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<b>A BLOG SITE, <i>"BLOGNOW" </i>COLLAPSED IN 2009, SO USE THE GOOGLE SITE SEARCH ENGINE </b><br><br>Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.comBlogger903125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-894976861526727032024-03-11T14:37:00.001+11:002024-03-11T14:57:59.508+11:00MAKING GAZA UNLIVEABLE (FROM COUNTERPUNCH 12 JANUARY 2024)f by Joshua Frank
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January 12, 2024
Making Gaza Unliveable
by Joshua Frank
Photo: intifada.de via Frank M. Rafik on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA).
<p>On a picturesque beach in central Gaza, a mile north of the now-flattened Al-Shati refugee camp, long black pipes snake through hills of white sand before disappearing underground. An image released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shows dozens of soldiers laying pipelines and what appear to be mobile pumping stations that are to take water from the Mediterranean Sea and hose it into underground tunnels. The plan, according to various reports, is to flood the vast network of underground shafts and tunnels Hamas has reportedly built and used to carry out its operations.</p
“I won’t talk about specifics, but they include explosives to destroy and other means to prevent Hamas operatives from using the tunnels to harm our soldiers,” said IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi. “[Any] means which give us an advantage over the enemy that [uses the tunnels], deprives it of this asset, is a means that we are evaluating using. This is a good idea…”
<p>While Israel is already test-running its flood strategy, it’s not the first time Hamas’s tunnels have been subjected to sabotage by seawater. In 2013, neighboring Egypt began flooding Hamas-controlled tunnels that were allegedly being used to smuggle goods between the country’s Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. For more than two years, water from the Mediterranean was flushed into the tunnel system, wreaking havoc on Gaza’s environment. Groundwater supplies were quickly polluted with salt brine and, as a result, the dirt became saturated and unstable, causing the ground to collapse and killing numerous people. Once fertile agricultural fields were transformed into salinated pits of mud, and clean drinking water, already in short supply in Gaza, was further degraded.</p>
<p>Israel’s current strategy to drown Hamas’s tunnels will no doubt cause similar, irreparable damage. “It is important to keep in mind,” warns Juliane Schillinger, a researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, “that we are not just talking about water with a high salt content here — seawater along the Mediterranean coast is also polluted with untreated wastewater, which is continuously discharged into the Mediterranean from Gaza’s dysfunctional sewage system.”</p>
<p>This, of course, appears to be part of a broader Israeli objective — not just to dismantle Hamas’s military capabilities but to further degrade and destroy Gaza’s imperiled aquifers (already polluted with sewage that’s leaked from dilapidated pipes). Israeli officials have openly admitted their goal is to ensure that Gaza will be an unlivable place once they end their merciless military campaign.</p>
<p>“We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said shortly after the Hamas attack of October 7th. “We will eliminate everything — they will regret it.”</p>
<p>And Israel is now keeping its promise.</p>
<p>As if its indiscriminate bombing, which has already damaged or destroyed up to 70% of all homes in Gaza, weren’t enough, filling those tunnels with polluted water will ensure that some of the remaining residential buildings will suffer structural problems, too. And if the ground is weak and insecure, Palestinians will have trouble rebuilding.</p>
<p>Flooding tunnels with polluted groundwater “will cause an accumulation of salt and the collapse of the soil, leading to the demolition of thousands of Palestinian homes in the densely populated strip,” says Abdel-Rahman al-Tamimi, director of the Palestinian Hydrologists Group, the largest NGO monitoring pollution in the Palestinian territories. His conclusion couldn’t be more stunning: “The Gaza Strip will become a depopulated area, and it will take about 100 years to get rid of the environmental effects of this war.”</p>
<p>In other words, as al-Tamimi points out, Israel is now “killing the environment.” And in many ways, it all started with the destruction of Palestine’s lush olive groves.</p>
<p>(B)Olives No More</p></B></p>
<p>During an average year, Gaza once produced more than 5,000 tons of olive oil from more than 40,000 trees. The fall harvest in October and November was long a celebratory season for thousands of Palestinians. Families and friends sang, shared meals, and gathered in the groves to celebrate under ancient trees, which symbolized “peace, hope, and sustenance.” It was an important tradition, a deep connection both to the land and to a vital economic resource. Last year, olive crops accounted for more than 10% of the Gazan economy, a total of $30 million.</p>
<p>Of course, since October 7th, harvesting has ceased. Israel’s scorched earth tactics have instead ensured the destruction of countless olive groves. Satellite images released in early December affirm that 22% of Gaza’s agricultural land, including countless olive orchards, has been completely destroyed</p>
<p>“We are heartbroken over our crops, which we cannot reach,” explains Ahmed Qudeih, a farmer from Khuza, a town in the Southern Gaza Strip. “We can’t irrigate or observe our land or take care of it. After every devastating war, we pay thousands of shekels to ensure the quality of our crops and to make our soil suitable again for agriculture.”</p>
<p>Israel’s relentless military thrashing of Gaza has taken an unfathomable toll on human life (more than 22,000 dead, including significant numbers of women and children, and thousands more bodies believed to be buried under the rubble and so uncountable). And consider this latest round of horror just a particularly grim continuation of a seven decade-long campaign to eviscerate the Palestinian cultural heritage. Since 1967, Israel has uprooted more than 800,000 native Palestinian olive trees, sometimes to make way for new illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank; in other instances, out of alleged security concerns, or from pure, visceral Zionist rage.</p>
<p>Wild groves of olive trees have been harvested by inhabitants of the region for thousands of years, dating back to the Chalcolithic period in the Levant (4,300-3,300 BCE), and the razing of such groves has had calamitous environmental consequences. “[The] removal of trees is directly linked to irreversible climate change, soil erosion, and a reduction in crops,” according to a 2023 Yale Review of International Studies report. “The perennial, woody bark acts as a carbon sink … [an] olive tree absorbs 11 kg of CO2 per liter of olive oil produced.”</p>
<p>Besides providing a harvestable crop and cultural value, olive groves are vital to Palestine’s ecosystem. Numerous bird species, including the Eurasian Jay, Green Finch, Hooded Crow, Masked Shrike, Palestine Sunbird, and Sardinian Warbler rely on the biodiversity provided by Palestine’s wild trees, six species of which are often found in native olive groves: the Aleppo pine, almond, olive, Palestine buckhorn, piny hawthorne, and fig.</p>
<p>As Simon Awad and Omar Attum wrote in a 2017 issue of the Jordan Journal of Natural History:</p>
<p> “[Olive] groves in Palestine could be considered cultural landscapes or be designated as globally important agricultural systems because of the combination of their biodiversity, cultural, and economic values. The biodiversity value of historic olive groves has been recognized in other parts of the Mediterranean, with some proposing these areas should receive protection because they are habitat used by some rare and threatened species and are important in maintaining regional biodiversity.”<p>
<p>An ancient, native olive tree should be considered a testament to the very existence of Palestinians and their struggle for freedom. With its thick spiraling trunk, the olive tree stands as a cautionary tale to Israel, not because of the fruit it bears, but because of the stories its roots hold of a scarred landscape and a battered people that have been callously and relentlessly besieged for more than 75 years.</p>
<p><B>White Phosphorus and Bombs, Bombs, and More Bombs</p></B>
<p>While contaminating aquifers and uprooting olive groves, Israel is now also poisoning Gaza from above. Numerous videos analyzed by Amnesty International and confirmed by the Washington Post display footage of flares and plumes of white phosphorus raining down on densely populated urban areas. First used on World War I battlefields to provide cover for troop movements, white phosphorus is known to be toxic and dangerous to human health. Dropping it on urban environments is now considered illegal under international law, and Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth. “Any time that white phosphorus is used in crowded civilian areas, it poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering,” says Lama Fakih, director for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch (HRW).</p>
<p>While white phosphorus is highly toxic to humans, significant concentrations of it also have deleterious effects on plants and animals. It can disrupt soil composition, making it too acidic to grow crops. And that’s just one part of the mountain of munitions Israel has fired at Gaza over the past three months. The war (if you can call such an asymmetrical assault a “war”) has been the deadliest and most destructive in recent memory, by some estimates at least as bad as the Allied bombing of Germany during World War II, which annihilated 60 German cities and killed an estimated half-million people.</p>
<p>Like the Allied forces of World War II, Israel is killing indiscriminately. Of the 29,000 air-to-surface munitions fired, 40% have been unguided bombs dropped on crowded residential areas. The U.N. estimates that, as of late December, 70% of all schools in Gaza, many of which served as shelters for Palestinians fleeing Israel’s onslaught, had been severely damaged. Hundreds of mosques and churches have also been struck and 70% of Gaza’s 36 hospitals have been hit and are no longer functioning</p>.
<p><B>A War That Exceeds All Predictions</p></B>
<p>“Gaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history,” claims Robert Pape, a historian at the University of Chicago. “It now sits comfortably in the top quartile of the most devastating bombing campaigns ever.”</p>
<p>It’s still difficult to grasp the toll being inflicted, day by day, week by week, not just on Gaza’s infrastructure and civilian life but on its environment as well. Each building that explodes leaves a lingering cloud of toxic dust and climate-warming vapors. “In conflict-affected areas, the detonation of explosives can release significant amounts of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter,” says Dr. Erum Zahir, a chemistry professor at the University of Karachi.</p>
<p>Dust from the collapsed World Trade Center towers on 9/11 ravaged first responders. A 2020 study found that rescuers were “41 percent more likely to develop leukemia than other individuals.” Some 10,000 New Yorkers suffered short-term health ailments following the attack, and it took a year for air quality in Lower Manhattan to return to pre-9/11 levels.</p>
<p>While it’s impossible to analyze all of the impacts of Israel’s nonstop bombing, it’s safe to assume that the ongoing leveling of Gaza will have far worse effects than 9/11 had on New York City. Nasreen Tamimi, head of the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority, believes that an environmental assessment of Gaza now would “exceed all predictions.”</p>
<p>Central to the dilemma that faced Palestinians in Gaza, even before October 7th, was access to clean drinking water and it’s only been horrifically exacerbated by Israel’s nonstop bombardment. A 2019 report by UNICEF noted that “96 percent of water from Gaza’s sole aquifer is unfit for human consumption.”</p>
<p>Intermittent electricity, a direct result of Israel’s blockade, has also damaged Gaza’s sanitation facilities, leading to increased groundwater contamination, which has, in turn, led to various infections and massive outbreaks of preventable waterborne diseases. According to HRW, Israel is using a lack of food and drinking water as a tool of warfare, which many international observers argue is a form of collective punishment — a war crime of the first order. Israeli forces have intentionally destroyed farmland and bombed water and sanitation facilities in what certainly seems like an effort to make Gaza all too literally unlivable.</p>
<p>
“I have to walk three kilometers to get one gallon [of water],” 30-year-old Marwan told HRW. Along with hundreds of thousands of other Gazans, Marwan fled to the south with his pregnant wife and two children in early November. “And there is no food. If we are able to find food, it is canned food. Not all of us are eating well.”</p>
<p>In the south of Gaza, near the overcrowded city of Khan Younis, raw sewage flows through the streets as sanitation services have ceased operation. In the southern town of Rafah, where so many Gazans have fled, conditions are beyond dire. Makeshift U.N. hospitals are overwhelmed, food and water are in short supply, and starvation is significantly on the rise. In late December, the World Health Organization (WHO) documented more than 100,000 cases of diarrhea and 150,000 respiratory infections in a Gazan population of about 2.3 million. And those numbers are likely massive undercounts and will undoubtedly increase as Israel’s offensive drags on, having already displaced 1.9 million people, or more than 85% of the population, half of whom are now facing starvation, according to the U.N.</p>
<p>“For over two months, Israel has been depriving Gaza’s population of food and water, a policy spurred on or endorsed by high-ranking Israeli officials and reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” reports Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch.</p>
<p>Rarely, if ever, have the perpetrators of mass murder (reportedly now afraid of South Africa’s filing at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, accusing Israel of genocide) so plainly laid out their cruel intentions. As Israeli President Isaac Herzog put it in a callous attempt to justify the atrocities now being faced by Palestinian civilians, “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible [for October 7th]. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true. They could’ve risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime.”</p>
<p>The violence inflicted on Palestinians by an Israel backed so strikingly by President Biden and his foreign policy team is unlike anything we had previously witnessed in more or less real-time in the news and on social media. Gaza, its people, and the lands that have sustained them for centuries are being desecrated and transformed into an all too unlivable hellscape, the impact of which will be felt — it’s a guarantee — for generations to come.</p>
<B>This piece first appeared at TomDispatch.</B>
<p>JOSHUA FRANK is the managing editor of CounterPunch. He is the author of the new book, Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America, published by Haymarket Books. He can be reached at joshua@counterpunch.org. You can troll him on Twitter @joshua__frank.</p>
Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-745774764490718512022-09-02T10:04:00.005+10:002022-09-02T10:04:42.080+10:00MANNIE AND KENDALL'S LOST WEB PAGES<p><b>Our web pages got lost when this laptop jammed because it got too full, so that the normal FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL programmes wouldn't work any longer.</b></p>
<p><b>Fortunately the Wayback Machine, part of the INTERNET ARCHIVE, based in San Francisco, provided some answers. Hopefully, here they are:</b></p>
<p>1) red-jos</p>
<p>http://web.archive.org/web/20220124041643/http://red-jos.net</p>
<p>2) josken</p>
<p>http://web.archive.org/web/20210127101909/http://josken.net</p>Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-63322444677787227942022-08-12T17:48:00.018+10:002024-02-25T14:53:05.390+11:00THE LEGACY OF THE MARIKANA MASSACRE,TEN YEARS LATER<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZZa7zDV2CyPfa-Wqi7jQ4zMqrMBcFSvXK61x4_slC6G-3ZF6sjZ7P8fMEWNHldXex6olD3FI0zVIzh49KbcFyycL60OL_1Zjsl8ZQ0OJgMiycchZMYHePRHQbgaGLTkpJxRhft1dHlbRzVjQgmjwJvw-UC_SiEJP48_LpDQewjzHaowvuh6nmwlNNVA/s600/marikana2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZZa7zDV2CyPfa-Wqi7jQ4zMqrMBcFSvXK61x4_slC6G-3ZF6sjZ7P8fMEWNHldXex6olD3FI0zVIzh49KbcFyycL60OL_1Zjsl8ZQ0OJgMiycchZMYHePRHQbgaGLTkpJxRhft1dHlbRzVjQgmjwJvw-UC_SiEJP48_LpDQewjzHaowvuh6nmwlNNVA/s320/marikana2.jpg"/></a></div>
A cross of remembrance during the commemoration on 16 August 2016 of the 2012 Marikana massacre in Rustenburg. (Photo: Gallo Images / Sowetan / Antonio Muchave)
Maverick Citizen
<p>MOMENT OF TRUTH OP-ED</p>
The legacy of the Marikana massacre, ten years later
<b>By Benjamin Fogel</b>
11 Aug 2022 0<BR>
<p>For many, the massacre was the moment when the blinkers were removed and the underlying injustices that have stunted the development of South African democracy were revealed in all their brutality.</p>
Listen to this article
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BeyondWords
This Op-Ed forms part of “Marikana, 10 Years On”, a one-day symposium which will be held at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg on 20 August from 12pm to 6.30pm.
