ASYLUM SEEKERS - AUSTRALIAN POLITICIANS

In 94 years and four countries I would have hoped, still being alive in a country priding itself on humanity and human rights, that I would find that there is still some compassion left somewhere in the world and in members of parliament who make up the people who are supposed to represent the people of Australia.

If those people really represent the mass of the country who actually voted them into office, then I suggest we consider ourselves worthy of being back as cave people of some thousands of years ago. Unless our families of the moment consider taking action to restore some modicum of humanity into our lives and behaviours, we really are no better than our ancestors from a bygone age.

I have never seen people who consider themselves adherents of religions which claim to have compassion, humanity and support for the more under-priveleged among us behave towards people who have managed to get away from societies where they are persecuted, assaulted, incarcerated, murdered, perpetrate the same abuses on asylum seekers, and who become involved with the equivalent of what these people desperately hoped they had escaped from.

To hold the sword of Damocles over their heads and threaten to return them to the purgatory from which they have fled, is a sort of torture one had hoped we were civilised enough never to contemplate. Yet here we have some so-called religious maniacs threatening to do just that.

Is there no shame left anywhere and enough people in our societies who will object and ensure this doesn't happen?

I would have hoped this wouldn't happen in my lifetime, but it seems it is an idle hope.

ABUSE ON THE MAINLAND: AUSTRALIA'S MEDEVAC HOTEL DETENTIONS

CounterPunch 18 December 2020 Abuse on the Mainland: Australia’s Medevac Hotel Detentions by Binoy Kampmark

Governments that issue press releases about the abuse of human rights tend to avoid close gazes at the mirror. Doing so would be telling. In the case of Australia, its record on dealing with refugees is both abysmal and cruel. It tends to be easier to point the finger at national security laws in Hong Kong and concentration camps in Xinjiang. Wickedness is always easily found afar.

Australia’s own concentration camp system hums along, inflicting suffering upon asylum seekers and refugees who fled suffering by keeping them in a state of calculated limbo. Its brutality has been so normalised, it barely warrants mention in Australia’s sterile news outlets. In penitence, the country’s literary establishment pays homage to the victims, such as the Kurdish Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani. Garlands and literary prizes have done nothing to shift the vicious centre in Canberra. Boat arrivals remain political slurry and are treated accordingly.

Recently, there were small signs that prevalent amnesia and indifference was being disturbed. The fate of some 200 refugees and asylum seekers brought to the Australian mainland for emergency medical treatment piqued the interest of certain activists. Prior to its repeal as part of a secret arrangement between the Morrison government and Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie in December last year, the medical evacuation law was a mixed blessing.

While it was championed as a humanitarian instrument, it did not ensure one iota of freedom. As before, limbo followed like a dank smell. The repeal of the legislation offered another prospect of purgatory, only this time on the mainland.

The individuals in question have found themselves detained in Melbourne at the Mantra Bell City Hotel in Preston, and the Kangaroo Point Central Hotel in Brisbane. In the mind of Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul, the conditions at both abodes are more restrictive than those on Nauru. The medical help promised has also been tardily delivered, if at all.

“My life is exactly the size of a room, and a narrow corridor,” reflects Mostafa (Moz) Azimitabar, who has been detained at the Mantra for 13 months. Like his fellow detainees, he has become a spectacle, able to see protesters gather outside the hotel, the signs pleading for their release, drivers honking in solidarity. He sees himself as “a fish inside an aquarium … The whole of my life in this window to see the real life, where people are driving, walking; when they wave to us. And when I wave back at them. This is my life.”

When former Australian soccer player turned human rights activist Craig Foster visited Azimitabar, conversation could only take place between a transparent plastic barrier. “I had to talk with him behind the glass,” tweeted the detainee. “Several times a day Serco officers enter my room and there aren’t any glasses for them.”

After the visit, Foster described the corrosion of liberties, “this constant theme of the most onerous regulations … constantly chipping away – just taking another right, another right, another right, and making them feel less and less and less human, if that’s possible after eight years.”

The more obstreperous refugees have been targeted by the Department of Home Affairs and forcibly relocated. Iranian refugee Farhad Rahmati found himself shifted from Kangaroo Point to the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation Centre (BITA), and then to Villawood. BITA also received four more from Kangaroo Point in mid-November.

The advent of COVID-19 compounded the situation. Detainees already vulnerable to other medical conditions faced another danger. The authorities gave a big shrug. Shared bathrooms are the norm and are infrequently cleaned. Hand sanitizer containers are left empty or broken. The inquiry into the failure of Victoria’s quarantine system that led to a second infectious wave in Melbourne avoided considering the conditions of detained refugees. Writing in Eureka Street, Andra Jackson wondered if this had anything to do with the fact “that these men, now detained in some instances for six to seven years, have behaved more responsibly that [sic] some returning travellers.”

