Posts Tagged ‘Christmas Island’
Not In Our Name
Getup has launched a campaign to stop Australia sending children to Malaysia as part of the “asylum seeker solution”.
I am proud to put my name to the cause and it is somewhere amongst these 31,654 names.
Not in our name
I quote from the email sent to me by GetUp:
To see it all you need to do is grab a copy of The Age. The ad also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday. You might need a magnifying glass to see your name but that’s a good thing. It means that the response was so overwhelming that we could only fit in everyone’s names by squeezing them in with small font.
Also:
You may have also heard that on Sunday the High Court put an injunction on the Malaysia deal. This will temporarily halt the transfer of asylum seekers to Malaysia. The final outcome of the case may still be weeks away but this is exciting news and you can read more about the court case by clicking here.
We must stop this happening. Join the cause!
Related:
http://wonderingpilgrim.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/at-last-a-candle-lit-in-the-darkness/#comment-480
The Malaysian Solution? (via Australian Immigration Blog – Grant Williams)
Image via Wikipedia
I have written several articles in the past about Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers.
Today I would like to draw attention to Grant William’s writing on the topic.
Who locked up the children?
This article today runs with the opening phrase of “Julia Gillard locks up …”
No, Julia Gillard doesn’t lock up anyone. WE, the Australian citizens are locking up these children, just as we did under Howard (which the article also refers to).
Prime Ministers do not do these things personally. Prime Ministers and parliaments (assuming we are indeed a democracy) are simply doing what WE, the citizens, ask them or tell them or let them do. WE are personally responsible, every single one of us. For WE give the power.
Time for us to voice our disapproval of what our representatives are doing in OUR name.
Australia cops criticism…
… and rightly so. While my personal page is off-line as the topic is considered sub judice currently, naturally the two articles I discuss here are close to my heart.
Australia has again been highlighted as the only developed democracy without national human rights law. Perhaps if we did have such a law, my family and I wouldn’t be in the position we are currently in. It has been interesting, as I discovered neither the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 nor the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 are scheduled to or declared under the Australian Human Rights Commission Act. I was not aware of this until last week and I am horrified. I hope all Australians are horrified at such a discovery.
The second article was written by Malcolm Fraser. Malcolm Fraser was Prime Minister of Australia from November 1975 for seven years. I remember him well, as I had recently arrived in Australia in February 1974. Malcolm has been involved in humanitarian work for many years. He points out the regression in Australia’s policies since that time 35 years ago when we welcomed Vietnamese refugees. That community is now, he tells us, nearly a quarter of a million strong and contribute greatly to Australia. What changed?
What I have learnt about Civil and Human Rights in Australia over the past year has been enlightening: yet not in a way I would have ever expected. It has been a sad year for me personally, of course, but I cannot consider only my personal situation. I am horrified when I consider the possible extrapolation of my situation across the country. I am still haunted by the images of the Christmas Island tragedy and the Christmas Island detention conditions.
It is time: time Australians stood up for what is right.
Richard Flanagan sums it up
Excerpt Reposted from the UK Guardian I have no personal comment for this one – Richard’s article stands alone. Please click on the link to read the full article.
- Richard Flanagan
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 16 December 2010 21.30 GMT
- Article history
Boat tragedy: How Australians became complicit in the horror of Christmas Island
The myth that we must be protected from hordes of refugees is a weeping sore at the heart of my country’s public life
As the Australian territory closest to Indonesia, Christmas Island has in recent years become a favoured destination for refugee boats. And so it fell to the islanders to be awoken on Wednesday by the screams of the drowning as a small wooden boat carrying about 70 refugees was smashed by a wild sea into a limestone cliff.
“I saw a person dying in front of me, and there was nothing I could do to save them,” resident Kamar Ismail is reported to have said. “Babies, children, maybe three or four years old, they were hanging on to bits of timber, they were screaming ‘help, help, help’.” Lifejackets thrown down were tossed back by storm winds, the last illusion of a hope that had once borne the name Australia.
Quizzically Musing 