> Hard not to think of Owen's complaint about "poets' tearful fooling".
..
> This has scarcely made a ripple in the political discourse and doesn't seem to
> have affected Howard's standing at all, but I keep wondering at the
> tolerance of the Australian people at being lied to. They're not
> even lied to cleverly, it's done with a transparent contemptuousness.
> Partly it's because of the downgrading of the Australian media over
> the past decades and the consequent flabbiness of public debate about
> anything.
..
> I also totally agree with Robbe-Grillet and others
> when they say a work of art has no justification beyond itself. But
> does this leave the arts of writing completely outside political
> discourse (aside from their obvious marginalisation)? I think not...
> but it leaves it as a dilemma which is perhaps insoluble...
> Best
> Alison
Hi Alison and all,
And still within Australia there is this! I think there are plenty of
Australians who don't care whether they are being lied to or not.
(Sorry for the length)
Best,
Jill
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, 18 April 2002 1:35 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [v-i-s-a-s] (no subject)
The Real Problem
by Dave McKay, at the Refugee Embassy, Woomera
Reports on refugee detention centres have focussed on material issues--whether
or not they have air conditioning, sufficient food, blankets, and beds, the
presence or absence of razor wire, and the stark landscape and dust in many
outback locations.
But the Government could improve all of these things -- and apparently it is --
without ever once dealing with the real problem. In fact, the more millions it
spends on so-called improved conditions, the worse the problem gets.
For the real problem is hatred. The locals here in Woomera resent every penny
that is spent on the refugees, and their resentment is not unlike that of the
rest of Australia.
"We never had air conditioning when we first came here," they shout. "What do
they expect? They're refugees, for Christ's sake! Refugees are supposed to
have it rough."
A shearer leaned across the roadhouse picnic table, and pointed his steak knife
at me as he said, "If I came across one of them wandering out there in the
outback, I wouldn't care if he was eight years old. I'd slit his throat as
soon as look at him, and I wouldn't miss a moment's sleep over it either."
I turned to his mate to see if he felt the same horror that I had just felt at
such a naked expression of hatred.
"Yup. I'd do the same meself," he echoed. "Why should we work our asses off
to pay for them, while the bloody mongrels sit out there and do nothing all
day but complain?"
I suggested that maybe we would all be better off if the refugees were just let
out.
"Don't you get smart with me, you f...ing c...t!" the first one shouted. "I'd
slit your throat too if I could get away with it."
And this is what we encounter daily, in one form or another. The cat-calls,
rude gestures, and abuse that we get is the voice of a majority that is no
longer silent. "Shoot the bastards!" people shout in anger. And this is
happening in a country that once sang, "Tell those who've sailed across the
seas, we've boundless plains to share."
Pauline Hanson discovered the latent hatred and racism and she ran with
it. John Howard grabbed the hate baton and effectively kicked her out of the
race. Then Kim Beazley did what he could to wrest the baton from Little
Johnny. While some of us reel with shock at what our country is becoming, our
so-called leaders see only political opportunity in it. In fact, the more
hatred they can stir up, the more votes they can get.
Staff at the detention centres have been clearly instructed to convey that
hatred to the unfortunate people under their control, and they are doing their
job well. Centre Management sent a letter in Arabic and Parsi to the detainees
before the Easter demonstrations, telling them that they would punish
the detainees for anything that happened outside. "When it's all over, the
demonstrators go home, but we still have you here under our control," it warned.
We all know that tear gas is traditionally used to dispel crowds or to flush
people out of hiding. But when you have a crowd already trapped in a cage and
you hit them with tear gas, it can only be for one reason... torture. And to a
lesser degree, the same is true of the use of batons and pepper spray on women
and children who sought only to protect their husbands and fathers from the
beatings that followed the Easter demonstrations.
No one is accountable. No cameras or cassette recorders are allowed inside,
and especially not the media. No messages are to be taken out, and none
delivered during visits. Prisoners are not allowed to have mobile
phones. Visitors are almost non-existent. And now we are discovering that mail
is routinely discarded, whether going in or coming out. Every
possible effort is being made to isolate and intimidate the detainees. Even
lawyers have had to threaten court action just to gain access to clients.
We asked the CERTS Supervisor (whatever that is) why there is so much
secrecy. "You wouldn't imagine the sort of people who try to get access to
them," he said
conspiratorily.
I opened my eyes wide, feigning shock. "Tell me," I said.
He moved closer. "We have lawyers coming up here and trying to pressure them
into becoming their clients," he said. What he failed to say was that the
lawyers
are working for free.
Inside they are told that demonstrators are only impoverished street people who
can offer no hope at all, that decent Australians do not want them here,
that the few visitors they get will never return; and outside we are told that
they don't want visitors, don't want mail, don't want lawyers. Over time some
of the declarations will become true. Because of present policy, the visitors
will not return and their letters will not be delivered. The prisoners, as a
result, will come to see visits as false hopes, raised by people who will never
return.
We have been writing dozens of letters to inmates since being denied the right
to visit them, and to our knowledge, not one of those letters has been
delivered. Of course they are not returned either. They are simply thrown in
the rubbish. People inside promised to send us dozens of letters requesting
visitors too; but not one of those has reached us.
Why is this happening? Because of hate.
Every time someone like ourselves comes along and tries to instil some hope
into the lives of these poor people, or tries to express some love and support,
we are labelled trouble-makers, or a security risk, and we are isolated from
contact.
There are no written guidelines with regard to either visitors or
mail. Everything is done arbitrarily. And no one is accountable. We tried to
send a registered letter, but the local post office tells us that it cannot be
done. There is, at this stage, no possible way to make anyone at the Woomera
Detention Centre (and probably every other detention centre in Australia)
accountable to the public for much of anything. They are the Gestapo of
Australia, acting on orders from the Fuerher and no one else. Every effort to
interfere with that set-up is branded a "security threat" and it is beaten down.
Sensitive, loving, thinking Australians have only one hope, and that is that
the media will confront the powers that be with the cameras and cassette
recorders that are not allowed at Woomera, and demand answers. We must make
the Government and the guards at Woomera accountable.
How many visitors (apart from lawyers and other officials) have there been at
Woomera over the past twelve months? How many letters going in and coming
out have been destroyed? Why aren't letters at least returned to the
senders? Why is mail censored anyway? (Prison mail is not censored.) Why
aren't there official guidelines for determining who can and cannot visit
prisoners? Who makes the final decision on these matters? Are written records
kept of those decisions? If it really is a reception centre, then why can't
detainees have mobile phones? Why is the media banned from going inside? What
does the Government have to hide?
The Jews will lament forever the fact that they went quietly to the death camps
in Nazi Germany, thinking that if they behaved themselves and co-operated, all
would be well. Australia must not make the same mistake with regard to the
detention centres. For if we can allow a government to imprison one minority
without making it accountable, it will soon imprison others. And the hate-
mongers are the first to tell us that we who support the refugees (You know, the
bleeding hearts... the do-gooders.) are a minority ourselves.
Dave McKay, Phone 0407-238805
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