Go Back to Where You Came From

SBS has recently started screening a three part series called ‘Go Back To Where You Came From’ in light of the recent rage over the Australian government’s views and debate on refugees and asylum seekers to Australian shores.

I can’t lie, it’s a brilliant series and I think this is an issue that has been addressed way too late. Better late than never.
It’s brutal viewing, but I think it’s something that needs to be watched and understood from a viewpoint of someone who is seeking asylum.

If you haven’t watched it, I can’t recommend it enough: http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/goback/episodes/page/i/1/h/Episodes/

Follow up thoughts, 28th June:
#gobackSBS was definitely rampant through Twitter.
What’s clear from watching the program and watching the response the following week, is the fundamental issues that needs to be addressed.

Firstly (and I think most importantly), a hard look at exactly what commercial stations are playing out about this growing “issue” (I don’t feel comfortable actually using the word “issue”, because it implies that I personally have a problem with this – which I don’t). It’s really disturbing to see what little time is put into this (and others) as a news story and as something’s occurring.
After the second episode, a friend of mine mentioned that he didn’t even know how long it took for them just to get to this land until he watched Go Back To Where You Came From. I also mentioned that, if I didn’t watch SBS or ABC, I doubt I would have known just the bare basics of their journey. It’s really an insult to the issue that it is basically down to two stations that have their own news broadcasting, out of five, who would put as much effort into an issue. It’s also an insult considering how many HOURS of news these stations broadcast. Remember that brief period Channel 10 decided to try and “rival” ABC24 by having three hours of news in the evening. How did that work out?
I think it was down to the basic fact that their topics were not interesting. I doubt any of you would recall any and want to discuss them at length with anyone else. I’m sorry that The Simpsons was more riveting.

Secondly, and this goes hand-in-hand with the first. Education. I don’t care what issue it is. It could be gay marriage, it could be refugees, it could be workplace discrimination, it could be racism, it could be disability discrmination, it could be gender bias. It’s the simple matter of:
If you haven’t known what it’s like to be in their shoes, how can you honestly make a snap judgement.

The saddest part about my second point is that a lot of people can’t be bothered. It’s lazy, ill-informed people who join Facebook pages titled, “If Living The Australian Way Offends You, I’d Be Happy To Help You Pack” and then barrage it with quotes like:

“This is sooo true i dont mean to sound rasist much but since when was australia like stir fry full of different mixed vegies with different tastes and dislikes(meaning people liking different things to us aussies not for something due to there religion all that) dont get me wrong i dont mean to me rasist!” What does that mean. Anyone?

Or what about:
“Send then all fucking home dirty cunts.”

Hilariously, the quote above this one liked that comment. She liked it good. But like, she don’t mean to sound rasist.

At the time I’d read that page it was being barraged with a lot of racist comments – What the hell was “The Australian Way” to those commenting? Is it being white? Something about a flag. I just can’t tell.