Blog Archives
through the waters: unchristians as exiles & strangers
I was a slave
…..toiling under the gaze of the empire.
And I was heard by a liberator
…..led
through the waters,
through the chaos.
I was a wanderer
…..toiling under the gaze of the nations.
And I was guided by smoke and fire
…..led
through the waters
through the homelessness.
I was a mother
…..toiling under the gaze of a king.
And I was guided by an angel
…..led
through the waters,
through the escape.
I was an exile
…..toiling under the gaze of the empire.
And I was found by a baptiser
…..led
through the waters
through the resurrection.
I am a stranger
…..toiling under the gaze of the economy.
And I was found by heaven
…..led
through the waters
through death itself.
I am unChristian
—
Dedicated to Anthony John Abbott.
MCA
on the bridge between reconciliation and refugee
Many of you would have been aware that 27 May-3 June was National Reconciliation Week in Australia.
Many would also be aware that coming up from 17-23 June is Refugee Week.
As we find ourselves positioned in the middle of these two weeks it seems as good a time as any for a point of reflection.
Within our collective consciousness, deep in the spirit of this nation, lies a fear of the refugee “threat”. This is no doubt energised by
neither refugee nor refuged: christ, empire & the unsolution
The so-called Malaysian Solution marks a terrible chapter in Australia’s immigration history.
While many people have tried to argue that Julia Gillard lied about the carbon tax, I find this argument to be wilfully ignorant of the events of the last twelve months.
Where Gillard has lied, however, is on the issue of asylum seekers. She has previously claimed that the Howard Government’s so-called Pacific Solution was, “costly, unsustainable and wrong as a matter of principle.” Read the rest of this entry
asylum seeker stories from villawood
On Saturday some friends and I went to Villawood Immigration Detention Centre to visit some Tamil Sri Lankan asylum seekers and refugees currently housed there.
I am somewhat hesitant to post this story lest it look like I am attempting to portray myself as somehow heroic. Nothing could be further from the truth since a single visit does not make me particularly compassionate or generous.
I am not going to bang on about how bad the conditions were, since visitors are confined to the visitor area and thus I did not see the living quarters etc. In saying this I think that, against my assumptions, Serco was doing a reasonable job at running the facility given that they are simply out to make a profit. My belief is that the Australian Government, with its awful policies, both past and present, is to blame for our shocking treatment of asylum seekers. I have written about this elsewhere, so back to the story.
After spending over two hours with these young men I was struck by the similarities between them and myself. Read the rest of this entry
“bogan” racism? the raquel moore episode
SBS’s “Go Back To Where You Came From” has been that channel’s most successful project this year, reaching the worldwide top Twitter trending topics list two nights in a row (with the third episode airing tonight).
The idea is creative and brilliant – a documentary/social experiment/reality show all rolled into one. It harnesses the power of story over purely cognitive rhetoric, which has seemingly failed to change minds, and generally does not wield such transformative power (a reality that articles like this seem completely blind to).
On Twitter the confronting subject matter regarding refugees is not the only thing making waves; indeed one participant has become a Tweeting topic in her own right.
Raquel Moore has appeared across the Twitterverse, often coupled with labels like “bogan”, “ignorant” and other less repeatable companions.
True, Raquel did confess to being a racist in the first episode. Equally true is that after two episodes she does not seem to have shown any indication of changing her bigoted stance.
There is however still one episode to go.
For that reason it may be too early to comment. However something should be said about the name-calling that has gone on in the last two days. Read the rest of this entry
refu-jesus
It seems that in the last couple of days the Australian position on asylum seekers has moved backwards by about 10 years.
What has been most depressing to me (and there is much to be depressed about) is the attitude of those who claim to follow Jesus in regard to these, some of the most vulnerable people in the world. Read the rest of this entry
are human rights only for those born “here”?
The asylum seeker incidents currently occurring around the country have no doubt caused a great deal of angst for many Australians. This has been made clear to me in a number of personal exchanges over the last couple of days.
“They should be more grateful!” some have said, while others have stated, on an apparent whim, that we should deport many detained asylum seekers for their “criminal activity”. This is, sadly, the apparent position of the political spokespeople for immigration in both major political Parties (see Chris Bowen’s comments and Scott Morrison’s comments).
But there is a deep irony with this kind of position Read the rest of this entry
refu-jeez…
On Saturday I went along to a protest looking to the end of mandatory detention for asylum seekers coming to Australia. While I am completely committed to the cause, I thought the protest was not well executed.
My friend Josh, who also came along, wrote about the issues with the protest over at his blog, Incoherent Ramblings (…of a Mad Man?) under the title “Idiots with Megaphones“.
I think he really nailed it with his article, and thus I won’t worry about doing something similar (do yourself a favour and read his post).
What I will leave you with though is the genius of Clarke and Dawe on the subject of immigration.
MCA
the u.s. gets it right (left?) on asylum seekers?
Everybody gets it right sometimes I guess.
What seems most disgusting is the way in which both Labor and the Coalition have played political games with asylum seekers:
The Labor Party – which was burnt by this issue at the 2001 election – is fearful of being viewed as ‘soft’ on border security…
A cable obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to the Herald says an unnamed “key Liberal Party strategist” told US diplomats in November last year that the issue of asylum seekers was ”fantastic” for the Coalition and ”the more boats that come the better”.
No doubt there will be more bankrupt policy rhetoric in the coming days and weeks with little, if any, concern beyond winning political points.
MCA
adam bandt’s maiden speech
From the Greens’ Adam Bandt, Member for Melbourne, in his maiden speech in Federal Parliament today:
Ironically, it is usually those who want the fewest barriers for money to move across borders who want to build the strongest walls to stop people doing the same. But when we lock asylum seekers and refugees up indefinitely, in city and desert prisons, we have more than enough evidence that we destroy their lives and the lives of their families. There is a palpable hypocrisy in saying the threat is so dire that we must send our soldiers to fight in places like Afghanistan, and yet when people flee that threat we close the door on them.