If one were to pick a moment when the narrative of post-apartheid South Africa as a nation, for all its faults, generally stumbling forward in the right direction ended; no moment stands out as clearly as the Marikana massacre, when on 16 August 2012, 34 striking mineworkers were gunned down by the police on live TV. In the week preceding the massacre, 10 others had been killed.
Over the 10 years since the massacre, the country has become poorer, more violent and divided. GDP per capita has declined from just over $8,000 to under $7,000, unemployment is now close to 50%, the basic functions of government have collapsed in much of the country, the labour movement has grown weaker and more divided, and the threat of political violence to activists is ever more apparent.
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Each week that passes in South Africa seems to bring with it a report of some new atrocity, from mass tavern shootings to xenophobic attacks and political assassinations. Last year’s July insurrection reflected that the country faces a growing threat posed by mass unrest, political mafias and right-wing ethno-nationalist politics (most notably by a slate of black majority parties) which the state is evidently ill-equipped to manage; in large part because the influence of these mafias extends across all levels of government. But what does this all have to do with Marikana?
If one were to ask, how did we get to the South Africa of 2022 after State Capture, following the absurdly corrupt and brutal Covid lockdown regulations, the July insurrection, the Life Esidimeni tragedy, and suffering regular blackouts and with a burnt-out hollow shell where there used to be our Parliament? Marikana is a good place to begin.
Marikana was the moment when the core institutions of South African democracy — not just limited to the state — failed. It was the worst massacre of its kind under the democratic order, in which the police — who belonged to Cosatu, the same trade union federation as many of the striking mineworkers — shot and killed striking workers under the auspices of the ANC government that promised a better future for workers. An atrocity that was defended by Cosatu leaders and the SA Communist Party.
In the aftermath of the atrocity, with some notable exceptions, our civil society — from NGOs to media, social movements and trade unions — failed to hold the government to account or even provide meaningful solidarity with the victims of the massacre, either opting for silence or in some cases actively reproducing the state’s justifications. The failure of much of the South African media remains even more apparent, given that the killings were broadcast on live television.
The core institutions of our democracy, from the National Prosecuting Authority to Parliament, failed to hold the government and police to account, even after an inquiry found that former police commissioner Riah Phiyega should be held responsible for the deaths of the 34 mineworkers. Since 2012, no police officer has been charged for any of the shootings. If anything, the police are more violent and incompetent than ever.
Instead, it took the work of a few dedicated journalists and researchers for the actual story of what happened that day to be revealed to the public. It took even longer for the documentary Miners Shot Down and the findings of the Farlam Commission to change public consciousness about what transpired on 16 August 2012.
Political amnesia
Marikana stands out as one of the political moments in South Africa that has fallen victim to the plague of political amnesia that stalks the country, as the warring factions of the ANC use it as a weapon for their internal struggles: members of the pro-Jacob Zuma Radical Economic Transformation faction use it to attack President Cyril Ramaphosa, despite the fact that the massacre occurred under Zuma’s watch. Others still refer to it as though it was some sort of natural disaster, a tragedy that ultimately nobody was responsible for.
Ten years later, justice remains elusive for most survivors of Marikana. While 35 families have been paid compensation of approximately R70-million, a larger group of more than 300 miners who were injured during the shooting rampage are still trying to claim compensation of R1-billion. In a recent development, the high court ruled that Ramaphosa could be found liable for the events that led up to the massacre for his role as a Lonmin director. However, proving civil liability will be up to the mineworkers to try to accomplish in court.
There is also the ongoing trial of former North West deputy police commissioner Major-General William Mpembe and other police officers for the murder of five people at Marikana on 13 August 2012. Mpembe and his colleagues face five counts of murder and attempted murder as well as contravening the Commissions Act for giving false information during the Farlam Commission. But 10 years later, public interest has all but dissipated and the old legal maxim could not be truer: justice delayed is justice denied.
While political battles are waged through protracted court proceedings, the workers of the Platinum Belt in North West face ongoing exploitation, dysfunctional government, political violence (at least 22 workers have been murdered since the massacre), material deprivation and the predatory lending schemes of mashonisas (loan sharks) and payday loan companies.
For many, including myself, the massacre was the moment when the blinkers were removed and the underlying injustices that have stunted the development of South African democracy were revealed in all their brutality. The lack of public outrage in the wake of the massacre and the absence of mass protests and solidarity remain a cause of shame for the country. The indifference of the public became even starker even as the workers of the Platinum Belt embarked on one of the largest wildcat strikes in our history, and in 2014-2015 would win the longest strike in South African history.
Marikana has come to serve as a potent symbol of resistance for the South African working class, employed by protesting students, striking workers and community protests. The Marikana strikes went on to influence and inspire other workers’ movements outside the Platinum Belt, like the farmworker strikes in De Doorns in the Western Cape in 2012-13 which galvanised more than 9,000 participants in their mission to improve their working conditions.
The lesson of Marikana is that even under the most difficult circumstances effective mobilisation and organisation are possible — workers across the Platinum Belt opted to join and expand the strike rather than mourn silently or surrender. It is this extraordinary moment that provides a rallying cry for those who still wish to see a more just and equal South Africa. DM
Benjamin Fogel is a PhD candidate in Latin American history at New York University and a Jacobin contributing editor. Fogel is one of the organisers of “Marikana, 10 Years On”, a one-day symposium at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg on 20 August from 12pm to 6.30pm. The symposium will also be streamed online. The event is presented by Africa Is a Country, with support from Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Southern African Office). Logistical details will be posted at http://africasacountry.comMannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-91250574756269957342022-03-05T23:27:00.012+11:002022-03-05T23:59:50.866+11:00COVER-IUP EXPOSED - SECURITY BRANCH COPS KILLED NEIL AGGETT, JUDGE RULESSouth Africa<BR>
COVER-UP EXPOSED<BR>
<center><H1><b>Security Branch cops killed Neil Aggett, judge rules</b></H1></center><BR>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLcvbDa6A9Fnj_N2VpqnXVZbW-vyd9vlmy7gHv6xw1naoJw-tFFTeybFKRLKnCLr3H7OCtGOhij0cVoUK0ZVXT0eSQ4Xs2NWcMK9iLN--pyN9gVCOOAW6bT5JUWC7AXtD2gwUTkDiAjq635nfqo-bdb1wP0-1Yw25kR1lVYim9KdM5Eh491YMaEjR4Hw=s600" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLcvbDa6A9Fnj_N2VpqnXVZbW-vyd9vlmy7gHv6xw1naoJw-tFFTeybFKRLKnCLr3H7OCtGOhij0cVoUK0ZVXT0eSQ4Xs2NWcMK9iLN--pyN9gVCOOAW6bT5JUWC7AXtD2gwUTkDiAjq635nfqo-bdb1wP0-1Yw25kR1lVYim9KdM5Eh491YMaEjR4Hw=s320"/></a></div>
Fawu members hold up a banner with Aggett and other unionists' photos outside the Johannesburg High Cour.Photo:Ufrieda Ho<BR>
By Ufrieda Ho<BR>
4 Mar 2022<BR>
<p>The trade unionist and doctor Neil Aggett did not die by suicide but by the hand of security branch cops, Judge Motsamai Makume ruled, calling the magistrate's findings from the original inquest 'a serious error of judgment' and his conclusions 'mind-blowing'.</p>
<p>The overturning of findings of the 1982 inquest into the death in detention of activist and trade unionist Dr Neil Aggett on 4 March brings to close a two-year court journey. It also sets in motion avenues to prosecute the Security Branch police officers linked to his killing.</p>
<p>Judge Motsamai Makume gave his ruling in the Johannesburg High Court, calling Magistrate Pieter Kotze’s finding from the original inquest “a serious error of judgment”. He also said some of Kotze’s conclusions were “mind-blowing”. Makume ruled that Aggett, who was found hanged in his police cell in John Vorster Square police station on 5 February 1981, did not die by suicide, as Kotze had ruled, and he said Security Branch police officers were responsible for Aggett’s murder in the early hours of that morning.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEipn1GAOYDeDL6C6YeqZqV36_XniFw-i5XRd7mIvJLKKnEVFUAma9JUHdflOmbKP4Iy2sEQmwCPeIW8dOnHIZNP7wk4OKzwbvytrN2LZdcwRDNoV6LsstXuRsyGF5QF1NxuxC0DtlKOvUEfi59nrE2Zl3mZtE_yenK-5Aj3qgot4Y2M0C0JcuqiEBYMog=s720" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="720" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEipn1GAOYDeDL6C6YeqZqV36_XniFw-i5XRd7mIvJLKKnEVFUAma9JUHdflOmbKP4Iy2sEQmwCPeIW8dOnHIZNP7wk4OKzwbvytrN2LZdcwRDNoV6LsstXuRsyGF5QF1NxuxC0DtlKOvUEfi59nrE2Zl3mZtE_yenK-5Aj3qgot4Y2M0C0JcuqiEBYMog=s320"/></a></div>
Neil Aggett’s nephews from his older brother Michael and his sister-in-law Mavis were in the Johannesburg High Court to hear the ruling. From left are Jonathan Aggett, David Aggett, Mavis Aggett, Simon Aggett and Stephen Aggett.Photo:Ufrieda Ho<BR>
<p>In recapping the key evidence that came before his court on and off over the past two years, Makume was unequivocal about the Security Branch’s culture of torture and abuse of political detainees, an entrenched web of cover-ups and a still-persistent allegiance demonstrated in his court to protect its members – even those who have died in the 40 years since Aggett was killed.</p>
<p>The judge said it was unfortunate that Lieutenant Steve Whitehead, who was the chief interrogator in Aggett’s case and implicated in his killing, died before he could testify in court.</p>
<p>Whitehead died of cancer just days before the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) finally announced that it would reopen the inquest in April 2019. That Whitehead and Major Arthur Conwright, who was head of the Security Branch at John Vorster Square, never had to face questioning in a court has remained a bitter pill to swallow for activists and families of activists who died in detention. It continues to raise questions about the reasons for delays and the political interference standing in the way of bringing conclusion to cases that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended for investigation by the NPA in 2003 already.</p>
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Fawu organiser Thabo Kota was among the union members who gathered outside court awaiting the ruling.Photo:Ufrieda Ho<BR>
<p>Yasmin Sooka, executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) that has supported the Aggett family to find the truth about his final days in detention, said the next step is to explore criminal prosecutions of the surviving former Security Branch police officers implicated in Aggett’s killing.</p>
<p>“This ruling is unequivocal and the judge has clearly set up the next phase of investigation for murder and the cover-up of murder – that’s amazing. We need to place pressure on the Hawks and the NPA to conduct investigations while Nicolaas Deleefs, Johannes Nicolaas Visser, Daniel Elardus Swanepoel and Magezi Eddie Chauke are still alive. If they do this quickly enough we may have indictments for murder,” Sooka said.</p> DM/MC
<p>*This is a developing story and more in-depth reporting will be published in the next few days.</p> Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-39177609074975710942022-01-21T10:21:00.070+11:002022-02-23T17:23:10.396+11:00DAY OF RECKONING LONG OVERDUE FOR POLICE WHO IGNORED GAY HATE CRIMES
Day of reckoning long overdue for police who ignored gay hate crimes<BR>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_UCXebBNzOkLxgzUfZECDNKQgS1VFwT1FOgs91C1wsfF39pSR5MpNbmdCKiEhqGHiTTHMEFv2Sp6zOaWTYRax5tXLPFUfr08asIzNxukB32WAmjxgnT8_MIASjhKzspBWJNYdGs_rJIdJXCANvTEsa7Jz6hGJ_oPTBYkUQnRO1VeppPfWILxVCUoeXA=s90" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="200" data-original-height="90" data-original-width="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_UCXebBNzOkLxgzUfZECDNKQgS1VFwT1FOgs91C1wsfF39pSR5MpNbmdCKiEhqGHiTTHMEFv2Sp6zOaWTYRax5tXLPFUfr08asIzNxukB32WAmjxgnT8_MIASjhKzspBWJNYdGs_rJIdJXCANvTEsa7Jz6hGJ_oPTBYkUQnRO1VeppPfWILxVCUoeXA=s200"/></a></div>Daniel Glick<BR>
Investigative journalist<BR>
19 January 2022 <BR>
<p>It really didn’t have to be this hard. More than three decades after a brilliant young man’s life was taken from us in a fit of homophobic rage, the killer stunned a closed courtroom with an admission: “Guilty. I am guilty. Guilty.”></p>
<p>Yes, Scott White admitted to killing Scott Russell Johnson in December 1988. His conviction affirms the incredible 33-year-long odyssey of Scott’s brother Steve, who always believed that foul play took his brother’s life, not self-harm. But it also raises questions about why it took so long, and how many other gay bashers, killers, and their police enablers still roam free.
