In memory of Trevor Grant: a real Australian journalist

"But all I feel is sadness; sadness not just that I'm going to die prematurely, but sadness that I live in a society that, so often and so easily, still writes off human lives as collateral damage in the pursuit of profit."

Trevor Grant

"Sport is another commodity to be bought and consumed these days, and a roll-over, puppy-dog media, which often has financial relationships with the biggest sports, ensures this process goes unchallenged."
Trevor Grant

"With Trevor’s passing, Tamils, refugees and everyone concerned about truth and justice have lost a great friend and committed fighter. His commitment - which never wavered during his illness - should inspire us to continue the search for truth and justice.  Trevor was a good and courageous man. We will miss him."

Callum Macrae, director of documentary, 'No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka.'

Trevor Grant died a week ago. He was just 65, another Australian victim of mesothelioma, asbestos cancer,  a disease caused by the callous pursuit of corporate profit.

I never met Trevor Grant, but I admired and respected his writing as a journalist, particularly his exposure of the corrupt links between sport and corporate interests and the influence of corporate thinking, and his campaigning, research and advocacy work on behalf of the Tamil people.

Grant spent 40 years as a journalist  much of that time as a sports journalist and broadcaster in the mainstream media, writing about Australian rules football and cricket. 

After he left mainstream journalism, Grant started driving a truck as a volunteer, distributing food and furniture to Tamil refugees.  Martin Flanagan tells how Grant came to become involved on behalf of the Tamil people:

"Being an affable character, he engaged them in conversation and kept hearing stories he'd never heard before, stories about rape, torture, abduction and killings. Then he met a young Tamil man who had smuggled out photos of what went on during the final days of the country's civil war between the Tamils and the Rajapaksa government, the same government the Australian government is now working with to repatriate Tamil boat people ever more quickly."

Grant ran a sports program What's the score sport? on Melbourne community radio 3CRR in which he explored how sport was captured and controlled by corporate and business interests. He continued to write articles for the Age newspaper, but most of his writing appeared in leftist publications, including Green Left Weekly,  Red Flag and Independent Australia.

For Independent Australia, he wrote about what he called 'enlightened racism' in Australian Rules Football. His articles for Red Flag, mainly on the genocide and destruction of the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan government, are here.

His articles for Green Left Weekly are here.

Grant exposed the hypocrisy of the AFL on issues of racism, homophobia and misogyny and the fear and ignorance of the unconventional and critical thinking that dominated mainstream sport.  In a 2013 article in the Melbourne Age he wrote:

"The boofhead culture that has defined male professional sport, and its mostly male media, for aeons has gone through a makeover in recent times, with the AFL putting itself at the head of social justice campaigns. But the truth is that racism, sexism and homophobia still exist in footy clubs and their big support bases. And, inevitably, a man who feels so strongly about these cruel, destructive prejudices is going to struggle to cope in an environment that gives them so much oxygen.

"The highly paid image-makers project the AFL as a broad, enlightened church, free of the bigotry of the past. But, really, it is like any other corporate environment in pursuit of a singular aim, and therefore unable to accommodate anyone who dares to step outside its rigid parameters. So often there is a difference between the public face and the private reality."

In an article about cyclist Lance Armstrong, Grant wrote about the capture and corruption of professional cycling by corporate capitalism:

"The corporatisation of cycling has been a long and arduous process but capitalism has dug in its poisonous claws and isn’t about to let go. Along the way, it has produced many victims, including Tom Simpson and the 1998 Tour de France winner Marco Pantani, a serial drug cheat who died of a cocaine overdose in 2004. Now the reputation of the greatest cyclist of all time, Lance Armstrong, whose recovery from cancer inspired so many people around the world, is in tatters."

Grant continued:

"Let us be clear about one thing. International professional cycling is first and foremost a business and run by some of the world’s biggest capitalists. The cyclists are merely workers acting under instructions from their profit-hungry bosses. Indeed, as the entire sports world pours scorn on Armstrong, it studiously avoids the real culprits – blood-sucking corporations that earn huge profits on the backs, legs, and hearts, of the riders, most of whom are paid a relative pittance. The Tour de France is the flagship of a billion dollar industry, with the capacity to catch drug cheats any time it wants. All it needs is the will. It has the money to finance revolutionary testing regimes and it has a very good idea about who is using drugs. They are their workers and this business, through the Tour owners and the sponsors, is closely involved in their workers’ performance"

Grant was a high-profile activist and campaigner against social, political and economic injustice. He worked on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers, especially from Sri Lanka, and wrote a book on atrocities in their homeland, Sri Lanka's Secrets – How the Rajapaksa regime gets away with Murder. The book provided a detailed account of war crimes committed against the Tamils by the Sri Lanka government and its foreign allies.

In 2012-2013, he campaigned for a boycott of the Sri Lankan cricket team in Australia and led protests outside cricketing venues. 

