Black Lives Matter!
Stay safe - wash your hands, practice social distancing and wear a face mask in public, 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.
To counter despots, abuses of human rights and incompetent governance, and enable responsible, inclusive and participatory democracy, which is the ONLY sustainable basis for liberty and freedom, all people must embrace, instead of fearing, uncertainty, and commit to clear and objective/dispassionate thought, goodwill, and competence at being human, including having emotions.
This is a new, very cut down series of news aggregation 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. Also, being an Australian, I am now going to start referring to specific Australian states using accepted abbreviations. Editorial comments / personal opinion by me in grey.
Content Warning: the linked articles and their descriptions here may be about violence, abuse, hate, and other problems.
My Articles this week include: ideas vs. despots; some thoughts on governance.
On Personal / Spiritual Matters: “confusing cultural norms with eternal truths”.
Reading/Viewing I found interesting this week included: a call for more tact; an opinion that “uncertainty is not to be overcome but understood”.
Overall Commentary on this week’s news:
this week
has seen impatience / taking things into one’s own hands for good and bad -
mostly bad, including violent vigilantism and vicious vilification, but also
the fight against hate, xenophobia, greed, selfishness, and intolerance, and
against unethical behaviour and abuses of power (including seeking convenient
responses ahead of what is right, and denial of the pandemic and climate
crises). Conspiracy fantasies, macho competitions and - like the king ordering
the tide not to come in - trying to enforce revanchism have also been apparent,
but so too has learning from and regret for mistakes, holding those with power
to account, refusing to bow to the corruptor, the abuser, or the ignorant or
flawed. We face ongoing problems, including wars, violence and the problems of
poverty and inequality which robs our species of so much, but there is a growing
underswell of change for the better.
This article deserves to stand on its own: thoughts about life of a young man dying of cancer during the pandemic.
In This
Week’s News:
concerns
that a multiple car crash was a violent response to vigilantism; declining
rites of passage (see also here); concerns
by long standing residents of a town after a mining company that has been there
for only a few decades tries to get them to leave over dust issues; a boat was found
after it slowed in response to propeller damage and was reported overdue (and
irresponsibly had no way of communicating with anyone); the integrity of Melbourne's AFL media and
some fans has been left
in tatters after public vilification in response to a possible COVID-19
infection led to a foreign-born player returning home; Russian hackers are at
it again; the EU has demanded that
the UK “drop a planned law that breaches
[the] Brexit deal” (and maybe international law); concerns
by long standing residents of a town after a mining company that has been there
for only a few decades tries to get them to leave over dust issues; a boat was found
after it slowed in response to propeller damage and was reported overdue (and
irresponsibly had no way of communicating with anyone); the integrity of Melbourne's AFL media and
some fans has been left
in tatters after public vilification in response to a possible COVID-19
infection led to a foreign-born player returning home; a call to reduce the trauma of medical diagnoses.
In the Environmental Arena, where we have been fighting World War III for some time now:
a Guardian Australia exclusive reports
that a “prominent scientist [has slammed a] forestry association for
dismissing logging
links to bushfire risk” - see also this,
on the suppression of science; there
has been a 71% decline in koala numbers in bushfire affected areas in NSW; a stolen oil tanker is still rusting
off Yemen; the oil industry is lobbying
to be able to dump plastics in Kenya; an
LNP
conspiracy fantasist has shot the party in its environmental toe (it’s
not as much as a foot, yet);
Africa’s Great Green Wall is disturbingly behind
schedule; an oil spill in
Ecuador; a
group of young Australians is taking legal
action to stop a coal mine; a political
disagreement
over changes last
year to how
koalas are protected in NSW ended with the coalition holding; a ban on single
use plastic; Zimbabwe will protect elephants by banning coal mining in national parks.
other
environmental matters have
occurred in:
Australia; China
(good news); Tibet; rewilding; lack of urgency in
communication leading to this; forests; east Africa; Kenya (good news).
This week on
the Protests in the Despotic USA and
associated protests/issues elsewhere:
“the violent
defence of white male supremacy”;
in Australia:
“aggressive” arrests
by police - without warning - at a BLM protest in Qld.;
Internationally:
Senegal/France;
Police:
senior
police where a man died of asphyxiation after being arrested have resigned; “bloodshed eases in Brazilian favelas after court ban on police
raids”.
