Hypocrisy

Part of https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2020/07/post-no-1625-hypocrisy-and-cross.html

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One of the things that has struck me in a bit over three decades of activism, is that some people who want to be supportive of human rights are - appropriately - angry at doubts and aspersions cast against Indigenous people whose appearance does not meet an expected stereotype, yet they are perfectly OK with TGD people being expected to out themselves before the TGD people are treated with decency (this refers to the expectation of confirming pronouns first trope - which is sometimes necessary, but generally is just a tool to allow the bigots to engage in transphobic bashing). The hypocrisy is conerning.

A quote from Abraham Lincoln that bears on these days

“We cannot escape history…. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation…. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth.”

(from “Presidents of War: The Epic Story, from 1807 to Modern Times” by Michael R. Beschloss)

Light slap on the wrist for police who bashed a disabled pensioner

Black Lives Matter!

This court decision is gravely concerning.

It risks promoting a perception that there are two systems of laws - one for police and one for everyone else. This is of concern given the current use of police for enforcing the pandemic lockdown, but also given (a) the current BLM protests around the world, (b) the egregious levels of violence involved - leaving a vulnerable Victorian with exacerbated trauma, (c) the Complete and Utter Lack of Remorse, and (d) the questions that resurface about police competence around people suffering mental health issues (including other police).

While it is true that the police concerned MIGHT lose their jobs as a result of any review Victoria Police MIGHT undertake, I’ve heard police say that losing their jobs is worse because they also lose their status and powers, but that is utterly ridiculous as many other people also lose status and power when they lose their jobs. Such comments show a staggering arrogance, sense of entitlement, and a desperate need to remember that police serve this community - they’re not above it.

In actual fact, police’s special powers do not make them owed special treatment - it makes them subject to being held to standards of accountability that are commensurate with the staggering powers they have.

I know it is important to preserve the independence of the Director (and Office) of Public Prosecutions, but is there an ethical way a member of the public, such as myself, can urge the DPP to appeal this court decision? The website seems to suggest not.

Post script

I have sent the following email to my local MP:

Dear Member for _,

The recent decision by a court not to convict the three police members who violently assaulted and abused a disabled pensioner is gravely concerning (see here - the fines and community service are negligible to the point of being immaterial). 

Apart from the fact that the lack of remorse and the giggling at a member of a minority group raises questions about the fitness of these people to be police, and perhaps other, members of the police to interact with minorities and people with a mental health issue (including other police), this sends an utterly inappropriate impression at a time when protests are being held around the world about police violence against minorities.

It risks further compounding the fear of police that is widespread in many minorities - including, in the LGBTIQ+ communities, as a result of the acquittal of the police who violently raided a gay venue, failed to effectively identify themselves, and crippled a gay man. That fear of police impunity raised by that acquittal was increased by the stupid remarks by the secretary of the police union.

Apart from those I've talked to or listened to, I've seen evidence of this fear on social media.

At a time when police - and soldiers, who even more misogynistic, homophobic/transphobic, and racist (based on those I know and have known over the years - including relatives) - are being used to enforce the necessary lockdown, this court decision is not useful.

I'm aware there is nothing which can be done - our courts and the OPP are quite rightly meant to be independent, but this decision has done a massive amount of harm.

I am also aware that the police concerned MIGHT lose their jobs. So what? People lose their jobs all the time, the failure to convict these police means their dangerous predilections will not be detected by future potential employers (thus putting their co-workers at risk), and other jobs also involve service to the community (as a wastewater engineer who thus serves a public health need, I would argue I do more the wellbeing of members of the community than any single police officer who is below command level). Any arguments about loss of status or prestige are contemptible.

As a final point, I consider it is high time the oaths taken by police and PSOs are changed:

1. the order of "maintaining peace" and "enforcing laws" needs to be reversed - laws first, then peace. As it is now it psychologically encourages the authoritarian arrogance of too many police; and
   
2. the oath needs to be to "the people of Victoria", not to a foreign monarch who embodies class division and elitism in society, which also psychologically increases elitist arrogance and an us-them mentality which leads to the horrors being witnessed daily in the USA.

Black Lives Matter!

New book for wish list - and an answer

I have added a new book to my wishlist: Anne  Applebaum's "Twilight of Democracy". I never thought I would find a good explanation of what I have been looking for in terms of why people become such flawed humans as to support current fascist and managerially incompetent views coming from the right of politics, but I have.

