On the pain of the human spirit... Or the effects of a human spirit in pain? I dont think Im worse off, so please dont misunderstand the reasons for these FB journalism posts of my Asylum experiences in the U.K. I think the stories I post here, like the problem affording deodorant, or the bathroom not being cleaned for nigh on a week ... These stories are common to all of us going through this experience. Which is why I post these episodes. True, sometimes I really need to rant, and mostly it just hurts to be reduced to this recourse... I post in order you know what Asylum Seekers go through. Its not enough that our identity is stripped of us, but our freedom is too, including our right to choose. Ironic again. These matters I write of/ speak of are Public Issues. Such as the impact on human beings of mistakes gone uncorrected in Screening or Substantive Interviews by sloppy uncaring translators working for the Home Office. These translators and their associated Solicitors - for they reel in Legal Aid clients for Solicitors - spend very little time ensuring accuracy or strategy for their cliebts. And its this sloppiness in details which allows the H.O. officials to destroy peoples credibility during Interviews. This credibility is last thing we have left to call our own, and because. If a disregard of professionalism, our credibility is destroyed as errors go unchecked. My first Dispersal cases result is not unusual. Or take the impact on a person when a translator gives an Asylum Seeker, already traumatized, really poor advice during a medical appointment and it impacts the sort of pharmaceutical and counselling help they (usually dont) receive ... These stories and others I write about here, but usually I write of my own more directly. I include my personal experiences for the same reason, though recently a traumatised woman lost her temper with me in a rather ill-bred public fashion, because shes held onto the belief that her experiences are so unique they set her apart and ought never be used to help other folk. (The truth? Five others I know of in the last 7 months share almost identical structure to their stories. Many Asylum Seekers do use human traffickers to get here, do use false documents, are fingerprinted in another European country, do not tell the full story in their screening interview from fear, are led by the nose by unscrupulous translators who source them uncaring solicitors, do suffer severe medical or psychological needs which go untreated, etc). Id used part of her story, namelessly, to illustrate how careful one must be of translators when seeking help. Of course I mixed up her story with anothers though she, listening through closed doors heard only what she (wanted) to hear (brains patterning information as they do), and so flew out the room screeching at me accordingly , thus waking everyone so that they could listen in ... No one knew her story before this event of course, or realised how it follows other folks, or that it has anything to do with what I was relating - until she vociferously accused me of breaking honour in rating the facrs as I did. Its MY story, all of it, exactly - you are telling MY story, my god, everything, it is MINE.... actually it was in small part, but not fully as she claimed while refusing to listen to my reply. I was terrified of her violent feelings. Clearly her entire raison detre is to live her story until she can craft a new one. Non? Oh, irony! What havoc our emotions do play on our reasoning capabilities! And even angrier with me was she for according to her not relating these other folks tales to her when she was telling me of hers. Of course I had, just only in a manner which obscures both country and personal identity, and only the facrs which might be of help to her which on three separate occasions they have. She just didnt hear these facts then .... she remains very wrapped-up in her own story. Human nature! For those folk whove never been alone, travelled alone or lived alone its doubly hard as they have no-one to talk to. Well neither do I, and some days its an unbeatable lightness of being to lie in this room staring at the sane rooftops Ive looked out over for the last 7 awful lonely months. Need I comment shed never allowed me to complete my story on the one occasion shed bothered to ask? If only there WERE utterly unique Asylum Stories! Sadly no more. The world has the wrong shape for solitary stories. Perhaps if unique Cases were possible no translator or interpreter would have the power they hold over traumatised peoples by virtue only of a shared language though it be not of a common tongue! There is one thing Ive learned about the Hunan impetus towards our own Nature, staying here. The human desire for bondship, for mindedness, for Togetherness is so overarching, so overwhelming in fact, that all peoples no matter their culture, will reach across without much more than gesture in common - in order to make Contact. The need to dispel loneliness drives us more towards each other than politics or religion might keep us apart. Until, that is, we suffer the cult of Uniqueness. This identification with Otherness sets us apart in a fashion no Others will ever do. Love does have insurmountable barriers and we put then there, to our shame.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 21:57:56 +0000
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