On Human and Animal Rights:
“Australia has never
been good at acknowledging its troops have been guilty of acts of inhumanity”
(I can vouch for some of this: I had an uncle who was one of the choco’s
in PNG during WW2, and he said they sometimes killed prisoners [there are also
incidents that, although deplorable, are not war crimes - as a vet I knew from
the British Eight Army in north Africa said, war is terrible); the challenges facing the USA on human rights extends beyond lyin’ 45 to also include
previous administrations’ “double
standards”; burma has erased
the name of Rohingya villages; social
media platforms;
the Philippines mass murdering
president Marcos-lite has pardoned
a man who murdered a trans woman; support for LGBT people inside Poland; a call for a national ban on so-called conversion “therapy” in
Australia; lyin’ 45 ending anti-racism training has also encouraged
homophobes / transphobes to come
out of hiding; a radio
newsreader has been ordered to pay a transgender activist $10,000 compensation for
discrimination over social media comments;
a school and the education system missed
opportunities to support a bullied student who died (what about
counselling to fix the bullies?); warnings
after a suicide is posted to a social media platform used by children; priests in Qld must now report child
abuse; a man who murdered two of his terrified
children had a 30
year history of domestic violence;
corporate leaders in the “Male Champions of Change”
group have called for an end to non-disclosure agreements silencing victims of
workplace sexual harassment - meanwhile, a CEO has apologised
to a victim of sexual harassment at his company, but claimed there was no systemic
problem - despite changing the system for handling complaints . . . ; the inventor in 2008 of genital reveal
parties - by using a cake - now, after several fires (the latest has
burned 40 square kilometres, and one in 2017 burned 190 square kilometres)
and one death, regrets
them;
the CEO of a company
that destroyed Indigenous sites has resigned
after being criticised
by angry shareholders; “Indigenous cancer patients
to be ‘wrapped
in culture’ as they undergo treatment”;
yet another hack
of a government data site; privacy
concerns over information from smart power meters being “shared in a
partnership between New Zealand utility company Vector and Amazon Web Services”; more concerning developments
in facial recognition;
problems preventing
stopping problem gamblers.
Genocide matters (good and
bad) in:
burma,
with two soldiers admitting
to the crimes they say they were ordered to do; an
entertainment company;
Torture, Disappearances and Execution/Killing matters (good and bad) in:
Bangladesh; Mozambique; South
Sudan;
Refugee, immigration, and migration
matters (good and bad) have occurred in:
music; hundreds of
Rohingya refugees have reached
Indonesia after six months at sea; “five
years after the migration crisis, Merkel, not [lyin’ 45],
seems vindicated”; the Mediterranean
Sea; fire has forced the
evacuation of a refugee camp in Greece;
Racism/caste based matters including land rights
(good and bad) have occurred in:
boarding
schools; Ukraine; Uganda; Brazil; Chile;
Child Abuse/Trafficking/Slavery & Extreme Worker Abuse matters (good and bad) have occurred in:
Lebanon; Spain; Qld.; Italy/fashion; South
Asia; Thailand; Russia;
LGBTIQ+ matters (including internalised homo-/bi-/trans-phobia/hate)
(good and bad) have occurred in:
Qld.; a neochristian
church school (but the neighbours were
decent human beings); homophobia
in the USA
has become surreal; UK
(good news); rebuttals here
and here
of the stupidity trotted out against trans women in sport; Nigeria; Bangladesh
(good news); NSW; New
Zealand (good news); China; Taiwan;
Sexism (including internalised sexism), misogyny/misandry and
domestic violence matters (good
and bad) have occurred in:
a soldier is being court-martialled
in Australia for alleged indecency; UK; Mexico (good action); Zimbabwe (good news);
Turkey (social
media); CAR; Egypt; Chechnya; Switzerland;
Disability matters (good
and bad) have occurred in:
a business at the centre of a
degrading death has been raided
by police after refusing to cooperate with police; a blind student who was dragged
out of a debating chamber has won compensation; Nepal;
Freedom of the Press / Expression matters
(good and bad) have occurred in:
Egypt; a formal warning from the EU to the UK; Ethiopia; Iraq; South
Sudan; Morocco; Bahrain;
Privacy/Surveillance matters (good and bad) have occurred in:
UK;
Repression/Oppression / reduction of democracy and
other civil & political rights matters (good and bad) have occurred in:
Tibet; Cambodia; Saudi
Arabia; Zimbabwe; Tibet; the “justice” system in Bolivia; burma; Uganda
(the repression also includes deploying the military/police); Rwanda; Libya; China;
Other animal and human rights matters (good and bad) have occurred in:
USA
(housing).
