Conference Papers - Well Worth Reading!

Hi there,

This is a bit random, but recently Monash University has published a bunch of very interesting, very accessible papers from the conference 'Seeking Asylum in Australia 1995-2005: Experiences & Policies'.

There are papers from Julian Burnside, David Corlett, Michael Gordon, Spencer Zifcak and many others... (including yours truly!)

http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/public-history-institute/assets/asylum-forms/asylum-papers.pdf

Have a look and download it! It's a good little read.

Cheers!

Jess x

Photos of the Intensive Program in Sweden

Hi everyone!

One of my colleagues from Dublin has put up all his photos on his website from the IP in Uppsala, Sweden (thanks Kelly!). If you're interested, go to this link and have a look! Uppsala is quite a beautiful place, and there are some very nice pics here.

Enjoy!

http://www.kellybradley.net/ip.html

JT x

(the above photo is a picture of the inside of one of the buildings at Uppsala University where we had our classes... not bad, eh??)

Spider-Induced Culture Shock

OK so I didn't go to uni today. Woke up feeling, well, let's just say BAD. Spent 97% of the day in bed, except this evening I ventured downstairs to eat something and watch an angsty Gwyneth Paltrow film (Proof - i quite liked it, actually!). Then i decided it was time to retire. So I came upstairs and, as is my habit, proceeded to get ready to have a shower. I carried my towel (a luxuriously big lilac bathsheet) into the bathroom, put it down on the bench and put some toothpaste on my toothbrush. It was then that I saw 8 big hairy legs crawling out of the folds of my bathtowel! Ladies and Gentlemen, we had a BIGGUN' on our hands (it wasn't the biggest I've seen, but big enough not to be friends with). I don't know anything about Irish spiders so i scuttled downstairs and hoarsed (did I mention I lost my voice about 4 days ago??) "umm there's a spider in the bathroom, do you have any spray stuff?". Janet shuddered and said "Ciaran (her husband) will take care of it for you", and Ciaran looked wounded and said "surely you don't want to kill the little feller, do ye?". Anyway he came upstairs, we located the culprit and CIARAN PROCEEDED TO OPEN THE WINDOW, PICK UP THE SPIDER IN HIS BARE HANDS (all the while calling it "wee feller" and other such Irish endearments) AND GENTLY PLACE HIM OUTSIDE THE WINDOW. at this juncture i was squeaking (best I can do with my current vocal situation) and jumping up and down calling him a "crazy eejit" (and other such Irish insults)!

Well it turns out that he didn't die. After the kerfuffly (mainly from me) died down, I asked him what sort of spider it was. Perhaps i thought that some quasi-scientific inquiry would make me look like less of a total ditz. anyway, Ciaran calmly explained to me that there are no poisonous anythings in Ireland - snakes, spiders, nothin'. I'm sure my eyes widened in amazement. I sheepishly explained that I come from funnel-web land, and he laughed, said he knew and casually went back downstairs to keep watching the tv.

Chuh. Kind of embarrassing conduct from a girl who used to want to be an arachnologist...! I was something of a strange child...

Later!

Jess

OK I'm Sick. It's Official.

Waaaheeeeeyyy.... I have some kind of European Death Lurgy of Hell and Death (known to authorities as EDLHD). I've been ignoring it for a few days, but nay, the time has come to realise that I'm sick to the point of being quite unpresentable. Yikes.

Anyway, I am aware that I haven't written much since I arrived in Dublin, so I shall take advantage of my infirmity to remedy that.

Well, sometimes I feel like I'm at Monash Clayton (windy campus, big concrete buildings, long lectures, bad campus food), and sometimes I feel like I'm on another planet (THREE TIMES I asked for soy milk in my coffee on campus, got laughed at and told to go to starbucks!). A strange combination.

I've been having a great time staying with my aunt's friends. They are a family of husband and wife, three sons and another male cousin (all between the ages of 15 and 21), 2 dogs and two cats. From time to time, Janet goes out for the evening and leaves me alone with FIVE BOYS!!! Haha I tell you what - those dinnertime conversations are an eye-opener....! The house here is lovely and I'm being so well looked-after. All I have to do is walk to dogs, but in my current state it's really not been possible too often. I hope I get better soon so I can be less useless and walk the dogs more often.

Classes have started with a vengeance! So far we've had management, epidemiology and geopolitics. tomorrow is anthropology. We'll be doing international law in a big solid block in January.

