Sounds Like James Bond, But Not The Least Bit Funny
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday November 19, 2008
A WELL-FOUNDED FEAR 8.30pm, SBS: "We will decide who comes into this country and the circumstances under which they come." Just another brick in the wall really - the wall of fear, loathing and prejudice in which real people with desperate needs are reduced to the status of illegal immigrants and enemies likely to stain the velutinous fabric of Australian society.
John Howard's bulldog bravado, allied with a grey and uncharitable mindset within the Department of Immigration, did little to enhance Australia's reputation as a fair, tolerant and hospitable nation. It was a statement that appealed to the culture of panic while affronting benevolence shown towards those in need of hope. Hope likely, in most cases, to be repaid in generations ahead. This important doco follows the footsteps of Phil Glendenning, director of the Edmund Rice Centre, as he tracks the destiny of refugees and persecuted individuals refused entry to Australia because their fears were not deemed sufficiently well-founded to warrant intervention. Individuals unable to satisfy the criteria were rejected and, in many instances, repatriated to countries that were patently unsafe. More than a few have died or "disappeared". People deemed a nuisance were sent to Syria where they languish in appalling hardship, their dreams and aspirations amputated. But a few have made it to safe havens where they rejoice in the simplest of freedoms - walking their children to school, enjoying the possibility that there really is a future. Inevitably some will become disenchanted or capitulate to desperate endeavours but what percentage will descend to criminal activity or become a burden on communities that offer them a chance? Tolerance and social justice are crucial to the moral health of our society. Giving a voice to those with none is essential when contemptible things, done in our names by politicians - whose recourse to lies and deliberate disinformation shames us all - are left unresolved. A Well-Founded Fear might sound like a James Bond film but it shows the best of us and the worst. Which reaction to injustice comes first? Empathy or anger?FACING WINDOWS (2002), 1pm, SBS: Things are less than fabulous between Giovanna and her husband, Filippo. She has a dull job in a poultry plant and a child to care for. One day, after meeting Davide, an elderly fellow who has suffered memory loss, they decide - well, Filippo decides - to bring the old bloke home. Intrigued by the number tattooed on his arm they figure Davide is not a trendy but a concentration camp survivor and, in an effort to jog his frozen memory, Giovanna takes him to a nearby ghetto where others with similar experiences reside. Here she meets Lorenzo, who confesses he has been spying on her for months. Flattered but wary, she gradually enters into a love affair with him, using Davide as her passport to escape the staleness of her marriage. She develops a close bond with the tattooed man, too, eventually realising that fate has had a hand in their meeting. And fate doesn't leave it at that, obliging Giovanna to sublimate her passion to maternal duty. But Davide has begun to recover his memory and recalls his gay lover, Simon, who died in the concentration camp. He also remembers his craft as a master pastrycook and Giovanna's destiny changes markedly when he begins teaching her the tricks of the trade.RADIO RADIO EYE 1pm, Radio National: There has been understandable resistance to fast food joints in India. Discernment is the first domino to fall in culture wars when idiosyncrasy confronts mass marketing. In Mumbai, some 5000 dabawallahs run a pick-up, delivery and return service between homes and offices in the city centre, couriering lunch to 200,000 people with disparate ethnic and cultural dietary requirements. All are paid the same amount and the system, in place for more than a century, runs without formal organisation or regulation. A simple idea that works. Business efficiency experts will seethe with peptic indignation
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
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