"Iraqi Kid Runs for Water"

This video speaks for itself. My God.

*Temporary* Protection Visas are Killing People: Exhibit A

Shia refugee sent home killed as Aussie spy
Rebecca Weisser
The Australian
November 27, 2006


AN Iraqi asylum-seeker sent home by Australian officials was assassinated in Baghdad after being accused of being an Australian spy.
Immigration officials refused to allow Mohammed Sharif al-Saraf to stay in Australia when his three-year temporary protection visa expired in 2004, claiming the removal of Saddam Hussein meant it was safe to go back to his homeland.

But The Australian has learned he was back in Iraq for only a few months when he was killed, in Baghdad, in late 2004.

News of his murder was posted on the Shia website, YaaHosein, which said al-Saraf, a Shi'ite, had been murdered because he was wrongly charged with spying for the Australian forces in Iraq.

Last week the High Court upheld the TPV system, ruling that asylum-seekers asking for further Australian protection must prove their refugee status still exists after their initial three-year visa expires.

Iraqi Community Cultural Association of South Australia president Tariq al-Haris said al-Saraf was a Shia whose family came from Najaf, a hotbed of opposition to Saddam's Baath Party supporters.

After fleeing to Iran, where he left his wife and two children, al-Saraf travelled alone to Australia, arriving by boat in late 1999, shortly after the federal Government introduced TPVs for unauthorised arrivals.

He was detained in Woomera, South Australia, for about a year. His claims for refugee status were found to be valid, but under the terms of the TPV his status had to be reassessed at the end of three years. By the time his claims were reassessed in 2003, the regime of Saddam Hussein had been overthrown and he was found to no longer be in need of protection.

Friends say he was under stress from his uncertain status and the separation from his wife and children. He had a heart attack in mid-2003 and was treated at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

"He was deeply lonely and after his heart attack he missed his wife and children even more," said Mr al-Haris.

Mr al-Saraf gave up his battle to remain in Australia and in 2004 returned to Iraq.

"We don't know who murdered him, but at that time, most of these sorts of murders were being committed either by ex-Baathists or by al-Qa'ida in Iraq. Most likely it was one of these two groups that killed him," said Mr al-Haris. "For these people, anybody who comes back from Australia must be a spy and they target anyone who they suspect of working with the Coalition forces in Iraq."

When asked about al-Saraf's case, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said: "The limited details provided at this point do not enable any comment to be made on a specific individual case".

Circus of life charts one man's martial art of survival

The Age
Andra Jackson
27 November 2006


AS A boy growing up in war-blighted Afghanistan, Hussain Sadiqi could not have known how far his passion for martial arts would carry him, literally and figuratively.

This week Sadiqi, 27, who came to Australia as a refugee in 1999, will draw on his martial arts skills when he makes his public debut as a circus performer in the National Institute of Circus Arts' production DiVino — on the same day he becomes an Australian citizen.

He had never seen a circus until this year, but decided to pursue a performance career after refugee lawyer Julian Burnside, QC, suggested it as a way of using his background as a martial arts champion.

Sadiqi said he became mesmerised with martial arts as a boy in central Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, where "learning something to defend ourselves" was a good pastime.

He mastered sholin (Chinese) kung fu and as Afghanistan's dual gold medal champion, he became a national hero.

Speaking at the circus institute's Prahran campus, where he has finished his first year on a scholarship, Sadiqi recalled his glory days: "The first time, I win a gold medal, there was a big celebration in the province."

But after the Taliban came to power, they began to hunt Hazaras, one of Afghanistan's four ethnic groups. Sadiqi's fame was his downfall and he was forced to flee.

He landed on Ashmore Reef with 147 other asylum seekers, and was taken to the now closed Port Hedland detention centre.

"It was depressing … I escaped from one hole and I put myself in another hole," he said.

However, other detainees recognised him and asked him to teach them martial arts. Training Afghans and Iraqis, Chinese and Bangladeshis gave his life renewed purpose.

The joy of his release was marred by the death of his mother in Afghanistan and the Immigration Department's refusal to let him attend her funeral. But he was comforted by his father's words of advice to "study and make her soul a bit happy with your future".

With his dream of representing Australia in martial arts at the 2008 Olympics, he hopes to fulfil his father's wishes.

DiVino, from November 30 to December 9, at Sidney Myer Circus Studio. For bookings, call EasyTix on 9639 0096.



http://www.nica.com.au

Who, me...??

