Australia a Refuge for Democracy or Cruelty in Compliance?

This article was sent to me entitled ‘Immigration Deception And Cruelty: Young Women Challenge the System’ (see below).

I certainly do not vote for detention that removes the rights of people fleeing persecution.  I recently met an Afghan man who decided to sit with me. He told me of his own persecution in his country. He spoke of sewing his lips. He spoke of escaping detention. He had a bottle of wine with him, he is a Muslim. This told me he is suffering terribly. I tried to listen and reflect love to him. I know Afghan people well and I know of their hardships. He found psychologists didn’t help, he said they just talked, his deeper needs were not met. He needed healing, I could see that. They become stateless people wandering through life and lost in a foreign land that knows nothing of the hardship. He had positive things to say of the Australian people, he liked them. He said it is a beautiful country. I saw in his eyes both love and pain. Such is the life of a refugee seeking home.

Like many Australian’s I have been really amazed at the Labour and Liberal Governments policies of detaining refugees on the former territories or annexed islands (Nauru, Christmas Island, Manus) and excised the Australian mainland from the migration zone. In the circus world this is called sleight of hand. It is like magic, refugees turn into illegals to make them wrong. Refugees are repeatedly called illegal (demonise) and have no access to lawyers or representation. They are out of sight out of mind, somehow they disappear. I have come to understand how law is used to criminalise innocent people. Under the 1951 Refugee Convention the Australian Government has obligations to give refuge to refugees. When they don’t and they circumvent obligations this for me brings up reflections on fascism as a mindset. I have come across this in my own life and am beginning to see it in institutions that use the law to revoke rights. It is a form of compliance mentality.

At the heart of this problem is control over people rather than service to humanity.  It has no concept of sharing power, equality or the values of democracy where all people have a right to be treated in accordance with:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ 

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx

The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
http://www.ohchr.org/en/ProfessionalInterest/pages/cat.aspx

From a peace perspective attitudes that regard people on the basis of whether they have power or economic value tend to demonise and bully these people.  This reflects that there is a fear or a threat in respect of refugees. Why do those in authority reflect bullying behaviour?  They are seeking to gain power, it can be a conscious or unconscious desire to feel power. In addition, it is believed by some that it becomes a deterrent to those people smuggling. Yet what is not understood is that those engaged in this trade do not care about the refugees, they seek the money as many are poor themselves. Why do people take the risk to escape their countries?  They are manipulated by unscrupulous people who say money grows on trees in the West, I was told this by an Afghan. So they are convinced. In other cases they have to escape as family have been murdered and it is no longer safe to stay.  They feel they have no choice but to leave their country as they do not feel safe, they are seeking a better life for their children. Refugees I’ve spoken to told me they prefer to live in their own country, many do not relate to our ways which can be very individual and serious. They come from communities that were very close to each other and open hearted. They are traumatised and frightened from what they have seen.  Do we add to the abuse or do we assist from a perspective of compassion?  So understanding the reality of the other and internalising it, enables us to make decisions from a human perspective not solely economic or political.  In the peace area we teach to not judge others but to stand in their shoes, we explore negative thinking and question beliefs, we teach people to dialogue to really hear each other without blame and we teach to problem solve so that everyone wins.  It need not be a win/lose policing model, it can be a win/win humanitarian approach where we all learn and find solutions to problems. We have the capacity to focus on the problem or focus on the solution.  I teach the latter, the solution. That is the real Pacific Solution not to incarcerate but to adopt a friendly islander disposition of the Pacific which welcomes, smiles and shares with those in hardship. Those who build walls to keep the enemy out are in fear.  That is where we must resolve the mindset that perpetuates the problem.  What you resist persists what you look at disappears (law of attraction). In truth the conflicts are coming from wars of control and conquest, they are not about sharing and democracy. The control paradigm is the real issue. So to lead by example is a starting point.  We must be the change we wish to see, as Gandhi wisely inspired.  Life has a way of mirroring what you think and bringing to your door what you focus on.

So, the world, rather than coming together in dialogue to sort out the problem of war, refugee flows and economic fears tend to develop policies akin to trade walls to keep what is unwanted out. They seek to keep the people out as they fear being swamped, perhaps the cost of housing them, the lack of economic imperative and a deficit in humanitarian understanding, responsibility and obligation. Many in decision making roles do not know the reality of fleeing violence, or deprivation or insecurity where you have nothing but your life. Imagine for a moment if it was you.  When we disconnect our emotions, feeling state from the intellect believing we are being rational, we disconnect from the most important aspect of our intelligence, emotional intelligence. This is a natural intelligence which intuitively responds to people emotionally, it is the basis of responsibility. We then feel to offer help, provide shelter and feel empathy (that could be me).  Those in roles where they are trained to remain distant from these issues, to be professional, to do their job are exhibiting the same mentality as soldiers. In order to be inhumane to others you have to have a rationale which justifies ignoring their suffering. You have to find ways to demonise them or make them wrong, to make them an enemy in order to be able to do your job.  In addition, it is to seek votes through security. In truth harming the most vulnerable does not create security, it creates the opposite. Therefore, psychologically this is how cruel and human treatment occurs.  We see it in domestic violence, we see it in child abuse, in wars of aggression, in jails, in schools, wherever there is a perceived vulnerability and a mindset of control. All of this arises out of fear.  It is in fearlessness that we find power if we are to resolve issues. Hence the call for courage.

