The System Works, It Seems

This week John Howard side stepped defeat by sheepishly Backing down on the proposed Immigration Bill. Having observed the same Prime Minister proceed with Volentary Student Unionism, Work Place changes and most notably the War on Iraq despite opposition; we are forced to ask what was the difference this time.

Was it the four ‘Rebel MPs’ who crossed the floor on moral grounds, was it a lack of commitment to the wishes of the Indonesian Government, who firmly supported the bill, or was it lobbying from outside of Parliament?

The Edmund Rice Center, a research foundation focussed on the human rights of international refugees, was in no doubt of their role in the dissmissal of the contraversial bill. This is evident in an email sent following Howard’s admission;

“The Government has withdrawn their bill to
process asylum seekers off shore on Nauru. The Edmund Rice Centre has
been working hard throughout the week with refugee groups and
parliamentarians to prevent the bill going ahead. Last week we released
findings from our ongoing research monitoring the fate of asylum seekers
returned by Australia. The report found nine cases where asylum seekers
had reportedly been killed on their return. We confirmed two of these
cases before being forced out of Afghanistan for safety reasons, and
discovered a further three cases of children being killed in attacks
targeted at their parents who were asylum seekers returned by Australia
from Nauru”

The Government’s decision is a significant victory for those committed
to human rights and the rule of law. It is a credit the people’s
movement that has formed since the arrival of the Tampa in August 2001,
and to the parliamentarians, particularly those within the Coalition,
who stood up for their beliefs”

The Edmund Rice foundation has received brief coverage in the news for the research it has done in regard to assylum seekers in the Australian system. It still however remains a mystical force which just seems to piss off Amanda Vanstone very effectively.
This feature would profile the Edmund rice centre and take a look at the research they have conducted and its implications for Australia. The feature would contain:

- A Brief outline of the proposed immigration bill and the opposition it received.

- The MP’s who crossed the floor; what they said and why.

- A representative from the Edmund Rice Centre outlining the efforts they made to bring down the proposed bill.

-Outline of the work done by the Edmund Rice Centre, where they get their funding and who is involved.

-Opinion of an immigration lawyer in regard to the possible consequences of the proposed bill.

healing a burned community

It is almost a year since the room at Auburn Girls High School, where The Australian Muslim Women’s National Network (MWNNA) held girls community groups, burnt to the ground. Following several threatening phone calls, MWNNA member Aziza Abdel-Halim woke up one morning to find the school rooms they used each week blackened from the flames of racial violence.

“They had called and said things like; go back to your own country you are not wanted here, which is strange because the network is not specifically immigrant, in fact we have several Anglo Australian members”Aziza said.

“A year on and we still all pile into some ones back room for our meetings, the girls don’t mind, but it is a shame. The police have still not charged anyone. It is a terrible thing for the school as well as us” she said.

The MWNNA now focuses its combined energy on community relations.

“prejudice comes from ignorance so we try to educate people from outside the Islamic community about our faith, we usually just all end up making loads of great friends by the end of the day, and all the serious stuff is forgotten”

The Islamic community often finds itself in the media spotlight. Negative discussion of extremist infiltration and the role of Muslim women, however, dominates the coverage. The Australian National Muslim Women’s Network is working towards a healthier community and this feature would aim to give some coverage to their good work.

Having been attacked themselves, they have bounced back and are hoping to work towards an Australian community which knows its neighbours.

This feature will profile the the Australian National Muslim Women’s Network and outline their activities, and give a voice to the girls who were effected by the fire at Auburn High School.

Following the conflict in Lebanon, the network has spent a lot of time working with the Jewish community in Sydney. It would be interesting to interview some of the ladies who attended the events planned by the network, and also attend an up and coming event in order to get an insight the effects of these gatherings.

The Community Relations Commision of NSW would be able to give some context to the networks efforts.

Terrorvision

The credits roll, unstoppable. The blank screen with unknown names in white text a welcome relief to the experience which preceded them. Then, silence and a sense of bewilderment. Looking around the red velvet seats littered with squished pieces of popcorn provide a stark almost insulting reminder that this is a cinema and this movie was intended as entertainment.

Many felt the strength of the recently released feature length; United 93, was its restraint. The movie strayed away from emotive blockbuster drama and maintained a sense of realness.

“I did feel it was well done, it was not too ‘Hollywood’, but i still felt uncomfortable watching it. It seemed a little wrong that i was getting some kind of entertainment or enjoyment out of loss of lives” Said Hayley, after watching ‘United 93′ at Cronulla Cinemas.

This film tells the story of the only plane which failed to reach its target on September 11th. Directed by Paul Greengrass known for the blockbuster hit; The Bourne Supremacy, this movie focuses on the actions of the forty passengers and the part they played in preventing the terrorists from achieving their goal.

Fives years on, September 11th still seems very fresh in peoples minds. There has however been an influx of movies, documentaries and television dramas dealing with the topic which until recently was deemed too painful.

