Mary Meets Mohammad

One of the most divisive and emotive debates in Australia is the "asylum seeker issue". As long as we are able to keep it as a theoretical debate, it is fed by xenophobia and protection. But, when the issue is informed by the meeting of people, by the sharing of story and the willingness to hear, then the issue is transformed from abstract to personal.

[What continues to disappoint me, (sadly, it no longer surprises me), is how our country's leaders are able to visit and see a land from which some asylum seekers are escaping and still fuel the debate with the language of protection and feed a fearful community with images of extremist, fundamentalist, terrorists. How do you ignore the individuals that, despite all the best efforts and intentions of our military personnel, still have a "well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality membership of a particular social group or political opinion... and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country".*]

However, Mary Meets Mohammad is a documentary that tells the story of one such transformation from bitter uninformed distrust to abiding respect and love:

Tasmania’s first detention center opens and local knitting club member Mary, a staunchly Christian pensioner, is not welcoming of the 400 male asylum seekers mostly from Afghanistan.

Mohammad is a 26 year old Muslim asylum seeker detained inside the center. An unlikely friendship develops between Mary and Mohammad after her knitting club donates woolen beanies to the asylum seekers. Mary finds many of her prior beliefs are challenged as her relationship with Mohammad deepens.

Coming next week to the Keno Cinema (Melbourne), Chauvel Cinema (Sydney). Check out the Preview.

* The definition of a LEGAL asylum seeker from Article 1 of the Convention relating to the status of Refugees, as amended by the 1967 Protocol.

Jerusalem: The Movie

This is pretty spectacular aerial filming and worth a look. For those that have been to Jerusalem and the West Bank you will recognise the landmarks (and might even see your footprints). This is only a 7 minute preview but it will be worth a look when it comes out in IMAX 3D. (Scheduled for worldwide release in 2014)

Filmed for the first time in 3D and for the giant screen, JERUSALEM immerses audiences into one of the world's most beloved cities, once considered to be the centre of the world.

Discover why this tiny piece of land is sacred to three major religions through the stories of Jewish, Christian and Muslim families who call Jerusalem home. Join renowned archaeologist, Dr. Jodi Magness, as she travels underground to solve some of this city’s greatest mysteries. Find out why, after thousands of years, Jerusalem and the Holy Land continue to stir the imagination of billions of people.

Unprecedented access to the city's holiest sites, as well as rare and breathtaking aerial footage of the Old City, the Holy Land and West Bank, combine to make JERUSALEM a unique and stunning cinematic experience

Seven minute clip - Official Trailer

How Many Slaves Work for Me?

In order to end modern day slavery it is imperative that we are aware of what and who is behind the products we buy.

A challenge, if you're game! Take 10 minutes to complete the survey that will give you a clue as to how many people have been exploited in the making of the goods that you purchase: how many slaves work for you?

27 Million People are victims of human Trafficking; they are bought and sold against their will, they are exploited after responding to 'genuine' opportunities. We need to be part of the Stop the Trafficking agenda.

Irritant or Toxic Waste

You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body;

You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, 

how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
    all the stages of my life were spread out before you,

The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.

[Psalm 139:14-16]

My last trip to Sri Lanka just happened to coincide with the visit of Navi Pillay (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights). For the first week I seemed to be following in her footsteps. [We were staying in the same Hotel, and on one morning I literally tripped over a member of her security detail.]

I visited Mulaittivu in the North East, otherwise known as the Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, and sight of some of our AusAID funded Psychosocial work the day after she had visited. Since May 2009 the area has been littered with the mechanical remnants and wrecks of war, but in the week before her visit, corrugated iron fences were erected to screen off these sights.

It’s in this district that some of the people who spoke with Navi Pillay about ‘the disappeared people’, including a Jesuit Priest and the family of a ‘white Van’ recipient, were visited by Government Security Police and warned to keep quiet. It’s in this Northern Province that women at a Design workshop I ran in Jaffna, in May, told us of a woman who the week before had been taken into the jungle, raped and killed – by Sri Lankan military. After you pass through the Military Checkpoint into the Northern province, the first sign welcoming you to the North is a huge concrete sign which says, “Welcome, from the 58^th Brigade” (the brigade that infamously wiped out over 100,000 people in the Killing Fields in 2009). And every few kilometers from then on Military bases remind you that this place is “free and at peace”!

Mulaittivu is also the origin of many of the asylum seeker boats not welcome in Australian waters today! It’s here that the Australian government has erected numerous billboards telling people not to get on boats because they will not be welcome in Australia.

