A Few Of My Favourite Things

Hey there,

So I haven't written since Baxter... I always do this! Get home and can't quite bring myself to write about it. This time was really not much different to the other two times I've been, except that we had the camera crew there, and I got food poisoning (great!). Whoopty doo!

The title of this post, however, is not intended sarcastically, because while we were away, I got a FANTASTIC phonecall! I found out that the two Hazara boys in Maribyrnong had finally been released from detention, which was very exciting news, even if they did ring me at 8am to tell me. My yelps of joy woke up everyone sleeping in my little room at the Port Augusta Big 4 Holiday Caravan Park!

We got home from Baxter on Wednesday night, and on Thursday night I went over for dinner to the house that the 2 lads are staying at with a friend. One of them was a chef before he was detained, and he had been promising for ages that as soon as he got out he would cook me a massive Afghani feast... Well, let's just say he wasn't kidding!! He made 4 amazing dishes and this beautiful special spiced rice and we all sat on the floor with our shoes off eating until top buttons were popping all over the shop.

It was so great watching him in the kitchen - he knew exactly what he was doing, and he was damn good at it, and I realised how crappy it must be to be in detention with no possible way of distinguishing yourself from the next guy. Regardless of who you are outside detention, your personality, experiences, talents, foibles or favourite past-times, you are just a face on a list of ID numbers. So it makes sense that as soon as people get out of detention they often want to reassert themselves - reactivate their characters and the things that make them THEM, rather than just another detainee in a system. I love watching people coming back to life again :)

J x

Ad Nauseum

I had thought that the message of asylum seekers NOT being illegal was beginning to seep into the Australian understanding, but apparently I was wrong! This morning The Age Online published an article written by AAP called "Joyce Joins Fray over Asylum Laws". I couldn't believe my eyes when I read it!! Here is the letter I typed and sent in record time to every person with the word 'editor' anywhere near their name in the 'Contact Us' section:

Dear Editors,

I have just seen the article on The Age Online entitled 'Joyce Joins
Fray Over Asylum Laws' and was surprised to read the following...

"Under the government's legislation, all asylum seekers who come to
Australia illegally will be processed offshore."

I would respectfully ask that you change the word 'illegally'
immediately, as there is no such thing as an illegal asylum seeker!
Asylum seekers have every right to come to Australia (even on leaky
boats, even with no documentation) under the Refugees Convention, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and perhaps most importantly
under s36 of Australia's own Migration Act.

It is particularly important to use accurate terminology at this point
in time when the Government is proposing (by the changes in the law)
to strip refugees of all rights in Australia.

Please do not facilitate the spread of malicious and incorrect
messages that asylum seekers are "illegal" by making such editorial
slips.

Otherwise, thank you for your coverage of this Bill and I look forward
to reading more following the Senate report due today.

Respectfully yours,

Jessie Taylor

Heavens. I can't believe they made that mistake! Calling asylum seekers illegals is like, SO five years ago!! However, I can see the problem. The label given to asylum seekers by the government is 'unlawful' (meaning, without officially designated status under the law - but NOT illegal), which is OF COURSE misinterpreted as 'illegal'. So then people just forget about the distinction (which is pretty easy to do - it seems such a fussy point of semantics) and suddenly people who simply don't have any officially designated status under the law are illegal. Scary. But oh-so-smooth. Our government is a clever bunch and they know how to play with language.

Just remember that on the plan for the Baxter Detention Centre, a massive, glinting, steel, razor-wire covered electric fence is referred to as an "energised courtesy fence". Oh my goodness. The moral of the story? Don't be fooled by seductive words, empty meanings and convenient definitions. That includes you, AAP and The Age Online...

(above pic of Baxter's lovely 'energised courtesy fence' from ronny restrepo. thank you!)

Baxter: The Brick In My Belly

It's just a few days until we will pack into a minibus and zoom off towards the South Australian desert. The visit to Baxter is looming, and I am experiencing a little gnawing feeling of unease at the prospect of returning to that place.

I am looking forward to seeing the people I know, but I can't believe it's been a whole year since I first met them there. I think about how much has happened in my life in that time, and feel ill at the thought that for them, every single one of the last 365 days have been identical, except for those punctuated with visa rejections, suicide attempts and visits to psychiatric hospitals.

I fear the depth of their sorrow, and I fear my powerlessness to penetrate it.

I dread arriving, I dread being there, and I dread leaving.

I wonder at my capacity to help navigate the turbulent journeys of the 9 other people who are visiting with me.

I question whether 4 years' experience will be a benefit or a hindrance. Will I have become accustomed to it, or will I be nearing saturation point?

I recall something I wrote a while ago:

"As with so many things in life, the experience of visiting people in immigration detention centres can be expressed on the parallel planes of the mundane and the profound.

On one level, it’s taking a few hours out of a Sunday morning to spend what can be a slightly awkward visit session sitting in a plastic chair, passive smoking and crumpling up a used plastic cup, before leaving again, slightly relieved that another visit is over. On another level, that same exercise is a foray into the human face of injustice. The awkward silence is actually a massive void. It is steeped in unspeakable apology for the gulf between my life, and yours. The powerlessness of knowing that there are only so many times I can shake my head in dismay and regret for what is happening to you. The strange reality that outside of the context of detention, we probably would never have been friends. The knowledge that hearing the explanation once again of why and how you came to be in detention in Australia won’t suddenly make everything clear to me".

I know I will be flying only by the seat of my pants and by the grace of God, and I just hope I'm up for the challenge. Yikes.

Why Don't They Get It??