Today I was in my final Geopolitics class for this semester. The teacher is quite a character, and we have had some relatively spectacular clashes of personality and ideology over the course of our classes together.

Today during lunchtime it was just him and me in the classroom, and he commented on how much he'd enjoyed taking the class because we have no shortage of opinions. He said to me, "you're a bit of a bouncer, yourself!". I said "what's a bouncer??", and he told me a bouncer is basically someone who's a bit feisty and likes a good stoush in the classroom.

He then told me I am "intellectually combative", and meant it as a compliment.

Haha. I'll take that :)

Deaths in Detention Exposed

Andra Jackson
The Age
21 Nov 2006

AT LEAST 10 people have died while held in immigration detention, a self-appointed public inquiry has been told.

The 18-month inquiry into detention centres found sick detainees sometimes had to wait days for medical treatment and weeks to see a doctor.

The co-convener of the inquiry, Professor Linda Briskman from Curtin University in Western Australia, said the inquiry had been told of at least 10 people who had died in detention since 1999, "but people are generally speaking of more than 10 deaths".

Among the deaths detailed in the inquiry's first report was that of a Thai woman, Phuongton Simplee, a heroin user who died in Villawood detention centre in 2001 of malnutrition. Despite losing a dramatic seven kilograms over just three days, management did not realise she needed hospital treatment.

Fatima Erfani, a mother of three detained on Christmas Island, died in January 2003 after being treated incorrectly. She was suffering from high blood pressure but was instead treated for a migraine and died from cerebral bleeding.

Tongan Viliami Tanginoa, who overstayed his visa, dived to his death from the top of a basketball hoop at Maribyrnong detention centre in December 2000.

Professor Briskman said yesterday details of the other deaths would be covered in the inquiry's second report next year.

The Age is aware of at least two other deaths in detention.

The report documented an attempt by a 12-year-old boy to hang himself.

A former nurse working for detention centre operator ACM told the inquiry a doctor attended Baxter detention centre five days a week but detainees could only have appointments on the day allocated for their compound. Sometimes the wait for an appointment on the "right day" could be up to three weeks, she said.

The People's Inquiry was set up by Professor Briskman and Professor Chris Goddard, director of the National Research Centre for the Prevention of Child Abuse at Monash University, on behalf of the Australian Council of Heads of Schools of Social Work.

It followed concern about the narrow focus of a Federal Government-appointed inquiry into the wrongful detention of the mentally ill Cornelia Rau.

The People's Inquiry, which has held public hearings around Australia and taken 200 written submissions, also found "needless cruelty" in how the detention centres were run.

Professor Briskman said former detainees, detention centre workers, visiting health workers and others reported a catalogue of petty cruelty, including people being addressed by their file number, repeatedly being woken at night for head counts, a four-month delay in posting mail to families overseas, and a lack of toilets (just two toilets for 700 people at Woomera).

The report also covered claims of beatings and humiliating actions by guards, including singing to Iraqis after a protection visa rejection: "I'm leaving on a jet plane, goin' back to see Saddam Hussein."

In his submission, Professor Goddard wrote that "detention centres generated universal mental ill-health never seen outside a psychiatric hospital".

An Immigration Department spokeswoman said: "Deaths in detention have been very few."



photos thanks to http://www.porthedland.nomasters.org

Equal Opportunity Commission Human Rights Day Oration

Have you ever wanted to be a Circus Ninja Refugee...?

Trashing a Tradition of Compassion

The Age - 22 November 2006
Peter Craven

For the past two years Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has been attempting to deport to Sweden a man who has spent all but the first 27 days of his life in this country. As a consequence of a recent decision by the High Court, she will be able to do so.

The case is complex and exhibits plenty of alarming and pitiable features. The man in question, Stefan Nystrom, who first fell foul of the law at the age of 10, now faces further charges (including assault with a knife and wrongful imprisonment) and says he wants to be deported to Sweden even though he cannot speak the language and does not know his relatives there.

When he was remanded (to appear today) the Victorian Deputy Chief Magistrate, Jelena Popovic, said Nystrom would require special care, given his mental health.

Vanstone's victory in her High Court appeal in the Nystrom case came after a rebuff by the Federal Court last year, where Justices Michael Moore and Roger Gyles found that Nystrom, as someone who had lived in this country for more than 10 years, had an "absorbed visa" and could not therefore be deported because of a criminal conviction.

