33rd letter to my friend, Khodayar

Dear Khodayar, I am writing to you now while I am ill. At night my cough wakes me again and again. During the day I am tired and find it difficult to talk. But I can still write. I send you my best wishes and the news that the coroner has made findings about your death. Insufficient findings; disappointing findings. He made no mention of the system that was designed and constructed to make your life a hell - to make the lives of all your sisters and brothers in detention a misery. He didn't mention that other refugees have also burnt themselves in their extreme desperation. It seems that these deaths and this inflicted suffering may continue, as the wheels of bureaucracy turn and human beings are addressed as numbers. As babies are separated from their parents and children spend their whole lives behind bars. This cruelty has been made normal - that which is disgusting tastes bland to us now. Over all is cloaked these "false slogans of humanity" to deceive our feeble minds and make us feel that all is well, while hate and cruelty rule our withered hearts. Love Stephen