Australian Big Brother Evictee's Political Protest

[Sleepyjack]

I saw the end of an eviction show, of Australian Big Brother, and the evicted contestant came out on stage, with his mouth taped and a sign showing "Free The Refugees". Normally, the evicted contestant would just come out on stage and talk with the hostess over the nonsensicalities of living in the house.
Although i didn't actually see the act, just the last 10 minutes of the show (I ashamedly seldom watch the show ).

I just thought it was a pretty odd and random forum to uphold some kind of politcal protest. Needless to say, it'll cause headlines (in Australia), which can be good or bad. The fact he didn't want to talk about anything showed weakness in character, although i understand he was a bit of a fence sitter and non-confrontational; although that's just hearsay for now (as i said, unfortunatley i don't see the show often )

This sorta brought up Micheal Moore's oscar protest (in my own mind), in terms of random politcal statements, albeit his movie that won was related to the war at the time, so there was a pinch of relevance.

Story Link, so far

Merlin has been evicted from the BB house - and he's gone out with a bang!
As Merlin walked down the plank, he was fumbling with something in his hands. Soon it became clear that he was about to make a political statement on one of the country's biggest platforms.

Merlin taped his mouth closed with some black tape, and held up a sign which said "FREE TH REFUGEES". (Apparently the 'E' in 'THE' had fallen off). He sat down next to Gretel and held the sign up, and refused to speak.

He received a mixed reaction from the audience when Gretel confirmed that Merlin was not actually going to say anything.

Eventually Gretel crossed to the house and explained to the HMs that Merlin had come out of the house with a sign that said 'Free the refugees'. One of the HMs commented, "What a legend."

"What are you doing Merls?" Bree said, when she realised he wasn't on stage and wasn't talking.

"I think it's totally pre-meditated," Paul said.

"This is just Merlin keeping it real mate," Kane said.

But the HMs revealed that they knew nothing about Merlin's plans.

The HMs then started to talk about the issue amongst themselves. They realised this was why the audience had been booing.

Ryan seemed to support Merlin's stance in theory, but he didn't like the way Merlin went about making the statement. "I reckon it's piss weak," Ryan said.

Paul still thought the move was pre-meditated, but he told the others, "He was asking me tonight, and he fooled me, he was asking me, 'What sort of questions will they ask me?'"

"He's done what he wanted to do and he's made headlines," Paul continued.

edit: Ok, i just thought that he'll now be able to sell his story to a current affair, or Today Tonight?

[hulk]

In a house filled with cameras, how the hell did he make the sign without being seen? =)

[bundy]

i think he may have brought it in with him.

good on him.
it certainly made for a blast in the shows format... which was a nice change from the vacuous drivel that is normally excreted on channel 10 on Sunday evening.

funny to watch Gretel squirming around and very nearly panicking.

[Ella]

Ahhh yes...bit of a shocker. I'm a BB addict and have been every year since it's been here in Oz (yes, I am a tragic individual).

I'm sitting on the fence on this one. I totally support his protest for the freedom of asylum seekers, yet I don't feel that was the time or the place to air his views.

Here's Merlin breaking his silence on the official BB4 site...

Why is this an important issue for you?

I believe very passionately that mandatory detention of asylum seekers coming to this country is just inhumane. It goes against the basic principle of 'innocent until proven guilty'. You look at the fact that there's kids who have never seen anything except for the detention centre they live in - it's just sad and unjustifiable.

I'm not going to sit here and say that I know the answers and that I have the solutions but I know that the current system is not one that we can sustain with a clear conscience, and something has to be done about it. And that's my point - let's start a debate, let's get talking and let's start working out some real solutions.

Why use Big Brother as a stage to protest?

I want to be really clear about the fact that I embraced this experience for everything. I didn't come on Big Brother to do a protest. I'm so, so grateful and so thankful to have been given this experience and it's something that I'll remember for the rest of my life. All of the good stuff, the bad stuff, the friends I had, the laughs I had, the cries I had, it was such an overwhelming experience for me but this is reality television. If people want reality they've got to take Ryan the larrikin, and Trevor the scary guy having a laugh, Elle the emotional person questioning things in her life. They've got to take that, as well as me - the person who is passionate about these issues. I am just an average guy. I love having a laugh with my mates, watching the footy, and getting into my music, and talking about girls. I'm just an average dude but I find time in my life to care about these issues and to educate myself and discuss these things with my friends and to try and use the little power that I have to make change wisely and to use it effectively. I hope that there's people that can relate to that and who can get even a little grain of inspiration from it.

When did you decide you'd do this?

I knew very early on that if I got on Big Brother I was going to do something to really prove the passion that I have for issues such as mandatory detention of asylum seekers. I always knew I was going to make a point and use this opportunity. I think I owe that to myself and I owe that to the people who respect me and who care about me. And more importantly I owe that to the people who are suffering under these horrendous policies, to use the fact that I'm on national television in front of 1.4 million people, to use that in a way that maybe creates a little bit of change.

But honestly it was only the night before I came into lock down that I made the sign and that's maybe why my poor sewing skills are a little exposed, when the 'E' of my 'THE' fell off. But I'm going to take is as the will of the Gods the words 'Free' and 'Refugees' held strong.

How did you get the sign into the house?

It was the biggest rush getting that sign into the house. I had my t-shirt that had patches sewn on, and in between the t-shirt and the patch I had the sign. And then I just tucked it into my jeans so the bulge was under the belt, and put my shirt over it. Then when they padded me down my heart was just pounding and I was like, 'please don't feel the sign'. And then as soon as I got into the house my adrenaline was just pumping. I just put it in the bottom of my drawer and I never touched the t-shirt until eviction night. I'm so lucky.

