This was originally posted on my political blog at https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2021/06/on-uganda-burma-and-from-news_19.html.
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On Uganda this week:
- Museveni is continuing his stay in, and abuse of, power;
- now that the election is over, several Bobi Wine supporters have been granted bail;
On Burma this week:
- the protests and killing continue - see here,
- “the United Nations human rights chief has warned that violence is intensifying across Myanmar, slamming the country’s military government for being “singularly responsible” for a “human rights catastrophe” ”;
- the
drift towards violence on the part of those resisting the coup will
make boosting the current miniscule international support more difficult;
- Burma is abusing the families of activists;
- UN sharing of refugee data puts Rohingya at risk;
From the news this week:
- on the climate crisis and the environment:
a vast thermonuclear solar power plant has been opened in Chile; "G7 leaders agree to end new government support for coal power by the end of 2021"; "a coal seam gas company has drilled under farmland without notifying landholders, potentially leaving them uninsured and their land devalued"; an unprecedented doubling of heat trapped by the Earth; "large methane leak detected over South Africa coal mining region"; 16 major philanthropists have cut themselves off from a uni that appointed a climate-change-denying pro-coal businessperson to the position of chancellor; a call to include environmental aspects (pollution of the night sky) when planning or approving flocks of satellites; - on international relations including war:
North Korea's leader appears to be in declining health - with no clear successor; nuclear arsenals are growing; NATO has extended its mutual defence obligations into space; the USA is doing another "freedom of navigation": exercise in the South China Sea - this time with an entire aircraft carrier group; major risks from the recent volcanic eruption in the eastern DRC; the G7 will attempt to counter the CCP's "Belt and Road Initiative" with its own plan, including private capital in "in areas including climate, health, digital technology and gender equality"; Israeli-Palestinian violence has resumed; despite lower violence, the civil war in Northern Ireland is continuing; a reasonable meeting between the USA's President Biden and Union of Soviet Socialist Russia's grand Tsar Putin was marred by Putin attempting to compare his despotic suppression with judicial measures against the attempted insurrectionists in the USA; "Ethiopia has rejected an Arab League resolution calling on the United Nations Security Council to intervene" in the Nile dam dispute; "heightened risks to African citizens" from the use of Chinese security firms along the belt and road initiative; Rwanda is exporting violent control along the lines of that used by China; Bangladesh is becoming a regional power; the misogynistic violent extremists in Afghanistan are rapidly turning it into Talibanistan; a review of the complexities facing Ethiopia;
- on the COVID-19 pandemic:
ending employment support may have cost over 90,000 jobs; vaccinations for the homeless; the more transmissible delta variant is becoming the predominant strain; - on genocides and other human rights issues:
"Genocide Watch considers Ethiopia to be at Stage 5: Organization, Stage 9: Extermination, and Stage 10: Denial"; in light of armed groups' disregard for the 2016 peace agreement and continued forced displacement, sexual violence, and extrajudicial killings of civilians, "Genocide Watch considers Colombia to be at Stage 5: Organization and Stage 8: Persecution"; details of human rights abuses - including rape, torture and murder - committed by Russian mercenaries in the CAR; Syria has likely used chemical weapons 17 times; "the [US] state of Arizona has refurbished its gas chamber and purchased chemical supplies to kill inmates using hydrogen cyanide, the same gas used by Nazi Germany to kill millions during the Holocaust"; one pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong has been released from jail; as COVID risks lead to calls to shut down asylum seeker/refugee detention facilities, "Nine peak medical bodies have called for a Tamil asylum seeker family to be urgently released from immigration detention ... , warning ongoing detention presents an “extreme and unacceptable” risk to children's health" ... "as a small but growing number of Coalition MPs express support for the family to remain in Australia" leading to their eventual return to the mainland as their seriously ill, Australian-born daughter is treated in a hospital; declining affordability of home ownership; as an expert who revealed the shocking culture of bullying refuses to bow to abuse, more alleged bullying in our military is revealed; the CCP is pushing southern China to give up Cantonese; "allegations of sexual harassment and racism as new report finds majority of backpackers are underpaid"; tech companies have "not yet" extended voice recognition to African languages; Belarus is continuing to abuse a journalist