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Human Cargo
Posted by Chris on 11/05/07 (Shite)
Anyone out there read the book Human Cargo? I’m only a few pages in, but am already feeling the weight of it. Here is a special guest endorsement from that legendary celebrity Todd “The Real Hairhole” Kowalski of Propagandhi, specially formulated for your inner crusty:
“What would happen if in some bizarre mutation of reality crusty punks actually achieved their goals of making North America a zone of total and utter chaos? The vermin eat the weak, the strong die of filth, the elderly rot as cities go dead, the grocery stores are sold out of their last packs of Mr. Noodles and no one has any more power to play their Amebix records. Well, it’s quite possible that you may end up being forced to flee your beloved homeland to another part of the world where the punk scene does not have such an overwhelming grip on society. Becoming a refugee could happen to anyone on this planet, even you.
Imagine your life if you had to pay and trust traffickers and smugglers to help you get to safety. What if when you got to where you were going you were met with detention, threat of deportation, and unwelcoming citizens? What if your situation was taken advantage of by criminals and employers who would heartlessly abuse your situation?
Now add to this list the fact you ended up in a part of the world where you didn’t understand the language, or customs, where your gestures of good will were interpreted as insulting, where people are not willing to take the time to help you, where everyday new obstacles were introduced, where you could not, no matter how hard you tried, grasp the way your new home works, and even though you were a highly skilled engineer back home your degree has been rendered worthless.
Lets add to that that you were a different colour than everybody else and lets say you were there alone, frustrated, you are dropped in an unsafe area of the city and you afraid to leave the room you stay in.
This (minus the crusty punks) is reality for millions of courageous people in this world everyday.
Human Cargo is one of the greatest books of all time. It may change the way you look at life.”
You can check out Human Cargo here, or look for it at your local library.
11 fragments of dialogue thus far ...
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Comment by saoirse on November 5th, 2007 at 1:44 pm:
This is a really fabulous book. That might sound like the wrong word to use, but it is. Every so often someone comes along with enough insight and compassion to cut through all the vicious rhetoric of the papers (the campaign against asylum seekers here has reached insane levels) and see past the scapegoat – this is one of those perspective-shaping, paradigm-altering, life changing books.
I read it a few months after I’d begun volunteering with local asylum seekers, but it was the first time I’d really considered exactly what people went through to get here. Every so often someone would make a reference to arriving here from Africa by boat and lorry, and I’d do a double-take, still ridiculously ignorant about exactly what it means to come here seeking asylum. I used to read it on the train on my way to our little English classes, and I just couldn’t believe that the people I was sitting with had gone through, were going through that stuff. I felt amazed that people could sit across the table from me, graciously shrugging off the fact that all the books we were teaching them with were for children because no fucker would help us buy adult education books; that they could smile and make chit-chat with us despite the routine hassle and racism and persecution they endure every day from my community; that they simply had the will to try and make a new life here. Sadly, some don’t. Some of the saddest passages in that book, some of the saddest parts of this work, is realising some people are just too tired.
I really recommend it to anyone who works or wants to work in the sector; we can’t ever know the refugee experience without, well, experiencing it, but we can understand its legacy better with the few really human insights, and this is one. I could go on here, about detention centres and fast-track policies and the motherfucking minutemen, but I won’t. Todd put it better than I can. I’ll just ditto everything said above and say READ THIS BOOK.
I think this is the best G7 has sold. The Natasha’s is second. Both make for extremely hard reading, but both are extremely necessary.
For a brief, heart-breaking insight in to the lot of migrant workers, you might also want to check out the horrifying film “Ghosts”, by Nick Bromfield. But don’t get burnt out; listen to “Welcome Home” by Declan de Barra, which makes my heart sing, and be comforted that you will meet some of the most astonishing people in the voluntary sector if you go out and seek them.
Comment by tom on November 5th, 2007 at 1:45 pm:
i really like this post. i bought the book from some weird terrorist organization not too long ago and havent cracked it open yet.
i’d just like to comment on todd’s post, there is a line in there that really shook me on profound levels. “becomnig a refugee could happen to anyone on this planet, even you.” i honestly have to say i never thought of that possibility. i’m so accustomed to living my cushy western (vegan) lifestyle that i can barely relate to refugees, and i wonder why that is. i wonder if it’s becauswe i never read, or rarely read their stories in the papers. i’ve seen some hollywood movies about refugees where my view of refugees becomes so scewered by these fucking actors glorifying themselves and their compassion to increase their popularity. any instance of a real human life story is lost.
“and if you pass the obstacles and still have your life, if you’ve escaped death, if your guts havent withered away, if you havent broken under the strain, they won’t be welcoming.”
i hate the word immigrant. especially hearing it where i live, canada, from radio talk show hosts and other media pundits, as if to eradicate any memory of european history in north america. mix these thoughts in with a video i saw of ward churchill last night (who was fired btw) declaring his 9th amendment rights, describing a culture which has been destroyed and nearly eradicated. you DONT see it unless you happen to live in an inner city or near a “reservation”. just like you don’t hear about refugees very much, or how alot of refugees get deported EVERY DAYto face torture, or death, or to see their loved ones killed.
who deserves this fate? who are we to condemn anyone, any refugee, what gives us the right to claim any land, anywhere? which peoples havent been colonized? which peoples have never had to leave the place they know and love, to face dangerous geography, or hostile/alien culture?
im getting carried away here but im asking myself these questions and why i never seem to hear about refugees very much in the press. i think the answers are very simple, and that we’re meant to know as little as possible. so people can keep gettng deported back to their homelands that we keep bombing… and, so that we can keep bombing.
oh, it was caitlins bday on oct 15th, she is now 11. oh, it was chris hannah’s bday nov 2, he now looks 42.
