I want to tell you a story about my old friend, Ray. I won’t mention his surname as Ray was never keen on being identified – not, at least, by the government or by the police. At the same time though, Ray was also one of Australia’s greatest Elvis impersonators. He was a strange mix of the public and the private.
I never knew where Ray lived, and I don’t think he’d ever had a driver’s licence or anything you could identify him with. Even so, you couldn’t miss Ray when he showed up. I’d be holding some church BBQ in the backyard when suddenly the quiet mutter of parishioners would be shattered with a loud, “SINCE MY BABY LEFT ME …”
I’d met Ray through a member of the parish who had spent time in prison. I don’t think Ray ever did time himself, and I never saw him do anything illegal, though he did tell me how he’d once had to firebomb some office that had records on him. “Had to do it, Dave”, he said to me. “I’m sure you didn’t have to do it, Ray”, I said, but he just nodded along as if I was tacitly agreeing that I would have done exactly the same in his situation.
Ray had this idea that we were spiritual twins of sorts. He once said to my wife, “Me and Dave – we’ve both run brothels, both seen the dark side of life.” My wife said, “I don’t think Dave has ever been in a brothel”, but Ray didn’t hear that. I was one of the boys as far as he was concerned, and I didn’t mind, though it did get me into some interesting situations, such as the night Ray introduced me to his friend, ‘Nick, the debt-collector’.
It was mid-winter and close to midnight. I was at my desk in the rectory office, and in the middle of a crisis.
Over the twenty-five years I ran our youth drop-in centre, the biggest problem we ever had was with … well, I don’t like using the word ‘paedophiles’, but let’s say, with adults who preyed on children, or with adults whom we suspected wanted to prey on our children, and over those twenty-five years there were three separate occasions where I took action and involved both the police and community services.
The most serious of those incidents was with a single man who was living quite near our drop-in centre, and there were kids who were part of our Youth-Centre community who started visiting him in his home. I was initially alerted to the problem by reports from the kids themselves, which led me to talk to the police and community services about the man. Then one day I saw a scooter parked out the front of the man’s residence, suggesting that one of our young people was inside there alone with him.
I wanted to bang on the door and burst in, but by that stage the man in question had already had me appear in court for things I was allegedly saying about him, and I had been warned by my Bishop not to say or do anything further that might interfere with the process of having him removed from the area. I did nothing on that occasion, and maybe that was the right thing to do, but I was feeling tormented about that when I received the unexpected visit from Ray.
As I say, it was the middle of winter and near midnight, and I did not expect to see Ray at the door. “Just passing. Thought I might drop in for a drink”, he said. “Of course,” I said.
My wife was still up too, so the three of us sat in our living room and made small talk until Ray said, “I’ve got a friend with me. Do you mind if I bring him in?” This stunned me. I said, “you mean you have someone waiting in the car outside, in the dark?” “Yeah”, said Ray. “Please, bring him in!”, I said.
Ray reappeared at the front door a minute or two later. Alongside him stood a short and thickly-set man with a gnarled face, starting at the ground. It was immediately obvious from the man’s expression and posture that he had a mental illness of some kind. Ray introduced his friend. “This is Nick. Nick is a debt-collector. He’s a very good debt-collector. Nick has come to have a few words to your mate who lives a few doors down”.
I was taken aback. “How did you know about the guy a few doors down?” I asked. “Oh”, Ray said, “I hear stuff.” I said, “Why don’t I get you boys another drink?”
Some very tense minutes followed. Ray kept chatting in his usual fashion while my wife and I sat in stunned silence. Nick, the debt-collector, continued to stare at the ground, letting out the occasional quiet chuckle for no obvious reason. My wife then headed to the kitchen to get more snacks and asked for my help. When out of earshot she said, “This guy is a hitman. There’s no way back if you go down this path. Don’t go there”.
After refilling the glasses of our guests, I said to Ray, “Brother, we’ve got the police involved. We’ve got community services involved. I think we’ve got this one covered, though I do appreciate you trying to help.” Ray paused for a while, then looked at me and said, “Clean broom sweeps best, doesn’t it, Dave?” I said, “That’s it, Ray! A clean broom. A clean broom.” So Ray put the debt-collector back on his leash and they returned into the darkness from which they had emerged.
