A nation's lost soul

Where has this nation's soul disappeared?

Today we buried two babies, shrouded in white, less than the weight of a Harry Potter novel. The aunt held her in her arms weeping and wailing, amongst other mourners, a media circus and shameless Immigration department guards. Watching on, behind dark sunglasses, hands on hips. A young orphaned boy, walks by disoriented, traumatised and dazed, then a guard attempts to grab him. He lost both his parents in the boat crash off Christmas Island last November, 2010. The fifteen or so mourners, were bussed in to the cemetery and the Immigration people watch over them carefully.
I joke to my friend that we should not call them DeeAC, but they should be called DieAC, because that is their business. Killing people. If they dont die on rickety boats as they come into Australian waters, then the detention facilties will get them behind razor fences. Suicide. Depression. Trauma. And if they dont die physically then then they kill their wills and their souls. Where is Julia Gillard's soul?
We condemned John Howard when he was in power, and in a sense, we blamed it on his generation, his conservative white Christian values, his age and his ego. But Julia, a migrant herself, an atheist, relatively younger and a woman. Does she have any power over her party's policies? Or is she just a stooge, like all of our politicians?

Today, as I stood over the tiny grave, about the length of a cricket stump, I realised that we as a nation have come to this pathetic state, where we give more importance to a injured terrier than an infant Iraqi refugee, clutching to the arms of her terrified mother. The boat helplessly bobbing closer to the razor sharp rocks. The coastguard somewhere near but just conveniently out of reach. Who gave the order to stand back and watch 50 souls sink to the bottom of the callous sea, engulfing these innocent people who were seeking a place of refuge under the wings of the Australian nation?
In Egypt people power has reclaimed their dignity, after corruption and oppression at the hands of their leaders. Where are the people of Australia who are offended by our leaders? Where is the revolution? Time to overthrow the pharoahs and kings that we call our democratically elected leaders! How can we face ourselves each day, until, these demons are gone. Make supplication to God. The dead are at peace now, somewhere in Paradise.

The Immigration people muster the mourners onto the bus, making sure that the head count is right. The excavator fills in the hole. Then a farwell wave as they move off into the great unknown, to grieve behind wires while angry guards, looking pitilessly on, behind their dark sunglasses with their hands on hips.
"Well, you should learn from this! Dont jump the cue."
The Pacific solution (mark II). As we called John Howard the Coward, maybe we should call Julia Gillard the Kill-hard.

Where is this nation's soul? Did we leave it behind when we too arrived on boats and planes, with all the other lost baggage?