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Steve Johnson, the brother of murdered Scott Johnson, has finally got closure over the death of his brother.</p>
Steve Johnson, the brother of murdered Scott Johnson, has finally got closure over the death of his brother.<BR>
<p>Through a mutual friend, Steve Johnson contacted me in early 2007 and asked me to go to Sydney to investigate his brother’s death. Even though a 2005 coronial inquest had detailed multiple brutal attacks on gay men in the Bondi area, police steadfastly stuck to their belief that homophobic violence miraculously stopped at the Harbour Bridge.</p>
<p>When I met Steve and first poured over the scant materials he had obtained from the original 1989 inquest finding that Scott had committed suicide, I frankly thought the cause of death was a toss-up. The picture painted in the inquest documents was vague, but it seemed possible that the 27-year-old maths genius was too sensitive for this world. His partner had stated that Scott had thought about suicide once before (which turns out to be an elaborately misleading if not completely false story). Being gay in 1988 was particularly difficult at the height of the AIDS epidemic and the era of the Grim Reaper ads. On the other hand, Scott was an incredibly high-achieving, kind, “out” and apparently happy young man who had moved to Australia to be with his lover and complete his PhD.</p>
<p>I agreed to go to Sydney in May 2007. Before leaving, Steve put me in touch with Stephen Page, a former NSW Police detective sergeant who had investigated the Bondi gay killings. Page had retired and didn’t want to get officially involved, but suggested I focus on two things: was the place where Scott died an active beat at the time; and had there been incidents of anti-gay violence on the Northern Beaches?</p>
<p>During that first trip to Sydney in May 2007, the balance of probabilities shifted so fast it was breathtaking. Within a few hours of arriving, I talked to a (presumably) straight man who had worked at the sewerage plant since the 1980s and who said that gay men met up at the headlands near Blue Fish Point area “all the time, mate”. I met a gay man who had been stabbed up there. I found names of more than a dozen men who were known gay bashers on the Northern Beaches around the time of Scott’s death, from Narrabeen to North Sydney. This all took place in one week. After an article appeared in The Manly Daily about Steve Johnson’s search for his brother’s killer with my email address on it, I received a deluge of leads from citizens, gay and straight.>/p>
Man pleads guilty to Scott Johnson's cold case murder<BR>
<p>A man has pleaded guilty to the cold case gay hate murder of Scott Johnson in 1988.</p>
<p>What I couldn’t figure out, and still can’t understand, is why police at the time pretended not to know any of this or make any possible connection to Scott’s death.</p>
<p>Over the ensuing years, this second piece — police culpability — became almost as much a question as “who killed Scott?” The intransigence of the police towards Steve in 1988 continued through 2006, even after the Taradale findings into the Bondi cases, which is why Steve hired me.</p>
<p>When presented with our initial findings in 2007, which clearly raised questions about the initial suicide verdict, we were met with stone silence. That continued for years, even as we amassed more evidence that Scott had been murdered and we had compiled a credible list of people who might have done it or knew about it.</p>
<p>After public pressure on the police when ABC’s Australia Story aired an episode about Scott’s case in 2013, we thought we had turned a corner when the Unsolved Homicide Unit formed a taskforce to investigate Scott’s death. Unfortunately, that turned into one of the most monumental wastes of taxpayer dollars I have witnessed in my 30 years as a journalist. That team roundly ignored evidence and doggedly pursued its own theory that Scott had killed himself.</p>
<p>Steve Johnson persevered and petitioned for a third inquest, which returned a homicide finding – and a gay-hate motivated one at that. It was only after the third inquest that new police leadership took this investigation seriously and by all accounts did an amazing job.</p>
<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/day-of-reckoning-long-overdue-for-police-who-ignored-gay-hate-crimes-20220114-p59odo.html"</a>
<p>What I still want to know is this: Where is the accountability for all of the past mistakes that individual police officers made, for the anguish they perpetrated not just on Scott Johnson’s family but for the dozens if not hundreds of other people who were murdered, beaten, marginalised, and otherwise ignored as this epidemic of homophobic violence swept through NSW? We know who the police officers were. We know many of the perpetrators of this violence, unlike Scott White, are still walking the streets, their crimes unsolved and solvable.</p>
.
<p>Most touchingly, we know that hundreds if not thousands of gay men and their loved ones have lived with nightmares from their bashings and the fear of going to the police to report it. I hope that in some small way, they will also find vindication in this guilty verdict in Scott Johnson’s case. I also still hold out hope that the responsible parties — police and perpetrators — face some sort of reckoning.</p>
<H3><b><i>Daniel Glick is an American investigative journalist.</i?</b></H3><BR> Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-53354677381327227802022-01-11T16:54:00.330+11:002022-01-26T13:11:41.785+11:00HOMOPHOBIA AND GAY HATE CRIMES <p>Kendall Lovett was born on 6 October 1922 in Hobart, Tasmania and when he was about 7 years old and the world was in the middle of a terrible depression and his father, an electrician, was out of a job, and moved his family to Sydney, where Ken grew up.</p>
<p>He went to school in North Bondi and was bullied at school - and outside school. When he was about 12, he started high school at Sydney boys' high school, but didn't get very far before he ws struck by rheumatic fever and was in hospital for a few months, then had a relapse and didn't go back to school - in a formal sense.</p>
<p>In the early years of his adolescence, he discovered early on that he was attracted to males, not females, and subsequently lived his life as a gay man.</p>
<p>Homosexuality was illegal at that stage and remaimed so until gay people started fighting for their rights and gay liberation was formed and the fight was on.</p>
<p>In the USA, apart from small movements amongst gays and lesbians, liberation was not forthcoming until an explosion occurred when the police in New York raided a bar in New York called the Stonewall in 1969 and the fight was on for gay liberation.</p>
<p>As movements around the world grew, and gay voices were being heard everywhere, gay hatred grew as well, aided and abetted by religions which became louder and louder over time and gay people were assaulted - and worse - everywhere, leading to murders in increasing numbers, often aided by those in the community who were hired by government organisations to "keep the peace" - mainly the police.</p>
<p>Ken was a very quietly spoken and mild-mannered person but he discovered early on in his adult years that gays were not tolerated in society and, like many around him in the society in which he lived - he kept his sexual orientation well and truly in the closet.</p>
<p>On the other hand, he discovered the "closet" world and lived his life accordingly. He found gay men in Sydney, and in his late 20s, he and another young man who he was meeting in Sydney and one night the two of them were sitting and talking at the top of the Botanic Gardens in Sydney when some policemen started asking them questions and they had a narrow escape from being arrested.</p>
<p>I learnt bits and pieces of his early life beacuse I only met him when we were both in our 60s but over the years I amanged to fill in bits and pieces of his life as he became involved in many ways with gay politics. and homophobia which was,and still is,
so prevalent in our societies.</p>
<p>Ken ran aways with the young man he had been with in Macquarie Street at the beginning of the 1950s and came to Melbourne, where he lived for almost the next 10 years. The young man came home to their residence one night and found Ken in bed with soemone, and that was the end of that relationship, but it didn't take long for Ken to get involved with another man, and when the other man got transferred to London at the beginning of the 1960s, Ken went to London to be with him and they lived together until the other man, also Ken, was transferred back to Australia, to Canberra because that Ken - Skinner - worked for the Australian government and had to go where he was posted. Ken Lovett did not want to go and live in Canberra, so in 1964 when Ken Skinner left Lodnon, Ken Lovett remained until the late 1960s, when his father asked him to return to Sydney and in 1968 he left London for Sydney.</p>
<p>When he returned to Sydney, he stayed with his parents in Willoughby till 1970 when he managed to rent a house in Woolloomooloo and lived there until 1994 when he retired from Choice - Australian Conaumer Association - at th age of 70 and bought a small house in Maryville, Newcastle and stayed there until we bought a house in Preston, Melbourne in 2000 and where we were when Ken died of Metastatic Prostate Cancer in October 2020, leaving me alone and bereft.</p>
<p>From 1970 until his death in 2020 Ken was an activist to the end, covering as many issues as possible considering his work and family and other activities, encompassing human rights and their abuses.</p>
<p>Living in Woolloomooloo in the heart of the gay world, homophobia and assault did not escape him, and a few times he was lucky to escape injury, after suffering a few burglaries and chases down Crown Street where he lived to escape from the bullies chasing him.</p>
<p>I met Ken in 1988, the year I started coming out as a gay man and I was already getting involved in socialist activist groups by 1988 and after attending a demonstration and ending up in the Domain in Sydney, some young people holding a banner which they were folding, they handed me a leaflet about a demo being held outside the building where the UK consulate was housed. Margaret Thatcher was introducing a homophobic bill called clause 28 to the British parliament making vrious homosexual activities in schools illegal and there were several other anti-gsy items in the bill which contained many human rights aouses.</p>
Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-13494895404944224192022-01-10T12:42:00.003+11:002022-01-10T12:55:33.410+11:00'LOVE WILL ALWAYS WIN': GAY A-LEAGUE STAR HITS OUT AT HOMOPHOBIC ABUSE<b>‘Love will always win’: Gay A-League star hits out at homophobic abuse</b><BR>
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By Vince Rugari<BR>
9 January 2022<BR>
<p>Adelaide United defender Josh Cavallo has called out homophobic abuse he says was targeted at him during Saturday night’s A-League draw with Melbourne Victory, saying he could not find the words to describe how disappointed he was.</p>
<p>Cavallo also criticised Instagram and Twitter for doing little to stop further “hateful and hurtful messages” he received after the match.</p>
<p>Josh Cavallo has hit out at homophobic abuse he says was targeted at him in person on Saturday night and on social media afterwards.</p>
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<p>Josh Cavallo has hit out at homophobic abuse he says was targeted at him in person on Saturday night and on social media afterwards.Credit:Getty</p>
<p>The 22-year-old became the first active top-flight male professional footballer in the world to come out as gay in October.</p>
<p>Little more than two months later, he is suffering from the sort of homophobic slurs he said he knew would inevitably be used against him after his historic announcement, which triggered a global outpouring of support from some of football’s biggest clubs and personalities.</p>
<p>Cavallo played 36 minutes off the bench in Adelaide’s dramatic 1-1 draw against Victory at Melbourne’s AAMI Park, but came off during injury time with a suspected concussion after an accidental elbow to the head from Lleyton Brooks.</p>
<p>Club sources indicate Cavallo also complained of similar homophobic abuse during United’s FFA Cup quarter-final loss to Victory on Wednesday night, which was played at Coopers Stadium in Adelaide.</p>
<p>Both clubs have condemned Saturday night’s events, which are now the subject of an investigation by the Australian Professional Leagues, with any perpetrators to be banned from attending matches.</p>
<p>“I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t see or hear the homophobic abuse at the game last night. There are no words to tell you how disappointed I was,” Cavallo wrote on Instagram.</p>
<p>“As a society this it shows we still face these problems in 2022. This shouldn’t be acceptable and we need to do more to hold this people accountable. Hate never will win. I will never apologise for living my truth and most recently who I am outside of football.</p>
<p>“To all the young people who have received homophobic abuse, hold your heads up high and keep chasing your dreams. Know that there is no place in the game for this. Football is a game for everyone no matter of who you are, what colour your skin is or where you come from.</p>
<p>“To @instagram I don’t want any child or adult to have to receive the hateful and hurtful messages that I’ve received. I knew truely being who I am that I was going to come across this. It’s a sad reality that your platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages.”</p>
<p>Cavallo finished his post by thanking those who had sent him messages of love and support, saying they outweighed the negativity, and praised people who “reached out after making a stand at the game. I commend you. Thank you to those fans, you had me emotional. Love will always win.”</p>
<p>Melbourne Victory said in a statement that the club was working with Adelaide, the APL and AAMI Park to identify those responsible.</p>
<p>“The club is committed to celebrating diversity in football, and strongly condemns this behaviour which has no place at our club or in our game,” the statement read. “Melbourne Victory sees football as a platform to unite fans no matter what background.</p> <p>Spectators found to have breached these standards will be banned from future matches.”</p>
<p>APL chief executive Danny Townsend said: “Our players, staff and fans have the right to feel safe on and off the pitch. There is no place for bullying, harassment or abuse in Australian football and we have zero tolerance for this harmful behaviour.</p>
<p>“We are working with both clubs to investigate the incident and will issue sanctions to any people found to be involved. We fully support Josh Cavallo and want to ensure he can focus on his football performance, rather than on vile abuse. We will continue to concentrate our efforts on creating safe and welcoming A-Leagues for all.”</p>
<p>Adelaide United CEO Nathan Kosmina said the club was “appalled” by the abuse Cavallo received.</p>
<p>“Adelaide United is proud to be an inclusive and diverse football club, and to see one of our players subjected to homophobic abuse is disappointing and upsetting,” he said. “Josh continues to show immense courage and we join him in calling out abuse, which has no place in society, and it will not be tolerated by our club.”</p>
<p>Beau Busch and Kate Gill, the joint chief executives of Professional Footballers Australia, said Cavallo’s abusers had “illustrated their cowardice.”</p>
<p>“There is no place in our game, our society, for those who seek to direct abhorrent abuse at others,” they said in a statement. “Josh will continue to have the full support of the PFA and his peers and we will work with the APL, and the authorities, to ensure that those who sought to subject Josh to vile abuse are dealt with and that as a game we live up to our zero tolerance commitment.”</p>Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-59876745867024338112022-01-02T16:01:00.097+11:002022-01-07T14:52:29.236+11:00PHYLLIS PAPPS AND FRANCESCA CURTIS CAME OUT ON NATIONAL TV IN 1970. THEIR ACTIONS CHANGED AUSTRALIA FOREVER<center><b>Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis came out on national TV in 1970. Their actions changed Australia forever</b></center>
ABC Radio National<BR>
By Nick Baker for Compass<BR>
15 Mar 2021<BR>
<center><b><i>Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis pose for a photo against a white backdrop.</i></b></center>
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<center<b><i>>Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis are sharing their love story with Australia again.(Supplied: Vicki Jones Photography)</i></b></center>
<p>When the cameras started rolling on Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis in October 1970, both their lives and Australia would never be the same.</p><p>
Fifty-one years ago, the pair made history by being the first lesbian couple to come out on national television, in an interview with the ABC's This Day Tonight.</p><p>
"The early 1970s were very, very conservative ... Gay women were invisible, because people didn't think lesbians existed," Ms Papps says.</p><p>
Ms Papps and Ms Curtis, who are still together and live on Victoria's Phillip Island, have once again shared their story.</p><p>
In the documentary, Why Did She Have To Tell The World?, which premiered on Compass on Sunday, the pioneering women look back at their journey.</p><p>
'Nobody talked about it'</p><p>
When Ms Papps and Ms Curtis were growing up, male homosexuality was illegal across Australia.</p><p>
Legislation did not include lesbians, because, as Ms Papps reiterates, "they were invisible".</p><p>
In this environment, both Ms Papps and Ms Curtis struggled immensely with their sexuality.</p><p>
A black and white photo of Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis from the early 1970s.<?p><p>
Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis embrace in the early 1970s.(Supplied: The Australian Queer Archives)</p><p>
"I didn't know anything about homosexuality or lesbianism. Nobody talked about it in those days," Ms Curtis tells the documentary.
Ms Papps came from a very traditional Greek family and was briefly engaged to a man.</p><p>
"I knew I was different, but I was forced to live a heterosexual life because my mother expected it of me and society did," she says.</p><p>
A montage of images of the two lesbians who came out on national TV in 1970.
