Mad as a March in March hare

For once I'd like to write about something other than the appalling state of politics. Yeah, Gina Rinehart openly wants Thatcherism in Australia and condemns our age of entitlement even though she inherited her wealth and her industry gets billions in fuel subsidies. Perhaps when she kicks the bucket she'll have incurred such goodwill with the people that like Thatcher, people will be dancing in the streets at her demise.

On entitlements – education is one such right that we have in this country. If like Pyne however you think that rich kids are entitled to a better education and if you fear the general population developing critical thinking skills (an easily swayed into fear voter is a liberal voter), then it's goodbye to a fair go Gonski deal for students.

And Malcolm, we had such high hopes that you would save us all from the real mad one. You have dismantled the NBN though and permit and encourage the questioning of funding to public broadcasters SBS and ABC. Smugly ignoring the numerous independent professional reports, some that you asked for. Which state that both broadcasters provide extraordinary value for money and are making such significant contributions to our nation that they deserve more funding. Yet because Murdoch who got nearly a billion dollars of entitlement of public money wants to further his monopoly of propaganda you parrot Tony's hypocrisy. Who will stand up for what is right in your party if not even one member of cabinet shows that it can be done? Have they broken you Malcolm?

Oh Tony, I expect nothing less than tearing apart the forestry peace agreement that took decades to implement so that your ultimate conservationists can cut down more trees. And then you want your 'half the minimum wage slave wages Green Army' to go and plant more. I don't have a major problem with forestry workers but I do have a problem with the language you use that causes divisions in our society. On top of that we are set to lose thousands of jobs. And we are losing support for renewable energy. We are turning away from the strides forward we made in facing the greatest moral challenge of our time in curbing our greenhouse emissions. Oh, and not forgetting the cutting of foreign aid. Thanks for nothing Tony.

And then there is the great Scott ignoring all the internal and international criticism of our human rights abuses. Atrocities are now being committed in our name in offshore concentration camps. We have the horror of murder and people blinded and having their throats cut and of children being present in it all. And in response we have a government who is proud of its policy. Still, I can't just be mad at the government. We have a populace where they have much support. I am angry at you Australia with Scott Ludlam the only politician in the last week to provide me any real light in this dark vaccuum void of reason and humanity.

So whether the issue is that you think the attack on Unions is more for political pointscoring than any real attempt to make Unions a fairer, more effective and translucent operation. Whether it's that we are now curbing the right to protest or ignoring the gay marriage debate, while more than half the western world leaves us floundering in their wake like a dinosaur in mud. Whether those listed above or other reasons, get mad as a march hare – at least for this weekend.

I really wanted to write about something other than the appalling state of politics we find ourselves in. I was going to write just a couple of examples of appallingness and then write about something not politically related like my love for fantasy footy or that I finally start a new job next week after months of rejection. But the list just kept growing. I'd like to write about something else but everything else seems trite in comparison.

That's why I'll be marching tomorrow through the streets of Sydney as a vote of no confidence in our Government, I hope you'll consider getting along to your local march too, it'll be one heck of an experience. I'm hoping that being sourrounded by thousands of Australians that are as fed up as me will go some way to restoring my faith in Australia. Maybe I'll be able to find a place of peace to be able write about something else.

I Can't Handle The Truth

Being a pacifist and having worked with young people for years, trained within the realms of youth work, mediation, counselling, mental health and pastoral care, I have learnt to control my emotions. While those around me can be quick to anger, reckless and at the whim of their emotional reactions. I tend to be quick to listen, slow to anger, non-judgemental and trying to draw the best out of people. I have treasured being called a 'calming influence'. But recent events have left a sour taste on my tongue. And when I spit, it is laced with vitriol. I'm showing signs of cracking.

The culmination so far of my journey towards losing it came through SBS's Dateline report on Manus Island. I think it was the most important piece of journalism I've witnessed all year (and another in a long line of powerful reasons why we need public broadcasters). If you didn't see the program, I suggest you should - everybody should. That is; if you think you can handle the truth.

