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Monday, June 17, 2019

The Island of Hungry Ghosts (2019)

This is a documentary about what has been called Australia’s Guantánamo, which is Christmas Island (a cruel name as it turns out, an island near Java.  The comparison is not quite correct, in that the people housed on Christmas Island are asylum seekers rather than undesirables, but the inclination to keep them off the mainland is parallel.  The film follows a trauma therapist who works with the detainees until a point where she cannot bear it any longer.  The people held there have no time line and increasingly, have little hope of being granted asylum.  Australia, also influenced by hard line politicians and Rupert Murdoch's media presence, have made for some very immigration avoidant policies, having learned nothing from the debacle in the US.  So it is miserable.
The irony that is juxtaposed here is that there is an annual migration of red crab across the island.  There is a whole posse of people who make that possible, but blocking off roads to traffic until the crabs have passed.  The crabs are treated more humanely than the people. Oh dear.

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