Questions from the Asylum: An Analysis of Australia's
Asylum and Detention Issues
By Susan Connelly
Otford Press, 2002
66 pages, $5.95
Send cheque or money order to PO Box 299 St Marys NSW 1790.
REVIEW
BY SARAH STEPHEN
Questions from the Asylum is a collection of speeches presented by refugees' rights activists Susan Connelly at some of the many rallies she has addressed throughout 2001 and 2002.
Connelly is a sister of the St Joseph order of nuns and has also been a long-time solidarity activist with the people of East Timor. She presently works for the Mary MacKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies. Some of her speeches touch on the contemptible treatment of East Timorese asylum seekers by the Australian government
The passion with which Connelly articulates her words leaps from the book's pages. She uses powerful metaphors and draws on her interpretation of the Christian scriptures to make her case against the federal government's cruel and inhuman treatment of asylum seekers.
In one speech, Connelly refers to a newspaper editorial which alluded to the parable of the Good Samaritan. She argues that the newspaper completely missed the point of the parable, which was a fair and square condemnation of racism.
The Good Samaritan is not primarily about helping those in need; it is about helping those in need even if they are not of your tribe and that is why it stuck in the craw of those who first heard it, she points out.
Her speeches condemn the misuse of language and the eagerness of political leaders to lie. She makes the point in many different ways that the demonisation of asylum seekers has succeeded only in diminishing the humanity of Australian people.
From Green Left Weekly, October 2, 2002.
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