#dfat

New data have revealed that 54 Australians so far have died overseas due to COVID. At least 3 of them were trying to get home, having registered with DFAT. However, many many stranded Australians don’t register with DFAT 1) because DFAT is entirely, completely, unbelievably useless, and 2) they want to come home, but they think other stranded aussies need more help than they do. So a greater proportion of these 54 deaths may be from stranded Australians.

I can’t stop wondering what they were thinking in their last days. Did they see Australians cheer as the Australian Open players and their entourage were able to enter and leave the country easily? Did they see Australians froth over the new celebrity to enter the country’s shores? Did they experience abuse from these same Australians when they tried to get back home? How many flights did they have cancelled?

Last week, someone who had lived in Australia throughout the pandemic told me that there was “no other option” to the closed borders and that Australia was “lucky” because they were able to drink in bars and sit in cafes throughout the pandemic. I’ve always half-joked that Australians would sacrifice the lives of others just so they could go watch the footy or drink outside, but these recent stats have proved it true. The selfishness is phenomenal and continues to rupture what little relationship I have left with this country I was born into and have meaningless citizenship with.

This isn’t a “hidden” toll of COVID. Australians, by now, know what the price of living with the unobtainable “Zero Covid” is - it costs the lives and wellbeing of their fellow citizens stranded overseas. And it is a price that the government and the public are more than willing to have others pay for them.

From the 2nd of September until the 13th of September I will be in Japan, taking the New Columbo Plan grant course EMSC3050: Understanding Geological Hazards. This course gives Australian students the opportunity to study the theory of natural hazards, as well as their real-world impacts and mitigation - all underpinned by local guides and experts.

Part of taking this course involves creating regular social media posts about the content we have learned and the stories we have heard, to hopefully help others also come away with a greater understanding of natural hazards and how we deal with them. Consequently, I will be posting somewhat regularly on this account (and others) for this trip.

Tumblr, with its flexible micro-blogging structure, works well as a medium for all types of post - the platform is a home as comfortably to aesthetic picture-collections, as it is to short tweet-length notes, as it is to essays. Its strengths in multimedia integration as well as its unique dual-commentary split between main-text and tags-commentary mean I will mostly be using it (if I use it) for any posts that do not fit well on other sites.

I am very grateful to ANU, UTokyo, and DFAT for the opportunity to take this course!

Some Australians trapped in Gaza have been advised to go to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt amid reports it may open to some foreign nationals. An unknown number of Australians stuck in the besieged territory have been told that their names are “on the initial list of approved Australians” to cross into Egypt. The ABC has seen an email sent by Australian consular officials to some…

In the early hours of a Tuesday morning, 28-year-old Ibrahim Elmobayed received a message from his mother, who is trapped in besieged Gaza. Key points: Seventy-seven Australian citizens, permanent residents and their families are known to be in Gaza People seeking to leave the besieged region have been trapped, and border crossings kept closed A family member of one trapped Australian has…

The arrival of Cheng Lei back in Melbourne is clearly a moment of celebration for the Chinese Australian journalist and her family from whom she has been separated for over three years. But it would also seem to be a triumph for Australian diplomacy, as well as a signal of China’s serious intent to improve Australia-China relations. For some time, Cheng’s incarceration has remained a sticking…