Hideous

Hideous docu-drama on SBS last night, The Road to Guantanamo. Essentially about British guys who may have got caught up in the whole shemozzle. They may have course have been guilty though the film makes a good case for them not being so.

But, in a way that is irrelevant.  Even if they were guilty as sin, and even if we acknowledge that only half of the abuse suggested on the film was true it was still too much.

The deliberate confining and restraining of people so that their minds would be strained, and their bodies broken; their dignity assaulted, and their basic human rights assailed...all this gives the lie to any idea that the captors were civilised.

While it is easy to suggest that (if they were guilty) these people may have been threatening lives, as soon as we commit atrocities in the name of 'justice' then the forces of evil have won.

If the civilised throw away their basic sense of decency and goodness, then they themselves have become the enemy...or should I say we ourselves have become the enemy.

Où commencons nous?

Two unconnected, yet strangely related stories in my mind, make me ask is the world going mad?
None of us were really surprised that the American gun lobby could twist the travesty of Virginia Tech, to their own advantage. So we heard some whacko (or should it be Waco?) saying "This massacre is reason why everyone should be allowed to carry weapons on to a campus.

"You should be able to shoot a maniac who wants to shoot you!"

There is a certain logic about it. But it is just plain WRONG!!!

But I really think the world is going plain loopy when we talk about sending our Sri Lankans to Guantanamo, so they can send their Cubans to us.

Now am I wrong in thinking that our government don't actually want any refugees of any sort. So what is this all about?
On one level it doesn't really make any difference as long as refugees end up in a safe haven. But our nasty government has never before shown such magnanimity to any refugee.

There are other issues. One of the key issues for Cubans, for example, is that it is clear that they will be more dislocated in Australia than they would be in America...since there is an extensive Hispanic network there but not here. So why would we want to cause these people to be more profoundly dislocated?

And have we forgotte D Hicks and suddenly now think that Guantanamo is a more acceptable place to send our refugees than Christmas Island?

There is clearly more to this than meets the eye. But what is it?


so indeed: "dove cominciamo?"

The Hicks' Riddle

The continuing saga of Australian prisoner David Hicks grows more convoluted from day to day (here).

But for the life of me I find it difficult to fathom. That it is allowed to go on and on seems amazing and should be brough to some resolution one way or the other

There would seem to be only a limited number of possibilities about what is happening here.

1. Hicks could be guiltier than most people seem to suggest, and this is known to American and Australian authorities who are therefore reluctant to do anything to see him released. This seems unlikely since throughout the whole debate he has only ever been touted as an insignificant player deluded by a warped sense of purpose which few of us can share.
   
2. Despite the fact that we are touted in the coterie of America's closest allies we actually have no influence at all with regard to the way Australian public opinion is respected by the Bush regime. We have not been able to do, for example, what the British and other "allies" have done, and that is have their citizens repatriated to be dealt with at home. This does not really surprise us. We are a very small country, and although Bush has been happy to trumpet John Howard as an ally; and Howard has been happy to receive that accolade we seem remarkably powerless when it comes to bringing that influence to bear where it really matters. Our farmers, for example would testify to the fact that marketrs are closed and unfair barriers remain in place which prevent any sense of level-playing-field. This Hicks' case is just another example of that impotence.
   
3. The Australian government doesn't have the slightest interest in the welfare of David Hicks and just keeps hoping it will all go away.This certainly seems to be the net effect of what is happening even if it is not the deliberate policy. It nevertheless says to me that we are not a country where justice for all is prized, and where due process is regarded as being a key principle in the exercise of democratic freedoms. There seems indeed one law for some and another law for others.....
   

That this goes on and on seems a source of great sadness.