Six Days in Godzone

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I have just got back from a very quick holiday in New Zealand. With the trip only lasting six days it didn’t give me time to catch up with as many people as I would have liked to have seen. However, I still did manage to see a little over 30 family and friends, including a number of members of my extended family whom I had not seen in over two years.

The highlight of the trip was two days of Bluebird skiing conditions at Mt Ruapehu. It takes around 4 – 5 hours to get to Mt Ruapehu from Auckland. So to make the most of the day I got up at the insanely early hour of 3.20am on Thursday morning to do the drive to Whakapapa Ski Field. I arrived at the ski field just after 8am, got my ski gear on and hit the mountain.

After a few runs down the Knoll Ridge and Valley T-bars I ventured out into the Far West area of the mountain. Despite having skied at Whakapapa many times over the last seven years I have never encountered a day where the weather has been good enough to go out to the Far West so the first time heading out there made this trip especially worthwhile.

After a few runs down the western slopes in ankle deep powder I decided to traverse back to the main area of the mountain, just as the cloud rolled in and the visibility dropped to only a few metres. Because of the poor visibility I managed to get a little lost on the traverse back and ended up dropping in on one of the chutes above Hut Flat. This run is an extremely steep double black diamond and I am quite proud that I conquered it, even if it was an accident – because I doubt I would have gone down it if I had known fully where I was going.

I stayed overnight in Ohukane on Thursday night and ventured up to Turoa Ski Field on Friday morning. There is a lot more snow on the Turoa side of Ruapehu and for the first time ever I saw snow in the forest on the drive up to the ski area. The top part of the road was very icy and despite having hired a fairly powerful car it still struggled at about 20km/h up the final 3km of the road. Friday was another Bluebird day and the snow conditions at Turoa were even better than Whakapapa the day before. The powder wasn’t as deep but there was much better coverage across the mountain which meant I was dodging around rocks.

Despite both Whakapapa and Turoa being on the same mountain and run by the same company the two fields have quite different characteristics. Personally I prefer Turoa, all the times I have been up the staff have been extremely friendly, and there is much more open terrain to explore without needing to do long traverses.

Before I went to the ski fields one of my friends had disputed that I was any good at skiing – being a computer geek and not playing sports gives me that reputation – so I set up my GPS on my phone to track one of my runs down the mountain… and… I managed to get through 2.3km, 700 vertical metres in six minutes with an average speed of 23km/h and a top speed of 39km/h – a result that I am very happy with.

The remainder of my trip in NZ involved visiting extended family in Wanganui and catching up with many friends from my former university and workplaces. As I write this I am on a plane back to Sydney and I am already missing home. I may be biased as I am a kiwi, but New Zealand is simply the most amazing, friendly, and adventurous place I know. Australia may be my current abode, and the world may be my oyster, but New Zealand will always be my home.

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Photos: Hiking Cowan to Brooklyn via Jerusalem Bay

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I spent today hiking with friends on the Jerusalem Bay Track in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park (about 70km north of Sydney).

Despite the dire weather forecasts the day turned out to be absolutely perfect, not too cold, not too hot, and absolutely no rain. The track is only 13km long, however, it has some quite steep climbs and took us about six and a half hours to complete.

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NZ’s Tampa and a week of political and media spin

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On Monday night news broke that a boat of asylum seekers supposedly destined for New Zealand had been detained in Indonesian waters. Immediately the NZ Prime Minister, John Key, came out with a hard-line ‘we won’t take illegal boat people’ stance. Since then the continuing news stories on both sides of the Tasman has left me convinced that the majority of this story is spin and the group of asylum seekers currently being used as political prawns by both politicians and the media.

Over the last week I have been collecting some of the news stories to piece together the bigger picture, starting with Tuesday:

‘No evidence’ asylum seekers heading to NZ (stuff.co.nz)

New Zealand Immigration Minister Jonathon Coleman said there was “no concrete evidence” that the Sri Lankan people were actually trying to reach New Zealand.

“When they had a look at the boat, there was no evidence that they were truly intending to come here, so I’m sure there is a range of things that the people on that boat are trying to do to leverage their position,” Coleman said.

“While there is obviously the capacity for them to come to New Zealand, we feel in this case it was pretty unlikely that that was their intended destination.”

“The reality is that you would expect there to be things like maps on board, charts that would indicate that that was their true destination and I haven’t had any information that any of that material has been found on that boat.”

