The Continued Infringements of My Rights and Discrimination in Housing and Employment and More

 

E. Lemma, July 18, 2024

“Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant.”

“They made desolation; they called it peace.” - Cornelius Tacitus

When I was writing my previous account, while I was alarmed by some incident that took place around that time, however, I was of the view that the end of all the madness that was going on was at hand. That, however, is now proving to be a bit of a mirage, for the madness is still raging, carrying on with much the same things as before. In this regard, while it continues to be the case that they¹ have reduced their visibility significantly, however, they are still closely surveilling me and frustrating my efforts including those that are directed at seeking independent legal advice from various law firms and community legal aid centres.

Accordingly, they continue to make it impossible for me to approach law firms who might be willing to provide their services to me. In addition, they have also been using lawyers and others from these law firms and community legal aid centres to collect information from me under false pretences and to pass it to them. The most egregious of this was what took place in a legal aid centre in Asco vale last week, where the whole legal consultation process was secretly directed and controlled by them. In this regard, the information that was collected from that sham consultation, in addition to helping the group to conceal evidences and so on, may also be used for threatening and endangering my safety and security further, among other things.

Here, it was only possible for them to engage in these things, by closely monitoring me and contacting these entities as soon as they identify what my intentions are. There was also this very curious thing that they used to do which was following me to the shops I visit including supermarkets and others and taking notes of what I purchased, or getting the shopkeepers to take notes and give them later–a practice that, it seems, after pausing it for a little while, they have now resumed. I am not sure what their plans are for using these things, but it seems a bit ludicrous.

In any case, I would like for these things to be over once and for all, and for me to be allowed to go on with my life – of course, after receiving acknowledgments, an apology, and assurances for my safety and security going forward, as well as redress for what has been done to me. Accordingly, the efforts I have been expending in search of an independent legal consultation and so on, that they have been continually frustrating are all focussed on bringing about these things. Regrettably, however, their actions demonstrate that they want to continue doing much the same things as before, only now doing so much more discreetly than they have been.

In part, their persistence might be because they are still hoping to find justifications for the hundreds of thousands, or, quite conceivably, the millions of dollars, that they have spent pursuing me in vain. That, however, is impossible, unless I have had another life that I know nothing about. In the life I know, I am moderate, and disdain all forms of fanaticism and extremism, and thus, there cannot be anything in what I have said and wrote, and would also say and write in any future, that would even remotely justify any of the outrageous things that they have done. In any case, as I have written previously, I have been into self and other examination for quite a while, and engage in criticisms of myself and others regularly. But these things are very mild – and, as such, there would be nothing in those things that would excite and upset anyone, including them.

In general, I am not motivated and moved by hate, anger, egoism and ressentiment, but by the Socratic calls to improve ourselves, to take care of our souls, to value wisdom and truth and to also help others to be able to do the same. In engaging in these things, at the very least, we would make sure that we would not be among those whose propensities were captured by Schopenhauer, who wrote:

“But to the boundless egoism of our nature there is joined more or less in every human breast a fund of hatred, anger, envy, rancour and malice, accumulated like the venom in a serpent's tooth, and waiting only for an opportunity of venting itself, and then, like a demon unchained, of storming and raging. If a man has no great occasion for breaking out, he will end by taking advantage of the smallest, and by working it up into something great by the aid of his imagination; for, however small it may be, it is enough to rouse his anger—and then he will carry it as far as he can and may.”

Here, what Schopenhauer wrote: “If a man has no great occasion for breaking out, he will end by taking advantage of the smallest, and by working it up into something great by the aid of his imagination; for, however small it may be, it is enough to rouse his anger—and then he will carry it as far as he can and may,” - specifically captures succinctly what sort of mentality was at work in gratuitously targeting and doing all the appalling things that was done to me. Moreover, it seems, they haven’t finished yet, unless someone steps in soon and stops them once and for all.

In any case, while Schopenhauer who was regarded as a pessimist characterised humanity as having a factory product like uniformity, with little or no variations and so on and so forth, however, in his other writings recognised the potential of humans for reaching the highest state of selflessness and magnanimity, and to love and to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others and more.

