Commonwealth Shame - Melbourne 2006

I saw the parade of athletes from 72 countries.  I saw mostly black, brown athletes, men and women.  The white athletes were from the conquered countries of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.  Black countries now transformed into the whiteness of conquest, theft and occupation.

The parade of athletes reflected the history of the last two hundred years.  History when Britannia ruled the world.  With guns, bibles, and wide pockets for the loot, British terrorist invaded, killed, raped, destroyed, occupied by force, black lands and people around the world.  The occupied entire continents: India, Australia, Africa, the Americas, parts of Asia.  The map of the world today is a map drawn by the colonizers.  And the map continues to bleed, in Australia, India, Africa, Middle East, the indigenous people of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA.

My family was colonized twice.  First in India, and then in Malaysia.  Colonized Malaysia was targeted by the Japanese for their own conquest in the WW2.  Stolen goods attract other thieves.  My parents suffered in the war, suffering of hunger, starvation and fear.

Now we have a parade of athletes, mostly black, some white, and the roll call of names signifies that history and oppression.   Two hundred years later we “celebrate” the Commonwealth.  We celebrate the shame.  No apology has ever been made by the British, no war crimes held, no leader or government held responsible, no compensation made to victims, no loot returned.  The Kohinoor, stolen from India, still sparkles in the royal throne.  As do priceless historical art effects in the invaders’ museums.

The Aboriginal people in Melbourne aptly called the shabby spectacle the Stolenwealth Games.  I call them the Games of Shame.  Over two hundred years of brutality given a new spin, and a new falsehood.  And the new colonized governments, still colonized by corruption and power, leap like lap dogs, to fawn on those who oppressed them.  

Perhaps in another hundred years the USA might also run its on Empirewealth Games with participants from all the countries it has bombed and destroyed.  Afghanistan might lead the way, followed by Iraq, and many, many more, with Vietnam in the tail end.

 

One man's peace vigil at the State Parliament, Melbourne from 19 to 26 January 03

Shane Van Den Akker, 26, an artist from Ballarat, decided to make his own unilateral stand against the impending war on Iraq and against all wars. Wearing a white mask, he wanted to lie on the steps of Parliament under a white sheet symbolising the shrouds of the dead women, children and men in all wars. This was the pure action of peace and non-violence of an ordinary human being concerned for the suffering of humanity.

But the police refused Shane permission to be on the steps of Parliament. He was told to occupy the footpath on Spring Street next to the outer wall of Parliament. Shane was not allowed to display any peace banners, write a message with chalk on the pavement, or even pin a placard on the sheet covering his body. He lay on the pavement for 7 days in temperatures of up to 44 degrees. He kept his vigil night and day. He received no media attention except from radio 3JJJ, and no politicians stepped out of their offices to visit Shane, although everyone was informed. Had Shane joined the army, gone to war, killed a lot of women, children, men, and saved his mates from a similar fate, he would be decorated with medals. For a peace vigil at Parliament he was officially ignored, and sometimes taunted by passers-by. Shane, a devotee of Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of peace and non-violence, expressed no anger and sought no publicity.

On 26 January 03 Australia Day, at 12 noon, Shane ended his 7-day vigil for peace and non-violence in the world. He took off the mask, folded his white sheet, posed for photographs for Japanese tourists, and returned to Ballarat to his work of painting. Leaving the world a far better place through his individual peace action.

Shane under the white sheet, keeping a peace vigil against the war outside Parliament. Melbourne.  No politician came out of Parliament to speak to him.

 

Shane with an admirer who came after listening to the story on radio

 

Woomera on Collins - Women's Street Theatre of Peace (as opposed to the theatre of war) 16/2/03 Melbourne

A wire cage representing Woomera, and the other detention centres in Australia, was set up on the pavement of Collins Street, the business and fashion hub of Melbourne. Reta Kaur, wearing a veil, her lips "sewn", sat in the cage sewing. The caption read: Woman sewing for her daughter and grandchildren lost at sea. A blue sheet held the partial belongings of the hundreds of women, children and men who drowned at sea trying to reach Australia. There was a man's shoe, reading glasses, children's shoes, clothes, half a baby bottle of milk, a bib, colourful bangles, one earring, a comb, a veil, etc. Not able to obtain a boat, a plank was used with the words: To Australia - with hope. In a tub of water were the politicians - Reath, Ruddock, Downer, and the PM John Howard with their lies about the "Children in the water" incident of 2001 when Afghan and Iraqi refugees were falsely accused of throwing their children into the sea to get on shore in Australia.