In an article in the Melbourne Age he described the direct links between the Sri Lankan Government's policy of murder and genocide targeting the Tamil people and the Sri Lankan cricket team:

"But what will be forgotten in the excitement is the dark side to this team. It's not so much the individual players but, what and who, they really represent. In other words, the rich and powerful in the Sri Lankan nation and an elected government that is alleged to be engaging in genocide against the poorest of its own people, many of whom are seeking refuge here. The Sri Lankan President is part of this elite and a man who loves to align himself with sport, especially cricket. He has openly influenced selection, made sure the new national stadium in Colombo was named after him, and rarely misses a photo opportunity with a star in creams. Brutal oppressors love to use sport to launder their image. But Rajapaksa can't fool anybody who reads about world affairs......

The links between this regime and the cricket team are there for all to see. The recently retired captain, Sanath Jayasuriya, is now an elected representative of the Rajapaksa government. Spinner Ajantha Mendis, named on stand-by for the Tests but likely to play in the one-day series, is a second-lieutenant and gunner in the Sri Lankan Army who saw active service in the civil war. Rajapaksa was guest of honour at his wedding last year.

The former captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, is a politician who was in the government camp before switching further to the right in recent times. He described General Sarath Fonseka, the military commander of the Tamil massacre, as a wonderful man who can "save" Sri Lankan politics."

Grant  co-founded the Tamil Refugee Council  and served as its Convener. He founded  Refugee Radio at 3CR Community Radio and organised vigils and protests to highlight ongoing human rights violations in Sri Lanka.

Grant was highly respected amongst refugee campaigners for his principled stand and campaigning for the rights of Tamil asylum seekers and refugees. One activist colleague of mine wrote about Trevor:

"I very quickly friended Trevor on Facebook, would immediately devour every article he wrote for the magazine, and was thrilled to bits to finally meet him when we protested at the MCG against Sri Lankan human rights abuse. He was a hero, a lovely man, a great writer, and he will be sorely missed for years to come by everybody with a social conscience".

In 2015, aged 63, Grant was diagnosed with mesothelioma, the result of decades of working in newspaper offices containing asbestos. He wrote about his diagnosis in this ABC article.

'What I discovered through the process of a Supreme Court action I launched in September last year shocked me to the core. Thanks to the work of an industrial hygienist whose files can pinpoint asbestos in buildings throughout the Melbourne CBD, I discovered I had been working close to the dangers of asbestos for decades, both at The Age building at 250 Spencer Street, where I worked from 1969-1970 and 1978-1989, and the Herald office on 44-74 Flinders Street, where I worked from 1970-74 and 1989-1996. Records showed workers in both these buildings, mostly printers and tradesmen working with insulation, had contracted mesothelioma during these times. I worked on separate floors from these people, but I'd had a lot of regular contact with many on the printing and composing room floors, especially as a young sub-editor. 

My first question was, how come I didn't know that I'd been working for decades in an environment that had killed people? Why isn't it compulsory for those responsible for these death-traps to notify potential victims?"

Grant concluded with these powerful words:

"I expected to be angry about all this; angry about a cynical corporation (Hardie) risking so many thousands of lives, including my own, for the sake of its bottom line; angry every time I saw the foreign minister Julie Bishop on television and was reminded she was paid handsomely as a lawyer to represent one of these vulture corporations; angry that nobody warns potential victims that they had worked in places where others had contracted the disease."

Grant was a committed trade unionist, a member of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance and was actively involved with the Australian Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), until his death. He was a committed supporter of Palestine, West Papua, and Indigenous peoples around the world.

Richard Flanagan has written this fine piece about Trevor Grant in the Melbourne Age. Sri Lankan and Tamil spokesperson acknowledge the contribution of Trevor Grant in this article. Other pieces  in memory of Trevor Grant are here, here, here and here.

James Paul: The roots of the European refugee crisis lie with western intervention

"The aggressive nationalist beast in the heart of the political class of Europe and the United States is ready to engage in more military adventures. These leaders are not ready to learn the lesson, or to beware the 'blowback' from future interventions. This is why we need to look closely at the 'regime change' angle, to beware upcoming proposals for more intervention, and to increase public resistance to further war. It is clear enough that the crisis of migration and war has been 'Made in Europe' and 'Made in USA."  

James Paul

As the European refugee crises deepens, James Paul* calls for clear understanding of the roots of the crisis. Paul writes:

 

 "The huge flow of refugees into Europe has created a political crisis in the European Union, especially in Germany, where neo-nazi thugs battle police almost daily and fire-bombings of refugee housing have alarmed the political establishment. There is also the wider crisis in the EU over which countries will take in refuges and how many. The public has been horrified by refugee drownings in the Mediterranean, deaths in trucks and railway tunnels, thousands of children and families, caught in the open, facing border fences and violence from security forces. Religious leaders call for tolerance, while EU politicians wring their hands and wonder how they can solve the issue with new rules and more money.

  "Meanwhile, the refugee flow has been increasing rapidly, with no end in sight. The German government has estimated that it will take in 800,000 asylum-seekers during 2015. The overall flow into Europe for the year will probably be well above a million. Germany and Sweden are the main destinations.

 

Paul writes that: 

 

"Only a clear understanding of the origins of the crisis can lead to an answer, but European leaders do not want to touch this hot wire and expose their own culpability. In the U.S., there is little sensible analysis either

 

He writes  that the political and humanitarian crisis in Europe over refugees has been created by the flood of 'regime change' refugees  from countries torn apart by war and is  a crisis that was largely ‘Made in Europe’, with the active connivance of Washington.