These things, however, are possible only for those who are deeply in touch with themselves, and are satisfied by the work they continually do on improving themselves and helping others to improve. However, those who are unmotivated to work on improving themselves, and yet are deeply dissatisfied with themselves are a menace; for, as it has been said, “Whoever is dissatisfied with himself is continually ready for revenge, and we others will be his victims.” In any case, Socrates in his Apology, said:

“If I tell you that this is the greatest good for a human being, to engage every day in arguments about virtue and the other things you have heard me talk about, examining both myself and others, and if I tell you that the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being, you will be even less likely to believe what I am saying. But that's the way it is, gentlemen, as I claim, though it's not easy to convince you of it.”

It is very true that it is not easy to convince others. This was also the case with the group, as such, at an earlier time, I have actually tried very hard to dissuade them from continuing on the distractive path that they have embarked on, but to no avail. They have also had many exit ramps later that they could have taken, but they kept missing them and escalating things. In this regard, for instance, if they haven’t torpedoed the employment with James Hardies, I would have gone to Sydney, and the issue with their illegal action facilitating the rent increase for my apartment would have died out as well. However, their deep ressentiment is such that they would rather drag everything into the mud than to see me secure an employment and possibly get ahead.

Specifically, I reached deep within and tried to make them aware that they were following the wrong path – using, among other things, philosophical wisdom and insights that I have collected over time, but they were dead set on carrying on the same distractive path no matter what. In any case, previously, I wrote about the TPLF who subjected me to somewhat similar things as the group in this country has been subjecting me to - though they were much more restrained, among other things – some time back. In this, the TPLF reacted to something very trifling that I have said during a presentation at one of the universities in the country, and did all sorts of unhinged things. Here, the question is why did the TPLF reacted so strongly to something rather trifling it is not even worth mentioning here what it was, though I have spelled it out in what I wrote previously?

The answer: it was because of my ethnicity, which was different from theirs. Otherwise, let alone preventing me from taking up a relatively low position of lecturing, they would have given me a much higher position with two or three times or even more than the salary I was going to receive for the lecturing position. Here, in devising their deranged reactions, one could imagine them discussing things with each other, working up themselves into a rage, and radicalizing each other, and justifying the draconian measures that they have sanctioned and so forth. Moreover, in this, anyone whom they tell the story of my transgressions would have no choice but to affirm their positions, or make it out to be even greater in order to ingratiate themselves with them.

Here, a very similar process that was fueled by the racism of the group must have taken place in coming up with the still more unhinged, vengeful and vindictive abuses that the group in this country exacted on me –set off by some trifling transgression or another that they imagined I have committed, though the devil only knows what exactly that was, as the TPLF did. But does that mean they are all racists? No, not at all – in fact, I know for sure some of them are not, for there were some exceptional human beings in the group’s ranks who were repulsed by its activities and tried to do something about it, as I wrote previously. That aside, the group as a whole was responsible for the abuses and their planning - and its actions were fueled by racism and ressentiment.

Moreover, any reasonable person examining what transpired, including the groups acting as judge, jury and executioner and heaping on me various abuses, damaging my health, even threatening my life, would not fail to conclude that the group’s actions were fueled and animated by racism – this is irrefutable. In any case, it might be viewed as incongruous to compare the TPLF, a group who was leading an autocratic regime, who had an absolute power, and the group in this country. However, what couldn’t this group do, that the TPLF was able to do? They could increase one’s rent, block one’s employment, get the institutions to differ to them, they could order anyone to do this and that and be silent about it, one wouldn’t even be able to get an independent legal consultation if they stood on the way, and more, much more. How is that, then, not an absolute power?

“To do harm is to do yourself harm. To do an injustice is to do yourself an injustice—it degrades you.” – Marcus Aurelius

That aside, the TPLF was much more restrained even with its absolute power, however, the group in this country, was not so much so, as I have written in detail previously. Here, one thing we must not forget is that though I was born in that country, however, I do not have Ethiopian citizenship, not for decades, and, as such, I don’t have citizenship rights in that country. However, I am an Australian citizen and have the rights of any citizens of this country including human rights which were abused by the group.

