This post originally was posted on my political blog at https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2021/04/on-uganda-burma-attempted-coup-in-usa_10.html.
***
On Uganda this week:
- Museveni's corruption and oppression are continuing.
On Burma this week:
- the protests and killing continue - see here,
- Easter eggs have been used as a novel way to protest - and paint;
- some anti-coup protestors have resorted to violence;
- existing rebel groups have backed the anti-coup movement;
- another warning of the risk of a regionally destabilising civil war;
- the crackdown is including online critics, artists, and comedians and doctors;
- the Responsibility to Protect the people of Burma.
On the attempted coup in the USA:
- "countering extremist narratives" and preventing the escalation of violence in the USA, and "outnarrating violence to build peace";
- the rich are trying to block fair elections in the USA.
From the news this week:
- Africa is using coal to meet its energy demands; Australia's road transport is third worst in the G20 on climate impact; the national neolib nitwits have continued their denialist insanity by sacking a former PM who spoke against coal; global heating is reducing marine diversity; the pandemic has limited climate change adaptation in Africa; "a left-wing environmentalist party opposed to a controversial mining project won a clear victory in Greenland's parliamentary election"; Internet repression in Cambodia will harm the fight for the environment; deforestation in the Amazon basin was higher by 17% last year; erosion of coast and trust has led an Indian village to boycott local elections; a push to disclose corporate climate crisis risks as few nations report the effect of climate crisis risks on their management of pandemic debt; land ownership by the rich; another warning on rising sea levels; agromining; more fledgling attempts to deal with space junk;
- Stage 3 to 8 genocide against gypsies and travellers in the UK; France is taking steps to address its "monumental failure" in the Rwandan genocide; the USA has moved back towards decency by reversing the sanctions against the ICC's Chief Prosecutor; Germany's laws have a gap on the Holocaust;
- an excellent assessment by the Caspian Report of the risks of war between China and Taiwan, which concludes that is unlikely in the next six years - but see also this, and "closer Taiwan-US ties are stabilising the region"; Jordan claims it has stopped attempts by a senior member of their royal family to undermine its stability; talks on rejuvenating the Iran nuclear deal are imminent; the USA will back Ukraine against Russia - which is still sending mercenaries to Libya; the conflict in Tigray could last for years . . . ; Pakistan will continue its trade suspension with India over Kashmir; murderous persecution of the Hazara minority in Pakistan - and women; the DRC is hosting talks on the crisis over Ethiopia's dam on the River Nile; restoration of relations between the EU and Turkey is subject to the non-negotiability of human rights; a suggestion for a “Pacific Islands Regiment” to conduct humanitarian and disaster relief missions and assist peacekeeping operations; a week of violent riots in Northern Ireland has been attributed to the destabilising effect of Brexit; Mozambique is seeking foreign assistance against the VE insurgency - which the region is becoming increasingly concerned about - and will investigate its possible human rights abuses; Egypt and Ethiopia are still disagreeing over filling Ethiopia's Nile dam; insecurity in South Sudan is leading to truck drivers refusing to enter; Ethiopia's attempted suppression of information;
- "attacks on press freedom . . . have measurable [adverse] effects on economic growth"; suppression of media in Jordan - and Tanzania; the neochristian right is still trying to subvert and destroy democracy; a new progressive party in Europe; possible corruption in Australia; bank culture is still bad; "Federal government criticised for continuing robodebt after admitting it was unlawful"; loss of privacy in Singapore; continuing disagreements are still blocking elections in Somalia; calls to free Russia's opposition leader on health grounds; the Union of Soviet Socialist Russia's Grand Tsar has given himself permission for two more terms; the corruption trial of Israel's PM is continuing; a chapter supporting the national neolib nitwits' vicious anti-disability hate was inserted into a supposedly independent report; declining democracy in Benin and Djibouti;
- China's oppression in Hong Kong was long expected by some; a call for the World Bank and IMF to consider the debt problems associated with China's "belt and road initiative"; "China’s disinformation on Xinjiang is political warfare, not diplomacy"; the USA has "warned China against what the Philippines and Taiwan see as increasingly aggressive moves";
- “there is no ‘border crisis,’ in the United States or anywhere else. Instead, there are the ‘actual crises’ that drive mass migration – such as capitalism, war and the climate emergency – and ‘imagined crises’ at political borders, which are used to justify further border securitization [sic] and violence”; closure of refugee camps in Kenya and rejection of refugees from Mozambique by Tanzania;
- the trial of US police officers for allegedly murdering George Floyd is continuing (and medical experts have presented compelling evidence that choking killed My Floyd, not drugs as alleged by the police officer) as outrage continues in Mexico over a similar killing of a woman; racism in Germany; a court case by employees about racism in the US border farce; RACIST MICROAGGRESSIONS; racism and tokenistic responses in sport;
yet another Indigenous death in custody in Australia; mining speculators may undermine a return of land to Indigenous owners programme; - another femicide in Kyrgyzstan;
the scandal in Parliament and Australia on sexism / misogyny continues - see here, here, here, here ("The fact is, Australia’s legal and political system is in crisis, and not just because a former High Court judge turned Royal Commissioner appointed to the role by a Prime Minister world famous for his misogyny turned out to be a serial sexual harasser of women, and had to face a second independent inquiry ordered by an Attorney General now facing allegations of rape. The system is in crisis because the system is the problem"), here,
but our national government "will amend the Sex Discrimination Act to include politicians and judges, who have previously been exempt from the laws"; more police stupidity about sexual harassment - see also here; concerns about an inadequate response to a child rape in a hospital; - Scott's failure to respond to the sexual assault scandal has harmed trust and thus may harm the vaccine roll out - and the claims by Scott's lot that GPs are happy have been contradicted;
- a conspiracy fantasist in the USA has lost an appeal in relation to his false claim a gun massacre did not happen - and the USA will crack down on "ghost guns";
- "the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled on Thursday that compulsory vaccinations would not contravene human rights law — and may be necessary in democratic societies";
- another call for drug checking as a public health measure;
- a debunking of fears around public debt, and information on who benefits from tax cuts and the unemployment benefit increase (which is offset three times by a cut elsewhere);
- a US company has apologised for denying worker abuse was happening; the growing push for the "right to disconnect"; some of the issues to be addressed around working from home (the comments about data security are arguable, as workplaces are vulnerable to social engineering and similar problems); "how corporations crush the working class" - see also here, here, and here; the national neolib nitwit's hate of workers continues; moves to take crime on farms more seriously;
- a challenge to the professionalism and competence of "independent experts";
- more malice from the national neolib nitwits is putting retirees ability to live in homes at risk;
- a young woman "wants to help change people's perceptions about wheelchairs".
