rethinkrefugees.com.au

refugeeaction.wordpress.com

Real Life Stories | Refugee Action

https://refugeeaction.wordpress.com/real-life-stories

The Makur’s Family Story. The Reality of Detention Centres. Saving people who have no voice. Stay updated via RSS. While every refugee’s story is different and their anguish personal, they all share a common thread of uncommon courage the courage not only to survive, but to persevere and rebuild their shattered lives. António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. I urge you to celebrate the extraordinary courage and contributions of refugees past and present." - Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General.

stripeyhorse.wordpress.com

How to make an issue out of nothing at all | stripeyhorse

https://stripeyhorse.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/how-to-make-an-issue-out-of-nothing-at-all

For the five minute break from that thing you're supposed to be doing. How to make an issue out of nothing at all. 8216;Illegal boat people’ really get folks hot under the collar around here. Before I get too carried away I would like to take a moment to break it down into the basic facts that have been forgotten or buried so that at least here, in this space of mine, it will be shown in black in white the difference between truth and fiction. Regardless of how they get here. That sounds like a lot. ...

gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com

Grace, what are you doing?: January 2015

http://gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html

Wednesday, January 14, 2015. To Be Honest, or as the youths say TBH. What Kurt Vonnegut, Susan Sontag, David Foster Wallace and Louis C.K all have in common is that cutting ability to sit down at the dinner table and speak honestly of the metaphysical. They don't turn away from it but rather use their craft - their humour, their writing - to have with. For jobs, really? For money, surely not? For Progress and Economic Growth - huh? Are we still humans if we divorce ourselves from nature? Why are we here?

gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com

Grace, what are you doing?: Warning: Adult content

http://gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com/2015/03/warning-adult-content.html

Thursday, March 26, 2015. Nobody told me there would be a photocopier. Or that there would be chatter amongst it, adults swarming around it like a waterhole. I was not warned that the game of charades would go on for so long. Sometimes I don't want to play at all. It's not fun but it's something else. And there is merit in things that are not fun. At first you feel like a fraud. Do people know that I don't know what I'm doing? They don't tell you what small talk really means. Small talk is when adult...

gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com

Grace, what are you doing?: Where I am

http://gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com/2015/05/where-i-am.html

Monday, May 11, 2015. A few months ago a friend of mine I had met in Cochabamba, worked with, traveled with, laughed with, was drunk with - he wrote to me how six words I'd shared with him had really struck him. I had forgotten that I'd shared it and was, in turn, struck myself. Wherever you are, be all there. Entirely where you are. There is always the temptation to fall into falling in love with possibility to the extent that it replaces reality. There is that obsession with being everywhere at...This ...

gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com

Grace, what are you doing?: July 2014

http://gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com/2014_07_01_archive.html

Monday, July 28, 2014. The first week in Bahia. We walk with him to buy coconuts - he buys the ones with the least flesh because he only likes the juice while we buy the more mature ones for 25 cents more. We eat them later when the sun is high and the sweat soaked into our shirts on what we now call our Coconut Break. This means Orlando talks about how much he likes coconut juice (but not the flesh! The hours pass as we water plants, weed, move the small trees in their plastic bottles from the corales.

gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com

Grace, what are you doing?: December 2014

http://gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com/2014_12_01_archive.html

Tuesday, December 2, 2014. A few days in. Just the day before my lolo was showing me the history of our family on three type-writer written pages. He has always been into tracing his roots. I read over the carefully, laboriously typed ghosts of the many great. Relatives he has outlined. Names I have not heard of, people I do not know. I am intrigued, of course. The question of roots has flitted about throughout my life. I told her, They're Australian flowers, they don't die! The person with heavy necklac...

gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com

Grace, what are you doing?: May 2014

http://gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com/2014_05_01_archive.html

Wednesday, May 28, 2014. Things I've forgotten to remember: Part 2. He's got gorgeous eyes,' I told M. Like his mother,' he said. His daughter P had more of his dark features, long eyelashes that extended from here to infinity. Where are you from? I am Kurdish, we are not from anywhere,' he replied, 'I speak Farsi, I lived in Iran but I am Kurdish.'. Christmas Island was disgusting. It was like hell, worse than hell. Everyday,' he held out his hands in resignation. Piece of cake' or. Green with envy'&#46...

gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com

Grace, what are you doing?: The light, the light, the light

http://gracewhatareyoudoing.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-light-light-light.html

Saturday, March 7, 2015. The light, the light, the light. I like to wear white. My skin is dark - my first spanish friends in Spain who happened to be two little old men who ran a second hand store out of a garage said I was darker than the ass of a saucepan. And white only brings that out. Apart from that I gravitate towards things that flow, are loose, light. I am happy most of the time, which is lucky. But of course, there are many things that bring me down. Those things that hurt instruct. Moment&#46...