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Why burn the place down?
One Man's Web > Politics
and Ethics > Australia and the
Refugees > Burn the place down?
There has been great outrage in
the popular press about the spate of fires in the Australian Concentration
Camps.
Pictures
by Nicholson Why
would they do such a thing? Perhaps Mr Howard and the right wing press, so
hurt by refugee's lack of thanks should go back to Shakespeare; the Merchant of
Venice, Act 111 Scene 1.
Salarino says to Shylock of
Antonio's losses: "Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his
flesh: what's that good for?" And Shylock replies:
To bait fish withal: if it
will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned
my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and
what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt
with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you
prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like
you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his
sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I
will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
Put bluntly, Mr Howard, if you
treat people like shit, shit you will get. Refugees are people, not something
less, and yet this is how we treat them.
Pictures
by Nicholson
 Apart
from a few, the media's reporting of the events has been a disgrace. No
here did one hear of refugees driven to despair. Although a few ringleaders
were identified as not being Middle eastern, no one felt it worth commenting
beyond that. Self satisfied and sleek glossy women spoke on the TV news
about the people burning "our detention centres" as though they
were places of pride, not a cause for shame. God bless the refugees for giving
the places the treatment they deserved.
One Man's Web > Politics
and Ethics
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Pictures
by Nicholson Why
would they do such a thing? Perhaps Mr Howard and the right wing press, so
hurt by refugee's lack of thanks should go back to Shakespeare; the Merchant of
Venice, Act 111 Scene 1.