 

James notes that the refugees are all from countries with  vicious conflicts  that  began with Western military intervention, direct or indirect and continued to be fueled by Western intervention.

    "The migrants coming to Europe are mostly fleeing conflicts. The data on origins make that clear. The migrants are coming primarily from Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Pakistan in the Middle East, and to a lesser extent from Eritrea, Somalia and Nigeria in Africa. These are all countries with vicious conflicts -- conflicts that (with the exception of Nigeria) began with Western military intervention, direct or indirect and continued to be fueled by intervention. In Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia the intervention was very direct. In Syria, Pakistan and Eritrea, it has been less direct but very clear nonetheless. 

    "The term 'regime change refugees' helps focus on where the primary responsibility lies. It changes an empty conversation in the direction of reality. Official discourse in Europe and the United States frames the civil wars and economic turmoil in terms of fanaticism, corruption, dictatorship, economic failures and other causes for which Western governments and publics believe they have no responsibility. The Western leaders and media stay silent about the military intervention and regime change, interventions that have torn the refugees’ homelands apart and resulted in civil war, state collapse and extremely violent conditions lasting for long periods. 

    "Some European leaders, the French in particular, are arguing in favor of further military intervention in these war-torn lands on their periphery as a way to 'do something' and (ironically) 'end the violence.' Overthrowing Assad appears to be popular among the policy classes in Paris, who choose to ignore how counter-productive their overthrow of Gaddafi was just a short time ago and how counter-productive has been their clandestine support in Syria for the Islamist rebels. The intensive Western bombing campaign in Syria (now joined by France), aimed in theory at the forces of the Islamic State, are killing many civilians and further destabilizing the war-ravaged country.

 

* James Paul is executive director of the Middle East Research and Information Project, author of Syria Unmasked  and for 20 years was executive director of Global Policy Forum, a think tank that monitors the UN. 

The 'meddling' priest who upsets corporate Australia

"What inspires me and us, as a faith community of course, is the life and teachings of Jesus. So we stand for what He stood for, what we believe He stood for, which was justice and equality, compassion and a society that looks after the edges, that doesn't just look after the powerful and the wealthy."

Father Rod Bower

Father Rod Bower is an Anglican Priest in the city of Gosford in NSW whose views unsettle  the corporate and political elite so much that they want to shut him up. 

 

Father Rod has made a name for himself by his tweets and the political statements he makes on the noticeboard outside his Church, particularly about Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, as well as issues of climate change, marriage equality, race relations and the power of the media.

Dianne Gander-Smith is the high profile and influential Chairperson of the detention centre operator Transfield.

Gander-Smith is an avid self-promoter who appears regularly in the business pages  offering advice to business and Australian citizens and talking up  her business and sporting expertise.

 

Like many in the business and corporate world,  the Transfield Chairwoman is  remarkably sensitive to criticism and Father Rod has angered the Transfield Chair so much that she  has arranged a  meeting with his boss, the Anglican Archbishop of Newcastle Greg Thompson, ostensibly to shut up Father Rod. 

Father Bower is bewildered by Transfield's reaction and believes it is an attempt to gag him.

"Well, there's billions of dollars at stake here. It's a very large contract of taxpayers' money being poured into the oppression of human beings, so whenever there's a lot of money involved, there's a lot at stake, and yes, that's what they would be trying to do."

Bishop Thompson has agreed to meet the Transfield Chairwoman and indicated that Father Bower has his full support, commenting:

"They are serious questions of our capacity to be both compassionate and responsive to the great need across our region. But, also, as we're seeing in Europe, the tidal wave of humanity fleeing the wars in which we are participating in, and I think we have a responsibility in our own country to be compassionate."

 

The signs that appear to have upset the Transfield Chair include 'Hell exists on Naura' , HESTA divests Transfield. Good on Ya'  and "Don't invest in evil' about the decision by superannuation fund HESTA to withdraw its investment from Transfield over risks associated with the company's  contract to run immigration detention centres for the Australian Government on Naura and Manus Island.

Transfield are also unhappy about a recent tweet of Fr Rod's on the recent decision by the Abbott Government to renew Transfield's contract  to run Australia's immigration gulags on  Naura and Manus Island.

 

Fr Rod tweeted:

 

"It is beyond belief that Transfield, a company that has presided over Australian concentration camps amidst allegations of child sexual abuse, rape, torture and murder, could be awarded an extended contract. It is indicative of the delusion that now operates in the Abbott Government and the consequences of unchecked power. This level of disregard for suffering is reminiscent of the worst days of the church now being exposed by the Royal Commission. We are right being condemned for remaining silent while these crimes were being committed. We are determined never to be silent again

 

The Transfield Chairperson's response says much about Transfield's desperation, sensitivity to criticism and desire to protect its image and reputation in the face of growing criticism and public outrage about their involvement in running immigration detention centres.

Everyday heroes: sit-ins 50 years apart show the power of ordinary people to take action against injustice

"You don't have to be a big name to make a difference and impact change. Small things can make ripples that make a big difference"
Joan Trumpauer Mullholland

Today in a Perth court 11 Christian leaders were fined $50 each for trespass after they held a prayer vigil and sit-in at the office of the Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop as a protest against the plight of 1100 children imprisoned in Australia's onshore and offshore immigration detention camps.