snatched off a hijacked place; business propaganda companies are trying to use sleep researchers to enable brainwashing of sleepers; protests against police brutality in Tunisia; in Sudan ‘humanitarian agencies reach communities in South Kordofan and Blue Nile for the first time in 10 years’; a home furnishings company has been fined for spying on its staff; classism in Australia; an opinion that, in the USA, "life without parole isn’t making us any safer"; "how the 'Nigerian mafia' exploits African women in Europe" - and what is being done about that; neolib-led NSW is targetting gig workers instead of protecting them; the UK is supporting nations that torture - and thus is IMO financing torture; the political party of a notorious LGBT-hating bigot has been forced into receivership; the UK will close a loop hole that was allowing child abuse in the form of child marriage; refoulement of refugees rescued at sea; the US Supreme Court has upheld Obamacare for a third time; 1% of humanity are now refugees . . . ; Turkish spies are abducting political opponents abroad; IMF Executive Board should ensure Cameroon loan used to meet rights obligations; Ghana’s attorney general targeting human rights defenders; an "extraordinary admission" that a food crisis exists in North Korea; US Supreme Court declines to give religious agencies sweeping license to discriminate against LGBT people; - on democracy:
Netanyahu has been ousted - which won't change Israel's political positions but makes accountability easier; "the family of a man who has been friends with Prime Minister Scott ... for decades and follows the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon have revealed they are so concerned about his beliefs they have notified the national security hotline several times"; McCarthyism still lives - in Australia, where the utterly evil Howard's attack on our democracy is being continued; "government rorting is now the Australian way of doing business"; international monitors say there were no "serious" irregularities in Peru's elections; "jobseekers subject to obligations take longer to find work"; some states have dangerously overloaded hospital emergency departments; an attempted attack on a senior politician in Niger has killed one of his guards and injured another; the history of trade deals - including the USA's attack on our health system; disputed results from elections in Peru; more details have emerged over the "insane" attempts by #45 to stay in power; "one in three U.S. election officials feels unsafe"; hypocrisy (nepotism?) by the national neolib nitwits towards debt recovery from their social class - as they also apply an "unprecedented" gag against a motion to investigate accusations against one of their senior MPs; more suppression of pro-democracy media in Hong Kong; the RBA has finally criticised businesses for not giving wage increases; fake social media accounts were removed before elections in Ethiopia; in a promising sign of change under the new President, leaders of a party in Tanzania advocating for self determination party for part of that nation have been released from jail and charges dropped; "inside Nigeria's economic crisis"; after watching this, I think the US republicans ultimate aim is to register voters by having them walk through one of three doorways: the one labelled "Democrat" drops into a jail cell, the one labelled "independent / undecided" is a slide back to the start of the queue, and the one labelled "republican" (they don't deserve a capital R) goes to a limo with someone to massage the voting arm and deliver the voter to their own personalised voting booth; rushed and reckless changes will railroad the unemployed into harmful decisions; - on LGBTIQ+ matters:
the Murdoch press's transphobic reign of terror has now targeted someone on the basis of a falsehood; rabid LGBT-phobia in Hungary; the need to do more to address anti-LGBTIQ+ hate - especially by allies; homophobia in sport; the EU may sanction Hungary for its LGBTIQ-phobic laws; violent LGBTIQ-phobia in Iran; - on racism:
how to stop racism on social media; an anti-racism taskforce in my home state; an historical African script shows both the violence of racism and the intellectual arrogance and damage of assuming literacy is higher than verbal communication; - on sexism and misogyny:
misogyny on a professional social media platform; a sporting organisation has taken action to respond to allegations of sexism; a misogynist backwater has voted to continue being a misogynist backwater; "inside one woman's legal nightmare from a sexual assault case"; spy cameras in South Korea; "most directors [are] not being held responsible for preventing sexual harassment at work"; - on ableism:
the need for better preventative care for people with an intellectual disability; - on animal rights:
concerns over the injuries and deaths caused to seals by a salmon farm; - on other matters:
Finland is setting records for happiness; more disquiet at a bank's conduct; the dead bodies of illegal gold miners have been found in South Africa; a call to include spirituality in mental health; the importance of feeling pity to being human.
