Saturday 23 March 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: 

 

 

  • “UN leaders galvanize action for reparations for people of African descent”   https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147821   “Reparatory justice must tackle the grave human rights violations deeply entrenched in the legacy of colonialism and enslavement, the General Assembly heard”   


  • “Alan Kohler: TikTok should be banned in Australia, not just sold”   https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2024/03/18/kohler-tiktok-ban-australia   “TikTok is a foreign influence operation, not a business.   The TikTok pixel (also called an HTML code snippet or a tag) is a container for software code that is placed on a user’s screen whether they download the app, look at a TikTok video or visit the website.   ...   All social media collect web browsing data on their users for advertisers to better target their ads, and while TikTok does that, it also gathers email addresses, phone numbers, locations, the destination of phone and video calls, the device’s metadata and more.   ByteDance says it doesn’t share the data with the Chinese government, but no one believes that for a minute.   But as with its pixel, TikTok’s algorithm goes further: It influences.   ...   during last year’s Voice referendum campaign in Australia it appeared to favour the No case”         “Kenya tells TikTok to show it is complying with privacy laws”   https://www.reuters.com/technology/kenya-tells-tiktok-show-it-is-complying-with-privacy-laws-2024-03-21/  


  • “Attempts to access Kate Middleton’s medical records are no surprise. Such breaches are all too common”   https://theconversation.com/attempts-to-access-kate-middletons-medical-records-are-no-surprise-such-breaches-are-all-too-common-226303   “Best practice digital health systems typically try to restrict ... access   ...   Large health-care providers and insurers, including major hospitals or chains of hospitals, have a worrying history of digital breaches.   ...   we need to incentivise Australian organisations to improve how they handle sensitive health data   ...   so organisations act as responsible custodians rather than negligent owners of health data.   We also need to step-up enforcement of data breaches and make it easier for victims to sue for breaches of privacy.”   Also, data needs only to be held IF it is genuinely necessary - thinking of company access to medical information    

 

 

  • “Building remote Indigenous homes well is hard, but they won’t cost $1.5 million each”   https://theconversation.com/building-remote-indigenous-homes-well-is-hard-but-they-wont-cost-1-5-million-each-225651   “While it is reasonable to examine the cost of construction, the inference that remote housing is unreasonably expensive is misleading.   ...   before building starts, leases need to be secured and land serviced with water, electricity, sewerage, and sometimes roads. [Also] Houses need maintenance   The $4 billion also promises to ... create local employment and support Aboriginal businesses, as part of the government’s Remote Jobs and Economic Development Program.   This will be an investment in people, with the potential to build sustainable Aboriginal community-controlled organisations in remote contexts.”   Previous spending on maintenance was grossly inadequate - which, in my career as a civil engineer, was too often the case. Based on what was allowed inSA, and the % allowance I used, the actual construction cost of each house could be more like $500,000 (assuming what was spent in SA was what was required over the life of the house - it may have been low, suggesting the construction costs would be higher). Also, the infrastructure needs maintenance as well.   


  • “PwC chairman refuses to share tax leaks scandal investigation with Australian parliament”   https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/21/pwc-chairman-bob-moritz-refuses-to-share-tax-leaks-scandal-investigation-with-australian-parliament   “The international firm has cited legal professional privilege over a report by law firm Linklaters, but provided more information about the scope of the investigation and the conduct of those it mentions.   The decision will likely set up another showdown with Australian politicians who have strongly criticised the firm for not sharing the report, and frustrate government departments that have believe it should be shared.”   So they want us to believe them when they say their secret report was OK ...  


  • “What is the problem with a non-compete clause?”   https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/work/2024/03/21/non-compete-clause-problems   “There have been moves to ban them in the US and Austria, and the UK along with other European countries are proposing to enhance regulation with mandatory limitations and transparency.   In Australia, Treasury has expressed concern in response to findings in the government’s “2023 Employment White Paper” that non-compete restraints are “potentially hampering job mobility, innovation, and wages growth in industries where they are prevalent”.   ...   the presumption at common law – which is the law created by court decisions and precedents – is that they are void and unenforceable unless they are protecting a legitimate business interest”   The article assesses specific issues and possible actions - including political   

 

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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