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<p>When Ms Papps confided to a colleague at work about her sexuality, the result did far more harm than good.</p><p>
"[The colleague] gave me the names of three psychiatrists, and I went to one of them," she says.</p><p>
"[I was given the drug] sodium pentothal, injected with it, and then had to talk."</p><p>
Ms Papps and Ms Curtis met through activist circles and became prominent members of Australia's first homosexual political rights group, the Daughters of Bilitis, which later renamed itself the Australasian Lesbian Movement.</p><p>
The pair exchanged wedding rings in July 1970 and in a matter of months, were known around the country.</p><p>
Ms Papps and Ms Curtis agreed to take part in a story about lesbianism with the ABC's This Day Tonight to push for wider acceptance and visibility of the LGBTQIA+ community.</p><p>
"No-one wanted to go on [the show], they were all in the closet, so Phyllis and I volunteered," Ms Curtis says.</p>
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<p>Stand-in host Peter Couchman introduced the pair by saying, "most people find it hard to understand the kind of love that Phyllis and Francesca feel for each other".</p><p>
"The law condones it, but many other women are revolted by the very thought of it and a lot of the churches regard it as perverted and unnatural," he told viewers.</p><p>
Mr Couchman went on to ask Ms Curtis if she ever felt guilty about her sexuality.</p><p>
She responded: "I think I had three months approximately of guilt. And then it went to a stage where I wanted to get up and I wanted to tell the world and I wanted the world to accept it."</p><p>
Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis in a black and white photo taken during This Day Tonight in October 1970.
The couple say the interview was a turning point — but came with a high personal cost.(ABC)</p><p>
The impact of the national spotlight on Ms Papps and Ms Curtis was immediate.</p><p>
"My mother took legal action against Francesca and myself to prevent us from making a claim on her inheritance," Ms Papps recalls.</p><p>
"And my mother said, 'I'm happy to see you again, but I won't see both of you together' ... In our personal and professional lives, [This Day Tonight] was quite devastating."</p><p>
But their TV appearance was heralded as ground-breaking and a key moment in Australia's long and unfinished road towards LGBTQIA+ equality.</p><p>
"I believe This Day Tonight was absolutely major in creating a force," Ms Papps says.</p><p>
Broader LGBTQIA+ progress happened slowly in the years following the interview.</p><p>
South Australia became the first state to decriminalise male acts of homosexuality in 1975, but it was not until 1997 that Tasmania became the final Australian jurisdiction to do so.</p><p>
And marriage equality would not pass federal parliament until 2017.</p><p>
"It has been a life of struggle ... Not because we couldn't cope with being ourselves, [but because] we couldn't get people to accept us," Ms Papps says.</p><p>
But throughout the difficulties, Ms Papps and Ms Curtis always had each other.</p><p>
"You do have some highs and you do have some lows, and you stay together because you love each other, you care for each other ... you're great friends," Ms Papps says.</p>
<b>A changing Australia</b><BR>
<p>The documentary's writer and director Abbie Pobjoy says they set out to "hold up a mirror to Phyllis and Francesca's national coming out 50 years ago".</p><p>
"[I wanted] to showcase their hardships, triumphs and activism," they say.</p>
"Now in the completion of the project, I realised that this story has also held up a mirror to myself, my fellow storytellers and the next generation of LGBTQIA+ young people and where we have to go next to secure our acceptance and livelihoods."</p><p>
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<p>In recognition of their advocacy work, Ms Papps and Ms Curtis received a lifetime achievement award at the 2019 Australian LGBTI Awards, where they urged young people to continue the fight.</p><p>
A group photo of the winners at the 2019 Australian LGBTI Awards, including Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis.</p><p>
Phyllis and Francesca want the next generation to continue to build on their activism.(Supplied: Australian LGBTI Awards)</p><p>
Looking back, Ms Papps says she has seen many examples of changing attitudes towards the LGBTQIA+ community, but one stands out.</p><p>
It was during the marriage equality postal survey of 2017, when Australians were asked if they supported legalising same-sex marriage.</p><p>
"My mum was in the nursing home, aged 98," she recalls.</p><p>
"In a very gentle way I said, 'Mum, how did you vote?' And proudly she said, 'I voted yes' ... They were almost her last words.</p>
"It took a whole lifetime to get to that."Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-64574425466603813542021-12-30T17:32:00.008+11:002021-12-30T17:59:43.936+11:00TUTU'S PASSING IS A REMINDER OF THE ANC'S UNFINISHED BUSINESS
<center><H1><b>Tutu’s passing is a reminder of the ANC’s unfinished business</b?</H1></center>
<p>Tutu’s reconciliation efforts were supposed to be followed by justice for apartheid victims. That is yet to happen.</p>
Sisonke Msimang
Sisonke Msimang is a South African writer and political commentator who focuses on race, gender and democracy.
Published On 27 Dec 2021<BR>
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<p>South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu passed away at the age of 90 on December 26 [File: John Stillwell, Pool Photo via AP]M/p>
<p>Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who passed away on December 26, was a tireless campaigner for justice. Though he officially retired in the mid-1990s, he never stopped haranguing those in power and expecting them to do better. As he famously said, “I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.” Over the course of his life, many of his opponents wished the same. Thankfully for South Africans of all ages, the Arch, as he was affectionately known, never learned to keep quiet.</p><p>
There was no voice quite like his, and his passing is a reminder that the task of bringing justice to the racially traumatised nation he tried to help heal remains unfinished business. Tutu dedicated his life to non-racialism – a peculiarly South African phrase describing a utopian vision that went beyond equality and spoke to a deeper desire to connect with authenticity across racial, ethnic, class and gender divides.</p>
Remembering Desmond Tutu<BR>
<p>Today nonracialism has fallen out of favour in the country. The kind of hope Tutu espoused is in short supply at the moment. In the last decade or so South Africans have lost their innocence and even the most ardent champions of racial and economic justice find it hard to call for much more than tolerance. For Tutu, of course, there was no room for such an anaemic response to social justice. His enthusiasm for ending oppression seeped out of him in tears and giggles and whoops; his love for people – “abantu” – was infectious.</p><p>
Many people divide Tutu’s activism into two parts: his efforts to end apartheid (for which he won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 before the award lost some of its moral sheen); and his efforts to build a nation in which South Africans could embody the ideals of the Rainbow Nation he and his friend and comrade Nelson Mandela spoke of with such eloquence. He was widely admired for the former and was more controversial in respect of the latter although, of course, there was little difference between Tutu before and after South Africa’s freedom.</p><p>
In the 1970s and 1980s, Tutu served as general secretary of the South African Council of Churches and thus occupied a crucial – and perhaps singular – space in the South African liberation movement. He was at the forefront of an era of marches and boycotts, but he was also called upon to minister to the grieving at scores of funerals in the bloodiest period of the South African conflict.</p><p>
Those were grim times and Tutu was often at the centre of the fray. It was during this period that the now iconic image of Tutu emerged. He was often “a solitary figure in his purple cassock”, negotiating with police to let mourners express their pain.</p><p>
It came as no surprise that Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In his acceptance speech he wondered if, “oppression dehumanises the oppressor as much as, if not more than, the oppressed”. He suggested that the oppressed and the oppressor “need each other to become truly free, to become human. We can be human only in fellowship, in community, in koinonia, in peace.”</p><p>
A decade later his country was free, and Tutu was able to test his theory. In 1995, a year after the historic elections that ushered in the African National Congress (ANC) and put Mandela into the role of president, he was appointed as the chair of the country’s new Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a new entity designed as an experiment in collective healing.</p><p>
Internationally, the TRC was widely acclaimed for prioritising reconciliation over revenge. At home, there were mixed feelings. On the one hand, the public hearings held by the commission modelled the kind of transparency that had never been seen before – apartheid thrived in the dark of course. On the other hand, Tutu’s insistence on forgiveness sometimes manifested as an institutional reluctance to pursue tougher forms of accountability than forgiveness.</p><p>
As the TRC collected evidence of wrongdoings perpetrated under apartheid, Tutu wept and harangued and pleaded with witnesses, trying desperately to cajole them into admitting wrongdoing and asking for forgiveness. This was often charming and sometimes confounding.</p><p>
In a now infamous series of exchanges, Tutu begged Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to apologise to Joyce Seipei, the mother of Stompie, a child she was alleged to have played a role in the killing of in the late 1980s. She apologised, though she was bitter about the exchange for years afterwards.</p><p>
Today a generation of activists who know little else of Tutu and who hold up Madikizela-Mandela as their hero see Tutu as having been too hard on her. They are not wrong, of course. Still, Tutu was also scathing when it came to addressing former apartheid leaders, like FW De Klerk, who lied and withheld crucial information during their testimonies.</p><p>
Tutu was neither made nor broken by the difficult exchanges that took place in the context of the TRC. He was a man with nothing to prove and he ran the commission with a deep sense of love and a commitment to truth-telling and forgiveness. This instinct sometimes overshadowed his country’s need for tangible justice, for perpetrators to serve time behind bars and for victims to be provided the details of where their loved ones had been killed.</p><p>
In the end, however, the most important critiques of the TRC have little to do with Tutu. By focusing on the stories of the most obviously wounded – the relatives of the tortured and murdered – the commission missed an important opportunity to address the structural and systemic impact of apartheid. In other words, in spite of its harrowing stories and its scenes of spectacular grief, the TRC was never given a full mandate to address the group effects of apartheid – the loss of opportunity wrought on generations of Black people by naked racism.</p><p>
To be sure it is almost impossible to tally such a loss. How do you add up the harms done and would an exact figure lessen the pain? The burden of answering this question falls on the new generation.</p><p>
The TRC handed a list of apartheid operatives who were thought to have been involved in killing anti-apartheid activists to the National Prosecuting Authority. In the two decades since then, successive ANC governments have done nothing to bring those people to justice, nor have they ever agreed to address the question of redress and compensation for all the victims of apartheid.</p><p>
The fault for this does not lie with Desmond Tutu. To the contrary, his death reminds us of the unfinished business of the transition from apartheid to democracy. This was not his business – it is ours.</p><p>
The jaded among us would do well to heed the great man’s words. With his trademark bluntness, Tutu said, “If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.” This insistence on reaching out and across all sorts of divides was the key to his effectiveness.</p><p>
I am not sure I would be free to be me today had he not put on that purple robe day after day trying to make peace where only moments before there had been strife. For this I – and many South Africans, Black and white – owe him everything.</p>
<p><i>The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.</i>
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<p><b><i> Sisonke Msimang is a South African writer and political commentator who focuses on race, gender and democracy.
Sisonke Msimang writes about South Africa, race, gender and democracy. She is the author of two books: Always Another Country: a memoir of exile and home, and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela.</i></b></p>Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-57437743591831995822021-11-30T18:24:00.000+11:002021-11-30T18:24:51.495+11:00TWO WORLD WARS, BUT NO LAND: HERBERT'S SKIN WAS THE WRONG COLOUR<center><H1><b>Two world wars, but no land: Herbert’s skin was the wrong colour</b></H1></center>
<p><b><i>By Tony Wright</i></b></p>
11 November 2021<BR>
<p>Herbert Lovett had to wait for the Australian Imperial Force to reduce the minimum height for volunteers before he could sign up for World War I.</p><p>
The AIF, which initially ruled its soldiers had to be at least five feet, six inches tall (167.6 centimetres), soon enough found itself running out of volunteers willing to face the slaughter on the bloodied fields of France and Belgium.
Herbert Lovett, who served in two world wars.</p>
Herbert Lovett, who served in two world wars.
<p>It decided in April 1917 that men who were at least five feet (152.4 centimetres) would be accepted.</
Mr Lovett’s recruitment papers on April 30, 1917, revealed he stood at five feet, one and a quarter inches (about 155 centimetres).
But that wasn’t the most important test of his eligibility.
A note written by the recruitment officer in Hamilton, western Victoria, still held by the National Archives of Australia, reveals the starker truth.
Gunditjmara and Bunganditj elder Uncle Johnny Lovett.
Gunditjmara and Bunganditj elder Uncle Johnny Lovett.Credit:Justin McManus.
“This recruit has two other brothers with the AIF and his parents are not pure-blooded Blacks,” the note reads. “White people on both parents’ side.”
The 20-year-old, from the Lake Condah Aboriginal Mission, a man of the Gunditjmara of south-west Victoria and the Bunganditj people of south-east South Australia, was judged as suitable to fight for Australia only because he had enough “white” blood.
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By mid-1918, Mr Lovett was in France with the newly formed 5th Machine Gun Battalion, fighting to hold back Germany’s last big push, known as the Spring Offensive.
Soon, the young machine-gunner was immersed in the deadly Hundred Days Offensive – a series of battles that drove the Germans back from Amiens and through the Hindenburg Line, eventually ending the war on November 11, 1918.
The note attached to Herbert Lovett’s recruitment papers.
The note attached to Herbert Lovett’s recruitment papers.
We call it Remembrance Day.
But Mr Lovett’s son, Uncle Johnny Lovett, holds every day as a personal remembrance day for his dad.
Uncle Johnny, 73, knows there was never proper honour shown to his father, and he is determined that, even now, it should be paid.
Mr Lovett – like his four brothers and numerous other Aboriginal men who fought in World War I – brought home lasting memories of horror, believing at least that he had earned on the battlefields what he had always craved: equality. There was no white blood, nor black blood. It all ran red.
Mr Lovett’s application for land following his war service.
Mr Lovett’s application for land following his war service.
Back in Australia, however, nothing had changed, beyond the fact the Lake Condah Mission – Mr Lovett’s home in south-west Victoria since he was born in 1897 – had officially closed.
Part of the old property was split and hived off for an early form of soldier settlement. No farms went to Aboriginal soldiers.
Having lost their ancestral lands in the frontier wars of the 1800s, the people of Lake Condah were now effectively homeless.
Mr Lovett married Emma Foster, from another mission family, in 1927, and over the next 20 years, they had six children.
There was no white blood, nor black blood. It all ran red.
He chose a condemned house on the old mission, mounted it on sleds and dragged it behind horses 12 kilometres through the bush to a plot of land by a creek near the town of Heywood.
Here was a soldier, however, who had won no freedom to create his own home for his family.
Before he could hammer together and weatherproof the old building, he had to ask permission of the Heywood policeman, who would “supervise” the job on behalf of the Aboriginal Protection Board.
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Mr Lovett kept his family fed by splitting posts in the bush, stripping wattle bark for tanning, labouring at a quarry, working at a timber mill and grabbing work wherever it could be found.
There was no electricity at home, but there was a piano. Mr Lovett was a talented musician and singer, and apart from piano, he played button accordion, violin and organ to buoy his family’s spirits.
When World War II rolled around, Mr Lovett and his brothers returned to the recruiting office.
He was 43 when he signed up in August 1940. Deemed too old for battle, he served out the war as a cook at Australian military bases.
Herbert Lovett was a member of the 5th Australian Machine Gun Battalion. This picture shows members of that battalion at Villers-Bretonneux in France.
Herbert Lovett was a member of the 5th Australian Machine Gun Battalion. This picture shows members of that battalion at Villers-Bretonneux in France. Credit:AWM/E02296 Courtesy Australian War Memorial
By war’s end, he divined that more land at Lake Condah would be carved up for soldier settlement. He decided to get in early.
On September 25, 1945 – three weeks after Japan had surrendered, ending the war – he wrote a letter to “the Secretary, Aboriginal Board”.
