Cross posting: Post No. 1,570 - In this week’s news

This was originally posted on my main blog at https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2020/05/post-no-1570-in-this-weeks-news.html.

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Stay safe - wash your hands, practice social distancing, and follow informed medical advice - and be considerate towards those at risk or in situations of vulnerability (including economic) while the COVID-19 pandemic is a problem.

This is a new, very cut down series of posts based on some observations on matters that struck a personal note: unlike the former “Gnwmythr’s News”, it is not trying to convey key events.

Content Warning: the linked articles and their descriptions here may be about violence, abuse, hate, and other problems.

Reading I found interesting this week included:   an excellent new book on emotions (strongly recommended for older mangers - the link is to a brief review/article on emotions I did);   emotions are transmissible.

In this week’s news:   an interesting article on a new, optimistic look at humans (my review here, but also consider this);   “the act of crying is not cathartic. Talking to someone can be”;   recessions scar people for their entire lives.

In the environmental arena, where we have been fighting World War III for some time now:   senior former public servants are angry over our history of climate change failures;   China’s air pollution is increasing again as the lockdown eases;   a reminder warnings on this go back to at least the 80s - and, in fact, back into the 1800s (the first book I read on the topic was in the 1970s);   Australia’s neoliberals have agreed to 21 of 26 recommendations from a former Business Council of Australia president for cheap ways to reduce emissions - but a carbon price is still considered best by many (including me);   my home state will experience more frequent megafires - with inadequate time for recovery of the bush;   Antarctic krill and the massive amount of sea life which are ultimately dependent on them are at risk;   Queensland’s new Human Rights Act is being used as the basis for a legal challenge by young people against a coal mine;   recycling in Portugal has collapsed;   Australia’s neoliberal government plans subsidies to gas companies and an end to fracking bans along with some renewables spending;   backyard beekeeping (why not native, stingless bees to reduce the risk of anaphylactic shock?);   maybe better solar panels;   Australia’s continuing water emergency;   a man who released a whale trapped in a net may be fined . . . .

On human and animal rights:
   “beware those who persecute in the name of principle”;
   Australians want to help with reconciliation, but don’t know how;   Tongans view of a recent “real life Lord of the Flies” situation that was better than the book (which I posted a few weeks ago) was that their culture was key, and reporting to date shows a colonial bias;   responding to racist attacks as a bystander;
   Australia is still torturing refugees - and fighting court decisions;   Malta has (effectively) killed 12 refugees;
   mounting calls for an explanation on why a woman with a disability died alone;   young people with disabilities are being bullied;   why sex is a valid consideration as a need for people with disabilities;
   confirmation that a notorious misogynistic radio presenter is misogynistic (and broke official radio standards);   an appalling six years to resolve a sexual harassment claim;
   Hungary has gone back to the Middle Ages;   I’ve received a reasonable update on some local police matters;   finally more investigations of gay hate crimes in another Australian state;   a statement on IDAHOBIT from the Intersex community;
   a Jewish violent extremist has been convicted in Israel;
   anti-Semitism in Iran, including an existential threat, the USA (from that idiot, POTUS45), and Germany;
   a financier of the Rwandan genocide has been arrested;   victims of war crimes in Sri Lanka are still waiting for justice after 11 years;   a call for Saudi Arabia to face consequences for the brutal murder of Jamal Kashoggi;
   there is not even the pretence of judicial review in Egypt;
   animal trafficking from South Africa to China;   how to keep indoor cats happy (and ours has just unwrapped himself from around one arm to get a feed);
   regulations are still a sticking point for tiny homes.
Immigration and refugee matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Greece;   Greece;
trafficking/slavery/child abuse matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   USA (online marriages as a cover for child abuse);
LGBTIQ+ matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   a radio show in my home state;   South Korea;   Mexico;   Panama (overdue good news);   Albania (good news);
sexism and misogyny/misandry matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Pakistan;   Nepal;   Zimbabwe;
other civil & political rights matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Indonesia;   Tibet;   eastern Tibet;   Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet;   Kurdistan; and
other matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   DR Congo.