They also said Nystrom had behaved no more badly than many other Australians and that his not being formally "Australian" was fortuitous: "The difference is the barest of technicalities. It is the chance result of an accident of birth."

In other words Nystrom is Australian in culture, character and in everything other than the formality of his citizenship. His siblings were born here and are Australian citizens. One can only speculate at the grief Vanstone's decision would cause his family. Not to mention the eyebrows it would raise in Sweden.

Indeed, a Swedish news service reported baldly that "a serial criminal who was born in Sweden but spent all his life in Australia" could be heading back to Sweden's shores. It was precisely the irregularity of this that the federal judges underlined when they said, "Apart from the dire punishment of the individual involved, it assumes that Australia can export its problems elsewhere."

Well, the unanimous decision of the High Court now allows Vanstone to mete out the "dire punishment" of exile to people who have received prison sentences of 12 months or more even though they have spent their entire lives in this country.

Nystrom is at least in the position of being deported to a society similar to our own. In recent years Attorney-General Philip Ruddock deported Robert Jakovic to Serbia even though the Serbs refused to accept responsibility for him and he declared that he would starve to death on the steps of the Australian embassy. He is back in Australia, stateless and on a visa that runs out on January 7. The Immigration Department asked him to apply for Serb nationality. Then there was the case of Ali Tastan, a paranoid schizophrenic whom Ruddock was happy to dispatch to the streets of Ankara, screaming in his affliction. His permanent residence has been reinstated (because of his mental health), but not without Ruddock doing everything to keep him out.

One does not have to be a bleeding heart to find the Howard Government's attitude in deporting offenders both sickening and inhumane.

We may be inured to the detention camps and the incarceration of David Hicks, and we may even accept these things as more or less bipartisan responses to a complex situation - though we are, I think, a lesser society for doing so.

But it is difficult to imagine that most people in our society could tolerate the bloody-mindedness of what Vanstone wants to do with people convicted of crimes but who happen not to be protected by the figleaf of citizenship.

This country was, we should never forget, founded by people who suffered the torment of enforced exile. One would have thought an awareness of this fact went with a knowledge of Australian history and that the Howard Government, with its sensitivity to our historical heritage, would show greater care in not repudiating our own traditions.

Think of what the people closest to us culturally - the New Zealanders and British and European immigrants, many of whom have never taken out citizenship - would think of us saying that someone had no right to live among us because they had had the misfortune to go to jail.

And think, too, of the message it sends to the immigrants among us that we can throw back our rejects on a world elsewhere, as if they were so much garbage.

You would think that Vanstone might also remember that it was under her watch that Cornelia Rau, an "Australian" in all but citizenship, direly affected by mental illness, was illegally and inhumanely detained, to the shame of her ministry.

The Howard Government should also beware of this kind of issue. Geoffrey Robertson said once that only an inch divides conservative government from Labor government but that this is the inch in which we live.

Labor established the detention centres, Labor (in the person of Kim Beazley) failed to stand up to Howard at the time of the Tampa.

But when Beazley said of Robert Jovicic, the Belgrade deportee a year ago, "He's been in the country since the age of two, for God's sake. All his criminal activities and everything else have been things that are a product of our system and his decisions within it. You don't just go and dump him on the Serbs," he spoke for what is best in the people of Australia. He spoke on behalf of one of the only traditions we have worth spitting at, the tradition of mercy and the defence of the underdog.

Peter Craven is a Melbourne critic.

Farmer Jess...

Some of you may know that by a bizarre twist of fortune (basically God is a wise-guy), my Masters here (in Humanitarian Action) somehow mysteriously falls under the banner of 'Agricultural Science'. That's right. I'm getting an MSc (Agr) HA. If you know me, you'll know that's quite funny. If I'd done first semester in France, I'd be graduating with a Masters in Law, but because I'm in Dublin (where the 2nd semester specialty is in Humanitarian Action and Rural Development), I'm getting a Masters in Agricultural Science. Even though I am moving to France in second semester to specialise in international law and geopolitics. It's actually kind of annoying actually!

When my mother found this out she laughed hysterically, called me Farmer Jess, and said that I couldn't even grow parsley if my little life depended on it. I was mildly offended, but couldn't really disagree. Do I look like a farmer?? (Don't answer that...)

Anyway, all my classes are in the agricultural science building at UCD (known to those in the 'hood as 'Ag Sci'). Every morning, the foyer is full of ruddy-faced, healthy looking outdoorsy-types. Or I may be projecting. Whatever. The point is... very early on in the course, I saw a poster up in the foyer of the building which made me do a double take, and laugh out loud! I finally managed to take a photo of it this week.



