Along with death and taxes you can be rest assured that as a St Kilda FC supporter, there will no doubt be a Friday night game needing to be won at all costs, that will fizzle into mediocrity.

The level of importance of these games is directly proportional to the lack of effort.

Last Friday against the Doggies was one of those but the weekend of misery didn’t end there. My VFL club Werribee lost a close one against Box Hill on the Saturday and my Masters team The Eastern Warriors were flogged by a stronger Point Cook.

Compounding all of this, was the Saturday night premiere of the documentary Behrouz at ACMI, the story of Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani.

It’s a terrific film and following it was a Q&A with the Director Simon Kurian, Greens Senator Nick McKim, who brought Behrouz’s story into parliament, and the man himself, live on Zoom from Christchurch.

What magnified the direction my weekend was taking, was confirmation of our federal government’s complete and utter disregard to show any compassion for refugees.

None of this is new of course. It goes back to John Howard’s ‘Tampa terror’ and subsequent paranoia in 2001 which appealed to the great unwashed and won him another term as PM.

Then there was Kevin Rudd in 2013 with his ‘stop the boats’ speech which he delivered in a national broadcast as if we were declaring war! No matter what side of politics, inflicting pain on refugees is a guaranteed vote winner in Australia.

It was just after this speech that Behrouz, a prominent journalist found himself stranded on Manus Island and in Papua New Guinea for six years.

In his award winning book, No Friend But The Mountains published in 2019, Behrouz provides intimate details around the conditions, deaths, suicides, mental illness and degradation within the prison at Manus.

It’s difficult reading and even more extraordinary is the fact that Behrouz wrote it entirely via text message on a smuggled phone and sent it to Melbourne where it was translated into English by a friend.

If you haven’t read the book, I can highly recommend it and I wrote more of a rant than a review at the time which is here if you’re interested:

https://isowilson.com/be-kind-to-one-another-for-fks-sake/

The documentary has taken the detail of the appalling treatment and elevated it visually. This is footage which wasn’t available until Behrouz was able to seek asylum in New Zealand.

Somehow over the past few years Behrouz was able to sneak in phone cameras and film the day to day goings on within the prisons.

When the Australian government closed Manus in 2017, they sent local security into the centre to deny access to drinking water and destroy anything that could be knocked down.

With complete disregard for the Declaration of Human Rights the actions taken against these innocent people were horrendous and completely backed by Dutton and Morrison. Behrouz was able to capture much of this on video.

Viewing the shameful footage is uncomfortable as an Australian citizen. The deliberate and murderous intent from a government that claims to represents it’s people is highly embarrassing, upsetting and infuriating.

During the Q&A, Behrouz spoke calmly and rationally about Australian policy, but was adamant in his message that nothing has changed with the new Labor government.

So as to elaborate, he gave us all a fresh warning. The Biloela family who Albo finally spared from deportation was used as nothing more than a photo opportunity. He believes this government will only continue to carry the baton from the Morrison/Dutton debacle.

 He has found freedom through the kindness of New Zealand and works at the University of Canterbury.

You can sense with Behrouz that despite the new life there is enormous trauma and guilt that he was the one who managed to escape Papua New Guinea. There are over a hundred of his fellow refugees still stuck in squalor and a seemingly endless cycle of boredom. These are innocent men.

For information regarding asylum seekers the ASRC (Asylum Seeker Resource Centre) is a fantastic resource: https://asrc.org.au

The ASRC Founder and CEO Kon Karapanagiotidis delivered a powerful speech prior to the screening, offering his personal insights into his visits to the detention centres. The emotion was palpable.

Behrouz the documentary will hopefully get a wide screening in spite of any challenges from the federal government. This is the trailer:

And this is a short Guardian video of Behrouz upon his arrival in Christchurch in 2019:

Behrouz’s story is an inspiring one and quickly puts things into perspective. No more will apathetic and insipid St Kilda Friday night performances bother me.

My first world grievances pale into insignificance compared to the tribulations of refugees on our doorstep. Let’s hope Behrouz’s efforts and those of the ASRC continue to provoke those in their ivory towers.