Australia’s great shame
An excellent article in the age today on the plight of refugees. I am highlighting the bits that resonanted with me strongly. I just feel a great pain about this whole situation and Australia’s treatment of the “least of these”.
“ALTHOUGH there is wide acceptance in the community of John Howard’s lack of integrity, there is much less understanding of his lack of respect for human rights and for the sanctity of human life.
As today is the fifth anniversary of the ill-fated voyage from Indonesia that led to the Tampa incident, it is timely to look critically at the fallout, not just for John Howard, but the Labor party.
It is apparent that Howard, when directing that the Tampa return to Indonesia, failed to consider that his orders could put lives at risk — lives of the crew as well as of the asylum seekers.
Then there was the failure to arrange for civilian doctors and nurses from Christmas Island to visit the Tampa to treat the sick.
Howard’s obsession with the control of borders meant that the suffering of the survivors was ignored. Even permission for one of Captain Rinnan’s boats to go ashore and get medical supplies and a doctor was denied. The Red Cross was also blocked from the Tampa.”
When are we going to see beyond numbers, slogans such as “queue jumper” and see people?
August 30th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Tbokar,
Are you just playing Devil’s Advocate. One could make a reasoned arguement that if you do not support an individuals capacity to disagree and vocalise their disagreement that you would support not speaking out about injustice generally. As in because I would personally like to punch the lights out of the kid who is bullying my child I will not speak out about the injustice of the system that allows bullying to continue.
August 30th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
My point is this: Just as in our own personal lives we exercise border security, so we have to as a nation. That cannot be disputed. However, just as we struggle to draw the boundaries in our own lives between reaching out to those in need – a fathomless pit – and those under our stewardship, so too do the leaders of our country have to make the same tough decisions. That’s why I take issue with the carte blanche criticism.
In response to my comments, I receive emotional descriptions about bullying, a mother with a bleeding uterus, children turned away and so on. Bearing in mind the prevalence of loose (read loaded) journalistic interpretation, there is obviously a need to discern the information before reaching hasty conclusions. Now, if you have a problem with that, think about how the world reacted a few weeks back when it was reported that Israeli bombs had targeted a Lebanese ambulance. Emotive and biased journalism at its worst. This story has now been proved to be a complete set up, a hoax, by the Lebanese. As with all news stories, we need to look beyond the emotion.
So, where does that leave us with John Howard? Where I think it should leave us is to trust the judgement of the man who has been elected to run the country for the last ten years. Where you choose to leave it might be in criticism. That right is not in dispute. However, whatever you choose to do should be done with full wisdom and discernment, and not by jumping in response to emotive articles courtesy of the Age reporters and others of similar genre and political persuasion.
To do that requires us to examine our own hearts and how we treat the needy. For that is the most important reference with which we can start.
No devil in amongst that.
August 30th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
Actually I have had homeless people live in my home. I currently do not have an open unlocked door, but that is because of the door, I cannot close it without locking it, but I have lived with an unlocked door for many years where the community was free to use our computer or help themselves to food, or watch some tv.
Your arguement is actually quite ridiculous however, as allowing people into the country that are fleeing persecution still does not give them access to innocent people. Most of these people are trying to stay alive, and this country is plenty big enough for them. Infact this government is paying people to make more people, but will not let already living people in. It is a ridiculous policy. If someone breaks the law they can be punished just like anyone else, the fact that they are from another country means nothing.
rev
August 30th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Oh goodie you took the bait.
I know that is what you meant. We indeed need to examine our own lives with even more earnestness and desire to see change in them. Thats what our relationship with God is all about and then because of that we need to speak out about injustice.
I think you will find while there is a good deal of idealism amonst many here most are more than aware of the political machinations and of the oft stated maxim “there are three sides to any story - my side, your side and the truth”. Yet without criticism there is not robust debate and robust debate must be undertaken to come to a just and considered solution.
August 30th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
GR, I think I thought you were doing that, so happy to have been hooked. The Rev, your response is confused and contradictory but good on you for reaching out. Hope you manage to get your door fixed. tb
August 30th, 2006 at 6:21 pm
There is nothing contradictory or confused about my response.
I firstly showed how I do live in an open home and community, and have taken homeless and mentally ill people into my home.
