<nettime> Refugee Embassy news

[Dave/Ross <ross777au@bigpond.com>]

Many thanks to all the people who have sent congratulations on the 
charges being dropped and notes of support for the newspaper idea.

A bit of news is that the escapees who were sent to Port Hedland (and 
Curtin too, I think) are being flown in to Woomera today.  There is a 
rumour that their ID numbers have been changed, to frustrate people 
trying to stay in touch with them.  We'll try to check that out in 
the next few days.

Another development is that we can get around the high cost of 
Pay-Tel phone calls now by calling IN to the mobiles that have been 
placed in the compounds in response to our complaints about the cost 
of phone calls.  Detainees cannot use the phones to call OUT, but we 
here can call in.  (They make a ten second call, asking us to phone 
back if they have something urgent that they want to tell us.)  It 
means that we must pay mobile phone rates (about 44 cents a minute), 
but it's still a big savings over what Pay-Tel was charging, and it 
means that we can bear the full cost, instead of letting the refugees 
pay for phone calls.

So we are asking that supporters send us phonecards once again.  We 
won't be sending them into the detention centre.  Instead, we will be 
using them ourselves, to phone into the detention centre.  We expect 
to be making lots of calls and for longer periods of time, in order 
to get as much information and to give as much support as possible 
through this improved vital link.

We are also asking supporters to send us stamps... lots of them.  We 
expect to use about 150 stamps per issue for the "Freedom Banner" 
newsletter that will go to each of the detainees.  We can probably 
cut that figure down over a period of a few weeks, by sending 
multiple copies to some detainees, and getting them to distribute 
those copies amongst the others.  However, we have been approached by 
several groups about the possibility of making this an Australia-wide 
thing, with news and views from ALL of the detention centres, and 
with copies being posted to all of the detainees.  It's exciting, but 
it'll take a lot of work and a lot of stamps.

So if you can afford some 45-cent stamps or phone cards, please send 
them to Ross Parry, Post Restante, Woomera 5720.

If you just want to make a cash donation, please fill in a deposit 
slip at any Westpac Bank, in the name of Ross Parry, Branch number 
735065, and Account number 544-823.  We have enough funds to keep us 
going another couple of weeks, but funds have been going out faster 
than they're coming in for the past few weeks.  We don't need a LOT 
of money, but a little more cash would be helpful now... before we 
start screaming for it!  :o)

Thanks, everyone, for your support.  The moral support really HAS 
been the best.  We don't want anyone to feel pressured financially. 
We'll only do what we can afford to do, and settle for that if funds 
do not come in.

Having a great time.  Wish you were here!

Love and peace,

Dave and Ross, Woomera 5720
Phone: 0407-238805

P.S.  Please do not ask us for the phone number to call directly to 
detainees.  Ask the detainee that you are writing to; because each 
compound has a different number, and it really needs to be arranged 
on a one to one basis between the people calling and the one being 
called.  That will avoid trivial calls from people who have not made 
the effort to write.  Mobile phones here are unreliable at the best 
of times, so we want to make the best use of the times available for 
such calls.
-- 
for the moment, mail to fold@idl.net.au will be automatically 
forwarded to ross777au@bigpond.com, so you may reply to either 
address and it will reach me. 

#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net