There was some concern that the Christian leaders faced a jail sentence for their protest.

The protest in the Foreign Minister's office was followed by subsequent prayer vigils and sit-in by other Christians and Church leaders on the east coast, this time in the offices of the Immigration Minister, The Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition.

The Christian leaders are part of a long tradition in which ordinary people use sit-ins as a form of direct action protest against injustice and domination,

This iconic photo was taken on May 28th 1963 in Jackson Mississippi and shows 3 people- 2 white people and one black woman- participating in a sit- in protest at a Woolworths lunch counter. They are surrounded by angry and aggressive white men who are pouring sugar, liquid and ketchup over the 3 protesters.

The protesters were three students- John Salter, Joan Trumpauer and Anne Moody- who were protesting against racial segregation of lunch counters in Woolworths stores throughout the American south.

Initially the protesters were jeered and taunted and then doused in sugar and ketchup. They were then beaten and kicked.  

It was one of the most violent attacks on protesters involved in a sit-in the history of the civil rights movement.

The attack went on for 3 hours as the Police stood by and watched

 The Woolworths store manager eventually had to close the store and the protesters were escorted away by Police.

 
The story of the Woolworths sit in, the events that lead up to the protest and the fall out from it (including the murder two weeks later of civil rights leader Medger Evers) and the stories of the protesters involved are told in Mike O'Brien's book We Shall Not Be Moved.

The Jackson sit-in was one of a long line of sit-ins used during the civil rights movement to protest against racial segregation in the South during the early 1960's.

Wednesday's poem: Ali Alizadeh

The Suspect
Ali Alizadeh

Over there, in the Other land, I was
gharb-zadeh, Farsi to the effect of west-

smitten. Over here, in 'Our' land, I am
Muslim immigrant, nomenclature with grave

 allusions: unemployment, anger, and
unpredictable police attention. Over there

I was an 'apostate', principal's term for
the boy who failed Koran Studies and wrote 

 an essay on Leonardo da Vinci. Over here
dainty high school girl rejected this thick

 -accented adolescent for being too hairy
and a 'Muslim rapist'. Over there, utterly guilty

of doodling Zorro; hence flogged by the irate
principal. Over here shackled to a passport

etched with 'born in Tehran'. 

There I was suspected of perfidy to the Faith, an Infidel

- wannabe. Over here I am suspected 

of terror, 'Our' values' covert enemy. My likes

 don't belong to tribes, nations, et al; but 

welcome at the cells of the Islamic Republic's

 

Evin Prison, pliers pinching their finger

- nails; or sleep-deprived and hooded indefinitely

 in the dark solitaries of Guantánamo Bay.

(from Ashes in the Air 2011)

Ali Alizadeh was born in Tehran, Iran in 1976 and came to Australia in 1991 as a teenager. 

Alizadeh is  a lecturer in creative writing at Monash University and writes poetry, fiction, drama, novels, biography and translates Persian poetry. He has taught at universities in Australia, China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, and has worked as a street performer, hair-wrapper and delivery driver.

The poem The Suspect is from Ashes in the Air is his third book of poetry. An interview with Alizadeh is here.

His website is here.

More detail on all his books can be found here.

Citizens taking action in Perth this weekend

A busy weekend of activity coming up for WA's citizen led sector and WA civil society groups with a number of important rallies and events in Perth this weekend worthy of support. I will be speaking at one of them.

Rally against Unconventional Gas Fracking  at 1pm this Saturday October 13th in Fremantle is part of a National Week of Action against unconventional gas fracking as called by the Lock the Gate Alliance. Here in WA the unconventional gas threat has grown more serious with full scale shale and tight gas fields planned for the Mid West and the Kimberley. Speakers include: Greens MP Alison Xamon, Jamie Hanson from Conservaion Council of WA, Greg Glazov from Doctors for the Environment, Marcus Atkinson from Nuclear Free Future, Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt and also a member of No Fracking WAy.

The Global Noise Street Festival to be held in the Perth Cultural Centre from 6pm to 9pm this Saturday October 13th forms part of the Occupy Perth celebrations and the Global Occupy movement.

The annual Reclaim the Streets March will commence at 2pm on Saturday 13th October from the Perth Cultural Centre.

Welcome Refugees is a protest against mandatory detention and Australia's offshore asylum seeker processing regimes organized by the Refugee Rights Action Network (RRAN) WA. The event will take place at 1pm this Sunday October 14th at the Wesley Church corner  on the Corner of Hay and William Streets in the Perth CBD.

Gerry Georgatos on Serco's ongoing contract failures

I have posted before (here) about Gerry Georgatos's pioneering approach to investigative journalism. As the WA reporter for the National Indigenous Times Gerry combines investigative reporting with PhD studies and human rights and social justice campaigning.

Gerry is the only journalist in WA and one of the few in this country willing to investigate the appalling record of the UK multinational Serco, who runs more and more of the nation and WA's public services.

Serco has highly profitable contracts with the Gillard Government to run Australia's controversial immigration detention centres and also runs many of Australia's defence and military bases, including overseas military bases.

