Saturday 25 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.





on peace/ceasefires:


  • “As international support for an independent Palestine grows, here’s what Israelis and Palestinians now think of the two-state solution”   https://theconversation.com/as-international-support-for-an-independent-palestine-grows-heres-what-israelis-and-palestinians-now-think-of-the-two-state-solution-230575   “The result among Israeli respondents was 43% “unacceptable”. It was not as good as the 2009 result – but still better than the result for Northern Ireland where peace was achieved.   Critically then, the two-state solution needs to be tested along with all the positive elements of incentives and process, both international and domestic, that can be deployed to maximise the potential for getting to peace.”   The polling was assessed as being of the highest technical standard, and additional polling was conducted to test some aspects. Security was a key issue on both sides.      



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




regionally:



internationally:

  

 

global:  

 

 


  • “French police move to regain control of New Caledonia”   https://nit.com.au/20-05-2024/11496/french-police-move-to-regain-control-of-new-caledonia   “Protests erupted almost a week ago, sparked by anger among indigenous Kanak people over a constitutional amendment that will change who is allowed to participate in elections, which local leaders fear will dilute the Kanak vote.   ...   Dominique Fochi, secretary-general of the leading independence movement in the territory, urged calm but said the government must suspend the constitutional change.   “We need strong actions to calm the situation,” he told Reuters.   “The government needs to stop putting oil on the fire.””      “French forces launch ‘major operation’ in New Caledonia, as unrest claims another life”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/19/new-caledonia-under-siege-says-local-official-as-unrest-claims-another-life   “Operation will aim to retake road linking airport with Noumea, as the capital’s mayor says the situation is ‘not improving’”      

 

 

 


Australia: 


 

 

 

  • I have found out more about the protests on Saturday 18th June at the recent ALP State Conference:   from   “Victorian premier accuses pro-Palestine protesters of bringing ‘violence, homophobia and antisemitism’ to Labor conference”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/18/pro-palestine-protesters-crash-victorian-labor-state-conference-ahead-of-debate-on-israel-hamas-war   “Six motions calling for end to Israel-Gaza conflict carried after Jacinta Allan says she is ‘disgusted’ by behaviour of protesters at Labor state conference”      “Victorian Labor State Conference stormed by pro-Palestinian protesters as venue locked down”   https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-18/pro-palestinian-protest-labor-conference-melbourne/103865160      “Pro-Palestine protesters crash Labor state conference”   https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/pro-palestine-protesters-jostle-mps-as-labor-state-conference-kicks-off-20240518-p5jen6.html      , the protestors WERE physically violent. Any time you are pushing people, you are being physically violent - and a security guard was injured. Being shouted at is part and parcel of being on the receiving end of a protest, and generally has to be accepted - unless it gets into hate speech, and it seems homophobic slurs (i.e., hate speech) were used against at least one person, and I dispute that ordinary, everyday people who are members of political parties are valid targets of such violence - such violence will have a chilling effect on freedom of political expression. I note that the Greens MP who spoke also distanced himself from the violence and homophobia (see   “My speech on Palestine outside the ALP State Conference”   https://timread.org.au/2024/05/21/alp-conference-speech/   (incidentally, he was wrong when he said those taking action were only doing so because of external pressure)   ), and that a number of protestors said they didn't see any violence or hear any homophobia, so it probably was only a part of the crowd - but managing those sections is an essential, automatic part of managing a protest.   /There was a childcare centre at the conference venue - which is not uncommon these days. The protestors should have been aware of that possibility: I think it was only luck that the children were not caught up in that, and suspect some may have been traumatised by the noise and threats.   
    There are questions about the preparation for the conference, given what was expected. There clearly were concerns about safety and wellbeing on the part of those who were there.   
    The main point about the protests, however, is that they were ineffective - and always were going to be. There were multiple motions carried in support of Palestine - so a MAJORITY of the delegates WERE pro-Palestine.  
    This incident goes back to an old maxim: do you fight to change things, or to punish?   /There is another point. From last week’s post here:   “The United Nations has clarified [“General Comment No. 37 on Article 21 (Right of peaceful assembly)”   https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/general-comment-no-37-article-21-right-peaceful ] that the right of peaceful assembly cannot be exercised using violence.”   (from “Can university protest camps be removed? What does the law say?”   https://theconversation.com/can-university-protest-camps-be-removed-what-does-the-law-say-229806   )     
    So why are people behaving this way? Because of a sense overwhelming powerlessness, frustration and despair at the unresponsiveness of national governments which all appear to have been the subject of state  capture ...     


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. 

Note that, as with my main blog [see here], I am cutting back on aspects of my posts.

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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