Illegal aliens

So we have Theresa and John staying with us this week. This afternoon John had a discussion with our staff about the implications of being foreign people in this land, and the need to either 'go back where we came from' to connect with our ancestral lands, or to connect with this land, but on the terms of it's tradition custodians. I didn't understand it that well, but I think that is okay for the moment. John connected these ideas to some of Paul's ideas:

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' (Acts 17:24-28)

John and Theresa also ran a workshop at the Den tonight, called 'Living on Aboriginal Land'. I wasn't able to go - but anyone who did, it'd be nice to hear your thoughts.

First Australians

Sunday night at Collins Street Baptist Church, Jon recommended to everyone watching First Australians on SBS later that night. I'd been vaguely aware that it was on, but I don't really watch TV normally, so I hadn't seen any episodes. Sunday night was the last episode, so we watched it after dinner and it was really good. You can watch it on the website as well (though this might be only available in Australia - I don't know), so I've started watching it from the beginning. All Australians should watch it. White Australians. Black Australians. Orange Australians. Know your history!

Rudd's inconsistency on capital punishment

During Kevin Rudd's election campaign last year he told Robert McClelland off for saying that the Labor Party would advocate for an end to capital punishment in Southeast Asia.
The Bali bombers execution could occur today, and Mr Rudd has been saying that, 'They deserve the justice that we delivered to them.' But he also says, 'We are universally opposed to the death penalty.'
That makes no sense!
If you're confused, you can write the PM an email here.

Click here to read an article from ABC News about Ali Imron, one of the Bali bombers who is now campaigning against terrorism. It's from last year, but is still worth a read.

'Australia can help the neighbourhood'

My housemate Andreana has an opinion piece in today's Age, about Australia's new scheme to allow 'unskilled' workers from the Pacific to come and work here:

The Government has announced this initiative after extensive lobbying by the National Farmers Federation — the scheme will tackle critical agricultural labour shortages by allowing Pacific islanders to work temporarily in Australian horticulture. Through the remittances that will be sent home to Pacific communities, this scheme also has the potential to help lift households out of poverty.

Read the full article here.

Urban Seed staff retreat

Last week (Wednesday to Friday) we has the Urban Seed staff retreat, down at Aireys Inlet. It was mostly a lot of talking, which is not that interesting for most people. So rather than having pictures of people talking, here are some pictures of the new monument to William Buckley (an escaped convict who was the first European to live in Victoria):

And these are some pictures I took down at the lighthouse (where they filmed Round the Twist):

Desert Files - Day 9

Have been thinking more about the Sorry Day stuff. I think there needs to be a sharing of pain, because I think everyone in Australia shares the pain of not having a home. Some had their home taken from them when Britain invaded, and others lost their homes because they were sent here as prisoners, or came here for economic opportunities, or were granted asylum here. (I'm not sure how well most people can relate to that consciously though.)
I also think it's a big problem that most Australians who aren't indigenous don't even know anyone that is.

Kevin vs Godzilla

K-Rudd has lasers.

The new government

Yesterday I got a text message from Marcus, saying, 'Christop for PM, Jesus for treasurer.' It turned out he'd sent it to just about everyone. I asked him today why that was, and he said that because he's (apparently) semi-famous he gets all these people asking who he's voting for, and he gets a bit sick of it. So he sent that around to everyone.

I'm pretty pleased with the election results. I think Rudd will be a fair bit less bad than Howard - especially with a more balanced Senate. It seemed like Howard was relieved not to have to do the job anymore.

'No to economic refugees'

Have just been writing letters to some government ministers (Fisheries, International Affairs and Immigration) about the sixteen asylum seekers who've recently been rescued in Australian waters. They're apparently seeking asylum here because their fishing boats have been destroyed, to deter them from fishing in Australian waters, despite the fact that Indonesians were fishing near Australia long before European settlement. Kevin Andrews has said that we won't give asylum to economic refugees. Fair enough (maybe, I'm not sure) but if we're destroying their fishing boats shouldn't we at least be involved in trying to find a way they can make an income without having to break our laws?

'ELECTION CAMPAIGN - the other side of the story'

Tab: hey
Tab: guess what?
Chris: what?
Chris: elephants?
Tab: only 6 weeks left of annoying election campaigning!!!!!!1

Jessie Taylor (a lawyer who's been having a lot to do with asylum seekers in detention) is running an alternative commentary of the election campaign:

DAY 1 – Monday 15 October
Lunchtime - RW placed in solitary confinement pending his deportation. His migration agent is not notified of his negative outcome until 1pm Monday, despite the decision having been made on Friday. Conversation ends with “we’ll be removing him tomorrow”. All afternoon, he begs to speak to friends – Nicki Moseby, Jessie Taylor & Joan Lynn. Nobody is allowed to speak to him, despite our incessant attempts to contact him. The Privacy Act is cited as the reason, despite his having begged to speak to us. We are told that we’ll have to go through his migration agent.

