Dinner at Linda's

I had dinner at Linda Briskman's last night. How perfectly lovely. I showed up FAAARRRR too early (trying to navigate the bus system and all). I got there before they were even home. Her husband, Housein (you'll have to pardon the spelling of names if I spell them incorrectly, we were only introduced, and I didn't get the spelling for everyone's names) and Linda came home, as they had gone out to have lunch with their japanese colleague who is staying with them for 2 weeks, Mariko and Amir, a young gentleman who is in the midst of getting a visa to stay here for humanitarian reasons. Amir, unfortunately doesn't speak any English, and so it was awful trying to communicate. Housein had to translate all the time. So to begin with, that was our lovely little party.

Mariko is here to conduct research on immigration practices in Australia. It's part of a larger research project, with others in other countries doing the same.

Linda is just a lovely woman, very down to earth and full of heart and passion. She is a professor at Curtin University and has spent a considerable part of her career advocating for asylum seekers landing in Australia and their very sad stories.

I am learning about Australian Detention Centres. You see, back home, detention centres is just a fancy word for a prison, to house those who have been convicted of criminal acts. Here, however, the detention centres are for innocent people seeking asylum from horrors in their own home country. Under the previous government, some of the detainees were being held, without word of their case, without pen and paper or phone to contact their loved ones, held captive for years before a decision was made for them if they could stay or if they must be deported. Housein was in a detention centre for over 3 years, and another guest was in the same centre for over 5 years. To hear their horror stories, and to know that these things have taken place and are still taking place in Australia, it's just horrific.

These people have done nothing wrong, but flee their country for their very survival, and in doing so many didn't have legal documents, found their way onto a boat and hoped to land in Australia to seek asylum. Little did they know that they would lose 3 to 5 years of their lives in doing so. I'm not just talking adults, but everyone, families, women, children, fathers, families were sometimes split up, children left to fend for themselves in a prison-like environment. It's really unbelievable.

So we spoke at great lengths about this very topic, as I believe it was the uniting factor of the evening. There were still many guests to arrive, some I unfortunately didn't even get the opportunity to speak with. We must have been about 17 people. It was a full house! So full in fact that we couldn't all eat at one table together so we were to make our up our plates and either find a chair or part of floor to eat off of. John (I believe) and I and a few others opted for the floor as a safer place to eat than try to balance on our laps. John also works at Curtin and researches popular music. We had a great long discussion on the history of pop music and 19th century middle class respectability.

The food was just amazing. Linda doesn't cook, so it was Housein and Mariko mostly in the kitchen. Housein had bought an 11lb salmon and stuffed it with a delicious mixture of I have no idea what and baked it in the oven. It was a HUGE fish, that was very tasty. He also made an olive, walnut and pomegranate tapas prior to dinner. there were two salads, lasagna, naan bread, rice, and something else for dinner that is right now escaping my mind. We also had white chocolate and hazelnut ice cream, strawberries, baklava, indian sweets, and a few other treats for dessert.

Just delicious spread.

I had such a wonderful night. We left at about midnight, my buses, of course long gone. So Housein's friend Jaffa (the gentleman who'd been in a detention centre for over 5 years) offered to drive me home. I greatly appreciated it and accepted. He is a very lovely man, good natured and seems quite happy, despite his hardships. He said he landed here he was 30 years old, and was 36 by the time they granted him his VISA and was permitted to be free on Australian soil. That struck a chord with me. I couldn't imagine this country, right now, at my age, take away the next 5 years of my life. He just said that he'd like to forget about it and move on and be happy. He told me that he should be a full official citizen by the end of the year. Then, he doesn't know what he will do, if he'll stay here or travel elsewhere. I don't know how generous I'd be toward a country that has essentially stolen 5 years of my life.

in any case, Linda gave me a copy of her latest book "human rights over board: Seeking Asylum in Australia". I plan on reading that cover to cover, to get a better idea of how the system works here.

Linda has also mentioned the possibility of going to volunteer on Christmas Island for a few weeks. Christmas Island is Australian and is where they try to steer boat people (asylum seekers who arrive by boat without proper documentation) to the detention centre there.

If you are interested, go onto www.youtube.com and do a search for Christmas Island and detention centres.

Well I'm off to read, till next time!