There's a good review of this book at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/12/anne-applebaum-how-my-old-friends-paved-the-way-for-trump-and-brexit, but the comments I've read that resonated with me are those around an "authoritarian predisposition" (attributed by the author to Karen  Stenner - see here, and book here) - people who "cannot tolerate complexity . . . It is anti-pluralist".

That's it - that's what I've been looking for: it is having fear of complexity (FoC - yes, another  acronym) that needs to be noticed, acknowledged and remedied - both in children one is raising, and in organisations of all stripes and types.

I'd been thinking of a post that boils down to "obsession is not professionalism" - which was going to be about the simplistic and rigid thinking which, combined with lack of life experience, winds up putting people in charge of engineering who think - wrongly - that the only way one can be "professional" is by being obsessed with something. In actual fact, being obsessed about one's job (and that is what professions are - jobs) makes one more likely to be prickly about change, defensive, intolerant of challenge, and out of touch with other matters - such as the world becoming more inclusive (I sometimes wonder if some of the dinosaurs know women have the vote). For more on such problems see here, here, here, and, above all else, here.

I am now considering whether that fear of complexity is actually a better way to approach this - that is, the dinosaurs are afraid of the complexity of a normal life, and of the fact that there is no single, clear cut, "best" solution to a problem.

That FoC may well also be an effective way to approach problem parenting - where children are raised to be "mini me's", rather than capable of achieving their full potential.

This may also help address such problems as conspiracy nut jobs and resistance to wearing face masks.

On "federal agents" in the USA

The following is from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=United_States_Department_of_Justice&oldid=969083258#History:

Grant appointed Amos T. Akerman as Attorney General and Benjamin H. Bristow as America's first solicitor general the same week that Congress created the Department of Justice. The Department's immediate function was to preserve civil rights. It set about fighting against domestic terrorist groups who had been using both violence and litigation to oppose the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments to the Constitution.

Both Akerman and Bristow used the Department of Justice to vigorously prosecute Ku Klux Klan members in the early 1870s. In the first few years of Grant's first term in office, there were 1,000 indictments against Klan members with over 550 convictions from the Department of Justice. By 1871, there were 3,000 indictments and 600 convictions with most only serving brief sentences while the ringleaders were imprisoned for up to five years in the federal penitentiary in Albany, New York. The result was a dramatic decrease in violence in the South. Akerman gave credit to Grant and told a friend that no one was “better” or “stronger” than Grant when it came to prosecuting terrorists. George H. Williams, who succeeded Akerman in December 1871, continued to prosecute the Klan throughout 1872 until the spring of 1873, during Grant's second term in office. Williams then placed a moratorium on Klan prosecutions partially because the Justice Department, inundated by cases involving the Klan, did not have the manpower to continue prosecutions.

This was something I read about last night in Ron Chernow's biography of Grant - the impression I had was that the role of federal (justice - there were others) agent was basically created to protect black people against white supremacists.

“To aid the anti-Klan effort, Akerman fielded a vast array of resources, including federal marshals and attorneys of the brand-new Justice Department. Members of the nascent Secret Service pitched in with undercover detective work.” 

Are these the people now bashing and abusing black people and their supporters on behalf of a white supremacist US president?

If yes, wow - “how the mighty have fallen”.

Thoughts

My time (and energy) are a bit limited of late, so I thought I'd just do a brief little post of . . . (random) thoughts.

Firstly, I've been working on a book to be titled "The Scarred of Modern Life". However, I finally weakened and read a sample from the e-book version of Mary L Trump's excellent book "Too Much and Never Enough" (Simon and Schuster UK (2020), ISBN-10 1471190137, ISBN13: 9781982141462; Amazon), on her uncle, the notorious despot, POTUS45.

This well written and well conceptualised book, which is now on my wish list, has beaten me to the punch on some of what I want to cover.  It is powerful, insightful, and, in my opinion, essential reading for all who are voting in next US Presidential election (obviously not me - but I get to comment because the incompetence of #45 is harming my world).

A few points which came to mind for me upon reading this are:

• how make sure there are no others like this in the future? The lessons that seems pretty clear from the book is that a major contributing factor would be better parenting - at the very least, avoiding abuse. Better parenting is also aided by allowing choice - by not taking the "mini me" approach, where one's children are expected to be copies of oneself, rather than whoever their truest self is; 
• how much of this applies to our neoliberal Prime Minister Morrison and his cohort, who were so pathetic as human beings that they needed lessons on how to be empathic?