Risks or occurrences of Atrocities, Mass Violence and/or War(s) this week in:
Mali; Nigeria; Tunisia; DRC
(good news); Syria; burma,
Libya and the International Day to Protect Education From Attack; DRC; Mali; Mozambique; Somalia; Somalia; the arms embargo on Libya is being flouted
by the UAE, Russia and Turkey;
And:
the long running insurgency
in Nagaland
in India may be close to a peaceful
resolution; Pakistan is no
longer influencing the misogynistic rebels in Afghanistan; ECOWAS peacekeeping troops will leave
Guinea-Bissau.
Other atrocity/violence
matters have occurred in:
Australia.
On Disasters
this week:
a typhoon
in Japan and South Korea; floods
in Senegal; a fire
in Beirut’s port; floods
in Sudan and other areas in Africa;
And:
“nearly 1.2 million Afghans have
been internally
displaced by natural disasters such as floods and droughts since
2012”;
Bushfires have occurred in:
USA
- see also here; USA
- see also here; Siberia.
On Humanitarian Aid and Development:
“social
enterprises are five times more
likely to support vulnerable groups than
profit-first businesses”;.
In the Democracy, Governance, Politics, Public Ethics, and Society arena:
General Matters:
protests are continuing
in Belarus as the UK is embarrassed
into stopping military aid, a protest leader is kidnapped
and threatened
by masked men (and others disappear),
and an assessment
of Russia’s attitudes suggests democracy has a
chance; Russian hackers are at
it again; a debunking of four
conservative myths about poverty, inequality, and the economy - and another
about so-called cultural Marxism in academia;
yet another report pointing out that tax cuts help the rich without
stimulating the economy; concerns
over an alleged conflict of interest in the corruption investigation into
Israel’s PM - see also this; concerns over technology monopolies;
in Australia:
criticism
of the national neolibs proposed law to override state agreements; older Australians are dying before
aged care packages arrive; a call for relationships and sex education to become mandatory in Australian schools; an examination
of problems (including the growth of outsourcing, staff numbers cap, hiring
people as “good and services” instead of as required by the Public Service Act,
etc) around the growing use of private contractors in the Australian Government; “calls
for right-wing extremists to be put on terror
register” - see also this,
and this,
on US right wingers trying to hide their influence in Australia; “Australian strategic decision-makers need
lessons in our once-grand ambitions – and accomplishments – in world
affairs”.
The Unexceptional (and despotic) States of America:
criticism
over the seven month delay in a famed, respective and ethical journalist
reporting that lyin’
45 knew he was lying over the lethality of the pandemic has been explained by
the journalist as time to check his facts (I think this revelation being
closer to the election is more likely to help cause a change of US President,
so I’m actually in favour of it - just as I thought the impeachment was far too
early) - but lyin’
45’s “self-contradictory style of communication keeps everyone guessing, all
of the time . . . Politically, for Trump it's been remarkably
effective. his critics can always find a contradictory comment from the
President's own mouth, or thumbs, to try and make him look silly. By the same
token, his defenders can always dig up a comment he's made as they try to
disprove any accusation on any given day. It's enough to make a lot of voters
tune out”; lyin’
45 has been an inspiration
to far right haters in Germany - see also this,
from the USA; citizenship delays
will prevent voting; an examination
of possible demographic influences;
other democracy, governance, politics,
public ethics, and society matters have occurred in:
WTO; burma; Chile; civil
society.
Internationally:
more on Russia’s use of poisoning to intimidate
dissenters; lyin’
45 has offered help
to Grand Tsar Putin over fires in Siberia;
the EU has demanded that the UK “drop a planned law that breaches
[the] Brexit deal” (and maybe international law);
on China’s Communist Party (CCP) Regime and the reinvigorated ideological
Cold War this week:
two Australian journalists have been
evacuated after initially being prevented
from leaving by China - see also here,
here,
here,
and here
on journalists as pawns, Australia’s
investigation of two Chinese journalists, and the dispute
has now also included denied
strident
accusations of interfering
with a police investigation (the journalists comments make it clear the
“investigation” was a farce - a political tool) and revocation of academic
visas; violent
suppression in Hong Kong has included several police gang tackling a 12
year old girl; as
India’s army rescues three Chinese citizens, Chinese soldiers have abducted
five Indian citizens - and see here on the border
dispute between India and China in Tibet;
the global
tech industry; revisionism
in Hong Kong;
on Israel’s intended
Annexation of the West Bank and
other matters:
building
invader homes will resume; the EU has warned Serbia and Kosovo that
their membership aspirations would be set
back if they move their Israel Embassies to West Jerusalem (I agree with
the EU: there needs to be a Two State solution, with administration of
Jerusalem split); human
rights
abusing
and repressive
Bahrain has recognised
Israel.