In the past 24 hours, a couple of things have happened to me that have been quite powerful in the context of each other.

Last night I went to a party thrown by Anne Horrigan-Dixon to celebrate a few different things:
1. Julian Burnside's birthday
2. Michael Gordon's award as Australian Journalist of the Year
3. One year since Ali Mullaie and Aslam Kazimi arrived in Australia from Nauru.

There were former Nauru detainees as far as the eye could see. I think there must have been at least 30, most of them Afghans, most of them Hazara. This party was so beautiful because it signified a period of time passing since their detention in Nauru, and most of them are doing really well. These are the people whose perseverence and strength has allowed them to make it to life and freedom in Australia in spite of the best efforts of a Government which has acted in a singularly cold-hearted and cruel way towards each and every one of them.

I love watching the interactions between those men who have been through so much together. As a group, these Hazara men are so respectful, dignified and composed, and the affection that they demonstrate toward each other is very moving. I love listening to them speak to each other in their beautiful language, joking and laughing and doing their utmost to find solutions to each other's problems, large and small.

In common this group shares so much. They have all suffered horrifically at the hands of the Taliban. Most, if not all, of them have seen their friends and family members murdered simply because they are Hazara, and the Hazara are (I quote) "dogs", "bastards", "dirty", "useless", "not human", "like garbage" and "below the animals". They have all been taught to believe those things about themselves since they were children. They have all made it out of Afghanistan. They have all made it to Australia, but because we - just like the Taliban - saw them as a scourge, a problem, a plague, we took them away to a desert island and did our very best to ensure that they could not make it to our country.

On that island, people have died. A young man – the night his visa was rejected yet again – cried out in his sleep and then just died. A young mother suffering a simple illness was unable to access timely medical treatment, and hospitalization was just too little, too late. The number of people who have tried to end their own lives is beyond counting. People have suffered crushing isolation, torment, uncertainty, sadness, separation, immense physical and psychological trauma, NOT at the hands of the Taliban, or by Saddam Hussein, not by the barrel of a gun or the blade of a machete, but by a policy that our Government concocted in 2001 in order to break spirits and force people to go home. To make this “problem” go away.

Now, they are trying to do it again.

I got a letter today from the Immigration Department, in response to a letter I wrote expressing my concerns about the new changes to the law. I can’t really write much about it because it made me so angry that I cried in a café (how fitting that Bob Dylan’s ‘Tears of Rage’ has just popped up in my iTunes shuffle)! Here are some (directly quoted) dot points from the nice, helpful letter they sent me. They must think the Australian people are gullible, brainless fools:
• “The Government’s approach to unauthorized boat arrivals will continue to reflect a strong commitment to its international protection obligations”…
• BUT! “People found to be refugees will remain offshore until their resettlement in a third country is arranged” (ie until we can get rid of them)
• “The proposed new measures emphasise the government’s strong commitment to effective border control while ensuring that its international obligations are fully met” (How exactly is this being ensured?!)
• “The total operational cost for Offshore Processing Centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru since their establishment in September 2001 to 31 December 2005 is estimated at $243.8 million. If the rate of arrivals immediately prior to the introduction of the Pacific Strategy had continued, processing costs would have been over $400 million in 2001/02 alone” (Yes but how much LESS would it have cost to just process them fairly, quickly, and give them their damn visas!)
• “I can assure you that Australia is committed to ensuring that an appropriate humanitarian response is provided to those seeking Australia’s protection” (what?!)
• “Australia has an excellent record in helping reduce refugee and humanitarian problems around the world. This includes is well-regarded humanitarian program and domestic processes for asylum seekers”. (Offshore processing?! Bridging Visa E!? They are completely deluded!)

How can they even WRITE such total bulldust when they know full well what the human impact of the policy is? The impact upon those men I saw last night who have survived so much, only to get to Australia and suffer through more and more and more...

I just had to write about that. I am so angry I probably should stop now. Oh my goodness.

Start praying that they don’t get away with this abhorrent idea yet again…

TV and Radio Fun

Hi There,

I've done a few fun things recently and I thought I might put the links here for your perusal, if you're interested!

The first thing was an appearance on a show called "Visions" on Channel 31. Please excuse the rather over-dramatic intro music! But it's a good little show and they cover all sorts of interesting issues. In this episode the topic is an overview of the new refugee law changes. You can see the video here:

http://www.davidmcl.id.au/video/JessieTaylor.wmv or if that doesn't work, go to www.visions-stories.com and you'll see it.

The second thing was an interesting run in with Triple J's Sunday Night Safran program. Here I thought they wanted to interview me about visiting detention, and the proposed changes to the refugee law, but they just wanted to hassle me about being a christian! It was fun, anyway. Hmm. You can download and listen here:

http://abc.net.au/triplej/safran/podcast/safran_20060521.mp3

Pantene for Life

Today I was in the pharmacy buying shampoo for one of my friends in detention. He had asked me for a particular brand, but couldn't remember which exact type of shampoo it was (dry, oily, curly, straight, normal etc) so I started to have a look at the little by-lines on all the shampoo bottles.

Doing this made me wish that I was buying shampoo for his whole self, not just his hair. The shampoo claimed the following:

"Boosts flat, lifeless hair"
"Protects dry, damaged hair"
"Leaves hair strong, shiny and healthy looking"

If only it could boost flat, lifeless people. Protect dry, damaged people. Leave people strong, shiny and healthy looking.

Instead we have a bunch of people sitting in detention centres, flat, lifeless, dry, damaged, weak, broken and sick, but with great looking shiny hair.

Weird.