#Iamwatching – For Crying Out Loud, #bringthemhere!

I just spent 10 minutes calling my local MP’s office, as well as the offices of Bill Shorten, Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton to express my “utter disgust” (as I phrased it to Turnbull and Dutton’s staffers) at the current situation on Manus. Why, why, why do people still insist on treating refugees and asylum seekers as political footballs? Why do people not see that using punitive measures creates far more problems than it solves? Our response should be compassionate and respectful. Instead, we have this toxic dehumanising scary situation.

For those of you who are still unaware of what I’m talking about, here’s ASRC’s CEO, Kon Karapanagiotidis:

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FAsylum.Seeker.Resource.Centre.ASRC%2Fvideos%2F1591307030907437%2F&show_text=0&width=560

As of 17:00 today (i.e. 30 minutes ago), all food, water (drinking and running water, so no sanitation!), electricity and medicine access to the men imprisoned in offshore detention on Manus Island has been cut off completely. The Australian government workers and contractors have walked off the site and left “control” in the hands of the Paupa New Guinean military forces – the same group that has repeatedly threatened and made attempts to harm the men.

Supply is being cut off in order to force the men to move to a “transit centre” in another part of the island. A centre which hasn’t been built yet! If they more there? Well – as Kon says above it’s not the fault of the local people, who didn’t ask for the men to be on the Island in the first place. But moving 816 men into East Lorengau, with a population of 4,000 people, where resources are scarce enough to begin with – is quite frankly a worrying prospect. As Kon says in the video (starts about the 4 minute mark), the locals do not want them to come. They have petitioned against it and also made threats. Now, why would the asylum seekers want to move there?

These men do not deserve this. Bring them here! 

The men have been imprisoned for more than four years on Manus Island in squalid conditions. There are better ways of “dealing” with them!

Let’s reiterate some facts:

1. Seeking asylum is NOT illegal, whether you come by plane or boat (or land but that’s not possible in Australia)
2. Locking the refugees up doesn’t “stop the boats”
3. Asylum seekers leave their countries because they’re FORCED to – because they’re scared for their own lives or the lives of their families.

Australia will have blood on our hands after this, I fear.

Read more about the current situation here and here and here.

I’ve written about potential solutions before #BringThemHere, drat it! and REBLOGGED: Alternative to Offshore Detention and many others – search my blog using the keyword refugees and you’ll see. I hate this situation.

😦 I wish the politicians would actually behave compassionately rather than punitively. It bloody sucks.

Book Review: When Breath Becomes Air

Expect to see a lot of these coming up. I’ve finally attached myself to the local library in my new area (only took me eight months haha whoops) so I now have access to books. Including many on hold that I’m picking up, right after I write this post (the book’s due back today).

When Breath Becomes Air is a beautiful bittersweet book. It is a biography of Paul Kalanithi. On the cusp of graduating to being a neurosurgeon, he was diagnosed with cancer. It had already metastasized. Yet he wasn’t done living yet – he had a wife and they’d been making future plans. So he has to decide how to live, in the amount of time he has left.

It shows how he does this by going back to the beginning, from his childhood, through early university and his attempts at discerning what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go – ultimately, who he wanted to be.

The book is very interesting on one level because Dr Kalanithi shared an interest of mine: neurology and how the happenings within the nervous system (especially the brain) affect people. After all, he was a neurosurgeon. I recognise the terminology and the sense of stories.

The prose in the book is brilliant. Dr Kalanithi’s way of describing situations makes them crystal clear and also gives them the right sort of grace and gravity. For example:

“When there’s no place for the scalpel, words are the surgeon’s only tool.” (p.87)

“I had met her in a space where she was a person, instead of a problem to be solved.” (p.90)

“Being with patients in these moments certainly had its emotional cost, but it also had its rewards.” (p.97, emphasis in-text)

“If the weight of mortality does not grow lighter, does it at least get more familiar?” (p.138)

“Doctors, it turns out, need hope, too.” (p.194)

He talks about humanity and how it’s revealed in different forms. Death and life and illness. The book is, at its heart, an examination of relationship. The details of people, at the crossroads of what was and what will be. It is also about identity – losing what used to be yourself and having to find and create a new sense of it.

My favourite prose in the book is the last paragraph Dr Kalanithi wrote. It is a marvellous book, despite and because of its subject matter. I’m glad I read it.

 

Phew. And that’s a wrap

My last assignment for Paediatrics is due at 17:00 Friday (today). Paediatrics is the final subject of my third year.

In other words, I’m officially DONE with my third year. I’ve been chugging along since the last days of January so that’s nine months. Whew. I get to rest now, until next February when my final year begins. That’s going to involve a lot more placement work and will no doubt be just as intense as this year but in different ways. But until then – huzzah.

This year, I’ve learnt about and built on so many things. Like how to do SMART goals properly and building on intentional communication; environmental modifications, splinting, adaptive equipment, funding etc.; stress buckets, case formulation, intervention planning; stages of development and different treatments for specific disabilities and situations; many many models applicable in general and also specifically to various client groups – aged, disabled/ chronically ill, mentally ill, children…. and so much more.

That’s a long run-on sentence and it’s been a long run-on year.

But so, so good.

I’m really appreciative of all the opportunities that have come my way this year. I think I’ll give myself a few days off to savour them before organising my summer break.

 

On a different note: Don’t forget – today is the final day to get a replacement survey form for the marriage equality survey. Make sure you’ve voted before the end of Friday next week.

 

Orange Sky charity for homelessness

Got plenty of things to say, but in the meantime (because I ran out of time today), here’s something I’ve wanted to post about for a while.