Asked why they had been holding signs indicating they wanted to come to New Zealand, Coleman said: “Obviously, if they could create a wave of political pressure to come here, I’m sure they would be pretty keen to get to somewhere but look, they won’t be coming to New Zealand.”

So on Monday night we had Key telling us these people were definitely coming, however, on Tuesday morning we have the immigration minister telling us they weren’t. What is most interesting is the last line where Coleman even suggests these people were set up to create a political storm.

Of course Key wasn’t happy about his hard-line stance being undermined by the truth so he came out with this gem (via nzherald on Wednesday):

“He hasn’t had an intelligence briefing, he’s had a briefing from his officials, there’s a difference.”

One wonders if his intelligence briefing was run by his political and media advisors… anyway… this hardline approach by Key then saw all the vested interest groups and individuals (Amnesty International, Kiwiblog, Helen Clark, etc) come out to add their 2c into the debate.

The most interesting of these comments came from the United Sri Lanka Association who claimed Sri Lanka was “as peaceful as Wellington” and “There’s no violence there right now, the violence there caused by Tamil terrorism has been quelled, it’s been put to rest two years ago.”

Well if this was the case then you would expect Sri Lanka to be somewhere near NZ in the Global Peace Index right? Last year NZ ranked 2nd most peaceful country in the world, Sri Lanka ranked 126th, and as for their argument it has improved, sure the year before they ranked 133rd, but the year before that they ranked 125th so their peace ranking isn’t improving, and it is certainly nowhere near the same as NZ.

Also by this time the Australian media commentators had picked up on the NZ asylum boat story claiming it as proof that the Gillard Government’s Malaysia Solution was working. The best of these stories was the SMH with “Message received: asylum seekers give Australia a wide berth” which claimed that the boat supposedly headed to NZ may have also tried to go to Canada!

Then yesterday the nzherald had an article about how a person who came from the Tampa has been caught up in a car rebirthing ring.  A story that was worded in such a way that it clearly made out that this guy was bad because of the country he had came from – not because bad apples can occur in any country or situation.

And now a week after the story first broke, the Sunday Star Times is claiming they have got a reporter onboard and reporting there is a stalemate going on about where these people should go… the saga continues…

Right now there is a conspiracy filled cynic in me saying the Nats and the media is feeding us bullshit. Yes there is a refugee boat in Indonesia, yes these people are in need – and we should help them!

But instead there is a whole lot of media and political spin going on to make it look like these people are evil zombies out to destroy everything we hold dear. Of course that is crap, but if you read enough stories about how these people will steal your cars, are secretly violent terrorists, and are so lazy they will use all your taxpayers’ dollars on welfare you’ll believe it right?

NZ’s Asylum Seeker Media Beat Up

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The lead story on both nzherald.co.nz and stuff.co.nz tonight is that apparently an asylum seeker boat has been detained in Indonesia that is ‘apparently’ destined for New Zealand. My immediate thought was someone just stuffed up and gave the people the flag of the wrong country! However, it gets even better than that with both articles are riddled with errors.

Indonesia has become a major transit point for people from Afghanistan, Iraq and other war-torn countries trying to illegally enter New Zealand and Australia.

How many times does it have to be repeated that it is not illegal to seek asylum… in fact it is a guaranteed human right!

Reuters photographs show the refugees holding up signs that read: “We need New Zealand”.

Really? Cause the photo attached to the stuff article says “Newsland”. Sure it could be a spelling mistake, but I am feeling that I am not being fed the full story and instead either these few photos are from a select few people from the boat… or even worse they have been staged.

Then comes the comment from John Key:

“It confirms what I’ve been saying for some time; it’s only a matter of time before large vessels, steel hulled vessels capable of navigating their way to New Zealand or Canberra or far away parts of the world, would try and make their way here.”

I would love to see any boat make it to Canberra. It is quite a distance inland from the coast!

I remember about a year ago Key making a similar bizarre comment from Key about asylum boats… one thinks he is still getting his media advice from the same people who advise Australia’s Liberal Party.

Maybe Go Back To Where You Came From should be shown on TV in New Zealand too.

48 Hours in Melbourne

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I have just got back from a very fast weekend holiday in Melbourne.