I was going to add in a list of the faults of this appalling coterie, but I think the empathy lessons mostly nails the problem (there are also ideological flaws, but I'll come to those shortly).

I also want to reiterate one of the reasons I will not be naming people in my forthcoming autobiography: normal human beings are capable of change. I may well have interacted with people during a bad part of their life, or they may simple have grown as human beings - just as Nelson Mandela and Gandhi did, for instance.

Others don't grow. #45 is one example, but I've also known several in my life, and one such person who I found out recently seems to be in the no growth category is someone who will be appearing in my autobiography when I write about living on a boat in the 90s because of his utterly disgusting habit of - without prior permission, or any concept that he needed to ask for permission - throwing his used handkerchiefs in with my clothes when I was washing them at the marina laundry. Now, if I had the right cycle, extra disinfectant, correct washing powder, etc, that would be OK, but I didn't, and, above all else, it was a gross invasion of my personal boundaries, including my right to safely do clean washing.

The bastard ignored my polite requests, and my removals of his filthy garments, until one day when I removed his bloody stuff I threw them in some dirt and told him, when he asked about it, that I would call the police if he ever did that again.

THAT finally seemed to get through to the bastard, and he stopped thereafter, but he was a patronising, paternalistic and, I suspect, misogynistic character.

I'm still not naming him, because he might have changed, and he might change in the future, and that change may well be made more easily if I don't name him.

But if such behaviour happened to me again, from anyone, I won't stuff around, I'll go straight to a lawyer, and then get the police involved.

That sort of haughty, arrogant, conceited, self-important, entitled presumption should never be allowed to go unremarked or unchallenged anywhere (as I've written about here) - and especially when it occurs in a child (the vast majority of such cases in children being, in my experience, caused by similarly flawed adults).

That sort of mindset is also responsible for the appalling character flaws of some police, some military, and Goddess knows how many intelligence service people - flaws which make those people unsuited and unfit for those positions on the grounds of incompetence. (incidentally, I put their mindset in the same category as rapists.)

On that latter category, intelligence agencies, I'd like to provide a few quotes from "The Pentagon Papers: The Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Neil Sheehan, Smith Hedrick, E. W. Kenworthy, Butterfield Fox, James L. Greenfield (Amazon):

“The guarding of military and diplomatic secrets at the expense of informed representative government provides no real security for our Republic.”

“Secrecy in government is fundamentally anti-democratic, perpetuating bureaucratic errors. Open debate and discussion of public issues are vital to our national health. On public questions there should be “open and robust debate.” New York Times, Inc. V. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254, 269-270.”

“The dominant purpose of the First Amendment was to prohibit the widespread practice of governmental suppression of embarrassing information. It is common knowledge that the First Amendment was adopted against the widespread use of the common law of seditious libel to punish the dissemination of material that is embar[r]assing to the powers-that-be. See Emerson, The System of Free Expressions, c. V (1970); Chafee, Free Speech in the United States, c. XIII (1941).”

Obviously, some of that is limited here as a consequence of being a separate sovereign nation with our own laws, but the principles still apply, as we also aspire to being a democracy.

Given that, how do we get them out of those positions, and how do we make sure such people are not created in the first place?

and in the meantime, how do we limit the damage done by them - and by those who are sloppy, careless, or flawed in their thinking?

As an example of the latter, why do people hand over their e-signatures without a thought in the world as to the consequences? Do they know that companies they're giving their signatures to have safe and secure procedures generally, let alone in how they manage copies of e-signatures?

As an example, I go to Australia Post rather than establish an account with an online money transfer company because my personal details are at considerable risk as:

(a) such companies are typically only as strong as their weakest link - as one social media platform has demonstrated;
(b) many companies are so stupid when it comes to online security they get people to change their passwords every 3 months, or think having back up questions is a good thing;
(c) I have had secretaries tell me - quite pompously, I must say - they would "only" use an e-signature of mine if a manage authorised it (FFS! As a professional engineer, my signature has professional implications - and only gets used with MY permission, no matter how inconvenient that is for managers. I've also had other engineers literally forge my physical signature to comply with a timeline - i.e., for convenience, rather than legality. When I quietly commented over the phone that such would result in me calling the police, they whited out the forgery, and presented it to me the next day. Again, FFS. I have only once had to start taking a company to the Institute Of Engineers Australia [now "trading as" [just change your bloody name] "Engineers Australia" Ethics Committee, but I would again if I needed to - and the bloody registration scheme we have misses all of that); and
(d) only one system I've come across (see here) has ever come close to adequate security over the use of e-signatures.

