A call for no borders

Imagine your life is hell.  Bothered by bullets, disease, famine or some other horrible suffering brought upon you and your family. What is your first thought going to be?  Escape.

You decide to escape by boat.  Across the sea to somewhere different where you believe you will have a better chance at prosperity.  There is a great risk of death in making the journey, but this risk is outweighed your belief that you would have certainly died if you had remained where you are, or even have endured a worse fate of abject poverty.

Then, after months of travelling, hiding out, you come to the last leg of your journey, a dash across the ocean in a leaky boat to the other side where salvation waits.  You put up with the conditions, telling yourself that things will get better.  That they have to get better.

Days later, you’re within sight of your destination.  You can see the shore approaching in the far distance and inside you feel a sense of relief.

Your relief is short-lived.  An Australian navy ship is rushing to intercept you before you reach the shore.  Enter the first tentacle of the Australian government.  Costumed men acting with military efficiency bundle you and all the others up onto their navy ship.  You are not taken to the mainland, but an island where you are told you will be ‘processed.’

‘Processed’ is the key word.  You are not human; you have no soul.  Your name does not appear on any list or registrar.  You exist and you exist in this territory without permission.  People tell you this, that you’re illegal.  You didn’t ask for permission.

Migration is a perfectly natural, logical decision that we humans have been making for centuries whenever the circumstances in our homes get rough or become life-threatening.  We weigh up the risks, and often choose to leave for greener pastures.  So many of us know that the way our glorious governments treat immigrants is wrong.  It cannot be justifiable to demand someone ask permission to abandon their home in order to seek a new life and then to demand upon them such atrocities as a Bridging Visa.

But what is the most disturbing thing of all, is that when you are finally spat out of the bureaucratic machine enlisted to impart you with a soul, that you can be billed for trouble — as if you were staying in a hotel.

As of the 30 June 2008, there were 386 persons with active detention debts amounting to $7,705,576, according to Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) spokesperson Sandi Logan.

Any former detainee not granted a Permanent Protection Visa or Humanitarian Visa is billed for their time in detention, and any costs associated with their subsequent deportation.

According to Logan, “… the department has a standardised cost charged per day for detention across all mainland facilities. $125.40 a day is now the standardised rate charged across all mainland centres. The daily maintenance amount is never more than the actual cost of detention incurred by the Commonwealth.”

The overall detention costs include the cost of moving the detainee between different detention locations and the daily maintenance cost of detention, made up of expenses such as food and accommodation.

After fleeing Tanzania, Kasian Wililo arrived in Australia as an asylum seeker in 2002. He was held at the Maribyrnong detention centre in Melbourne from Jan 2003 and then Baxter (Port Augusta) detention centre from March 2004 to June 2005.

Letter 1 and Letter 2

Mr Kasian fled his country, fell in love and got billed.  And as with any bureaucratic function, you have to love the inevitable catch 22 that follows,

Mr Wililo is still waiting on approval for a permanent spousal visa. His May invoice stated that his outstanding debt would mean the criteria to be met in order to obtain a permanent visa would be “affected adversely.”

So that I am not accused of being too hasty, let me post what the officials have to say on the matter.

DIAC spokesperson Sandi Logan told Crikey: “The power to waive debts to the Commonwealth rests with the Minister for Finance and Deregulation and his delegate (in the Department of Finance and Deregulation). Each case is unique and decided on its individual merits …”

“The department is mindful of the amount of the debt and has offered the option of a repayment plan, so the individual can service his debt,” says Logan.

I suppose we shoudl thank Ms Logan, but something doesn’t seem quite right.  Perhaps the answer can be found in the next paragraph:

Mrs Wililo confirmed to Crikey that the couple had been offered a payment plan —  ”$4000 up front and enter into a payment plan of the debt plus interest.”

It’s always interesting to watch as legislation intended to ‘fix’ this ‘problem’ will be blocked by the Liberal party.

Yesterday Opposition immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone delivered the Coalition’s case on why they opposed the bill to abolish detention debt. She labelled the image of former detainees struggling under the weight of thousands of dollars of debt as a “furphy”.

However, fixing this one catch 22 with legislation has the problem that it doesn’t solve the problem facing thousands of refugees and illegal immigrants everywhere; that it is not and can never be illegal.

• No Border network protests in Calais.
• NoBorder network.

http://www.crikey.com.au/Media/docs/080924-letter2-INVOICE–detention-costs-3b23e1da-765a-4145-8c72-e127f89d8bba.pdf

Foreign Correspondent in Greece

Moments ago a report by Foreign Correspondent ended and the particular subject of the report was Greece.  Over all, while I think it’s mentioning of the word ‘Anarchist’ presented a chance for exposure to Australian audiences, the report, ironically enough, lack any explanation of what Anarchists stand for.  Any discussion of the Anarchists was a discussion from a position of the old commenting on what amounts to a caricature of Anarchists as ‘rebellious youths’, which is the only impression you can get when you interview cops, a university professor, a teenage boy, a politician — practically anyone but someone who ascribes to the Anarchist ideology.