Farmers Journals! I don't know what a farmers journal is, but all I can imagine is "dear diary, today I milked a cow...". Hehe. This humour is clearly a reflection of my ignorance, but for heaven's sake. Agricultural science? I have to vent somehow!

I very much hope no farmers were offended in the reading of this blog :)

JT x

This. Is. Not. Possible.

See article:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20763005-29277,00.html

Yesterday, the High Court of Australia decided that the Government is much more easily able to send home asylum seekers who have held TPVs. A couple of years ago, the Federal Court found that the it was the responsibility of the Government to prove that it is safe to send people home before doing so, but yesterday the High Court disagreed. Meaning that whensoever DIMA decides that the Taliban doesn't exist anymore (in spite of any overwhelming evidence to the contrary), they can just send people home. And this decision seems to have been made in complete disregard of the fact that this year the Taliban has made a major resurgence in the power vacuum left by the almost totally defunct government of Hamid Karzai.

As usual, Justice Michael Kirby dissented, and made a lot of sense. You can find a few (pretty damn valid) things which he said about this judgement in the article. " Justice Michael Kirby dissented, saying that in both cases Australian decision makers, safe in this country, might regard the beheading of 12 Hazaras as an unimportant or isolated incidents.

"But to a person whose experience had already invoked a well-founded fear of persecution, occasioning flight to Australia to seek refuge and official acceptance and recognition of refugee status, such an instance might be indicative of more widespread, systematic violent activity apt to occasion a well-founded fear of continuing persecution," he said."

This means that people on temporary protection visas have absolutely no guarantee of being given protection in Australia in future, further extending their period of displacement, uprooting and uncertainty. And decisions regarding their futures will be made by the Department of Immigration, which has approx a 50% margin of error for first-instance decisions on asylum cases, and a notorious level of hostility, suspicion and mistreatment of vulnerable people.

Just for fun, I feel like posting some photos of the extremely "safe" Kabul, seen here in the wake of the US attacks. Would you send your family here?








Let's remember all of this in the context of the Edmund Rice centre report released in August citing at *least* 9 examples of people who have been sent home by Australia and killed almost immediately. These people were sent homewhen Australia considered it "safe". Are we willing to take that risk again? I - for one - am absolutely, categorically NOT.

When will the calculated, malicious, cruelty stop? How much more blood needs to be spilled? How many more lives need to be destroyed before our country will take up its obligations and honour them with the respect and observance they deserve?

If you are not yet convinced or aware of what the Taliban is capable of, click here for pictures of the massacre at Yakawlang (Hazarajat) in 2001. Warning: there are some extremely graphic images. Extremely graphic images which have comprised the lives, the memories and the trauma of people whom Australia locks up in desert prisons and then deports whenever it feels like it. You are in a position to choose whether or not to see this stuff - many thousands have no such luxury. http://www.rawa.org/yakw-hrw.htm

I'm not very good at posting, am I...

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to drop past and say hi. All is good here, but it's getting pretty damn busy! Last week had assessments due, tomorrow have a 90 minute group presentation on Management (yikes...) and Thursday have to do a presentation on my chosen topic for the Geopolitics report. So as you can see, it's all just boozing and nightclubs and sleep-ins for me! Haha.

I promise I'll try and write something a little bit more substantial when this week is over. Give me strength...!!!

Oh, we've also put together a synopsis for 'We Will Be Remembered'. There is a very pretty PDF copy available (email me if you want it!), but here is the text, anyway, in case you're interested. As the time draws nearer for me to come home and finish work on this film with Dave, I'm getting quite excited. I have had the opportunity to show it to quite a few people over here, and their responses have been so encouraging. I did notice with some degree of satisfaction that our video on YouTube has been copping some mild sledging, being accused of being "brainwashing" and "wishy washy liberal rubbish"! Ha. Gold. Anyway, here's the synopsis. Cheers! JT x

WE WILL BE REMEMBERED FOR THIS: A FILM ABOUT AUSTRALIA

In 2006, a group of young people of different nationalities, backgrounds, attitudes and political views took a trip to the Baxter Detention Centre. The stories of the people they met behind the razor wire surprised, moved and challenged them. ‘We Will Be Remembered For This’ documents their journey.

It is a film for everyone. It is a clear, rational and non-politicised look at the human issues of Australia’s mandatory immigration detention policy.

