Post No. 2,017 - Interesting reading, and on Uganda, Burma, and from the news

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

• poverty is a thief; 
  
• some scientists are clumsily - embarrassingly clumsily - fumbling around NDEs - but have at least finally admitted their reality; 
• an ethics hotline; 
• an older article on "Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice" - to which I would add low EQ;

(Mægan)

 

On Uganda this week:

• Museveni is continuing his stay in, and abuse of, power; 
• "young Ugandans develop anti-rape bracelet"; 
• police are now claiming the murder spree in Masaka has political connections . . . the opposition says they are the government getting even and opposition MPs have been accused over machete killings;
  
• accusations the government has put VIP cars ahead of citizens' health;

On Burma this week:

• the protests and killing continue;
  
• a call for civil war;

This item requires particular attention: both major parties have passed a law allowing police and others to access and change anyone's online accounts for flimsy excuses.  Related to that, "9/11 Didn’t Change Us — Our Response to It Did"   -   see also here,   and this reminder that, even without 9/11, the USA had deep flaws and divisions and problems and traumatic events such as the GFC and #45 would still have happened.

From the news this week:

• on the climate crisis and the environment:
  "earthquake-resistant school built from recycled plastic in Indonesia";   successful examples of rewilding;   improved management of soils in farming;   "rural Australia should see opportunity in reducing carbon emissions";   "climate change means Australia may have to abandon much of its farming";   a "powerful senator ... has abandoned negotiations with the coalition on environment law reforms over a ... fierce campaign to force companies turning over more than $10 million to reveal JobKeeper payments";   "more than 200 medical journals call for urgent action on climate change";   the need for a just transition;   "leading shipping associations have proposed creating a global levy on carbon emissions from ships to help speed up the industry's efforts to go greener";   repugnant people have deliberately killed trees;   targetting invasive weeds after bushfires;   the deforestation crisis in the Amazon continues;   "climate protesters with disabilities get creative";   "animals are changing their body shapes to cope with climate change";   "some of Australia’s biggest superannuation funds have been accused of failing to use ... retirement savings to push for action on the climate crisis and other social issues facing the companies in which they invest";   a new farming organisation is promoting sustainable approaches;   we can and MUST phase out coal within a decade;   the interconnection of disasters;   local opposition to a mine for a mineral critical to electric car batteries;   the world's largest direct carbon capture plant will start soon, pulling out 0.00001% of the world's annual carbon emissions;   "corporations that back reaching net zero emissions by 2050 as well as other policies that broadly support the Paris Agreement do little or negligible lobbying to encourage federal and state governments to take stronger action on climate change";   "armed groups benefit from poaching, logging in Congo reserve";  
  
  
  (responsibility)
  
  
  
• on international relations including war:
  Afghanistan:   resources to aid Afghans;   Poland's xenophobia has worsened the plight of Afghan refugees stuck between Poland and Belarus;   the violent extremists (VEs) running Afghanistan used gunfire and beatings of protestors and journalists to stop a protest march by women - who fear the violent abuse before they are killed;   the VEs running Afghanistan are refusing to allow planes of approved people to leave a northern city ... but finally allowed some people to leave;   another set of human stories of those escaping from Afghanistan;   the life of an Afghani interpreter who helped us and his family is at risk after we withdrew a humanitarian visa;   the UN is calling for aid to address the catastrophe the VE takeover has caused;   female students appear to be being allowed to continue education, but under conditions of segregation;   growing poverty;   authoritarian, repressive, and discriminatory Turkey has been cozying up with the violent extremists in charge of Afghanistan;   the violent extremists have reintroduced their bigotry police - see also here;   at least one international sporting event will be banned in response to the misogynistic denial of sport to women;   families are fleeing to Pakistan in fear of forced marriages;   Tunisia's "president" plans to continue his coup by suspending the constitution and changing the political system ... ;   fears the VE's victory in Afghanistan will encourage VEs in the Sahel;  
  
  elsewhere:   "the best chance to reverse the militarisation of the US state is policy guided by the radical proposal that life — regardless of race, gender, status, sexuality, nationality, location or age — is indeed precious";   an examination of the USA's "national interests";   tensions between the USA and China continue;   an opinion that 'dialogue only strengthens Putin's regime';   the need to address (prevent and reverse if it does occur) radicalisation online;   China has been invading Taiwan's airspace again;   tensions between Rwanda and Uganda continue;   the problem of violent extremism in the Sahel, and one joint response;  
  
  
  (BPM group leadership)
  