I’m not sure I made the right decision that night. The man we were concerned about was moved on within a week or two. Even so, if I discover one day that some poor child was molested in the period between the visit of Nick, the debt-collector, and the man’s eviction, well … I’ll have to answer for that. Perhaps God had sent me Nick, the debt-collector, to do what no one else would do, just as God once used Samson and some of those other great heroes of old, whose God-ordained role was to ‘take out the trash’.
I don’t know, but I do know that dear Ray died shortly after that under mysterious circumstances. That was a few years ago now and I can’t remember whether I took the funeral. What I do remember though was that there were at least three women there claiming to be Ray’s true love, all staring daggers at each other across the graveside.
He was a larger-than-life figure – my friend, Ray. I do miss him.
Journalists who tell the truth!
The following article was written by my friend, Dr Chandra Muzaffar and entitled, “Kudos to journalists who tell the truth”. It is republished with permission.
UNESCO should be congratulated for awarding the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize for 2024 to Palestinian journalists covering Gaza. The prize this year was announced in Santiago, Chile in conjunction with World Press Day on 3 rd May 2024.
The prize named in honour of a Colombian journalist murdered in 1986, Guillermo Cano Isaza, is a recognition of the courage shown by journalists who are prepared to carry out their responsibilities in the face of grave danger. Guillermo was a newspaper editor who was a vocal critic of drug barons in his country and in South and Central America.
It is an indisputable truth that journalists in Gaza have been confronting the reality of death every day of their lives in the last 7 months as Israeli bombs rain their congested homeland and Israeli bullets target any child, woman or man who inhabits that
narrow strip of land. Up to this point – 7th May 2024 – 143 journalists have lost their lives in the Israeli assault on Gaza.
This is the largest number of journalists killed in a conflict within a certain period of time in a certain demographic setting.
The number of journalists killed should be viewed in the context of the huge massacre that has taken place in Gaza since October 7th. Israel – mainly its armed forces and Zionist settlers who are allowed to kill Palestinians at random – have annihilated at least
35, 000 people in the course of the last seven months.
It is heart-rending to know that about 70 per cent of those killed are children and women. Indeed, more children have died in the present conflict in Gaza and the West Bank than in any previous assault upon Palestinian territory since 1948 when the state of Israel was established.
If the story of this senseless slaughter has been told to the world, it is not simply because of the courage of the journalists associated with the conventional media. The alternative media have also played a significant role.
Within the alternative media in Gaza are a large number of citizen journalists telling the truth to relatives and friends through their handphones and other channels. They too are heroes and heroines because of their indomitable courage and their willingness to take great risks, risks which place their very lives in peril.
It is because these citizen journalists had shared their stories with certain conventional media channels which in turn had scrupulously verified the news and information they had received that so much of what was, and is, happening in Gaza is now known to the world.
A television station operating in both Arabic and English which helped to disseminate the actual happenings in Gaza and the West Bank far and wide was of course the Qatar based Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera also has its own huge network of journalists on the ground whose courage and integrity are awe inspiring.
Through their commitment to truth and justice, they have raised journalism to a loftier level. It is a shame that such a television station should now be banned by the Israeli authorities from reporting from Occupied Palestine or Israel proper.
It only confirms that the Israeli state does not want the world to know the truth about what it is doing in Gaza. But the truth will prevail in the end. That is the immutable law of life.
After more than 75 years of oppression and suppression, of extermination and expulsion, millions and millions of people all over the world have come to know about what Israel really is, and what it has been doing to the Palestinians and other Arabs.
Israel is exposed as never before. The whole world now knows that it is an arrogant, cruel and inhuman state and society. It is so selfish and self-serving that it has brought about its own downfall.
At this juncture it should also be emphasized that while Israel is perpetuating colossal injustices against Palestinians, there are also millions of Jews in North America and Europe who are against Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. They want the rights of the Palestinians restored.
They are convinced that Jews, Christians and Muslims can live together in peace and harmony.
Together with Palestinians and millions of others from every continent and community, they would applaud Unesco’s decision to award this year’s World Press Freedom prize to Palestinian journalists covering the catastrophe in Gaza.
Dr Chandra Muzaffar is the President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST)