Category Archives: asylum seeking

Go back to where you came From!!

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My country made a sad decision today, it legalised the right to keep children who were born in this country in prison camps on remote islands where known cases of child abuses take place because their parents are supposedly illegal refugees.

What does this word refugee mean, the definition of it is quite clear:

According to the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees [PDF], as amended by its 1967 Protocol (the Refugee Convention), a refugee is a person who is:

  • outside their own country and
  • has a well-founded fear of persecution due to his/ her race, religion, nationality, member of a particular social group or political opinion, and is
  • unable or unwilling to return.

Yet we in our own country use terms like border protection and lock up children for up to a period of over 12 months, I call this inhumane and not meeting the above guidelines.

What has been said about refugees over the ages, have we improved the way we deal with them. There are many famous refugees, I had no clue Freddy Mercury was one, fleeing after the 1964 Zanzibar revolution.

Here are Fifteen quotes I have chosen to look at more useful ways to deal with refugees.

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1. I work in a place who dealt with the first wave of Asylum Seekers in Australia, many of them Iranian. I will give an examples changing his name. Ali worked as an airport Manager, his younger brother was accused of political dissent. Ali was called in by the police and tortured for two weeks  and on release told next time he would not leave alive. He fled the country, leaving everything behind the following day. It took him 9 months to get to Australia, and yes he came by boat.

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2. Name calling by the media, used to demean not empower or open people’s hearts to these people who have suffered unimaginable atrocities that people who live in area of war do. The only way I can relate to the effects of it are when I was in Leningrad and our guide said to imagine what happened here in a 2 year period kill 1 in 5 of the people you know and that is what occurred here.

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3. I saw the drone shots Russia took of the cities of Syria, as this quotes states refugees often have no choice, there is nothing to go back to. We are just very lucky to have never experienced this in our country.

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4. Probably the worlds most famous refugee is Einstein. A German Jew, his work was discredited by the Nazi Party. He was one of the lucky one who got out early in 1932 and went out to make some of the most significant scientific discoveries of the modern era.

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5. Tonn Benn served in the British parliament for 47 years as was seen as being the most left wing member of his party. He did not hold back in stating what he saw as the dangers of his right wing opponents, this is one of his most famous quotes.

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6. Famous for We turned back the boats and Team Australia sometimes our politicians forget and let their heart slip out, this was one such occasion.

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7. Go back home, to what?

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8. I love the poster of two earth’s , one with all the flags over it and the other as it actually is , One planet. Then no one would be illegal.

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9. They say that the strength of your team is measured by your weakest link, what does that say about planet earth and its treatment of our refugees.

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10. This picture speaks to the UN convention relating to the status of Refugees, designed to do exactly what it says. Delivery, Comfort and Mercy.

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11.  “Refugees are people like anyone else, like you and me. They led ordinary lives before becoming displaced, and their biggest dream is to be able to live normally again. On this World Refugee Day, the 20th June let us recall our common humanity, celebrate tolerance and diversity and open our hearts to refugees everywhere.”

Ban Ki-moon, Secretary of The UN pointing out with there is no such thing as Us and Them.

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12. Taken from the glorious song by Leonard Cohen Anthem. to me means that we give love as though like we have lost our country and are stateless, a pure love of mercy.

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13. This is being questioned with the current refugee crisis sweeping Europe. perhaps they need to send the political leaders on a holiday to Syria for a week or two and it would be put in perspective.

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14. This poem was written by a Somali refugee commenting on what happened to his country and how he thought before the war and after the war when he became one.

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15. A sign that says it all, not needing the political or economic commentary, just the humane one. Please when commenting on they should go back home, remember this, especially in our country where a great majority of our immigrants were refugees.

I had to stop halfway through writing this, we had a U.N. Interfaith Harmony Week event, the ethos if this week is Love of God, and Love of the Neighbour. They has youth speakers from six different faiths, aged from 12 to 20 they all spoke of love and compassion. This gives me great hope for the future of refugees.

Namaste until next Monday my dear friends.

 

 

 

 

I Feel I’ve meet you Before.

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Sometimes you meet someone, and it’s so clear the two of you, on some level belong together. As Lovers, or as Anam Cara –  Soul Friends, or as Family or as something entirely different. You just work, whether you understand one another or you’re in love or you are partners in crime. You meet these people throughout your life, out of nowhere, under the strangest circumstances, and they help you feel alive.