“Dear Sir, I am writing to you to see if you could give me any information regarding the cutting up of Lake Condah Mission Station into blocks for Aboriginal servicemen of this war,” he wrote. “If same was being done, I would like to make application for a block. Awaiting your early reply.”
No reply ever came.
Sure enough, the old mission station was carved up – and every farm went to a white ex-serviceman.
Mr Lovett, who knew how to break a horse, muster cattle, strain a fence, shear sheep and divine water – skills that might have made him a fine farmer – eventually got a job as head stockman on a big old squatting property, Gazette Station, near Penshurst.
There he lived for about 15 years, alone in a tin shed without power or running water, sending his pay cheques by post to his family at Heywood, 80 kilometres away.
Mr Lovett, you might imagine, was reminded every day of his status.
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The station owner, a near recluse, lived alone in a vast Italianate mansion.
Running through the property was a waterway named Blackfellows Creek.
Herbert Stahle Lovett died in Hamilton on May 30, 1976.
His son has fought for years to win compensation for the man of two wars who was denied land.
A decade ago, Uncle Johnny produced figures from accountants showing the loss of opportunity was worth more than $5 million. The federal government has always turned a deaf ear.
Uncle Johnny also insists the Australian Constitution of 1901, which specifically excluded Aboriginal people from laws made for other Australians, means neither he nor his father are Australian citizens, whatever laws were made since and whatever Constitutional experts might say.
“I’m never going to give up,” he says. “This has always been our country – there has never been a bill of sale by any black person to any white man for this country.
“My father only wanted equality. He served Australia at war, twice, and he was served up nothing but humiliation. Bucketloads and bucketloads of it.”Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-27209906051595026952021-10-25T17:11:00.008+11:002021-10-25T17:22:42.112+11:00DR RODNEY SYME HAS DIED AGED 86 AND THE WORLD IS POORER FOR THE LOSS OF THIS GREAT MAN<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uMCy5XRLI2I/YXZMcpSRWaI/AAAAAAAACZM/bOnrcSA5DWYXHIoZLtfcVJY21-fLmLYxQCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/syme1.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uMCy5XRLI2I/YXZMcpSRWaI/AAAAAAAACZM/bOnrcSA5DWYXHIoZLtfcVJY21-fLmLYxQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/syme1.jpg"/></a></div><p>This article appeared in The Age after it had appeared in the SydneyMorning Herlad, which is a bit strange, seeing he was a Victorian and died in Victoria.</p>
<center><H1> <b>Vale Dr Rodney Syme</b></center>
<center><H3><i>‘He was fearless’: Prominent euthanasia campaigner Rodney Syme dies</i></H3></center>
<b>By Melissa Cunningham</b><BR>
22 October 2021<BR>
<p>Prominent euthanasia advocate Rodney Syme has been remembered as compassionate and fearless man who spent decades fighting for the right for terminally ill people dying intolerable deaths to end their own lives.</p><p>
Dr Syme, 86, died on Wednesday after recently suffering a stroke.</p>
Doctor Rodney Syme. Credit:Simon Schluter<BR>
<p>The Melbourne surgeon was a veteran of the voluntary assisted dying campaign in Australia and was internationally acclaimed for his work in the right-to-die movement.</p><p>
His son Bruce Syme described his dad as a selfless humanitarian, whose strength of character and integrity and humility was impossible to measure.</p><p>
</p><p>
Victorian Reason Party MP Fiona Patten paid tribute to the urologist on Friday and said Dr Syme was a trusted confidante and mentor, who was instrumental in the establishment of euthanasia laws in Victoria in 2017.</p><p>
“There is no doubt that we would not have assisted dying laws in Australia today had it not been for Rodney Syme,” she said.</p><p>
“His tenacity and compassion changed me as a person. I respond to legislation and I listen to people in a different way after spending time and learning from Rodney. He is an extraordinary person.”</p><p>
She said the laws had meant hundreds of terminally ill Victorians have been able to end their pain and suffering at a time and place of their choosing.</p><p>
Andrew Denton, who founded Go Gentle to advocate for voluntary assisted dying after his father’s slow and painful death, said he was filled with grief, at the loss of the “indefatigable and unbreakable” Dr Syme.</p><p>
“The mighty oak has fallen,” he said. “There seems a vast, empty space in the forest where he once stood. That familiar, comforting shadow no longer cast.</p><p>
“While his passing fills us with grief and we will miss him in our bones as mentor, friend, and guide, we carry with us in our veins Rodney’s life’s work.”</p><p>
Dr Syme sat on Victoria’s Dying with Dignity Board, a group he established to lobby for euthanasia laws in Australia, until his death this week. As he pushed for law reform, Dr Syme risked criminal prosecution several ti</p><p>
The board’s president Hugh Sarjeant said Dr Syme’s attack on what he deemed as “unjust laws” was a catalyst for change.</p><p>
“He was fearless and his departure leaves a great legacy of success, to the benefit of so many Australians,” Mr Sarjeant said. “The loss of such a wise and kindly friend leaves us all the poorer.”</p><p>
Vice president Jane Morris said Dr Syme’s empathy and desire to help those dying insufferable deaths knew no bounds.
Dr Rodney Syme with cancer patient Bernard Erica in 2016.</p><p>
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Dr Rodney Syme with cancer patient Bernard Erica in 2016.Credit:Penny Stephens<BR>
“His generosity with his time, words and wise counsel was infinite,” she said. “He was there for anyone who reached out to him and made everyone he spoke to feel cared for and special.”</p><p>
Dr Syme has previously said he had epiphany in 1974 after being unable to relieve the pain of a patient with cancer of the spine and was left haunted by her screams from the hospital floor above him.</p><p>
“That had the most profound effect on me,” he said. “There was nothing we could do to relieve her agony. For the next 20 years, I thought very, very deeply. I studied the medical literature... formulating my views. I began to make public statements. As a consequence, complete strangers started to approach me.”</p><p>
In 2005, he admitted on radio that he provided the cancer stricken Victorian man, Steve Guest, with Nembutal two weeks before he died, provoking an investigation into his medical conduct, and triggering a national debate on voluntary assisted dying.</p><p>
“I’m not doing it quietly anymore,” he said at the time. “I’ve sailed close to the wind, no doubt about it, but the law is hypocritical and I’m not the only doctor who is operating in this murky terrain. It’s just that I’m prepared to say so publicly.”<?p>><p>
In 2016, the Australian Medical Board banned him from providing advice to terminally ill patients after he told ABC television program Australian Story that he’d offered to provide cancer patient Bernard Erica, who was in severe pain and dying of tongue and throat cancer, with Nembutal.</p><p>
He successfully appealed the ban imposed on him by the Medical Board of Australia, aimed at stopping him from providing advice to terminally ill patients.</p><p>
Former Victorian attorney-general Jill Hennessy, who introduced the state’s voluntary assisted dying legislation, said Dr Syme had left an indelible mark.</p><p>
“I am so thankful for all he taught us, his compassion, decency and all the reform he helped propel,” she said.</p><p>
Oncologist Cam Mclaren, who has helped more than two dozen people end their lives under Victoria’s euthanasia laws, said he was unsure if he would have had the courage to do so had it not been for Dr Syme.</p><p>
“He gave me a lot of strength, particularly in the early days, to continue doing what I was doing,” he said. “What he has done has its own life force. He’s had this exponentially significant impact on end-of-life choices.“</p><p>
In 2019, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to social welfare initiatives and to law reform. But in 2021, he announced he would return the honour after controversial former tennis great Margaret Court was promoted to the highest level of the Order of Australia.<?p><p>
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Euthanasia advocate Rodney Syme challenges medical board over assisted death<BR>
In September, Dr Syme won the Health Professional Award for the healthcare worker who had created global change at the 18th World Federation of the Right to Die Societies in Chicago.</p><p>
He continued to practise medicine well into his 80s and counselled thousands of terminally ill people throughout his medical career, while caring for his wife at home up until her death earlier this year.</p><p>
In the later years of his life, he spoke to thousands of terminally ill people over the phone from his home in Yandoit in regional Victoria. He often spent hours counselling them and supporting them as they grappled with the fear of both physical and existential suffering. His book A Good Death recounts some of their stories.</p><p>
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<p>Dr Syme is survived by his three children Bruce, Megan and Robin.</p><p>
At Dr Syme’s request, there will be no funeral.</p>Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-18396805523278668322021-10-19T18:32:00.001+11:002021-10-19T18:32:44.499+11:00AIDY GRIFFIN - 1954-2021<center><H1><b>AIDY GRIFFIN 1954-2021</b></H1></center>
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<b><i>by Norrie May Welby</b></i><BR>
<b>The Passing of Aidy Griffin<b><BR>
<center><b>VALE Aidy Griffin</b></center>
<p>Aidy Griffin, strategic driver of law reform and social inclusion of sex and gender diverse people, passed away in a hospice on Thursday 7 October 2021, at the age of 67. Aidy worked with others and then local state MP Clover Moore in the mid nineties to draft the first transgender recognition and anti-discrimination bill in the western world. That bill lapsed when parliament rose for the next election, but the cause was taken up again to the government by Aidy and other activists, and it passed the Transgender (Anti-Discrimination and Other Acts Amendment) Act of 1996 (NSW). This is the Act that made possible the later ruling in the High Court recognising non-binary sex (NSW Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages v Norrie [2014].</p><p>
I first met Aidy at an early meeting of the Transgender Liberation Coalition (aka Transgender Lobby Coalition) in the early 1990s, when they gave me advice about finding a doctor who supported non-binary choices with regard to hormone therapy. Aidy was studying at UTS, which was hosting Queer Collaborations, so they invited me along to co-present some workshops on sex and gender. Aidy gave an academic dissection, and I did a little song and dance, show and tell. Everything I know about Foucault and post-modern deconstruction I learned second hand from Aidy.Aidy was fiercely intelligent, and spoke in a very quiet Irish voice. They were very street smart and politically savvy, and taught me a lot.</p><p>
At Aidy’s instigation, the two of us took a proposal to the Sydney Star Observer for a regular column on gender and transgender issues, and this became Gender Agenda. We were hosted by Philip Adams on the panel of his ABC Radio National Late Show Live, along with avant-garde drag artiste Cindy Pastel and American feminist academic Jane Gallop. When Philip asked about their gender journey, Aidy replied,“ I took a taxi here”.</p><p>
We took every opportunity to get in front of cameras and microphones to challenge gender norms and inspire social inclusion, and you can see and hear Aidy starring in the docudrama Sexing the Label, sitting on Gilligan's Island (corner Oxford and Flinders Street) as the 1996 Mardi Gras parade speeds by in fast motion.A nightclub in Kings Cross that was part of Abe Saffron’s network was accused of discriminating against a transgender woman. In response, Aidy negotiated with the nightclub network for a free venue to use for a fundraiser to benefit the trans community. This led to the 'Trany Pride' Ball at the old Les Girls nightclub, which raised money for the first 'Trany Pride' float in the Mardi Gras Parade. This helped build enough community support for the successful law reform achieved in 1996.</p><p>
There aren’t many people as caring and intelligent as Aidy, and their passing is a devastating loss. But too, Aidy was part of many invigorating heady and sometimes terrifying adventures, memories to cherish, or to just wonder at how we survived them.</p>Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-58137489631071432272021-08-31T23:24:00.001+10:002021-08-31T23:24:16.639+10:00SOUTH AFRICA'S SHOCKING JOBLESS FIGURES MAKE A BASIC INCOME GRANT A SOCIAL, MORAL AND HISTORICAL IMPERATIVEDaily Maverick<BR>
Brett Herron <BR>
30 August 2021<BR>
<H1><b>South Africa’s shocking jobless figures make a Basic Income Grant a social, moral and historical imperative</b></H1><BR>
<p>Appropriately funded and managed, with no wiggle room for state incompetency or corruption, a Basic Income Grant could finally lay the foundation for sustainable healing and justice in post-apartheid South Africa. To those who say such a grant is unaffordable, the obvious answer is that South Africa can no longer afford not to.</p><p>
A few days ago, Statistics SA announced that South Africa’s unemployment rate had reached a record high of 34.4%, or a staggering 44% if we use the expanded definition of unemployment, which includes those who have given up looking for work. </p><p>
More than 46% of young people under the age of 34 – and a staggering 63% of under-24s – are unemployed.</p><p>
The simple fact is that our economy is unable to generate enough jobs to reduce and eliminate unemployment, which leaves millions of South Africans without any access to an income. It is physically impossible for any adult of employable age to live day to day, month to month and year to year without income.</p><p>
Prioritising the implementation of a Basic Income Grant – or Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) – is a social, moral and historical imperative crucial to the sustainability of South Africa’s constitutional democracy.</p><p>
Appropriately funded and managed, with no wiggle-room for state incompetency or corruption, the BIG could finally lay the foundation for sustainable healing and justice in post-apartheid South Africa. </p><p>
To those who say such a grant is unaffordable, the obvious answer is that South Africa can no longer afford not to.</p><p>
Inequality was the overarching policy of apartheid and its colonial predecessors. The fact that inequality has deepened in post-apartheid South Africa is a shameful slur on the state, the governing parties, the business sector and all South Africans of social conscience and integrity.</p><p>
Among the funding mechanisms that the state is duty-bound to consider are redistributive measures recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) 22 years ago.</p><p>
Among the commission’s key recommendations were that those to whom it did not give amnesty for apartheid-era human rights violations should be prosecuted (all being equal before the law), and that the state should implement a reparations policy.</p><p>
Recognising that funding reparations were expensive – but nonetheless imperative in contributing to narrowing the “intolerable” inequality gap – the commission proposed a number of redistributive measures. </p><p>
None of the recommendations was implemented.</p><p>
Commission chairperson Archbishop Desmond Tutu said later that the mood in the country created by its first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, was such that many businesses and individuals would have been happy to contribute to the reconstruction of the country. In a sense, it could also be a cathartic mechanism to pay something back in acknowledgement of the privilege they accrued under apartheid. </p><p>
The archbishop referred to the unimplemented recommendations as the TRC’s unfinished business.</p><p>
Despite government’s efforts to provide houses, security and comfort to citizens – the millions of fully subsidised homes that have been built and connections made to the water, sewerage and electricity grids – 22 years after the TRC published its recommendations, levels of poverty, joblessness and inequality have increased. Unsustainably so.</p><p>
On top of deeply entrenched structural barriers to economic inclusion, the impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic has been devastating. According to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, social scientists from five South African universities recently estimated Covid-related job losses at three million, of which two million jobs were lost by women.</p><p>
Nearly half the South African population is living in poverty, a burden that is disproportionately carried by women, with 74% of women-headed households living below the poverty level. </p><p>
Dismantling the deeply entrenched structures that created economic, social, spatial and environmental injustice will require all of our efforts. South Africa has a well-established social assistance programme – of cash transfers – but the programme makes no provision for able-bodied adults between 18 and 59 years, the assumed age of economic activity. </p><p>
Their exclusion condemns many to live in intolerable conditions.</p><p>
Section 27 of the South African Constitution guarantees every person the right to sufficient food and water and to “social security, including, if they are unable to support themselves and their dependants, appropriate social assistance”. </p><p>
It is in this context that the debate about the BIG must be understood. When an economy is unable to provide enough jobs for people to earn an income and take care of themselves financially, then the state has a duty to provide relief.</p><p>
It is not a gift or a handout; it is a right.</p><p>
In response to the economic turmoil occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic, the state introduced a temporary Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant of R350 per month. Payment of this grant has been extended to March 2022. It’s far from perfect, and hardly sufficient to keep the wolf from the door, but it is helping nearly seven million beneficiaries.</p><p>
The first step on the road to a BIG is to continue to provide the social relief grant of R350 per person per month and expand access to whoever applies for it. </p><p>
But we must recognise this grant for what it is: A commendable state response in an economic emergency wrought by a health pandemic – a Band-Aid to stem the flow of blood from a gaping wound. </p><p>
The next step must be finding the means to address legitimate concerns about universality, quantum and affordability.