Afternoon – government announces billions of dollars in tax cuts. Cheap, cheap, cheap tricks to woo an electorate which is hopefully smarter than that… although precedent is not reassuring…

You can follow the commentary here.

The Australian Dream

I've been thinking a bit recently about how the Australian Dream is apparently owning your own house.
About a year and a half ago I was cleaning a house for this couple who own a fashion label, after they'd had the place rennovated. They had two kids under five, and each of the kids had about ten bedrooms, each full of assorted toys. I couldn't believe it! It seemed absurd.
Last week I was talking to someone I know in Credo, and they were saying that when they get into some new accommodation they want to have a bedroom, a room for books, a room for music, a room for TV and a room that's just full of cushions.
So at the same time that it's becoming harder and harder for Australians to even own their own home, it seems like we're dreaming of bigger and bigger houses where fewer people take up more space.

Pine Gap vigil

So, today we (about a dozen of us, including kids) were in Bourke Street Mall from 12 noon till 2pm, reading out the names of people who've been killed in Iraq (coalition forces and Iraqis), praying and talking to people about Pine Gap. It was pretty full-on reading out the names of the people killed, and reading about who they were how they had died. A majority of the Iraqis were civilians - farmers, clerics, students, children.


Most of the people walking past ignored us (which wasn't surprising), but we still got to talk to a fair few people about Pine Gap, including one guy who lives in Alice Springs.
Also, we got a message from friends in Alice Springs, saying that the prosecutors were unsucessful in putting the Pine Gap Four under house arrest, which is good news.
For about the second hour we were down there it was raining, so this sign was a bit worse for wear by the end:

Support the Pine Gap 4

Next Tuesday May 29th 2007, four Christians will go on trial for attempting to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding the Pine Gap military base in the Northern Territory. They face seven years' imprisonment for their actions, and we invite you to lend your support. Join us on Tuesday in Bourke Street Mall as real human toll of the war in Iraq interrupts business as usual...
From 12pm, we will be conducting a prayer vigil, including reading aloud the names of many of those killed in the conflict so far. Please feel free to join us, and by your presence be a voice for peace.
Pine Gap is a joint US/Australian military facility that has played a significant role in the Iraq war. Its existence and activities call into question Australia's sovereignty as a nation, and make us complicit in the many war crimes that have already taken place in Iraq in the last four years.
There's more info about the Pine Gap 4 here.
There's also stuff going on in Cairns, Newcastle, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide and Baghdad, which you can find out about at the Pine Gap Six livejournal.
Have peace,
Christop
(wearing my Christian Activist Network hat)

Sri Lankan asylum seekers

Last week 83 Sri Lankan asylum seekers were intercepted by the Australian Navy, near Christmas Island, and the Australian government is planning to send them back to Sri Lanka without giving them a chance to apply for asylum in Australia.
There's an article about it here, from the Townsville Bulletin.
Tim Jeffries has posted some info here on Advoc8 about who to write to about this, and what to bring up.

Identity and social justice

Convicts in London, about to be sent to Australia
Have been thinking about how ancient Israel's identity as liberated slaves shaped their approach to social justice. A creed they recited before offering the first part of their harvest to God says,

My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O LORD, have given me.
(Deuteronomy 26:5-10)

I seems that this had alot of influence on how the the poor and the enslaved were supposed to be treated in ancient Israel. (I wrote a bit about this in January, here and here.)
Thinking about where our country has come from. Some of us have been living in this land longer than anyone can remember. Some of us are descended from poor people who were set out here as punsihment for petty crimes. One of the best known characters in our history was a bush-ranger. Some of our ancestors were persecuted in the goldfields because of their race. We had more casualties in the First World War than any other country, because our soldiers were put on the front line, even though it wasn't our war. Some of us ended up here because our homelands have been torn appart by war and genocide.
That's definitely not the whole picture of where our country's come from, but I'm wondering about how all this should influence the way we approach social justice.

Sport and affluence

On Friday we were invited over to Tekeste and Setel's appartment for lunch. They are from Eritrea, and are trying to get permenant residency here in Australia.
Teketse reckons that a sign of a country's affluence is the amount of time and money they invest in sport. It's pretty amazing that we've got so much money here that in a lot of areas there are swimming pools and ovals and gyms all over the place. Also interesting that despite only having about 20 million people here, we always win heaps of medals in the Olympics and stuff, and do very well in a lot of other international competitions as well. And then there's all the millions of dollars we've put into the Commonwealth Games, which isn't really even a major international sporting event.

Counter SMS campaigns

Kitty sent me this on Wednesday morning:

C mon Melbourne lets spread the message that Aussies of middle eastern appearance ARE welcome here!
forward.

I forwarded it on, then realised half the people I sent it to were actually in the Western district, or interstate. By the time I had gotten to work one of the people had already sent it on to one of my workmates whose number I didn't have myself.
Also, just read about this:

$11.5 billion surplus

Okay, so the federal government has an $11.5 billion surplus for the year. (They budgeted for a $9 billion surplus.) What do you reckon they should do with all that money?