In the related human rights arena of employment:   when another Australian airline failed decades ago, its workers support of each other gave them resilience;   employers want laws to remove more workers’ rights;   a simplistic and inaccurate “workers’ rights game”.

Risks or occurrences of atrocities, mass violence and/or war(s) this week in:   a power sharing deal may move Afghanistan closer to peace;   Israel;   West Bank;   what to do about violence in Nigeria;   refugees in Syria are being bombed;   DR Congo;   Somalia;   Mali;   Afghanistan;   South Sudan;   the “geostrategic” aspects of the war in Libya;   Burundi;   the USA is handing Russia a major propaganda coup by withdrawing from a nuclear weapons treaty;   an “incel” terrorist attack in Canada;   the Philippines.

In the governance, politics, public ethics, and society arena:   PNG’s Commerce Minister is taking legal action for defamation over allegations he was corrupt;   Centrelink has been ordered “to issue hundreds of thousands of class action notices for trial” over robodebt;   conservative Australian media’s “long war on democracy”;   for the future: “hospital in the home”;   calls for a review of the neoliberals (many undelivered) pre-election promises;   support for the unemployed after the pandemic needs to be increased;   more concerns in Israel.

On disasters this week:   a cyclone in India;   locusts in Iran;   a cyclone in Bangladesh;   dam overflows in the USA;   a plane crash in Pakistan;   firefighters have not been supported after last summer’s bushfires.

Internationally:   as the one nation two systems lie is ended in Hong Kong, China’s increasingly aggressive diplomacy;   a reminder that we have used the international actions against China that they are now using;   US Democrat’s concerns over Israel’s moves to annex the West Bank - which is leading to an end of cooperation, no more sharing of intelligence, and possibly the ending of diplomatic relations ;   surprisingly (to me, if no-one else), POTUS45’s Attorney-General has dismissed the chance of an investigation into former President Obama;   Iran has banned working with Israel or using Israeli software . . . ;   Afghanistan may have found a way to move towards peace.

In Africa:   a backgrounder on Burundi’s forthcoming elections - Benin will also hold elections, despite the pandemic;   a new weather forecasting system in Africa;   Lesotho’s PM will not resign, despite charges alleging connection to his wife’s murder;   one regional conflict in Sudan appears to have been ended;   concerns about oil exploration in Somalia.

On the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus (there are other novel coronaviruses) (seven major risks to watch here, and seven sins of thought to avoid here):
   learning from this pandemic, after having ignored past warnings;   economists are overwhelmingly backing physical distancing, which will save over $1 trillion in costs; - and the super industry is warning that early access risks harming nation building;   the human  cost of lockdown;   reference to war in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic shows a stupid misunderstanding of what war is like;

   good stories:   volunteers are helping refugees overcome language problems (if we had a caring national government, the volunteers would be paid);   the opportunity to define a “new normal”;

   medical aspects:   the problem of fake “news”;   learning from past pandemic vaccine (financial) handling errors;   promising results from at least one trial;   extending JobKeeper would be the best way to protect mental health;   one person has just had a third positive test, marking two months of being ill;   lockdown impacts in India,

   human rights aspects (crisis . . . running summary of impacts on elections here):   global risks to girls safety and education - which may be ongoing after the pandemic;   Queensland is not testing in remote Indigenous communities;   unpaid overtime and other work problems are contributing to health problems;   trials of possible vaccines on defence force members lack consent;   the risks with the contact racing app go beyond privacy;   jail sentences are becoming death sentences;   the concerns facing young people;   the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh;   UAE;   development finance;   rough sleepers may be back on the street soon . . . ;   support to the dying in aged care homes shows a powerful neochristian bias: will they support other religions?;   a lot of the fines issued over lockdown breaches have been withdrawn;   the human development setbacks and recovery crisis;   an unfair dismissal claim in Australia over a question over pressure to work extra hours;   one in five Australians doesn’t earn enough to live;   a call to respect rights;
   also including
   housing problems in:   will happen “down the track”;   evictions from a slum in Colombia;
   more opportunistic surveillance in:   South Korea,   Australia;
   suppression of journalism in:   Egypt;