The government authorities did release five refugees from the medevac hotels last week, threatened by lawsuits testing the legal status of their detention. On December 14, the 60 men detained at the Mantra were told that they would be moving to another undisclosed location. The conclusion of the contract with the hotel has the Department of Home Affairs considering its options, and all are bound to aggravate the distress of the detainees.

Alison Battinson of Human Rights for All has a suggestion bound to be ignored. “Instead of telling the gentlemen that they are going to be moved to another place of detention – that hasn’t been disclosed to them – the more sensible approach would be to release them as per the law.”

The only ray of compassion in this mess of inhumanity has come in the form of a Canadian resettlement scheme. Nine refugees have already availed themselves of the opportunity; another twenty await their fate. Australian politicians, as they so often do on this subject, are nowhere to be found.

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com

GOLDBERG AND SOLOMON, EAT YOUR HEARTS OUT!

Goldberg and Solomon wrote some remarkable operas, but none more remarkable than the infamously famous "MEKANDO", published only a short time ago and playing to booked out capacity houses in the nation's capitol Canburyitall.

[Sung by COOKED IT UP:]

As some day it will happen that a victim has been found
We've got a little list - we've got a little list
Of political offenders who have been well underground
And who never have been missed - who've never ever been missed!
There's the pestilential nuisances who want all policies changed -
All people who have flabby minds and pathetic allied friends -
All failures in their 'rithmetic and leave you stricken dumb -
All persons who with shaking hands, shake hands with you like that -
And all third parties who spoiling fun insist -
They'd none of them be missed - they'd none of them be missed!

[Chorus]

We've got 'em on our list - we've got 'em on our list
And they'll all of them be gone - they'll all of them be gone

[COOKED IT UP]

There's the siren song soprano and the others of her ilk
And the yes-people chorus - we've got them on our list!
And the people who smoke weed and blow it in your face
They'll all be sadly missed - they certainly will be missed!
Then the morons all who praise, with pathetic monotone
All decades gone but this and their country barring all;
And the pollies from the provinces, who can't see beyond their nose
And who do rain dances, but the moisture will not fall;
And that singular anomaly, the polly from outfield -
They'll certainly not be missed - they'll certainly not be missed!

[Chorus]


We've got 'em on our list - we've got 'em on our list
And they'll all of them be gone - they'll all of them be gone

[COOKED IT UP]

And that Nisi Prius nuisance, who just now is rather rife
The Judicial humorist - we've got them on our list!
All funny fellows, comic folks, and clowns of private life -
They'll none of them be missed - they'll none of them be missed
And pathetic so-called statesmen all of compromising kind
Such as - what d'ye call them - thing'em bob, and likewise -
Never-mind
And 'St- 'st- 'st - and What's-their-name, and also You-know-who -
The task of filling up the blanks I'd rather leave to you
But it really doesn't matter whom you put upon the list
For they'll none of them be missed - they'll none of them be missed!

[Chorus]

You may put 'em on the list - you may put 'em on the list;
And they'll none of 'em be missed - they'll none of them be missed!

RACISM NOW THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT'S WAY TO WIN THE NEXT ELECTION

Plus ca change - the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Racism was introduced to Australia on 26 January 1788 and it has been a vote-winner ever since.

It was, after all, the British who were at the forefront of the ntroduction to the world of concentration camps in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902.

After the genocide got into full swing during the 19th century, the race card was an easy one to use in every field of endeavour as people needed employment and other services from governments and as is so typical of governments who have set up institutions with race barriers it is generally the underclasses who suffer most.

So, who are the underclasses?

Well, first it was the indigenous population, then it was the Chinese miners, then the Japanese pearl divers, and so we go through every wave of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees, until we get to - wait for it - the Africans who are mostly black.

Not only are they black, as the media and politicians tell it, they form gangs and do terrible things. Notice how selective they all are when it comes to other groups who do the same or even worse, and so, who gets the blame for everything, despite evidence to the contrary?

Well, who has low ratings and needs to win the next elections?

PRIME MINISTERIAL HYPOCRISY SPILLS OUT YET AGAIN!

How much longer are Australians going to be prepared to put up with the hypocrisy of the politicians whose rantings and ravings get worse and worse every day?