Since the Barnett Government came to power Serco's power and influence in Western Australia has grown, thanks largely to their profound and deep conections within the Liberal Party and the Government bureaucracy.

Serco won a contract to run WA's largest hospital Fiona Stanley Hospital despite having no experience running hospitals in Australia. From November it will run WA's only juvenile prison. It already runs Acacia Prison. Serco took over the highly controversial prisoner transport contract from G4S.

Gerry's latest report which will appear in the National Indigenous Times this week describes Serco's continual and constant contractual failure in the prisoner transport contract.

Whistleblowers to National Indigenous Times correct, SERCO wrong says government arbiter

Gerry Georgatos

The multinational SERCO has been hit with a fine of nearly $600,000 and has been told to get its act together. Department of Corrective Services and SERCO whistleblowers to the National Indigenous Times had said that SERCO had been failing to meet its prisoner transport contract duties - and had failed to turn up to pick up prisoners for court appearances, had failed to provide staff for prisoners attending public hospitals and had taken prisoners to the wrong prisons.

SERCO is one of the world's wealthiest organizations and holds not only prison management and prisoner transport contracts, however lucrative immigration detention contracts, and is entrenched in the service delivery of public transport, human resource management and public welfare components and the public health systems.

The Contract for the Provision of Court Security and Custodial Services annual report noted that a performance improvement notice was issued and the reason for this was "persistent poor performance."

In May, a customer satisfication survey was conducted by a government arbiter and found a satisfaction rate of only 52.6 per cent. The annual survey referenced 32,000 prisoner transfers and movements 6,600 court sitting days.

Social researcher  and SERCOWATCH spokesperson, Colin Penter said that the fine and the one in two failures exposed by the survey and by whistleblowers evidences "a consistent failure of SERCO failing to meet targets" and that the underperformance impacts on the prisoners.

SERCO took over the prison transport and court services contracts from G4S, the company in whose care Aboriginal Elder Mr Ward died from horrific burns and dehydration in the back of a prison van on a 43 degree day during a 360km desert drive.

"SERCO has improved nothing, they are just as bad as G4S which killed Mr Ward," said UWA law student and former Deaths in Custody Watch Committee chairperson, Marianne Mackay.

"They are unfit to hold any tenders and contracts to do with the criminal justice system. Our people suffer in their hands."

"Nyoongar man Grantley Winmar died in SERCO run Acacia Prison after being neglected for days - he died of haemorrhaging."

The Australian Institute of Criminology in its 2008/2009 report noted that prison deaths in private company managed prisons died at three times the rate than those dying in government run prisons - 4.5 deaths per 1,000 prisoners in private prisons compared to 1.3 deaths per 1,000 prisoners in government run prisons.

Mr Penter said SERCO cannot be trusted with the profit motive appearing to be foremost. "In the UK SERCO was found to have lied 252 times, and the failures of the SERCO run prison in Christchurch are there for all to see - it comes down to gross neglect."

"To put everything in context SERCO's neglect leads to deaths." In the UK SERCO was slammed for the death of a 14 year old boy in their custody  

"What is disturbing for me is that the whistleblowers who were in a way the 'family', the support, of the prisoners are now gone from inside. They were right all along despite SERCO and the Department of Corrective Services saying otherwise."

In recent months there has been an outcry against the Department of Corrective Services push to use video-link and Skype technology for court appearances and in that prisoners were refused transport to funerals.

The annual report revealed that this is already in place and has reduced the attendance of prisoners to and from courts by nearly 30 per cent in the past year due the increased use of video-link technology.

"A son and daughter, despite being an inmate, should be allowed the dignity of attendance at a parent's funeral, it is both a customary right and the humane thing. Using money as an excuse to stop our people attending funerals well the line must be drawn and this not allowed," said Ms Mackay.

"Our people should also have court attendance in person, so they know what's going on and can speak for themselves and not be removed from their full set of rights and comprehension by being stuck in a prison room and in front of a camera where they can input very little - this should be illegal."

A DCS spokesperson said, "It is too early to assume any service delivery trends or issues from a single survey. DCS Commissioner Ian Johnson was reported saying that the DCS is constantly developing "practices that reduced the need for unnecessary prisoner transport" and that in fact he said "70 per cent of all appearances were now by video link."

When citizen protests saves lives

Last week I spoke at a protest attended by over 150 citizen activists  outside the Northam (Yonga Hill) Immigration Detention Centre.  

The protestors rallied against mandatory detention, recent changes to Australia's asylum seeker policies and the profiteering and human rights abuses of Serco, the UK corporation that has a $1.6 billion contact with the Gillard Government to run the immigration detention system.

Inside the Centre 600 asylum seekers are imprisoned by the Australian Government, the Department of Immigration and Serco.

The most powerful speaker was "J" a Sri Lankan man who had been imprisoned on the Christmas Island Detention Centre. His speech pointed to the importance of citizen protests for the health and wellbeing of people in detention. J suggested that protests  actually save lives as they push back against the harm caused by mandatory detention.