   Australia:   free child care could be ended soon by the neoliberals, despite its success;   10% of those who have lost jobs fear they will never work again - and 20% of self-employed Australians fear they will lose their businesses;   commuting concerns in states which have eased restrictions;   more rubbish from a self promoting idiot;   tourism businesses are opposing easing lockdown;   inter-state “border wars”;

   internationally:   Yemen is facing catastrophic food shortages;   India missed asymptomatic people, and had a patchy humanitarian response, which is why it is now doing so poorly in managing the pandemic;   a rescue fund for Europe;   agency staff spread the virus between care homes in the UK;   drones are being used to encourage maintenance of physical distancing on reopened Greek beaches;   concerns about a second wave in China (and Europe), which will - almost - ban the wildlife trade . . . ;   Brazil’s outbreak is now the 4^th largest in the world;   Peru is building hospitals for Indigenous people in the Amazon;   an informal and favourable assessment of Mongolia’s response;   masks remain compulsory in public in Spain;   burma;   “informal” areas in India are struggling;   Japan has been “surprisingly” good;   UK (why didn’t they do this long ago?);   Sweden will continue its unsuccessful attempt at herd immunity;   unrest in Germany;   the death toll in Russia could be vastly under-reported;   support for nations in the Pacific;   staggering stupidity in Pakistan;

   Africa:   growing hunger in Zimbabwe;   concerns about the reopening of mosques in west Africa;   a South African court has issued “orders aimed at putting an end to police and army brutality”;   Rwanda’s planned recovery includes food reserves;   South Africa may be facing up to 50,000 deaths;

   globally:   the impact of reduced remittances;

   blame games:   against a background of concerns over petty political point-scoring, after defending its response (and, despite backing of the call for an investigation from 116 other nations, imposing an 80% tariff on Australian barley), China has agreed to a WHO-led investigation - and a defence of WHO here;   USA.

An initial response to Rutger Bregman's "Humankind"

I've had a look through a sample of Rutger  Bregman's "Humankind" (Bloomsbury, 2020, ISBN 978-0316418539 [I haven't bought it yet, so can't give an e-book ISBN because Amazon - arrogantly, to force others to use only their systems - refuse to use those], Amazon), and I am quite impressed. In fact, even before finishing the sample, I've moved it into my "buy when I can afford it" wishlist.

The book is helping me to crystallise some ideas I've been considering for some time now, and I'm going to further develop that consideration by writing out my current reflections. These are preliminary, and are likely to change as I think about them further - in particular, once I read Mr Bregman's book (I may have to get his earlier book - "Utopia for Realists").

So . . . there are a few problems that can happen in human rights advocacy that seem, to me, to be fairly widespread - and, to some extent, these happen elsewhere in life as well.

One is that people are on different parts of the learning curve on any particular topic.

Probably the simplest and clearest way to make that apparent is consider the topic of sex. Kids often go through a stage where they discover sex, it is new and wonderful to them, and, against all logic (how did you come into existence kids? Well, some where through medical intervention, but for many, it was their parents' experience of sex - a point which causes millions of kids to go "eww"), they think they know more about it than their parents.

The same sort of learning curve happens in human rights - especially, in my experience / from my perspective, with regard to the amount of forbearance one is prepared to give others on their misconduct.

As an example, trans (transsexual and transgender) and gender diverse (TGD) people who are transitioning are facing tremendous insecurity and threats against their livelihood, even in more progressive nations, and thus may feel compelled to accept things like misgendering (to some extent) or favour education over legislative or, in a company, disciplinary approaches, as the price for keeping their job.

I was the same - I even helped organise education of my colleagues.

However, now, three decades later, I am aware that a minority of people are just bad - no matter how much you educate them, they will misgender, deadname, and abuse any one else who is different or vulnerable.

On top of that, the bigots will use things like asking pronouns as a way to abuse TGD people. The idea that people need to be educated, or that one's gender identity needs to be made clear at first meeting , is a TOOL for the bigots to use, a device to enable people to avoid facing their personal flaws and shortcomings, and a lie.