See, a couple of weeks ago, I went to a fancy dinner to celebrate the year. It was organised through uni. At the dinner, between main course and dessert, we heard a talk from Nic and Lucas, the guys behind Orange Sky Laundry.

It’s a pretty awesome story about community and people helping people. As Nic and Lucas told it, they had an idea, to wash the clothes of homeless people using a mobile laundry service in the back of a van. They had a few setbacks in starting up, but now they’ve got services in different places across Australia. They’ve also started up a mobile shower service that accompanies the laundry.

Here’s a screenshot of the front page of their website, for some visuals. The real thing can be found by clicking here: http://www.orangeskylaundry.com.au/

The laundry service fills a physical need. It also fills social and emotional ones. It creates community.

 

The way they told the story got me thinking.

It reminded me of the connection I made for a little while with a homeless woman, who used to beg on Londsdale Street near Parliament Station. I think her name was Sally. The first time I met her, I was walking quickly towards the station from the bus stop, on my way back home. It was 2015 I think. I remember, the fact that made me pause was that she had a dog. An old corgie if I recall correctly. As I paused I listened to her telling her story to another person. Over time, through more stops, I’d hear more of it.

She was homeless due to domestic violence. She had had a pretty rough life. It seemed like life had dealt her a series of blows – her own child died young, for example. She lived for her dog; the money she got was first spent on dog-food, then on accommodation for the night, then food for herself.

She had cancer too and had been told she only had a year to live, which dwindled away as I visited.

How do I know she was telling the truth?

I don’t. Not really. But her eyes – the pain in them – I saw that. It felt real to me.

 

I don’t see her anymore. I haven’t done since about this time last year. I think she’s passed on.

I wonder what happened to her dog? That was her biggest fear.

Busy, busy bee…

Study central around here because I have an exam with oral and written components next week…. I have to present, for ten minutes, an intervention-based session applicable to a particular case scenario I’ve been allocated to.

After the exam’s over, I have to finish writing and submit an assignment about child observation.

I shall have more to say about my Paediatrics OT subject journey after next week.

Until then – this landed in my inbox today. Check it out. I agree – health and arts are linked. After all, treating the whole person is better than just focusing on treating one part; it’s not just about the medical way of things but the social-environmental occupational etc. ways too. https://fromtheharp.co.uk/2017/10/12/a-day-out-at-parliament/

 

Central Australia Trip Report #6

Oops! It’s been a while since I’ve posted one of these! I had them all written by the start of September…but general busy-ness has prevented me posting – just as it delayed my completion of the writing.

So, last time, Day 5 ended with us rolling into Algebuckina Bridge camping area. Day 6 begins here.

Day 6

The next day, I was up early, so I went to explore.

We’d camped beside the Algebuckina Creek. According to an information booklet, it’s never run out of water since it was discovered. Or something like that…

The campsite was really just a spot to camp, without facilities. All necessary things had to be provided by the campers (us), which was an experience.

After breakfast, we drove around to see the actual bridge. The Algebuckina Bridge is disused now, but when in operation it was the longest rail bridge in South Australia at 583m.

It’s nice enough, I guess.

We soon drove on. We were aiming for Oodnadatta and Marla today. On our way to Oodnadatta, we saw the grader at work repairing the track, which was good – less bumpy track, hooray.

When we arrived at Oodnadatta we were pleased. We stopped at the famous Pink Roadhouse, where the walls, tables, chairs and other furnishings are various shades of pink. Like the roadhouse at William Creek, it functions as a fuel station, pub, general store/grocery, hotel/campsite area – and post office!

We bought postcards to send back home. We also bought lunch – six of the famous “Oodna-burgers” with a side of chips, coming right up!

Then it was back on the road, for the last stretch of the Oodnadatta Track. I’d read somewhere that this was the supposed to be the best bit, but it turned out to be the worst. Oops.

Finally, as the sun set, we turned off the Track onto bitumen road again. After 621km, we’d made it.

Hello Stuart Highway!

We kept driving and soon reached Marla. Which has apparently only existed as a township for thirty-five years….

Their campsite was full, so we pressed on to a rest stop closer to Alice Springs.

 

 

Tiger Roar

How was your weekend? 

Mine was fun! I attended a Game(s) Day event, where some of us watched the Grand Final and others played games (board-, card-, etc.). Both rooms were quite animated. 

I learnt a couple of new games – OrganAttack and Articulate. Fun with friends! But that was after the game… 

If any other team had been playing in the Final, I’d have been in the designated games’ room, popping my head in now and again as some did. But it was the Tigers (!) so I watched the whole game. 

The first half was tense and I found myself doing the “sportsball thing” of muttering things at players when good or bad things happened. Though mine weren’t often quite full sentences or even phrases.  

Things picked up in the second half and it was with a touch of amazement that I watched that unfold, slowly beginning to believe fully. Excitement flowed too. 

As I’ve previously mentioned, footy is a very family thing for me. It felt like that on Saturday and after – I was separated from them by distance but we kept in contact over text and internet. After the match, several people in my friendship circle made or received calls to people for the same reasons. 

The emotion of the game caught me at the end. I’d been trying to balance a mix of excitement and nerves all week (all finals season really), as I hoped for the best but was wary of being disappointed. But we Tigers fans were not disappointed (sorry Crows fans – I had thought it’d be a slightly closer game). The image that made it real to me in a sense was the beautiful image of Dustin Martin’s joyous face and then the group as they embraced. All the other scenes, tears of joy and happiness flowing. 

It felt good. That’s what it’s all about, really – the striving to reach the ultimate goal, time after time, and the sweet emotions of success when it’s finally achieved after a long time between drinks. I’m happiest for those of my friends and family who have felt that long time keenly. Plenty of happy faces around the place for a while I think!