Aspen Card: What is in the oven?

Aspen Card: What is in the oven?

Join me if you like critical thinking and deeper analysis. I will walk you through the layers of the Aspen Card Crisis, most importantly the layers of our “authoritarian state pie”, that the media has failed to explore despite the fact that I have repeatedly exerted and risked myself talking to journalists. 

The Guardian wanted to contact me. I accepted. The Independent also wanted to reach out. I also answered the phone when one of the most prominent journalists phoned me. She said she was looking for someone who had not received an Aspen Card yet. Not necessarily very important. But this reveals that important newspapers couldn’t manage to shake their tabloidism off. As far as I am aware, all the media coverage has fallen thousands of miles short of the seriousness of the topic. The Aspen Card crisis is not limited to asylum seekers. This will be my entire point throughout this piece.

Apparently, journalists are after some third page news such as “asylum seekers go hungry” or “asylum seekers are starving”. This is disappointing. Because this reveals that the media as an important stakeholder of democracy is just scratching the surface. Journalists, no matter how big a reputation they have, are unable to devise probing inquiry questions to conduct their investigative journalism. 

It fell to my lot to help you see beyond the tabloidistic perspective. Therefore, grab your coffee. We will spend some time scratching our heads together. 

Do you remember the Prime Minister’s analogy of “oven-ready Brexit Deal”? The dish in the oven was never a Brexit-deal. Brexit was a cold dish. It had to be served cold. Yes, you are right. Just like revenge. It is a different story. I am not getting in there now.

The dish in the oven has been an “authoritarian state”. It is still being baked. Lower layers of the “authoritarian state pie” have been cooked. Asylum seekers are in those lower layers. Nationalism’s heat is cooking through the upper layers of our “authoritarian state pie”. Don’t worry. There will be enough pie for everyone. Enough for asylum seekers, the working class, the unemployed, our pensioners, farmers, fishermen… The “authoritarian state pie” is big enough for all of us. Well, it is not flowing with milk and honey but it has a very distinctive flavour of limited political pluralism, oppressive regime, underdevelopment, ill-defined executive powers, corruption,and a bitter lack of civil liberties.

How do I know? I proudly remind you that I am a political asylum seeker who has been there witnessing how my democratic state has transformed into a dictatorship. So trust me. I have reliable gourmet skills that can unfailingly distinguish all the flavours that make an “authoritarian state pie”. 

Aspen Card? What evidence is there to prove that the Aspen Card crisis reveals the existence of an “authoritarian state pie” in the oven? Okay, let’s have a look. Aspen Card is a service. It has its main stakeholders.

Who are the main stakeholders? The Home Office, Migrant Help, MEARS, and most importantly asylum seekers. Right? The whole system is out there to get “section 95 asylum support” to the “asylum seeker who is waiting on a H.O decision”. So asylum seekers, or service users in Migrant Help’s terms, are a major stakeholder. The way the authorities introduced the change to the asylum support payment system reveals their organizational culture. The change was introduced abruptly as a “total-imposed-package”without laying the groundwork first. A severe symptom of acute authoritarianism. 

Our opinions had not been asked before or after the change. Because in authoritarian states those who are living on the state’s goodwill are not allowed opinions.

Names on the cards were wrong. Addresses were wrong. The very same addresses they placed us in did not match the addresses they printed on the envelopes. This is a gross failure. 

Did anyone ask whose failure? No. 

Did anyone come forward to account to the public. No.

Did anyone apologize to the asylum seekers whom they starved? No. Who needs them? Remember we are living on their goodwills so we are not allowed opinions or reactions. 

So a big public error was made by public officials affecting a vulnerable proportion of the public. But no one claimed liability. No one was held to account. Just like in any authoritarian state. When a member of the public does something wrong, the state puts her into the mill. When the state makes a boo-boo, no one is allowed to poke a nose in state affairs. 

The same thing happened in the 2020 asylum hostels crisis, Park Inn stabbings, Nappier Barracks, covid contracts ...etc. No one has been held to account. Asylum seekers are in the lower level of the “authoritarian state pie”. That layer was cooked first. The state can fail, disappoint, starve, detain, deport or lose them. It’s too late. That layer of the pie cannot be uncooked. But don’t worry the pie is still baking. All layers will be cooked up all the way through for all of us soon. 

The greatest angle of the Aspen Card Crisis is not “asylum seekers are going hungry.” The greatest angle is layers of authoritarian state pie are slowly cooking through from bottom to top slowly. The state is announcing that it can do whatever it wants to whomever it decides without paying attention to potential errors and public accountability.

Are these my opinions? Yes, they are. 

How come I am allowed opinions when living on the goodwill of others? Political asylum seekers are usually addicted to democracy and they are full of opinions which got them into trouble in the first place back in their countries of birth. So I don’t need any authorities to allow me opinions. 

Journalists, who have an important role in democracies, must keep a keener eye on our layer of the “authoritarian state pie” before all layers get “service ready” for the entire population.

Khan.