Comment by muva2003 on November 5th, 2007 at 2:08 pm:
What a weird coincidence. I was just about to head out and return a book to the library and I had no indication for what to pick up next. I’ll look out for this one.
Comment by English Tony on November 5th, 2007 at 5:01 pm:
Gonna git me a copy ordered as soon as I have some beans to spare. Every once in a while I realise my heads been up my arse a bit much, log onto G7 to see if they can untangle part of my mental mess, and always manage to come out feeling inspired. Todd’s post was wrote with such rationality that If I was tactful enough and could apply it myself, I could probably change my oldest, fattest, stupidest family members minds about such issues. And then who knows, staff at work, my own friends. This looks like one to pass around.
Comment by Viva la Prairies on November 5th, 2007 at 10:12 pm:
Human Cargo is a great book, it reminds me of the time I tried to move from Manitoba to Quebec.
Viva la Prairies
Comment by DickShit on November 6th, 2007 at 1:36 am:
Fuck Bombs, Bibles and Borders.
Human Cargo will “Shake your blood.”
Hairhole, the poseur, highly recommends.
Comment by Chris on November 6th, 2007 at 9:12 am:
caitlin: that “welcome home” song is indeed truly awesome.
Comment by saoirse on November 6th, 2007 at 11:32 am:
Yip, I may be a four-eyed, three-nippled freak, but I knows good pinko music when I hears it. And I don’t have three nipples.
The first chords of that song never fail to cheer me – that whole album is good.. Also thoroughly splendid is the song “Fortress Europe” by Asian Dub Foundation.
Also cheering is the knowledge that all this hard work (or easy faxing) isn’t in vain; Beatrice and Apollo, both of whom I’ve written about, are both out of detention and back in their communities!
I figure there’s never going to be more fitting a time to annoy y’all with campaigns, so here goes: people here in Béal Feirste (thats Belfast to you, dumbass) have been fighting hard to stop the imminent removal of a local woman and her kids to Nigeria, and are again asking people to fax the Home Office and Virgin Nigeria urging them not to remove her, more info about which can be found here: http://www.ncadc.org.uk where you will also an alert about a lady in Cardiff who could really use your help to stop her removal to Cameroon.
You know the deal. Email me your name/address or city/country and I’ll send one for you: saoirse_ionannas_aonad [at] yahoo [dot] co.uk
Comment by Sebast on November 6th, 2007 at 11:53 am:
¡Funny analogy with the crust punks!
Not so funny with the ‘fugees.
¿What real difference is there between an inmigrant and a refugee? Let’s go over the points, just for memory sake:
·Both move from one border to another.
·Both do it willingly (cuz they think their quality of life will improve).
·One does it through consulates, travel agencies and transportion companies, the other relies on clandestine logistic freelancers and low-voice smugglers with a motorized Zodiac, but basically, they both depend on money whores to get the job done.
·… ¿Am i missing anything?
The only REAL difference is the fact one’s life depends on a succesful escape, and the other one just does it cuz he/she thinks wealth awaits him/her on the other side.
I just think it’s fascinating how much alike theese two situations are and how opposite they are at the same time. Maybe fascinating isn’t the word either.
However taking care and looking out of fellow species members SHOULD be instrinsic in our genetic code, somehow, either the poison in the sea, the radiation filtering through a weakend ozon layer or the transgenics in the food have erased that basic trait of our natural conduct and turned us into bickering survivalists. But that is obvious since we are living in an over-populated habitat. Next thing we know, McShit (yeah, i’m hilarious, fuck) will be serving BigMac’s with import human flesh from Congo or Kentucky Fried Shit (again, funny) will serve Human Wings in a Bucket with Bilisauce…. yum, yum, i just can’t wait*.
Like any other story, the problem resides in the first chapter. ¿What the fuck did us occidental asswipes (basically white, male and usually old) do to impose a sitation that forces human exportation (yes, as if they/we were nothing more than biproducts). Too many questions, too many probable causes…
¡BUT HEY! No matter, cuz if it’s white, it’s all right. ¿Can i get an amén on that?
Boogers, this stuff really grinds my buttons. ¿Or was it pushes my gears? Fuck it…
Oh yeah, and the book is great, if by great one can see her/himself avoiding human contact for about half a year after reading this book due to paranoia/disgust/loss-of-faith.
Anyways, ¡Salut!
—
*: No, it’s not irony and no i’m not Jisus Crust.
Comment by asshole on November 15th, 2007 at 12:49 am:
First post in a week.
Comment by DickShit on November 21st, 2007 at 2:41 am:
This is an interesting essay on contemporary Latin America by Naomi Klein: http://www.globalpol...s/2007/1110shock.htm
The sentiments in this piece seem to resonate with what I gathered from Propagoondhi’s portrayel of their stint down there. Yeah?
I wonder if her new book “The Shock Doctine” will be a good one? Yeah?
“Talk some shit…”