despair and dark thoughts. They
could've gone further but I guess that they didn't really want to
depict self harm or suicide attempts. The picture that I find most
galling at the end though is the man regretfully daydreaming about
home. It paints home as a rosy picture, so in place of mosquitoes and
despair he is surrounded by a loving community and is celebrating,
perhaps celebrating his own wedding as he prepares for a better
future which will never be.
I would imagine for the typical refugee
that their dreams of home would be contaminated with nightmares and
fear of the things they have seen and never want to see or experience again. Is that depicted in the novel? - of course not.
Essentially if the graphic novel was
more graphic it would depict an Australia that takes those that are
fleeing nightmarish realities and then coldly returns them in an
orange lifeboat to a remote Indonesian shoreline, washing their hands
of any responsibility to what may happen next. Or cruelly dumps them
in concentration camps where it dehumanises them further till they
mentally break into tiny pieces. We don't even bother to send
seasoned professionals to cater for their mental health anymore.
Essentially we are saying to the typical refugee that is fleeing for
their lives, 'don't bother coming here, we will not help you, we may
even send you back.'
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| offensive in its generalisation but makes a valid point |
And the release of this grahic novel
for Australian dissemination continues the long line of recent
propaganda from the Coalition of the children overboard lies,
alarmist billboards and the broken record reptitious use of the term
'illegals.' To Labours advertising in national media that refugees
'Won't be settled in Australia,' now reconfigured by the new Government to 'No Way – They
will not make Australia home.'
As a critic I would rate the
Government's graphic novel 5 stars for its ability to provoke an
emotional response in me but I'll have to take a star away for each
of the following factors. Not graphic enough, not realistic enough,
not batting for the home team by portraying Australia as a nation of
bastards, offensive to those fleeing for their lives and the dialogue
left a lot to be desired. 0 stars. Perhaps the sequel will redeem the
series but I fear it will not. How do you rate this novel?
It can be found in full here: Storyboard Afghanistan
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