My Letter To The Prime Minister
My Letter To The Prime Minister
My Letter To The Prime Minister
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"<br />
<strong>My</strong> <strong>Letter</strong> <strong>To</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Prime</strong> <strong>Minister</strong><br />
I just returned from an evening presentation of the movie, "Between the Devil<br />
and the Deep Blue Sea," and was actually able to hear from a refugee his<br />
thoughts on the movie that had been made about people just like him. I was<br />
so devastated and ashamed to learn that we are treating real live people like<br />
we do. I came away very upset, and thinking ...<br />
"Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young<br />
and free ...."<br />
FOR THOSE WHO'VE COME ACROSS<br />
THE SEAS<br />
We've boundless plains to SHARE;<br />
·~ust, I hope one day<br />
we have a good life. I<br />
don't know when."<br />
''Between the DeVI~ and<br />
the Deep Blue Sea"<br />
With COURAGE let us ALL COMBINE to<br />
Advance Australia FAIR.<br />
In joyful strains they let us sing, Advance Australia Fair. i<br />
Dear Ms. Julia Gillard,<br />
What are you doing to Australia? Our very own National Anthem extends a<br />
welcome to people coming to our shores, not a policy that turns them back!<br />
People worry about refugees taking their children's jobs, but what they<br />
should be worrying about is that many people are risking their lives to get to<br />
Australia. And what happens when they fmally get so close to a new life that<br />
they are already praising the Lord and celebrating? Your government forces<br />
the boats, and the people on them, back; back to their worst nightmare! But<br />
they have a right to seek asylum. ii I think the fear in these "boat people"<br />
should be a priority over the fear in Australians of being "taken over" by<br />
refugees. In 2008 only 88, 800 ofthe earth's 15.2 million refugees were<br />
resettled. That is well under 1 per cent! Surely, we can share what we have.
Now, close your eyes and imagine that you are in their position, your family<br />
far away, and most likely dead, though you are not even given the dignity of<br />
an answer to that question. You can never relax, you must always be alert.<br />
Also you don't know who to trust, because when you needed to go to a<br />
strange, new country called Australia, you took a huge risk, and it just is not<br />
working out at all. Nevertheless, your hope keeps you alive and makes the<br />
loneliness of separation from family and your own culture worthwhile. But,<br />
it's still not over, because if you do make it on to a boat, after the long,<br />
uncomfortable journey, you are turned back, to serve mandatory detention.<br />
Your treatment for an undefined time, maybe over a year, in a Detention<br />
Centre is just bearable. But there is pressure for you to go back to the country<br />
you ran from, and what you are sure is the worst place on earth.<br />
And now it has come to this; an awful death in the hands of the Taliban. Just<br />
imagine that. Can you? <strong>The</strong>se people are people,<br />
with feelings. <strong>The</strong> message Australia sends them<br />
is that they are worthless, and a problem that needs<br />
to be removed. What reason could you possibly<br />
have to justify what I can only describe as cruelty?<br />
"<strong>The</strong> edge of the boat<br />
was about a hand span<br />
above water, there were<br />
seventy people on it."<br />
"Between the Devil and the<br />
Deep Blue Sea"<br />
Yet, this is what you are doing, Ms. Gillard. And really, who cares what<br />
others think? You are the <strong>Prime</strong> <strong>Minister</strong>! So, think again about the boat<br />
people, and do what you know is right.<br />
I really thank everyone in ''Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea," for<br />
inspiring me to write this letter, and change my thinking and feeling about<br />
another human life.<br />
Thankyou, Ms. Gillard, for stopping and thinking hard about each human<br />
being as someone just like you, with a basic human right to life.<br />
Sincerely:<br />
Georgia Gregory (age 11)
; National Anthem. http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/symbols/docs/anthem words.pdf.<br />
u H<strong>My</strong>ths and Facts About Refugees and Asylum Seekers"<br />
https:ljwww.refugeecouncil.org.au/docs/news&events/rw/2010/4%20-<br />
%20<strong>My</strong>ths%20and%20facts%20about%20refugees%20and%20asylum%20seekers%202010.pdf