   
• on the COVID-19 pandemic:
  a staggeringly stupid idea for facial recognition apps as the basis of home quarantine;   getting kids back into school in one US state has led to idiotic objections to / comments about masks (comparing learning in a school class room to easting in a restaurant?!! FFS!!!) being set aside - at least for now;   the burden on the death care sector;   the delta variant has become endemic in India - with deaths down from 4,000 per day to 500 per day ... and it could have been prevented if the developed world had treated the pandemic seriously, and aided poorer nations as they should have;   utterly repugnant "anti-vax 'fear mongers' spreading misinformation are targeting Australia’s [CALD] communities";   the inadequacy of the ideologically driven 80% vaccination target;   questions about what appears to be unfair and unreasonable vaccine distribution between states;   revelations confirming the opportunities lost by the national neolib nitwits to obtain adequate vaccine supplies;   vaccination status may be added to check in app in one state (so bad luck for those who object to so-called "smart" phones);   utterly repugnant murdering anti-vax nut jobs are blocking other people's choices;   misinformation and withholding of information;   possible use of sniffer dogs to detect COVID ... ;   the likely long term future;   persistent wrong beliefs;   Israel shows what can happen when reopen;   a warning not to linger or mingle in supermarkets;   a crisis of evictions in India;   the victim-blaming aspects of mentioning "underlying conditions" when reporting COVID deaths;   "poorer Australians four times more likely to die from a COVID-19 infection";   more irresponsible garbage;   as the pandemic becomes "of the unvaccinated", we have fewer deaths in the delta wave because of vaccinations;   script restrictions to stop the people taking livestock medicine;   "our leaders are using COVID to divide us, let’s not keep taking the bait";   "it was the sound of the last vestiges of any national policy coherence snapping; the sound of growing blind political panic consuming the federal government; the sound of [the] NSW Premier ... abandoning any semblance of accountability to the people of her state just when it is facing the worst of its COVID crisis";  
  
  
  (Berkana - healing & compassion)
  
  
  
• on genocides and other human rights issues:
  violent abuses:   "the traumatised families of 298 people killed in the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 demanded justice from Russia ... as they testified in the Dutch trial of four suspects";   the trial of those charged over the 9/11 atrocity has resumed;   an examination of the USA's indefinite detention (and torture) at Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay;   "tech giants ... have made vast profits from US government contracts since the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington DC, according to a new report by three US activists groups";   Islamophobia still continues;   "Syrian refugees tortured, raped and missing after returning home";   evidence of unlawful executions in Egypt;   more CCP repression in Hong Kong;   the continuing humanitarian crisis in Tigray/northern Ethiopia;   the abductions crisis in Mali;   more massacres of civilians in Tigray;   the UK will push back boats of refugees;   "Africa: Escaping 9/11’s Long Shadow";  
  
  social and political:   a proposal for us to catch up with the rest of the world on parental leave;   democracy continues to die in Belarus;   more suppression by the CCP in Tibet;   "the Australian Information Commissioner this week called for a ban on police accessing QR code check-in data, unless for COVID-19 contact tracing purposes";   "High Court finds media outlets are responsible for [social media] comments";   one man is physically taking treasures that were stolen from Africa during colonialism to return them;   a statue in the USA of a slaver has been removed and dismantled;   mass expulsion of refugees from Mexico;   "Australia’s ‘A’ rating on human rights is under threat with a handpicked, politically engineered commissioner";   "accountants KPMG says it has become one of Britain’s first companies to set a target for staff from working-class backgrounds to help close a pay gap and diversify its workforce";   the agricultural disputes in India continue;   legal action against a Zimbabwe minister over surveillance;   press suppression in Hong Kong;   xenophobic citizenship laws in Qatar;  
  
  genocide:   "in light of the state-manufactured ideology of Islamophobia and increased attacks on Dalits, ... Genocide Watch recognises India to be at Stage 6: Polarisation, Stage 7: Preparation, Stage 8: Persecution, and Stage 10: Denial";   "Genocide Watch recognises the marginalisation and harassment of Roma in Romania as Stage 3: Discrimination and Stage 4: Dehumanisation";   "a civil war between security forces and armed separatists in the Anglophone region ... [and a violent extremist organisation] continues to attack civilians ... Genocide Watch considers Cameroon to be at Stage 6: Polarisation, Stage 8: Persecution, and Stage 9: Extermination";   "Genocide Watch considers Angola to be at Stage 3: Discrimination and Stage 6: Polarisation";   "on the violence targeting the Banyamulenge of the Democratic Republic of Congo ... Genocide Watch considers this situation to be at Stage 9: Extermination and Stage 10: Denial";   "Since gaining independence in 2011, South Sudan has experienced non-stop violence, resulting in the death of over 400,000 civilians. More than 80% of civilian casualties in 2021 are attributable to ethnic militias. Genocide Watch considers South Sudan to be at Stage 9: Extermination";  
   
