Earlier today I exchanged a few text messages with a former colleague, someone I greatly respect and happily mentored, and who I consider a friend. She informed that someone else we both knew when we worked together, someone who had played an instrumental role in that company, had just gone in to palliative care, despite being relatively young.
We opened up a little more than we had before, and I became quite reflective for the rest of the day (which is still continuing as I write this, despite the late hour).
And then I came across this - and I was in the mood to pay attention:
“Trump’s Gaza Grab | Between the Lines - The Wrap with Amy Remeikis” https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/trumps-gaza-grab-between-the-lines/
That began by recalling the appeasement policies of Neville Chamberlain in the 1930s, and outlined the surprising (to me, as I had not heard of it before then) self-censoring of the press at the time - including broadcasting about milk, rather than the Czech crisis.
The article then led into:
“It was this period of history which came to mind as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refused, at least a dozen times, to criticise Donald Trump’s illegal and immoral ‘vision’ to “own” Gaza as if it were a run-down New Jersey warehouse, and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population through their forced removal to surrounding states.
...
“My job here today – I tell you what Australians will be concerned about. They’re concerned about Medicare, they’re concerned about education, they’re concerned about whether they have access to Free TAFE.”
Australians being told about milk, while the world burned.”
The author is right, and Albanese is utterly wrong. Australians are concerned about a bloody sight more than what the Prime Minister listed.
The author had some other criticisms, all very telling, and it crystallised the concerns I have had hovering around the edges of my awareness.
I could write about those in the political arena, but there are other areas - some of which were touched on in the article:
“Almost every Australian is closer to being homeless than ever approaching Dutton’s own personal wealth, but Dutton has so successfully cowed the government, the words ‘top end of town’ have all but been banned from leaving Labor lips. Trans people and their loved ones are watching the world and feeling justifiably terrified, but have found no solace that their own governments will stand up for them. We know, from history, that attacks on trans populations are always a portent of more sinister ideals, but in trying to neutralise Dutton and the other Temu Trumps from further weaponising it as an election issue through a review, the Albanese government has ceded more authority. Albanese’s constant repetition of two-state-solution was meant as a signal Australia disagreed with Trump, but as a defence of values, human rights and international law, it was, at best, mealy-mouthed hollowness.”
I would correct that in that my home state (Victoria) has a government with a long history of actively supporting trans, gender diverse and non-binary people, recently reaffirmed at the Pride March, but the comment about the Federal government is, sadly, valid - and there is also this “lost opportunity”.
The Albanese government is showing signs of a lack of moral courage (and floundering like someone taken from the 1960s to the 1990s - mostly: there are exceptions such as this), but moral courage is required everywhere in life - and is being well exemplified by those who are resisting the tyranny of King Tr_ mp in the USA (more to come tomorrow on that).
Everyone, everywhere on the world, is currently living in a moral Cold War, and has to decide whether they will choose to be decent human beings, or cower into submission on the side of the small-minded, amathiac, unnuanced, hate-filled, cowardly bigots.
Circumstances are dire, and we all have to choose - wisely, I hope, noting #PsychicABetterWorld and candles for Viva La Résistance à Tr_ mp! and the exhortation “may all that I do be of value and actively BPM used for and by the nonphysical BPM”
Choose.
Possible flaws
Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:
- there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;
- I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also other options.
Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here.
(Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear)
Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).#PsychicABetterWorld and candles for Viva La Résistance à Tr_ mp! and may all that I do be of value and actively BPM used for and by the nonphysical BPM
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