The pompous and stupid think trust in a company should be automatic: no, it shouldn't - and the stupidity of our neoliberal national government on online security has also shown that.

(I'd trust the companies if someone I knew could be trusted, like Bruce  Schneier, had sufficient access to say that company could be trusted.)

Unfortunately, I also know that Australia Post also fail abysmally on inclusivity matters, from when I have provided a witness signature for a friend and the bastard I was served by was quite transphobic (but their online security seems reasonable - see here).

Actually, thirty years ago I realised that trying to pass makes no difference - despite the claims of the shallow and superficial and quite unthinking transphobes who claim they want that, and then act differently when people do pass - and that is from personal experience of such transphobes in the 90s, particularly in the workplace.

The clincher for me was when I had a cisgender woman with a deep voice express her relief at not being alone (this was part of the inspiration for this short story).

The bigots can go to hell (or could if it existed). They are the ones with the problems - and it doesn't matter that they may not have thought about it: they should have, in this day and age. (CN  Lester has some great comments on this also - see here and here.)

The truth is that things like their requests - and this applies just as much when the "requests" are made by people in other minorities, or even by trans people -  to be told formally first of people's pronouns is just an excuse to be passive aggressive.

I met people in the 80s who didn't need such requests, or prior explanations, before behaving like decent human beings. Every bigot since then has shown that they are flawed as human beings.

I would also like to commend Victor Zammit's updated book "A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife" (Amazon; see also here), which has some brilliant analysis of the types of thinking problems that results in, in the context he is writing about, illogical resistance to evidence of personal survival of consciousness after death, but also explains the illogical persistence of transphobia, slavery, neoliberalism, and paternalism of the type I encountered at the marina in the 90s and the world is experiencing from the voters and the jackbooted thugs who support #45 - those problems are ALL linked.

Earlier online versions of the key chapters of Mr Zammit's book that I am referring to can be found at:

• http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter27.html; 
• http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter28.html; and 
• http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter29.html. 

The long term solutions to all these problems are:

• teach critical thinking in schools, which helps kids be resistant to commercial and business propaganda (aka advertising), fake news, and, if done properly, bad parenting; 
• start taking pride in doing things well, not cheaply - cheaply is the path of neoliberal ideology, slavery, and misogyny (including all forms of violence against women), misandry and transphobia and non-consensual surgery on intersex children (including all forms of violence against these people), and all other forms of discrimination and bigotry and exclusion; and 
• accept that trying to do things properly will take and refinement.

 This wound up being longer than I planned.

Cross-posting: Post No. 1,622 - In this week’s news

This originally appeared on my main blog at https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2020/07/post-no-1622-in-this-weeks-news.html.

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Black Lives Matter!

Stay safe - wash your hands, practice social distancing and wear a face mask in public, and follow informed medical advice - and be considerate towards those at risk or in situations of vulnerability (including economic) while the COVID-19 pandemic is a problem.

This is a new, very cut down series of news aggregation posts based on some observations on matters that struck a personal note: unlike the former “Gnwmythr’s News”, it is not trying to convey key events. Also, I am now going to start referring to specific Australian states using accepted abbreviations.

Content Warning: the linked articles and their descriptions here may be about violence, abuse, hate, and other problems.

My articles this week include:   a draft proposal for a “gold standard” for inclusion and diversity in organisations, and thoughts on racism and militarism, personal responsibility, the pandemic, and new deputy police commissioners.

On personal / spiritual matters:   “the psychological toll of rude e-mails”;   will we be good ancestors to future generations”.

Reading/viewing I found interesting this week included:   the geopolitics of Oman, which is apparently “the Switzerland of West Asia” - and a repressive  monarchy;   reflections on queer identity;   examination of the problems with historical analogies;   a call for a “new social compact that directs markets and empowers communities towards public goals”.

Overall Commentary:
   this week the egregious violence of bullies has been met, and moves are being made against other abuses and abusers (including a warning by the UN against the USA) - but many still remain, while the struggle for democracy, freedom, and inclusion continues, with lip service still being a problem (sometimes despite good intentions - the need to raise consciousness remains an imperative, especially around the impact of authorities such as police on minorities). The current nonviolent resistance is setting a good basis for what could happen after the US presidential election. The environment and the climate crisis also remain secondary considerations, as people and nations continue to struggle with the pandemic (which is challenging some ideologies with a mind crushing severity), but some good steps and activism are happening. China and burma continue with their genocides, the privileged continue with their discrimination, and tensions are growing or being struggled with between several nations - and others are meddling, notably Russia.

In This Week’s News:   a critique of social media “debates”;   work on using machine learning to detect “foreign” trolls (how is unconscious bias of the programmers being dealt with?);   an article on being bipolar;   bacteria appear to be more dangerous in space;   genocidal burma is launching a satellite.

In the Environmental Arena, where we have been fighting World War III for some time now:   a win against the depredations of #45;   rushed and concerning environmental laws in Australia;   more on the devastation caused by last summer’s bushfires in Australia;   plastic waste in the ocean continues to grow;   a formerly sceptical builder now supports green homes;   sharks are “functionally extinct” in some areas;   illegal fishing by China off North Korea;   the influence of peer behaviour on adoption of more sustainable behaviour;   a social media map of engagement on climate change.
   other environmental matters have occurred in:   NSW;   Kenya (good news);   USA;   Senegal;   Malawi (good news).

This week on the Protests in the USA and associated protests/issues elsewhere:
   THE UN HAS ISSUED A WARNING TO THE USA OVER DISPROPORTIONAL POLICE VIOLENCE;   more on the crisis in Portland, Oregon, where mothers and others have forced the thugs to retreat into a building several nights in a row, and the mayor, after being tear gassed, accused #45 of urban warfare - other mayors have also decried the jackbooted thugs (whose actions were foretold by immigration savagery), who are actually increasing resistance;   US air force surveillance of the protestors (and direction of the thugs, perhaps?);   a well-articulated call for social investment, not social control;   before the appalling widespread egregious excesses of police and paramilitaries in the USA over recent months, particularly in response to the BLM protests, I looked at the possibility of violence after the upcoming US presidential elections: this article (by others, not me) updates that, and highlights the need to be ready for mass nonviolent civil resistance - of the type where mothers have successfully and nonviolently forced thugs back into buildings, for instance - see also this, on preparations by the US Democrats;   two rich people who pointed weapons at BLM protesters have been charged - as they should be;
   in Australia:   appalling racism by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan (if they want to claim ignorance, they are incompetent and unfit to be in uniform);
   Police:   an update on the militarisation of police;   three police in my home state have been convicted of assault of a disabled pensioner (now, how is a recurrence of that going to be prevented?);   police violence in Israel against protestors who were unable to escape;
   suggestions/recommended actions / noteworthy Responses:   creative wording has allowed the US military to ban a racist flag without using the word “ban”;
   Analysis/Commentary:   here;
   #45 and his 20,000 lies:   a former associate of #45 has been released after a judge determined that he was re-jailed for planning to write a book (those persons who did that are unfit, and must be removed from duty and charged).