In
Africa - Democracy,
Governance, Politics, Public Ethics, And Society and International Relations:
ECOWAS is pressuring Mali to go back to democracy -see also here; protests
over living conditions in Libya;
security concerns over malware
in phones; “Nigerian
President Muhammadu Buhari has warned fellow West African leaders not to violate their
constitutions to stay in power”; as one region holds them anyway, Ethiopia’s
government says it expects
elections within one year; Tanzanians
are now facing a growing
authoritarianism; “Ivory Coast on
edge as high-stakes election looms”; “Moroccan-brokered talks between Libya's
two rival administrations have led to agreement on
the need for compromise” (yes, this is small, but it is a
vital step); Somaliland has established
relations with Taiwan; an ANC
delegation has been sent to mediate in Zimbabwe.
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),
and Wear Masks!!!):
our neolib nitwit national government
repeated fake
news - and later backtracked; concerns
over a claimed loophole in JobKeeper; the
original and utterly
disastrous use of ”keep calm and carry on” during the 1918 pandemic before
World War One had ended; “a city near Beijing is being designed with rooftop
farms, 3-D printing facilities and ample space to work from home” to reflect the lessons from the pandemic; a call to speak
more softly;
medical aspects: although multiple vaccines may be found and made available, politicians have been accused of raising false hopes -but “the chief executives of nine companies developing vaccines against COVID-19 have pledged to ‘uphold the integrity of the scientific process’ ”;
Human Rights Aspects (crisis
. . . running summary of impacts on elections here):
a bigoted politician has shown their utter
cluelessness - and there are questions
about a nearly equally clueless bureaucrat;
after being told “spraying of disinfectants on humans causes both
physical and psychological harm”, India’s Supreme Court has asked
why that practice has not yet been stopped; disabled people in Rwanda
are bearing the brunt of discrimination;
a couple who flew to Ukraine after a surrogate gave birth cannot
get back to their children in Australia - see also this; imminent cutbacks
in social security will force people to skip
meals and medicines and put one
million children at risk of poverty;
a TV soap could highlight
the problem of DV during the pandemic;
also including
suppression of journalism:
Malaysia;
In
My Home State:
wow . . . the utter
unbelievability of some conspiracy fantasists; improved
contact tracing; more concerning revelations
about hotel quarantine; our careful planned
- but sexist
- journey
out
of lockdown; the extended lockdown is welcomed
by experts although some are concerned over mental
health, and another is calling for a more locally-based
approach; more than 80% of deaths were
in aged care: of those, more than 40% were in only
ten facilities; a group of doctors
have started doing
their own contact tracing; a debate
over curfews -which have been used elsewhere (and make sense to me, given the
amount of social interaction at that time); calls to reopen
those regional Victorian areas with no active cases (that is allowed for in
the roadmap, but there has to be certainty); a report that early calls for aged care
homes to introduce masks were ignored; commonwealth regulated
aged
care; wastewater testing has been in
use for
some time;
Australia:
fortunately, state Premiers are in
charge, not
the neolib PM; a call for NSW to copy
my home state’s planned route out of lockdown;
cases in SA; most Australians
support facemasks in public; reduced
stringency at a quarantine facility in the NT;
after our anti-asylum seeking (despite
international law allowing that) and border
blocking neolib Prime Minister has a dig at Qld’s border closures some facts
- namely, that exemptions are the responsibility of the Chief Health Officer;
Internationally:
doctors
and the poor are being hit in India; Malaysia; limited
social gatherings in the UK
- see also here; South
Korea; a curfew is imminent in Israel; young
people in Europe; Indonesia denies
it is running out of space to bury COVIOD-19 victims; Guam,
USA; contact
tracing tokens in Singapore; Canada; Israel; France; workers were not protected in the
USA; South and Central America; Gaza;
Africa:
doctors
in Nigeria.
WLNGRHDMT
And finally . . . Black Lives Matter!
