Post No. 1,981 - Interesting reading, and on Uganda, Burma, and from the news

On psychic, spiritual and related matters, including interesting reading: 

• major sporting events show our hypocrisies and bigotries; 
• very interesting thoughts on "Can You Choose Your Beliefs?"; 
• deep thoughts on trying to cope and work with the state of the world; 
• Karla McLaren has a new book on emotions at work - a topic I have written about elsewhere. I am glad to see this, and being aware of how good her work is, and happy to recommend you consider buying reading it; 
• another excellent post by John Beckett on "weaving fate" - and "hypersigils;

(Mægan)

 

On Uganda this week:

• Museveni is continuing his stay in, and abuse of, power; 
• restrictions on civic space; 
• fights for effective health care inside Uganda's Health Department;

On Burma this week:

• the protests and killing continue - see here, 
• two Burmese have been arrested over plans to murder the nation's anti-coup Ambassador to the UN;

 

From the news this week:

• on the climate crisis and the environment:
  
  the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned of a “code red for humanity” because of HUMAN-induced climate change, some of which is IRREVERSIBLE - see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, and "greenhouse gas emissions must peak in the next four years, coal and gas-fired power plants must close in the next decade and lifestyle and behavioural changes will be needed to avoid climate breakdown" . . . and in response, Scott has shown what a moron he is;  
  
  the smoke from wood-fired heaters is killing people;   we're at the back of the pack amongst the OECD in terms of adopting renewable energy sources;   the search for a way to save Germany's forests;   the fires in southern Europe are continuing;   more political interference with global heritage decisions;   "once-in-50-year heat waves now happening every decade";   some agriculture is adapting;   combining solar panels and agriculture (e.g., using solar panels to shade sensitive crops);   a proposal to use the power in EV batteries to stabilise the grid;   a whale has been caught in a shark net;   the environmental catastrophe of the fashion industry;   Europe's heatwave has included the highest ever heatwave;   the existential risk of fossil fuel misinformation;   "Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay around €95m (£80.4m/US$111.6m) to communities in southern Nigeria over crude oil spills in 1970";   fossil fuels looking dead in Australia;   a cargo ship sailing under a flag of convenience  broke in two and is now leaking oil;  
  
  
  (responsibility)
  
  
  
• on international relations including war:
  as another nation "suspends" (why not stops?) its refoulement of refugees, the UK has ordered its citizens to leave Afghanistan - which is continuing to fall - immediately (three nations are now using their military to evacuate their citizens), and a reminder the guilt over those events is widespread;   the olympics have misnamed Taiwan;   "coordinated attempt to push pro-China, anti-Western narratives on social media";   tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border continue to grow;   Ethiopia's intransigence over its dam on the Nile is causing problems;   Somalia and Kenya will try to mend their relations;   fighting has broken out between factions in South Sudan;   fighting is resurging in Tigray, Ethiopia;   growing religious tensions in India;   Lithuania has stood up for Taiwan against bullying mainland China;   the problem of killer robots;   despotic Turkey's use of military (Hard) power has come at a price;   the largest population decline since record keeping began in Hong Kong has occurred in response to the CCP's imposition of authoritarianism;  
  
  
  (BPM group leadership)
  
   
• on the COVID-19 pandemic:
  Indonesia could be the source of the next variant of concern;   gravely concerning revelations about the covert campaign to spread disinformation - the company concerned has been banned from one social media platform;   the delta variant has made schools a risk;   the plight of vulnerable groups;   an ethicist has argued that vaccination should be compulsory;   failure to deliver on promises of vaccine aid shows the "moral bankruptcy" of the West;   mental health toll on tradies;   the AZ vaccine is "preventing dozens of deaths in NSW";   anti-vaxxer nut jobs are putting everyone else at risk;   growing inequality;   a FAKE COVID check in app ... ;  
  
  
  (Berkana - healing & compassion)
  
  
  
• on genocides and other human rights issues:
  interesting thoughts on freedom of speech;   consideration is underway on ways to provide better online protections against bullying;   calls for Parliament to catch up with other workplaces;   two abusive Belarus coaches have been de-accredited and removed from the olympics;   Poland will FINALLY back down on its attempts to cripple its judicial system;   one of the abducted Nigerian school girls abducted from Chibok has been freed - after seven years;   more on the problems US-made guns cause outside the USA;   outdated planning laws are restricting the use of climate-appropriate tiny houses;   repression in Belarus;   a call for reform of the Bail Act (and policing);   the national neolib nitwits latest anti-refugee hate will particularly hit women fleeing DV;   "a Canberra magistrate has found that police used excessive force and had not lawfully arrested a man accused of refusing to leave a Civic nightclub";   Pakistan has charge an EIGHT YEAR OLD with punishable-by-death blasphemy ... ;   atrocity alerts for Afghanistan, Tigray, and Sudan;   our third-ranked health care system (the USA is 11th);    with possibly as little as 90 days to go, only two nations have stopped deportations to Afghanistan;   rising violence and risks to children in Burkina Faso;   "cruel, costly and ineffective: Australia’s offshore processing asylum seeker policy";   Poland will keep property stolen from victims of the Holocaust;   prejudice and violence - including child sexual abuse and murder - against the Dalits in India;   Sudan will transfer a notorious alleged war criminal to the ICC;   slavery in Australia today;   one of Gaddafi's sons has been charged over connection to human rights abusing Russian mercenaries;   our utterly dreadful housing is harming people's mental health;   traumatic processes for complaining about sexual assault;  
   