 His speech is posted below: 

Hi everyone, my name is P***11, that’s what I used to be called in the detention, P***11. Being next to this detention centre just reminded me of how I was in the Christmas Island Detention. I don’t know which words should I use to describe that experience...should I use terrible? It was really - very, very bad - extremely bad. Being in somewhere you’ve never done anything wrong, and you’re locked up...and you run away from your country, from the place where is your family - looking for freedom – then – when you - the first time you put your step in Christmas island, you say hey, I am free now, like you know, almost now I am free, then unfortunately you are locked up for a year or something like this there. And...it’s like prison, it is a prison, it is not detention.

Everything – everything is like, the doors are locked, you can’t go through any door if you don’t have an officer next to you, even the medical area. The medical area should be like for if someone is sick or he needs just treatment and...that door...I just remember very well - it was that thick. It’s very, very bad to be there even afterwards – I never had any problem, mental problem - even in Christmas Island - but I had um somehow a sleeping problem, I couldn’t like sleeping more than two hours, like continuously. So two hours, wake up, then do something, then another two hours. Afterwards when I came to Australia – the mainland –and I am free - I shouldn’t have that problem because I don’t worry about anything but still I have that problem for a while for like the first 6 or first 7 months there.

The main issue there is you’re locked up and everyone is depressed, you just see your friends go, you make friend today - next day is gone. You don’t know, he’s just in the midnight, suddenly he is gone, he’s just like, next day you are looking for him then suddenly, you can’t find him because he has been transferred somewhere else.

Every week or every couple of days you will witness someone hang himself and that will like bring you down and already the detention is like kind of hell – you know I never been to hell – but it is hell. You know if you are somewhere in the hell and you want to climb up, you want to get out, but somehow, who runs that detention say, get down, that’s your place, it’s not up. It’s like every time you try to be better healthier, somewhere to do something good they say get down that’s your place, up is not your place.

Um personally, I witnessed three people, they commit suicide, you know one of them they uh, Sri Lankan guy, poor guy, he is died. He commit suicide by his bed- um – his bed sheets, um and he make like rope or something and he hang himself up, with somewhere very high. Just ask yourselves what kind of motivation he had to go all the way up just to hang himself and kill himself. And he was one of my friends, he had like problem like staying there for long time and depressed and he ended with, why am I here? Like what’s the end? Let’s just finish it, let’s kill myself and that’s it.  

I never thought about these things in my life, but when I was in Christmas Island I thought about it once and thank god I didn’t do anything like this. But there are heaps of people who do it around you, all your friends think about it, all your friends are depressed, if you are trying your best to be like positive, you cannot because your friends who runs the detention, like total negative and racist. Totally racist...

I would say thankyou for every single man and woman who came here. I really, really, really appreciate it, appreciate it that you support my case and my friends case. And I just I talk you about one thing, I remember one of the time we did a protest at Christmas island and some people they did it in Sydney, we couldn’t see them because they are far away but we saw them, we saw some uh photos over the internet and we were so happy, we were so happy. Like okay, not all of them racist, there is some of them there, they like us, they want us and say okay okay, some of us say okay I’m going to like fight and stay healthy, maybe one day I get my visa.

And by the way, one of the first English words we have learned there is ‘racist’. Um so please, please, please show us if you are welcome us, show us. I swear to god you give us heaps of motivation to stay alive, we don’t hang ourselves, we don’t hang ourselves, we don’t commit suicide inside the detention. We say okay this country, the government don’t like us maybe, but the people like us. So and finally we will get in.

Another corporation set to make millions out of Australia's abuse of children and young people

The corporate takeover of Australia's human and community services continues.

Another multinational corporation is set to profit from Australia's immigration detention system and its abuse of children and young people.

The Gillard Government has signed a new contract worth $29 million with the US based Maximus Solutions to care for  unaccompanied minors held in Australia's immigration detention gulags. The contract was previously held by Life Without Barriers, an Australian not- for- profit organization.

The figure is the nominal amount of a new contract between the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and the US based Maximus Solutions to provide ``care and support'' to teenage asylum-seekers who arrive by boat without a parent or a guardian. 

The extract below is from Paige Taylor's report in the Australian (July 12 2012)
 
There are currently 168 such teens, mostly boys, living under guard in ``alternative places of detention'' at Darwin airport, on Christmas Island and at a camp in the West Australian northern goldfields town of Leonora.

 
In the costly context of Australia's immigration detention network, the department finds the $29m contract represents good value.

 
It is a tiny sliver of the size of the five-year contract between the Immigration Department and Serco for the management of Australia's immigration detention centres on Christmas Island and the mainland; in July last year, that agreement, due to expire in 2014, was valued at $1,032,827,276.

 
The contract is one of the measures the federal government has in place to meet its obligations towards unaccompanied minors.

 
``As a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Australian government takes its obligations towards unaccompanied minors very seriously,'' the Immigration Department states on its website.

 
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen is the legal guardian of all unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in Australia; as of last Friday, there were a total of 310 -- almost half, 142, had been placed in community housing under the care of the Red Cross while the rest were still in detention. ``The contract is for care and support services to unaccompanied minors in the detention network,'' a spokesman for the department said yesterday.

 
``It is also for `independent observer' services on Christmas Island and in mainland Australia.''

Maximus Solutions is a subsidiary of the US based Maximus Inc.

Maximus Inc is a US based multinational corporation that works in the health and human services industries in US, Canada, UK and Australia. It wins Government contracts to provide services previously delivered by Governments or not-for-profit organizations. With a motto Helping Government serve the People Maximus employs 8800 people worldwide.

