Cultural Diversity News

Award-winning SBS journalist publishes new book Overboard

Thursday, 03 November 2011 10:59

Walkley award winning SBS Arabic journalist Ghassan Nakhoul has published a new book drawing on ten years of research into the lives of refugees arriving in Australia by boat. The book, titled Overboard and independently published by Dar Meera in Sydney, was launched in September by former Defence Force Chief, Admiral Chris Barrie.  It is an important piece of investigative journalism that examines the politics of seeking asylum under Australia's current refugee policy. Nakhoul won a Walkley Award in 2002 for his radio report ‘The Five Mysteries of SIEV X’. In Overboard, Nakhoul revisits that tragedy and returns to the many unanswered questions that make this an event shrouded in mystery even today.
More info and to order a copy online go to http://www.darmeera.com/

SBS Arabic Radio report on the Freedom from Persecution Conference hosted by CCS

Thursday, 03 November 2011 10:55

On 7 October 2011, the UTS Centre for Cosmopolitan Civil Societies hosted the conference ‘Freedom from Persecution’ which coincided with the exhibition ‘Unsafe Haven’ about Hazaras in Afghanistan by Sydney based photographer and freelance writer Abdul Karim Hekmat. The conference was organised by Professor James Goodman, Director at CCS, and Dr Wahid Razi from UTS. SBS Arabic journalist Ghassan Nakhoul was there to cover the event and produced a radio report on the conference. The report is in Arabic but includes voice grabs in English from conference participants including Dr Wahid Razi from UTS, artist Abdul Karim Hekmat, Professor William Maley from ANU, Dr Anne McNevin from RMIT, and Dr Omid Tofighian and Dr Nour Dados, both from the University of Sydney.

Read more/listen:http://tunein.com/search/?query=taliban+era

 

Anti racism reports released after thirteen years of suppression

Wednesday, 19 October 2011 16:33

Action by Institute Chair Andrew Jakubowicz has forced the released under Freedom of Information of two research reports on racism in Australia in the Hanson period, deemed too hot for the Australian people to read by PM John Howard. The reports were prepared to back a national anti-racism campaign, canned by the Coalition and replaced with Living in Harmony. The extent and intensity of the racism revealed by the focus groups and survey undertaken by Eureka research (now part of the global Ipsos conglomerate), would have provided further evidence to critics of how the Howard government's refusal to condemn Hanson, and its support for the attack on "political correctness" was licensing prejudice and intolerance. At a time when the Labor government has announced its own new anti-racism campaign, this research provides crucial information about the state of mind of the Australian people a decade or more ago, and what it takes to engage with our deep-seated fears of cultural difference.  Read the reports here.

Read more: Anti racism reports released after thirteen years of suppression

FREEDOM FROM PERSECUTION? THE QUESTION OF AFGHANISTAN

Monday, 03 October 2011 11:40

7 October Conference: FREEDOM FROM PERSECUTION? THE QUESTION OF AFGHANISTAN A conference held in association with the exhibition, ‘Unsafe Haven: Hazarras in Afghanistan’, UTS Tower Foyer.
When: 7 October, 9.15am-5.30pm  Where: Room 411, Building 2 (CB02.411) University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW Access: Free. Disabled access. Places are limited. Please register: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  Download flyer+draft program. For thirty years Afghanistan has suffered under invasions, civil wars and military rule, and millions of Afghans have fled the country seeking refuge. Many fled the civil war after the 1979 Soviet invasion, and more followed during the Taliban period. By 2001, there were at least eight million Afghan refugees, mostly in Pakistan and Iran. Following the 2001 UN intervention and occupation more than five million Afghans – twenty per cent of the country’s population – voluntarily returned to the country, to a situation of continued political instability. Since 2006, with intensifying violence and internal conflict, voluntary return has declined. In recent months countries such as Australia have made provision for the forced return of Afghan refugees.

Read more: FREEDOM FROM PERSECUTION? THE QUESTION OF AFGHANISTAN