I personally enjoyed United 93, but then felt guilty for getting a kind of emotional release from other people’s pain. There are of course many movies which deal with equally tragic realities, but there was something about the experience of spending an evening re-living that day with nibbles in my lap which troubled me, and i am sure others to.

There are also less subtle media money making projects which utilize the written drama that was 9/11, and a feature which asks as many viewers as possible their thoughts on this would be interesting, if only to clear up my personal discomfort with the movie.

What do people think about United 93, and the soon to be released; ‘World trade Centre’, are we dwelling on the past and forgetting the current strife in the Middle East which has resulted from ‘that day’?

Is it wrong to make money out of tragedy?, where to next; t-shirts displaying the motif ‘Where were you when the towers blew’?

The feature would include:
- An expert opinion from media studies professor.

-More quotes from viewers.

-Other reviews of the movies.

The Heart of Hip

The quite Street gives way to a deep red dungeon, deliciously scented by beer, peanuts and a reminder that non smoking laws are yet to be fully enforced in
Melbourne. The Union pub is a local’s local. This is a place where a seat at the bar is a privileged thrown to the alternative, reserved for chain smoking VB guzzling, artistic types with vocabularies larger than the extensive blackboard menu which covers the walls. Despite the feeling that you may not have been in Fitzroy long enough (since before it was very cool and not a yuppie magnet) to be accepted by the regulars, there are enough dark corners to settle into and inconspicuously observe the slightly muscular black clad bar maid at work, while tucking into a huge chicken palmer and pint of VB original. Despite having to move every time the next shot at the pool table requires your chair to be moved, after a ten dollar jug of draft this becomes all part of the experience. 

Last flight on sunday night

The garish red carpet is as unwelcome as the bright white forced smiles which guide the passengers like landing lights through the departure gate along the walkway and on to the last Virgin Blue flight out of Melbourne on a Sunday night. A short flight, a well known destination, a journey of duty, this is not the magic of air travel but a necessary evil for those whose business and pleasure

 stretches them across the thousand Kilometer divide between Melbourne and Sydney.  

The air stewards go about their ritualistic preparations for take off. It seems that they must be trained not only in the art of perpetual perkiness but also taught a traditional dance: Rather like a well coordinated West End production they walk in time and conduct their safety checks to the rhythm of a silent score. It is a performance which is reassuring. Familiar to the passengers and a reminder that for these pristine individuals trusting a nicely painted hunk of metal to get you thirty thousand feet into the air and back is routine, run of the mill and completely safe.  

As the plane picks up speed with a groan and lack of grace, the forced smiles are unchanged but directed towards the windows. Strapped to their special seats the stewards watch the ground disappear as they are in turn watched by nearby passengers, searching for a glimpse of the possibility that behind the smiles they too contemplate whether today they will fall out of the sky.   

Integration education

Do schools give young people the skills and knowledge which will equip them to live and work in a multicultural society?. In the past Religious Education meant the time of the day when “we pretended to read the bible and that Lebanese dude sat outside the classroom because he wasn’t Christian” said Jessica a 25 year old Uni student from Sydney. Has this narrow perspective on Religious Studies changed changed?

“not really, if you were out west you would have Muslim lessons but here in Cronulla  we just do scripture. They basically learn about their own religion” said Hayley McConnel a teacher from Cronulla High School.

Could better religious and Cultural education aid social cohesion?

“In the case of the Cronulla riots most people who were involved were past school age, so school based religious and cultural education would be limited in its effects on the current racial tensions in Australia” said Kevin Dunn, a Professor from the University of New South Wales.

This feature would look into current religious education in Sydney’s schools, and particular Cronulla High and Woolooware High schools. Interviews with students and teachers and a look at the state curriculum would provide an interesting insight into how much young people understand the multiple cultures in Australian society, and what opportunities they had to learn more.

A Door that Bangs

A dream in peeled paint, pink flowers flank the trestle door and sand gathers in the corners. This house encompasses the imaginings of anyone who has hoped to live where the ocean fills their hair and erodes the spokes of their children’s bikes.  The porch is guarded by a sleeping giant sprawled on a wicker chair, soft and floppy with tufts of white fur poking out from between the pads of its paws, which twitch in pursuit of an imagined rabbit.

 

This house, wears neglect well, like a kind of authenticity or a visual reminder that the owners are not weekenders from the city but people who would rather be at the beach than choosing curtains to match a bed spread from a warehouse of over priced domestic must-haves. Although the white washed walls are dirtied around the edges, they are set in foundations of solid gold. The land must be worth enough to make a real estate agent twitch at the sight of it and mentally plan the demise of the family home which occupies it in favor of a fright of glass and stone grey feature walls.

 

Never again will a young family afford to call this their own, watching their children grow to fill the wild back yard and feeling the sun work its way through the rooms warming every corner.