Post No. 1,535 - In this week’s news

Stay safe - wash your hands, practice social distancing, and follow informed medical advice - and be considerate towards those at risk or in situations of vulnerability (including economic) while the COVID-19 pandemic is a problem.

This is a new, very cut down series of posts based on some observations on matters that struck a personal note: unlike the former “Gnwmythr’s News”, it is not trying to convey key events.

Content Warning: the linked articles and their descriptions here may be about violence, abuse, hate, and other problems.

My articles this week include:  reading.

On personal / spiritual matters:   some common sense comments on meditation.

In this week’s news:   a virtual name reading for Holocaust Remembrance Day 2020;   the concerning impact of dystopian stories.

In the environmental arena:   “Tolkien was right: giant trees have [a] towering role in protecting forests”;   the staggering reductions of air pollution from the COVID-19 lockdown;   a Dutch court case against Shell will proceed;   calls for a delay to Australia’s decadal environmental review;   more legal action over PFAS;   “dramatic” melting of the Greenland ice sheet;   literally bloody pollution (from an abattoir) in West Asia;   POTUS45 is happy to keep killing people with air pollution;   calls for a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic;   a dam in Guinea is displacing people;   panic in Kashmir.

On human and animal rights:
   the challenge of finding one’s heritage for members of the Stolen Generations;   “there's a new Aboriginal superhero in the DC Universe and she's a deadly Ngarluma hunter from the Pilbara”;
   the emotional trauma facing displaced Indigenous Mexicans;
   “queer and religious freedoms can co-exist”;   a TV show on bisexuality;   shock that IBAC has cleared an extremely violent arrest by police of excessive force . . . (this will make the use of police by LGBTIQ+ people far less likely);
   the threats women in Afghanistan are facing if the misogynist POTUS45 and the misogynist Taliban make a deal;
   digital data for land rights;   privacy concerns over attempts for “digital immortality”;
   the need for more information on male and LGBTIQ+ victims of sexual violence in conflict;
   press and press freedom is struggling;   although the warrant used by police to raid a journalist has been thrown out, police can keep what they seized (!) and concerns about press freedom remain high.
Immigration and refugee matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Bangladesh (deaths at sea);   Lebanon;   Tunisia;
trafficking/slavery/child abuse matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Pakistan;   Viêt Nám;   Bolivia;
LGBTIQ+ matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Kenya;   Ukraine;   Uganda;   USA;   Poland;   Turkey;   USA;   Africa; and
sexism matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Poland;.

In the governance, politics, and society arena:   the need to boost manufacturing in Australia;   questions over past claims by the neoliberals;   claims by a disaffected conservative former PM that “Australia is exposed to a ‘debased’ media culture that allows News Corp co-chairman . .  to wield influence over national leaders” (which we knew while this former PM was PM - why didn’t he - or why didn’t he act then?);   a call for Australia to diversify its international trade.

On disasters this week:   the bushfire Royal Commission states it will focus on practical solutions;   exacerbated risks in Asia.

Risks of atrocities this week in:   Yemen, Syria, and Burkina Faso.

On humanitarian aid:   ten ongoing, major crises.

Internationally:   Israel is still trying to form a government;   the impacts of clans on peace prospects in the Philippines;   France is not handing over information it should as part of the contract with Australia;   the US Democrats are finally showing signs of coalescing;   arrests and criticism after Israelis and Palestinians chat online;   dealing with political clans in the quest for peace in the southern Philippines;   a stupid social taboo is stopping a drought resistant crop being grown;   fruit fly is a problem in Kenya;   Iran is engaging in dangerous and stupid provocations.

In Africa:   Interpol and Ethiopia and Sudan are taking new actions against crime;   extremists in northern Mozambique want a caliphate;   lingering unrest and suspicion in Ethiopia.

On the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus (there are other novel coronaviruses) (seven major risks to watch here, and seven sins of thought to avoid here):
the day by day delays and stupidity of POTUS45 on the COVID-19 pandemic that makes his statements and actions about the WHO both stupid (a “crime against humanity”) and utterly hypocritical;   consideration of virtual Parliaments;   the resilience benefits of inclusive food systems;

   good stories of people coming together:   an activist MP in Malaysia has built a solar power buggy while in isolation;   an interview about The Kindness Project;   this;   a heart-warming interaction between a bus driver and a boy with autism;   social enterprises helping the aged in the UK;   3D printing in Kenya;

   medical aspects:   a call to revisit the “health for all” agenda of the 70s that right wingers in the West sank;   a warning that finding a vaccine is not assured, and a discussion of what they may mean;   the effects of impacts on blood donations;   historically, pandemics are worse than war - and the world was paying the economic price of the “Spanish” flu until the 1980s;   repeated “circuit breakers” (lockdowns) may be needed until a vaccine is developed and implemented - possibly until 2022;   many victims are asymptomatic;   monitoring wastewater to monitor the spread;   everyday diseases could become more fatal than the pandemic;

   resources:   cybersecurity while working at home;   a translation portal (in Singapore);   household cleaning;