Last Friday night, Emma Alberici interviewed Navi Pillay on Lateline (ABC TV). One of the things she asked was:

Just today our very new Prime Minister Tony Abbott has expressed the hope that asylum seekers that arrive by boats would be no more than a passing irritant for his Government and for the Indonesians. How do you feel about a world leader describing asylum seekers as irritants?

Navi Pillay:

I am deeply concerned by statements such as that because they promote a stigmatisation of a whole group of people and are totally against the vision and concept of the convention on refugees to which Australia is a party.

Australia is actually known for having provided sanctuary and safety for many refugees, from the region and other parts of the world, Australia is known for readily rescuing people who are in distress, in boats that are unsafe and against this good record I am appalled at statements such as this which justify discrimination against a whole group, a minority group, people who are coming to Australia, because conditions in their own countries are unbearable.

And let me emphasise again - these are poor marginalised men, women and children who are seeking safety in Australia, they should be rehabilitated and will be of benefit, migrants, refugees, must be seen for the value they can add to a country, rather than as some kind of irritants or toxic waste.

[…these are human beings we are dealing with, they're entitled to fundamental rights and one of them is individual screening to understand their situation and obviously no indefinite detention of people on so-called security grounds on which the human rights committee has ruled against Australia in August.]

My trip and this interview cause me to reflect on many issues and I do not have the time to develop those thoughts here, so let me jump to one of the more personal reflections: the attitudes of privileged people to “being put out”.

I wonder if sometimes I am too busy to remember the people behind the programmes. I wonder if sometimes I am guilty of unintentionally treating the people as irritants, because let’s face it, if it wasn’t for people - development theory would be much cleaner, designs would be so much more predictable, budgets would be so much more manageable and logframes could be so much more logical. I wonder if sometimes I am not guilty of hoping that the most vulnerable might just be a passing irritant.

I think we should be outraged by our Prime Ministers words; but I wonder if sometimes our outrage is not in part fuelled by an (unspoken, buried) self-realisation that we are all guilty of treating people as irritants at times – the difference is in what we choose to do about it, how, having recognised our irritation we then act towards others.

So…

May we focus on the people impacted by the process,

May we see the individuals behind the indicators,

May we know the lives as intimately as we know the logframes,

[May all our irritants be procedural rather than the most vulnerable and marginalised]

May you always know that the Architect of your life is interested in you and is looking for your interest in Others.

Hard Times are now turned into Times of Hope

My name is Sumudu, I am 12 years old and have one brother who is younger to me. My memory is of my father as a drunkard who treated us all very badly. I remember my mother always being worried about how to meet our daily needs. My father has taken away the happiness I had with my mother and my younger brother.

I have been sick and spent a lot of time in bed before doctors told us I have Epilepsy. I had a rough idea about my sickness that it would kill me. I was always miserable and not interested in school or making friends.

One day a man from an NGO came to visit us and because he was concerned he took me to hospital for testing and then paid for my medications. He visited me in 2012 and that was the beginning of a great change in my life. 'Uncle' talked to me for a long time and told me that the sickness I had can be managed with having medicine on time. He also convinced me to go back to school. I had told him about children teasing me with my weakness in studies and being a sick child.

Also I would like to tell you that the mobilizer ‘Aunty’ (NGO Community Facilitator) and the leaders of my community who selected my family and me, really take good care of me - I am a sponsored child! Now I am taking medicine from Colombo general hospital and as a result of vocational training skills my mother has received from the NGO, my parents are able to bear the cost for my medicines.

Sumudu's Mum, Wasanthi, was born in a typical poverty stricken family in the tea plantation region of southern Sri Lanka.

I got married to Saman who was a farmer and we have two children together. My husband used to spend his earnings on alcohol, he was addicted, and he was violent. Because of this I and my children faced lots of financial difficulties in our daily lives.

I had started working as a labourer in the tea plantations, and was earning about Rs. 300 (AUD 2.50) a day for my family.

I was selected by the Community leaders to take part in workshops where a number of women and mothers were trained in tea cultivation and management. When I graduated, (2010) from this course I was given 2,500 tea bushes, worth about Rs. 30,000 (AUD 250). Today I am able to harvest leaves from my own plants! I am able to earn Rs. 12,000 (AUD 100.00) per month from this harvest.

Also we had no proper house to live in and a pit latrine which was not safe. But with help we have a good water-sealed latrine and with the community support we have built our house to the roof level.

My achievements, and my family’s increased income is because of the training and guidance from the NGO and the labor support received from the community.  Little by little my husband also changed his life and now he is farming and working to increase our tea harvest. Also the best thing is now he stopped getting alcohol and we are free from fears.

Thank you for all that you've done. Hard times are now turned into times of hope. We have managed this and continue to develop because of your help. I like to give my heartiest thanks to the NGO and the sponsors who support our development.