FROM this week’s news ON: politics & democracy, and international affairs [Note: Content Warning - links to distressing reports on this topic. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

From thiis week’s news on politics & democracy, and international affairs (note: I may continue to add links for a few days, possibly up to a week, after these are published), and noting the conflicts, listed here, for instance, and other global issues, such as those listed here, that may not have made it into this weeks news: 

 

• “Every Propaganda Technique Explained in 11 Minutes”   https://youtu.be/sybo484veJY?si=h9YoqqIej73Mzibs   Very brief “explanations”, but a useful summary  
  

 

• “What latest polling says about the mood in Ukraine – and the desire to remain optimistic amid the suffering”   https://theconversation.com/what-latest-polling-says-about-the-mood-in-ukraine-and-the-desire-to-remain-optimistic-amid-the-suffering-221559   Some very interesting insights: a peace deal is more attractive, but Ukrainians still do not want to cede any land (if the war in West Asia spreads, I consider they may lose that choice - particularly if they lose US support)   
  

• the ICJ has  issued a determination in the matter of a case brought by Ukraine in 2017 (i.e., before the recent invasion by Russia) based on actions by Russia from 2014   “World court rejects bulk of Ukraine’s terrorism charges against Russia”   https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/01/1146107   “The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on Wednesday that Russia had violated global anti-terrorism and anti-racial discrimination treaties, but dismissed most of the charges Kyiv brought against Moscow stemming from its 2014 invasion of Ukraine”   This decision is NOT related to the other case Ukraine has brought against Russia, alleging genocide from the current invasion  
  

• in a fit of pique at being held to account for destroying democracy,   “Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to leave ECOWAS bloc with immediate effect”   https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20240128-burkina-faso-mali-and-niger-to-leave-ecowas-bloc-with-immediate-effect   “Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso announced Sunday they would be leaving the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) “without delay”, citing the [alleged] injustice of sanctions ECOWAS levied on each country following takeovers by military juntas”   

• “Hong Kong to create its own national security law, years after Beijing law crushed dissent”   https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20240130-hong-kong-create-national-security-law-beijing-law-dissent    I am still staggered as to how anyone could have honestly thought democracy would continue in Hong Kong after it was handed back ...   

• “Armenia joins International Criminal Court, Moscow decries 'unfriendly step'”   https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20240201-armenia-joins-international-criminal-court-moscow-decries-unfriendly-step   Well done Armenia   
  

• “Secret EU plan ‘to sabotage Hungarian economy’ revealed as anger mounts at Orbán”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/29/secret-eu-plan-to-sabotage-hungarian-economy-revealed-as-anger-mounts-at-orban   This utterly unacceptable. Hungary is still a sovereign nation, and even if its actions are - as I consider they are - morally reprehensible, any response must avoid the mistake of dragging one down to the level of also being morally reprehensible. From a human aspect, punishing those Hungarians who disagree with their government is only increasing the number of humans who are suffering - it is not doing anything constructive    However, subsequently   “EU agrees €50bn package for Ukraine as Viktor Orbán bows to pressure”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/01/eu-agrees-50bn-package-for-ukraine-as-viktor-orban-bows-to-pressure   This removes the excuse for the contemplated retaliation, but that the retaliation was contemplated needs to be addressed  
  

 

• “Prominent Australians urge Albanese government to adopt activist middle power role to head off war between US and China | Australian foreign policy | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/31/prominent-australians-urge-albanese-government-to-adopt-activist-middle-power-role-to-head-off-war-between-us-and-china   Hmm. They have a point (read the article)  
  

 

• “Advancing 2024: Towards a More Inclusive Agenda at all Levels of Government - The Australian Independent Media Network”   https://theaimn.com/advancing-2024-towards-a-more-inclusive-agenda-at-all-levels-of-government/   

• “‘Damning indictment’ of insurers after 2022 floods”   https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2024/02/01/damning-indictment-insurers-2022-floods   “Hostile, aggressive and underhand behaviour by insurance companies in the aftermath of the 2022 floods has been called out during a parliamentary inquiry”    

• “Class warfare! - The Australian Independent Media Network”   https://theaimn.com/class-warfare-2/   by the neolibs and their business buddies   

• “How The Tuskegee Experiments Still Impact Trust For Medical Industry”   https://medium.com/afrosapiophile/how-the-tuskegee-experiments-still-impact-trust-for-medical-industry-a933f4059216   

• “Third neo-N__i gathering broken up in Sydney | SBS News”   https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/if-it-wasnt-so-serious-it-would-be-pathetic-third-neo-n__i-gathering-broken-up-in-nsw/45vz8tbo7   and   “N__i salute to be explicitly outlawed in NSW”   https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/nsw/2024/01/29/n__i-salute-to-be-outlawed-nsw   “Bans on N__i symbolism will extend to white power salutes in NSW after a group of “ridiculous” racists mounted a series of demonstrations in Sydney”   I have chosen not to name them as part of my policy of not giving oxygen to hate groups. Also, other states (including mine) have already instituted such bans  
  

• “Michael Pascoe: Treasury degraded to PR spinners – what everyone’s missed”   https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2024/01/31/michael-pascoe-treasury-pr-spin   

• “Home truths: TV’s Kevin McCloud thinks Australia should stop building such big houses”   https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2024/feb/01/grand-designs-kevin-mccloud-tv-australia-should-stop-building-such-big-houses   YES!!!   
  

• “When Are Police Killings Justifiable? The Coldbath Fields Riot”   https://youtube.com/shorts/RVz540QLXK4?si=JvZZWwHtqp7NLF-p   The title is actually slightly misleading: this refers to the killing of police - which is a manifestly excessive punishment for abuse of power, which the police were initially found guilty of. Had society at that time not been generally so violent and hierarchical, I suspect a better discussion on abuse of power/misconduct and a more appropriate penalty than murder by a mob would have been found. I consider the argument in other online sources that their conduct was not excessive to be at the very least disingenuous - and bad enough that I won’t link to it   

• “Freedom of information laws are key to exposing AI wrongdoing. The current system isn’t up to the task”   https://theconversation.com/freedom-of-information-laws-are-key-to-exposing-ai-wrongdoing-the-current-system-isnt-up-to-the-task-221404  

My links for activism post may aid any activism you may decide to do on any/all of these. If you do, don’t get too fixated on specific instances of problems - important though they may well be: take a moment to also consider the broader issues these incidents and groups of incidents may suggest/reveal.

Note: as with other mass murderers/serial killers/and the like, violent extremists and other evil people/groups crave publicity, so I refuse to give that to them - including not using their names (which is a policy adopted by good law enforcement and media for other mass murderers - as I can do as I am a secondary news source: the name(s) are in the primary sources if people wish to know them).

 

 

 

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

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 they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and 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”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/