At 7.45am on Friday I caught the daylight XPT Train from Sydney to Melbourne. I really like trains so spending over 11 hours on a train is better and cheaper than flying. Upon arriving in Melbourne I headed to the airport to meet a friend flying in from NZ to join me for the weekend. Once we had checked into our accommodation (Space Hotel) we went for a midnight stroll around the CBD.

On Saturday we got up early and headed out to the MCG and walked around the former Olympic Stadiums. From there we caught a tram to St Kilda and Luna Park before spending the afternoon shopping. In the evening we investigated Southbank and Crown Casino. The casino complex is massive, by far the biggest casino I have been in, and also just as impressive in eating my $5 I put in a pokie machine in rapid time.

Having tired our legs out with so much walking on Saturday, we spent Sunday morning at Melbourne Museum. Their dinosaur exhibition is amazing (see video below). From there we went shopping at Spencer Street Mall – which has a very Dressmart feel to it. After this me and my friend parted ways, they flew back to NZ and I caught the overnight XPT train back to Sydney.

This was my third visit to Melbourne, it is one of my favourite cities, in fact I came very close to moving there a few years ago – but a better opportunity arose in Sydney. The city has so much shopping, trams, and culture. Everywhere you go and look there is something unique and different to see. I simply love it.

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Sydney’s Historical Revisionism – divisive not productive

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Last night the City of Sydney Council voted to use the word ‘invasion’ to describe the arrival of European settlement in Australia in official council documents. The decision was made under the threat of the resignation of the Aboriginal advisory panel if the word was not used. However, instead of moving Sydney and Australia forward, the decision by the City of Sydney has opened up a can of historical worms with its attempts at revisionism.

The reality is Australia was settled not invaded. If Australia was invaded it would have involved guns, wars and people conquered. However, for the most part the initial establishment of Australia was peaceful. Sure there are stories about violence against some Aboriginal communities, however, there are equally as many stories about the trade between the European arrivals and established Aboriginal communities. The main problems in Australia’s history, such as the White Australia Policy, came later.

I believe it is right to attempt to amend the wrongs of the past. It is especially important to help those people where as a result of the past there is still pain, disadvantage and suffering today. However, this change does not seek to make any difference to the lives of people; instead it is mere political pandering to a select few who play politics.

What the city of Sydney (and Australia) really needs to do is work to be inclusive to all, acknowledging its indigenous heritage, and building partnerships with all communities to move forward together as a united nation. However, while Europeans continue to be seen as invaders and Aboriginals as lazy this will not happen. It is time for both sides to stop living 220 years in the past and instead have a cultural perspective change and focus on future.

 

We can do better than mandatory detention of refugees #gobacksbs

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Throughout this week SBS’s Go Back To Where You Came From sparked a number of discussions in my workplace. One key topic of discussion was on the life of refugees compared to those living in extreme poverty. Just because you are poor doesn’t make you a refugee, and just because you are a refugee shouldn’t confine you to a life of poverty.

Unfortunately, however, the problems of poverty and displaced peoples are often connected. The west has also been trying to solve both problems for decades now with little success. The reality is no matter how hard we try, it is human nature to start wars, which naturally displace people. Also with wars, famine, floods, and a growing global population there is always going to be hunger.

The two extremes of the refugee debate in Australia are “Stop the boats. Close the borders.” and “Let everyone who wants to come in, we have enough room.” Of course neither extreme is workable so we end up with a compromise position somewhere in the middle.

At the moment the current Australian Government policy is to make it as hard as possible for refugees to enter Australia through the use of mandatory detention and the threat of deporting people to Malaysia. We are like the big bully picking on the weakest most vulnerable kid in the playground. We act tough when in reality we just have a warped sense of entitlement.

Too often we forget that being a refugee gives you a ticket to the most unlucky lottery in the world. Some people are fortunate they win the lottery easily and make it to the west relatively quickly. Others face years of going from country to country running from the constant threat of death. By the time someone gets in a rusty, old, overcrowded boat they are at a state of desperation.

Upon arriving in Australian territory asylum seekers are thrown into prison – after all these people have gone through to make it alive this far you think they would have a little more luck in the lucky country. Quite simply the approach taken by the Australian authorities is inhumane, unjust and unnecessary.

