Lone Survivor and Australian Asylum Seekers

[Spoiler Alert]

Marcus Luttrell (third from left) with his fellow SEAL TEAM10 Squad members
[http://www.guytalk-m2m.com/lone-survivor-is-stars-stripes-and-heart/]

Last weekend my wife and I dropped our son off to my parents home and took off to see a film that I've been dying to watch for a while: Lone Survivor. We'd purchased the tickets prior to screening and once we got into the cinema we sat down comfortably until the previews began. 

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The film took off with a bang (pun not intended)! There was Marcus Luttrell being carried off in a stretcher and strapped to an ECG. Covered in blood from a presumably intense gunfight, his eyes dart around the room. His pulse fluctuates, then stops. He's clinically dead. Then the film really begins.

I'm not going to spend time writing a summary or film review - there are people much more adept at doing that than myself - but I'm going to focus on what stood out for me and how what I saw and thought about could be applied to asylum seekers not only in our own backyard, but around the world.

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After an intense and deadly exchange with the fighters of Afghani terrorist leader Ahmad Shah (where an estimated 50-100 of his Shah's fighters were killed) Luttrell was alone. Hiding at the bottom of a cliff face, distraught at the death of his comrades (three of which had been courageously fighting alongside himself), he loses consciousness. He awakens badly injured and makes his way through the mountainous terrain to find  lake where he could quench his thirst. He finds one and throws himself into it. Just as he does he sees a Middle-eastern man, Muhammed Gulab, and his son come up behind him, beckoning. He's distressed! He makes an immediate connection to them being Taliban insurgents and clutches onto his grenade as he threatens to pull out the pin. Gulab persists, stretching his arm forward as if to help him. There's shuffling in the distance, and the sound of other men searching. You could almost hear him say, "Come if you don't want to die! I'm here to help you!" Eventually Luttrell relents and gives him his arm while consciously aware that this man and his child could be taking him to his death.

It's afterwards that you see the kindheartedness of Gulab when he takes him to his village, clothes him, gives him food and drink and cares for him. But things are about to get out of hand again...

The Taliban is still after him as they raid Gulab's village. Finding Luttrell, they take him to a large log where they have beheaded many other collaborators. "I'm going to my death", Luttrell thought. Just as the machete was been raised, in a heart wrenching moment, Gulab shouts towards the insurgents. What follows is nothing more than spectacular. You see a hope in humanity surface once again as Gulab rescues Luttrell with a group of his fellow villagers while bearing AK-47's. Luttrell keeps asking, "Why are you helping me, why are you helping me?!"

It turns out that Gulab was operating on a village code of honour - Pashtunwali - that spanned two millennia. If an occupant of the village that Gulab resided in came across an individual facing a threat from an enemy they were to take them in and secure their safety - even to death.

This is what Gulab had done. Because of Gulab, and later, the efforts of the Marines that brought Luttrell back he was able to tell his story. 

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What we don't seem to understand is that people like Gulab are the ones that come to our shores seeking asylum. It's people like Gulab that want to pursue a happier life. We're so quick to shut down talk of asylum seekers and tell them to "Go back to your own country"when we don't even understand their predicament. What we need to do is operate on a code similar to that which Gulab and his village operated on those fateful moments when Luttrell needed them most. We need to accept (as much as is possible given out UN obligations and agreements towards seekers of asylum that we find coming to our shores) those that are least able to help themselves!

While working at a migrant and refugee centre as a counselling placement student I saw and heard the atrocities perpetuated against these - for the most part - helpless individuals (and I'm speaking of asylum seekers as a whole rather than a specific ethnicity or culture). From being battered to unconsciousness by Taliban fighters, to having your livelihood (in the case of one mans truck that he made a living from) set alight, to family members stolen and missing, or killed, to Muslims of a lower social status (specifically the Shia Muslims and the persecution of the Hazara community) being killed and hanged up as an example in public places - these are the atrocities that those seeking asylum are running from!

However, it seems that we don't seem to give these less fortunate the time of day given our privileged position in a country where we define our problems as not having enough chargers for the x amount of electrical entertainment systems we want plugged in at the same time. This video shows our plight with such immense power.

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Children from the Robber's Cave Experiment
[http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/09/war-peace-and-role-of-power-in-sherifs.php]

But I guess this isn't to be unexpected. Just as we've seen in Sherif's Robber's Cave Experiment, even though we might be placed in near proximity to people that aren't in our in-group, that doesn't do anything to lift the stigma, apathy, or aggression we often hold towards them. It's only when we strive together for a common goal, and need one another's help that we can actually get past the superficial and get to the core of the problem.

It's the hope for change that drives us! And only where we can understand others by letting them tell their own stories - coming to their level to understand the stories as much as possible - that we can hope to work together for a common goal and change what we see around us today!

References

Selecting the links provided within the body of this blog post shall take you directly to the original pages.