On Human and Animal Rights:
   more abuse of Uighurs in China;   a former concentration camp guard has been convicted of being an accessory to murder;   a call “for Australia’s SAS to stop its culture of cover-up and take accountability for possible war crimes”;   France/Libya;   Indian police;   Malaysia is aiding and abetting burma’s genocide against the Rohingya;   forced relocations, online suppression, and propaganda by China in the occupied nation of Tibet -  and a tech-based protests at the Chinese Embassy in the UK;   a couple charged after they protested in Hong Kong have been acquitted;
   unconscious bias;   “sportswashing”;   the risks of China’s new social control system being applied to foreign businesses;
   “unconscious” racism in newsrooms;   even healthy black children have worse outcomes after surgery (possibly because of unconscious bias);   a call for truth telling in the NT to be considered urgent;   a racist cheese name will finally be changed (the dates don’t support claims around the name being of a person’s);   Indigenous people are being excluded from Australia’s water market;
   generating movements for change inside companies;
   trans rights and feminism are compatible;   bias against same gender parents;
   moves to encourage women to stand for local Council positions in elections in my home state;   staggering revelations that vetting by a conservative party in one Australian state included sexual histories;   women’s pay is still less than men’s;   grave concerns over a judge with more than 20 decisions having been overturned;   toxic masculinity (“how rigid ideas of ‘manning up’ harm young men and those around them”);
   disturbing dinosaur responses on consent in the extradition trial of an alleged child abuser in Israel - but possibly valid concerns about a possibly unfair trial;   an examination of the re-victimisation of child abuse survivors;
   two murderers have been let off the hook because they “mistook” their victim for someone else . . . (? Really? WTF, Israel?! Murder is OK if it is done against the people you intended to murder?);
   after seven years of us being savage butchers, more delayed medical care of asylum seekers;
   a Reuters exclusive reports that more than 1,000 employees at a social media platform had the power to have hacked it.
 - Torture, Disappearances and Execution/Killing matters (good and bad) in:   a review of legal aspects;   Iran;
 - Refugee, immigration, and migration matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Australia;   France;   Uganda;
 - Racism/caste based matters including land rights (good and bad) have occurred in:   Australian media;   UK;   Brazil;   the International Baccalaureate program’s marking algorithm;
 - Trafficking/Slavery & Extreme Worker Abuse/Child Abuse matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Japan;   Australia;   possibly Queensland;   France;   Israel;   a call to use existing laws to stop traffickers taking advantage of the pandemic;   Mexico;   Africa;
 - LGBTIQ+ matters (including internalised homophobia/transphobia) (good and bad) have occurred in:   Morocco;   Israel edges towards the late 20^th Century - despite the bigots’ outrage;   Poland;   Uganda;
 - Sexism (including internalised sexism), misogyny/misandry and domestic violence matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Ukraine;   US Republicans;   Indonesia (egregious misogyny);   UK university;
 - Disability matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   the Royal Commission is not receiving submissions from Indigenous and CALD people;   Singapore (good news);
 - Freedom of the Press / Expression matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   the Philippines;   a protest in China;   Malaysia;   Turkey;   Hungary;   Sudan;
 - Privacy/Surveillance matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   mobile phones;
 - Repression/Oppression / reduction of democracy and other civil & political rights matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   China;   China/the rest of the world;   Russia;   DR Congo;   Cuba (of their doctors);   Iran;   Belarus (good news);   a global perspective;   South Sudan;   Zimbabwe;   Nigeria;   Tanzania.

In the related human rights arena of Employment:   the neolibs have perverted flexible work (in the 80s, I was told I could do work on the train, if I wished, but could only book half of it: I told them to shove that “offer” and kept using my train commute for reading);   a challenge.

Risks or occurrences of Atrocities, Mass Violence and/or War(s) this week in:   accusations Russia has started weaponising space - the article is not quite correct when it says no other nation has done this: there was the non-missile SDI system of the USA, which never became functional, but was tried;   Israel;   West Bank;   the Philippines, China, Venezuela, and Afghanistan;   signs of ethnic cleaning in Ethiopia;   “police violence and property destruction during evictions in Kenya’s Rift Valley [the Mau Forest] and a lack of support afterward has caused deaths and desperation for the [more than 50,000] people evicted”;   USA;   Syria;   Lebanon/northern Israel;   India’s nuclear arsenal;   Israel-Syria border;   Iranian aligned threats against US forces in Iraq;   the USA may resume nuclear weapons testing;   South Sudan;   Central African Republic;   Sudan;   Nigeria;   Somalia;   Uganda;   Sudan;   DR Congo;   Egypt;   Sierra Leone;
And:   mistaken identity led to a wrongful killing by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan (which is a failure of what? Intelligence? Cultural briefings? Procedure?);   India and China are talking over their border dispute on the India-Tibet border;   shielding education from violent extremists in Kenya;   a buyback scheme in Nigeria for guns.
Other atrocity/violence matters have occurred in:   Israel.

In the Democracy, Governance, Politics, Public Ethics, and Society arena:
   our debt problem is household, not governmental;   the rich aren’t taxed equally on earnings from savings;   company disclosure laws in Australia have been watered down - despite advice not to;   a Guardian Australia exclusive reports a power company was invited to apply for a grant two days after it was awarded the money . . . ;   an open letter by 73 professors to the Education Minister on the recent mangling of the Uni sector;   cut-backs are crippling our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade;   Israel’s attempts to buy favour is struggling (wow - what MORONS in the photo with this article);   some conservatives in the USA are trying to ensure #45 loses;   attempts to open up #45’s classification “system” are underway;   after the UK Labour party apologised, several whistleblowers and a journalist have sued a former leader of that party for defamation.
other democracy, governance, politics, public ethics, and society matters have occurred in:   Australia.