In an opinion piece on theage.com.au Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser outlines a 10 steps to solve the refugee crises in a much better way. He writes:

Australia should not seek to avoid its obligations by shifting asylum seekers to another country. There are many questions and problems relating to the so-called agreement with Malaysia. The whole idea of swapping asylum seekers including children in this way, as if they are commodities, is odious. It is trading in people. It is neither an appropriate nor a just solution.

Mandatory immigration detention centres should be abolished. Detention for the purpose of health, identity and security checks alone should be permissible.

We should be especially concerned about children in detention. The previous government made a commitment to get children out of detention, yet in February there were more than 1000 children in detention

The punitive approach taken to asylum seekers who come to Australia by boat – who are detained often for years – and to those who have come by air – who are living in the community but are denied any form of government support – should be replaced by a humane and compassionate policy where support is given to those in distress.

A strong, multicultural Australia that draws strength from its diversity, that debates real issues of importance to ourselves and to common humanity, has contributed so much in the past. It must do so again.

The pettiness and meanness of the current debates about asylum seekers and indeed on other issues that are dealt with on a totally partisan basis must be put aside.

We should also ask ourselves what we as Australians need to do so that politicians will learn to appeal to the best of our natures and cease playing politics with the lives of vulnerable people.

You can read the full article here: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/how-australia-can-solve-its-asylum-seeker-problem-20110624-1gjlt.html

Fraser’s ideas make sense and are completely workable. One can only hope that somehow the politicians in Canberra hear him, and the voices of everyone else who are saying that there is a better way.

#gobacksbs What now? How can we go from passive watchers to active change makers?

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Over the past three evenings SBS have aired Go Back To Where You Came From – their Amazing Race meets Survivor reality TV documentary on refugees. It is compelling and emotional watching and the interactive feedback via Twitter and Facebook has seen it get decent media coverage.

Now that the show has concluded the question that lingers is “What now? How can we go from passive watchers to active change makers?” As of this morning smh.com.au is reporting that the government is continuing to push on with negotiations to send asylum seekers to Malaysia for “processing”.

The Malaysian solution is the first thing that needs to be stopped. Even refugee advocates believe Nauru is a better alternative than Malaysia. As #gobacksbs showed Malaysia is home to 100,000 refugees who live in extreme poverty and are at risk of beatings just because they are refugees. UNICEF Australia has a letter writing campaign in force to object to the Malaysia solution, it may only be a symbolic action to get involved but please do.

In the long term Australia needs to close its detention centres and take a much more humane approach to dealing with refugees. Richard Ackland makes these comments in another smh.com.au article:

“…people who were treated humanely and in non-detention environments were more likely to be compliant with authorities, including those facing return to their country of origin. Rates of absconding were also very low – about 1 per cent.

We’re talking about countries where asylum seekers are processed in the community, including open reception centres. This is the norm in many European countries, as well as South Africa and New Zealand.

In Australia people held in detention deteriorate quite quickly, they develop grievances and are less able to engage with the authorities. There are the inevitable pitched battles and rarely are those facing removal compliant.”

Unfortunately the only way we are going to see change in Australia is through political pressure. I hope that some back-bench Labor MPs saw #gobacksbs last night and will put internal pressure on the Labor party to stop pandering to racists. I also hope that in the wake of the grass roots action will increase. Imagine seeing a day of action for refugees like we saw for the carbon tax a few weeks back.

Most importantly it is time for those 600,000 viewers of #gobacksbs last night to find their voice and speak up. Start local – talk to friends and family about the refugee crises and the myth of “illegal immigrants”. Send letters to MPs and media outlets voicing your opposition to mandatory detention and let them know there is a better way. Finally, if you want to take direction action, get involved with UNICEF, World Vision, and other NGOs. The only way change can be made is through people power.

 

Photos: Vivid Sydney 2011

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Tonight a group of friends from uni and I went to Vivid Sydney and had a fantastic time. Vivid Sydney is on every night for the next week and a bit at Circular Quay and The Rocks and it is well worthwhile checking out. But don’t take my words for it, instead let my photos below convince you.

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Photos: Manly to Spit Bridge Walk

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Yesterday a group of us from uni walked the Manly Scenic Walk (Manly Wharf to Spit Bridge). The walk is only 9km but advertised as being between 3.5 – 4.5 hours, and somehow it managed to take a group of us 20-something year olds five hours to complete. This was mainly because we went down every side track possible and stopped at every corner to take photos. The best of my photos are below:

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