This film poses the essential questions surrounding Australia’s refugee policy. Who are the people behind the fences? How did they come to be there? What are the psychological and legal battles they now face? How much do average Australians know about this policy, and if they knew the truth, would they want it to change?

To create this film, the film-makers drew together a diverse group of people. A teacher, a nurse, a handful of uni students, travelers and an academic. Some who had never visited detention, others who had done so for years, and one who had experienced it for himself. Those opposed to the policy, those in support, and those as yet undecided. Some who had never really thought about it, another who thought about it for a living, and others in between.

The film-makers’ objective was almost experimental: to rise above social, cultural and political differences, to draw out common threads upon which all could agree. In other words, this film strips back politics and encourages viewers to see the issue for what it really is: profoundly human.

The film includes:
- interviews with former PM Malcolm Fraser, Julian Burnside QC, a clinical psychiatrist, a former detention officer, and many others;
- a simple, easy-to-follow illustrated outline of the legal process;
- detainees’ stories; and
- an exploration of if and how the current policy may be justified or necessary

This film was produced against a volatile political background, in full awareness that most people feel ill-prepared or unwilling to get involved in the asylum seeker issue. ‘We Will Be Remembered’ is a tool by which people can become more aware and informed, using this awareness and information to formulate the opinion of their choosing.

This film has been made for you, your grandparents, your teachers, your students and your friends. It's for politicians, prisoners, and school kids. This film has been made accessible for everyone, because the film-makers believe that everyone should see it. Its message is that regardless of politics and policy and international pressure, the people behind the fences are worthy of attention, even just for the hour it takes to watch this film. In the words of one of the visitors, “when I visit detention and hear people’s stories, politics is the furthest thing from my mind. When a baby has been killed in cold blood, or a family has disappeared, and when a young man’s face still bears the scars of torture, the fuss bother and noisy rhetoric of the Canberra machine could not be less important”.

The characters of ‘We Will Be Remembered For This’ have undertaken a journey. There were some laughs, some let downs, a few epiphanies, a lot of driving, discussions, debates and questions raised. The film-makers’ goal was reached - to unite this group of people, to rise above the things that divided them, and to identify and illuminate the things they shared in common, with each other and with the people behind the fences. Share their journey.

‘We Will Be Remembered For This’ is due for release in early 2007.
You can watch the trailer at www.myspace.com/wewillberemembered
For media inquiries, more information, to sign up to the mailing list or to pre-order your DVD copy, please email David Schmidt david_schmidt@mac.com or Jessie Taylor jessie@thejusticeproject.com.au

EastWeb Fundraiser - Funtimes for a Good Cause! Dec 7

I Love Irish Taxi Drivers

You can see by my woolly paraphernalia (shown here in photo) that it's getting right chilly in Ireland. Where as 2 weeks ago I would usually leave my jacket at home, nowdays I don't go *anywhere* without coat, hat, gloves and scarf. Yes yes, it's getting cold.

Now, if there is a sure thing in Ireland, it is that every time you get into a taxi, you'll be greeted by a driver with a character worthy of its own comic strip. I have been told the following things by Dublin taxi drivers (and I will do my best not to exaggerate at all. I hardly *need* to!):

- "The weather is remarkably cold for this time of year"
- "The weather is remarkably warm for this time of year"
- "The weather is completely normal for this time of year"
- "I was in Geelong (Australia) last week competing in a backgammon tournament"
- "Dere're far too many foreigners in Dooblin. All dese overseas students.... oh no I'm not talkin' about YE! I'm just talkin' 'bout de muslims. Dese muslims are ruining the world. I'm not being racist, I'm just saying..."
- "I've always wanted te go te Australia but I saw a fillum about all de tings dere dat can kill ye. Oh the poor wee Crocodile Hunter..."
- "Just ye make sure ye stay faithful to yer lad back in Australia"
AND my favourite all-time too-much-information quote from a taxi driver...
- "In the poob, ye can really tell the difference 'tween a lass who knows how te pull a point o' Guinness, and a lass who don't. And I'll tell ye where ye really tell the difference 'tween the two: in the jacks (toilet) the next mornin'. I'm sorry for givin' ye sooch a graphic picture but it's the sure way te tell. Oooohh Christ, ain't that the truth!"