In general, while Ethiopia had a long proud history, however, its recent history has been such that not many countries would be very pleased to be compared to it - let alone Australia, a highly developed, democratic country, which, in normal circumstances, should not even be mentioned in the same breath with it. This, however, was brought on by the actions of a group the lawlessness with which it acted made a comparison to that country appropriate. Australia cannot allow what it has built over many, many generations to be undermined in such a way, including its world class institutions, its important position in the world, and more, much more.

It is paramount, therefore, to deal with what took place here, and to do so swiftly and justly, and to learn from it and restore the country’s best traditions of protecting citizenship and human rights overall. In general, in becoming the best we could be or want to be, we cannot do so by lying to ourselves, we must be strong enough to tell ourselves the truth. It takes real greatness to have the confidence to acknowledge errors and failings, and to deal with them honestly and justly. Here, Australia not only has a great position already in the world that it must protect, it has also the potential to become greater still, if it has the ambition to do so, which it should.

And for that, however, it would be important to continually transform and develop the country’s institutions that would be instrumental in achieving those things – and to do so by addressing failures promptly and vigorously. In this regard, it is not clear why the group needed to have so much unchecked power, why it needed to have the power to access the conversation between a lawyer and a client, and to surreptitiously turn this conversation into an information mining session for its use. Here, the lawyer, who might have been forced to cooperate was all along pretending that he was trying to help me, while actually endangering me and others by making me reveal details that were providing me with a modicum of protections, asking me questions that were undoubtedly provided to him by them, for these things unmistakably reflected their needs and obsessions.

The justification for the group having so much power might be because of security needs. However, I have nothing to do with any security related issue/s, have never broken any of the laws of this country, and have no intention of doing so in any future. How was it that, then, they were able to use security related laws, or even get involved? At any rate, it has been said that those who exchange their freedom for security, are likely to lose them both. It is very much akin to giving one’s freedom to Dostoevsky’s, Grand Inquisitor types, only doing so to those even with significantly less wisdom than the Grand Inquisitor - exchanging bread or security for freedom, willingly availing themselves to an ever-tightening grip from which they may never be able to be free.

In this, while strong security is important, however, it must come with strong human right protections and without serious erosions of freedoms. Strong security, protections of freedoms and strong human rights protections are not mutually exclusive, only lack of imaginations and vested interests make them so. As such, all having more and more powers does is encourage those who have it to use it reflexively, with very little or no thought, even in cases where they shouldn’t, as they have done in this case. They have been doing one outrageous thing and to cover that up, they go on and do another even more outrageous thing, and so forth.

Here, using and extending these powers beyond their original intent, they have impoverished me to such an extent, I am now unable to pay my rent. And for that, they might try to evict me, but I would try to fight it in the courts, for the rents were raised illegally. In this, my repeated statements about the group being responsible for the rent increase of my apartment, as well as the blocking of my employment opportunities, especially, that of James Hardies, are not suspicions, speculations, or conjectures - they are absolute facts. Despite all that and more, however, I am at a loss where to go to stop them from hindering me from accessing legal advice and from seeking justice and redress other than writing about their activities and sending them to some public figures and the media, who have all remained silent so far - whatever they might or might not have done in the background.

In any case, I wrote to the IGIS who oversees the intelligence services that the group highly likely belongs to, but I received a very difficult to decipher email reply the gist of which was that they have: “determined we cannot look into the concerns you have raised.” And I wrote back to them asking for clarifications, enquiring also if they could not look into the concerns I have raised, who might be able to do so, but there was no reply.

The next body I might be able to approach is the Australian Human Rights Commission, however, I am not sure if their model would work in this case, as such, it is a voluntary model, where the two parties come together and engage in mediation or some such, but they are not obliged to accept each other’s positions and so on. In this, even if the Commission didn’t decline to take my case up outright, as the IGIS did, and the process goes forward, I might need a lawyer to represent me in the proceedings, but I cannot afford one.

