Saturday, November 03, 2007

New Matilda: Howard’s Australia: The Bureaucratisation of Evil

Julie Macken remembers some key moments in the recent history of John Howard’s Australia relating to the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.

If you merge the Arendt dictum on the "banality of evil" with this one you get Howard and the dark elves, Kevin (I am not Mr Bean) Andrews and Philip (I am not a wraith) Ruddock. Banal, bureaucratic and evil - a heady cocktail to take a country's reputation for fairness, compassion and good international citizenship to hell in a hand-basket. G'day and good luck.

1 comment:

steve said...

Mark, have you seen this shocking footage from Port Hedland riot of 2001, which was put up on Crikey site and also YouTube on 30 October 2007.

http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20071026-Exclusive-footage-detention-centres-riots-refugees.html