peter qasim
I swear I won't do a post like this again for ages – I hate rants too. I'm super pissed off at the refugee sitch at the moment.
My friend Asha (that's her blog there on the right) sent me an email about Peter Qasim, an asylum seeker here in Australia. Now, normally I like to write about silly bits of pop culture or other aspects of lumpen life, but I agree with her that something urgently needs to be done about Peter Qasim. The situation of asylum seekers in Australia makes me want to invent new swear words to describe my complete hatred for Liberals and their shitfuckfacescrotumdepletional constituents.
The short story of Peter Qasim is this: he's a refugee from Kashmir (the disputed territory between Pakistan and India, not the Led Zeppelin song), who fled because of the murder of his father and his own torture by the Indian army. After years of detention, he chose to face an uncertain future in Kashmir rather than indefinite imprisonment here in Australia. The Indian government won't accept him back, so now he is in detention forever, because Australia chooses to punish on the basis of how a refugee seeks asylum.
Where I diverge from most of my friends on the issue of refugees in detention is the role of Australians in the whole process. I disagree that people are "ignorant of the real facts" or totally unaware. We have had two elections and plenty of media coverage around the subject. I think Australians get pleasure from sinking the boot into refugees.
When pro-refugee activists try to "raise awareness" by retelling stories of the conditions in places like Baxter, they unwittingly help produce pornographic material. Everytime any other Australian hears that a grown man has been reduced to a bedwetter or that a child has gone insane, they see the power their Australian identity holds and, as if by magic, the ability of this identity to supress interest rates. In another slight of hand trick, supporters of the policy mask the refugees themselves by pretending they are really targeting the elusive "people smugglers."
When refugee activists say that the government is acting in contradiction to the people, they are undermining any small gains by stating obvious bullshit. The possibility that the government is doing exactly what the majority has desired since aborigine killing became unfashionable seems to be slowly dawning on reformists like the Greens or (snicker) the left wing of the Labor Party. They seem to readily recognise that Australia has a viciously racist past, but seem to make no connection to the situation of the present.
It seems to me that the extent, and cancerous nature, of nationalism in Australian politics is becoming so apparent that the Left are finding it more difficult to utilise. Maybe Trades Hall and the CFMEU will start to see that the employment of nationalism has a downside, now that the historic compromise is coming undone. I doubt it, though.
So what should be done? For beginners, let's not descend into the pathetic militancy of the 1970s. Pipe bombs are a shit way of covering up bad politcs. Instead of wasting resources on stickers, posters and lobbying, practical solidarity is needed. I know it's a bit 2001 of me, but I'm going to envoke the Zapatistas here. As dodgy as some of their politics are, they're 100% right in that new space must be created for new possibilities to present themselves. That means supporting any "illegal non-citizens" and creating the space where solidarity can be practiced.
For now, I don't think Peter Qasim should hold his breath as long as Australia collectively masturbates over its ability to lock up people who ask for help. It's not all pessimism here at Dole Diary though, because I still have hopes that his name will be written alongside Nelson Mandela and not Anne Frank. If we spread Peter's name around, at least he'll have some friends if and when he is finally released. The rub is, just knowing who Peter is probably won't change anyone's mind.
My friend Asha (that's her blog there on the right) sent me an email about Peter Qasim, an asylum seeker here in Australia. Now, normally I like to write about silly bits of pop culture or other aspects of lumpen life, but I agree with her that something urgently needs to be done about Peter Qasim. The situation of asylum seekers in Australia makes me want to invent new swear words to describe my complete hatred for Liberals and their shitfuckfacescrotumdepletional constituents.
The short story of Peter Qasim is this: he's a refugee from Kashmir (the disputed territory between Pakistan and India, not the Led Zeppelin song), who fled because of the murder of his father and his own torture by the Indian army. After years of detention, he chose to face an uncertain future in Kashmir rather than indefinite imprisonment here in Australia. The Indian government won't accept him back, so now he is in detention forever, because Australia chooses to punish on the basis of how a refugee seeks asylum.
Where I diverge from most of my friends on the issue of refugees in detention is the role of Australians in the whole process. I disagree that people are "ignorant of the real facts" or totally unaware. We have had two elections and plenty of media coverage around the subject. I think Australians get pleasure from sinking the boot into refugees.
When pro-refugee activists try to "raise awareness" by retelling stories of the conditions in places like Baxter, they unwittingly help produce pornographic material. Everytime any other Australian hears that a grown man has been reduced to a bedwetter or that a child has gone insane, they see the power their Australian identity holds and, as if by magic, the ability of this identity to supress interest rates. In another slight of hand trick, supporters of the policy mask the refugees themselves by pretending they are really targeting the elusive "people smugglers."
When refugee activists say that the government is acting in contradiction to the people, they are undermining any small gains by stating obvious bullshit. The possibility that the government is doing exactly what the majority has desired since aborigine killing became unfashionable seems to be slowly dawning on reformists like the Greens or (snicker) the left wing of the Labor Party. They seem to readily recognise that Australia has a viciously racist past, but seem to make no connection to the situation of the present.
It seems to me that the extent, and cancerous nature, of nationalism in Australian politics is becoming so apparent that the Left are finding it more difficult to utilise. Maybe Trades Hall and the CFMEU will start to see that the employment of nationalism has a downside, now that the historic compromise is coming undone. I doubt it, though.
So what should be done? For beginners, let's not descend into the pathetic militancy of the 1970s. Pipe bombs are a shit way of covering up bad politcs. Instead of wasting resources on stickers, posters and lobbying, practical solidarity is needed. I know it's a bit 2001 of me, but I'm going to envoke the Zapatistas here. As dodgy as some of their politics are, they're 100% right in that new space must be created for new possibilities to present themselves. That means supporting any "illegal non-citizens" and creating the space where solidarity can be practiced.
For now, I don't think Peter Qasim should hold his breath as long as Australia collectively masturbates over its ability to lock up people who ask for help. It's not all pessimism here at Dole Diary though, because I still have hopes that his name will be written alongside Nelson Mandela and not Anne Frank. If we spread Peter's name around, at least he'll have some friends if and when he is finally released. The rub is, just knowing who Peter is probably won't change anyone's mind.
posted by Lumpen at 5/10/2005 05:58:00 pm
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