|
| |
APC-SA NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2003
Hello from Nampula in Mozambique
24 Oct.'03 ~ We were able to meet up with Dr. Julie Cliff in
Maputo and visit her farm on our way out of Mozambique in June. It was great to
hear about the work she has done here over the past 25 years and to talk about
Melbourne!
So what are we doing here? Well, Leonie did a five month contract in the first
half of the year for UNHCR putting in a drinking water system. I visited for the
last six weeks, which was just fantastic. Leonie's work was reviewed just before
we left and an invitation was made for her to return for another three months to
put in an agricultural water system. We decided to come back for the last three
months of the year. It's great to be back, Leonie's work is going well. I'm
hoping to start some volunteer work in the next couple of weeks. I'm also using
this time to do some study of African politics.
In the UK, I spent time with my grandparents and also did a number of practical
conservation projects with the sister agency of the organisation I work for in
Australia - Conservation Volunteers Australia.
The brief trip back to Australia in September was a time of wonderful
conversations and catch ups with friends.
It was also a time to see with new eyes what the Howard
government is doing and the narrow, selfish, fearful community he is creating.
It is amazing how many times overseas you are asked about Australia's asylum
seeker and indigenous policies.
This time away has been a great opportunity to think more about Australian
politics and policies and to compare them with different countries overseas. It
has certainly renewed my energy for the election campaign next year, and for
other community activism.
Julie´s farm is a "mashumba" - many people living in towns and cities
in Mozambique have them. It is a small plot of land where they grow fruit and
vegetables for their families. Julie shares hers with a couple of friends and
they have flowers, fruit and vegies and a lovely pagoda to sit in the shade and
a little room with a bed and water to wash with. We are enjoying seeing some of
the countryside here - the beaches are just amazing and seeing the villages
along the way is fascinating.
Yesterday was a great day for Australia - on every BBC World Service 'Voice of
Africa' broadcast they reported on Bush's speech in the Australian parliament
and Senator Brown's protest. I loved hearing "Senator Brown please excuse
yourself from the chamber...." I can't believe however that Senators Brown
and Nettle, as elected representatives, have been barred from the chamber for
the visit of President Hu.
Is this democracy ???
Here is a letter I have just sent to Minister Vanstone re
refugees in Mozambique:
I wish to add my name to the tens of thousands of Australians who find the
government's policies and rhetoric around the issue of asylum seekers and
refugees completely abhorrent and lacking in moral justification.
I am an Australian who is currently living overseas in Mozambique where my
partner is working as a water engineer in a refugee camp. I believe Australia
has a lot to learn from the approach this third world country takes to asylum
seekers.
Firstly, the people requesting asylum here are in their second country of
asylum, as with most asylum seekers in Australia. Upon seeking asylum they are
required to go to the refugee camp where they are registered and provided a
permit that enables them to stay in the province. If they choose to stay in the
camp they are provided with building materials to create a house, food and
general household goods. Healthcare, education and micro credit and agricultural
programs are also available to assist the asylum seekers become self sufficient.
The asylum seekers can freely come and go from the camp to find employment or
housing elsewhere in the province, to shop, to sell produce or to use the
internet café in town - an important source of contact for many asylum seekers
with their families elsewhere.
This humane approach provides people who have fled persecution and war the
opportunity to live as normal a life as possible given the situation they are
in.
On World Refugee Day, 20 June 2003, the Governor of Nampula Province addressed
the refugees at the camp and said (translation): "Refugees are welcome in
Mozambique because we know what it is to be a refugee from war. You looked after
us when we were refugees and we will look after you. Mozambique is a country of
necessity and we can only share what we have."
I look forward to the day when an Australian government has the courage, moral
conviction and leadership to say "refugees are welcome in Australia…"
--Karen Dimmock. 
Vale Stuart Dennard
Stuart Dennard had every excuse to be inward-looking, concerned
only with his own problems - for they were immense. Stuart was wheelchair bound
and suffered from a disorder which was never clearly identified, the nearest
diagnosis being "spinal muscular atrophy".
But Stuart was a young lad who was deeply concerned about the
state of the world, and cared about the problems of other people here in
Australia and around the world. He was worried about the way things seemed to be
heading.
He made his own statement about this by having his wheelchair
covered with stickers on peace, social justice and environmental issues. And he
accompanied his parents on anti-war demonstrations. They were there with the
other 100,000 people in the pouring rain of the February 16 rally - the largest
such rally ever held in Adelaide.