Inside St Michael's church the crowd of over 800 people heard four white women, including Dr Carmen Lawrence MP Labor, speak strongly about the inhumane treatment of refugees and demand that all refugees be accepted into Australia. No voices or perspectives were included from Afghan, Iraqi, Iranian and other asylum seekers although there are many articulate women and men from these groups in Melbourne. Just as all forums these days expect a gender balance, appropriate ethnic representation is also required, particularly of people with first hand experiences and knowledge of the horrors of detention centres. They must be included in telling their stories at all public forums. This omission at the forum led Reta Kaur, a black woman wearing a veil, to take the floor at question time to speak of the refugees who drowned, and demand a ban on all wars and for peace in the 21century. She also presented Dr Lawrence a veil and asked the crowd to try sitting under a veil, akin to standing in someone's shoes, to empathise with their suffering - an expression much used by the speakers at the forum.
(Click Photographs)

Woomera on Collins street theatre - women sewing for her grandchildren lost at sea.      "It's good my lips are sewn" is written on the placard

Women for Peace chained at the US embassy in Melbourne

Reta Kaur and another women, who wishes to remain unnamed, chained themselves in the grounds of the US embassy at 553 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, at 9.20am on Monday 10 February 03. Two other women assisted by putting up the banner Women for Peace: No Weapons No Wars and peace placards. The two women had an empty five litre BP petrol container gift wrapped for Mr Bush, a bunch of flowers, and a small bottle symbolising blood. The message was: Mr Bush, take the oil, spare the blood.

The police arrived in large numbers, 12 to 14 of them, all male, although only women were involved in the peace action. The media also arrived: Channel 7, ABC TV, SBS radio, 3AW, and The Australian. Hoping for some high drama, they were disappointed that there were only two women chained and the whole event was entirely peaceful. Only Channel 7 ran the story on their news that evening, and SBS radio will feature the peace action in a larger story. Once the police understood that the action was peaceful and the women presented no threat, they allowed them to remain chained until 12noon. Passing motorists honked support and pedestrians stopped and voiced their opposition to the war.

This simple peace action by four women revealed a number of gender, race and age related issues. The media and police gravitated towards the unnamed woman who is white, Anglo, blonde and young. Reta, who is 58, black, grey haired, and was dressed in ethnic Indian clothes and a veil, was largely ignored. The 3AW male journalist did not speak to Reta at all but spent considerable time with the unnamed woman. The media and the police spoke to Reta when the unnamed woman told them that Reta was the spokeswoman for the peace action.

The unnamed woman reported some of the journalists saying to her: "You don't look like the usual protestor, your hair is washed, your clothes are clean."
She also commented that she observed aspects of racism in the way the media and police spoke to her in such a friendly way, compared to the way Reta was ignored and not shown the same respect.

The four women carried out this action to express their distress, grief and rage at the impending American war against Iraq, and the Australian and British governments' involvement. Their concern about the slaughter of women, children and men in all wars was at the centre of the peace action. The four women, white and black, old and young, united by their common humanity for the suffering of the Iraqi people in this instance, and for people in all wars and terrorists attacks, acted according to their conscience in this simple act of chaining themselves at the US embassy.

            Women chained themselves outside the USA Consulate, Melbourne                 The message: "Mr Bush, take the oil and spare the blood"

 

Below is the letter that Reta Kaur delivered to the Consular General for President George Bush.

Monday, 10 February 03

To: The Consular General
USA Consulate
553 St Kilda Road, Melbourne

Dear fellow human being and world citizen,

I come in peace and in total non-violence. The petrol can is empty and of symbolic value. My message of peace is as follows:

Mr Bush, take the oil, spare the blood - the blood of women, children, men; the blood of the unborn in their mothers' wombs; the blood of children unable to exercise free will. War is a crime against humanity.


After the many wars, acts of terrorism, and violence in human history, particularly in the 20th century, e.g. WW 1 & 2, Korea, Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Palestine, Yugoslavia, East Timor, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, South America, the attacks on New York, Washington, Bali, the systemic destruction of indigenous populations, the violence against women, etc. the human race must find new ways of settling conflicts and living in harmony on our shared and precious earth.

We must ban wars, ban the manufacture of all weapons, and dedicate the 21century to peace.

Women and children don't make wars but they die in wars. 80% of casualties today are women and children, with rape finally recognised as a war crime. A century ago, 90% of war casualties were military men - fathers, husbands, brothers, sons, - to the anguish of grieving women.

Mr Bush, take the oil, spare the blood.