I've been invited to a fantastic lunch tomorrow at James Joyce House here in Dublin. Brendan Kilty, a friend / associate of Julian Burnside, owns James Joyce House, and we were put in touch by JB before I left Australia. It sounds like an interesting event! The Tom Crean society is having a lunch, with a whole lot of the descendents of the Shackleton expedition!! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google it. That's what I did...!). Unfortunately my state of health really doesn't render me fit for polite society, so I've had to decline the invitation. Very sad :(

ok i think it's time for dinner and i'm talking tripe, anyway. so i better go.

i promise to post again soon!

:) Jess xx

Hello Dublin!

I’m sitting on the couch in my temporary home in Mount Merrion, Dublin, Ireland. Staying with friends of my aunty Libby, who have decorated their house in perfect Sydney style – big open spaces, lots of skylights, it’s beautiful! What a shame that this morning, the view from the skylight is a grey overcast sky! Welcome to Dublin ☺

The trip from Sweden was quite epic. We packed up our little red garden shed and checked out at midday. Then, seven of us piled into a minibus / taxi style thing with all our luggage and made for Stockholm Arlanda airport. We decided to check in as a group because there was some slightly inequitable distribution of luggage weight (Brian was leaving home for 10 days, I was leaving home for 10 months!), and we got through no worries. We hung around in the airport for a while, collected other random people who we knew, and eventually got on the flight. 2 hours 20 minutes later we landed in Dublin. There was a blue sky, beautiful sunshine, a light breeze and it was 22 degrees! At 5.20pm! Unheard of. Then I got a bus to meet the people I am staying with at the moment. And here I am!

Last night we went out to dinner chez the extended family. They live on a little street overlooking the bay in Blackrock – it was beautiful! The family is big and warm and slightly mad and they make the Symons family look like a collection of quiet, timid introverts! (those of you who know us and / or are a part of us will know how ***extreme*** these people must be!!) Unfortunately I was falling totally asleep and wasn’t able to enjoy the full benefit of the night – music, singing, amazing food, wine and the rest of it. Unfortunately I just wasn’t in a state to enjoy it!

This afternoon I’ve just got back from seeing the house where I’ll be living from October onwards. It’s a lovely little house in Goatstown (I love it!) with an Irish guy, an Irish girl and a Spanish girl. They seem cool, and the house is fantastic. I’ve got a decent sized upstairs bedroom with a built-in wardrobe thing, it’s big and light and airy and lovely. It’s got all the mod cons (including a HUGE backyard for barbecues on all those hot summer nights... oh no… hang on… gaaah!) and I’m really looking forward to settling in there. The room I have at the moment is great and the bed is comfy and the people are absolutely lovely, but I have a sneaking suspicion I’ve kicked someone out of their room…!

Anyway I better make a move. I’m off to meet my classmates at the front of Trinity College for dinner or a drink or something. Oh! And I got a digital camera! So very soon you’ll be seeing photos of stuff other than just my head! So you can all look forward to that!

Thanks for reading! See you later

☺ Jess

Goodbye Sweden!

Well, today marks the end of the intensive program in Sweden! It's over! A few people have already left for the airport, so it's safe to say it's well and truly over. Gastronomically, I am not sad about that! Today, the administrator guy here handed me my meal ticket and said, "umm... are you vegetarian??" i said "no" and he said "good" and pulled a face!! i inquired further, and asked him if the food was bad, and he said that the sauce they put on the vegetarian meal today "tastes like smoked toothpaste"! haha. further investigation rendered further comment, including that the sauce "tasted like aeroplane seat". teehee. it was quite disgusting.

anyway, i'm leaving sweden tomorrow afternoon. in a way, i feel like i should go in to stockholm to look around for the afternoon, but can't quite muster the energy.

last night there was a big party and a few people made a couple of fires up on a hill near the campsite. everyone was up there making merry, with plastic bottles of plonk of all kinds of unfortunate flavours, lots of singing around the campfire, and general-rowdy making. it was quite fun. i went to bed early, but the cops were called at 5am...! whoops!

anyway i better go. will write more from ireland!!!

jess xx

Over it! Time for a break.

Thursday morning. Ten days after arriving here in Sweden it's getting pretty much time for a break. I have literally spent no more than 5 minutes alone since getting off the plane, and it's taking its toll! I have actually - SERIOUSLY - taken to going to the bathroom a few times a day just to hide, chill out and get some peace and quiet!! Haha. Everyone is great and I really like them, but for someone who is used to spending a lot of time with me, myself and I, it's a recipe for grumpiness! So this morning I'm a bit of a scowler. Hence the no picture today - i fear that if I took a photo my computer would shut down in fear!!