I met people in the 80s and 90s who did NOT need education or a formal exchange of pronouns (actually, my exchange it that it is only the TGD person expected to humiliate themselves this way: I'll believe otherwise when around 80% of cisgender people exchange their pronouns - with other cisgender people - at first meeting as a matter of course, as simply and automatically as saying "hello" or exchanging names) before treating TGD people with respect, consideration, and good manners. Because of having met those people, I KNOW that   every  single  person  who  insists  on a  formal  "exchange"  of pronouns  or prior  education  is  a  liar  and  less  of  a  human  being  for  it.

When I transitioned, the bigots didn't like it that I wouldn't go to the company's end of year break up party because I refused to spend time with bigots - they failed to consider that, just as they chose to judge me, so too could I judge them - in my case, I wasn't pre-judging them for being different, I was judging them for their demonstrated shortcomings as human beings, as shown by their bigotry.

Unfortunately, those people were largely the type of psychopath that, at that time, tended to rise to leadership of companies, the sort of people who Bregman describes along the lines of rich people who, from positions of leadership in several wars, judged the likelihood of mass panic in response to bombing by the way their own selfish, flawed personalities would react - and were shown to be wrong, not only by Londoners during the blitz, but also by others, including Germans in the same war, and the Vietnamese a couple of decades later.

(Not all rich people are like this - some are genuine in their philanthropy, for example. If there is a problem, part of it, I suspect, lies with those who were born into poverty and had their characters warped by the effects of private schools etc - the sort of active social engineering "on the playing fields of Eton and Rugby" that led to the violent expansion of the English empire.)

These days, we're starting to go back to the older, pre-"greed is good" era of company leaders being stewards of their company's resources and accepting broader social obligations (see Robert  Reich's "The Common Good" for more on that topic).

We're coming out the other side of some cycles. In the case of companies, a cycle that has lasted around a half century; in the case of human rights, a cycle that has lasted for millennia.

But throughout that, there have been people of decency - people who sometimes get quite upset that others are not as caring or progressive as they are, and Bregman writes about those people, and how widespread they are. (I found the contrast between what was reported and what actually happened after Cyclone Katrina quite disturbing.)

Bregman also gives the analogy of the two wolves fighting to illustrate the competing influences within individuals. That's about as far as I've got, but that analogy also applies to society as a whole.

Where the bad wolf is winning, as happens with, for instance, misgendering, deadnaming, murder and other forms of abuse in the case of individuals, laws are needed to - to borrow from the great Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. - restrain the heartless. It doesn't matter that the heartless are probably victims themselves: they need to be restrained for the sake of their victims - violence spreads, as the Cure Violence model shows, and thus must be contained, just as with an infection.

More broadly, that also applies, to some extent, to hate, fear, and the idea of difference, all of which are currently being exacerbated by the ideological responses some people are having to the pandemic or to the lockdown. (Why? Blindly caught up in their parents' ideas? Some of those are good, some are bad, mind you. Some other reason? What is the cause of that error in each particular problem person - and the reasons will be many and varied, probably more than the number of people involved.)

That illustrates the application of the two wolves fighting analogy to society as a whole.

On that, and going back to the human rights learning curve, education is good - but as a general, preventive idea. All society needs to educated, and from an early age, to counter the active and evil  social engineering that teaches children to hate, fear, etc.

In an active situation between people where respect for human rights is needed, the people's need for their human rights to be respected (being a bigot is NOT a human right) and, if needed, enforced is more paramount than the longer term, preventive need for education.

Since our society unfairly puts a lot of pressure onto those at the centre of these situations, there is another aspect to be considered, and that is how many spoons of courage people have at a particular time. It takes a lot of spoons to get to deal with being TGD despite society's attempts at social conditioning: there may be no more spoons left to deal with the bullying of a bigot, and thus the easy, short tern way out is chosen. That is human, understandable, and flawed.

This is where those around people at the centre of targetting on human rights issues have a role to play: it is up to them to muster their spoons of courage, and be a bystander who steps in, in some way - to be human beings who fulfil the sort of promise that Rutger Bregman is writing of.

Yet more on engineering

One of the things that is being made very apparent by the lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is that a lot of the travel that people do is actually unnecessary.

For years, it has seemed to me that the business people claiming travel and meeting face-to-face was essential were not being entirely open and honest: now I know they were downright lying, and using a convenient excuse to allow themselves to travel - and to do so at other people's expense.

