Speeches of a good Samaritan

Questions from the Asylum: An Analysis of Australia's

Asylum and Detention Issues

By Susan Connelly

Otford Press, 2002

66 pages, $5.95

Send cheque or money order to PO Box 299 St Marys NSW 1790.

REVIEW
BY SARAH STEPHEN

Questions from the Asylum is a collection of speeches presented
by refugees' rights activists Susan Connelly at some of the many rallies
she has addressed throughout 2001 and 2002.

Connelly is a sister of the St Joseph order of nuns and has also been
a long-time solidarity activist with the people of East Timor. She presently
works for the Mary MacKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies. Some of
her speeches touch on the contemptible treatment of East Timorese asylum
seekers by the Australian government

The passion with which Connelly articulates her words leaps from the
book's pages. She uses powerful metaphors and draws on her interpretation
of the Christian scriptures to make her case against the federal government's
cruel and inhuman treatment of asylum seekers.

In one speech, Connelly refers to a newspaper editorial which alluded
to the parable of the Good Samaritan. She argues that the newspaper completely
missed the point of the parable, which was a “fair and square condemnation
of racism”.

“The Good Samaritan is not primarily about helping those in need; it
is about helping those in need even if they are not of your tribe and that
is why it stuck in the craw of those who first heard it”, she points out.

Her speeches condemn the misuse of language and the eagerness of political
leaders to lie. She makes the point in many different ways that the demonisation
of asylum seekers has succeeded only in diminishing the humanity of Australian
people.

From Green Left Weekly, October 2, 2002.

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From GLW issue 511