Women are 51% of the world's population and we demand peace in 2003 and in the 21st century. The time has come to end male wars.

Peace on earth and goodwill for all beings.

Signed: Reta Kaur - Women for Peace: No Weapons No Wars

 

21st Century Appeal to the Three Wise Men …

Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and the Pope: Stop the war in Iraq and show the world a peaceful way of solving conflicts.

When the Romans invaded ancient Palestine and terror reigned, a child was born in a manger. Three wise men, sensing the moment, travelled to greet Jesus and share the message of peace. The Romans soon lost all and departed. The message of "Thou shall not kill", and of love and forgiveness remains.

The ancient land of Iraq in the Middle East is again to be invaded, twice in two decades. Terrorised by internal and external oppressors, armies of more than 200,000, with weapons of mass destruction, have now surrounded the tiny state of 24 million people, and smaller than the state of New South Wales in Australia. Imagine the terror of women, children, and men as they await certain death. Millions might die to get one man Saddam, and the oil in this land. Last year, Afghanistan was destroyed and thousands of people killed to find one man Osama. North Korea is next on the list in our insatiable thirst for blood.

In the midst of this madness of aggression, a fledgling child called peace is being born through the peace movement, through the helplessness of peace loving men, and women's mourning and rage. This child peace needs to be championed, nurtured, and its message disseminated all over the world. The three wise men, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, and the Pope must travel to the terrorised land and spread this message of peace. They must go to Baghdad. Their action will galvanise the world, and other peace loving leaders, men and women, will follow in their steps. Perhaps even the Queen, the most well known woman, might be persuaded to make the most meaningful journey of her life. Peace will become the slogan of the world, and ordinary women and men will take the lead to demand sustained peace and justice in the 21century.

This is one of the many ways war can be averted and millions of Iraqi women, children and men saved. From this gesture of humanity, of love and healing, a new world order will be born. Wars and weapons will be banned, the earths treasures, free gifts from the universe, will be equitably shared between women, children and men, and the 21st century dedicated to peace. The world, without the curse of war, is a paradise.

Let the world and our million voices beg the three wise men and one woman to rise, hear the pain of suffering everywhere, and give this child peace a chance in the 21st century.

Peace on earth and goodwill for all beings.

One Voice for Peace - Women's Peace Action on the steps of Parliament, Melbourne

Actor Kerry Armstrong organised a women's peace protest against the impending war in Iraq on the steps of Parliament on 20 January 03 at 11am. As a media gimmick women were to wear their bras outside their clothes. Women came in large numbers, many with colourful bras, and anti-war and peace placards.

The bras were all right but not the placards. The police ordered the placards down, and the women were not allowed to make speeches or any anti-war or peace protests. Even Kerry Armstrong, the organiser, was not allowed to address the assembled women with a speech. She spoke only into the microphones of the large media contingent. The several hundred women, mainly white, including ex-premier Joan Kirner and Democrat MP Natasha Stott Despoja, sat obedient and silent on the steps of Parliament for more than an hour as the media clicked their cameras

Can it be asked why the women were not allowed to hold up their placards, make speeches, sing, howl in mourning and in rage against the slaughter and rape of women in wars, the sexual slavery of women in military brothels, the "comfort women" - (whose comfort?), the slaughter of children and men which leave women grieving for the rest of their lives? And why western, liberated women, in a democratic country, free enough to wear our bras outside, were so obedient in our silence and passivity to police authority, and the authority of Parliament? Doesn't Parliament belong to us, the people, constructed by our taxes, the police and MPs paid again by our taxes to protect free speech? We are fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to liberate the women, to give them freedom so they can have a voice, or so we are told.

The women on the steps of Parliament, on that soft summer morning, were denied a voice and their right to free speech. As was Shane Van den Akker who was lying on the pavement on his peace vigil.

Women on the steps of Parliament, Melbourne, wearing their bras outside, but forced to keep their voice inside, in silence, against their wishes, on police orders

News articles and other stories

Women and children `now main casualties of war'
Author: Carol Nader
Date: 04/10/2002
Words: 374
Publication: The Age
Section: News
Page: 8

Women and children have replaced men as the greatest casualties of war, and are often used as deliberate targets, says a leading women's rights advocate.

Indira Patel, a steering group member of the Women's National Commission, an advisory body to the Blair Government, will tell an international women's conference in Melbourne tomorrow that 90 per cent of war casualties are civilians, 80 per cent of whom are women and children. A century ago, 90 per cent of war casualties were military men.