What would it take to feel that way about everyone on the planet: Love and Respect for All: Everyone Included. This is the ethos for the public Facebook group I formed over two years ago, Interculturalism. You are free to join and tell your stories.

So I have chosen 15 quotes relating to We are One to comment on, No Oprah or Tony, but some very beautiful insights.

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1. As far as we know all species on  earth hearts beat the same. Maybe at different speeds but they all have to beat to stay alive. We forget this at times and enter the judgement zone that we are different.

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2. Back in the 70’s in Melbourne Australia, a band called Skyhooks released a Song called Ego is not a dirty Word, Video of Ego is not a dirty Word. It may not be a dirty word , but it keeps us separate.

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3. Eckhart Tolle is a German-born resident of Canada, best known as the author of The Power of Now and A New Earth: Awakening to your Life’s Purpose. In 2011, he was listed by the Watkins Review as the most spiritually influential person in the world.

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4. Science Fiction writer Ray Bradbury reminds us we are an experiment with form by the Universe. Not separate but an experiment from a greater force.

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5. When born we know nothing of Me and You, but are then trained to be a unique individual by other unique individuals. We then spend the rest of our lives trying to fit in with the colourful creation that is earth’s culture.

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6. We look in the mirror and either like or dislike what we see dependent on our mood. This image points out what the reflection of Me is.

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7. When we find those people mentioned in the first paragraph we feel like a force to be reckoned with. How much could we get done if we united together and used the force of a tsunami for good.

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8.Luciano De Crescenzo (Italian pronunciation: [luˈtʃano de kreʃˈʃɛntso]; born 18 August 1928) is an Italian writer, film actor, director and engineer. He published a long series of books, including novels and popularizations of philosophy. For his work in the field of Greek philosophy he received honorary citizenship of Athens in 1994. Here is his quote on our need for each other to fly.

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9. Radha Sahar is a New Zealand musician who sings meaningful songs to life Voices of the Wind. This beautiful ode calls out to us acting as one, not as loners.

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10. Somewhere on our journey we forget this . I think this is what all babies are told as they are delivered and fight for it as long as they can.

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11. Our celebrity today is His Holiness The Dalai Lama, he included everyone and every creature as well.

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12. A lion and a bird, how much do we love those pictures on Facebook where two different species become friends, time to wake up.

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13. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man. it is claimed we are all descended from Peking Man. One Family split asunder, time to remember our heritage.

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14. Time for a reminder from one of the great disco songs We are Family, we have the same amount of blood and the same number of bones, yes We are One and the Same.

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15. Unfortunately this question does not appear on most countries citizenship test, lets start a movement to have it be the first and only question people need to ask.

Do you feel more connection to people after reading this, I hope so as that was my intention. Namaste until next Monday , my dear friends.

Namaste2

 

The Kindness of Strangers.

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I just watched an inspiring TED talk by Kon Karapanagiotidus from the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre in Melbourne on what would be possible if we were kind to the people seeking refuge instead of locking families up in gulag like facilities on remote islands. here is the link : A Kind Alternative.

My friend Kavisha Mazzella has written a beautiful song about Kindness to Strangers, here is the link Kavisha’s beautiful Anthem. Both this and Kon’s talk point to another way besides the hate mongering that seems to be driving mainstream media these days.

So once again I have resourced 15 powerful quotes on what a difference kindness can make. here we go:

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1. I used to work in a federal agency who paid the unemployed. I was walking through the main mall of Melbourne one day when a young man came up to me and hugged me. He said you probably don’t remember me but you saved my life. We started a weekly payment scheme in our office ILO fortnightly payment and doing this allowed this person to stop committing crime to feed his then drug habit. He was happily married with two children and meant what he said to me.

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2. I watched Wayne Dyer’s film The Shift last night, in it there is a scene where a homeless man and a millionaire are speaking. The millionaire has lost his wallet and is stuck. The homeless man offers him his last coins and transforms the millionaires life through his act of kindness.

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3. How much kindness should you offer. There is no official measure for how much you should put in your Loving cup. But the recipe works better if you add just a little bit more.

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4. His Holiness AKA Tenzin Gyatso, the person on our planet that is most known for his kindness doesn’t want temples, mosques or churches to worship in. He wants humanity to show each other Kindness.

