Solstice, Unitarians, Asylum Seeker Tragedy

[tcpip]

Seasons greetings to all and best wishes for the great variety of justifications used for this period of the year. For my own part, I've spent the past two days a little under the weather with a chest cold (yes, it's midsummer, bleh). Planning an evening visit to Jenny P's hanukkah, followed by a day visit to Brendan E., some simple fare and our usual tradition of zombies. On topic, txxxpxx must be thanked for hosting their biennial christmas party which was - as always - a sumptuous evening. As another example, the Melbourne Unitarians held a good end-of-year concert with about one hundred people and performers in attendance - and over $1000 raised for Hanover Welfare Services.

It has been a few weeks with a modicum of Unitarian activity, which must include a visit to the home of the good Rev. Dr. Ian Ellis-Jones whilst in Sydney and delighted to discover we share a mutual interest in the philosopher John Anderson. This was followed with a visit to the North Sydney Unitarian congregation, Spirit of Life, the following day where Ian gave an address (PDF) on Buddhism.

On the subject of caring individuals, some 180 people are missing as a boatload of asylum seekers sank off Java on its way to Australia. It is predictable that in the wake of this tragedy not only has the language changed from "illegal immigrants" to "asylum seekers", but also there have been calls to reintroduce offshore processing (Malaysia, Nauru etc). Whilst it is true that offshore processing does act as a deterrent to asylum seekers (the numbers certainly show that), it is quite something to suggest that this be conducted in a place where asylum seekers have no minimum legal rights, although I do note that Nauru is now a signatory to the UN Convention - times have changed. It is particularly frustrating to watch the events reach a political impasse.

Comments

[txxxpxx.livejournal.com]

:) Both birdie & 'phant have found suitable branches on this year's tree. Thanks for coming along. See you when we get back from Thailand.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Have fun in old Siam.. And if you get the chance check out the latest work from our rodent friends!

http://www.apopo.org/newsitem.php?lang=en&newsitemid=117

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the mini pouch bag, it's a perfect home for my vampire tamagotchi :)

[kingtycoon.livejournal.com]

I am vastly in envy because I only just now realized you are living through summer and not the bleak great lakes winter. Regardless of all other matters affecting your life you should take comfort, deep comfort, in your Southern Cross fortunes.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

To be perfectly honest I think I would enjoy winter in the Great Lakes region (after all, we have purchased a home in Dunedin). I can appreciate all forms of climate, as long as it's within human limits. The one environment I cannot tolerate however is one where are no natural environs and is cursed by pollution.

(Although there's some great people there, I didn't like Djakarta)

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

I have good long memories of what used to be a huge Christmas gathering at Oma's house--lots of rooms and space for people to sleep over, many usually empty beds, which also means plenty of space for the giant feast that would typically ensue. It would involve everyone going to church and stuff.

There is nothing wrong with the way it is now; lots of different people, including four Jews and four Zoroastrians and one mr_figgy, can still get together with the rest of that half of the extended family--and this time, in the confines of a Montessori school with tables and chairs moved around to suitable places. The other-half gathering is okay, too, though that place should honestly not even pretend to be a German bar/restaurant given its menu--still nice to see people.

And apparently the festivities continue on Sunday; smaller group back at the Montessori school.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a wonderful gathering. If even Richard Dawkins can describe himself as a "cultural Christian" for participating in the festive season, I am assured that almost anybody can. Well, except for the "bah-humbug" types and I confess even having sympathy to that cynical attitude as well.

Would I be correct in my imaginings that a Montessori school christmas activity is as spontaneous and creative as all other activities in such a location?

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

That would be something. The school is involved, rather, because it is the property of my parents, has plenty of space and the spaces we use can be accessed at ground level (suitable for wheelchairs). There have been bad experiences in the past with renting out rooms at restaurants for the occasion, ranging from wheelchair access, service, and keeping with the restaurant's strict schedule and other miscommunications/misunderstandings. A key thing to mention is how to get lots of people in the extended family to agree on a place.

This way we have a space that's ours, for as long as we feel like having it, have lots of long tables and suitable chairs (some of the chairs are at least for grade sixers and others for the teachers themselves), food catered to there so we can serve everyone at once, and a short wheelchair-taxi ride from the retirement home for Oma--just down the street. In warmer times and with sidewalks in better repair, and better crosswalks, I would just wheel her over, really.

It's the same place we celebrate Oma's birthdays, so the young'uns can make use of the playgrounds as well.

[grailchaser.livejournal.com]

Agreed. And I hope they don't reactivate Nauru. I heard some pretty darn poor things about the place the last time it was up and running.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Nauru, even as a UNHCR signatory now, still has issues as Burnside points out:

Neither is Nauru the answer. This is so for a number of reasons. First, people do not get to Nauru unless they first get on a boat, to be intercepted by the Australian Navy as they approach Australian territorial waters. This does nothing to protect them from the perils of the boats. The Siev-X, which sank with the loss of 353 lives, sank on 19 October 2001 – weeks after Nauru had been commissioned as a place of detention and the Pacific Solution had begun.

In addition, Nauru is too small to be a place of permanent settlement of asylum seekers who are taken there and are assessed as refugees. It has a population of about 10,000 people; it does not have a local supply of food or water sufficient for its own people; it does not even have a stable electricity supply or telephone service. Asylum seekers taken there and assessed as refugees would have to be resettled somewhere, and quickly. That would almost certainly mean in Australia. All the use of Nauru does is to make the process unbelievably expensive. Tony Abbott’s insistence on using Nauru as a place for offshore processing is simply a way of wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money.

http://julianburnside.com.au/offshore.htm