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Links Roundup, 15 May - 12 June 2013
Jun. 12th, 2013 11:12 amSomeone once said that writing a novel is like slowly recovering from a terrible illness. So, too, the project Jon and I have been breaking ourselves against for a month. Now I understand what it is to really work hard. I've been gradually increasing my dose of Edronax, per my shrink's instructions, and it's still giving me the jitters. All of this shall pass. In the meantime, I haven't had a chance to do one of these links things for a month.
It almost seems pointless summarising recent non-events in Australia's mistreatment of asylum seekers. A good example of the Kafkaesqueness of the whole thing: last month the guvmint introduced legislation which excised the Australian mainland from the migration zone. No, seriously. This discriminates against asylum seekers who arrive by boat and not plane. They also published figures showing 90% of boat arrivals in the last quarter were genuine refugees, while only about 80% of plane arrivals were.
While the incumbent government, the Labor party led by Julia Gillard, have earned history's damnation, their potential replacements, the Liberal-National Coalition led by Tony Abbott, can only be even worse - just as ineffective, and more cruel. Fixing the problem will require long-term, complex solutions - but how do you sell that during an election run-up?
In the meantime, charities are struggling to feed asylum seekers living in the community. The Libs have made compassionate noises, but it's not difficult to figure out their real message: "Labor is dumping asylum seekers out of sight, out of mind into the community with a no-care, no-responsibility approach without proper systems, safeguards and guidelines." Lock up your daughters, etc.
Those are the lucky ones. Although detention centres report a sharp drop in suicide attempts and self-harm, an independent report questions their record-keeping. They are not open to official inspection or the media.
Good gods! That's more than enough for now.
It almost seems pointless summarising recent non-events in Australia's mistreatment of asylum seekers. A good example of the Kafkaesqueness of the whole thing: last month the guvmint introduced legislation which excised the Australian mainland from the migration zone. No, seriously. This discriminates against asylum seekers who arrive by boat and not plane. They also published figures showing 90% of boat arrivals in the last quarter were genuine refugees, while only about 80% of plane arrivals were.
While the incumbent government, the Labor party led by Julia Gillard, have earned history's damnation, their potential replacements, the Liberal-National Coalition led by Tony Abbott, can only be even worse - just as ineffective, and more cruel. Fixing the problem will require long-term, complex solutions - but how do you sell that during an election run-up?
In the meantime, charities are struggling to feed asylum seekers living in the community. The Libs have made compassionate noises, but it's not difficult to figure out their real message: "Labor is dumping asylum seekers out of sight, out of mind into the community with a no-care, no-responsibility approach without proper systems, safeguards and guidelines." Lock up your daughters, etc.
Those are the lucky ones. Although detention centres report a sharp drop in suicide attempts and self-harm, an independent report questions their record-keeping. They are not open to official inspection or the media.
Good gods! That's more than enough for now.