The benefit of the grant being universal – that is, available to every adult regardless of their personal financial circumstances – is that it reduces the barriers to access for those who need it most by reducing systemic errors. But extending the grant to all, including those who don’t need it, will add to the financial burden on the state. </p><p>
The International Growth Center proposes that “transfers should be made universal or accessible on an opt-in basis (i.e. beneficiaries self-evaluate their eligibility), where feasible to try to reach as many in need as possible”</p><p>.
It makes obvious sense to reduce unnecessary spend while securing ease of access. As a start, an opt-in system for all who are not registered for income tax, for example, could be a sensible balancing condition that would be relatively easy to manage.</p><p>
The question of quantum is equally challenging.</p><p>
The most recent data published by Stats SA shows the Food Poverty Line at R585 per person per month. This is the amount of money a South African needs to afford the minimum daily food required. The same report places the Lower Bound Poverty Line at R840 per person per month and the Upper Bound Poverty Level at R1,268 per person per month. These levels are a combination of the minimum daily food requirements plus non-food essentials.</p><p>
In the ideal circumstances, we should be able to provide social security that meets, at the very least, the upper-bound poverty level of R1,268 per month. This could eliminate poverty in as little as three years. But it would cost the fiscus about R415-billion per year.</p><p>
If we lower our initial expectations and set the quantum at the Food Poverty Line of R585 per month, the amount of money required drops to R197-billion. This number could be further reduced to R157-billion by restricting payments to unemployed people only. Reaching 60%-80% of this group, which is likely in the initial period, would further reduce annual costs to around R95-billion.</p><p>
How does the country afford it?</p><p>
If the new minister of finance follows through on the plan to introduce zero-based budgeting – a budgeting process aimed at reducing wastefulness and identifying absolute spending priorities – then this would free up significant cash. Correctly implemented, it would place the BIG into the budget as a non-negotiable expense and build the rest of the budget around it.</p><p>
Secure access to sufficient food and water is the most basic of needs of every human being. It should be budgeted for before anything else.</p><p>
According to the Institute for Economic Justice, eliminating government waste would save about R20-billion. This is a very conservative figure when you consider that State Capture is said to have cost the South African people about R500-billion. </p><p>
If properly prioritising the budget falls short of the BIG funding need, tax mechanisms must be considered. It is here that the TRC’s recommendations come into focus. The Institute for Economic Justice estimates that a wealth tax of 1% on the top 1% of earners in South Africa would bring an additional R63-billion in revenue. </p><p>
South Africa has the resources to fund this. It is a question of priorities. </p><p>
Finally, it should go without saying that economic growth that creates jobs is the pathway we are all looking for. Championing and supporting a BIG does not equate to giving up on an economy that grows inclusively and gives every adult, of employment age, the opportunity to earn a decent wage and experience a life which is fulfilled by meaningful employment.</p><p>
The money spent on the BIG will not be lost to the economy. It will be spent by the recipients in the economy and contribute back to our revenue through VAT and taxes. DM</p><BR>Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-65905195297984794242021-08-20T17:54:00.017+10:002021-09-02T15:56:23.803+10:00MARIKANA - ONE OF THE WORST POST- APARTHEID ACTIONS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT
DM168 COMMEMORATION - Daily Maverick<BR>
<H1><b>Marikana: The unfolding of a never-ending tragedy</b></H1><BR>
By David Forbes• 14 August 2021<BR>
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Mine workers gather at the Nkageng informal settlement on 15 August 2012 in North West, South Africa, to plan a way forward following violent clashes at Lonmin's Marikana Platinum Mine. (Photo: Gallo Images / Foto24 / Felix Dlangamandla)<BR>
<p>For nine long, tortured years, the grieving families of the slain at Marikana have sought justice – in vain. Alone, they suffer a suppurating and very wicked wound, for both themselves and the entire South African nation.<?p>
First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.<BR>
<p>On 16 August 2012, in a terrifying act of police revenge for the killing earlier of two of their colleagues, the SAPS vowed to “end this thing today”, then went out and cold-bloodedly shot dead 34 miners out on a wildcat strike. Many were shot in the back with military assault rifles, the culmination of 10 days of mine violence that left 47 dead.</p><p>
At the time, it was the bloodiest massacre in post-apartheid South Africa, fourth to three prior apartheid-era massacres, the hardly known 1952 “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in East London, in which 80 to 200 people were killed; the infamous Sharpeville Massacre on 21 March 1960 (69 dead); and Soweto’s 16 June 1976 Uprising (176 to 700 killed).</p><p>
What came to be called the Marikana Massacre at the Lonmin platinum mine near Rustenburg in North West was a direct result of a betrayal by Lonmin mine management, police incompetence, union rivalry and the insufferable indignity of migrant labour, a highly exploitative practice that no-one post-apartheid has seen fit to end.</p><p>
Those who have escaped consequences (but not blame) include President Cyril Ramaphosa, former president Jacob Zuma, then minister of safety and security Nathi Mthethwa, then police commissioner Riah Phiyega, and (at the time) North West provincial commissioner Lieutenant General Zukiswa Mbombo, their subordinates, key union representatives from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), and Lonmin senior managers Jomo Kwadi, Barnard Mokwena (a paid State Security Agency spy), Abey Kgotle, security manager Graeme Sinclair, and the top triumvirate of Lonmin executives, Ian Farmer, Ben Magara and Simon Scott.</p><p>
For nine years, the families have slept every single night holding the pain of their loss. They filed a civil case in 2016 to compel a recalcitrant Zuma presidency to act on their promised R1-billion-plus compensation, still largely delayed.</p><p>
Key breadwinners are gone. Some widows live in shacks.</p><p>
Nine years later, not a single police officer has been convicted.</p><p>
It took nearly five years for the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to identify 72 police officers in connection with the incident on 13 August 2012, which left five dead just days before the massacre. It took another year for the first six officers to appear in court.</p><p>
William Mpembe, then deputy North West provincial commissioner and now head of security at Tharisa Minerals in Marikana, was charged in 2018 with four counts of murder, five of attempted murder.</p><p>
He and former air wing commander Lieutenant Colonel Salmon Johannes Vermaak face counts of defeating the ends of justice.</p><p>
Vermaak allegedly instructed officers Nkosana Shepherd Mguye, Collin Masilo Mogale, Katlego Joseph Sekgwetla and Khazamola Phillip Makhubela to hunt down and shoot fleeing mineworkers. The State has 140 witnesses. That trial is ongoing.</p>
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Striking mine workers meet to discuss their wage demands outside the Nkageng informal settlement on 16 August 2012 in North West, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Foto24 / Felix Dlangamandla)<BR>
<p>Mpembe earlier faced separate charges in the Mahikeng High Court, with officers Jacobus Gideon van Zyl, Dingaan Madoda and Oupa Pule, for failing to report that mineworker Modisaotsile Van Wyk Segalala had died in the back of a police truck. They were acquitted in March 2021.</p><p>
For nine slow years, this litany of injustices over Marikana has lain like a ghoulish incubus on our nation’s soul, with the government failing to apologise, the police refusing to accept responsibility, and the mines putting money over life while the lives of the victims decline.</p><p>
In the icy Highveld winter of 2012, the ANC-aligned NUM was being challenged for organising rights by the non-aligned Amcu at the Nkaneng platinum mine, owned by British company Lonmin plc, formerly the mining division of global miner Lonrho plc. (On 10 June 2019, Lonmin was finally sold to Sibanye-Stillwater.)</p><p>
Many miners felt the NUM did not represent their interests and was “too close to management”. The rock drill operators, who work long hours at the rock face in conditions that are incredibly uncomfortable and dangerous were being paid a cost-to-company of between R8,000 to R10,000 a month, including a “live-out allowance”.</p><p>
Some migrant miners support families of up to 13 members, mostly in the Eastern Cape, Lesotho, eSwatini and Mozambique.</p><p>
The “migrant labour system”, instituted about 100 years ago, has contributed greatly to the enormous wealth that built South Africa’s infrastructure but returns very little to the people themselves.</p><p>
“The truth is that we live like pigs while the mine smiles when we dig that platinum and make them rich,” Thobisile Jali tells journalist Thanduxolo Jika later.</p><p>
On Thursday 9 August 2012, after a meeting, the rock drill operators go out on a wildcat (unprotected) strike, demanding basic pay of R12,500 a month. Tholekile Mbhele tells Jika: “We decided to do things ourselves.”</p><p>
The following day, they demand to see the bosses at the Lonmin offices. Management refuses. That night, in the Wonderkop mine hostels, there are assaults and clashes.</p>
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Striking mine workers run for cover after police officers open fire outside the Nkageng informal settlement on 16 August 2012 in North West, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Foto24 / Felix Dlangamandla)
<p>Men in a Lonmin bakkie shoot and wound Thando Mutengwane and Bulelani Dlomo. The strikers gather at a nearby koppie to avoid hostel intimidation.</p><p>
They will spend nearly a week on the mountain, peacefully demanding that management come and talk to them. Management will consistently refuse and 34 of those miners will go home in wooden boxes.</p><p>
On Saturday 11 August, about 2,000 strikers march on the NUM offices, carrying traditional weapons. Stones are thrown at the NUM men, and three shots are fired at the strikers. Bongani Ngema and Vusimuzi Mandla “Zulu” Mabuyakhulu are wounded.</p><p>
The next day, about 3,000 strikers again march on the NUM. Despite earlier orders that Public Order Policing (POP) units be deployed there, no police are seen. It’s Sunday. Senior police cannot be reached.</p>
Two Lonmin guards try to calm the angry crowd, which hacks Hassan Funi and Frans Mabelane to death, steals their phones and a pistol, and burns both them and their Lonmin vehicle.<BR>
<p>That night, strikers march to shaft K-4, set nine vehicles alight and kill Thapelo “Eric” Mabebe and Julius Langa. The violence is escalating beyond the control of the elected strike leaders led by Mgcineni “Mambush” Noki, 30, a popular miner from Thwalikhulu in Pondoland. On Monday 13 August, police set up an interim joint operations centre at the mine management offices. The managers claim the protesters are “faceless” but they have pictures in their HR files.</p><p>
Mbombo instructs Mpembe to “disperse and disarm” the (3,000) protesters and marchers, confiscate their weapons, arrest everyone involved, and “enhance strategic deployments”. After setting her deputy this Herculean task, she leaves.</p>
Police units pour into Marikana: the Special Task Force, the Tactical Response Team, the National Intervention Unit, the POP, Air Wing, Mounted Unit, K-9, Visible Policing, Planning.<BR>
<p>That afternoon, 25-year career cop Mpembe and 70 officers intercept 100 to 200 strikers returning to the koppie. The strikers sit down quietly when they see the police.</p>
Police officers open fire on striking mine workers outside the Nkageng informal settlement on 16 August 2012 in North West, South Africa. Violence broke out in the area as workers downed tools during an apparent wage strike at the Lonmin Marikana Platinum Mine. (Photo: Gallo Images / Foto24 / Felix Dlangamandla)<BR>
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Mpembe tells them to surrender their weapons
<p>With impeccable logic, Noki replies they are not fighting. Their weapons are only to defend themselves. They are returning to the koppie to report back, and may the police escort them safely? Mpembe demands they lay down their arms. Noki rises and says: “We have spoken enough now. We are leaving.”</p><p>
As one, the miners begin to move. The police accompany them, but about 200m later, Warrant Officer Daniel Kuhn fires a teargas cannister (contravening Standing Order 262). In the mayhem that follows, officers Hendrick Tsietsi Monene and Sello Hendrik Lepaaku are stabbed and hacked to death, and a 9mm pistol and an R5 rifle stolen.</p>
Officer Shitumo Baloyi is stabbed and hacked, but survives<BR>
<p>Looted weapons are fired at police, who return fire. Phumzile Sokanyile and Semi Jokanisi are killed. Four strikers are wounded. Thembelakhe Mati is found dead later.</p><p>
The police regroup and agree they have “insufficient resources” to disarm the miners. They draw up a plan to “negotiate a peaceful solution”.</p><p>
At 6pm, National Commissioner Phiyega arrives. She instructs Mbombo to “continue to try and bring the unions to negotiate” and urges management to “do everything in their power to ensure that the situation is normalised”. She then returns to Pretoria.</p><p></p><p>
On Tuesday 14 August, Noki tells journalists they are not fighting, they just want an audience with their employer. The miners behind him on the koppie are extremely disciplined and peaceful.</p><p>
The police arrive to negotiate in an armoured Nyala. Lieutenant Colonel McIntosh, a police negotiator, is too afraid to get out. Noki and four others come forward and kneel down. Noki then goes to the front window of the Nyala to talk to McIntosh.</p><p>
McIntosh says the police cannot force management to negotiate. It’s late, so Noki says management must come the next day. That evening, Mpembe asks NUM president Senzeni Zokwana and Amcu boss Joseph Mathunjwa to try to resolve the impasse.</p>
The body of Lonmin mine worker Mafolisi Mabiya is carried up a mountain to his village before his funeral on 2 September 2012 outside Dutywa, Eastern Cape, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Foto24 / Felix Dlangamandla)<BR>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r9r2QwJ9IZc/YTBmzq7oHrI/AAAAAAAACX4/-YJ8TK_lG0USYpHkVmz_F7pXP-VKrizKACLcBGAsYHQ/s600/marik5.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r9r2QwJ9IZc/YTBmzq7oHrI/AAAAAAAACX4/-YJ8TK_lG0USYpHkVmz_F7pXP-VKrizKACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/marik5.jpg"/></a></div>
<p>The next morning, Wednesday 15 August, Nyala-style negotiations resume. The police say calling management “is not part of their duties”. Noki asks them to go. It’s hard to negotiate with an armoured vehicle.</p><p>
Meanwhile, Mpembe has called Zokwana, Mathunjwa and mine management to a meeting. He says the situation is “explosive”.</p><p>
The two union leaders, no love lost between them, agree to talk to the strikers. They are taken down separately, Zokwana first. They are not allowed out of the Nyala and use a loudhailer.</p><p>
It’s now late afternoon. The strikers refuse Zokwana’s urgings to return to work, singing and stamping. McIntosh nervously pulls the Nyala back. Then Mathunjwa. He is also not allowed out, but is received warmly.</p><p>