I believe the times we are in are to change this mindset, as it doesn’t work.  As more pressure comes to bare on governments in respect of economic stagnation, rising welfare, environmental changes, increasing conflict, they will have to lift their heads out of the sand or barricades and face the reality that we are one world, one people, one family.  In the article the term justice in unity is mentioned, this is a mirroring of Oneness.  All the world’s people are my people.  No-one owns their country, no borders were in place before we created the rules as is clear from satellites, we are the other we fear.  So until we realise that in giving we receive, in kindness we build security, in compassion we see ourselves in the other, in providing shelter we teach refuge. These are the higher teachings that wisdom  through the ages has sought to instruct humanity.  Yet are we listening? No matter the religion, the spirituality of people, or atheism we are all one civilisation.  We are in times where we must learn the lessons of the past and work together with nonviolence in order to create a future worthy of children. 

I will wait patiently for the Government to awaken.  I call on them to demonstrate the values that this country was built upon.  Indeed the Australian Anthem makes clear our values:

Australian National Anthem
“Advance Australia Fair”
words and music composed by
Peter Dodds McCormick
spacerproclaimed Australia’s National Anthem
 by the Governor – General
  on 19th April 1984

 
 

spacermusical symbol - quaver[Click for the music]

Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea:
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history’s page let every stage
Advance Australia fair,
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross,
 We’ll toil with hearts and hands,
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands,
For those who’ve come across the seas
We’ve boundless plains to share,
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia fair.

 The bolded words are key to the heart and soul of Australians.  If fairness is no longer an Australian creed then we are the weaker for it and what we do to others will return to us.  I drove around Australia and I remember driving in the desert thinking about Australia Day.  I thought of the indigenous and how they mastered this amazing land learning how to live in balance and harmony with it.  The settlers (or indigenous would see as foreign invaders) had no idea of how to live with this fragile land but instead chose to control the land and cultivate it as had been done in England.  This relationship with the land translated into relationships with others. Yet in truth the ideal of sharing this land and welcoming those from across the seas is reflected in humility and the reality that we don’t own the land.  I wonder if we do have the courage to combine to advance Australia fair.  The Australian people will be the ones to decide as politicians do respond to them. So perhaps getting up and deciding to make your voice heard could be one way of voting for the type of world you want.  I certainly vote for welcoming refugees.  I will be teaching peace to Syrian children which is my contribution.  I intend to bring the laughter of the peace clown to them. I’ve already played with the kids and they loved it (no scared kids by the way). They all laughed and had fun, this is the real Australia, the larrakin, the clown, the joker, that is who we are when we lighten up.

So here is the article from the New Matilda. I wondered who wrote this, the lovely Stuart Rees. Thank you Stuart. Yes perhaps it is poets, musicians and women that change this tired world.  I hope the men will join in love in uniting the planet.

 

Immigration Deception And Cruelty: Young Women Challenge the System

Children locked up in immigration detention on Nauru, August 2016. This image is courtesy of Mums 4 Refugees.

Children locked up in immigration detention on Nauru, August 2016. This image is courtesy of Mums 4 Refugees.

Immigration Deception And Cruelty: Young Women Challenge the System

By  on Asylum Seekers

NSW Parliament – nicknamed the bear-pit – took on an unaccustomed healing role recently. Professor Stuart Rees explains.

Can poets and musicians really change the world? In the theatrette of the NSW State Parliament last week, participants in a Symposium for women’s rights and social justice answered this question. In doing so they also reacted to the misery imposed on asylum seekers.

By video link, Iranian Mina Taherkhani described her three years detention on Christmas Island and Nauru, “I was yearning for justice in a country which claims to uphold women’s rights but all I experienced was trepidation and panic.”

Iranian Behrouz Boochani said of his 28 months incarceration on Manus, “We have been exiled, displaced, left hopeless.”

 

De-Colonization

Directed by the Iranian film-maker, poet and human rights activist Saba Vasefi, the Symposium gave young women of migrant and refugee backgrounds the chance to portray, through poetry and music, a more just and hopeful world.

Iranian film-maker, Saba Vasefi.

Iranian film-maker, Saba Vasefi.

Saba – ‘have no fear’, ‘make the impossible possible’ – had fled to Australia having been expelled from university teaching for campaigning against capital punishment. She speaks of the consequences of colonization, that history of powerful nations taking what they wanted, discarding or eliminating those who got in their way.