Go here to go to the SBS Dateline page to read about or watch 'The Inside Story' 

I was so furious from it that I felt the need to express my rage. Did I punch walls? did I pick up a pitchfork and go marching to my nearest political representatives office? No. I did what any repressed activist with an inclination to blogging and social media would do - I sat down and wrote about what I thought and how I felt. Checking myself, I refrained from publishing. It wasn't because the use of the word 'fucking' as an adjective in every second sentence bothered me as lazy from the perspective of a writer. It was more that it was just a therapeutic exercise of release.

I feel sorry for Biz sometimes when I get all righteous and shouty, starting to share tidbits of the internal dialogue I have where I rip Abbott and Morrisson to shreds. I'm thankful she puts up with my outbursts. Outbursts that are coming all too frequent of late due to a Government that declares itself open for business but closed to humanity. Heck, even the Uniting Church got rejected for offering to care for children who are being punished because of the choices of others.

ABC Uniting Church offers to take child asylum seekers 
SMH church slams cold blooded treatment of asylum seeker children 

And when exactly did that happen? When in this democracy did power and business interests take precedent over the interests of people. We have a power hungry PM who has said in the past "I would do anything except sell my arse to become PM." And now he and the likes of Campbell Newman strut around like they own the place. We know power corrupts and it has surely corrupted these men to where they have forgotten (if they ever knew it) that leaders are there to serve the people. A business is not a person. We have become a nation that ignores the consequences to people and the environment because we tolerate leaders that serve business interests to serve their own self interest.

I am not always on the side of our propensity to cut down the tall poppy. It can come across as an aversion to success, a way to drag down the intellectual to our level. There are days though that I am thankful we have such a cultural system in play, I want to see it happen in this case. I want the senate inquiry announced today into Manus (thank you Greens and Labour) to expose the horror that we are accountable for. Likewise the inquiry from the UN human rights commissioner. And I want to see us take our democracy back from those that are far from conservative with their radical tea party neo-con privileged plutocrat idealogies.

Oh dear, I've gotten off tangent and turned all ranty again over the last two paragraphs. See! I have a problem.

SBS Manus island Nauru under UN spotlight 

The Guardian Senate approves inquiry into Manus island riot and death of Reza Barati 

Still, I wonder if they'll even deign to answer the questions that the senate puts to them? And if nothing changes, I wonder if (while not being individually oppressed) I can claim asylum in New Zealand? On what I consider reasonable grounds of course, that my country has gone mad with irrational fear and it is causing me considerable mental anguish?

Graphic Novel, Not Graphic Enough!

Graphic novels are cool and have a long tradition of being a subversive tool in storytelling and shaping people's worldview. Let's dissect the graphic novel that was commissioned by Australia in an attempt to dissuade those who might consider seeking asylum in Australia. 

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.

brisbane times factcheck are asylum seekers really economic refugees 

politifact truth-o-meter are boat people economic migrants 

theconversation factcheck are asylum seekers really economic migrants 

factsfightback are asylum seeker claims genuine

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.'

newmatilda truth behind governments refugee comic 

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

Great Scott! Morrison's at it again...

Would dehumanising the dehumanisers be a useful practice? Cos I really want to point out just how far of a failed human being that Scott Morrison is. I want to say that if I bumped into him in person I'd likely vomit at his feet involuntarily from being in the presence of the stench filled meatbag. But the cliches our parents imprinted us with that 'two wrongs don't make a right' squeezes it's way through the seething anger in my mind and I have to check myself. This man has thoughts and feelings, he has a family, maybe a dog or a cat or a hamster called little johnny. He has dreams and desires. He has needs. Like the need's of safety, of belonging, of being seen, of contributing and being productive, even of being loved. He has a right to that - but apparently not all people are created equal.

Today it was revealed that Scott Morrison has issued a directive to his party and to those in the field that work with asylum seekers that they are to be referred to as illegal arrivals from now on and that no longer will asylum seekers being moved to or kept in detention centres be referred to as clients, they are transferees and detainees. 