Today, Sunday 28 January 2018, we have the current prime minister raving on about the Holocaust, while his government locks the indigenous people in prisons and areas around the country which are worse than prisons and concentration camps , does the same with asylum seekers who are treated worse than animals - they treat their pets better than the human beings in Papua New Guinea and Nauru - and pontificates abut human rights and what needs to be done in Australia and around the world.

One really needs to carry one's vomit bucket around with one where ever one goes, and to be careful to spill it only on politicians.

MANUS AND NAURU - THE SITUATION DETERIORATES BY THE MINUTE AND THE POLITICIANS' BEHAVIOURS ARE MORE AND MORE DISGUSTING!

The situation on Manus has become critical if not criminal, and at this stage there should be an outcry from Australian citizens demanding an end to this foul treatment of people who in the main have experienced nothing but trauma over the last several years since fleeing from those causing them untold grief and sorrow. 

The whole story really starts in 1992 when Paul Keating was Australian Labor Party (ALP) Prime Minister of Australia after deposing Bob Hawke.

Keating decided that people coming to Australia seeking asylum should be locked up and screened before being allowed to be let out to mix with Australian citizens and their lives and cultures. 

The situation has gone steadily downhill since then, with the ALP's cruelty being continued by the Coalition and other small groups within the federal parliament carrying on the "great" tradition started by Keating so long ago, with the latest disaster from a country which thinks it is entitled to some UN recognition on its Human Rights organisation. 

Manus was officially closed by the Australian government on 1 NOVEMBER 2017 when electricity, water, food and other necessities of life were removed from 600 asylum seekers who have refused to move.

On 3 NOVEMBER 2017 the Papua New Guinea government, emulating its Australian masters, has refused to let church groups enter the camp with food, and a boatload from Australia carrying supplies has also been forbidden from landing.

It is difficult to comprehend the cruelty being inflicted on these people and reminds me of stories from South Africa and Europe during the Nazi and Stalinist and other regime disasters of much of the 20th century.

This could well be termed a genocide in the making, and in the end will be similar to what the world is doing to the Palestinians in their own country and what is being done by governments everywhere which have been trying to get rid of their indigenous communities by every means at their disposals.

HOMOPHOBIA IN AUSTRALIA - 21ST CENTURY VERSION

 I am nearly 91 years old and I have read a great deal since I started reading at the age of 5 or 6.

During the subsequent 85 years I have read things which are interesting and educational and enlightening, and I have read a great many things which were just for entertainment.

Some of what I have read has been ridiculous and full of nonsense and just plain stupid.

The inside and outside of this leaflet contains some of the most absurd, nonsensical, homophobic rubbish that I have ever looked at and, believe me, that is saying something.

All of this nonsense is because the Australian parliament is so full of stupid and ignorant people that we are left with a political vacuum which allows this bullshit to be perpetrated on a public who don't understand what it is all about and who absorb a great deal of the crap these people spout as if it was gospel, whereas it is all untrue and perpetuates stereotype and falsity from start to finish.

How long before people begin to understand that they are being taken for a ride by unprincipled and are of hypocritical so-called religious "persuasions" who are ignorant, evil, malicious and don't even know what they are talking about.

This is the sort of trash that people were afraid would happen if this sort of campaign went ahead, and it is no doubt what the Australian prime minister hoped would happen.

Whatever happened to human rights in Australia?

Hopefully it will have consequences.

MANUS AND NAURU - AUSTRALIA'S OFFSHORE CONCENTRATION CAMPS GOVERNMENT'S LATEST OUTRAGE COURTESY PETER DUTTON

It would appear that it is possible to reinvent the wheel.

Remember John Howard's and Peter Reith's Children Overboard when the Tampa ship rescued some asylum seekers offshore from Australia?

We have now had a similar sort of incident at Manus where Peter Dutton is accusing asylum seekers of paedophilia after a nasty incident involving Papua New Guinea soldiers and/or police who fired shots into the concentration camp because, according to Dutton, the camp inhabitants took a 5 year old boy into the prison.

We are waiting for evidence, for proof - to substantiate the story.

Is there no end to how low and despicable Australian politicians can sink?

Apparently not!

AUSTRALIAN POLITICIANS - ROBBING THE POOR TO SUPPORT THE RICH

Australian politicians are a national and international disgrace.

What they are busy doing at the moment is attacking pensioners through Centrelink and, as usual, blaming certain people for rorting the system.

Have you seen what politicians have been found to be doing -yet again - with immersing their disgusting snouts in some very deep troughs?

When are the voters going to have enough sense and guts and foresight to chuck these disgusting people out and ensure that new ones elected are people with some integrity?

The latest scandal coming to light after the Sussan Ley debacle is Julie Bishop - you know - holier than thou!!!!! Her behaviour reminds us of another Bishop of recent memory, by name Bronwyn Bishop.

