My Christmas Island Debreif

This is my Xmass island debrief, i'm not sure if this is what you had in mind,



Having first landed on Christmas Island I had no idea what to expect. The humid weather and the militarized atmosphere didn’t fill me with enthusiasm. Though I did feel more at ease as I met the volunteers one by one until the evening when we all dined at the Boson.

Lockie had advised that these 4 weeks would go by very fast, still I did not expect it to go so quickly- it was almost like the whole experience was uploaded into my brain matrix style. I remember landing, and then I was playing touch footy outside the airport waiting for plane to take us back to the mainland. How did it pass by so quickly? A question I struggled to answer myself or the volunteers when I told them I was leaving. You’re leaving? But you said you were staying for four weeks! IT’S BEEN FOUR WEEKS ALREADY!

During the past few days I’d been trying to describe my experience at Christmas Island but so far I’ve just not been able to put it into words. All I can say is that it was one of the most incredible & journey I’ve had the chance to experience.

The opportunity to engage and work on a daily basis with the clients was most rewarding, getting to know them closely and chatting with them and sharing stories and laughs and sometimes tears will have helped them to endure the ordeals they’re going through and make new friends in the process.

I shared more treasured memories on the Island with the volunteers, the long hours and the challenges we faced from sickness to the ever changing weather to the even more volatile work conditions would have been quite difficult to deal with had it not been for the support and cooperation of the volunteers. Everyone I worked with gave the same 100% and the can-do attitude that made every session and class so successful every time.

I also enjoyed challenging myself on so many levels, the constant physical and emotional strain has made me realise how far I can push myself and keep going strong.

I would like to thank the management and the HR team for their tireless work and support to us. Knowing we had you for support to deal with CI’s changing environment made us give that much more of ourselves when out there in the camps.

When I finally left Christmas Island I did so with a heavy heart. Sadness at seeing my friends for the last time, sadness at leaving this amazing team of volunteers behind, sadness as we jumped off the pier one last time, had our last bbq on the beach, taken our last lazy scooter ride around the island, too many experiences and encounters to list.



Again, thank you for this experience and I can’t wait to come back again for another four weeks.



Nasser Alkhateeb

This world is full of evil

I don't write as much as I should.

I real a lot, well these days I don't read as much as I should either, in previous times I used to read 3 books a month. These days I watch a lot of TV junk and sometimes commercial documentaries.

Still, whenever I read and whatever I read about tells me there is so much oppression in the world today, against minorities ( in this case minorities means all non white people everywhere), against women, against Islam and Muslims, it just seems the world is run either by bigoted selfish leaders or is run by pure capitalists where profit is the only motive, which in turn makes this a pretty bleak world for 98% of its inhabitants.

Countries like Palestine being absolutely ravaged by ferocious war machines while the whole world wants to know what Angelina Jolie is wearing for the Emmys. Frustrating celebrations of blatant lies such as democracy in Iraq or better lives for women in Afghanistan. Millions of deaths in subcontinental India, Subsaharan Africa etc... and so called charity organizations are making millions of their suffering while effectively giving them very little due to weak regulations and the fact that no one really gives a f$#k about a bunch of hungry curries or niggers (excuse the french).

Poetically impressive naming conversions such as THE WAR ON DRUGS, THE WAR ON TERROR, THE WAR ON POVERTY is in fact a new name for an old game called THE WAR TO RULE THE WORLD AND MAKE THE REST OF WORLD DIE WORKING FOR YOU WHILE YOU DIE OF MORBID OBESITY. I know it's a long name but hey, evil isn't pretty.

In Australia Obesity is a bigger killer than smoking ! 1 in 5 Australians has WAY to much to eat while across the water in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, people die by the thousands of every day. Now tell me, does this make sense to you ? Like, you're a fat man and your neighbour dies every day and you don' help him ? No no no you do help him, by having a concert "to raise money".

And what really takes the cake for Australians is that bloody boat people debate. Tamils are getting killed and jailed and raped and generally F@$ked up the a$$, so they run away to Indonesia (no a UN signatory of the refugee conversion) and so they have little option but to try and make it across to Australia driven by criminals on shoddy boats over shark infested waters just to reach safety out of their hell. They reach Australian waters after all that and ....

they get put in hot as hell island prisons for years because ... why ? politics of fear, that's why.


As a muslim, I believe that one day I will die, and then I'm gonna be asked by God what I did on earth when this evil was taking place.

Question: Nasser, shit happened, what did you do for it ?
Me: Well, most of the time I was watching Avatar, and then I went to a islamic lecture, and we went out for Pizza afterwords.
Question: and did that help anyone ?
Me: Well I felt better afterwords ! and I gave $5 for the Haiti emergency appeal ?

Seriously, is this as f#&ked an answer as it sounds to me ? Are we really so petty that we've forgotten the obsoleteness of world and of the suffering around us ?


Anyways, I'm going to Christmas Island for a month, I don't expect I'll make any tangible difference but at least seeing this suffering of people may move me into doing something actually worth answering the God questions. like screaming at rallys or spamming politicians.

Quesion: shit happened, what did you do ?