Today is the 2th January 2002 officially Australia Day.Station Pier was alive with people,A big white tent was erected for the ceremony to celebrate this special day.Those who live in the City of Port Phillip were welcomed by the Mayor Julian Hill and those becoming new citizens of Australia sometimes called a naturalisation ceremony were presented with their scroll.

I looked up the word in the dictionary and it says of naturalisation---- To give citizenship to a person of foreign birth .One wonders whether those in detention centres may look back in years to come and wonder if they would want to become Australian citizens.Whatever the situation in their own country of birth that led them to travel a perilous journey surely in this day of modern technology our government could determine their validity to be here or not. How can it possibly take years to determine the facts surrounding their arrival.One knows there are the right channels that need to be adhered to but if this is not done there must be a less inhumane way to keep them in such isolation and deny them the knowledge of how their case for entry is proceeding.

As I watched the pleasure on the faces of the newly welcomed citizens I could not feel joy as I thought of others in situations of only relating to the guards that watch their every move and perhaps not even understanding their culture or what they had been through to arrive on our shores.

I fear for those in the detention centres who are so isolated from those who could help but can not access them because of the distance of their placement.. Time moves slowly but those of us able to go out of our front gates cannot imagine the feeling of being behind a high fence and only able to look out at nothingness...