How many more of these revolting parliamentary scandals will emerge before the federal parliament does something to stop them all.

How much more will it take for the sub-prime minister to take action?

The latest robbery occurred today, courtesy Kevin Rudd and the subsequent parliamentary horrors sitting in the house on the hill, and I have been shaken to the core by the petttiness of the government and carried out by its front organisation called Centrelink.

This is some of the story:

On 1 July 2009 Kevin Rudd, then prime miniature, passed legislation in the federal parliament, giving "equal rights" to the so-called glbtiq etc. members of our communities. About 87 pieces of legislation were revised to give gl etceteras equal rights with hetero members of our communities.

As we South Africans knew from the apartheid years of the 20th century and from Dr Verwoerd, the then prime dictator, we had given to us the Bantustans - separate but equal, now carried out to a new level of refinement by the Israelis against the Palestinians.

So, we were now separate, but equal, except of course we were not equal.

We had to declare our de facto relationships to Centrelink if we were on commonwealth benefits and our single pensions became "couple" pensions.

This had so many ramifications that it would take a week to record them all here, so I will just try and deal with the bare bones of it.

My partner and I were at that stage in a same-sex relationship of 15 years and we had been on single pensions each. After the declaration to Centrelink, they combined out pensions to the same amount each where before, because I had some superannuation pensions and my partner didn't I had been getting a smaller Centrelink pension than my partner. Now we became equalised.

The next part of this story is mind-boggling, not forgetting the above items about politicians.

Because Centrelink has access to the superannuation pensions (indexed, by the way) information, when these pensions are indexed and my super pensions increase, Centrelink reduces my age pension accordingly.

Now that we are "married" by Kevin Rudd, we are treated equally by Centrelink so that when the indexed pensions go up, we are Centrelink age pension reduced.

This is what happened this week.

My one superannuation pension - indexed as I said - increased by 82 cents per fortnight.

Today my partner and I each received a letter from Centrelink advising us of our latest fortnightly age pensions.

We found in the letter that our latest pensions had been reduced by 21 cents per fortnight each, that is 42 cents reduction per fortnight in our incomes!

ASYLUM SEEKERS, RACISM AND AUSTRALIAN POLITICIANS

This is the sort of discussion in which one doesn't know where to start because it is all so disgusting!

The latest horrors emanating from the current Australian government is an edict stating that those asylum seekers currently locked in the concentration camps on Nauru and Manus will NEVER, repeat NEVER EVER will be given any sort of visas or permits allowing them to land on Australian soil.

Where is the fury from the people living in Australia? Why is there not a mass revolt in the community demanding that this edict is withdrawn immediately?

Where do the Australian people come from other than the indigenous population who come from - well here, Australia, of course?

They come from every country in the world and hundreds, and thousands came here as refugees and asylum seekers, many of whom have fled persecution and oppression of one sort or another.

Then we come to racism and religion and persecution of minorities, and in Australia successive governments have been refining their cruelty over the years, forgetting their own origins or that of their families and that many of their ancestors came here in chains and as slaves and criminals.

We then have the most offensive, racist comments by one of the government ministers that many of the criminal acts in Australia have been committed by one select group of people singled out for mention, never mind the hundreds and thousands of acts of criminality carried out by groups from  whom this same minister has himself originated, as have many of his colleagues.

How selective can one get when one wants to brand a "select" group of people in the community as the major criminals in the country??

ASYLUM SEEKERS - WHAT IS MORE DISGRACEFUL THAN AUSTRALIAN POLITICIANS' DISGUSTING POLICIES?'

Is there anything more disgraceful than what is going on in Australia at the moment - 8 November 2016 - than the responses of the federal politicians to some of the most unfortunate human beings on the planet?

Locked away in the concentration camps established by Australia in Nauru and Manus (Papua New Guinea), the asylum seekers have just been dealt another death blow by the Australian government which is in the process of passing a bill to deny entry to Australia - EVER - of these unfortunate people.

Those of us who live in Australia and are mortified by the shenanigans of our politicians are in a situation where all the protests we have been able to be part of for the last several years have found it all to be of no avail, and the situation deteriorates daily.

Why is there not an outcry by the people who live in this country - ALL - except the indigenous population - of whom are migrants and asylum seekers? Why are they not screaming at their politicians and demanding humanitarian treatment of human beings who are desperate for some safety and security in their lives for themselves and their children?

To continue Alan Paton's refrain - "Cry the Beloved Country" - but this is no longer a beloved country - its human rights abuses are horrific and relate to regimes we have known over the past 100 years and more.