Secondly I explained how inviting people into the country is not even close to the same as voluntarily victimizing yourself, even though I do advocate an open life I would not enforce that upon everyone else. I believe that sharing is something we teach our children to do and is the obligation of all of us including the government. I can carte blanche criticise the government for using power to further victimize the marginalized in society. Putting families in jail for merely seeking to find a way out of starvation, persecution, and oppression is an inhumane practice, and a typically corporate evil. The idea that we need to protect the country is ridiculous, there are as many people in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area as in all of Australia. A land that is about the same size as America but has 260 million less people, need not worry about a few thousand people fleeing starvation and persecution in their countries.
How would you feel if you were being systematically starved to death by a ruthless dictator who would not let you even worship your God. And you flee to a country of supposed moral virtue, and financial plenty and they throw you in jail? How can we support our government in living completely contrary to the teachings of Jesus?
And smart ass, my door has a bolt lock as its door knob, so closing means locking.
rev
August 31st, 2006 at 9:36 am
fire up rev!!
September 2nd, 2006 at 7:47 am
I constantly wonder when people talk ideas about immigration policies how much they really know first hand about the issues. It’s easy to talk theory. How many have known and worked with refugees, have worked in the immigrant communities and heard the stories, threats etc? How many have been into a detention centre? Could I ask you to please hold your tongue on these matters until you have been willing to explore the truth by meeting and sharing your life and the gospel in these situations. I’m sure it will open your eyes to an entirely different perspective and challenge many of the concepts you have developed from a distance. After all Christianity is not about theory, it’s about the challenge of how to apply what we beleive in REAL situtations. There may well be more questions than answers! And maybe you will gain wisdom whilst on your knees before God about how to bring His life into these issues.
September 2nd, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Not sure who you are talking to, but I am involved with refugees though I have not been to a detention camp.
rev
September 2nd, 2006 at 2:51 pm
I have been to a detention centre - aweful places
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:28 pm
Why do so many people in Australia disregard the laws of the land and want to let any old person into the country? I am all for immigration as I believe it enriches a country but it has to be controlled.
Using emotional arguments does not work. How do you really know where these people are coming from? Do they have a criminal history etc?
John Howard is in a catch 22 situation. If he lets in refugees, then a flood will come and he will have trouble with his voters. If he bans them, then the do-gooders will be out to get him. There is always 2 sides to every story.
I currently live in a country that has no immigration as such and believe me, we have plenty of trouble with illegal immigrants here committing crimes and generally causing trouble with the locals. Immigration must be controlled, both for the good of the locals and the immigrants themselves.
This world is a very different place to what is was when Australia opened to immigration back in the 50’s and we should all be mindful of the risks in current day life.
Finally, you the tax payers have to fund all this. Are you prepared to pay 60% income tax to fund the refugee programs???
September 4th, 2006 at 11:46 am
I am willing. I am also willing to share my home with them.
Perhaps you don’t understand what these laws do, they criminalize people that are running for their lives, they provide them no provision to care for themselves, and make it virtually impossible for them to do anything but depend on the government which too often just throws them in prison, which we pay for anyways.
And the newer law was really great, basically you are not allowed on mainland australia, you go straight to a prison camp on an island and then if we let you you can come over. I have no problem with putting some logical restrictions, but I have seen wonderful, loving women, with no where to go, and children to care for be sent back to a country that persecuted them, or provided no way to make a living.
Having grown up in California the illegal aliens were a fact of life for me, and the overwhelming majority of them were hard working, salt of the earth types. It was usually the second or third generation of kids that were the problem, and that usually because they have the hope of something different but not the opportunity. Your logic is nationalism, but I am called to defend no nation, or land, but seek for the kingdom of God to be established. Would Jesus say, “well these people might be criminals, send them away?” Perhaps you should look into the social and political ramifications of the story of the good samaritan. Who is your neighbor? Everyone is your neighbor, even with all of their problems.
rev
September 4th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Beautifully said rev. I stand with you on this. There is a higher loyalty than the protection of our own privileges, the defense of our own little kingdoms. We are citizens of a kingdom without walls, where the broken and the despised, the ones too crippled to jump through the hoops, will romp home a long way ahead of the careful and correct. the measure of our citizenship is not our ability to draw lines in the sand (or the coastal waters) and defend them, but the measure of our love and generosity to the alien and the stranger and the needy in our midst.