Hehe i love these guys. Never a dull moment. I have had countless discussions about weather, politics, religion, the crowdedness of shopping centres, and although they seem like dull topics I usually get out of the cab shaking my head and chuckling to myself. I think the next time I have a particularly good encounter I'll take a photo. It'll last longer :)

J x

Our Big Day Out

A group of us went to Croke Park this weekend to watch the Aussies whallop the Irish, both on the scoreboard and with their fists. It was also Karen Elisabeth's birthday, so she was lucky enough to get a birthday cake made of lollies in a tupperware container with a candle in the middle! Brian went for the harder stuff and brought a flask of whiskey, which he distributed liberally among us for the duration of the game, to warm us up on the inside! A picture is worth a thousand words so I think I'll just paste some below...

An Irish flag flying high over Dublin's Croke Park..


A birthday 'cake' with a difference!


Weird Norwegian lollies... if you look closely you'll see they are, er... gender... specific... Scary.


Brian and his trusty flask...


I love this photo. It includes people from Ethiopia, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium/UK, Norway, the Netherlands and Ireland. Aren't we a multicultural bunch!


Walking back into town over the O'Connell Street Bridge



Outside the *spectacular* Lebanese restaurant where we ate after the football... mmm... The Cedar Tree on St Andrews Street, Dublin.


With Sarah and Louisa at the restaurant.

The Christmas Lights are up...


We had a beautiful day, lots of fun, the Irish got trolloped at the football (ha!), and we had a delicious dinner with lots of fun people and good times. It was loverly :)

J x

'We Will Be Remembered For This'

Hi Everyone,

Just thought I would post a blurb here that I wrote a few days ago on the 'We Will Be Remembered For This' website- www.myspace.com/wewillberemembered - just some thoughts about the film, the motivation behind it, and its enduring importance as a tool of creating awareness amongst Australians. If you have not yet seen the trailer, you can do so at the website mentioned above. Cheers.

Some Words for You to Read...

Hi there, friends of 'we will be remembered'. today i just had a couple of observations to make...

my name is Jessie, and I'm one of the producers of this film. firstly, i want to thank you all - on behalf of all of us involved - for your interest and support and encouragement, even before it has been released! it's been great, and the public airings the film has had have gone down a treat.

the work that has gone into it so far, the inspired shooting by adam and dave, the incredible interviews with people who shared their stories with extraordinary openness, the hours and HOURS of editing, the music, the thoughts, the reflection, the conversations, all of it is really inspiring and i'm so excited to be involved with this project. so thanks for your support and we promise to give you a rip snorter of a film! it's due early in the new year.

the second thing is... this past week i have spent a lot of time on the phone with people housed in detention in various places across Australia. there are lots and lots of people who have been locked up now for YEARS, and it's just getting to be too much... the people behind the razor wire of Baxter, Maribyrnong, Villawood (and don't even TALK to me about Nauru) are wasting away into nothing. their mental health is just crumbling, they are physically unwell, confused, disoriented and - perhaps worst of all - many of them have given up hope.

when i was living in Australia, it was easy enough to respond, albeit modestly. i could get in my car each sunday and go visit Maribyrnong, I could easily get on the phone to find them a lawyer or hassle the detention centre to get them an appointment with a doctor, or whatever was necessary. historically, these things are almost always met with some degree of frustration, but now that I'm overseas, studying in Dublin, there is an added 20,000kms of frustration. i have had messages and calls from guys this week asking me to do something for them, to write a letter to immigration for them, to find out whether they can get a lawyer to help with the next step of their case, and all i can think of is how far away I am, how disempowered I am to respond, and how denigrating it is for them even to have to ask for my help.

the very objective of 'we will be remembered' is to get rid of the conditions and circumstances which lead to this kind of problem. we do not have any kind of political axe to grind, but we feel deeply saddened by the stripping away of dignity, the deprivation of freedom, and the employment of racial fear in the treatment of asylum seekers in Australia. we are also deeply concerned about the future of human rights in Australia.

this film is for you, your grandparents, your teachers, your friends, the fruit and veg shop guy, your plumber and that girl at the bus stop. it's for politicians, prisoners, and primary school kids. this film is for *everyone*, because we believe that *everyone* should see it. the message we want to communicate is that regardless of politics and policy and international pressure, the human suffering which is going on in the name of border protection in Australia is unacceptable, and we believe that until Australian people say NO MORE, it will keep happening.

i have seen the long-term consequences of this policy with my own eyes, over a period of 4 years. please believe me that if you knew what was really happening, you would want to change the way things are done. regardless of your politics.

thanks a lot for reading.

jessie