Fundraising
concert report
Roadside
demonstration: Thursday 14th June at the Big Banana. 2.30 to
4.00 pm
Our next market
stall: Coffs Harbourside market, Sunday 17th June
Dying refugee on
Nauru denied treatment in Australia
Fundraising
concert report
Sunday’s concert
was a truly uplifting and enjoyable occasion which was greatly appreciated by
the audience. Heather Rose’s introductory song, in recognition of the
nature of the event, was an amazing rendition of “Imagine” , accompanied by Ken
McKelvie on the didgeridoo and Micklo Jarret with his quiet, haunting
translation into the Gumbaynggir language. Heather played a wide range of
pieces from Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven to Fats Waller, which the audience loved.
The Wild Women of Anywhere Beach opened their set with a beautiful song about
refugees which they had written for the occasion, and concluded with the
hilarious “Chicken song”. The concert made a profit of $1,355, to which
we have added $145 from donations and profits from recent markets, enabling us
to make a donation of $1500 to the Asylum Seekers Centre in Newtown, Sydney,
which is a great outcome.
A huge thank you to
our performers, to our gang of volunteers who made it all work on the day, and
to everyone who attended.
If anyone has any
creative ideas about future fundraising activities, then do please get in touch
with us at: bellingen.rar@gmail.com.
Roadside
demonstration: Thursday 14th June at the Big Banana. 2.30 to
4.00 pm
Our next roadside
demonstration is this Thursday in Coffs Harbour, in front of the Big
Banana. We would be greatly cheered to see a good turnout for the demo at this
very popular location, so please join us if you can. We will not see any
significant change in the policies of the main parties unless and until they
wake up to the fact that there are millions of Australians who want the
indefinite, cruel detention of people languishing on Manus and Nauru to come to
an end. As far as politicians are concerned, the issue is solely about votes, a
situation in which offshore detainees are simply collateral damage. We
must continue to do all we can to shift the debate towards a recognition
of our responsibilities and towards compassion for this relatively small number
of people who have suffered enormously at the hands of our government, with the
tacit support of the Opposition.
Our next market
stall: Coffs Harbourside market, Sunday 17th June
Our next market is
this coming Sunday at the Coffs Harbourside market, located near the
jetty, from 9.00 am until 1.30 pm. If you can help out for an hour
or two, that would be greatly appreciated. Please let Mike know by emailing him
at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com.
Dying refugee on
Nauru denied treatment in Australia
A 63-year-old man,
who has advanced lung cancer , has recently been denied transfer to Australia
for palliative care in the remaining months of his life. He has been
offered a transfer to Taiwan, but he has declined the offer because he is
concerned that there will be no translator for him – he is a Hazara - and
that there would be no one to perform the Shia Muslim rituals and ceremonies on
his body when he dies. As an alternative, our government has offered him
$25,000 to return to Afghanistan, even though he has been recognised as a
refugee and therefore cannot be sent back there. Australia is legally obliged
to protect him. Australian Border Force officials on Nauru have made repeated
requests to Canberra for intervention in his case, but to no avail. As in so
many other cases, these requests are routinely overruled by bureaucrats in
Dutton’s department.
The government’s
inflexibility and intransigence in denying a dying man some comfort in
his final months of life is utterly cruel and completely unnecessary. Please
consider contacting Dutton’s office to urge him to show some compassion and to
allow this Afghani refugee to be transferred to Australia to receive palliative
care.
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