Dear reader at last something more profound than franking credits as the single most unifying Election winning  policy of our time. A fissure of un- frackable truth from the north.  Proof that a GAS-LED RECOVERY and CLEAN COAL are undeniable for those who like not to think about the future, all that much, often , or at all.  

Groetjes m’n vrienden,

The war memorial in Niew Loosdrecht. In Australia it’d be bigger than ‘Ben Hur’, (we are currently seeking Cpl Ben Roberts permission for use of the term ‘Bigger than Ben Hur’)

Not far from where I lived in Niew Loosdrecht in 1956, there is a monument on which are listed the names of Niew Loosdrechtians who lost their lives during WWII.

In the song ‘El preso numero nueve’, beautifully rendered by Joan Baez, prisoner number nine confesses to having killed his wife and her lover:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osunPKggwCQ . He is to be executed the following day.

Similar motivation prompted ‘Bullfrog’ to kill Fred Brookes in 1928. Fred Brookes’ demise led to the Coniston Massacre, a series of reprisal raids which killed an undetermined number of Aborigines, believed to have exceeded one hundred.

The Federal Government is currently assessing pcbycp’s request for 500 million in federal funding to secure the erection of the ‘Fred Brookes Memorial Interpretive centre and Theme Park resort. We are optimistic that our submission tendered to the AWM ‘white board’ will be successful.

1956, the year in which I’d often walked past the monument in Niew Loosdrecht, and was reminded that on 20^thMarch 1945 ten randomly chosen civilians had been executed in reprisal for the killing of a high-ranking German military man, was also the year during which tens of thousands of Hungarians fled their country in fear of Soviet reprisals for the Hungarian uprising.

Fourteen thousand of these Hungarians were permitted by the Menzies Government to settle permanently in Australia. Many of these refugees couldn’t speak English and arrived by boat (as I did two years later, also not speaking English).

When UN special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples James Anaya came to Yuendumu, I said to him that compared to the Peruvian Amazonians that had been recently massacred (5^th June 2009) Yuendumu’s woes were rather minor. Not at all, he replied. Injustice is injustice and has to be opposed and fought whenever it is encountered.

There is no Richter Scale for Injustice.

In most of the world, in the last decade we have seen an increase in xenophobia and racism. In Australia this has manifested by the application and bizarre enforcement of complex immigration laws all under the euphemistic banner of ‘border security’ and disrupting the ‘business model’ of people smugglers.

HERO

With bipartisan support Australian immigration policy became that boat arrivals were deemed illegal even if subsequently they were assessed to be bona fide refugees. Their ‘processing’ was carried out in offshore detention and access to the Australian mainland denied in perpetuity. Thus it came to pass that when a detainee was evacuated for medical reasons and gave birth in Queensland, in a scenario reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland or Monty Python, her new born baby was legally declared to have arrived by boat.

Currently the headlines in Australia are about the so-called ‘Bilolea Family’. A Sri-Lankan Tamil family, which includes two Australian born girls, has been lingering in detention on Christmas Island despite the people of Bilolea (Queensland) pleading with the Australian Government to allow the family to return to their community where they had lived for years.
One of the girls was evacuated with her mother to Perth hospital suffering from pneumonia and sepsis where she is recovering under guard. Yesterday the four year old “celebrated” her fourth birthday in detention.

Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews when questioned about the fate of the Biloela Family answered that she was not going to have deaths at sea on her conscience. She was alluding to the bizarre contention by Australian Politicians that allowing the family to return to Bilolea would result in a scrambling by countless refugees to get onto leaky boats bound for Australia.

Anti- Heroes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wswFjuJPbxg Six Months in a Leaky Boat- Split Enz

Having the indefinite extension of children’s detention on her conscience doesn’t seem to bother the Minister.

Just before Jakamarra Nelson’s funeral took place, a memorial service was held in Alice Springs Gaol attended by Jakamarra’s imprisoned relatives. Not all could attend because the gaol chapel wasn’t big enough.

Throughout Australia a series of lockdowns occurred during the continuing pandemic. I wonder how many of these Australians whose freedom of movement and association was impacted gave a thought to our fellow human beings in prison or detention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wTKo_kPlck Elvis- I want to be Free

Shalom,

Frank