How Discrimination Saved Me From the Queensland Flood

I cannot resist thanking the bigoted and racist Australian officials for discriminating against me and my family thus unwittingly sparing us from being surely displaced again.

(DARFUR) - While nature, namely Madam La Niña has expressed her anger towards mankind at different corners of our planet through flood and landslide thereby consuming a considerable number of lives including destruction of properties, no phenomenon has set me glued to the TV like the deluge in Queensland, Australia.

Despite hearing of similar other disasters in my lifetime or even having been amidst one, the catastrophe in Queensland, particularly the Capital Brisbane, is the second one to captivate me next to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, United States.

I guess I have been conditioned to associate all misfortunes, man made and natural, to Africa and Asia alone. At times, I even entertained cynical thoughts that it might be good to lessen their alarmingly burgeoning population.

That must be the reason as to why I was not that much shocked with the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 that killed nearly a quarter-million people. On the contrary, I was rapt with attention at the New Orleans disaster and followed it through from beginning to end.

Though, most of the victims were black, their skin color was not visible to me. Thanks to their technological advancement and material affluence, to me they were Americans that can weather any misfortune unlike us the wretched of the earth.

Unfortunately, the utter helplessness and sheer horror I saw on the face of each African Americans caught in the “apocalypse” reminded me of an astute observation by James Russell.

He said “Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully like other people.”

The venomous Madam Katrina struck around 1836 people while damaging property estimated at about $81 billion.

In comparison, the calamity that befell Australia can be described as negligible since so far the death toll did not amount more than 18 or 17, according to the January 16 Brisbane Courier Mail or The Australian.

In terms of property damage, it’s estimated between $10-13 billion. Brazil that suffered flood and landslide around the same time has already lost over 600 people. Of course, I am mindful of fresh news of flash flood in the state of Victoria which may push the casualty figure higher.

Perhaps taking a very good lesson from the Americans unpreparedness in New Orleans, the Aussies might have succeeded in lessening the casualty figure through an accurate weather forecast that prompted them to evacuate on time.

If that was the case, I congratulate them while at the same time commiserate with them over their loss.However, the main reason that gravitated me to the news of the Australian flood was how easily I would have been one of the victims.

In August 2008, I applied to be resettled in Australia as per the “Special Humanitarian Visa” that country professes to grant for refugees stranded in poorer countries in accordance with international humanitarian norms.

As I am a bona fide refugee who fled from my country not in search of a “greener pasture,” my application was accepted right away on its own merit. Then in 2009, I did the interview along with my family whereby the migration officer from Australia congratulated me while handing me a paper for medical examination that also includes mandatory test for HIV.

We are a discordant couple meaning, me the main applicant for the “Refugee and Special Humanitarian Visa” is negative while my wife along with our two adorable children are HIV positive. We were slated to be resettled in Brisbane.

Anyway, the medical examination along with the mandatory test for HIV was to me, a time to test Australia itself as to how committed that nation is to international humanitarian rules.

Most of all, it was a time to test how “civilized, fair and compassionate” the entire society is towards less fortunate people.

Sadly, I found out that nation is not only uncivilized and uncaring to humanitarian crisis around the world. With immense outrage and disillusionment, I learned every step of the way as to how that country is littered with politicians, civil servants and officials that oversee its “Politically Correct Racism/PCR/”that borders on fascism which was notorious for dubbing disabled people as unproductive.

Later, I have also posted on www.asmarino.com “Open letter to International AIDS Society/IAS/concerning Australia.” This one reflects upon the double standard of the “international community” that professes to fight stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/PLHIV/.

Naturally, anyone who is reading this will wonder whether I am having a schaden-freude due to the calamity that befell the Aussies in Brisbane and elsewhere just because I was denied visa on the basis of egregious discrimination^[1].

Being an African and still in Africa where epic proportion of manmade and natural disasters happen frequently and in abundance, I cannot afford to feel that way no matter how vindictive I am.

Nonetheless, as I sought to migrate to Australia in search of a “durable solution” to my protracted refugee status, I cannot resist thanking the bigoted and racist Australian officials for discriminating against me and my family thus unwittingly sparing us from being surely displaced again.

I wonder at this juncture whether the Queensland state “Community recovery support and Assistance” program would be fair to every resident affected by the flood. As misfortune brings out the best in people that were truly best from the very beginning, it also brings out the worst of those who were pretending to be nice and civil while harboring bigotry and malice.

Australia is notorious for mistreating its indigenous people, the Aborigines whom the media dominated by corporate tycoons such as Rupert Murdoch said nothing amid the hullabaloo on the Australian deluge wherein it portrayed only the white community as victims and heroes who braved the raging flood to even rescue Kangaroos! The recovery support and assistance program has a phrase that says “the needs of individuals and families will be assessed.”

The word “assessed” can easily be misconstrued for discrimination as my own experience in the hands of the highly “civilized” Australian officials informed me not so long ago. The mandatory test for HIV was conducted on us to “assess” our health not “necessarily to deny visa” so said the migration form we filled. Tragically the “assessment” did not only stop in discrimination.

It also elicited a letter from one called Mr. Matt Kennedy, Assistant Secretary for “family and health” policy in the Department of Immigration and citizenship, who impliedly informed me to jettison my family or wish for their quick death to get the “coveted humanitarian visa.”

The exact phrase he used in justifying the rejection of my application was this “unless your family’s circumstances change” there is no way that you will be granted the visa.Therefore, in the aftermath of a great peril wherein the entire society is expected to tighten its belt, the “assessment” can easily be employed to the exclusion of migrants and the like even in the best of egalitarian societies.

Finally, I would like to tell the Premier of Queensland, Ms.Anna Bligh how touched I am by her speech wherefore she said “It might be breaking our hearts at the moment—it won’t break our will.” How ironic; your politically correct racism and fascistic immigration policy only “broke our heart at the time.”

It didn’t break our will or faith in the good of mankind including Australians. While my wife is still going on with her iron will wherein she earned admiration in her workplace and social circles my kids are also passing with flying colors.

As for me I try to emulate the intellect and sheer gumption of John Pilger and Julian Assange in fighting and exposing injustice and arrant hypocrisy anywhere in our planet. Had Van Diemen’s Land produced more like these two, the world would have been a better place.