On Saturday 21st April 2007 there was a NO BORDERS protest against an asylum seekers prison that is planned to be built by the Home Office in Gatwick.
My own views on this state of affairs follows:
My own views on this state of affairs follows:
The sacred hoop of oneness
People who have ran away from their homeland to escape tyranny and the threat of harm and death from aggression to come to this country deserve to be treated better than to be put into an asylum seekers detention centre AKA also known as a asylum seekers prison. Prison is a place for people who have commited a criminal act and have been tried and had a jury decide that the offender is guity of the crime that the defendant was accused of commiting, evidence would be provided in court to back up the claim that was being made against the defendant before the defendant could be judged by the jury of being guilty, and only then can the judge decide on a course of action to take against the now jury-decided offender which could see the offender into a prison. Asylum seekers have not been tried by jury in a proper law court, they end up being tried by an unelected judge without a jury ever being present. (There has been a radio show on Radio 4 that gave an example of this but I don't recall the title of that particular radio show.)
I say that it is unfair, immoral, unethical, wrong and a violation of their international universal human rights that asylum seekers have not been tried by such measures of U.K justice yet this country claims to be a fair and decent democratic* (*: democracy; [from Greek; Demos: 'community', kratos: 'sovereign power'.] ) country that even has its own Human Rights Act, yet we as a country don't seem to want to respect the rights of people seeking asylum in our country.
They have come here because they believe we are a great nation, that we are a fair and just country of people who believe in fairness and tolerance, democracy and decency, yet when they come here after fleeing their homeland to escape from the threat of violence to them and their families they end up being put into a 'detention centre' which is merely another way of saying prison cell; there crime being to dare to put their life and the lives of their families first so as to save themselves from grievous actual bodily harm;
Definition with examples follows:
Grievous:
see 'atrocious'
(as in atrocity -Ed):
adj. provoking horror; "genocide is beyond all words horrible"
"A frightful crime of human rights violations including murder by decapitation"
adj.Shockingly brutal or cruel; "genocide is an atrocious crime."
"It was a grievous offence against the asylum seekers human rights."
and;
see 'dangerous';
adj. causing fear or anxiety by threatening harm.
adj. involving or causing danger or risk that is liable to hurt or harm.
These people seeking asylum in our country could be put into open sheltered homes where there is a curfew imposed;(the asylum seekerapplicant as a resident of the accomodation would have a set of rules to adher to while a resident as a mark of respect for the people of the country that the applicant is applying to live in) like in some hostels and B+Bs where you have to be in your own residency by a set time say ten o'clock pm for example and if the residing asylum applicant is late then he/she must have a valid reason and do his/her best to call the asylum seekers check-in desk to tell them that he/she is coming back ASAP as quick as it is possible to get back to the resident's accomodation.
The asylum seeker applicant would and should be given a key to their own property, which only they could have sole access to. While I am against CCTV in priciple, this may help alleviate fear of the occurance of any possible but unlikely criminal activity from the applicant while he/she is occupying the accomodation and would enable the staff to monitor the applicants comings and goings plus a warden of the residence (the residence being like a block of flats and having a security door for the protection of the asylum seekers while they are in in their home; that being place where they are easy to target, perhaps from vengeful enemies from their home country who may be over here and out to get them still.) would be on hand in the day time who is fully trained in the social care of working with people who may have mental anguish and therefore may need a morally supportive and sympathetic ear to listen to them and work with them not against them and see where they are coming from; that is being able to understand and empathize with them and their individual needs, the sheltered residency being a caring and considerate place; (not a prison as is proposed by the Home Office at present.) these people who have come here to seek safety from a dangerously life threatening situation need us to respect them and for us to try to understand how they came to need the relative safety and sanctuary of our country, many of them having travelled thousands of miles just to be here where they beleive they will be protected from the people who have caused them to flee their homeland, a place that they did not want to leave but had to to survive; the person leaving his/her country to escape from the grievous danger that was threatened and caused them to fear for their very life needs our understanding and sympathy, our friendship and support. They have not come seeking a hand out; most of them had jobs but it became too difficult and even too dangerous to continue working where they were so they have had to leave their way of earning a living, their home, even their families sometimes just to ensure their own safety, they have had to leave all of the things they cared about, everything that was familiar and known to them, to come to a strange and unfamiliar place that most likely they have never ever even been to visit ever before be cause the threat of destruction and death against them was so great as to cause them to make so great a decision as to travel to so far away and so great a distance as the U.K.
These people who are people like us and so are part of the great human family and so are also part of the great one-relationship "mitukye-oyasin" I think one famous Native American Chief once said; translated means "One-relationship".
I love you-all.
Have a heart for people seeking asylum.
"Where the rights of man are equal,
every man must, finally, see the necessity of protecting the rights of others,
as the most effectual security for his own."
-Thomas Paine
( he created the pamphlet "The rights of man" )
"The time is always right to do what is right!"
- Martin Luther King.
"Each of us is put here in this time and this place to
personally decide the future of humankind."
Chief Arvol Looking Horse
"An eye for an eye would leave the whole world blind."-
-Mohatma Gandhi.
FROM A DISTANCE:
From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.
From a distance,
there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
It's the voice of hope,
it's the voice of peace,
it's the voice of every man.
From a distance we all have enough,
and no one is in need.
And there are no guns,
no bombs,
and no disease,
no hungry mouths to feed.
From a distance we are instruments marching in a common band.
Playing songs of hope,
playing songs of peace.
They're the songs of every man.
God is watching us.
God is watching us.
God is watching us from a distance.
From a distance you look like my friend,
even though we are at war.
From a distance I just cannot comprehend what all this fighting is for.
From a distance there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
And it's the hope of hopes,
it's the love of loves,
it's the heart of every man.
It's the hope of hopes,
it's the love of loves.
This is the song of every man.
And God is watching us,
God is watching us,
God is watching us from a distance.
"Create your community,
Be good to each other,
and do not look outside your Self for a leader."
-Hopi Indian advice.
The circle has healing power.
In the circle we are all equal.
When in the circle,
no one is in front of you. no one is behind you.
no one is above you. no one is below you.
The Sacred Circle is designed to create unity.
The Hoop of Life is also a circle.
On this hoop there is a place for every species,
every race, every tree, and every plant.
It is this completeness of Life that must be respected
in order to bring about health on this planet.
To understand each other,
as the ripples when a stone is tossed into the waters,
the Circle starts small and grows...
until it fills the whole lake.
-Dave Chief, Oglala Lakota
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