That means that costs have been higher than necessary for clients, and those who are targetted by "security" persons (including anyone who is different, such as me) have been put through massive psychological damage for no reason whatsoever.

It's even worse than not allowing people to work remotely because of either

(a) distrust (perhaps expecting others to be as shifty as the distrustful person?), or
(b) an unhealthy reliance on work for human contact, instead of having a life.

There have, to be fair, also been some clients who are problems - some clients I've known over the years even have problems understanding how people can communicate effectively over a phone (especially a Town Clerk I used to work for in the 80s) or via email (too many people over the years) or by online meetings.

The pandemic is forcing those persons (a term those persons seem to like a lot, instead of the more normal and human word "people") to reconsider, and that is a good thing.

Some things won't, however, change, such as those clients who put totally unrealistic expectations into the technical specifications for tenders that are unrealistic. They're not "spurring people on to greater endeavours", or "using [allegedly] good project management to reduce costs", or whatever it is they think they're doing: they're just showing that they're IPOCs * who think they can get a pushbike at a skateboard's price and expect it to do the work of a ute. Over the decades there have been many bids that I have advised my company not to pursue because the client was, to be kind, not "technically literate" ** .

Maybe that, too, will one day change . . . (for the better, I mean).

 * I've starting using this to remove some of the profanity from the first draft of my autobiography: it stands for "insert pejorative of choice" - IPOC. 
 * This is the engineering version of IPOC. 

An update on police

I've been concerned about some of the local policing in my home state over the last year - most recently and in particular, the breach of privacy committed around a public figure's arrest, and the possibility that this may involve casual / accidental transphobia. Now, I don't only post here about my concerns; I also write to relevant Ministers (except the neoliberals, from whom I have only ever received one sensible reply that wasn't drivel, irrelevant, or talking points).

In response to one such email (and a release here), I have been informed that my home state's police are responding to recent matters, including:

1. the suspension of four police members and immediate commencement of an investigation into the breach of privacy, which is being viewed with the gravest of concern; 
2. the investigation is being conducted with oversight from IBAC (that oversight is not entirely reassuring, given their recent clearing of police who broke a man's arm and shoulder - see last dot point below); 
3. the investigation will look at leadership, policies & procedures, underlying cultural issues and identify and address any such cultural issues, including improving police training.

The reply reiterated the force's commitment to form stronger links with all the communities in Victoria, and that its 22,000 members are drawn from as many of these communities as possible.

I personally am largely satisfied by this reply.

My personal experience with police in recent years has largely been good, and the raid shook me quite considerably. I'm also reasonably convinced of the genuineness of most of the force command to do better (even if their personal history has been less than perfect), which something that happens in most large organisations (i.e., the leaders may be ahead of many workers on the desire to be inclusive, even if their delivery isn't as good as it could be). Typically, there will be a few activists in the workforce who are ahead of the leaders, and I know that is the case with my home state's police. An example of their willingness to cooperate with those trying to improve inclusivity and interactions with communities is this 2016 survey, assessment and report by ARCSHS, which showed a fairly widespread good intention, sadly combined with  flawed awareness and attitudes - which is the sort of issues that can be addressed by training. (A police officer in another state who was trying to argue it didn't matter what a person's pronouns was, the police would be there anyway, was utterly disconcerted by my response, which was to angrily insist it mattered greatly what a person's pronouns were, and that was often why we needed help in the first place.)

The key issue for now is who will conduct the investigated (are they literate/competent in LGBTIQ+ matters?), and do the terms for the enquiry provide sufficient resources and leeway to realise the intention of force command and the government.

We will have to wait and see. A later issue will revolve around providing whatever is needed to change a paramilitary force of over 20,000 necessarily strong minded (to resist bribes and the damage inflicted by doing policing) people.

Recent mentions by me of local police: 

• police will ease up on enforcement of fines for breach of lockdowns; 
• my concerns about the enforcement - here; 
• a brief exploration of the limits on, and a key public misunderstanding of, policing in the context of democracy; 
• concerns about the behaviour of some police at a social/political protest; and
• a violent raid on a gay venue which left one man with life altering injuries - the police involved were cleared on excessive violence around one month ago, which I included in this post.