11 December 1997 Edition
Television: No room at the inn
By Sean O'Donaile
This week sees the passing of International Human Rights Day, 10 December and a rush by TV stations to highlight many worthy international injustices, though for some strange reason this doesn't include Plastic Bullets, Shoot to Kill etc etc, as that might upset the Unionists.
The Free State has a coloured past when it comes to taking in refugees and asylum seekers. Many of those who arrived here, including Hungarians in 1956 and Chileans fleeing Pinochet's coup of `73, left as soon as possible, and the current arrivals have received anything but a ``Céad Míle Fáilte'', highlighted in RTE's Prime Time. There are currently 20 million political refugees globally, 4,000 of whom are on the Emerald Isle, which has witnessed a ten fold increase in the last two years. Unfortunately, the various institutions seem unable or uninterested in catering for these people.
In takes anything up to two years to have one's application processed, during which time the refugee cannot work or study and is left in Limbo-land. Those who are successful subsequently find it extremely difficult to find employment in a racist climate, which has been exacerbated by media scare stories about ``our beautiful land being over-run by blacks and Romanian gypsies who sacrifice sheep in their back gardens, and rob all our dole money''.
The Refugee Act of 1996 is still in the courts and behind the fancy rhetoric the State seems unwilling to face up to its obligations, hiding behind the recent European Convention, which forces a refugee to seek asylum in the first EU country they set foot in, thereby ruling out Ireland in most cases. Many of those stopped by the numbskulls at Dun Laoghaire or from the Belfast train have experienced racism, in the same manner as those stopped under the PTA getting off the ferry in Holyhead.
Various refugees reminded us that they have come here not for our dole but to escape death at home and liken Ireland to the ``Celtic hamster - a fluffy little thing doing well for itself in the corner and not wanting to be disturbed by outsiders''. Meanwhile Minister O'Donoghue says if you fail the test ``you should do the honourable thing and leave the country''.
It was oh so different for the 500 or so German children who were brought here under ``Operation Shamrock'' (RTE), in 1946. This documentary followed the efforts of Elizabeth O'Gorman to track down the the War - babies who had stayed on here after `46.
The `Save the German Children Society' was set up in the aftermath of the razing of German cities in World War 2, and Elizabeth O'Gorman was one of the few who stayed in Ireland after the three year stint was up. Her mother died when she was four years of age and Daddy was one of thousands who never came home from the Russian Front, forcing her family's dispersal. Her two sisters were sent to farms in Germany and Elizabeth was shuffled off to Ireland where she wasn't to see her clan again for many moons.
A number of those who have remained here quickly acknowledged their Irishness, after unsuccessfully trying to reclaim their German roots. There are still some who feel their ``heart is in Germany'', and it made one wonder at the wisdom of sending them in the first place.
Channel 4 ran the shocking Innocents Lost this week, which highlighted some of the many cases of child abuse by the state across the globe, including the disabled of Greece and glue kids of Guatemala. Since the military coup in 1954, Guatemala has been run by US multinationals and banana companies. Poverty and its side effects are rife and any opposition to the government is met by US backed death squads and routine police torture.
HB Fuller is one such company, whose products include Resistol, a toxic glue, which many street children have become addicted to. Fuller in good old capitalist fashion help out local charities, but refuse to change their glues, and their profits last year were £1 billion. These street kids are routinely raped, assaulted, tortured, electrocuted and murdered by the State police who look on them as fair game.
The sight of disabled Greek children and adults strapped by the hands and ankles to bed until they die was even more shocking. Disability is still a major social stigma in Greece and many disabled are simply kept alive for up to fifty years in conditions unimaginable, padlocked in 4ft cages, wallowing in their own urine and being thrown food like dogs. One such case, Anastasia, who was one of the lucky ones without a roof on the cage, was abandoned by her parents as a child and has not been removed from her bed in fifteen years. And we call this civilisation - Merry Christmas, me arse.
This week sees the passing of International Human Rights Day, 10 December and a rush by TV stations to highlight many worthy international injustices, though for some strange reason this doesn't include Plastic Bullets, Shoot to Kill etc etc, as that might upset the Unionists.
The Free State has a coloured past when it comes to taking in refugees and asylum seekers. Many of those who arrived here, including Hungarians in 1956 and Chileans fleeing Pinochet's coup of `73, left as soon as possible, and the current arrivals have received anything but a ``Céad Míle Fáilte'', highlighted in RTE's Prime Time. There are currently 20 million political refugees globally, 4,000 of whom are on the Emerald Isle, which has witnessed a ten fold increase in the last two years. Unfortunately, the various institutions seem unable or uninterested in catering for these people.
In takes anything up to two years to have one's application processed, during which time the refugee cannot work or study and is left in Limbo-land. Those who are successful subsequently find it extremely difficult to find employment in a racist climate, which has been exacerbated by media scare stories about ``our beautiful land being over-run by blacks and Romanian gypsies who sacrifice sheep in their back gardens, and rob all our dole money''.
The Refugee Act of 1996 is still in the courts and behind the fancy rhetoric the State seems unwilling to face up to its obligations, hiding behind the recent European Convention, which forces a refugee to seek asylum in the first EU country they set foot in, thereby ruling out Ireland in most cases. Many of those stopped by the numbskulls at Dun Laoghaire or from the Belfast train have experienced racism, in the same manner as those stopped under the PTA getting off the ferry in Holyhead.
Various refugees reminded us that they have come here not for our dole but to escape death at home and liken Ireland to the ``Celtic hamster - a fluffy little thing doing well for itself in the corner and not wanting to be disturbed by outsiders''. Meanwhile Minister O'Donoghue says if you fail the test ``you should do the honourable thing and leave the country''.
It was oh so different for the 500 or so German children who were brought here under ``Operation Shamrock'' (RTE), in 1946. This documentary followed the efforts of Elizabeth O'Gorman to track down the the War - babies who had stayed on here after `46.
The `Save the German Children Society' was set up in the aftermath of the razing of German cities in World War 2, and Elizabeth O'Gorman was one of the few who stayed in Ireland after the three year stint was up. Her mother died when she was four years of age and Daddy was one of thousands who never came home from the Russian Front, forcing her family's dispersal. Her two sisters were sent to farms in Germany and Elizabeth was shuffled off to Ireland where she wasn't to see her clan again for many moons.
A number of those who have remained here quickly acknowledged their Irishness, after unsuccessfully trying to reclaim their German roots. There are still some who feel their ``heart is in Germany'', and it made one wonder at the wisdom of sending them in the first place.
Channel 4 ran the shocking Innocents Lost this week, which highlighted some of the many cases of child abuse by the state across the globe, including the disabled of Greece and glue kids of Guatemala. Since the military coup in 1954, Guatemala has been run by US multinationals and banana companies. Poverty and its side effects are rife and any opposition to the government is met by US backed death squads and routine police torture.
HB Fuller is one such company, whose products include Resistol, a toxic glue, which many street children have become addicted to. Fuller in good old capitalist fashion help out local charities, but refuse to change their glues, and their profits last year were £1 billion. These street kids are routinely raped, assaulted, tortured, electrocuted and murdered by the State police who look on them as fair game.
The sight of disabled Greek children and adults strapped by the hands and ankles to bed until they die was even more shocking. Disability is still a major social stigma in Greece and many disabled are simply kept alive for up to fifty years in conditions unimaginable, padlocked in 4ft cages, wallowing in their own urine and being thrown food like dogs. One such case, Anastasia, who was one of the lucky ones without a roof on the cage, was abandoned by her parents as a child and has not been removed from her bed in fifteen years. And we call this civilisation - Merry Christmas, me arse.