On the other hand, of course, this is a pretty good preliminary indication of the intensity of being in the field! Except, in the field usually there'd be no running water or breakfast each morning... you'd be in a tent, it would be rainy and muddy and food would not just be served 3 times a day, with 3 coffee breaks! And it would last a hell of a lot longer than 10 days, and be MUCH more full on.

Good heavens I'm soft. Yikes.

J xx

My Dream Job: Prime Minister of a Swedish Paddock!

(this photo is a picture of me concentrating very hard in class today… sorry for all the self portraits - the only camera i have is the one built into my computer!)

Whooooa nelly. Yesterday was one of the most extreme days of my entire life. The previous day, all 150 or so of us had been allocated roles: NGOs, medical personnel, food programs, security, media, guerrilla forces, political players, and of course a large refugee population. I was appointed Prime Minister of ‘Abenia’, the country bordering ‘Cedania’, into which tens of thousands of refugees were flooding after a major military strike by the Cedanian government on its own civilian population.

So… having no idea what we were getting ourselves into, we got on the buses at 8.30, like little humanitarian lambs to the slaughter! We were driven out to this huge paddock in the middle of the Swedish countryside, in the middle of which sat a big yellow tent. All the NGOs and governments etc came down into the region, and we were informed that about 20,000 refugees were on their way, many of them injured, traumatised, starving, carrying their sick and wounded. Well crap. So, everything swung into action. I had had a planning meeting with my government the night before (14 people in our cabin which is only just big enough for 4!!! Crazy!!), figuring out the structures of responsibility throughout various government departments and players. So immediately we met with all the heads of NGOs and informed them that they were to register with us, report to us and co-ordinate their efforts through us.

Anyway the day progressed crazily. I will not give you an entire narrative outline, however I will give you some bullet points of the stuff we had to deal with:

• Outbreaks of cholera
• Warring ethnic factions
• The overthrow of the Cedanian government by 2 rebel factions (while the government was out to lunch!)
• This meant that the Abenian government (my colleagues & I) began to negotiate the safe and secure repatriation of the refugees back over the border to Cedania
• The refugees cracked it and decided to leave the camp, hiking out over the mountains into Cedania before we had established a plan regarding food, health, sanitation, water, shelter, security etc.
• When they did this, there was a massive earthquake, and they were trapped in the mountains, with 2000 dead, and many more wounded.
• We then sent in some representatives over the border to retrieve the refugees and promise that they would be taken care of and safely repatriated in due course.
• The refugees eventually returned to the Camp and we began the repatriation process.

Things I personally had to deal with because some eejit designated me Prime Minister:
• Constant pestering by the press
• Threats by the Cedanian government that if we don’t extradite ‘terrorists’ (whom, incidentally, we considered to be refugees) back to Cedania, that government would attack the camp
• Corruption in my police force (sacked ‘em), and a corrupt Minister for Defence (whom I had trusted!), who had been ordering the rape, assault and murders of a number of the refugee population (sacked him too!)
• I ordered the arrest of the former Cedanian government for war crimes and crimes against humanity – they were taken to the International Criminal Court, but kept escaping from jail and raising hell (which I think was somewhat outside the rules of the game…!)
• … and much much more!

Anyway the day was absolutely massive. Crazy. I haven’t written much detail, because I was writing lots about it, and then my computer crashed and I lost the document. Annoying. Anyway, the day finished and we got on the bus and went to the Goteborgs Nations to eat dinner. Then a few of us went around the corner to another Nations for a quiet beer, and then we went HOME TO BED. Sweet! But… we were up again this morning and on the buses at 8.30am to come to class. It’s getting a bit much… heaps of people are getting sick, everyone’s tired, we’ve had a pretty full-on 9 days. It’s Wednesday now, and I’ve gotta say I’m hanging out for the weekend…!

Looking forward to getting settled and exploring the funness of Dublin.

OK that’s enough for now!

Oh one more thing – spending time in an academic setting with people from such diverse backgrounds (development, geology, medicine, anthropology, political science, etc) is making me realise how much I think like a lawyer. I had never really noticed, but now it’s becoming more and more clear to me… interesting.

No Rest for the Weekend!

