Do you know ...
That the Health Board pays for hair extensions for African women asylum seekers?
I did not, but the person who told me said that her mothers second cousin by marriage knows a man who knows that this is true. With evidence like that who could possibly dispute it?
That, on rainy days, taxis are called to the site to bring people from the caravans to the dining hall.
A taxi driver told me this, so it must be true.
posted by Carigeen at Friday, July 11, 2003
To change the world or learn to accept it?
That is the ultimate question in this business.
A mental health charity came around this week to offer their services. A 12-step program to overcome mental problems and enable people to deal with their problems.
It might be useful, we have people with every possible variety of mental problem. They are trapped in the system for years, family members are missing, they suffer the after effects of torture and rape, and post natal depression. People apply for humanitarian leave to remain that we know won't be granted.
And so we wait, playing pool and braiding each others hair, day after day, month after month, year after year for the wonderful letter of salvation from the Department of Justice.
Yet, I'm seriously torn about this sort of 'spiritually based' program. It seems to teach acceptance of an evil situation rather then struggle against it.
The steps are:
1. We admitted we were powerless over depression - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
I am an atheist so only steps 4, 8, 9 and 10 mean anything at all to me!
Yet I have to accept that most of us are believers of one sort of another and that this program might help people live another day.
Maybe it is more valuable than the activist life of endless letters and meetings, grant applications and submissions to policy papers.
I won't be changing though!
posted by Carigeen at Thursday, July 10, 2003
I admit it, I'm prejudiced about primary teachers
and, like all prejudices it is totally unfounded and irrational.
The teachers union asked us to do a session on refugees and asylum seekers as part of their intercultural training week. C and I did two hours on Friday and half an hour on Saturday morning.
It went well I think .
We did a people-trafficking exersise and conducted an interview in Arabic with one poor victim.
Talked about asylum processes and social problems and asked them to keep an eye open for possible child-abuse issues. We talked about specific Roma issues and problems, and did a very quick introduction to their history.
Added another one to my list of Asylum Seeker myths.
'A friend who works in the post office tells me that very Friday asylum seekers send vast sums by Western Union to Nigeria. Where do they get the money? '
How do we know that they are asylum seekers rather then migrant workers? How do we know that it's not the wages of a group of people? Just what is wrong about sending money home to your family?
posted by Carigeen at Monday, July 07, 2003