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5. We often see righteousness being displayed as news on our TV screens and in the print media. What people who are finding it hard is the beating of another’s heart that is saying it will be O.K.

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6. The speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. inspired millions. A simple man who committed himself to create a kinder world for his people. He never let the hatred that was poured upon his goods works lower his stand that human beings were by nature full of kindness.

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7. Its also quite advantageous for your health to have boundaries, one of the people who needs kindness hangs out in your body.

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8. My koan in life is Love and Respect for all : Everyone Included. I am a blogger and I hope my words give people confidence. I always come from what would fulfill it and I have declared this my Year of Love.

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9 . The Buddha passed on many suggestions for how to live an enlightened life, here is his offering on kindness. 

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10. As i mentioned above we never know the difference our simple acts such as  smiling at someone, offering a ride or home to a friend for the night can make. Don’t underestimate the difference, they can transform a life.

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11. As a teenager I used to battle my mum and dad about this, after all we were rebellious teenagers, you did not do what your parents suggested. Luckily they had taught me well enough before this that when I came out of my cranky phase I saw the value of it.

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12. The gift of saying thank you and excuse me take a millisecond. But in the heart of the person you say them to, they resonate for eons.

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13. So what are acts of Kindness, this list contains many things we can do for ourselves and others to make the world a better place.

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14. Never regret any act of Kindness that you take part in, be it by yourself or with others. They are treasures that empower our planet as well as our own hearts.

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15. For the last one , I will let Charlie Brown have the final word. Yes everyone understands Kindness, even if they seem incredibly distant from it at the moment.

Well, I am so thankful my friends Kavisha and Kon contributed to me and inspired me to write this blog through their words and song. Namaste until we meet again my friends.

Namaste

Are we fragile to the Core?

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After doing six workshops in a day recently I felt a little bit fragile, Feeling this way it made me wonder what did fragility mean and how did it shape our society, This is Wikipedia’s cut at it.

fragility

noun
the quality of being easily broken or damaged.
“osteoporosis is characterized by bone fragility”

synonyms: frailty, flimsiness, weakness, delicacy, daintiness, fineness, brittleness;

antonyms: robustness

the quality of being delicate or vulnerable.
“a film about the fragility of relationships”

This made me think about the times I have been really fragile in my life, especially my mental health episodes , all five of them. These periods are the extreme places fragility can take me so I looked to see what people had to say about it:

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This image is a great depiction of the times I have been taken over by my fragility, it was like having all the air crushed out of a ballon.

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The fragility of Life is what takes us on our journey to discob=ver our passion, It is never an easy road as life tries to fit us into one of its boxes.

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Life is a delicate mix between the fragility of new growth to the eternalness of the night sky, both are extraordinary in their magnificence.

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Love is often depicted as the peak experience in our lives, it is not in these moments that love triumphs , but in the moments when it is at its most fragile state.

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Women give all of their heart if you are willing to stand in the space of unconditional love and be there for the whole journey, the fragile bits of vulnerability and the tough bits of the storm that is love.

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We close our eyes when we kiss as a sign to the fragility and beauty of the pureness of the act. At that moment the rest of the world feels like walking on broken glass.

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Love and its fragility is universal to the world and is written of in all languages, this is one of them, it translates with the same power as your native tongue.

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Crystals have been a powerful tool across the centuries, their fragility is hard to explain the journey that have been through to create their well known healing powers.

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Do we need to be sorry when we are feeing a wee bit fragile in our emotions. We would hope that we have understanding friends, family and partners who assist us through these times.

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Nature in all its power and mystery can make the human race very fragile, it is in these times that we learn to respect the power of Gaia.

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Do we need to take a trip to the moon to learn the lesson that our planet is built on a fragile ecosystem and that mans responsibility is to care for it.

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The world wide web has become the way we communicate, Instant gratification. We can use it to spread possibility or hate, I choose the former with my group of world wide FB friends, what do you choose.

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If we do not risk the steps that it takes to feel the joy of intimacy we may never know the rapturous beauty of these moments, it is a path filled with fragility.

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Sometimes it feels that we muddle through that crazy little thing called Love. It calls for our vulnerability, our fragility, our strength and our tears.

