Saturday 10 February 2024

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: 

  • “Ukrainian special forces ‘in Sudan operating against Russian mercenaries’ | Sudan | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/06/ukrainian-special-forces-sudan-russian-mercenaries-wagner   “Video reportedly from Ukrainian intelligence shows captured Russian saying he is from Wagner group   ...   The location and content of the video have not been independently verified.   However, it has surfaced following months of speculation that Ukrainian forces are operating in Sudan as part of an emerging campaign by Kyiv to strike at Russian interests far beyond the Ukraine war’s frontlines.”   Until this report, I’ve been reluctant to include news reports suggesting this, as I assumed keeping as many of your best troops active in Ukraine would be what makes most sense - particularly in the battle for international support, but it seems I may have been wrong. I remain doubtful, however, that whatever Ukraine is doing in Africa will have a significant impact on the war in Ukraine - although it may help the people of Africa   

 


  • “H_____s may sabotage western internet cables in Red Sea, Yemen telecoms firms warn | Yemen | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/05/h_____s-may-sabotage-western-internet-cables-in-red-sea-yemen-telecoms-firms-warn   “Telecom firms linked to the UN-recognised Yemen government have said they fear Houthi rebels are planning to sabotage a network of submarine cables in the Red Sea critical to the functioning of the western internet and the transmission of financial data.   ...   Yemen Telecom said it had made both diplomatic and legal efforts during the past few years to persuade global international telecom alliances not to have any dealings with the H_____s since it would provide a [violent extremist] group with knowledge of how the submarine cables operated. It has been estimated that the Red Sea carries about 17% of the world’s internet traffic along fibre pipes.”   The effect of this would be major. The existence of this risk shows (1) the dangers of putting all your eggs in one basket, as economists and economy-focused politicians favour and actively push for, (2) the dangers of ignoring local expertise, and (3) the potential dangers of dealing with groups out of expediency ... If those hadn’t happened, we would not have this risk but there would have been an unnoticeable increase in costs   

 



  • “Thorpe Bill would end AG's power to block crimes against humanity cases from Australian courts”   https://nit.com.au/07-02-2024/9659/genocide-bill   Why has no-one else reported on this? It would be major, and potentially good for human rights  




  • “Millions of Australians have a chronic illness. So why aren’t employers accommodating them?”   https://theconversation.com/millions-of-australians-have-a-chronic-illness-so-why-arent-employers-accommodating-them-219612   “... the continued exposure to work stressors can lead to or exacerbate chronic health conditions ...   Our research found 73% of people believed their chronic illness was at least partially caused or worsened by their job. Almost one in five people believed work entirely caused or worsened their illness.   These findings accord with data from Safe Work Australia”   Good question - and I suspect the problem is worse for non-apparent illnesses such as diabetes  
  • On the other hand,   “Solving the supermarket: why Coles just hired US defence contractor Palantir”   https://theconversation.com/solving-the-supermarket-why-coles-just-hired-us-defence-contractor-palantir-222883   “Yet the data inevitably excludes significant social, financial and environmental information. The sweat of workers struggling to pack at pace, the belt-tightening of consumers struggling to make ends meet, and the struggle of farmers to survive unexpected climate impacts will go untracked.   ...   By placing Palantir at the heart of its operations, Coles quietly smuggles in several key assumptions: that food is a commodity to be optimised, that paying for labor is a risk rather than a responsibility, and that data can capture everything of importance. At a time of increased food insecurity, Australians should strongly question whether this is the direction one of our major grocery providers should take”   


 


From the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance’s (International IDEA)  Global State of Democracy (GSOD)’s democracy tracker initiative: 

for the month of   December, 2023   (note that this is a few weeks behind current events owing to the time required to collect and analyse data):  

improvements have occurred (last month) in:   Algeria,   Bulgaria,   Denmark,   Guatemala,   Indonesia,   Japan,   Latvia,   Lithuania,   Maldives,   Norway,   Poland,   Romania,   Suriname,   Ukraine,   Vanuatu;

declines have occurred (last month) in:  Armenia,   Burundi,   China,   Guinea,   Hungary,   Kyrgyzstan,   Malawi,   Nigeria,   Pakistan,   PNG,   Peru,   Saudi Arabia,   Serbia,   Somalia,   Guinea-Bissau;


From ACLED’s dashboard: 

For the week   20th - 26th January, 2024   (note that this is several weeks behind current events owing to the time required to collect and analyse data):  

Large decrease in violence: Honduras,   Venezuela,   Mali,   Burkina Faso,   Niger,   Nigeria,   Cameroon,   South Africa,   Mozambique,   Madagascar,   Somalia,   Syria,   India,   China,   Burma/Myanmar,  

Moderate increase in violence:  CAR,   Yemen,   Pakistan,

Large increase in violence:  Kenya,   Indonesia;


From the Early (mass atrocity) Warning Project  map:

Currently experiencing mass killing:  Nigeria,   Sudan,   DRC,   Ethiopia,   Somalia,   Syria,   Pakistan,   India,  

Highest risk:   Yemen,   Afghanistan,   

Increasing Risk:   Tajikistan,   Burkina Faso,   


From the International Crisis Group’s monthly Crisis Watch: 

For the month of  Feb, 2024: 

Conflict Risk alerts:  Haiti,   Israel/Palestine,   Lebanon,   Syria,   Yemen; 

Resolution Opportunities:   Israel/Palestine;

For the month of  Jan, 2023: 

Deteriorated situations:  Burundi,   Rwanda,   Korean Peninsula,   Papua New Guinea,   Ecuador,   Venezuela,   Türkiye,   Israel/Palestine,   Jordan,   Syria,   Iraq,   Yemen,   Iran,   Comoros Islands,   Mozambique,   Somalia,   Somaliland,   Burkina Faso,   Mali,   Niger;

Improved Situations:   Guatemala; 

 

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/  

 

 

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