Maximus is embroiled in controversy wherever it goes. Maximus settled with the US Government over corporate fraud allegations after it (the Government) bought a lawsuit against Maximus for falsifying $30.5 million of Medicare claims.  The Department of Justice statement on the settlement is here.

Maximus was also found to have doubled billed for services in New Jersey.

Maximus makes heavy use of lobbyists and payments to politicians and political parties. Maximus was reputed to have won a $72 million contract after it donated funds to current Presidential candidate Matt Romney when he was Massachusetts Governor.

In the UK Maximus and other other corporate providers have massively increased sanctions imposed on  welfare recipients have developed grassroots campaigns targeting a range of corporations, including Maximus, accusing them of profiteering and exploitation of people on welfare.

Here in Australia journalist Elisabeth Wynhausen has investigated Max Employment's provision of employment support services on behalf of the Australia Government in 84 sites and 71 outreach locations.

The dark side of Australia"s refugee policies: Safe havens and the Balkans wars

Once again events of the past have been catapulted into our daily existence.

The arrest of former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic is a reminder of the terrible events of the Balkans Wars of the 1990s.

Mladic will stand trial accused of the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995 and the deaths of 10,000 people (including 3000 children) during the 3.5 year siege of Sarajevo during the early 1990's.


Mladic led the Bosnian Serb armed forces during the Balkan Wars of the 1990's and was responsible for the worst ethnically motivated mass murders in Europe since WW 2. He was arrested in a small farming town north of Belgrade after Police were tipped off by a local source.

So while those events resonate around the world, they have a profound resonance here in Australia, particularly for people who fled the Balkans war and came to Australia under Safe Haven visas in search of sanctuary. Many found it, but others didn't, as Pamela Curr from the Melbourne based Asylum Seeker Resource Centre points out in this piece.

Pamela's piece reminds us that that some refugees from the Balkan Wars who came to Australia were treated appallingly by Australian Governments of both political persuasions, despite government rhetoric about safe havens.

Pamela's piece is a reminder that the "dark side" of Australian Government immigration policies and practices, something that is ever more evident by the day,  has a long history that should never be forgotten.

"It was dark and noisy in the Trades Hall Bar. The boy leant forward  as he told me about the day Ratko Mladic came to his village. The soldiers rounded up everyone then separated the men and the women. The boy stood beside his father at the back of the group.

Mladic called out for boys born in certain years to step forward. He was 17. His year was called. As he moved to obey, his father fixed his arm in a vice-like grip, wordlessly holding him back. The boy saw his friends marched around the side of the barn. Then the shots rang out. The father whispered to the boy- run- NOW. In the distress and confusion, he escaped into the hills.

This boy came to Australia in 1999 on a Safe Haven visa when the Australian government responded to a call to accept evacuees until they could safely return. He stayed at the Albury army camp and was welcomed by the local community who responded with generosity and hospitality to the Kosavars. Then overnight the Australian army left and the private security contractors took over and the open camp became a prison.

The boy and his friend escaped on the same day. They worked on farms along the Murray until betrayed and handed over to Immigration. Then they were detained in Maribyrnong Detention centre. There, they witnessed the terrible death of Viliami Tanginoa who dived head first off the basket ball post after being ignored all day. They saw his body lying in the rain for an hour. Then they were taken to the Melbourne Custody Centre and locked in isolation for six weeks. Then they were taken to the Fitzroy Police cells and locked up for 23 hours out of 24 for months. They were never charged with any crime.

Eventually they were released to report to the police station every day until they were deported."

Gerry Georgatos: Despatch from Curtin Detention Centre in Derby

This piece was written by Gerry Georgatos, human rights and social justice activist from outside the Curtin Detention Centre near Derby in the north west of WA.

 

Gerry is among 60 activists who are at this moment converging on the Curtin Detention Centre to express solidarity with the 1500 asylum seekers detained there. Gerry provides an update on events over the last two days.

(I have not had the chance to proof this article, it has been written on a laptop powered by a generator with a limited power supply, from nearby the Curtin Detention Centre as we are in grip of divisiveness between peoples.... please read and circulate widely. Please.)

60 human rights advocates and social justice activists made up of doctors, lawyers, mental health workers, nurses, teachers, social workers, tradespeople, academics, students and others, from various social justice organisations and campaign groups, and others not affiliated to anyone, have arrived this day, Easter Saturday, April 23rd, to Curtin Detention Centre.

 

We journeyed under the banner of the Refugees Rights Action Network from Perth in a hired bus and with a support vehicle with a trailer of food and camping equipment. The bus was driven by three of the advocates who recently acquired the licence, at their own cost, so as to ensure this journey. We left on Thursday, 7pm from East Perth, with fifty on board the bus and after 24 hours of driving camped at Eightly Mile Beach, arriving near midnight on Easter Friday.

