Newsletter for 19 March 2019 Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts

_{Bellingen market report}

_{Roadside demonstration. Thursday 21}^st _{March, 2.30 to 4.00 pm Bellingen}

_{Missed out on the lunch? Why not come to the auction?}

_{The Christchurch tragedy}

_{Bellingen market report}

_{We are having a run of bad luck with the weather at the moment! We drove from Valla Beach in the dark and the pouring rain, hoping against hope that the clouds would clear…but sadly they didn’t. It was raining steadily in Bellingen and many of the regular stallholders had cancelled, so we eventually decided to return home. It turned out to be the right call, by all accounts.}

_{Our next market stall will be at the Valla Beach market on Saturday 6}^th _{April, when the sun will shine!  Mike will be on holiday for two weeks in April, so Peter needs someone to help him set up the stall at 7.00 am on market day. The kind volunteer will need to stay until about 9.00 am, when other supporters will arrive. If you can help out with the setup, then please email Mike to let him know at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com. If you can help at other times during the morning (our stall operates from 9.00 am until 1.00 pm), then please let Mike know in advance.}

_{Roadside demonstration. Thursday 21}^st _{March, 2.30 to 4.00 pm Bellingen}

_{Our next roadside demonstration will take place on Thursday on Waterfall Way in Bellingen. You will find us in our usual spot, adjacent to the Yellow Shed, opposite the entrance to the golf club. Please come and join us if you can. We need to keep up the pressure on our politicians to show some compassion and humanity towards our refugees, who after almost six years, and having committed no crime, continue to languish without hope on Manus and Nauru.} 

_{Missed out on the lunch? Why not come to the auction?}

_{A number of people were disappointed to learn that they were too late to book a place for the upcoming fundraising lunch and auction, so we’ve decided on a Plan B. If you missed out on the lunch, why not come along for all the fun of the auction? If you would like to join us, and we hope that some of you will, then please arrive before 2.00 pm in anticipation of the auction starting at 2.00 pm. We’ll ask you to pay an entrance fee of $5 and we’ll offer you a glass of something to drink. The details are as follows:}

_{What: Fundraising lunch (fully booked) and auction (places available)}

_{Where: 12, River Street, Mylestom}

_{When: Saturday 30}^th _{March. Lunch at 12.30 pm. Auction at 2.00 pm}

_{If you would like to come along to the auction, please let Margie and Georgie know by emailing them at: gsmh@fastmail.fm, or phone them on: 6655 4613.}

_{To whet your appetite, here are some of the items promised so far:}

• _{A chauffeur-driven ride for two in a beautiful classic Bentley, followed by drinks by the river}
• _{Two nights in a luxury BnB in Sawtell}
• _{An hour’s ukulele tuition with Stephanie Sims}
• _{A case (12 bottles) of Cabernet Sauvignon}
• _{Individual bottles of wine}
• _{A Thule bike carrier}
• _{A framed watercolour painting by a local artist}

_{...and much besides.}

_{We are still seeking items for the auction, so if you have something that you think will sell for at least $20, please let Margie and Georgie know. We plan to have all the auction items on display for when people arrive, so it would help enormously if we could have items in advance if at all possible. Your contribution could be collected from you at a mutually convenient time, or could be delivered to Margie and Georgie’s house in Mylestom, or to Mike’s house at 39, Rogers Drive, Valla Beach (Tel. 6569 5419). If that’s not possible, please bring your item along in good time on the day.}

_{The Christchurch tragedy}

_{We have all been deeply saddened and outraged by the terrible events in Christchurch last Friday. We ask ourselves: How could it possibly be that in the 21}^st _{Century, 50 innocent worshipers could be gunned down in cold blood by a young, white, male political extremist? How did we get to this? The appalling truth is that events like this, particularly in the USA, have become all too frequent in recent years.} 

_{The Christchurch victims came from all walks of life, and from all corners of the globe. Some of them had traveled from overseas to visit family members. A number of them were refugees: Syrians, Palestinians, Afghans, Bangladeshis, Iraqis and others from war-torn parts of the world. They had found refuge in a welcoming country, a country where they finally felt safe, where they at last could begin to rebuild their shattered lives and to contribute to their communities.}

_{Without doubt, when seeking an explanation for such atrocities, we can point to the internet as a terrible and rich source for those who want to share their white supremacist hatred. But that is only a part of it. We surely need to have a cold, hard look at how some of our politicians, shock jocks, and media commentators have been fueling the fires of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment on a regular basis in Australia.}

_{When will we acknowledge, and then attempt to deal with, the fact that, as a society, we seem to have normalized the politics of fear?}

_{When will we recognize that the unspeakable seems to be the new normal, that it’s OK, according to George Brandis, to be a bigot?} 

_{When will we, as a nation, collectively reject the demonizing of those arriving on our shores by boat, or looking too dark-skinned, or appearing too religious?}

_{When will we unequivocally condemn the dog-whistling, which in recent times has become a foghorn, of leading politicians who warn darkly of “single males”, “rapists” and “paedophiles” who might find their way to our shores? People who, according to the same Minister, will take our jobs, live off the dole, kick patients off waiting lists, and kick people out of their social housing. The same Minister who is then outraged when it is put to him that this kind of talk fuels the flames of anti-Muslim and racist sentiment.}

_{When will we finally call time on the highly-paid shock jocks and other media commentators who, on a daily basis, single out Muslims as being “unaustralian”, unwilling to integrate and much besides?}

_{When will we rise up and protest that it’s not OK for the Murdoch press to produce 2,891 anti-Islamic stories in a single year?}

_{When will we finally, and unequivocally, condemn those politicians who are clearly racist, who thrive on the politics of fear, and who readily play the race card for purely political motives? It is surely not OK for a Senator to turn up to parliament wearing a burka to promote herself and her anti-Muslim beliefs. It is surely not OK for another senator to travel the length and breadth of the country to attend far-right meetings, at taxpayers’ expense, and to blame all Muslims for the appalling tragedy in Christchurch. Surely, these people should have no place in parliament.}

_{As Craig Foster, ex-Socceroo, put it at the weekend: “Australia is waking up today to a recognition that we have allowed Muslim Australia, our own brothers and sisters, to be demonized and marginalized. My thanks to all those who are demanding a new national conversation about Muslim Australia, refugees, multiculturalism and racism. God knows, we need it.”}

_{Check out the index of subjects on our blog http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au}

_{It includes articles from many sources and letters to politicians and newspapers.}

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_{Email address bellingen.rar@gmail.com}

_{The National RAR web site is at  www.ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org.au} 

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