Stories of the Wind

I was at a discussion at the ICES (International Centre for Ethnic Studies), Colombo, recently. The topic of discussion was the current anti-Muslim hate campaign. Right towards the end of the Q&A time, a well-built middle-aged man got up to ask a question. It turned out that the person was a member of the Bodu Bala Sena (roughly translated it means, Army of Buddhist Power). He claimed that he had, in fact, returned from Australia – a dual citizen of Australia and Sri Lanka – to help revive ‘true’ Buddhism and uphold the rights of Sinhalese Buddhist in Sri Lanka. He presented Australia’s treatment of Muslim refugees as the model that Sri Lanka ought to follow, in handling the local Muslim population.

I also came across a poster in one of the racist Facebook groups which quoted the Australian Prime Minister as having told Muslims to either ‘adapt or leave.’ Of course, a simple Google search would suffice to know that Julia Gillard did not make such remarks, and the words were penned by an American for a local newspaper in the state of Georgia. However, the point to note here is that something about Australia made the hoax spread like fire.

A Sri Lankan-Australian based in Melbourne, who works in the entertainment industry, came out with an interesting video on how Aussie Hip Hop is ingrained with racism.

The Opposition Leader who visited Sri Lanka some time back, went back and blatantly lied about ground realities. She claimed that all asylum seekers are economic refugees. She also noted that there is no need for anyone to undertake an arduous boat journey to Australia when Tamil Nadu is close by. Pointing out that over five thousand people have returned from India, she argued that things are just fine. She failed to note the harsh treatment Indian returnees have received at the hands of Sri Lankan officials. She forgot to mention that Australia’s own Intelligence folks had found that a senior Government official of Sri Lanka had a lot to do with people smuggling.

White ‘Australians’ have seemingly forgotten their own history.  They have forgotten that they are illegal settlers. They probably think that their ancestors swam to the island; hence the branding of asylum seekers as ‘boat people.’

The Australia of today was created by murdering the indigenous people. It took more than two-hundred years for the whites to issue an apology for the appalling crimes that they perpetrated against the Aboriginal people. But, rights activists have pointed out that the apology carries little value because (a vast majority of) Aboriginal people still live in third world conditions, continue to be discriminated against and suffer badly. The whites are yet to acknowledge genocide.

Expecting a country like Australia to treat asylum seekers justly is indeed foolish. Peace.