Round and round the mullberry bush…

The monkey chased the weasel...

Okay, I've been busy, and so tardy with the blog, so I missed out on blogging the election being called last Sunday. After waiting so long for the election to be declared and the 'real' campaign to begin, it's a bit of a let-down to finally be election mode. So much so that I can't seem to muster much excitement about it. Don't expect a blow-by-blow account of the campaign from this blog!

Don't get me wrong. I most certainly will be goaded into writing something here about the election campaign by the inevitable stupidity or dog-whistling expected in this campaign. I wonder though if I'll spend more time yelling at the TV than blogging about this.

On the other hand, the thing that has got me tied up in knots is that the Liberal Minister for Immigration, Kevin Andrews, has decided to cut the refugee intake from African countries because – he claims – some from certain Africa communities are not 'settling' into the "Australia way of life" successfully enough – i.e integrating and assimilating! Yes, I know it's old news, but I've been so confounded by the bare-faced lying and racist scapegoating by the minister that it's been hard to put fingers to keyboard on this.

I'm glad that Cast Iron Balcony managed to do so, and I'm also pleased to see the massive public outcry against the minister's decision and the lack of evidence behind his claims – and his capitalising on the tragic, senseless and apparently racist killing of a young man who was a refugee from Sudan.

The organisations who are campaigning to support refugees and migrants from African should also be congratulated.

I hope to follow this further. I don't want to let this just go away.

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Sekai Holland flown to South Africa

Beaten-up Zimbabwe democracy activist Sekai Holland is receiving medical treatment in South African after being flown flown there with the help of Australian High Commission officials in Zimbabwe.

According to reports last night, the Australian consular officials accompanied Sekai to the airport – and up to the airplane she was to board – to allow her to catch her flight unaccosted. Sekai was accompanyied by her friend and fellow activist Grace Kwinje, who had also been beaten and required medical treatment.

Sekai's husband, Jim Holland, reported that South African police escorted them from the airport to the hospital. When Sekai Holland had first tried to leave Zimbabwe to get medical help inSouth AFrica, Zimbabwe security officers stopped her from boarding her flight – at the steps to the plane.

Finally, it appears that the Australia's foreign affairs officials and government have decided to stand up to Mugabe and help someone in desperate need. The government has also announced that aid funding will be made available to those democracy activists who require medical treatment from being attacked and brutalised by the Mugabe regime.

Let's hope this will extend to greater pressure on the Mugabe regime, and consideration to the plight of all the other people of Zimbabwe.

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Support democracy in Zimbabwe

Sekai Holland was beaten up so badly by Zimbabwe police that she has a broken arm, a badly broken foot and broken ribs as well as severe bruising.

Yesterday, via a phone smuggled into her hospital room by a supporter, she told the ABC's Radio National, "My whole body is still covered with 81 lashes minimum, administered by 15 men, really strong men," she said.

When her Australian husband arranged for her to fly out of Zimbabwe for medical treatment in South African, she was stopped and arrested by police.

The 64-year-old is the policy secretary for Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. She says she will die if she is forced to stay in Zimbabwe.

Avaaz.org, a Europe based grassroots campaign group, says:

Robert Mugabe's desperate attempts to cling on to power are plunging Zimbabwe into ever greater chaos. His attacks on democratic opposition leaders must end now.

They say that Zimbabwe has "plunged further into crisis", thus requiring stronger action from the international community:

On Sunday, while boarding a plane to an international meeting, Zimbabwe's democratic opposition spokesman was beaten so severely that he lost an eye. Last week, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested and beaten for attending a protest prayer vigil. Other democratic activists in Zimbabwe are under a terrible threat, with many still held in prison.

Avaaz.org uses online campaigning in very much the same way that GetUp! Australia does (you can't miss the similarities in their websites and online campaign tools!). They are urging people to sign their petition demanding that "Zimbabwe's two main trading partners, South Africa and the European Union, adopt and enforce tougher sanctions targeting Mugabe and his top aides".

You can sign Avaaz's online petition here.

This approach contrasts significantly with that of Australia's Foreign Affairs apologist, Alexander Downer, who rejects Australian calls for tighter sanctions on the grounds that they will hurt the general public more than Robert Mugabe's regime. I think they are hurting already.

Australian readers may have heard that Sekai Holland had been an Australian resident for many years (and has an Australian husband), before returning to Zimbabwe to participate in the democracy movement. When in Australia, she had been a strong anti-apartheid activist and campaigned in solidarity with Aboriginal Australians for their rights. In fact, Aboriginal activist Gary Foley credits Sekai Holland with creating links between the anti-apartheid movement in Australia with Aboriginal rights activists in the early 70s.

I was appalled to find nitpicking arguments amongst some commentators about whether or not Australia should come to her aid – because she wasn't an Australian citizen, was no longer a resident, and shouldn't receive consular treatment – or didn't deserve it (perhaps because she is black African?).

I think the Avaaz.org approach has a better chance of working. Instead of pushing shit uphill to get get the Howard government to take stronger action, we can appreciate the need for global responsibility for this crisis, and take a global approach to directly lobby the European Union to take stronger action. There are already recent signs that some European governments, and perhaps the US, are prepared to listen. And hopefully act. I don't know if this will be enough to save Sekai Holland, though.

Update: I've noticed that Gary Foley and other Aboriginal leaders and activists have certainly not forgotten Sekai, and have expressed their outrage at her mistreatment, as recorded in Foley's statement on a Zimbabwe democracy blog. It's very heartening.
[Updated 11.40 am, Thursday 22 March]

[Image of Sekai Holland in hospital with her injuries is from Movement for Democratic Change, posted on Kubatana.net, an NGO Network Alliance website.]

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