Yikes. And whoah. And yikes. If there was ever anything the media could make a meal of, it’s the Lateline interview with two of the Bakhtiyari (I am sure I have spelt that wrong) siblings where they said they felt decieved by their lawyers and advocates and wanted to play by the Government rules. I’m really shocked by the public comments of some of these lawyers and advocates in response to this (for example, that they feel they have been “kicked in the face”, and/or that ’someone’ had told the brothers to turn their backs on their lawyers - though I hope that some of this is a casualty of sensationalist media reporting?). To me these comments speak pretty damned strongly of many of the personal issues that one brings to ones activism/advocacy - the need to be needed, to be important, to be a human rights hero - and how quickly this can turn from being an interdependent, productive human trait into fetishizing and using people who are in incredibly vulnerable situations. And then lashing out at them when they aren’t properly grateful for such acts of heroism on ‘their’ behalf!
Doing The Right Thing is difficult in a world that is as endemically unjust as ours. Surely the least we can do is accept that in the way we go about our attempts, be continuously reflective about it, keep a watch on the ego and trust in some kind of ultimate human good. As opposed, that is, to slanging each other in the media - which, as well as playing right into the Howard/Ruddock/Vanstone agenda, does nothing towards achieving safety, peace and prosperity for this family and the billions of others who have been fucked over by global processes of war and fascistic governance and immigration policies and practices like Australia’s.
PS: not sure why comments aren’t working for this post. McDonalds?