Scott Morrison's leaked directive from the Sydney Morning Herald 

As is pointed out in the article by a psychiatrist it is important what language we use and this directive from Scott Morrison dehumanises these people. I would go so far as to say that it is a deliberate act on his part to do so and is reprehensible. Why would any decent human being want other human beings dehumanised? Well, it serves his political purpose that we as the voting public come to see these people as less than human so we will not care what happens to them. There was even a report recently that one detention centre was referring to it's clients by numbers rather than names and that included children.

What happens to a person who is being systematically dehumanised? Psychiatrists say that dehumanisation ignores the person's individuality, their ability to be creative and make choices and ignores them as being part of a network of people who care for eachother – a community. A person denied their individuality and sense of belonging to a community often reults in them no longer showing compassion and other normal moral responses which can then lead them on a road to becoming violent or accepting violence upon themselves. Are we trying to mentally injure people towards responding with violence so we can dehumanise them even more?

And Scott Morrison is not only wanting to dehumanise asylum seekers but he wants everything that we do to them to be done in secret. He doesn't want the government to have to tell the public when asylum seekers are arriving on our shores, he doesn't want to tell us what happens to them after they do and he doesn't want to tell us of problems arising in the camps. 

Scott Morrison on secrecy from The Guardian Australia 

He doesn't want to tell us because he says it fuels the people smugglers and asylum seekers with information they can use to their advantage. Yet whilst in opposition he was the man announcing from the rooftops through his righteous spittle every day to anyone who would listen whenever an asylum seeker issue raised its head.

So I can't trust the hypocritical bugger because every decision he makes with these people's lives in his hands seems to be to exploit the issue for political gain. Today's news just imprints in concrete for me like little doggie footprints that this is his pattern. If truth is beauty then the works of Scott Morrison are filthy rags.

I don't want to be alarmist and I hate slippery slope arguments but dehumanising others puts in place an atmosphere where further human rights abuses can take place.

I wont make the absurdist leap to Hitler or Nazi's that others do when the idealism of a group conflicts with their own (The Daily Telegraph for one) but I do want to stress that the UNHCR was set up in the first place after what Hitler did to the Jews because the world decided that never again would we let people be so dehumanised and turned away from borders when fleeing persecution and death. Rightly we ratified that treaty. Have we forgotten what happened in the past? Have we forgotten what we agreed to do?

Our last report card from the UN gave us an F for our treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. As the richest nation in the world per capita we should be deeply ashamed. But this is what happens when we dehumanise others and become insular and selfish...it just breeds more selfishness and insular thinking till we can't see the forest for the trees. What did we fight for all those years ago? freedom for just the entitled or freedom and human rights for all? Lest we forget. 

I am a Christian but I never thought I'd be rocked and swayed by the way a Catholic Pope dealt with the same issues on the same day in another part of the world. It was a fantastic speech and I urge you to read it The Pope in Lampedusa on the globalisation of indifference To summarise it though he felt he needed to hold a Mass on Lampedusa, a small island in Italy that a boatload of refugees was attempting to reach because it has an immigrant reception centre (note the difference in terminology) but the boat was lost at sea and over 300 asylum seekers perished. 

The Pope spoke out about the globalisation of indifference to the plight of these people that has been spread in part by those that wish to dehumanise them. He said (and whether you believe in the story or not it is still a powerful metaphor) that at the dawn of humanity God asks Cain regarding Abel “Where is your brother? The voice of his blood cries even to me.” And he goes on to say that this question is being asked of all of us even now. “Where is your brother?”

The Pope went on to pray at the conclusion "we ask forgiveness for the indifference towards so many brothers and sisters, we ask for forgiveness for those who are pleased with themselves, who are closed in their own well-being in a way that leads to the anaesthesia of the heart, we ask you, Father, for forgiveness for those who with their decisions at the global level have created situations that lead to these tragedies. Forgive us, Lord!

I would've thought that any response akin to 'Am I my brother's keeper?' should be for the Christian at least answered with a resounding YES! Yet it seems like many Christians want to wash their hands of the problem like a Judean Prefect. It doesn't mark them as evil but for the Christian it is not what God calls you to do. I'm encouraged that this new Pope is not one of those Christians.