``There is abundant evidence of women being used as deliberate targets of war," she said yesterday. ``Attacks on women and sexual torture may function as a proxy to attacking the culture and honour of the entire society. This form of torture is extremely effective . . . women are sometimes killed and often rejected by their own community."

Mrs Patel, who was awarded an Order of the British Empire for services to Asian women in Britain, is in Melbourne for the International Federation of Business and Professional Women conference, which began yesterday.

More than 1000 women from around the world are expected to participate. The event is held every four years, and is in Australia for the first time.

The theme is A World of Peace. Other issues on the agenda are violence against women, family-friendly work practices, poverty and armed conflict and health.

Mrs Patel said women needed to be more involved in political decision making.

``Women are not saying they think better than men, but they do think differently," she said. ``It is not women against men, it is women and men, and not that the world will be a better place if women run it, but that the world will be a better place when women who bring their perspectives share in running it."

The Women's National Commission has campaigned strongly with the Blair Government to improve conditions for women in Afghanistan.

``We are hoping for women in Afghanistan to be part of the decision-making process at all levels, including the political level," she said.

``We are also looking at women's jobs, reinstating their human rights, making sure all women are now able to have education."

Birthing pain of women in wars
by Reta Kaur (1 October 02)

Finally, at 57, with grey hair framing my face, I pick up a loud hailer and annoy Melbourne shoppers in the Burke Street Mall. "No Weapons No Wars, Women for Peace," I say, in what I hope is a carefully modulated voice.

I cut an incongruous figure in the soft Melbourne sunshine of the Sunday spring afternoon. A tall, black woman, dressed in a beautifully embroidered, silky red, long dress and trousers. My head covered with a matching red embroidered veil. A traditional woman, Muslim, most would think, oppressed under the veil, even if the face is bare, and with lipstick on. But what this persona is saying into the loud hailer further confuses the picture. "Women are 51% of the world population, women don't make wars, women die in wars, our children die in wars. Why are we silent? Look into your hearts, think for yourself, end your silence. Speak. Women for Peace."

No, weapon manufacturers are not scuttling their missiles and smart bombs in terror of this middle-aged harridan. No, Masters Bush, Saddam, Sharon, Howard, Osama and Blair are not suddenly going down on their knees to have their ears tweaked for being bad boys, playing again with their toys of mass destruction. No, the suicide bombers in Palestine are not going to unbelt their load of deadly cargo and become good little girls. Nah, none of this is about to happen. There is no hope or fear of an impending outbreak of the terror of peace.

Why then am I striding up and down Burke Street Mall for three hours, going hoarse, with a shrill loud hailer? Despair, I say, a deep, crippling despair, and contempt for myself. Contempt, for talking so much about weapons and wars, about feminism and the powerlessness of women, whether under the veil or in business suits and bikinis. Always talking but doing nothing. This despair finally made me walk to the microphone, cover my face with the veil, and address the 2300 strong crowd in the Melbourne Town Hall gathered to hear Dr Germain Greer on Sunday, 1st September 02

The other motivator is my experience of peace, the sweet gift of peace, lingering like the luscious after taste of dates, or the richness of old fruity wines. I have never heard a gun fired, seen bombs explode, the land laid waste. I have never seen mothers tear their hair in grief and fathers bury their sons killed in wars. The over five decades (with one ugly incident of racial riots in 1969) of enduring peace in Malaysia, a Muslim, multi-racial democratic country, has shaped me and my beliefs.

Peace gave me the gift of childhood, indulgent, uninterrupted, with no scars. I was not the naked child, running down the highway, with her body on fire from napalm bombs. Peace promised the possibility of school, an education, discovering books, literature, and libraries. Peace delivered an adulthood in a university, planning life with a family, knowing the children would live. Peace was strolling carefree in night markets, drinking sugarcane juice, and eating satay from street hawkers. Peace is knowing that life would be lived with all its normal vicissitudes, not always a rose garden by any means, but one may hope to die in bed. Not with shrapnel burnt into flesh as happens routinely in the buses and markets of Jerusalem. Or the tragedies in New York, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Bali.

When war breaks out anywhere and curfews are imposed, or thousands flee their homes, my thoughts centre on the women: How would mensurating women cope with blood trickling down their thighs; how would heavily pregnant women walk the many kilometres to safety; how would women give birth on the road, in carts, in forests and fields; feed their little children, protect their daughters from gang rapes, their young sons from systematic slaughter?

Women need peace and quiet to give birth. Giving birth is such hard labour, with much blood, pain, and tearing of flesh. A soft pillow under the head, a bed, a room, women around you, a doctor, an epidural, the sweetheart holding your hand, and flowers. These are the prerequisites for women giving birth in peace.