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Trust, one of the most fragile things in life. We must treat this honourable gift we give to each other with the dignity that it deserves, especially in love matters.

Another exploration into the wonder that is life over, Namaste until next time my friends.
Namaste

Who seeks Asylum?

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I work at the Darebin Intercultural Centre in Preston where we have an Asylum Seeker Lounge which actually means I get to interact with actual Asylum Seekers.

Seeking international protection

The term asylum-seeker is often confused with the term refugee. An asylum-seeker is someone who says he or she is a refugee and seeks international protection from persecution or serious harm in their home country. Every refugee is initially an asylum-seeker, but not every asylum-seeker will ultimately be recognized as a refugee. While they are waiting for their claim to be accepted or rejected, they are called asylum-seekers. The term asylum-seeker contains no presumption either way – it simply describes the fact that someone has lodged the claim for asylum. National asylum systems are there to decide which asylum-seeker actually qualifies for international protection. Those judged through proper procedures not to be refugees, nor to be in need of any other form of international protection, can be sent back to their home countries.

I always ask people who agree with the policy that there are no such thing as asylum seekers who need to catch boats and not wait on the list that never decrease for organisations such as the UNCHR have they ever met an asylum seeker and listened to their stories. There is a great project in Melbourne Australia that tells these stories http://opencity.org.au/ – they cannot use there real names for fear of reprise to their families in their home countries and unfortunately in our country from over zealous government officials but I know several of the people in this projects and having read them it changed my ideas of what and why these people take the dramatic action of boarding a rickety boat that may end up at the bottom of an ocean.

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Sara who I know has lost her family because of the repressive laws regarding women in her home country. Highly educated and a translator of books Sara decided to leave after the last books she translated was not allowed to be published because it broke Islamic Law. religion raising its head once again. Women do not have the right to seek leaving their country where Sara was from , so she flew out with the intention of not returning and seeking asylum in a country where women had rights and chose Australia. Sara spent 9 days on a boat after paying $5,000 to a boat smuggler and lost contact with the person who traveled with her from her home country. Because one has money does not mean you are an Asylum seeker, money is not the answer to living a meaningful life.

Mustafa was raped by the Taliban at the age of ten years old for a three month period and has been in Australia and on the same visa for the past five years. He has 8 dollars a fortnight  left over after paying his rent which he buys a packet of biscuits and a bottle of drink and recently had to leave his shared accommodation and has been going through the trauma of finding new accommodation on a severely low income.

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I recently found a Pledge to Asylum Seekers written by L. Clancy and L. Mariah for Bendigo for Refugees, http://www.pledgetoasylumseekers.org/

Our Pledge to Asylum Seekers

YWC pledger_4 Welcome!

This site is for sharing the Pledge to Asylum Seekers, written by two Australian writers who wanted to create something that would generate empathy, humanity and hope.

We wrote the Pledge to bring some perspective to an issue that has become lost in politics. We hope that it will move people’s hearts, demonstrate the depth of compassion felt by both individuals and groups, and inspire further action.

The Pledge is as follows

To those who come from desperation and despair,

To those who have endured violence and unrest.

To those who have no place of safety,

Who come to our shores seeking sanctuary:

You are Welcome here.

We pledge to the mothers and to the fathers,

We pledge to the children and pregnant women,

We pledge to those tortured, broken and dispossessed,

We will acknowledge you with kindness and compassion:

You are Welcome here.

We pledge as part of the human family:

We pledge as members of a global community:

We pledge as people who have sought and found

A peace and safety such as you seek,

You are welcome here.

As the children and grandchildren of displaced persons,

We will not shirk our responsibilities.

We will Not stand by while your cjhildren are hidden offshore.

We will insist on change to the current system.

You are welcome here.

If you dream of your children living in safety,

Of sharing the hard works and the rewards:

If you long to contribute to a caring and just society

And subscribe to a ‘fair go for all’,

You are welcome here.

Bring respect fellowship and goodwill.

Bring your heart, your courage and your aspirations.

We are fair honest, open-minded and generous,

We greet you in friendship

And you are welcome here.

Signed ___________________

This is for the humans to sign, people who recognize that do not belong to teams, but one human race. Go to the webpage print a copy out sign it and get your organisations and friends and family to sign it and return the humanity to a situation that seems to have lost it at the moment.

Namaste until next time my friend

sNamaste