While I must give credit in the attempts of the reporter to give  a description of what has happened in Greece since the shooting of Alexandros, somehow the report itself fell short and left me feeling angry.  There was much discussion of the damage the Anarchists have caused in the riots since the end of last year, the street fights with police and much footage of the riots, giving the impression that this is what the Anarchists have to offer.  There was no discussion of the ultra-nationalist efforts calling for racial purity and the ousting of immigrants, or the collaboration between ultra-nationalist groups and the Greek police.  There was no mention of the defence Anarchists have given to immigrants that have sufferred attacks by these groups.

I think, however, the biggest critique I can offer of the coverage was in their explanation of the terrorist groups, Revolutionary Struggle, to which the foreign minister of Greece offerred this comment;

“I believe this is the worst fascist ideology. It has nothing to do with any values, it has nothing to do with any political thinking, it’s pure violence, so we are facing it again after November 17.”

The irony of it all is there is no distinction made in the report between Revolutionary Struggle, the group conducting all the bombings and murders, and the Anarchists on the street working in solidarity with immigrants.  Revolutionary Struggle, from my information, operate on a militant Marxist-Leninst ideology which it has inherited from November 17.  Unfortunately for the minister who seems to have her ideologies mixed up, this group ain’t fascist and unfortunately for the reporter, they ain’t Anarchist.  Golden Dawn are the fascists along with the nationalistics in the Greek government and Revolutionary Struggle are Leninists.  Yet the way in which the story was reported allowed Revolutionary Sturggle to bleed together with the mention of the Anarchists, never mind they each have a distinct set of ideas — chiefly that the Anarchists are not about to potentially blow up an entire block.

My last and final complaint is that the cover-up following the shooting of Alexandros was non-existent, instead merely confined to almost a footnote in the tale.

Although I suppose I may be mistaken as there is potential that future reports will elaborate more on the situation.  Not to mention I doubt we can expect much more from the media — at least the term ’self-described’ Anarchist didn’t appear.

PS:  I’ll post the report at a later date so everyone and anyone can judge whether I’ve over-reacted or not.  It’s not yet up on the Foreign Correspondent website.

Iran

Iran.  Everybody’s talking about Iran.

The mainstream media are up in arms, political demonstrations are being held in cities around the world in solidarity to the protesters, and you can just tell politicos are bursting with the urge to throw their support behind the protest movement — so long as they’re after democracy.

If it isn’t the Iranians ingenious use of twitter to get the word out, or their daring in demanding democracy from a government that has been made out to be the devil over the last decade, the subject of Iran has been slapped on the front page of newspapers throughout the world.

I’m not complaining.  The images of Iranians taking to the streets to protest their government are inspiring, but there are some horrible truths stirring in the background.  The C4SS has already pointed out that politicians hate change, and while Obama and other politicians have express their support for the mass in Iran, the silence from most political leaders has been deafening;

It’s also interesting to watch the reactions of politicians elsewhere. Incipient revolution, regardless of its ideological content or where it takes place, gives politicians the willies. It keeps them up nights, or else causes them to bolt awake with the irresistible urge to make sure the world outside their windows still believes it needs them.

…

From the perspective of a man in Obama’s line of work, the worst of all possible outcomes is the “failed state” — a state where the political class experiences “loss of physical control of its territory or a monopoly on the legitimate [sic] use of force.” Such a situation is always pregnant with possibility: The possibility that the dying state will be replaced, even temporarily and provisionally, by something other than a new state.

Six days a week and twice on Sunday, a Barack Obama will support any state — liberal democracy, communist dictatorship, Islamist theocracy, doesn’t matter — if the plausible alternative is no state. After all, if one country can manage itself without overhead in the form of his counterparts, people are bound to notice, and next thing you know he might find himself looking for real work instead of running a successful franchise of the Big Con.

…

While the “leaders” of other states might be willing to accommodate, might even wish for or be willing to tentatively support, a more “liberal” regime in Iran, they’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the mullahs if they foresee any risk at all that Iranians might take their lives into their own hands and dispense with the state altogether, even if only for a day.

Change, true change, scares politicians.  If you can find a better, more successful method of doing something, such as looking after your daily life without outsourcing most of the thinking to an old man a few thousand kilometres away, then you don’t need them.  But still, this observation, while totally apt, doesn’t seem to be quite right given the coverage Iran has received in the media.  One could be forgiven for believing that there was nothing else worth reporting, another point which has been made elsewhere;

Iran, Iran, Iran. You would think this was the only news in the world. Odd isn’t it?