But there is a memory, a deeply buried genetic memory, forming perhaps the strongest unconscious motivator which propelled me to the microphone on the Greer night, and to the Mall with the loud hailer. It's a distant shared memory, narrated by mother for years as herstory. January 1945, the Japanese occupation of Malaya, bombs falling, homes on fire, people dying in the street. Mother goes into labour, the hospital seven miles away, father borrows a bullock cart. Mother howled all the way, to her credit, raised a storm; she wasn't going silently. She made it to the hospital; I was born in the darkness of a lantern and a torch as the lights went out with more bombing.

Perhaps it is this ancient memory of the birthing pain of all women in wars over thousands of years that cries in the Mall: "No Weapons No Wars, Women for Peace".

Short articles, stories, letters, comments on war and peace most welcome and will be published. Please email to womenforpeace@optusnet.com.au

 

Herald Sun
Edition 1 - FIRSTTUE 12 NOV 2002, Page 013
Barbs fly at war protest
By NEIL WILSON

TWO Greens candidates were among women who used yesterday's Remembrance Day service for an anti-war protest, outraging veterans including Shrine trustee Bruce Ruxton.

Robyn Evans and Pamela Curr stood supporting Women For Peace activists dressed in black at the Shrine to represent women and children killed in wars and to oppose any attack on Iraq.

Ms Curr, candidate for the seat of Brunswick, later described the role and remembrance of women in the service as token.

Mr Ruxton was among civic, political and diplomatic dignitaries, including Governor John Landy and Premier Steve Bracks, who emerged from the Shrine's crypt into brilliant sunshine after the 11am service.

But distressed Women For Peace activist Reta Kaur, blocked by police from approaching the party, loudly and repeatedly wailed ``war is murder''.

Mr Ruxton, the former RSL state president, stopped, then walked towards Ms Kaur on the stairs before saying: ``Why don't you go away, old hag, go away.''

She described the ceremony as a horrific experience that glorified war, particularly when four vintage planes flew over and cannon were fired during the service.

Ms Kaur said the two Greens candidates invited her to the service and also helped by handing out copies of a women's statement of resistance among the crowd of about 1500.

Ms Evans and Ms Curr said they believed the Shrine on Remembrance Day was a fitting place to oppose any war on Iraq, in which thousands of civilians would die.

The RSL has advocated caution on action against Iraq but said yesterday was no day for politics.

Agitated RSL state president Major-General David McLachlan later vowed to contact the Greens to object to candidates using the Shrine area as an electoral platform.

Greens state convener Adrian Whitehead said the party endorsed the quiet Women For Peace protest, but had no influence over Ms Kaur's loud behaviour.

``It was felt appropriate to recognise the women and children dead in wars as well as the soldiers,'' Mr Whitehead said.

General McLachlan said every veteran at the service passionately opposed war, particularly those who had lost mates and family, and did not need protests as a reminder.

``Veterans fought so people would have freedom to protest but didn't come here today to have someone harass them,'' he said.

Premier Steve Bracks said re-committing to a peaceful society was the point of Remembrance Day, when city traffic also stopped while buglers sounded Last Post.

Caption: Anger:Shrine trustees Beverley Blanksby and Bruce Ruxton (top) approach Reta Kaur (above) wailing her anti-war protest and (left) people pay their respects at the shrine after the service.
Illus: Photo
IllusBy: Craig Borrow
Section: NEWS

Reta Kaur's peace action at the Shrine was shown on most of the television stations that evening. She was also interviewed by several radio stations and on ABC radio 774 with the Victorian president of the Returned Servicemen's League Major -General David McLachlan.
A number of letters were published in the local papers both attacking and supporting Reta Kaur's peace action at the Shrine. Major-General David McLachlan's letter was also published in the Hearld Sun and The Age. Reta Kaur's letter sent to The Age and the Herald Sun on 15/11/02 was not published.

This is her letter:

The Shrine, Remembrance Day, 11am, 11 November 02

When wars and conflicts are conducted respectfully,
I shall be respectful.
When wars are conducted peacefully,
I shall be silent.
When wars become blood free,
I shall wear yellow.
When every corner of this our precious earth is called sacred,
The Shrine will be sacred.

Until then I will wear black, veil, hold a flower, weep, howl:
War is murder of women, children and men, War is murder.
This I'll do every Remembrance Day,
until we learn that the way to stop a yard bully
is not by bombing the whole school.