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Those who defend the humanity of asylum seekers are often dismissed as bleeding hearts. It is tempting to respond by referring to those who defend the existing regime of detention as bleeding minds. The recent events in remote detention centres are deplorable, but predictable.
Asylum seekers have also always needed help to make their journey to safety. Our people smugglers may be seen as distinctive in that they charge high prices for their troubles. But asylum seekers have always relied on people who exploited them.
Atticus works within the system and hopes thereby to reform it. He wonders 'why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro come up'. Many lawyers will understand the challenge of working for the unpopular 'other': just replace 'Negro' with asylum seeker or 'Muslim woman in burqa'.
The back label of my taboo-smashing pre-10am cake was covered in an unintelligible language, which I could only presume was Dutch. What I had thought a tasty sounding Breakfast Cake was apparently also known less appetisingly as an 'Ontbijtkoek'. I can neither read nor speak Dutch despite my Dutch migrant heritage.
My mother never really coped while I was growing up. My dad died when I was seven and she had a nervous breakdown. My sister got murdered when I was about 15. She had just turned 18. That's when my life rolled out of control.
The suffering of children opens a door into the hardness of society. Think about the experience of the Stolen Generations, the detention of asylum seeker children, the sexual abuse of children. Societies try to close doors that open on to vulnerability.
Young people should be held accountable for their actions. But that does not explain how almost 80 per cent of those on remand in a detention centre in NSW will not end up with a custodial sentence. If custody is a last resort, how can we get the balance wrong 80 per cent of the time?
Atticus works within the system and hopes thereby to reform it. He wonders 'why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro come up'. Many lawyers will understand the challenge of working for the unpopular 'other': just replace 'Negro' with asylum seeker, or Muslim women in burqas.
Julia Gillard insists that the centre in East Timor centre would be properly 'run, auspiced and structured'. For the Australian Government to ensure that such a centre respects the human dignity of asylum seekers will be difficult. Similar arrangements with Indonesia were not satisfactory.
If there is any vestige of democratic socialism left in Labor, the Gillard Government needs to raise taxes without apology, knowing its social welfare policies are just and necessary. It also needs to remain committed to redistributing wealth to eliminate huge discrepancies in living standards.
The performers, in white-face make-up and baggy trousers, have two minutes to catch a driver's attention and elicit a few rands. Their skill is as remarkable as the cultural and racial ironies of their performance.
Michael Moore makes documentaries only in the sense that Today Tonight does investigative journalism. That's not to say he doesn't land a few well-deserving kicks while he's at it.
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