 

We arrived at Curtin Detention Centre at 3pm on the Saturday. During the last month forty of us had submitted to the Serco managed Curtin Detention Centre therebouts 100 visitor applications. We have been in contact with hundreds of our Asylum Seekers for many months. They are despairing, many are at the brink of mental and physical despair. Their maltreatment in these illegal facilities which incarcerate them have reached a critical mass of rising self harm, depression, acute and chronic trauma, suicide and multiple suicide attempts, and suicide. There have been six Detention Centre deaths (in custody) during the last eight months and undisclosed numerous suicide attempts. Reports to us clearly describe self harm and suicide attempts as a daily occurrence.

 

Curtin Detention Centre today is on the brink of a pending crisis brought on as per usual by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and Serco management. They are literally driving people into mental illness and literally killing people. Australian of the Year, in 2010, psychiatrist Patrick McGorrie described these Detention Centres as "mental illness factories". Australia has 23 Detention Centres and is now building another three Detention Centres. The budget for Detention and processing blows out every year, and is now up to 1.5 billion dollars per annum. How better could we spend this?

 

Our bus travelled down the beginning of the seven kilometre road leading to the Curtin Detention Centre where we were met by a gated blockade. Behind this gate stood Serco guards, federal police and an Australian Defence Force official. We were instructed that visits may not be possible, then we were told that some visits would be scheduled. We were then told that eight visits would be allowed and that we had to wait. We were lectured by the ADF and the AFP that we would be arrested if we proceeded unauthorised through the gates.

 

As the afternoon wore on it became evident visits would not be enabled and that we were being lied to. We soon learned from an Asylum Seeker who we made contact with by phone that the detainees had been told by Serco management that we were 'not coming'. They did not believe this and despaired. Some fifty of the advocates civilly approached the fence and we spoke with the Serco frontline employees. Conflicting explanations and depictions were deployed on behalf of Serco management. I phone the Centre manager on his mobile from outside the gate however on this occasion someone else answered. I asked that Michael Puglisi, the Serco employed Centre manager come to the fence to discuss the situation rather than exploit his personnel whose job it was not to defend Serco management decisions. Prosocially I argued this case with the Serco staff at the gates who most appeared to be in a drone like state bar one individual who expressed his ethos of care for the detainees and who appeared to well with tears.

 

Eventually Michael Puglisi, Curtin Detention Centre manager drove to the fence to meet us however remained on the other side of the barricade, and did not unlock the gate. Throughout the discussions with many of us he often contradicted himself and clearly demonstrated an agenda to inhibit the visits. At times Serco officers had explained to us that they had not received our visitor application forms however Michael could not speak in this light as I had scanned and emailed forms to him and had spoken to him over the phone and had his acknowledgment of the forms in writing. However he disgraced himself by declaring that it was not possible for any visits to occur on the Saturday. This outrage incurred the frustration and disappointment of the civil advocates. Unperturbed Michael used a number of excuses, that appeared concocted, to describe why this could not happen, this including that new constructions were underway and one on one meeting rooms were not available and that evening visits were not possible because of the onset of poor lighting issues. However these were disproved as we learned visits by others who they did not know knew us and were part of us, however they had joined us from the eastern states, arriving earlier, were occurring and continued into the evening.

 

I explained to Michael that they were only exacerbating tensions in the Detention Centre and that these lies would backfire however at the price of human life. Ultimately he insisted that some visits would be scheduled for Sunday and Monday however he would make us aware of them on the Sunday morning and not before.

 

I asked Michael if he had been instructed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to inhibit our right to visit our Asylum Seekers and therefore their right to be met by us. His body language indicated this was the case however he remained silent on the question insisting that he would organise some visits. He then changed his language to as many visits as possible. I asked him if it was true that Serco management, of which he is the Manager, told the detainees that we were 'not coming'. He seemed startled by this revelation however he firmly denied any knowledge of this. However we have it evidently that this is the case.

 

The detainees urged Serco officers and management for the visits to be upheld. They even organised today (Saturday) for a petition for them to proceed signed by 700 Asylum Seekers trapped, incarcerated in the Curtin Detention Centre. There are now 300 Asylum Seekers protesting at Serco's and DIAC's actions with a Hunger Strike. Serco's and DIAC's deliberate mismanagement has created an unwarranted and unnecessary situation and has directly led to a Hunger Strike and the potential for protests.

 

Some of 50 of us have camped nearby, and will arrive at Curtin Detention first thing in the morning, 7am for the visits. The visits must occur so we can continue to shine the light on the plight of those wrongly, immorally and cruelly incarcerated in these concentration like camps. The world must know what we witnessed and endured today and what our Asylum Seekers are enduring in these facilities, which are wrapped in cultures of secrecy and silence. You had to be here to see it to believe it. We do not know what Easter Sunday holds however we hope that a significant number of visits eventuate. We will not go away, and we will come again and again.

 

We have arrived at Curtin Detention, a place that wrongfully incarcerates 1500 souls, armed only with 1500 Easter eggs, bi-lingual dictionaries, books and gifts. We have been treated by Serco, DIAC, the AFP and ADF with a disregard for humanity. Their conduct is a threat to a civil and just society.

 

Australians are a caring people and we need to unveil our racial layers, end our racism, refuse to be hostile to those seeking Asylum and allow the caring that is in Australians to not be hindered by ignorances, prejudices, biases and other evil. We are better than this.

 

Our journey of 2,500 kilometres pales to a mere raindrop when compared to the Homeric Odyssies of our Asylum Seekers.