Disaster in the Indian Ocean

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Ben
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Location: kanamaluka

Disaster in the Indian Ocean

Post by Ben »

Yesterday, a boat holding more than 200 asylum seekers capsized between Indonesia and Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. While rescue efforts continued overnight, it is expected that there will be a large loss of life. Please consider averting your mind to the asylum seekers, and asylum seekers everywhere, if and when you practice metta bhavana and the sharing of your merits.
In this country, our government treats asylum seekers who arrive by boat as if they are criminals by locking them up in indefinite detention and using them as political fodder. It is shameful and disgusting and it is why I support the UNHCR.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/dozen ... 20rnz.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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Kim OHara
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Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: Disaster in the Indian Ocean

Post by Kim OHara »

Yes, It's a tragic situation for those people and, on the larger scale, a shameful situation for Australia.
:candle:
Coincidentally, I saw a movie last night which dealt sympathetically with the parallel situation in France. It is not dull or moralistic, though - it is quite light and often funny.
I recommend it to everyone: Le Havre http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1508675/ (IMDB) or http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le_havre_2011/ (Rotten Tomatoes).

:namaste:
Kim
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yawares
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Re: Disaster in the Indian Ocean

Post by yawares »

Ben wrote:Yesterday, a boat holding more than 200 asylum seekers capsized between Indonesia and Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. While rescue efforts continued overnight, it is expected that there will be a large loss of life. Please consider averting your mind to the asylum seekers, and asylum seekers everywhere, if and when you practice metta bhavana and the sharing of your merits.
In this country, our government treats asylum seekers who arrive by boat as if they are criminals by locking them up in indefinite detention and using them as political fodder. It is shameful and disgusting and it is why I support the UNHCR.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/dozen ... 20rnz.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

kind regards,

Ben
Dear Ben,
It's a sad news indeed...I'll chant Metta-Katha for them :candle: .
yawares
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manas
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Re: Disaster in the Indian Ocean

Post by manas »

Hi Ben, all,

I try to imagine myself in their position - often asylum seekers have fled dispossession, violence, political persecution or even the threat of death or torture in their own countries, and so it's understandable that they might take a risk and get aboard a not totally safe vessel to flee to a better place - I think most people in Australia, in the same situation, might do the same. And so I too find appalling the way the mainstream media & both major political parties in our country often portray asylum seekers, as if we are being 'swamped' by them, when in reality they represent a tiny fraction of total immigration. But this point is not generally known by the wider public!

It would 'cost' us little, but bring us much merit as a nation, if we would drop the irrational fear, and just do the ordinary, decent human thing - help those in dire need who come to us for assistance!

kind regards,

manas :anjali:
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
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Kim OHara
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Re: Disaster in the Indian Ocean

Post by Kim OHara »

Agreed on all points.
manas wrote:... I too find appalling the way the mainstream media & both major political parties in our country often portray asylum seekers, as if we are being 'swamped' by them, when in reality they represent a tiny fraction of total immigration. But this point is not generally known by the wider public!
Also, their numbers are far smaller than the numbers of refugees / illegal immigrants arriving in the EU, and knowing that may help the general public accept that we have a manageable problem ... but we are not told that.

:namaste:
Kim
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Kim OHara
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Re: Disaster in the Indian Ocean

Post by Kim OHara »

This is an old thread but,sadly, the problem remains ... and this image was just too good not to share it with Aussie Buddhist friends:
75011_10200587133827050_1612029716_n.jpg
75011_10200587133827050_1612029716_n.jpg (54.64 KiB) Viewed 1090 times
:namaste:
Kim
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Ben
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Location: kanamaluka

Re: Disaster in the Indian Ocean

Post by Ben »

Thanks Kim.
Yes, I saw the image on facebook yesterday.
This government, and its decision to keep the public in the dark regarding asylum seeker arrivals is particularly worrying.
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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Kim OHara
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Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2009 5:47 am
Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: Disaster in the Indian Ocean

Post by Kim OHara »

Hi, Ben,
I'm glad the image is being seen.
:thumbsup:
Just after I posted it here, I saw the news - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-23/g ... ck/4975742 - saying ...
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the Government does not plan to publicly reveal when or if any asylum seeker boats are turned around - a measure that is a key plank of the Coalition's border protection policy.
The Coalition's measures, Operation Sovereign Borders, began last week and Mr Morrison and its commander Angus Campbell held the first weekly media briefing on Monday.
The Minister says the Government will announce how many boats arrive and the numbers of asylum seekers at the briefings, but there will be no information about whether boats are turned around.
And this is in spite of the fact that "turning back the boats" was the central plank of their revolting "border protection" policy!

http://theconversation.com/julian-burns ... tion-18290 is longish but well worth reading all the way through and reflecting upon for some balance and perspective,
Worth spreading, too.

:namaste:
Kim
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Ben
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Re: Disaster in the Indian Ocean

Post by Ben »

Thanks Kim.
The essay by Julian Burnside is excellent and articulates a lot of my own feelings about the issue.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
dagon
Posts: 526
Joined: Sun Jun 30, 2013 12:45 am

Re: Disaster in the Indian Ocean

Post by dagon »

Ben wrote:Thanks Kim.
The essay by Julian Burnside is excellent and articulates a lot of my own feelings about the issue.
kind regards,

Ben
plus one

I wonder if it would be possible on this forum to provide links where those interested could better inform themselves of the issues or in some way help in accordance with the Dhamma?

metta
paul
dagon
Posts: 526
Joined: Sun Jun 30, 2013 12:45 am

Re: Disaster in the Indian Ocean

Post by dagon »

Ben wrote:Thanks Kim.
The essay by Julian Burnside is excellent and articulates a lot of my own feelings about the issue.
kind regards,

Ben
plus one

I wonder if it would be possible on this forum to provide links where those interested could better inform themselves of the issues or in some way help in accordance with the Dhamma?

Some may find this interesting in getting the information that the government does not think we should have. https://www.facebook.com/ExposingTonyAb ... 1381691919


metta
paul
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Kim OHara
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Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2009 5:47 am
Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: Disaster in the Indian Ocean

Post by Kim OHara »

dagon wrote:I wonder if it would be possible on this forum to provide links where those interested could better inform themselves of the issues or in some way help in accordance with the Dhamma?

Some may find this interesting in getting the information that the government does not think we should have. https://www.facebook.com/ExposingTonyAb ... 1381691919


metta
paul
Getting reliable, relevant news is harder than it used to be but (fortunately) so is suppressing the truth.
Not limiting myself here to the asylum-seekers issue, I like:
The ABC, and particularly its Fact-check http://www.abc.net.au/news/factcheck/ which appeared during the election campaign but (happily) doesn't seem to be going away.
The Australia Institute, a leftish think-tank www.tai.org.au/‎
GetUp! and Avaaz ... within reason.
For world-wide news, I like the ABC again, plus Al Jazeera (emphatically not US-centric, so it's a counterbalance to everything else we get), Time magazine and (rarely) CNN, plus RealClimate, ThinkProgress http://thinkprogress.org/ and so on.
And I avoid commercial radio/TV and the Murdoch press for the sake of my sanity and my blood pressure respectively :tongue:

YMMV so feel free to add to my list or comment on it.

:coffee:
Kim
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