This originally appeared on my political blog at https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2021/03/on-uganda-burma-attempted-coup-in-usa_13.html.
***
On Uganda this week:
- calls for peaceful protests;
- a call to end the disappearances - and HUNDREDS are still missing;
- the Internet shutdown killed business and Internet hopes.
On Burma this week:
- the miscalculations of the self-deluded and murderous (see this analysis) military have cost them all credibility;
- some police have refused orders and fled to India;
- Australia has FINALLY ended its military aid to the genocidaires as a call is made for a coordinated international response;
- nighttime raids on opposition figures;
- hundreds of youth have been deliberately trapped, but were later allowed to leave ... and now striking rail workers have been surrounded ... ;
- a nun has begged for the lives of "the children";
- the military has extended its attack on medical staff to the occupation of hospitals;
- the attempt to silence media reporting continues;
- shops and factories have closed in protest at the coup, but a call has been made for fashion companies supplied from Burma to ensure their suppliers stop intimidating and harassing their workers for opposing the coup;
- murders of protestors is continuing - including head shots by snipers - and at least one official has "died" (been murdered?) after being arrested;
- a call for apparel brands sourcing goods from Burma to ensure workers rights are protected;
- increasingly xenophobic India is threatening to deport Rohingya refugees back to genocidal and coup-afflicted Burma;
- Burma's military are using a facial recognition system;
- scepticism as to whether the Burmese civilians have really changed their tune on the genocide against the Rohingya.
On the attempted coup in the USA:
- the USA is still a "broken" nation where the version of fascism known as "trumpism" is still a risk;
- despite a corporate boycott, the trumpist party is still raking in the dough.
From the news this week:
- concerns about current and possible environmental terrorism;
- the value of nature will be included in accounting standards as the EU moves closer to a border carbon tax - and calls for the same here, and a jobs transition plan;
- IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE FAT AND FIT AT THE SAME TIME!;
- a Stage 2 and 6 genocide warning for Cyprus;
- China has very VALIDLY and CORRECTLY complained to the UN about Australia's illegal detention and human rights abuses of asylum seekers and refugees;
- (disputed) revelations of racism and other (long held) problems in the UK's royal family (not, apparently, the Queen or Prince Philip) have led to statements of regret by the UK Queen, admission of underhandedness and appalling conduct by Meaghan's father, renewed calls for complete Australian independence, and a backlash against a media moron who initially belittled the issue of mental health - and the "toxic tabloids";
- on the media, an enquiry has heard allegations of "spiking public interest journalism, a toxic workplace culture, and sexist reporting" by the notorious Murdoch conglomerate;
- a UK court has upheld a transphobic decision around their census (which parallels our census' transphobic decision);
- staggering reports of systemic racism - including silencing of teachers - at a school in central Victoria; a truth telling commission to enable answering for the legacies of colonialism in the move towards treaty; three decades after a Royal Commission continuing problems with Indigenous deaths in custody and while being arrested - see here, here, and here;
- on sexism this week: the problem of the bigotry known as fat shaming; no acceptable excuse
for endemic sexual harassment, discrimination, lack of respect, power
imbalance or any of the other manifestations of sexism in the corporate
world; calls to remove sexist definitions of "woman" from dictionaries; "Boys do cry: Stopping sexual assaults starts with raising sons who aren’t afraid of their emotions"; the effects of the abusive culture of Australia's Parliament "follows women" when they leave; my home state government "will establish a task force into workplace sexual harassment"; 25% of women and girls have been physically or sexually abused by a partner; an idiotic engineering professor made stupid remarks about biological differences between sexes (were those remarks also transphobic?); "evidence shows mental illness isn’t a reason to doubt women survivors" - exposure to trauma is actually an indicator mental health support will be sought; Scott has - without even reading any of the evidence, and with NO trial or investigation - declared the Attorney-general innocent of the alleged rape (which is NOT the same as the presumption of innocence), the problem of rape myths (the reality is men with good jobs and good looking men who are good at sports are amongst those who rape women); Mexico's president is continuing to support a candidate accused of rape; 20% of men are so stupid they think the gender pay gap is "fake news"; "60 per cent of domestic violence victims don't go to police" as "victims are afraid of not being believed and of entering the legal process" - recommendations in the linked article to address this; more women getting into politics in the Pacific; a correction of Scott's false assertion that sexual assault allegations are "only" for the police, legal experts join calls for an enquiry into allegations against AG after victim's ex-boyfriend reveals she spoke of it years ago, and criticism of Scott's political stunt that damaged the aged care report in an attempt to distract from the serious allegations;
the murder of a young woman in London has sparked a crisis in the UK - and calls for a male curfew instead of expecting women to change our behaviour, and to call out rapists/assaulters rather than victim blaming; misogyny in Lebanon and Cambodia; Egypt is backsliding into misogyny; South Korea's good history and current renaissance of feminism; - overwhelming objection to Scott's latest cost cutting proposal of time limited assessments of the needs of disabled people;
- as concerns are raised over apparently favourable treatment of gas donors and the Australian National Audit Office (which detected the sports rorts scandal) considers
an audit into the administration of the Safer Communities Fund on the
grounds that Home Affairs Minister Dutton overruled the department's
recommendations, Scott's anti-corruption proposal lacks credibility . . . ;
- the political transition in Sudan NEEDS to be inclusive;
- a call for international re-engagement in the disputed Western Sahara territory;
- Australia is now developing weapons systems for the human rights abusers of the UAE;
- from an article titled "Autocracy and Instability in Africa": "Three-quarters
of the African countries facing armed conflict (12 out of 16) have
either autocratic or semi-authoritarian governments";
- Hong Kong's controversial sock puppet of the CCP (aka "leader") has welcomed the CCP's governance changes including vetting potential candidates for "patriotism";
"a non-partisan US-based thinktank, is one of the first independent,
non-government legal examination of China’s treatment of Uighurs under
the 1948 genocide convention" has found every act in the convention was breached by China; a neolib donor "engaged in 'acts of foreign interference' and activities for" China and concerns are held over Chinese control of an island near a military training area;
- the reasons for the protests in Senegal - which has been described as "one of Africa's most stable democracies";
- the "fog of lies" on Tigray;
- a call for international funding to reach small-scale environmental initiatives led by women;
- aged care patients are malnourished;
- a critique of the influence of land-based biases in naval strategies.