When Stuart died in July at the age of 11 years, his parents
decided to put a "Say yes to refugees" sticker on his coffin and to
put other peace, social justice and environment stickers in the coffin with
Stuart to honour his commitment to a better world.
Their friends contacted the Australian Peace Committee to ask if
we could send them some stickers which we did. We contacted other groups and
received more stickers even some sent by priority post from interstate. We made
a small peace flag to drape on the casket and then searched through our huge
file of photographs of demonstrations on the off chance that there was one of
Stuart there. We were pleased to find that there was one and emailed it to the
Australian Services Union where Stuart's father Andrew is the Branch Assistant
Secretary and they were able to have it enlarged and printed for the family.
A new order of things: terrorism and
international law
ABC Radio National Perspective 7 November 2003
Guest speaker: Devika Hovell.
link http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/perspective/stories/s984221.htm
Professor Ian Maddocks speaks at
demonstration against visit of Bush to Australia
I am a physician, and I have been asked to speak about the
effect on health of the policies and practices of the Bush administration - the
health of the Iraqi people, in particular, but also we should recognize how the
dog in a manger, beggar your neighbour neo-conservative operations of the United
States diminish the health of the world, and even the health of the American
people themselves.
A team of health workers from the US visited Iraq in January this year - as the
intent to invade and defuse those mysterious weapons of mass destruction,
evanescent or invisible, became more obvious. They sought to assess the
potential health consequences of that military intervention, which already at
that time seemed inevitable, and their findings were published in the London
journal, The Lancet, in early March - several weeks before the assault actually
began. Their study of 12 hospitals, five health care centres and Iraq's basic
health infrastructure revealed facilities over-crowded, ill-equipped and poorly
maintained.
They concluded that just prior to the war, the people of Iraq were surviving
like people in long-term refugee camps, dependent on food distribution from
foreign aid, and with a bare minimum of health services and a very fragile
infrastructure which (I quote) "must be spared during any military
intervention to keep civilian casualties to a minimum during the immediate
post-war period."
They were aware that UN and international NG0s would cease working when conflict
started, and warned that the tendency of the US to hire for-profit contractors
to establish new systems to provide food and health services would be a mistake.
They could obtain no information about how the US was planning to cope with the
needs of the Iraqi people after the conflict. They asserted that the Pentagon's
proposal to establish an Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian affairs
threatened the well-established humanitarian principles of neutrality,
independence and impartiality, and repeated the mistakes of Afghanistan, where
military involvement in relief programs caused NGO workers to be suspected and
put in danger.
The fears expressed so clearly before the start of the war have been fully
realized. One colleague from Germany was in Iraq in May. He found the hospitals
barely functioning - not because they lacked competent doctors and nurses
(standards of professional education in Iraq have been excellent) or even drugs,
but there was no reliable water, no electricity and the hospitals were being
subjected to desperate attack & looting, putting staff in fear of their
lives.
The warnings were not heard, the George W Bush campaign, of dubious legality and
questionable morality, drove in regardless, ignoring a massive international
protest, and sustained only by the small coalition of the bullied and the
bought, George's good friends, Tony of the white teeth, and John the Man of
Steel (I prefer the man of tin) ignoring the protests of their populations - us
- and seeking to bemuse us with the new language of 2003 whichtrumpets of
freedom and warns of imminent dangers from nasty foreigners, unless we attack
first.
Terrorism is a threat, and its secret face and covert actions are designed to
cause fear.
But military responses which strike blindly at targets chosen for reasons which
may have nothing to do with terrorism - such as a huge reserve of oil - will
only lead to reciprocal violence and increase hostility among those desperate
groups whose evangelical zeal and ideologies are just as blinkered as those of
the neo-conservatives who now hold power (through electoral skulduggery) in the
USA..
If I feel a hostility to the Bush administration's exercise of its global power,
how much more hostility must a person from Arab communities who see that power
exercised for the further advantage of the over-advantaged people of the United
States and Europe - and Australia.
The Bush administration is an unhealthy power. It promises vengeance and feeds
on fear to justify America's own terrorist methods - from the A-bomb, through
Agent Orange, to the attack on Iraq. It makes no apology for illegal acts of
questionable morality, because it knows it is right - might is right.