Monday 11 September 2006

Yesterday we had half a day off – my goodness. Better late than never! Sunday morning – I had a meeting at 7am (heck, I know) with a few people who wanted to talk about co-authoring a book. Then I got back to the camp and hung around a bit (did a bit of Persian study!) just in time to take the bus to Sigtuna. I basically napped all the way there on the bus. After about an hour, we arrived in this strange little town, had a couple of lectures and a cultural introduction to Sigtuna (the oldest existing city in Sweden). We then had lunch, and were unleashed into the town for a few hours. OK there’s no two ways about it – this town is creepy. It was like the set of the Stepford Wives – totally perfect. Perfect houses, perfect children with perfect teeth, perfect pets, perfect gardens. Totally creepy. You feel like something’s going to go horribly wrong at any moment. Anyway, I managed to find a (perfect!) chocolate ice cream and sit down in the sun with my new Scottish friend Jaq (she says ‘aye’ instead of ‘yes’, ‘wee’ instead of ‘little’, ‘fillum’ instead of ‘film’ and ‘gerrul’ instead of ‘girl’ and ‘laddie’ instead of ‘guy’! Oh, and people who are attractive aren’t ‘attractive’, they’re ‘fit’!). We sat there for a while, being pursued vigorously by wasps, and then meandered along to a little bookshop, where I managed to find a copy of Milan Kundera’s ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ in FRENCH! Needless to say, I bought it. Yippee.

Then we went and sat by the lake for a while, snoozing, listening to music, enjoying the sunshine (see blue sky in picture above!!), before getting on the boat to cruise back to Uppsala. The cruise was so lovely – this big old boat, kind of quaint and creaky, and we ate delicious food and sat outside on the deck sipping a drink in the late afternoon sun. Then we got home and I went to BED!

On Saturday night (sorry – going chronologically backwards) there was ‘Cultural Night of Uppsala’. This meant that this sleepy, empty, quiet little hamlet came alive with rock bands, punky youths, lots of beer, dancers in funny olde costumes, stalls on the street along the canal and all sorts of other stuff. I seriously don’t know where all these people came from. I have seen hardly ANYONE in this town for the past week, but suddenly it was absolutely buzzing! I just went out to the Norlands Nation (‘Nations’ are almost like student unions, but for drinking! It’s like, your spiritual, alcoholic home. Quite funny) for a quiet beer before returning home to go to bed.

Already I’m getting sad, wide-eyed comments from my Irish colleagues who are a bit disappointed by the (small) amount I drink. They are all saying to me “where’ve ye been, little one? I thart Australians could hold their liquor. But ye’ve hardly been on the piss AT ALL.” Haha. I seem to be a massive disappointment. ☺

Anyway I better go. I think tomorrow we will be gallivanting around the Swedish countryside delivering imaginary emergency assistance to imaginary refugees in an imaginary humanitarian crisis. Bring it on!

See you soon!

JT x

A few days in...

Day 5 - September 9, 2006

Well, we’re a few days in now, and everything is going swimmingly. Sweden is still a little strange, and I still feel like I’m on a weird, giant, international, academic school camp! The food is all just potatoes, fish and pork, mostly fried. And bread, bread, bread! If you can get your hands on a piece of fresh fruit you can pull millions for it on the black market! I want to know where the Swedes keep all their morbidly obese citizens. Because looking at the diet – there must be quite a few…

It was quite extraordinary that on the FIRST day of lectures, a representative from the UN mentioned Australia's rather embarrassing behaviour in front of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination! This guy was actually sitting on the Committee when Ruddock had a tantrum and insulted the whole UN treaty system in 2000. He mentioned how shocking Australia's treatment of asylum seekers and indigenous people is... it was amazing to cross the globe and be confronted in the first 2 hours of class with my country's human rights reputation in Europe. Gee whizz.

We’ve had some amazing lectures over the past 5 days. Some have been kind of annoying, theoretical and self-congratulatory, but some are really extraordinary. We had 2 guys come and speak to us a couple of days ago, one from Red Cross, and the other from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). They both had extensive field experience, in Rwanda, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and all over the place. They were massively challenging – they both spoke about the serious security issues of working as an aid worker in the field, and the fact that NGO workers are no longer protected by the symbols of the organisations. Particularly upsetting were their comments on how sometimes now NGO workers are specifically targeted because they are NGO workers. The MSF guy spoke about the murder of 5 MSF workers in northern Afghanistan in 2004, and the fact that he – as the head of mission there – had basically no choice but to pull out of Afghanistan after these killings. It was really, really awful. It’s extraordinary to see the statistics of aid workers who are killed in the field. I think in a 5 year period there were 375, which is quite high. It’s also a bit scary that since Day 2 of the course, we have been talking about the very real security risks, and the possibility of death in the field. Whoa. Talk about baptism by fire. No mucking around.