   human rights aspects:   in Australia, the “Australia's Human Rights Commissioner has called for the ‘urgent’ and ‘immediate’ release of immigration detainees in line with recommendations of peak medical bodies”;   pandemic-associated racism in Australia;   calls for more data “amid concerns that culturally diverse and low socio-economic groups are bearing the brunt of . . . police actions” to enforce social distancing;   China;   this;   the effects of youth unemployment is likely to last at least a decade;   “stop blaming black people for dying of the coronavirus”;   children at increased risk of online harm;   a criticism of hardline laws;   ethical concerns around restricting visitors to aged care;   an examination of the impact on seeking asylum;   gross disrespect at a funeral;   the Maldives;   attacks on pensions;   Slovak panic;   a legal review;   right wing nutters in the USA and Israel;   which democracies are more likely to recover;   India;

   Australia:   higher education packages will focus on domestic students;   the State of Emergency in my home state will be extended;   demand for food aid has surged up by a factor of up to six;   as another reminder is made of war time rent control, another state provides rent assistance;   corner stores are resurging in popularity, but are struggling to overcome the dominance of supermarket chains;   how the time gained by flattening the curve has been used;   a problem in aged care;   some evictions are being accelerated;   a move to monitor  people - voluntarily, at first, which has MAJOR privacy concerns;   calls for an arts rescue package;   an idiot deliberately and repeatedly breaking quarantine has been jailed;   as physical distancing starts to work, a move towards surveillance testing;   financial hypocrisy of some companies;   the digital divide in education is being exposed;   a call for Australia to aid Indonesia;   the neoliberals are showing they want to go back to their ideology;   autumn burn-offs could make the pandemic worse;

   internationally:   a multinational corporation has been forced to shut warehouses after it refused to protect workers;   stupidity in South and Central America;   good approaches in the Indian state Kerala;   Israel has stopped all inwards international flights;   Turkey has intercepted aid for Israel until Turkey can send aid to Palestinians;   USA;   Singapore will now require masks on public transports . . . and outdoors generally;   as burma faces an imminent crisis, the threats to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, where sacked garment workers are also seeking support;   Israel will now force people to wear masks in public;   the PNG-Australia border;   as a “recount” shows more deaths (and more questions are raised), concerns about a possible second wave in China as some South Koreans appear to experience reactivation of the virus;   an opinion that China won’t become the world’s leader from the USA’s stuff ups;   South Korea will send medical aid to the USA;      education of lockdown - which will be extended - violators in India, which is also considering possible easing to boost manufacturing to aid the poor (there is increased risk of slavery - and Islamophobia), and similar consideration of easing the lockdowns in Spain and Germany - which the WHO is warning against;   greed/irresponsibility in the USA;   the dire choices people in the active Libyan war zones are facing;   aged care deaths in the UK aren’t being counted;   Sweden is doing badly;   Jakarta’s urban poor are struggling and social unrest is feared as Indonesia’s partial lockdown extends to cover 34 million people;   self isolation in Japan;   South Korea continues to do well;   politicians and senior public servants in New Zealand take a pay cut;   an examination of why criminals and extremists have beaten governments in responding;   Uni’s are stepping in to help international students;   a major drug crim from Brazil has been arrested;   multiple incidents of stupidity in North Korea;   the story of those at a grocery store;   prisoners in Russia;   Nepal;   Colombia/Venezuela;   an interview includes a concerning assessment that the response to the pandemic could move India and Pakistan closer to a nuclear war;   Canada will help indigenous people prepare;

   Africa:   overview;   the threats to food (including staggering stupidity);   protests in Malawi;   press freedom is at risk;   street children are at risk;   a review of the early responses;   the AU is looking for aid;   Ethiopia (which has provided life insurance for health workers - see here on the politics in that nation around the crisis) and Nigeria (which is extending the lockdown - and is experiencing problems with criminal gangs) have adopted door-to-door screening;   a hospital treating victims of COVID-19 has been attacked by Haftar’s thugs;   a three week lockdown in Sudan;   xenophobia in South Sudan;   unsafe water in Zimbabwe is exacerbating the risks;   job losses in east Africa’s flower industry;   lockdown in South Africa;   Sudan is acting to protect health workers and impose a lockdown in Khartoum;   masks are now compulsory in Cameroon;   multiple threats in Burkina Faso;   Somalia;   lockdown in Malawi;   the need for innovations in African cities;   deaths from police enforcement of the crackdown in Kenya exceed the pandemic - and deaths from police enforcement also in Nigeria;

   globally:   “We are slowly waking up to the reality that we will thrive only when authentic concern for people drives every aspect of society”;   a prediction the economic impact of the pandemic will rival the Great Depression;   an opinion that curfews are safer than lockdowns in the developing world;   calls for better treatment of essential workers;   “global creditors agree on debt relief for poor countries hit by pandemic”;   allegations that cruise line operators knew they had a problem;

   blame games:   China - also here;   against the background of a prescient warning from mid-2019 and warnings given to Israel and NATO by the USA in November, 2019, POTUS45, who is outside the bounds of normal planning, is trying  deflection and deceit.