NASA's photo of Diwali Night fireworks in India
– reblogged from here.
Furious refugee groups have questioned how long the federal government will continue mandatory detention after the suicide of another refugee at Sydney’s Villawood Detention Centre.
Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul today slammed the government following the death this morning of the Tamil refugee known as Shooty to his friends.
The Immigration Department has confirmed the man was taken to hospital earlier today but died.
Citing poisoning as a possible cause of death, Mr Rintoul said a number of approaches had been made to DIAC to have Shooty released into community detention, but they had been unsuccessful.
He said the man’s failed bid to be released to attend a Hindu festival may have sparked his suicide.
– Patrick Lion, Refugee advocates slam mandatory detention after refugee suicide
.
Diwali
.
The lights are lit
to welcome a goddess.
.
Good has won, and nations gleam
with rainbow lights
as evil is driven out by love
and families meet
and laughter is shared
.
and just for a night
the world is remade –
the stars are rivalled
by earthly brightness:
.
billions of hearts
and billions of candles
blaze like auroras
and banish the dark.
.
But elsewhere, as always,
evil endures.
.
The cell has no candles.
It punishes hearts
by denying them hope
until life is a box
without doors or space
and the whole world hangs
from the tip of a key
whose name is release
that is rarely spoken
and seldom used.
.
And into this dark
comes the rumour of light
that is called Diwali,
and all good things
are remembered again,
.
and the promise of love
is music in ears he thought were deaf;
and the promise of kin
is touch to a body long denied;
and the promise of free
is bread in the mouth starvation claimed –
.
but at the last, the man in the cell
remains.
.
Despair is his poison.
Darkness wins.
He swallows it down
and the lights go out,
for the key called release
fits a second door
whose name is death
and whose lock will open
even when cells
will not.
.
A billion candles
to welcome a goddess –
.
and yet we could not light one
to welcome a man.
– also posted here.
shattersnipe: malcontent & rainbows 