• from Human Rights Watch:
  long prison sentences for two Belarus pro-democracy leaders; deforestation measures in Brazil not enough to solve Amazon crisis; coup in Guinea; Israel's crimes of apartheid discussed in European Parliament; Rohingya refugee children are being denied an education; poverty and human rights in the United Kingdom; extrajudicial executions disguised as “shoot outs” in Egypt; attacks on schools and protests against Taliban rule in Afghanistan; Syria not safe for returning refugees; relatives of downed Malaysian Airline flight MH17 demand justice; criminal prosecution of a whistleblower in Austria; rare case of accountability for a school attack in Burkina Faso; failing to redistribute COVID-19 surplus vaccine could cost millions of lives; Taliban crackdown on protesters and journalists; researcher on Xinjiang crimes banned from Kazakhstan; mass expulsions of migrants and asylum seekers from Mexico; trial on Bataclan attacks in Paris begins; one year after the fire at the Greek refugee camp of Moria; provide justice to 9/11 victims, stop the "global war on terror"; what to know about Afghan refugees' rights; China's state secrecy affects us all; Qataris denied full citizenship rights; the persecution of a Russian lawyer; the Pope should promote migrants' rights in Hungary; a day to protect education;
  
  
  
  
  
• on democracy:
  police in Mali - which ECOWAS has criticised for not moving towards elections quickly enough - staged a mini-coup by breaking their colleagues who had been arrested on charges of human rights violations out of jail;   a coup in Guinea (although political prisoners have been released) has led to its suspension from ECOWAS;   Nigeria has urged ECOWAS to act to prevent coups;   Brazil's #45-lite is trying #45-style protests against justice;   attempts to mislead voters in Russia;   a peaceful transfer of power after elections in Sao Tome and Principe;   "disinformation, fake news plague German election campaign";   after a promising period, democracy in Tanzania appears to be under threat;   a possible power struggle in Somalia;   "El Salvador’s experiment with Bitcoin has suffered a rocky start after the cryptocurrency tanked in value hours after becoming legal tender";   liberal parties have clearly won ("routed" religious parties) elections in Morocco;   paid disinformation "influencers" on social media in Kenya;   "drivers of populism in Indonesia";   an analysis shows Nigeria's debt is sustainable;  
  
  Australia:   a criticism of Scott for NOT  being Christian;   our Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR);   "there's a separate group of people who economists say have been punished by what they describe as a harsh unemployment welfare system";   "under ... Scott ... , Australia no longer displays compassion and humanity towards those in need";   "a thousand days since Morrison’s promise, there’s still no anti-corruption commission";   an RWNJ in South Australia has been charged after she prepared to try overthrow the Australian government;  
  
  
  (democracy)
  
  
  
• on LGBTIQ+ matters:
  transphobic hate from a NSW state MP - and the national neolib nitwits;   more LGBTIQ-phobia in the Unexceptional States of America - this time over education;   attempts by the NSW government to put the lives of trans kids in schools at risk;  
  
  
• on racism:
  the benefits of Indigenous technology;   "WA traditional owners fear proposed heritage law puts sacred sites at risk";   the US renewable energy sector;  
  
  
• on sexism and misogyny:
  an example of what is needed to overcome the hidebound cost-cutting of our "welfare" system;   the violent extremists running Afghanistan used gunfire to stop a protest march by women - and again, and have started their misogynistic repression;   the need for NSW police to deal with DV by officers ("I was dealing with a perpetrator who was a police officer. He liked control, he carried a gun, he knew how to game the system — and that makes all the difference");   criticism of the national neolib nitwits nominal women's summit - especially Scott's keynote speech (and past comments) - as  "“poorly organised”, “incredibly secretive”, “very exclusionary” and with “a comically narrow remit”" - see also here, here, here, and "positive duty";   "migrant and refugee women can’t be an 'afterthought' in domestic violence action plan";   a web hosting service has shut down a page that allowed people to effectively incite bounty hunting on abortions under a recent scientifically stupid US state law - which state law is now the subject of a US government legal challenge;   appalling abuse of a victim who lodged a complaint of sexual harassment;   the first female Speaker of Parliament in Zambia;   "in a 'historic step,' Mexico's Supreme Court has voted to decriminalise abortion";   "having more female CEOs and stronger laws could help stamp out workplace sexual harassment";   why so many Australians don't have super;   banks are detecting and stopping abusive sexist messages;   a win for women in Malaysia over sexist citizenship laws;   women and child refugees don't have equal access to essential tech;   the national neolib nitwits have successfully ruined our family court;  
  
  
• on ableism:
  discrimination against those who are vision impaired;  
  
  
• on other matters:
  "unnecessary medical costs [are] pushing financially stressed foster carers to bow out";    "an eight-year-old boy's death from asthma was "entirely avoidable", after hospital staff wrongly diagnosed him as having a panic attack";   "children under 10 being placed in residential care with traumatic outcomes";   raising better children;   the need for protection of renters from landlord insurance agents;   loan insurance only protects banks;   a major corporation is continuing to fight against a court order to reinstate workers;   the problem of people stuffing others by getting mortgages on the basis of lies;