When we dehumanise others, others ultimately will begin to dehumanise us. It is like there is a natural law at work, like a law of social physics. I once heard a quote from a historian (I cannot find the source unforunately) “Nations rise and fall depending on how they reflect the Kingdom of God” (I am sorry if I am delving too much into God stuff, for the non believer you may read God or the Kingdom of God as the Kindom of the values that we share in justice, mercy and compassion).

That quote has the ring of truth to me – a seed of truth rooted in the earth and growing to a towering tree with branches that reach out and shade all that reside under it. Call it karma or call it Isaiah 60:12 “For the nation that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste” And I don't see that as an interventionist God reaching in and exacting revenge. I see that through the perspective of that if you live by the sword, so you die by the sword. The social law at work – if your nation is defined by greed in that greed gives it it's power then greed is what will kill it one bleeding cut at a time. Hate begets hate, greed begets greed, sefishness begets selfishness, violence begets violence and dehumanisation will lead to more and more dehumanisation. The reaping of the environment will see the environment turn on us. I'm not personifying the environment for example and this isn't some weirdo new age idea, this is basically the science of cause and effect. For every action there is a consequence be it a social action or a physical one.

The sins of the father are visited upon the son is not a curse, it is a consequence. When you beat or neglect your son that will leave scars that carry over into the next generation. When we dehumanise others on any basis be it wealth, race, religion, culture or sexuality then we are all poorer as a result going forward. We need to acknowledge what we have done and do all that is in our power to treat others how we would wish to be treated if we want a better world and a better future.

Because genorosity begets generosity and love begets love. It is in our interest to have the others interest at heart. Should we not, by turning our backs on others in need we will find that they have turned their backs on us in our need.

So to my brother Scott Morrison I ask 'where are you? And what are you doing?' Are you attending another wedding on the public purse and escaping scrutiny for it though your party has brought down others in parliament for similar infringements? Are you reliving your private boy's school days in Abbott's boy's club of a cabinate and looking down with contempt on the kids from the public school around the corner? Are you continuing to send heavily pregnant women and children to offshore detention centres where whole generations will be dehumanised before they've had a chance to form an identity? Are you telling asylum seekers they should join an ordely queue (that the UNHCR says is 117 years long at current resttlement rates-how patient are you?)

Will you please make a decision that pulls the brakes on this spiral into dehumanisation and systematically begin to humanise people for the benefit of all. Will you please afford people the same human rights that you feel entitled to. Or when asked 'where is your brother?' will you just smugly shrug and say 'you'll need to fight tooth and nail for a freedom of information clause to get my answer'?

Profiteering from people smuggling

Kevin Rudd announced today that any asylum seekers arriving in Australia without a visa will be sent to Papua New Guinea for assessment and resettlement from abc news. This is a huge coup for Kevin and Labor and will likely go a long way to preventing the people smuggling business going on in the waters to the north of our nation. This is good news for a political party and a prime minister wanting to be re-elected in the coming months. So, who now is it that will be profiteering from people smuggling? Kevin perhaps? the ALP?

Am I being too cynical?

I don't like us abdicating our responsibility to refugees and sending them elsewhere and I don't like us disempowering vulnerable people and telling them where we think they should live. But I also actually don't mind the whole concept as an attempt to prevent further drownings from happening at sea but it has to coincide with other announcements. The further financial assistance to PNG, that's fine. The proposed increase to our intake of immigrants, that's fine too. What concerns me, no, what leaves me feeling ashamed and angry is who we have turned our back on.

What if you are fleeing a country, a country that wont say 'sure, here's your visa'? How does a person who has had to flee their country without being able to get a visa reasonably apply for asylum in Australia? Our policy as it is now says that you cannot come here and we will ship you off to somewhere else. Can they apply somewhere? And if they can, will they be allowed to resettle sometime in their lifetime? If there was a place refugees could go to, even without a visa, that would see them assessed and resettled within a very reasonable ammount of time then I would consider perhaps supporting our new deal with PNG. As it is there is no such place, no wonder people get so desperate as to risk their lives. I am not happy.