• from Human Rights Watch:
  major climate changes inevitable & irreversible according to new IPCC report; we should all support civil society in Belarus; chill hangs over Winter Olympics in China; it is time to ensure justice for Zimbabwe’s child brides; digital targeting of LGBT people by governments in the Middle East & North Africa; a China-built dam in Cambodia destroyed ecosystems and livelihoods; thousands flee Afghanistan’s north as Taliban advance; landmark trial of alleged Iranian war criminal in Sweden; armed groups target schools in Nigeria; witch-hunt against LGBT people in Ghana; call for release of Burundian human rights lawyer; efforts to save the world's forests fall short of protecting Indigenous peoples’ rights; hundreds of civilians killed during attacks in Niger; Sudan's Bashir could be on his way to the International Criminal Court; Ethiopian forces accused of systematic rape in Tigray; BBC exposes scale of Russian mercenary mission in Libya; illegal evictions in Iraq; vicious homophobic attack in Cameroon; the growing threat of transnational repression; the global movement to #BreakTheChains; Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes; 91 Iraqi families have been illegally evicted by the army at the behest of a government minister; Poland's parliament passes bill regulating independent media; Germany and Netherlands suspend deportations to Afghanistan; Qatar's sportswashing ambitions propel football's superstar Messi's move to Paris; Taliban's advance a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan; Polish media under attack; the Mozambican government should ensure civilian safety in retaken city; concerns over church raid in Hungary; Britney Spears closer to being free from guardianship, millions remain under; Shell agrees to pay back communities for oil spillage;
  
  
  
  
  
• on democracy:
  a call for neo-Luddism to reclaim data from corporations;   responsible government and a decline in accountability;   Ivory Coast has freed people arrested for protesting during last year's election there;   repression in Nicaragua;   the breadth and depth of concerns about a major gambling company suggest it will never be trusted again;   New Zealand's attempts to change its social security system appear to be biased against the poor;   China is looking after school children - but not South Korea;   a journalist has been murdered in the DRC;   hypocritical national neolib nitwits have allowed their rich business mates to keep wrongfully provided JobKeeper payments but ordered poor individuals to make repayments;   77% of Australians support a UBI;   Australia's digital divide;   a RWNJ is launching a propaganda site;   Scott has ignored "advice from the aged-care royal commission after a damning new report found 110,000 direct aged-care workers are needed by 2030 to meet basic care needs";   Scott is trying to silence dissent and criticism;   right wing media bias;   the progress of (and need for) a legal case against a neolib MP;   including the homeless in the census;   Poland's government is continuing to attempt to kill democracy;   Somaliland has successfully had elections and a peaceful transfer of power;   Haiti has deferred its elections to replace its assassinated President ... ;   Zambia's standing as a stable democracy is under test;   Mozambique's stability continues to totter;   arrests over alleged corruption in Malawi;   a call for an independent review of the RBA;   Madagascar's President has done a Tunisia ... ;   the neolib's anti-democratic legacy includes possibly having to compensate a gambling company if they are shut down in response to illegal behaviour;  
  
  
  (democracy)
  
  
  
• on LGBTIQ+ matters:
  more on the violent  homophobia and transphobia in Russia;   evidence of millennia past support for non-binary people;   violent homophobia in Mexico;  
  
  
• on racism:
  a call for Australians to write to their MP in support of the Uluru  Statement  from the Heart;   use of AI in US prisons likely to amplify racism;   concerns about dispossession of Indigenous land for a tech company's new headquarters in Africa;   an Indigenous man who was terrified of police and fled them is now missing;   proof at least one social media algorithm has a racist and ageist bias;   "a coronial inquest has heard an Aboriginal man's human rights may have been breached three times during his care in a Victorian hospital the day before he died by suicide";   WA police are being given an Indigenous language app;   inadequate apology for racism;   racist abuse in ACT;  
  
  
• on sexism and misogyny:
  a violent misogynistic attack in Japan;   a domestic violence murder in Uganda - and DV against men;   backlash against discrimination against middle-aged women;   a 14 year old child bride in Zimbabwe has died after giving birth;   "new research reinforces impact men can have as gender equality allies in the workplace";   rape is being used as a weapon of war in Tigray;   "unconscious bias" (misogyny) in medicine slows treatment of women;   protection for abortion clinics in WA;  
  
  
• on ableism:
  "Why we should always refer to the Paralympics when we mention the olympics";   an appalling example of racism and mistreatment of an Indigenous woman with a disability;  
  
  
• on animal rights: 
  a coach has been suspended for cruelty against a horse at the olympics;   the appalling practice of glue hunting will  FINALLY be banned in France;   calls for less meat consumption in Spain;   shooters who killed 41 horses will be jailed in caught;  
  
  
• on other matters:
  how online civilian investigators can determine information quickly and accurately;   the mental health of elite-level athletes is also an issue after the events, when everyone starts ignoring them ... ;   continuing failure to pay workers' super;   the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has "lodged three separate federal court cases over the conduct, alleging false and misleading conduct under Australian Consumer Law" by three tech companies;   the history of the appalling practice of businesses "using workers as human shields";