What is so unique about unrest in Iran? Isn’t there unrest everywhere? Sure there is!
Aren’t there protests everywhere?
Yup, there are!
Look at the G-20 protests. The coverage that was given served to portray the protestors in a negative light and law enforcement as doing their job to keep the peace. Even when the death of an innocent bystander resulted, Ian Tomlinson at the hands of head bashing police officers, the main stream media stayed quite quiet. Apologies I stand corrected, quiet, except for the smear campaign that was launched against the victim after the police brutality was exposed! Apparently, Ian Tomlinson liked to drink. As if that justified his murder at the hands of law enforcement…

In Iran, it is a different story.
The police trying to control some extremely unruly crowds are portrayed as ruthless and “videos of police beating demonstrators hit hard at the emotions”
Unusual for western media to be sympathetic to unruly protestors.

…

If protesting is legitimate in Iran for an election, it surely should be at the G-20 protests, when issues affecting the world populace are being discussed and decided upon by elites behind locked gates. Gates that ensure the masses are left out in the cold.
But if the G-20 protests aren’t relevant in your mind.
Let us look at another country. Georgia.
There have been many protests there.
Did you know that? Most people don’t.
Why is that? Well there hasn’t been much western mainstream media coverage of it. Certainly not the wall to wall, 24/7, coverage Iran has garnered.
Yet, in Georgia on June 15th/09, guess what was going on?
Protests! Along with police beatings!

To add to the author’s posts, let me also point out that Greek Anarchists have been in struggle since last the shooting of a 15 year old boy against the Golden Dawn, the riot police that they work with and attempts by the Greek government to conduct a pogrom of immigrants inside Athens.  Shock horror!  Nationalist groups seek racial purity inside the birthplace of democracy and all that is good and holy?  Surely that would make a great story, one of passion, struggle and deliverance.

Sadly, no.  And the only thing to be said about the affair so far is that a while back some terrorist groups shot a cop.  Hell, even the Gold Dawn fascists have been described as ‘Right-Wing Anarchists’ in the media on occasion.

I don’t want to appear as if I’m engaging in conspiracy theories, but might all this have something to do with Iran not particularly malleable when it comes to American and Western interests?  Perhaps its easier to foment rebellion and destabilise the country than saddle up to go to war for the first time in a new presidency, particularly if North Korea keeps playing up and bullets start flying in that region.

Man cooked alive in police custody

Having been so busy lately I haven’t had the opportunity to keep up to date with what’s happening in Australia and I feel terrible that it took the infamous Mike Gogulski to bring the following article to my attention — not to mention that this happened last year and I completely missed it.

Man ‘cooked’ to death in Australian prison van

SYDNEY (AFP) — The family of an Australian Aboriginal elder who died after being “cooked” in the back of a scorching hot prison van may sue after a coroner branded his treatment inhumane.

A coroner Friday described the treatment of the 46-year-old man as a “disgrace” and inhumane, saying he would ask prosecutors to consider criminal charges over his death from heatstroke in Western Australia in January 2008.

The elder, known only as Mr Ward as his first name was withheld for cultural reasons, was transported 360 kilometres (225 miles) to jail in temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 F) in a van with faulty air conditioning.

Ward, who was arrested a day earlier for drink driving, spent four hours in the searing heat between the mining towns of Laverton and Kalgoorlie, suffering third-degree burns where his body touched the metal floor, the inquest heard.

Western Australia Coroner Alastair Hope found that Ward was effectively “cooked” to death and heavily criticised the state prisons department, the private security firm that operated the van and the two guards who escorted Ward.

“It is a disgrace that a prisoner in the 21st century, particularly a prisoner who has not been convicted of any crime, was transported for a long distance in high temperatures in this pod,” Hope said.

The hearing was told that when Ward eventually arrived unconscious at hospital in Kalgoorlie, his body was so hot that staff were unable to cool him down. After an ice bath, which failed to save him, he had a body temperature of 41.7 degrees Celsius as opposed to a normal temperature of 37 degrees Celsius.

Take a look at the photo, Mr Ward was no menace to society and was probably a well respected member of his community.  He died because he was required by the positive law to play his part as the accused in the theatrics of court proceedings for a crime that is not evil by reason but evil by the decree of government.  That is not to say that even if he had been guilty of the typical criminal pass times of pillage and plunder, he would have deserved his fate.  Of course we could take a purely superficial analyses and let blame fall against the guards for their negligence rather then question the very system that put Mr Ward into the back of a police van.

And I can’t help but wonder where was the outrage surrounding this death?  I’m sure that if this event had unfolded with the death of a white man, there would have been outrage from all corners of this continent.