Where is the Kevin Rudd that pleaded with the government when he was ousted as PM that they should continue to be compassionate towards refugees and not sell out their humanity to satisfy the selfish bigotry of way too many fellow Australians (I might be indulging a bit in what he actually said). This political football of vulnerable people who are hardly capable of invading us to take over, hence are not a border control issue has just gone on and on in absurdity for too long. And now Kevin Rudd and Bob Carr can add their names to the list of those who should have restless nights.

I prefer what Julian Burnside had to say the other day, he had facts, he had truth and he had the guts to say it as it is from the age. And I wonder where our leaders are that will take on xenophobic Australia and will deliver us a new vision worth belonging to?

emotion in motion

How is it that emotionally derived opinions are sufficient even in the face of facts and logic that would suggest otherwise?

We see issues creating divisiveness where an emotional wave will roll over the bedrock of truth in arriving to a perceived majority consensus. These issues of climate change, asylum seeker policy, gay marriage, mining, the economy and now a fractured multiculturalism are at the forefront of public and political debate during this dark chapter.

Never mind that more than 90% and up to 97% of reputable climate scientists agree that the planet is warming due to human activity. origin of graphic from skeptical science

with 2 being unsure and 1 saying no.

One half of the people would rather listen to Tony Abbott or Alan Jones, neither who have any expertise in this field and dispute the findings as if scientists had some secret global agenda.

Tony also questioned the quality of our economists when they said a carbon tax or emission trading scheme was a responsible and efficient way for this nation to respond and move forward towards a greener economy.

From The Australian - Opposition leader defies economists on Carbon Tax 

Is he an economist as well as a climate scientist? No, so why do people listen to him? Not for facts and logic that's for sure so it must be that he appeals to the base emotions of many. And those many believe they know better, why?

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5ia5qZrU21qify48o1_500.jpg

Just because we don't want a carbon tax (not that the public pays it - we are compensated for the rise in cost of living that the top polluters pass down to us from the impact of a carbon tax on them). 

I'm more concerned with the other cost they are passing down, the commodity of fear. With no rational foot to stand on they use their clout to sow seeds of doubt and pull at the heartstrings of fear. It's Un-Australian. They're taking our jobs. We can't afford it in this GFC (despite not being in recession and one of the richest countries per capita in the world).

Advocates for climate change can and do use fear to drive their cause as well and I hate it when they do that because then we end up downriver from the bridge to change in a quagmire of emotion, slinging mud at eachother.

And what of the asylum seeker debate? Our two major parties seem to have settled for offshore processing and long stays within detention centres as a detterant to refugees seeking asylum in Australia. They claim with emotion (much of it genuine) that this is to prevent the tragedy of refugees drowning at sea. The detterant has been shown to be somewhat effective but only when we treat refugees so abhorrently as to cause such mental anguish that we see numerous suicide attempts in detention and people sewing their mouths shut. And on all indications they say they are going to keep coming. 

Tony Abbott (leading the way again) refers to these people as illegal immigrants which is factually incorrect, and he uses it in such a way as to be imflammatory. He also had the gall to refer to them as un-christian for entering through the back door despite Jesus himself being a refugee and the principles of christianity calling on followers to love thy neighbour and care for the poor and downtrodden. They are often referred to as queue jumpers even though it has been widely acknowledged that there is no queue for them to join. How do you apply for asylum when in some war torn countries like Afghanistan it is normal for our embassy to move place from day to day to avoid becoming a target for insurgents. So what are the facts?

There are really only two ways to stop drownings at sea - gain a reputation for treating asylum seekers so abhorrently that no one will want to come, or create a queue that asylum seekers would see as worthwile joining. I'm for the latter option because our identity as a fair, just and compassionate nation is easily worth the extra people that we will have to accomodate. And if you welcome people with open arms then they're more likely to be grateful and want to contribute than to feel seperate and resentfully and barely tolerated.