I will just say that the fact that I knew that this was going to happen for me did affect my time in the house because it was something that made me a lot more anxious and a lot more worried and a lot more analytical about how I was being perceived and how this would be perceived. And I never for a moment thought I wasn't going to do it. But when people look back now at my time in the house maybe they'll have a little more understanding about why I got caught up in my own head the way I did.

Did it worry you when the audience booed?

When the crowd started booing it didn't phase me one bit because I know that there are people out there who are as passionate as me and more importantly I know that there's five year old kids who've never seen the outside world now because of the policies of our government. And that's inspiration enough for me to sit there with masking tape on my mouth and a sign in my hand regardless of how many people were booing.

Any regrets?

My biggest regret in doing what I did last night is I know that thousands of people came last night and spent their hard earned money and made the effort to come down and be part of a fun entertaining eviction show and hear one of the housemates have a chat about what it's like in the house. And more importantly there were a lot of young kids down there who were scared and confused and didn't know what was happening. And I'm so sorry that I caused that and I'm sorry that I imposed that on those kids. And I do feel bad for the parents who brought their kids down and felt cheated and felt like they'd been pushed into a corner and felt violated.

I don't think you can compare the pain those kids felt last night to the pain of kids who are in detention centres and have been their whole lives, so it is about perspective. And to me, what I did is justifiable.


I was actually planning on going to last night's eviction show - I'm glad I didn't waste my bucks! Has he forfeited his prizes, I wonder?

[Sleepyjack]

Ella said
Has he forfeited his prizes, I wonder?

Maybe he should give his car (he apparently won?), and everything else he won - was given for nothing - to a refugee family, if they get freed? It'd be a nice start

And yes, from what i saw of the show, it was funny to see Gretel get a bit angsty at the end, she earned her pay

Channel 10 will be loving the ratings this week. I'll probably be not watching though

[Latch]

I heard about it and loved it. I don't feel strongly about the refugees or anything, but it's great to screw big brother. For some reason big brother seems to have a real smug attitude that they control everything (and they try to). That's to be expected I guess, but to me they're that character that you love to hate sometimes. He slipped this though their nets and made Gretel squirm, and that's really cool.

I would have loved to watch them try and fill the dead air space. I heard they went back to the house live and bree's nipple was showing or something. Doubt that's true though.

[Madd]

Originally posted by Latch
I heard about it and loved it. I don't feel strongly about the refugees or anything, but it's great to screw big brother. For some reason big brother seems to have a real smug attitude that they control everything (and they try to). That's to be expected I guess, but to me they're that character that you love to hate sometimes. He slipped this though their nets and made Gretel squirm, and that's really cool.

same here, made me laugh so hard.

[Kostya]

I hated him in the house, but I loved that exit!

Moreover, while he's been given a lot of criticism over his refusal to talk, I think it was a symbolic and strategic move. I think he was trying not to make it about his individual opinion and more about the issue itself.

[moonstrucksoul]

obviously i don't read enough aussie news, is there some influx of refugees in the land down under?

[Kostya]

Yeah, but the government's solution was to put them all in detention camps...

In the desert...

With like razor wire and shit...

Including the children...

Kind of fucked in my opinion, and Merlin's too!

[moonstrucksoul]

refugees from where?

[bundy]

Originally posted by moonstrucksoul
refugees from where?

i'd say the VAST majority are people of Middle Eastern decent.

at least 90% would be from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Jordan and Syria.

not only do we send these people to the desert; those unlucky enough to be caught offshore get sent to the tiny Pacific Island nation or Nauru (which is NOT a pacific paradise). i believe some of the people on Nauru have been there for two years or more while their refugee status is 'processed'.

the leader of Nauru lives in Sydney, and is in the Australian governments pocket... to the extent that he denied entry visa's to Nauru recently for the lawyers who are representing the people detained on the Island... only hours after allowing government officials entry.

this is Australia's dirty little secret.

Originally posted by Kostya
Kind of fucked in my opinion, and Merlin's too!

totally fucked up in my opinion as well.

[Ella]

Oh, and don't forget how some of them sew their lips together in protest at their mandatory detention. And how their kids have never seen the outside of the barbed wire.

And don't get me started on the "children overboard" issue.

Seems to be a little known fact outside of Oz...

[Kostya]

Let's not forget that poor Palestinian guy, who was outright tricked into detention by Australian government employees and is now detained in a camp, which the Australian government pays millions to run, staffed by people paid by the Australian government, and basically for all intents and purposes is a fucking Australian facility. Except it's on Manus Island, where the Australian immigration officials took him to apply for asylum, then denied him on the basis that he was not on Australian territory, because Manus Island is Papua New Guinean territory. All this despite the fact that he's legitimately a refugee and actually made it to Australian terrirtory only to be taken back out of the country so we could put him in a big ass detention camp and pay millions of dollars to keep him there...

Oh did I mention he's there... alone, this guy is the sole inmate of the facility. Amanda fuckface Vanstone would rather pay millions of dollars to keep him locked up than grant him asylum...

Fair go?

[cchris]

On the other side of the coin let's not forget that we can't just let anyone into the country either.
Back in the seventies there was an influx of people that had dodgy identification which allowed them to migrate.
The respective governments at the time had no process in place to properly screen these individuals and the end result is we have plenty of people living here that shouldn't be.

The issue of refugees locked up in detention centres is tragic,especially for the children but IMO the solution is not to just let everyone out and hope for the best.

I don't think it is our dirty little secret either,more a case of "It's too fucking hard" for piss weak governments to make real decisions.

[Kostya]

Right on man!

Those Aboriginals should have screened the First Fleet for criminals, instead of simply letting the convicts stroll in!

Bloody soft I tells ya!

Now there's a bunch of white people living here who shouldn't be!

Nah, I'm just taking the piss, but still...