"The atomic bomb is a marvellous gift that was given to our country by a
wise God" said a US observer in 1982. Secretary Ashcroft - "US
freedoms are not the grant of any government or document but our endowment from
God".
This US administration, drawing on a primitive theology, claims a mandate from
Heaven to deliver people from corrupting ideologies, religious fundamentalism,
dictatorship, sexism, or poverty by the age-old and well tried practice of
extermination.
Democracy, of the kind practised in America with thoughtful correctives of the
Supreme Court - will be delivered to your doorstep with bunker busters.
In the name of countering terrorism new forms of these gifts from God are being
developed, in direct disregard of UN treaty obligations. Nuclear Posture Review
promises permission to develop new weapons of mass destruction and use them more
freely. Non-defence experts are puzzled that an attack by maniacs armed with
bolt cutters justifies spending $15b on 70-ton artillery pieces and three
different advanced fighters.
Pentagon spending will rise this year by 14%, while spending on social welfare
is frozen and the wealthy receive huge tax cuts. Other Departments which get
increases gain them for defending their interests against terrorism - building
fences and mounting patrols on airport, agriculture, national parks and
monuments.
Meanwhile this unhealthy and wasteful spending on defence uses funds that could
eradicate globally the six diseases which kill 40,000 of the world's children
every day.
So Bechtel and Halliburton will rebuild Iraq as far as possible in the image of
Texas - doing well by doing good, with George Schultz of Bechtel Chairman of the
Advisory Board for the Liberation of Iraq. And they will have the oil, and use
it to further contaminate this fragile globe, while refusing to abide by any of
the international agreements which promise protection and justice and a
survivable planet.
The plight of those now incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay is a metaphor for the
whole disaster of America foreign policy - ignoring international norms, and
secretly perpetrating actions such as kidnapping which are illegal by every
convention, by making up a new definition 'unlawful combatants' which allows
those unfortunates no status as persons - and continuing prolonged interrogation
amounting to torture: two years, and you can't ask questions - or can't get
answers.
Going into Afghanistan George Bush stated: "The oppressed people of
Afghanistan will know the generosity of America and its allies. As we strike
military targets we will also drop food, medicine and supplies to the starving
and suffering men and women and children of Afghanistan. The US is the friend of
Afghan people."
From the experience of Afghanistan we can make a guess at what will be the
outcomes for Iraq. There 8,000 persons were killed by US bombs, 20,000 in the
war's aftermath, mainly refugees dying through starvation and untreated disease.
Of the aid going to that country 84% has been spent on the US Military
occupation. In seeking further money from private investors for his country the
leader of Afghanistan was promised $35m for a 5-star hotel. So it will be for
Iraq; no wonder they are so angry and want the US out.
Is Australia more respected because of our cosy relationship with the United
States? From my recent time in Malaysia I doubt it - I judge we are more
suspected for our uncritical alliance.
George Bush has done his best to augment John Howard's preparedness for the next
election. In his interview with Kerry O'Brien last night the Prime Minister
stated that both he and George Bush were beholden to their people - they lead,
but the final policy must be reviewed by the electorate.
Here is a very big challenge. Because there is in both countries an unholy
alliance by government with the press.
Through the good offices of the Fox network in particular, 48% of US public
linked Iraq with AI Quaida'; 22% thought the coalition had found weapons of mass
destruction; 25% believed that world public opinion favoured the war in Iraq -
all resoundingly wrong. Many in Australia are similarly bemused and confused by
our selective popular media.
We must continue to promote alternative information - and a firmer truth. We
have only the fragile tools of the internet, the letter, the phone call.
Strengthen your local members' awareness, help the Opposition build a real
opposition with genuine alternatives to the genial lip-service paid by the tin
man. Let us demonstrate that at least in Australia, democracy works.
-- Prof. Ian Maddocks, Chair of International Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War (IPPNW) Board / Vice-President of MAPW. MAPW is the Australian
affiliate of IPPNW.
November 11th
For the best of men, the worst of men
For the silver shilling signed,
With love of Empire, love of glory
Foremost in their boyish mind.
When high adventure seemed on offer
in sunny days before the rain -
When honour beckoned country called for
Steel and valour, loss and gain.
So they marched off to their lessons,
Coming hard, too cruel to tell -
Wond'ring how they were enveloped
By the drum and bugle sound.
By barbed wire, poison gases,
Lice and mud and meagre meals;
High explosive, Maxim's rattle -
All those cards the Reaper deals...
