Detained asylum seeker wins top literary prizes

An Iranian refugee whose debut book was written in a detention centre using WhatsApp has been awarded two Australian awards: the $100,000 (55,000 UK pounds) Victoria Prize for literature, and the $25,000 non-fiction prize at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. Journalist Behrouz Boochani wrote No Friend but the Mountains in a series of text messages, which he sent to a friend from prison on the island of Papua New Guinea, where he has been kept for almost six years.
Boochani is not allowed into Australia so his translator, Omid Tofighian, who translated the texts from Farsi into English, accepted the awards on his behalf.
Helen Yendall
From Writer's Forum, #209, p4

Slowly but surely Australia will pay the price for these harsh policies. The whole world will know, and should know, that the 'land of the fair go' is little more than a myth. Australia, particularly under the current government, is revealing itself as a classist, racist, xenophobic, little country with illusions of grandeur from the ancient British Empire, ignorance from the USA, and fantasies about its own egalitarianism.   

 

Was Norfolk Island a Gaol or a Detention Centre?

How odd that it is now acceptable in Australia to run detention centres that are so bad that it is hoped that the news of their existence will deter others from coming here. This is precisely the reasoning behind the British Government's establishment of horror gaols on Norfolk Island and elsewhere in the early part of the 19th century. It was hoped that news of the appalling conditions would trickle back to London and serve to end criminality there - it didn't.

Nor does the Australian Government's attempts to deter refugees work either. However, the news of our behaviour has trickled back to London and elsewhere around the world.

Two recent publications are relevant here. One is the Human Rights Watch: World Report, 2015. It reports on events and conditions in 2014. It can be downloaded as a PDF file from here: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015

You can read the entry on Australian on pages 75 to 79.

The other is the Australian Human Rights Commission's report The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention (2014). It can be downloaded as a PDF file from here: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/asylum-seekers-and-refugees?source=our-work

There are a few other reports available on the same page of the site:

• National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 2014: Discussion Paper 2014
• Tell Me About: Temporary Protection Visas 2013
• Asylum seekers, refugees and human rights - Snapshot Report

Holiday in Patong, Phuket - again!

I had another holiday in Phuket in January 2014. I was not impressed with Patong this time around, however, I went further afield to see the Big Buddha, the Phuket Sunday Night Market, Central Festival shopping mall and visited Khai Nok island. All in all the trip was a success but Patong had grown considerably since the last time I was there and a huge number of hotels, cafes and other businesses had proliferated. It's a shame the streets and footpaths had not also proliferated.


Patong Beach

A big part of the problem was the Russian tourists. The men seemed humourless, potentially aggressive, disapproving, uncommunicative and mean with money. This is just the opposite of the local Thais trying to make a living providing service with a smile. The Russian women were younger and often very pretty but just as humourless. Many shops and cafes now had many signs in Russian and the staff struggled with the Russian language. Many cafes offered Russian food - no experimenting with Thai food for these tourists!

Good Wi-Fi is not so easy to find. The two hotels I stayed in had inadequate signal strength and the modems were often overloaded. At one hotel I was shown where the modem was behind a panel in the corridor so that I could reboot it myself when it froze!  At the other hotel, I could seldom get my iPad to connect and had to sit around the foyer of the hotel. Cafes often boast Wi-Fi but it was usually very slow.

I had a look at a few condominiums for sale. Some, of course, had not been built yet. However, the sales people inspired distrust as much as enthusiasm to buy.

Perhaps I'll go back again. Perhaps I'll go to Vietnam next trip.


At the moment I am reading, or re-reading:

Grayling A. C. : The God Argument, London: Bloomsbury, 2013. ISBN: 978 1 4088 3743 6

Weber, Max: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1978. ISBN: 0 04 331069 9

Hindley, Geoffrey: A Brief History of the Crusades, London: Robinson, 2003. ISBN: 978-1-84119-766-1

Taylor, K. W.: A History of the Vietnamese, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-0-521-69915-0

Verne, Jules: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, http://www.feedbooks.com, 1870.

Various Authors: Irish Ghost Stories,Ware:Wordsworth,2005. ISBN: 978-1-84022-487-0

Books I am reading at the moment:

Chomsky, Noam, Making the Future, Camberwell: Penguin Books, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-241-14511-1

Worsley, Peter (Ed.) Introducing Sociology (2nd Ed.), Harmonsworth: Penguin Books, 1977. ISBN: 014 08 0187 1

Hayward, John (Ed.)  English Verse, Harmonsworth: Penguin Books, 1956. ISBN: 0 14 042 032 0

Beelaerts, Charles & Forde, Kevin, Understanding Investments (5th Ed.), Milton: Wrightbooks, 2010. ISBN: 9781742469508

Gay, Peter (Ed.), The Freud Reader, New York: W W Norton, 1989. ISBN: 0-393-31403-0

Smith, Jon, Start an Online Business, Southam: In Easy Steps Ltd, 2011. ISBN: 978-1-84078-413-8

Holiday in Patong, Phuket 

My latest trip was to Patong in Phuket, Thailand. This was my first trip to Phuket and I enjoyed it very much. The beach is beautiful and the nightlife is raw. During the day there is much to see and photograph or perhaps just shop for more memory for your camera.

At night the restaurants, bars, Go Go bars and street vendors compete to grab your attention. As you walk down Thanon Bangla the lady boys, the tourists, the locals and the girls walk quickly with determined stride to meet somebody, somewhere.

I felt safe and relaxed wherever I went. I was careful with my money being always aware of pickpockets but I saw no trouble. The picture above is one of my favourites because although it has technical faults, it reminds me of the street that night.

At the end of Thanon Bangla is the beach. Patong is famous for its sunsets. I found it easy to just stand on the beach and take several photos like this one. Some say it is a shame that the beach seems to be so commercially exploited, but it could be worse. It's not too crowded, there is a wide stretch of sand from the road to the water and it is a very long beach. There are other, quieter towns on the island.

I went for long strolls along the beach and enjoyed it very much. I wasn't bothered by any thugs, salesmen, hookers or police.

The contrast between the beach and the entertainment and shopping areas is amazing in itself.

Go there!

Books I have read recently:
Fearn, Nicholas: Philosophy, London: Atlantic Books, 2005. ISBN: 1-84354-068-1

Kooser, Ted: The Poetry Home Repair Manual, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2005. ISBN: 978-0-8032-5978-2

McCalman, Janet: Journeyings, Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1993. ISBN: 0 522 84675 0

Ferris, Timothy (Ed.): Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics, New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1991. ISBN: 978-0-316-01031-3

Becker, Benjawan Poomsan: Thai for Beginners, Bangkok: Paiboon Poomsan Publishing, 1995. ISBN: 1-887521-00-3

James, P. D.: Shroud for a Nightingale, London: Faber & Faber, 1971. ISBN: 978-0-571-23005-1