Our emotions are primitive. We can be tribal with them and just last week we saw a tribal mentality riding on a wave of emotion lash out with ugly repercussions. Does this mean that I'm suggesting that our human emotions are bad and we should dispense with them and all become Spock-like characters?  ...Problem solved - let's party!!!...

Our emotions are important and part of what makes us human but I don't want to see emotions riding roughshod over rationality. Or our emotions being manipulated so easily for that matter. What happened to the inbuilt Australian bullshit detector? Emotions without logic can lead to crimes of passion and punching holes in walls. Logic without emotion is generally referred to as being psychopathic. Either on its own can be very destructive.

Wisdom comes from when our emotional and logical bearings are brought together to form opinion or to make a decision. Nelson Mandela said 'a good head and a good heart is always a formidable combination.' Shouldn't that be something worth striving for?

We need to ask ourselves why we stand where we do on certain issues. Is it emotion, fear or love that drives us? Are we deceiving ourselves? Are we leaning on our own understanding? Are we only listening to what we want to hear?

A definition of Insanity - Australia's reponse to boat people

I consider the values of the Christian faith to be Justice, Mercy and Compassion. In the light of those core values I ask myself how anyone who calls themselves a Christian can support the major parties stance on boat people?

In the eyes of the law over 90% of boat people are found to be legitimate refugees and not illegal immigrants. We signed a treaty that says that a person fleeing persecution can enter a country without permission and claim asylum. We signed that treaty because we agreed with many other nations that it was necessary to do so to prevent evils like the holocaust from ever happening again. Justice dictates that these people have done nothing wrong and should not be incarcerated indefinitely. We are flying in the face of international law.

the man who jumped

Mercy and Compassion is also missing in our response to boat people. (check out the documentary that got me all riled up again-something everyone should see but it having been shown on SBS means that it will evade the masses) http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/2189706100/The-Man-Who-Jumped-Full-Ep

Instead we utilise brutality and a regime of tormenting dehumanisation in an attempt to deter others, yet still they come. Benjamin Franklin said that 'the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.' I think Australia is going insane over this issue.

$90,000 per detainee per year to keep them in detention and subject them to months and months of mental anguish. This is supposed to protect us yet all it does is breed resentment and retaliation and riots. Insane.

What do we have to fear? Is it that they won't assimilate? that they don't speak english? Or is it just xenophobia being whipped up by some of the most irresponsible leaders of our time. We have been lied to for the sake of gaining power. Anyone who can get beneath the spin and see the truth like that conveyed in the 'the man who jumped' doco, if they still support the dehumanisation then somewhere along the way they may have allowed themselves to become dehumanised.

Here are some facts worth getting your head around:   http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/bn/sp/AsylumFacts.pdf

 

a child's perspective of detention in Australia

If it's so important that they speak english then why isn't a detention centre more like a school? If it is so important that a refugee/immigrant is assimilated then why do we put them through hell? If I was mistreated so I would be resentful of, not thankful toward the nation that did that to me. Why would I want to assimilate? Why would I want to be like them? So we want them to assimilate and contribute to our society but our treatment of them ends with such a devastating ammount of mental illness that they become dependant on health and welfare and are a drain on our society. Again, insane.

Wouldn't it make sense to welcome them on arrival and treat them with such dignity and generosity that they would be so thankful as to want to belong to such a society and to contribute to it as a way of giving back what has been given to them? Ever seen the movie 'Pay It Forward? Well if you are giving and generous and compassionate that often results in more giving and generosity etc. It's how the world works as God made it. If we pay forward with mistrust and carelessness and brutality, where does that lead us?

Jesus said that what we do to the least of those in need we do to him. It is said that some have welcomed those in need into their homes and have welcomed angels in doing so. Our fear has become contagious and spread to our brains and in our insanity we want to turn the angels away. After loving God we are meant to love our neighbour. What is being done in Australia's name is not loving.

If you find this blog offensive then I'd like to talk with you about why (you should've seen the initial draft – much more scathing and dripping with sarcasm). I just can't see Jesus turning people in need away and I can't see him standing by in the face of racism, oppression and the spin and lies and abuse of those in power. I am trying to follow his way, trying to find a sane place.