In response to their own horrendous experiences of colonialism, Kirstie Parker, CEO of the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence recalled the words of the Aboriginal poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal. In her poem ‘All One Race’, instead of expressing bitterness at her people’s treatment, Oodgeroo advocated justice through unity, “I’m international, never mind place; I’m for humanity, all one race.”

Artists who responded to the Oodgeroo challenge included the rappers Kween G and Candy Royalle, vocalists Rebecca Hatch and Minerva Khodabande and the Arab-Australian poet Sara Saleh.

 

Deception

Although these artists expressed hope for alternatives to current detention centre policies, they also had to deal with governments’ deception and cruelty.

Deception begins with politicians’ claims they are devout Christians and filled with compassion. Such sentiments mean that asylum seekers remain imprisoned and almost always voiceless.

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Behrooz observed, “We are people not animals, All we want is a freedom to pursue happiness.”

new matilda, behrouz

Behrouz Boochani.

Deception includes the claim that detainees on Manus and Nauru have a choice whether to settle in those lands or return to where they came from. The architect of the Sovereign Borders ‘Turn back the boats’ policy, former General Jim Nolan, thinks that choice for asylum seekers is the same as choosing cereals from supermarket shelves.

Proud to obey his bully-boy masters Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton, he’s been adept at proposing military solutions for humanitarian problems.

Choice could be a mirage. Poet Sara Saleh warned, “Be careful how language is used…. But justice means the same in every language.” Listen! Think! Reflect!

Deception often depends on secrecy. Turn back the boats is a security matter so it can’t be subject to public scrutiny. Access to asylum seekers must be denied. The voices of the victims should not be heard.

 

Cruelty

Although the word cruelty can’t be found in the indexes of policy textbooks, such practice is the centrepiece of Australian governments’ treatment of asylum seekers.

Kween G and Candy Royalle sang that racism fuelled deception and cruelty. “Racism evident in Islamophobia, the new anti-Semitism.” Listen! Engage! Sing!

Given the cue by his predecessor John Howard’s refusal to allow asylum seekers on the Norwegian freighter the Tampa to land on Australian shores, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull poses as a leader, “No-one from Manus Island or Nauru will ever come to Australia.” In taking that stand, his support from an equally cowardly opposition means that he can’t be accused of merely appeasing the far right.

Hope? Compassion? Leadership?

Through tears, Mina Taherkhani described the long-term consequences of cruelty. “I was sexually abused in Iran and forced to marry. The abuse of my father was followed by abuse from my husband. I fled to a justice-loving Australia. For three years my life is without hope.”

Successive performers offered hope so that the depressed and desperate might find inspiration. In the pop ballad ‘Beautiful’, Minerva sang of self-empowerment and inner beauty. “I am beautiful, No matter what they say, Words can’t bring me down, I am beautiful, In every single way…”

Former immigration minister Scott Morrison, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and current immigration minister Peter Dutton, pictured in October 2015.

Former immigration minister Scott Morrison, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and current immigration minister Peter Dutton, pictured in October 2015.

Even when asylum seekers achieve refugee status in Australia, they are left to struggle in limbo. The government’s unholy trinity of homeland cruelty includes temporary protection and bridging visas, lives of uncertainty compounded by family reunion waiting lists which last for 20 years.

Dignity? Fair Go? Hope for Human Rights?

Hopes for the future depend partly on Australia obeying international law and eventually passing a Bill of Rights. From the stage of the Symposium, barrister Julian Burnside observed, “The arguments against such a Bill – that it would hinder parliament from doing whatever it wants to – are the best arguments for passing such legislation.”

On a more pessimistic note, successive Immigration Ministers have trumpeted that Australia is the fairest, most generous country in the world, a claim that encourages an aggressive nationalism.

By contrast 15-year-old Rebecca sang the Michael Jackson ballad ‘Heal The World’: “Make it a better place, for you and for me, and the entire human race.”

The Symposium addressed tough topics but until the end of the evening, no reference had been made to Palestinians, the people with the longest experience of being refugees.

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Candy Royalle dealt with this omission with a passionate portrayal of Palestinian lives from 1948 onwards. “I am my grandfather’s memories… where death was wiping out whole villages… where to stay was to die, to leave was to die… (but) where the Holy Land was referred to constantly… my father used to be a warrior… he is now only a worrier… I am the memory of this lost land.”

 

What Sort of Future?

The Spirit of the Symposium continues. In the NSW Legislative Assembly, Greens MP Dr Mehreen Faruqi has successfully moved a motion congratulating Saba Vasefi on the Symposium’s success.

The Symposium participants know how to challenge deception and cruelty. They know of the despair on Nauru and Manus and the decades of occupation for Palestinians. They know that poetry can release the hurt in people, that love and activism can’t be separated.

Their passion suggests they will pursue the English poet Shelley ’s vision, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”

 

Here is a poem dedicated to all refugees and seekers of truth:  https://wpas.worldpeacefull.com/2012/06/the-refuge-of-democracy-is-the-australian-solution/

Mohandas Gandhi

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

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