Saturday 18 May 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 the war in West Asia, 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 (please note: this is a cut down and/or  version of what I used to do): 

 

the war in West Asia (note: I object to the colonial term “Middle East”), in imperialistic Israel, Gaza, and adjoining nations: 

Note: my usual preamble to these posts can be found on the post at https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/04/from-this-weeks-news-on-war-in-west_24.html. I will omit the full version of that from now on for the sake of brevity, but the main points are:   (i) I do not give violent extremists/other mass murderers the oxygen of publicity, nor the satisfaction of using the t word;   (ii) _____ have for many years been identified as genocidal;   (iii) I consider a safe place for Jewish people must exist because of the world's collective failures on antisemitism - everywhere, not only Germany of the 1930s/40s, but the Arab nations’ proposal for a single nation with Arab and Jewish provinces should have been given more consideration, IMO;   (iv) now, Israel's existence can ONLY be morally justified as part of a two state solution where Palestine becomes a modern, functional, prosperous sovereign nation-state;   (v) I note   https://theconversation.com/when-is-criticism-of-israel-antisemitic-a-scholar-of-modern-jewish-history-explains-220995   on when criticism of Israel becomes antisemitic;   (vi) Israel’s conduct since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the collapse of the Oslo Accords has been both devastating to its victims and damaging of its standing, and its conduct now risks an even more self-damaging Pyrrhic “victory”;   (vii) note that the ICJ has issued preliminary directions, but not made a formal finding regarding genocide.


  • Two thoughtful and thought provoking articles:   “Point of No Return”   https://jewishcurrents.org/point-of-no-return   “Palestinians cannot turn back the hands of time. But we might still imagine a world beyond exile”      “Teshuvah: A Jewish Case for Palestinian Refugee Return”   https://jewishcurrents.org/teshuvah-a-jewish-case-for-palestinian-refugee-return   “Given our history, how can Jews deny another people the right to return to their homeland?   ...   What the establishment Jewish narrative omits is that the vast majority of Palestinians forced from their homes committed no violence at all. Their presence was intolerable not because they had personally threatened Jews but because they threatened the demography of a Jewish state”      and also   lessons - including in humanity, on both sides - from history (1929):   “Yiddish Anarchists’ Break Over Palestine”   https://jewishcurrents.org/yiddish-anarchists-break-over-palestine-1929   “An exchange in the anarchist newspaper Di fraye arbeter shtime after the 1929 Hebron massacre offers a case study in Jewish discourse and political reaction after immense violence.   ...   The next morning, more Palestinians entered the Orthodox Jewish community of Hebron and killed 67 Jews of various ages and backgrounds—all of whom were unarmed, and who had earlier refused to collaborate with Zionist militias on account of their theological opposition to Zionism. At the same time, dozens of Palestinian families in Al-Khalil sheltered hundreds of their Jewish neighbours from the violence.”      


 

 


on human rights and human suffering (on both sides) aspects: 

 

  • “Israel refutes South Africa’s accusations at UN world court”   https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/05/1149916   “The UN International Court of Justice (ICJ), on Friday, heard the response from Israel on the case brought forward by South Africa requesting emergency provisional measures to immediately halt Israeli military operations under way in Rafah”   Everyone must have their say in any good justice system, so Israel must have the opportunity to be heard. However, in the court of world opinion, Israel is continuing to shoot itself in the foot ...     


  • From  Human Rights Watch:   “With Pause, US Joins Other States Stopping Arms Transfers to Israel”   https://www.juancole.com/2024/05/states-stopping-transfers.html   “This partial pause on weapon transfers doesn’t go far enough in response to Israel’s international law violations and US rules on arms transfers. Nonetheless, Biden’s decision represents a shift from the unconditional support the US has offered Israel, particularly since Biden acknowledged that “civilians have been killed as a consequence of those bombs and other ways [Israel] goes after population centres.””      



on military aspects:



regionally:



internationally:

 


 

global:  

 

  • “France to declare state of emergency in New Caledonia as unrest turns deadly”   https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20240515-dozens-arrested-in-new-caledonia-constitutional-reform-unrest   “French President Emmanuel Macron's office on Wednesday said a state of emergency would be declared after at least three people were killed in New Caledonia amid violent protests that erupted over the passage of a constitutional reform that angered pro-independence forces.”       “Colonial past haunts latest New Caledonia crisis”   https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240516-colonial-past-haunts-latest-new-caledonia-crisis-france   “Protests against a French government plan to impose new voting rules on New Caledonia have spiralled into the deadliest violence on the French Pacific territory since the 1980s. The unrest has exposed divisions between indigenous inhabitants, descendants of colonisers and newcomers to the overseas archipelago.”      “Why is New Caledonia on fire? According to local women, the deadly riots are about more than voting rights”   https://theconversation.com/why-is-new-caledonia-on-fire-according-to-local-women-the-deadly-riots-are-about-more-than-voting-rights-230199   “... they dispute the outcome of the final 2021 referendum which, they argue, was forced on the territory by French authorities too soon after the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. This disregarded the fact that Kanak communities bore disproportionate impacts of the pandemic and were unable able to fully mobilise before the vote. Demands that the referendum be delayed were rejected, and many Kanak people abstained as a result.”   In addition, the article says, female leaders are pointing to the wealth inequality between Kanaks and colonisers - which has alienated youth. The views expressed by colonisers about political equity also lack understanding.     
  • “Niger Coup Reversing Hard-Earned Gains”   https://africacenter.org/spotlight/niger-coup-reversing-hard-earned-gains/   “After noteworthy gains in the previous decade under democratically elected governments, the derailing of Niger’s constitutional order by the military coup in July 2023 has resulted in a deterioration in security, economic wellbeing, and agency for Nigerien citizens.”      



Australia: 


  • “Corporatocracy”   https://theaimn.com/corporatocracy/   “It’s time we reckoned with what it means to become a corporatocracy. Our governments exist to enact the desires of their corporate masters.   ...   The end result will be an uninhabitable world.”      




  • “Stop funding hate!”   https://theaimn.com/stop-funding-hate/   “We need to urge our representatives to reject that bill, to not wind the clock back to a time when religions suppressed human rights, criminalised those who for no fault of their own were different.   We need to deny funding to schools which do not uphold the human rights we have fought for and have enshrined in our laws.”   Well said!      



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 - and I can do as I am a secondary news source [the name(s) are often 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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