On Disasters this week:   a dengue outbreak in Singapore;   flooding in China;
And:   improved volcano warnings in NZ;   better warning of cyclones in the Pacific.

On Humanitarian Aid and Development:   ways to  get around Russia’s ad China’s attempt to force the rest of the world to allow Syrians to be killed (the referral to the General Assembly option is a matter that is long overdue).

Internationally:
   the racist (and supported by racists) #45 is again threatening to not accept the election result if he loses (that will be a time for sitting in the streets and shutting everything down until he leaves - the sort of People Power that peacefully overthrew the despot Marcos: I hope preparations are being made - including how to stop the violent thugs in uniform);   more post-Brexit fallout for UK residents;   more protests in Israel - some against corruption, some morons against virus containment measures;   speculation the US-South Korea military alliance is under strain;   an examination of the possible causes (including poor maintenance) of recent fires and explosions in Iran;   “when great powers fail, New Zealand and other small states must organise to protect their interests”;   the problems of Joghaz Reservoir, between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which has not been maintained since a 1992 war;
on China and the new ideological Cold War this week:   Australian consideration of visa applications from Hong Kongers could be based on Australia’s self-interest, not merit;   multi-national naval operations in the South China Sea - with Chinese ships engaging in confrontations in international waters;   the USA has ordered China to close a consulate to protect US IP, which China has threatened to retaliate over - and has done so by closing a US consulate;   China is threatening to stop recognising a class of passports used by Hong Kongers;   the USA has extended its economic blacklist over China's treatment of Uyghurs;   claims a popular social media platform is not controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, as the app is not available in China, stores its data in the USA, and is planning on moving its headquarters to London (but is it subject to Chinese law, given that is where it originated? It may still be banned);   China is boosting its capacity to invade Taiwan;   a spy for China in the USA;
on Israel’s intended Annexation of the West Bank:   media silence . . . ;
on the Nile Dam:   calls for the African Union to mediate;
other international matters have occurred in:   Taiwan.

In Africa - Democracy, Governance, Politics, Public Ethics, And Society and International Relations:   digital rights activism;   a local drug problem in Somalia;   “second thoughts” about Chinese funds;   Malawi’s new leader is seeking change;   an opposition leader will stand for election in Uganda;   anti-government protests in Guinea;   US sanctions on a Russian to stop him “meddling” in Sudan;   tensions are growing between Egypt and Libya;   calls for a hybrid court in South Sudan.

On the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus (there are other novel coronaviruses) (seven major risks to watch here, and seven sins of thought to avoid here), and Wear Masks!!!):
   neighbourhood and social media tensions over premature/uninformed judgementalism vs. ensuring people are doing what they should;   the personal heartbreak;   dangerous misinformation by a conservative media conglomerate;   a clumsy (many of the issues raised as being debated now have been covered off previously - e.g., in Gareth Evans book [Amazon]) and noncommittal attempt to consider applying R2P to the USA over its mishandling of pandemic (I’m going to say no, as diluting R2P from violent deaths to health issues is counterproductive - I’m more inclined to consider R2P applicable to BLM);   the need to overcome psychological biases;   “a job guarantee costs far less than unemployment”;

   good stories/news:   a virtual window  swap project;   solar power in Kenya; 

   medical aspects:   the exhaustion of ICU staff;   A Promising Vaccine;   deaths from the virus are causing more lost years of life than the three leading causes of death, showing this is not only an old person’s disease;   single use masks have to be disposed of properly;   a rebuttal of some of the myths around wearing facemasks;   six types of the virus;   regulators is multiple nations will cooperate to speed the spread of a vaccine;

   resources:   data on numbers (Australia is 127^th on cases/million people, and 141^st on deaths/million people - the USA is 10^th on both counts, despite what their moron-in-chief claims);   guidance on my home state’s face mask requirements;   safe workplace guidelines;   a general guide;   terminology;

   Human Rights Aspects (crisis . . . running summary of impacts on elections here):   concerns that Chinese facemasks may have been made by inmates of re-education/concentration camps;   a 9.2% rise in murders of women in Mexico has occurred under the pandemic lockdown;   xenophobia in Italy;   recovery and the SDGs;   a UN report has suggested a temporary basic income for the world’s poor;
   also including
   racism:   Brazil;
   sexism:   women’s sport;
   work / workers’ rights:   the benefits that came from a higher unemployment benefit;
   increased opportunistic repression/oppression / reduction of democracy:   Israel;   Zimbabwe.