While I don’t know if there is such a provision, however, it is possible that they might appoint a lawyer to represent me or I myself might be able to get someone from one of the community outfits to be present at the proceedings. However, I would be very reluctant to accept such an ‘assistance,’ after my last week’s experience with the lawyers at the legal aid centre in Ascot vale, where they were pretending to work for me, while working for the other side, and putting me in jeopardy and more. Specifically, with the wrong kind of help, this could turn into a process whereby those who I am complaining against negotiating with themselves and then informing me of the outcome, while I remain merely an observer, which would be absurd.

It is all so very lopsided, there is nothing even remotely resembling a level playing field; as such, though they are in the wrong, very wrong, but they have all the cards, and I have almost none. It could have been even worse except for some people who might have done things behind the scenes to restrain them somewhat; and for that, I am grateful. In any case, I have to wrap up soon, but before I do that though I would like to express my gratitude for all the friends who have helped me, including those in recent months who might have done some things in the background that might have kept me from being ‘capsized’ by circumstances, by borrowing from the beautiful letter that Nietzsche wrote to his friend Overbeck, which went:

“My dear friend: what is this our life? A boat that swims in the sea, and all one knows for certain about it is that one day it will capsize. Here we are, two good old boats that have been faithful neighbours, and above all your hand has done its best to keep me from 'capsizing'! Let us then continue our voyage-each for the other's sake, for a long time yet, a long time! . . . Tolerably calm seas and good winds and above all sun - what I wish for myself, I wish for you, too, and am sorry that my gratitude can find expression only in such a wish and has no influence at all on wind or weather.”

Well, “Tolerably calm seas and good winds and above all sun,” would be what I wish for myself, especially, after the great turbulence that I have been going through. “Tolerably calm seas and good winds and above all sun,” is also what I wish for all the friends who have helped me, including those in recent months who might have done some things that kept me from ‘capsizing,’ and for them to be able to continue their voyage for the sake of all those they love and their continued good work, “for a long time yet, a long time!” And I, too, “am sorry that my gratitude can find expression only in such a wish and has no influence at all on wind or weather.”

Here, though most of it underserved, Nietzsche evokes negative reactions from those who are unfamiliar with his philosophy. Still, it is true that there are elements of misogyny in some of his writings, something he might have inherited from his predecessor, Schopenhauer. Walter Kaufman wrote Nietzsche’s misogyny was second hand and third rate, indeed! Despite that, some of the best Nietzsche scholars were women. In any case, Nietzsche, who was one of the greatest minds of all time, was not a racist, much less proto-Nazi, as some believe.

In any case, no one is all good, or all bad - to put people, or anything else, for that matter, in a pedestal is immature narcissism. In this regard, even within the ranks of the group, who has done so much inhuman and outrageous things, all fuelled and animated by racism and ressentiment, there were exceptional human beings who tried to do the right thing, as I have written earlier. In this, the talk of racism and discrimination might make some people uncomfortable, but it shouldn’t - as such, this is not a general accusation.

As such, I believe the vast majority of Australians are not racists, including those of you who are reading this account now. I am writing specific to the motivations of a group whose extensive activities abundantly demonstrated these things. Even in reference to the group exclusively, they are not all racists, or otherwise morally insane.

“That to expect bad people not to injure others is crazy. It’s to ask the impossible. And to let them behave like that to other people but expect them to exempt you is arrogant—the act of a tyrant.” – Marcus Aurelius

That aside, those of you who are unblemished by these things, should have confidence in yourselves, and in your good nature, and must speak out against the activities of the group that were demonstrably racist and discriminatory - otherwise, you would be sharing in the offenses of the group by your silences.

Thank you, Take care, and Keep up with the good work.

Engida Lemma

Email: enturea012@protonmail.com

1 This is referring to the group about whom I have been writing about, and who most likely belongs to the security intelligence services.