September 4th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
“Why do so many people in Australia disregard the laws of the land….”
It is the law of the land under our treaty obligations to treat asylum seekers humanely and as asylum seekers rather than illegal immigrants. Our government has constructed the most bizarre definition of what constitutes “Austraila” in order to evade those responsbilities.
I wonder often why the government is intent on evading the law of the land. Your question is a good one, although not the way you intended.
September 4th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Tbokar said: “In response to my comments, I receive emotional descriptions about bullying, a mother with a bleeding uterus, children turned away and so on. Bearing in mind the prevalence of loose (read loaded) journalistic interpretation, there is obviously a need to discern the information before reaching hasty conclusions.”
I’m a lawyer, and while I haven’t done much (very little in fact) immigration work, many of my friends have, and I’ve seen enough files ot know that these stories are not “loose journalistic interpretations” but are more common than any of us want to believe.
Until I got involved with refugees, I thought the law sucked but that it would work at LEAST when it absolutely HAD to. Let me assure you that is not the case at all.
ISurvived - there are ways of “protecting borders” (not that I’m particularly concerned with that) that don’t require locking people up in camps in the middle of the desert, limiting their access to education, health care, etc. Come on, kids don’t try to commit suicide by drinking shampoo for no reason! Sorry, but I can’t help but begin to worry when I know that journalists are being denied access to somewhere…
September 4th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
Tell me this, you apologists for detention. If we, as a country, are so proud of our policies and our actions, why are all the detention centres in the desert, the outback and in other countries….?
Out of sight….out of mind….?
September 5th, 2006 at 11:22 am
Rev
‘Your logic is nationalism, but I am called to defend no nation, or land, but seek for the kingdom of God to be established. Would Jesus say, “well these people might be criminals, send them away?” Perhaps you should look into the social and political ramifications of the story of the good samaritan.”
theologically loaded… theologically sound!
September 5th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Much Forgiven said:
Ahhh…NO, you may not ask us to hold our tongues until after we have been to a detention centre or actually done something or worked with a refugee. Alot of our lives is lived at a distance from the issues that we hold opinions about - that doesn’t negate or make irrelevent how we feel or think about those issues. I ahve never been to Africa, I have never had to be with someone who has watched their child die from hunger or diseases which could have been cured for lack of medicine that you and I are able to access with absolute ease - but I ahve listednto te stories of those who ahve been there and do know first hand and so i have opinions.
I avhe never been to a refugee camp or to a detention centre - but I hold absolute opnions as to the justice of holding people in prison who are asking for our help - it is not emotionalism - it’s about justice. Children should not be kept in situtoins like this or this. These are images of Baxter detention centre - it is a gaol and children should not be put inside it - we woulds never allow an Austrlaina born child to be put in there - why should other children be premitted to suffer inside them…here on our own soil?
this is what a room at Baxter looks like or what about this shower in the Baxter isolation unit.
I’ve been to gaol and our own home grown criminals don’t get treated like this. These people are not crimianls, they are not cue jumpers - they are refugees, they are asking for our help and protection - and we throw them in gaol and do everything we can not to help them.
So sorry Much Forgive, but no…you can’t ask us to hold our toungues.
September 5th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
I Survived said
I am with Luke on this one - we ahve an obligation under International Law to which Austrlia is a signatory to offer protection and assylum to assylum seeker/refugees
IS also said
Yes that’s right - we no longer require that you be white and from Europe.
September 5th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
just seeing if this works
September 5th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
and it didn’t - what a blow! Tried to change colours on the text
September 5th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
[…] Over at Signposts Much Forgiven said: Could I ask you to please hold your tongue on these matters until you have been willing to explore the truth by meeting and sharing your life and the gospel in these situations. I’m sure it will open your eyes to an entirely different perspective and challenge many of the concepts you have developed from a distance. […]
September 5th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
stop it greg… ive forgotten completley what we were talking about now
September 6th, 2006 at 9:00 am
We’re talking about Germain Greer being a shit for brains - at least that’s the new topic!!!