Not the roadside demonstration report
Bellingen market report
Have you signed up yet for B, B and B on Sunday 1st December?
Behrouz Boochani is finally free
Not the roadside demonstration report
Unfortunately,
due to the smoke haze in Coffs Harbour on Thursday, we had to cancel
our planned demonstration by the Big Banana. We did contact everyone who
we thought might be planning to attend, and do sincerely apologise if
anyone was inconvenienced.
Our next demonstration will be at the same location – by the Pacific Highway beneath the Big Banana - on Thursday 28th November from 2.30 until 4.00 pm. We do hope that you will consider coming to join us if you can.
Bellingen market report
We
had an excellent time at the Bellingen market on Saturday, with eleven
supporters turning up at different times to lend a hand. We were in a
really good spot, with lots of market-goers passing our stall, enabling
us to collect more than 200 signatures on our open letter, engage in
many fruitful conversations, and collect a number of generous donations
for the Asylum Seekers Centre in Newtown. A big thank you to our team of
supporters and to Kaz and the market crew for allocating us a site at
such a busy junction.
Our next stall will be at the Valla Beach market on Saturday 7th December from 9.00 am until 1.00 pm. If you can help out for an hour or two, then please let Mike know by emailing him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com.
Have you signed up yet for B, B and B on Sunday 1st December?
Our
final fundraiser of the year is now less than two weeks away, and we
would be so pleased if you would indicate soon that you are planning to
attend. You can revisit the full details in the newsletters for the past
three weeks, which you can access by clicking on the link to our blog
at the end of this newsletter. Briefly, for the benefit of our new
supporters who signed up at the Bellingen market, the plan is to gather
at 39, Rogers Drive, Valla Beach at 11.30 am on 1st
December. We’ll have a gentle walk through the Jagun nature reserve and
along the beach, before returning to the house for lunch at about 12.30
pm. Drinks will be provided, and you are asked to bring a plate to
share if you can, and to donate $20 towards our $10,000 target for the
Asylum Seekers Centre. Please let Mike know soon if you are planning to
attend, which we hope you will. Email: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com. If you don’t feel like the Bush and Beach parts, just arrive at 12.30 pm or earlier for lunch.
Directions will be provided in next week’s newsletter.
Behrouz Boochani is finally free
So
many people at the Bellingen market were overjoyed to learn that
Behrouz Boochani had arrived in New Zealand from PNG on Thursday, after
spending more than six years in offshore detention. Many of you will
have read his award-winning book: “No Friend but the Mountains”, in
which he depicts his experiences of his flight from Iran and his life in
detention. He was able to obtain travel documents to leave PNG to give a
presentation to the Christchurch writers’ festival later this month,
and was warmly welcomed with a civic reception in Christchurch. He has a
temporary one-month visa, but, unsurprisingly, he has vowed never to
return to PNG. A New Zealand government MP Golriz Ghahraman, who, like
Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish refugee from Iran, had this to say: “I’m
just so proud that New Zealand gets to stand as the counterpoint to the
kind of politics that has led to Australia’s prison camps being in
operation for so long. We’ve got a man like this, a human being, trapped
for six years, and we get to be the country that stands for inclusion
and for human rights and for freedom.” Asked if she had a message for
the Australian government, Ghahraman said: “Close the camps…they amount
to torture. It’s time the Australian government acts like a good
international citizen.”
The
contrast between the actions of the New Zealand government and the
cruel and punitive policy of the Australian government could not be
starker.
Labor
senator Kristina Keneally, the party’s immigration spokesperson, issued
a statement welcoming Behrouz Boochani’s freedom, but he was, rightly,
having none of it, describing her statement as “shameful,” and reminding
her that it was a Labor government that had exiled him and many others
to Manus, and that her party has supported the Coalition’s offshore
detention policy ever since. He told her: “If you are honest, do
something for others who are suffering in PNG and Nauru. In my view,
anyone who supports the policy is a criminal and a terrorist.”
Let
us hope that Behrouz will finally be able to rebuild his life in New
Zealand or the USA, where he has been accepted for resettlement. He has
so much to offer, as undoubtedly have so many other people who we have
left in limbo on Nauru and in PNG for purely political purposes.
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