So, respecting people's human right to seek asylum, people's desire to make better lives for themselves and their families and the value of 'difference' is 'political correctness', is it? Not impressed, Ms Gillard.
The honeymoon is over. I was overjoyed to see a woman, ANY woman take up the mantle of Prime Ministership. At that point in time it didn't matter which woman. It could have been a Liberal or a friggin' Family First person and I would have marked the occasion for it's history making and moment in time for women, who have, for time immemorial been subjugated to male rule (pretty indisputable, but go ahead and dispute that if you want to). That's fine, I never saw Gillard as the Messiah, and as she said herself, even people who support her will be disappointed by her from time to time.
I am not surprised by the populist rhetoric about asylum seekers, nor particularly shocked that she should play with it the way she has. I expect that from major parties these days. I am a particular shade of Green for a reason.
It doesn't matter which political party it comes from or which leader it comes from in the community. The fact that someone in leadership believes it's up to populist DEBATE to decide what we do with our responsibilities under the Human Rights Convention, to which Australia is a SIGNATORY is completely up the creek. To suggest that protecting human rights is POLITICAL CORRECTNESS is a complete sham and disgrace. It highlights my own thesis, and that of many others in the field of racism and discrimination, that racism and xenophobia are about the concern to maintain privilege and access to resources, based on some idea that 'difference' is bad.
How arrogant of us, as a nation, to believe that our way of life is so superior that we also believe people fleeing for their lives can erode us and our 'identity'. What a crock. Just how strong are we as a culture if we can be so easily eroded by this? Fear underscores weakness. It is a weakness of our culture, of our institutions, of our structural systems that the acceptance of desperate human beings (who are just like you and me and seeking safety for their children and immediate family) can feel like such a threat. And that this perceived threat is to be entertained by national 'debate' so that the government can gauge from this 'undercurrent' what to do with this apparent 'flood' of asylum seekers. Get. A. Grip.
And yanno what? It is in seeking to exclude and define borders (a pox on the term 'border protection'!) that we actually lend support and moral strength to the reasons these people are leaving their homelands. Exclusion and 'national borders', narrow ideas of 'nationhood' and identity that actually don't mean much (house of cards) leave people alienated from places they called home, render them targets of expulsion, exclusion, discrimination and even genocide.
Don't get so comfy that you think this could never happen to you. It could. Not that I believe it will. It just COULD. You could find yourself on the wrong side of what those in power believe is acceptable to their definition of belonging to our society. Goodness knows I'm only just scraping in, according to the various definitions of Australianness. And I was bloody born here. I don't know any other home and have no desire to call anywhere else home.
In seeking to pad ourselves in the perceived comfort of defining our borders and national identity (whatever that may be), we buy into the notion that countries are absolute and people should stay within those defined boundaries. Sheesh, if people just stayed in their countries, we wouldn't have a refugee crisis, right? I mean, how inconsiderate of some foreign government to decide certain groups of people no longer conform to an idea of national identity, national religion, political ideals. Now those people feel the need to come to OUR country where they won't possibly fit in because they have a religion that we don't know much about, where funny clothes, speak another language, eat food we never thought to serve up, have vastly different life experiences because of THEIR government regimes imposing certain values on them. There's no way they could possibly 'fit in' here. Too different. So, let's tighten up our idea of belonging to this country by excluding people and defining what our borders are. Let's do what these foreign governments are doing and make sure these asylum seekers have nowhere to go to seek safety and LIFE for themselves and their families.
My parents weren't refugees, I don't have that personal history to share with asylum seekers. I grew up with many refugees. Fine, fine people who value themselves and what they have to offer to our ungrateful, xenophobic, often racist society. Many of who would have been killed, as their loved ones were, had they not sought and been granted refuge in Australia in the 60s, 70s and 80s. My background certainly knows about discrimination, racism and even genocide. It's in my consciousness. The Mayans and the Irish have both been subjugated people in their past. Hell, the Mayans are still second class citizens in Honduras. They shouldn't even be here after the efforts the Conquistadores went to to access their gold. That's another story, another history lesson. My point is, you don't have to be a refugee from another country to know that at any moment in history you could be the next casualty in 'nation-building', or definition of a community identity. But that's not why I urge compassion - not for the selfish reason of "well, it could be me, so I'll do my bit for karma to be kind to me". I urge compassion because it's not actually a harmful thing to exercise. It only threatens the mind for those who are currently within the 'accepted' demographic in Australia. People whose personal history in this country cannot even go back further than 230-odd years. No-one asks the indigenous population what they think of immigration, let alone asylum-seekers. How bloody rude. And arrogant.
Seeking asylum and being a refugee is not about immigration. Immigration is the end result of a harrowing journey, wondering if your life will be cut short, if your children will live to school age, if you'll ever see your mother and father again. 'Boat people' are NOT immigrants until they have been accepted here and are safe from what they flee. Immigration is a very secondary issue.
If you were escaping a regime that was determined to exclude you from life as you knew it, wouldn't you appreciate your issue being kept out of the influence of public opinion?
I know a lot of my friends have my compassionate leanings, so this blog post is preaching to the converted. I had to vent. I watch Q&A on ABC1 last night and my brain was bubbling over with sadness, rage, incredulity at the arrogance of some of the people with which I share this country and its resources.
Our fears, resentments, prejudices and ignorance do not belong in the decision-making process that determines people's right to seek asylum.
If this post smacks of 'political correctness' then continue to hide behind that accusation and only think of your own life, which is a mere blip on the timescale of humanity. Or examine your assumptions until they become logical, instead of fearful and exclusionary.
Because human society was never meant to be marked out in fixed territories that people couldn't move in and out of freely (without 'papers' locking them into an identity dependent on global locality). That is a recent development in human history that has caused untold damage to the human psyche, wrecked our natural world, and destroyed actual, real people like you and me.
Defending the right of people to seek asylum, or even 'merely' better lives for themselves and their families is not and never will be 'political correctness'. Discrimination and exclusion on the basis of someone's origin and 'culture' differences IS racism.
That's what I think, Ms Gillard. Does my opinion count, or do you just want the rednecks' thoughts on the matter?
