June 2006

Remembering Siev X

I felt ashamed of myself last week. It was the end of a seminar on boys’ education. Author Steve Biddulph, closed with a ‘commercial break’, inviting support for a SIEV X Project.

SIEV is technical speak for Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel. Steve reminded us that the 15 October is the fifth anniversary of the sinking of an overcrowded refugee vessel headed for Australia. The Potential Illegal Immigrants (PII) were mostly mothers and children coming to rejoin their husbands and fathers in Australia; 353 were drowned. I remembered the picture on the front of The Age. There was an anguished man weeping as he displayed photos of his four dead children. How quickly I had forgotten his anguish and enduring sorrow.

The Prime Minister is clear that we have a right to control who enters Australia, and I know that “people smugglers” ruthlessly exploit people at their most vulnerable, but I couldn’t help wondering about the morality of an Australian Government defining ‘illegal entry’ - all the more so when it prevented family reunion. So I was interested to learn about that Certain Maritime Incident, and the SIEV X Memorial Project (www.sievxmemorial.com).

Such subversive semi-political ruminations were fostered by the recent visit of Jim Wallis to Readings in Carlton. It was like an old time revival meeting in the market place. Wallis talked with Tim Costello about his book, God’s Politics – How the Right gets it wrong and the Left doesn’t get it. It is a tonic for Christians who want to recover their political vision.

It was partly Jim Wallis’ presentation, Costello’s book, which I am reading in conjunction with Robert Fisk’s Great War for Civilisation that drove me to Amos for this Term’s Bible readings. In Assembly we have been listening to the declamations of this seventh century (BC) prophet, who famously called for “justice to flow like a river, and righteousness like a never ending stream” (5:24). Between Wallis and Fisk one gets a sense of the urgent need for global reinvestment in social capital and political vision.

The boys are interested in justice and future vision. This was evidence recently. Firstly with was the terrific response from the Assembly to Harry Hookey singing Bob Dylan’s It’s alright ma, I’m only bleeding. After the song Harry explained connections between Amos and Dylan’s dark foreboding and lamentation. Despite their gloomy forebodings, he saw in them both the hope that we can shape a different future. He earned a justified ovation from his peers and staff.

Secondly in Assembly this week when Mr Watson connected the prophet’s vision of a plumbline and wall in danger of collapse with the urgent need for reconciliation with Australia’s indigenous people. The boys listened intently. This was followed by the first ever Scotch College Didgeridoo Quartet: Peter Chandler (Music Captain), Colin Kiel, Douglas Eves and Nathan Djerrkura. It was an excellent display of cross-cultural harmony and acceptance. The boys also gave the quartet a well deserved ovation. I hope we continue such enthusiastic endorsement in the costly pursuit of justice and righteousness.

Graham Bradbeer