   Environmental Impacts:   the opportunity facing Australia during recovery;   reopening is ending the pause in GHG emissions;   improved monitoring of minor earthquakes;   reduced air travel has reduced data from planes and thus limited weather forecasting;

   Australia:   an Indigenous person’s commentary that Indigenous Australians survival of the ice age and the British invasion left them well placed to survive the pandemic;   50 leading economists support increased government debt to deal with the economic fallout;   tighter border closures (changes are needed to deal with health emergencies - and how STUPID is it to send POLICE to check on whether some has terminal cancer. FFS!) as problems are developing in NSW, as my home state continues on a rollercoaster (the emerging details around the hotel quarantine guards are staggering) and a warning is made the virus may already be circulating in other states - this is leading to: some panic buying, calls for paid pandemic leave (now provided in my home state), mask wearing “being embraced”, calls for other places in Australia to enforce wearing face masks - and comments by experts that we were late, arguments pointing out that the neolibs are “channelling” the USA’s moron-in-chief, as 100,000 Australians wait for approved home care and Australians say they would pay more (in taxes) for better aged care there is a risk of collapse of our aged care sector, an examination of the vagueness aka flexibility of the new rules and their enforcement (excessive of minorities) and a valid question as to people’s motivations for asking questions, and lockdown in prisons;   an article that includes a reasonable discussion on why people don’t answer phones - except it does NOT cover those with hearing problems - who also have problems with face masks, and the need for callers to leave messages;   the ongoing trauma faced by tower residents;   as the inaccuracies and shortcomings of our “unemployment” rate are revealed, the possibility of millions winding up in poverty;   as our neoliberal PM tries to get businesses and schools to reopen, he HYPOCRITICALLY  shuts down the national Parliament . . . which is being belatedly opposed by the ALP;   ideas for flexibility around business operations;   how to better communicate with CALD communities - according to those communities;   neoliberal interference with social welfare in accordance with their twisted thinking (I’d like to see the same rules applied to them one day);   the struggle with the second lockdown;   some of the complexities around Australians trying to come home;   wearing facemasks is now compulsory in parts of my home state (where, staggeringly, people have not been self isolating after being tested), but police will allegedly “be lenient”, and people have been asked to not vilify those not wearing masks (like those us who wore masks were “not” vilified?);   more (concerning) use of military personnel;   flu deaths are down this year (one of the battles I lost in the 1980s was over disinfecting the air flow in air conditioning - which CAN be done);   our manufacturing industry might finally get a boost;   allegations some medical insurance companies “failed” Australians are disputed;   the international student sector will start to reopen;

   Internationally:   in India, where “43% children with disabilities planning to drop out due to difficulties faced in e-education”;   Hong Kong;   the reopened UK - which has stopped reporting death figures allegedly over accuracy concerns - is at risk of a second wave;   divisions in the EU;   Iran has released more accurate data;   parents breaking isolation regulations have killed a childcare worker;   India;   South Africa;   France has made face masks compulsory in all enclosed public spaces;   Canada;   Europe is moving closer to  a pandemic aid package,   as the US continues to engage in its preliminary dithering;   protests seek more nurses in Israel, which has closed its borders;   not enough use of contact racing in the USA;   India’s numbers may be low, and it is making returning migrant workers pay for quarantine, but a farm revolution may be underway;   additional control measures in Singapore;   Hong Kong spike may have been from seafarers;   Ecuador’s Indigenous people;

   Africa:   tech savvy young people in Zimbabwe are fighting disinformation;   health workers are being overloaded;

   Globally:   more nations are reimposing lockdowns;   a multinational is using an app to aid its workforce in returning to offices;   against concerns about guidelines not addressing airborne virus (air flows can be disinfected, but it takes money - as I stated above, I lost a battle on that in the 1980s), corporations are downsizing their office sizes now that they’ve finally switched on to the benefits of home working;   the devastation facing global workers;

   Stupidity:   #45 is trying to stop testing (by cutting off funding) and accurate advice;   an Israeli school;   Israel.

WLNGRHDMT

And finally . . . Black Lives Matter!