Knowing this and ten times greater,
Knowing all they stayed and fought.
Some came back, their lesson over,
Hoping we might still be taught.
Enough, in time, to spurn forever
Conflict used to settle strife,
Desperate to tell all nations:
War's beginning - end of life!
Thinking, fondly, what they'd suffered
Could never, ever, be again -
That such horrors contemplated
Must change forever hearts of men.
Change? We question now in sorrow
And with anger at what's come.
War, we see now, has no ceasing
If our consciences stay numb.
For in succession without respite,
Men it seems would rather die
Than pause a moment to remember,
Or scan the glass to ponder - "Why?"
So each November we survey these
Serried ranks of dead who've marched -
But then look forward to that haven
Where lasting peace shall storm our hearts,
Where lasting peace shall storm our hearts,
Where lasting peace shall storm our hearts.
Geoff Hastwell 29/9/98
Question and Answer re Nagasaki
and Hiroshima commemorations
We received an email asking why our organisation "promotes
Hiroshima/Nagasaki commemorations each year and yet ignores commemorating the
much more horrific Nanjing massacre and rape:
The dropping of these bombs, although horrendous in
their outcome, was no more horrendous than Nanjing. At least the bombs saved my
late father's life. Otherwise I would not have been born. But at least the
Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombings were to stop an horrendous war and to save
allies lives. The Nanjing massacre was done for 'fun'. Why don't you people
stick with reality and also stop being so anti-Semitic? My wife is German and
was born two years after the war. She is horrified by you people who hide behind
a so called peace movement and yet promote such blatant anti-Semitism. Yes, I
know Israelis and Palestinians have both done the wrong thing during this stupid
terror war. But at least the Israelis don't hide behind not wearing a uniform
and blowing up innocent people who are just going about their everyday
life."
The reply sent was as follows:
Thank you for your letter regarding the Australian Peace Committee commemorating
the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki each year and not the Nanjing massacre.
We are all prisoners of our past experiences and learning, and obviously your
past experience has been much different to mine, so an exchange of understanding
could be beneficial to us both.
My experience is that all wars are a series of atrocities, but you cannot
commemorate them all ~ only work to avoid wars in the future. I lived through
the second world war and it was an experience that I don't want to repeat.
Before the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Japanese government
had already sued for peace, pleading that they be allowed to keep their emperor
as their head of State. This condition was denied until after the bombs were
dropped, and then accepted by the Allies.
I do not believe the bombs saved your father's life, but on the contrary
prolonged his position of danger.
Other reasons for reminding people of those bombings is that these were the
first weapons of mass destruction used, the effects of which have carried on
into following generations. Also, when countries such as Australia signed the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and undertook not to acquire nuclear weapons,
the five nuclear weapons states at the time (U.S., U.K., Russia, China and
France) undertook to negotiate in good faith to eliminate their nuclear
arsenals.
They have failed to carry out that pledge, with the consequence that other
states have decided to develop such weapons, notably India, Pakistan, Israel and
probably North Korea. The world becomes much less safe unless we can reverse the
trend and work for the complete elimination of such weapons.
I resent being accused of anti-Semitism, since I have struggled against any sort
of injustice, exploitation, and racism all my adult life.
I was serving with the RAF in the Middle East in the late 1940s when the
struggle for Israel was raging. At the time, gangs of Zionists were murdering
Palestinians and burning villages in an effort to force partition. That struggle
was successful and the state of Israel came into being, but with a heavy cost in
Palestinian and British lives.
It is not being anti-Semitic to remember and to work for a just peace. A just
peace means that both sides can feel satisfied with the result.
Both the Israeli and Palestinian people want peace and we have no quarrel with
them, but it is obvious that elements of the two governing bodies, for various
reasons, have a different agenda. Elements of the Arab side want to see Israel
gone, and elements of the Israeli government want to control the whole region
with the Palestinians relocated elsewhere.
It is not anti-Semitism to struggle against that, but it is understanding that
the ordinary people of both sides are suffering from the ambitions of others.
Having eight children and twenty grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, I
struggle to leave them a better world than I came into.
Back to Top
| |
A Peace of the Action
Radio program A Peace of the Action
is dedicated to commentary on peace and social justice issues.
Radio Adelaide 101.5FM every Sunday at 12.30.
Ron Gray
Human Rights Foundation
Click here
for more information about the RGHRF
|