Anyway, time to lighten up, I think! It’s Saturday today and we are at school, talking about gender issues in humanitarian emergencies. I expected to hate this session, but it’s actually been really interesting and practical. It’s amazing how much emphasis there is on listening to people – refugee populations, people in humanitarian emergencies and crises, just go out there and listen to them, before attempting to respond. What’s going on for you? What are your needs? Importantly, what are your capabilities? I love this practical, real, interactive approach to relief. It’s great.

Tomorrow we are going to be doing some outdoors stuff, which I can’t wait for. Apparently the weather will be good, and we are going to Sigtuna (a place… I really don’t know where / what / why it is!). We will then take the boat back from there to Uppsala, and dinner will be served on board. It sounds kind of fun!

My sleep is settling down much more now. I went to bed at 9.30 last night!! Still pretty tired, I think probably from the weeks leading up to my departure, more than jetlag.

OK sorta have to go now. Internet access is very erratic!! Will post again soon.

Love love

J x

First few days in Sweden...

Sept 7 – NOHA Intensive Program

It’s my third day here in Sweden and already I’m getting into the swing of things. I arrived at Stockholm Arlanda airport on Tuesday morning, after 24 hours of travel. After I got most of my public weeping out of the way, the trip was ok – a cumulative total of about 5 minutes turbulence, quite a lot of sleep, and good movies on the magic screen in my seat. I came through immigration at Arlanda, surrounded by hundreds of Thais (why were they all going to Sweden?! Why?! Why?!), and took a bus to Uppsala. This gave me my first glimpse of Sweden out of the window. It looks a bit like rural Czech republic – kind of green, a little bit bland, open, occasional very cute little houses among fields etc. I then got to Uppsala central station and got a taxi. The cab driver was Iranian, which was fun, so I got to speak my 5 words of Farsi to him while he laughed at me in surprise!

I got to the camping ground here at Fyrishov at 8.50am. Upon my arrival, I was informed that the buses to school were leaving at 9am, and as such I didn’t have time to go to my cabin! So, in dismay, I had to settle for a quick brush of the teeth in the loo adjacent to the reception area. Unfortunately my toothbrush had been in my bag next to a bottle of deodorant that had leaked, so I brushed my teeth with deodorant rather than toothpaste. Hmmm. Not great. I then took my foggy, stinky, crumpled, aeroplaney self onto the bus to uni. The uni building is so beautiful. Uppsala is a cute little town (about 40kms north of Stockholm), with lots of green trees, and pretty pink buildings. Swedish food is just HEAVY. Potatoes, bread and meat. Very little fresh fruit, and soy milk may as well be from outer space! We had classes til 5.30, then dinner, then a function at a museum, which meant that I got back to the camping ground at 9.30pm… a ridiculously huge day. I can’t remember ever being more in need of a shower and bed!

The cabins we’re staying in are smaller than most garden sheds, and sleep 4! One room with a bunk, and an L-shaped couch in a corner, upon which 2 (hopefully short!) people must sleep. The bathroom (including shower) is about as spacious as a bathroom on a bus. Hardly enough room to swing a loofah, let alone a cat! There are basically no cupboards or closets, so our suitcases are just piled on top of eachother, which makes jetlag-induced midnight toilet runs quite hazardous. Luckily, it seems that we 4 girls (me, and girls from Holland, Ireland and Guatemala) get along quite well. I’ll give you an update on that after we’ve lived up each other’s noses for 10 days…! ☺

The content of the course is really quite extraordinary. Some of it is kind of intellectually wanky, but some of it is amazingly interesting. Yesterday we had an address from Mary B. Anderson, who is basically the goddess of theory of humanitarian action. She spoke for hours and hours, but said so much, in a way that made sense and was completely fascinating and logical, even in the vacuum of my inexperience.

At the moment I’m really just looking forward to getting settled in Dublin. I think I have found a house (in Goatstown, of all the cute suburb names!), which is a good feeling. All the people who will be spending their first semester in Dublin are quite cool, laid back, and seem like fun. My kind of people! So that will be fun.

I keep being struck by the total randomness of the fact that I’m currently in Sweden! It’s funny – I’ve never particularly wanted to come here, and yet here I am! Anyway I should probably go and pay attention. I will write again soon. Miss you all lots!

J x