Mohammed must come to the Mountain. The strikers are implacable. Noki suggests management come the next morning. The union bosses return to the meeting, and debrief separately. Mpembe is impressed. Mathunjwa says: “Everyone is positive.”</p><p>
Unknown to Mathunjwa, four police mortuary vans are ordered that same night at Phiyega’s executive meeting, where, ominously, the term “D-Day” is used.</p><p>
Mathunjwa asks Lonmin’s Kwadi and Kgotle to meet him at 8am the next day. They agree. But at the 6.30am joint operations meeting the next morning, informer intelligence says there will be “no laying down of arms”. Things get tense. At 8.20am, Mathunjwa arrives but management reneges and refuse to negotiate. It is a betrayal of tragic magnitude.</p><p>
Mathunjwa then discovers the police and Lonmin are holding a press conference. At 10am, Provincial Commissioner Mbombo tells journalists in the Lonmin boardroom: “We are ending this today; don’t ask me how, but today we are ending this.”</p><p>
SSA spy Mokwena allegedly has turned the police against Amcu. Mbombo insults Mathunjwa. Management’s turnaround is “not her problem”. Then she leaves to attend a ceremony with North West Premier Thandi Modise.</p><p>
Mpembe tells Mathunjwa that Mbombo (who has now gone) has replaced him as police commander. No one will engage with Mathunjwa. At 1.40pm, under a cold, steel-blue sky, Noki tells the police he can see they are “preparing for war”.</p><p>
Noki tells McIntosh: “We must sign a paper so the world can see how we kill one another today”</p><p>
The cops refuse to take Mathunjwa to the strikers. He uses his own car, and begs the strikers to avoid violence. He falls to his knees. “You are going to be killed here,” he pleads. Noki thanks him. The strikers will stay, he says calmly, and if police or management want to kill them, so be it.</p>
A memorial service at the koppie in Nkaneng behind the Lonmin mine in Rustenburg. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)<BR>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ICQLdrVhFxc/YTBnHF-y8CI/AAAAAAAACYA/K6axyJ3JtK8i5HNbd0zF6tDzdVtJocNkACLcBGAsYHQ/s600/marik6.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ICQLdrVhFxc/YTBnHF-y8CI/AAAAAAAACYA/K6axyJ3JtK8i5HNbd0zF6tDzdVtJocNkACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/marik6.jpg"/></a></div>
<p>Then Noki warmly welcomes SA Council of Churches president Bishop Jo Seoka and requests him to ask management to come. Noki says they will return to work as soon as their demand is met. The bishop says Lonmin’s Kgotle had told him earlier they would not negotiate with “those criminals”.</p><p>
As the sun sinks lower, the Special Task Force uncoil long rolls of shiny new razor wire. Police tell journalists to leave. A chill falls as the light begins to fade.</p><p>
Then the shooting begins</p><p>
Noki leads a group of miners cautiously towards an escape route but is cut off by police. A striker fires a pistol in retaliation to police stun grenades and teargas.</p><p>
In 12 seconds, 284 bullets rip bone and sinew to shards and shreds. This bloodbath is later called “Scene 1”. A commander calls: “Cease fire.” There is a stunned, very loud silence.</p><p>
Bodies lie motionless in the dirt and thorny scrub. Blood soaks the thirsty earth.</p><p>
Dust swirls, as if moved by spirits of the dead. It’s all in slow motion. Death has descended.</p><p>
Then the police begin shouting, regrouping, moving towards the 17 dead strikers. A helicopter clatters overhead.</p><p>
Other police formations pursue strikers running, literally for their lives, towards another little koppie several hundred metres away. Out of sight, a lengthy bout of shooting echoes sporadically for 11 minutes.</p><p>
This is “Scene 2”, where 57 police fire 295 bullets, killing a further 17 miners.</p><p>
These sinister details are revealed in a report by independent researcher David Bruce, based on photographs, statements from police and surviving miners, and ballistic and forensic evidence.</p><p>
Multiple miner statements accuse the police of shooting defenceless strikers. A police witness later tells how a cop shot a miner with his hands up. Police put weapons into the hands of dead miners. Some bodies have their hands tied.</p><p>
Bruce concluded that most of the murders were motivated by a desire to punish the strikers for killing two police officers earlier in the week.</p><p>
One miner was shot 12 times. Four others die later. Police arrest 270 and charge the strikers with murder under the apartheid-era “common purpose” doctrine. Years later these murder charges will be dropped.</p><p>
Meanwhile, in faraway villages, hearts crack and the wailing begins as news comes of the death of breadwinners, husbands, sons, brothers, and colleagues. The nation goes into rigid shock. Headlines shudder around the world. Marikana is a new pin on the map, for all the wrong reasons.</p><p>
Phiyega congratulates her officers, saying they “did nothing wrong”. Zuma appoints the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, but it becomes a whitewash. Political principals are exonerated, the police shootings justified, the miners blamed for “violent behaviour”, and Lonmin partially blamed for “reckless actions”. The charge of “toxic collusion” between Lonmin and the SAPS is dismissed.</p><p>
Phiyega later faces the Claassen Inquiry into her fitness to hold office. It leads to her suspension on full pay, until the end of her term. During her suspension she earns R3.2-million. She also takes the Farlam Commission report on review, but on 18 June 2021 the High Court dismisses her bid to overturn the report, with costs.</p><p>
Violence continues sporadically until 18 September 2012, when the strikers, assisted by the unions and the SACC, finally win a 22% increase. Strikers had not slept at home. Police were kicking in doors and beating people. The miners remain haunted, traumatised.</p><p>
Farlam clears Cyril Ramaphosa, deputy president, a Lonmin shareholder and board member at the time, of possible culpable homicide, despite a chain of emails showing he had pressured the police minister to send reinforcements, and leaned on then mineral resources minister Susan Shabangu, saying the strikers were engaged in “a dastardly criminal act” and her silence was “bad for her and the government”.<?p><p>
Despite being a skilled negotiator and former NUM general secretary, Ramaphosa had refused to talk to the strikers. He has never been to Marikana. He didn’t visit the widows. He has not apologised. He calls his words “unfortunate”.</p>
Striking mine workers meet to discuss their wage demands outside the Nkageng informal settlement on 16 August 2012 in North West, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Foto24 / Felix Dlangamandla)<BR>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fxZCgw9oNmI/YTBndUb8R6I/AAAAAAAACYI/rmvuVOGIXbwdrKE5GDtKZ62ZKSOai1PgwCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/marik7.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fxZCgw9oNmI/YTBndUb8R6I/AAAAAAAACYI/rmvuVOGIXbwdrKE5GDtKZ62ZKSOai1PgwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/marik7.jpg"/></a></div>
<p>Police Minister Mthethwa was cleared of accusations of murder</p><p>
Farlam said the police at Scene 1 had “reasonable grounds” to believe they were under threat. But Phiyega’s claim that miners attacked police was shown on video to be false.</p.<p>
Despite evidence of multiple failures in SAPS record-keeping, withholding of documents, fabrications, deceiving the commission and altering evidence, Farlam inexplicably clears the police</p><p>.
Human rights lawyer George Bizos says senior police made a “deliberate attempt to defeat the ends of justice”. There are no findings about the 17 deaths at Scene 2 because there is “no clarity”, despite clear witness statements. Farlam’s recommendations are ignored to this day.</p><p>
Greg Marinovich, author of Murder at Small Koppie, an investigative book on Marikana, concluded that “heavily armed police hunted down and killed the miners in cold blood”.</p><p>
Turning to the culpability of Lonmin and its managers, the commission called the living conditions for 13,500 miners “truly appalling” and found Lonmin had reneged on its legal obligation to phase out the single-sex hostel blocks by September 2011 and replace them with 5,500 houses.</p><p>
Lonmin built three houses. They could not explain why. Farlam said Lonmin “created an environment that created tension, labour unrest, disunity” and “harmful conduct” among its 28,000 employees. Lonmin’s failures were “inexcusable”.</p><p>
Lonmin’s 2012/13 annual report recorded an after-tax profit of $198-million, calling the massacre a “production disruption”. The two top executives, Ian Farmer and Simon Scott, earned R13.6-million and R6.2-million, respectively, in 2011. Lonmin had 3,000 rock drill operators demanding R12,500 a month. It would only have cost 14% of Lonmin’s after-tax profits to pay their demand.</p><p>
The widows filed a civil claim in 2016 to compel the government to pay compensation. In December 2017, the government announced it would pay R1-billion. In 2018, at least 320 claimants who sued the state were paid R69-million for loss of support.</p><p>
The families have yet to settle for emotional damages. DM168</p><p>
Remembering those murdered at Marikana:<BR<
Nobhozi Bhabhazela, Hassan Duncan Fundi, Stelega Gadlela, Thembinkosi Gwelani, Patrick Akhona Jijase, Semi Jokanisi, Julius Langa, John Kutlwano “Papi” Ledingoane, Jackson Lehupa, Sello Lepaaku, Janeveke Raphael Liau, Thapelo Eric Mabebe, Matlhomola Frans Mabelane, Mafolisi Mabiya, Julius Tokoti Mancotywa, Tembelakhe Sabelo Mati, Anele Mdizeni, Bongani Mdze, Makhosandile Mkhonjwa, Telang Vitalis Mohai, Hendrick Tsietsi Monene, Khanare Elias Monesa, Thabiso Mosebetsane, Thobile Mpumza, Dumisani Mthinti, Babalo Mtshazi, Nkumbulo Mvume, Michael Ngweyi, Mpumzeni Ngxande, Ntandazo Nokamba, Mgcineni “Mambush” Noki, Bongani Ngqongophela, Mongezeleli Ntenetya, Motlapula Andries Ntsenyeho, Molefi Osiel Ntsoele, Mvuyisi Henry Pato, Modisaotsile Van Wyk Sagalala, Fezile David Saphendu, Phumzile Sokanyile, Mzukisi Sompeta, Thabiso Johannes Thelejane, Mphangeli Thukuza, Isaiah Twala, Nkosiyabo Xalabile, Cebisile Yawa, Bonginkosi Yona and Thobisile Zimbambele. DM168<BR>
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper which is available for R25 at Pick n Pay, Exclusive Books and airport bookstores. For your nearest stockist, please click here.<BR>Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-10949280090438228412021-08-19T19:00:00.098+10:002021-08-20T16:58:22.468+10:00RELIGION IS NOT RACE AND RACE IS NOT RELIGION - THE BOTTOM LINE IS NATIONALISM<p>What is going on in this country is race hatred propogated by governments, reactionary groups, people who are unable to accept for all sorts of reasons, that all of us are part of one system - we are all part of the human race, that is the species we are, neither fish, nor flesh, nor fowl. Of course flesh can be human, but all anlimats have flesh and we humans have flesh.</p><p>
The trouble is, we also have brains which register thoughts and actions and these can propagate hate - hate of people who are different from us, who don't look like us, who don't speak like us, who don't worship the same deity or don't worship any deity - and are therefore DIFFERENT!!</p><p>
But as Shakespeare said so many years ago: "..........and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses,affections,passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufference be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction."</p><p>
This may have been written by Shakespeare a few hundred years ago, but it is still apposite. </p><p>
However, religion is not race, and what we have been taught by governments and those who like to practice extremism all use the precept of religion and race interchangeably.</p><p>
The bottom line is that there is only one race, and that is the human race, and those whom it suita denigrate those who look different, who speak differently, whose homes have different practices which suit their requrementw and whose whole way of life is different in certain respects from the "common" perception.</p><p>
Racism is, in effect nationalism and those who practise it do so because they are unable to handle difference and they have been taught that certain people's practices are abhorrent to the mass of the population and need to be stopped.</p><p>
Pause for a moment, and look around the world and see how ugly are these actions and activities and end up murderously and viciously and end up to the detriment of so many.</p><p>
The systems of goverment around the world under which we live preach hate to enable those government systems to operate successfully for those who have gained positions of power, and of course the majority of people in the world suffer.</p><p>
This racism in nationalism, not racism, not religion.</p>Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-84248441966318706852021-08-11T18:51:00.041+10:002021-08-13T18:28:21.772+10:00ATHEISTS CREATED BY HOMOPHOBIA AND RELIGIOUS FANATICISM
Andrews government fails to curb legal right to fire gay staff
By Royce Millar and Ben Schneiders
August 11, 2021 — 5.00am
<p>The Andrews government has so far failed to honour an election pledge to stop religious schools discriminating against LGBTQ+ staff and students, who can still legally be sacked and expelled due to their sexuality.</p><p>
LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and unions are pressing the state government for action after an investigation by The Age found gay and lesbian teachers were being dismissed or pressured to leave their jobs. The discrimination is particularly prevalent in evangelical schools.</p>
John Pendergast, who formerly worked as a teacher at a conservative Christian School.
John Pendergast, who formerly worked as a teacher at a conservative Christian School.CREDIT:PENNY STEPHENS
<p>The state Labor government has championed LGBTQ+ rights, banning gay conversion practices and allowing couples to adopt children regardless of their sexuality. But as an election looms next year, the government has been much slower on giving rights to LGBTQ+ people at religious schools.</p><p>
In its 2018 platform Labor promised to ensure that LGBTQ+ staff enjoyed an “inclusive workplace in their employment”, and in an answer to a 2018 election survey the party vowed to fix gaps in protections for LGBTQ+ students and teachers through amendments to the Equal Opportunity Act.</p><p>
But a recent survey by the Independent Education Union’s Victoria and Tasmania branch detailed numerous complaints of discrimination against teachers and students – including fear of being sacked – because of their sexuality in Victorian religious schools.</p><p>
Leading LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Australia has pushed state Labor for change but chief executive Anna Brown said she was disappointed with the lack of progress.</p>
Equality Australia’s Anna Brown says she is disappointed with the Victorian government’s lack of progress
Equality Australia’s Anna Brown says she is disappointed with the Victorian government’s lack of progressCREDIT:EDDIE JIM
<p>“Victoria’s been a leader in equality but the continued delay on this reform means teachers have suffered needlessly without the protection of the law,” Ms Brown said. “Every month they wait, LGBTQ+ students, teachers and people accessing services will be at risk of discrimination and harm.”</p><p>
Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes did not respond directly to questions, saying there would be a response shortly to a parliamentary inquiry into the state’s anti-vilification protections.</p><p>
Ms Symes said equality was “non-negotiable” including in the workplace and that the Andrews government “will always do what it takes to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination”.</p><p>
She said Victoria was monitoring the Morrison government’s proposed Religious Discrimination Bill and would “carefully review any gaps in protections for Victorians”.</p>
Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes.
Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes.CREDIT:
<p>The Morrison government is planning to table a third draft of its contentious bill. Earlier versions extended the right of religious organisations to discriminate.</p><p>
Mr Morrison also promised in 2018 urgent new laws to prevent religious schools expelling students because of their sexuality or gender identity. No legislation has since been forthcoming. Instead, the matter was referred to the Law Reform Commission where it remains.</p><p>
John Pendergast was a teacher at the large Flinders Christian Community College in Melbourne’s south-east. He had more than a decade of service at the school, then faced questioning when he came out as gay in 2016.</p><p>
His former colleague Sam Cairns was sacked from Flinders College in 2012 for being gay.</p>
Teacher Sam Cairns was sacked from Flinders Christian Community College for being gay
Teacher Sam Cairns was sacked from Flinders Christian Community College for being gay CREDIT:PENNY STEPHENS
<p>Mr Pendergast said he had come to terms with his sexuality over time and decided he would no longer hide, or lie about it. The 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Florida fortified him further, and he decided to tell the campus principal about his sexuality.</p><p>
A two-hour meeting with school leaders followed. “They asked all these questions. There was still this assumption that this was a choice I had made about my sexuality, that it wasn’t who I was.”</p><p>
Mr Pendergast later found out that after the meeting the school had been to lawyers for advice on how to deal with his disclosure.</p><p>
“I decided that if they’re going to treat me like that, I don’t want to work there.”</p><p>
College executive principal Cameron Pearce said he was bound by privacy restrictions but said Mr Pendergast was “a loved and valued member of our community both before and after disclosing his same-sex attraction”.</p><p>
Independent education union general secretary Debra James said there was still too much discrimination allowed under Victorian law and “too many schools where both staff and students are forced to hide aspects of their identity or are made to feel unwelcome”.</p><p>
Ms James said the union accepted there might be cases where particular attributes were required for a particular educational role. “However, we simply reject the argument that the personal life of a law-abiding maths teacher, learning support officer, deputy principal or administrative assistant, has any bearing on their ability to do their job.”</p><p>
Legislative progress in Victoria had been “very slow” after the Baillieu government’s “shameful overturning” of Brumby-era laws intended to provide protections, she said.</p><p>
“Other states, such as Tasmania, have shown us that protecting workers from discrimination does not undermine the right to religious expression and does not cause a crisis in faith-based schools.”</p><p>
Tasmania and the ACT have the country’s strongest anti-vilification laws.</p><p>
Human rights activist Rodney Croome, a founder of Australian Marriage Equality, said the sackings of LGBTQ+ staff had been unlawful for more than 20 years in Tasmania and also in the ACT. “This matters because it shows that the sky doesn’t fall in when LGBTQ+ teachers in faith-based schools are protected from unfair treatment,” he said.</p><p>
Many respondents to the union survey on discrimination said they were Christians and had come out during their time at the school. One said they had to keep their sexuality a secret as they feared losing their job. ″I understand they have a right to their faith, but it feels awful having to hide who I am.”</p><p>
A Christian teacher from a regional Victorian evangelical school said students were told that being gay would send them to hell. A gay teacher from the same school lived in fear of being exposed.</p>
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Another respondent said being gay in a Catholic school was “inherently conflicted” with a “don’t ask/don’t tell approach” the norm. Another Catholic school teacher said as a queer person they had to keep their private life secret “for threat of termination”.
A teacher at a Melbourne evangelical school said school assembly included a speech from a student about the evils of being gay and “praying the gay away”.
“It was like stepping back in time or in a different country,” the teacher said.
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Royce Millar is an investigative journalist at The Age with a special interest in public policy and government decision-making.
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Ben Schneiders is a multi-award winning investigative journalist at The Age with a focus on workplace issues, politics, business and corruption.Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-32000333635276010302021-07-14T08:40:00.044+10:002021-07-14T15:35:32.750+10:00SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT DRAGS ITS FEET ON LEGALISING ASSISTED SUICIDE
MAVERICK CITIZEN OP-ED
South African Government drags its feet on legalising assisted suicide
By Drew Forrest• 11 July 2021
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N3xvGG0C0Oo/YO4-uspV5sI/AAAAAAAACVw/1ilglljhsCEdc7UQOT1IkWenvQBc9DE_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s300/euthsa2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="200" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N3xvGG0C0Oo/YO4-uspV5sI/AAAAAAAACVw/1ilglljhsCEdc7UQOT1IkWenvQBc9DE_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/euthsa2.jpg"/></a></div>
(Photo: lboro.ac.uk / Wikipedia)<BR>
<p>Twenty-two years ago the Law Commission called for Parliament to investigate euthanasia and assisted suicide. Nothing has happened since — in fact, the government seems intent on blocking progress. Drew Forrest reports on South Africa’s continued denial of ‘the last right’.</p><p>
Drew Forrest has been working as a journalist for 40 years, with stints at Business Day, Mail & Guardian, Times of Swaziland and the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism. He has been a deputy editor, political editor, business editor and labour editor, among other positions. Author of a book on cricket, The Pacemen (Pan Macmillan 2013), he has also edited several non-fiction books. He is the managing partner (editorial) of IJ Hub, a regional training offshoot of amaBhungane.</p><p>
A university professor cleaning toilets in government offices? Sounds like Mao’s Cultural Revolution! It couldn’t happen here, with our world-class judiciary and democratic constitution…</p><p>
Oh, yes it could. It is precisely the situation of Sean Davison, who works at the University of the Western Cape.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-34iZvMClCGw/YO4_bGKapaI/AAAAAAAACV4/eoTb2b55v5U2SJosvISOHg7jaVddDyMGACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/euthsa1.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-34iZvMClCGw/YO4_bGKapaI/AAAAAAAACV4/eoTb2b55v5U2SJosvISOHg7jaVddDyMGACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/euthsa1.jpg"/></a></div>
Right to die activist Sean Davison during his 2019 murder trial in Cape Town. (Photo by Gallo Images / Netwerk24 / Jaco Marais)
<p>According to his friend and colleague Lee Last, Davison travels every Monday morning to the correctional services department building in Cape Town, where for four hours he cleans toilets, empties rubbish bins and mops floors.</p><p>
Davison has served 400 hours of a community service sentence imposed in a plea bargain in 2019. As he is under three-year house arrest, he can leave home only to scrub toilets and go to work.</p><p>
His crime? Out of pity, he assisted in the suicide of three friends desperate to head off intolerably painful or humiliating deaths. They begged him to apply his expertise as a biotechnologist; their families pleaded for him not to be jailed.</p><p>
“He’s taken the sentence in his stride, he’s got no complaints,” said Last. “He’d much rather clean toilets than rot in jail.” Indeed, the judge could have given him three life sentences for murder.</p><p>
For decades, suicide has not been a crime in South Africa. But paradoxically, helping someone do it, even with the best of motives, is murder under the common law.</p><p>
Davison refused to be interviewed, saying his sentence bars contact with the media. But it certainly looks as if he is being vindictively demeaned. Why is this highly qualified scientist not teaching maths and science to schoolchildren in Khayelitsha?</p><p>
The criminalisation of the morally upright was one of the most objectionable features of apartheid, and an unambiguous call for the law to change.</p><p>
There are other signs that the government is waging an undeclared war on assisted dying.</p><p>
As soon as a citizen asks the courts to sanction physician-assisted suicide (where the doctor supplies the means but the patient does the deed) or physician-administered euthanasia, it springs into action, splashing out scarce public resources on a legal counter-attack.</p><p>
This is in marked contrast with the rest of the democratic world, which is moving in the opposite direction (see sidebar).</p><p>
In a case currently before the North Gauteng High Court, Dieter Harck and Sue Walter are seeking the legal right to choose assisted dying when their illnesses become unendurable. Harck has motor neuron disease, which could eventually suffocate him and Walters has terminal cancer.</p><p>
In response, the justice minister, Ronald Lamola, has briefed expensive advocates to oppose their plea (Harck and Walters’ lawyers are acting pro deo).</p><p>
In 2015 his predecessor, Michael Masutha, opposed a similar application by advocate Robert Stransham-Ford, who was dying, excruciatingly, from prostate cancer. Masutha lost in the high court, but instantly went on appeal. This time he got his way, principally because Stransham-Ford died just before the ruling (see a report on the ruling here and the judgment here).</p><p>
A member of lobby group Dignity SA, Professor Willem Landman, took aim at the appeal court’s “technical” judgment, saying there had been insufficient activist engagement with the vital human rights and constitutional implications of the case.</p>
<b><i>Constitutional rights at stake</i></b><BR>
<p>Harck and Walter’s plea is about far more than personal suffering; they argue that the constitutional rights to dignity and self-determination mean they should be able to choose when and how to die.</p><p>
The Constitution requires the law to be reshaped in questions such as same-sex unions and abortion. But from assisted dying the government seems to shrink in atavistic horror.</p><p>
In 1997, President Nelson Mandela asked the SA Law Reform Commission to explore a range of end-of-life issues, including euthanasia and assisted suicide. The commission recommended three options: keep the status quo; legalise and let hospital ethics committees decide; or make the decision a private matter between patient and doctor.</p><p>
It also wrote draft legislation, which it handed to former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.</p><p>
The commission’s report and draft law were never tabled in Parliament. There have been no public hearings, as there were on abortion. Nothing has happened on what some call “the last right” for 20 years.</p><p>
Why?</p><p>
Tshabalala-Msimang may have dropped a hint when she allegedly branded assisted dying “medicine for the rich”. Given that an overdose of barbiturates is far cheaper than protracted end-of-life care, this makes no sense. Was she saying, in code, that this is a concern only for white South Africans?
There was a further pointer in a televised debate between Landman and former health minister Aaron Motsoaledi, when the latter insisted euthanasia “is against our [presumably African] culture”.
“Culture” is a slippery term: South Africa accepts same-sex unions; Uganda punishes gay sex with a 14-year jail sentence. Which is the authentic champion of “the African way”?
Everyone, regardless of colour, dies — often miserably. And not all Africans agree that their culture prohibits medical curtailment of life in all cases.
One of Davison’s most steadfast supporters has been that global standard-bearer for compassionate faith, Desmond Tutu, who is known to support assisted dying both personally and theologically, as the will of a merciful God.
Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)
Another influential black voice, SA Human Rights Commission head Tseliso Thipanyane, has publicly proclaimed that the constitutional rights of dignity and “of every individual to control of his or her own body” are a clear basis for euthanasia or assisted suicide.
Landman believes there is far more support among black South Africans than the government realises, and that a referendum along New Zealand lines might show this.
But the crisp point is that South Africa is a Rechtsstaat: it is the Constitution, not this or that culture, that must decide.
For some, the termination of pregnancy, civil unions and the abolition of capital punishment are anathema. But by creating “an overarching legal community”, the Constitution makes it possible to press ahead with such reforms.
Landman said he put this to Motsoaledi, who did not reply. Daily Maverick also put questions to justice ministry spokesperson Crispin Phiri, who acknowledged receipt, but provided no answers.
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Tutu’s stance underlines the point that religious opposition is not automatic: it is the shibboleth mainly of hardline Catholics and evangelical Protestants, who also shudder at abortion. Of eight US states that allow assisted suicide, not one is in the “Rapture-ready” Deep South.
In fact, most objections seem to start with amorphous religious-cultural emotion, which then casts about for rational support. And to spare tender consciences, we move into a realm of contorted hair-splitting and casuistry where moral distinctions are gossamer-thin.
It is legal in South Africa to withdraw or withhold life support where the patient has given an advance directive or further treatment is futile. This is known as a living will. “Palliative sedation”, through increasing doses of pain-killing drugs that may hasten death, is also allowed. So is “terminal sedation”, where a pain-stricken patient is knocked out and, if life support is withdrawn, may starve to death.
What, in reality, is the difference between euthanasia and death via an incremental morphine overdose? Or by pulling the plug? Either way, the doctor precipitates the end of life.
Some question why the terminally ill don’t take their own lives, rather than asking a doctor to do it for them.
What if the patient is physically incapable, fearful or lacks the know-how? More to the point: why should the terminally ill not exercise their constitutional right to a peaceful and dignified death, with a doctor at hand and their family members around them?
The mainstay of the opposition case is the “slippery slope” argument, which holds that voluntary euthanasia can weaken judicial restraints, paving the way for involuntary killings à la Third Reich.
The Netherlands as a model
Wherever it is legal, assisted dying is highly regulated. The Netherlands sets five statutory conditions: hopeless and unbearable suffering; a fully voluntary patient request (mandatory parental consent for children); the patient understands his/her illness and options; consultation with a second physician; and a suitable medical procedure administered or overseen by a doctor.
Classed as unnatural, the death then passes to a review committee, which refers errant doctors to the prosecuting authorities.
There is a clear dividing line between Dutch and Nazi euthanasia — the patient’s informed and explicit consent. Why, logically, does that have to slide towards coercion?
Facilitated dying has been lawful in the Netherlands for 37 years and entrenched in statute since 2002. In 2017 the five review committees reported that nine doctors (0.3%) were referred to the authorities after 3,136 assisted deaths that year, mainly because a second physician was not consulted.
A 2009 study found there had been no rise in involuntary deaths over two decades and no increase among the aged, poor, handicapped or ethnic minorities.
Critics claim the Netherlands showcases the “slippery slope” in practice, as euthanasia numbers have climbed annually and the initial facility for terminal cases has expanded to include the mentally ill, demented and old people who feel their lives are “complete”.
But these all require the same consent — in fact, researchers say Dutch doctors are increasingly guided by their patients. The real explanation is that the suicide taboo has faded over time, while more and more people are demanding self-determination in the supremely personal matter of their own death.
Assisted dying in any form is banned throughout Africa, but South Africa does not have to march in lockstep. Why not blaze a constitutional trail, as on gay rights and other contentious issues?
The state’s obstructive rearguard action is both inhumane and pointless. “Sooner or later they’ll have to confront the tension between the common law and the Constitution,” said a source familiar with the Harck case.
“They can chop off the dragon’s head, but there’ll be another… and another…”
International trends
From a tiny spring in Switzerland during World War 2, assisted dying has grown into a broadening international current.
For two decades a destination for “suicide tourism” by foreigners, Switzerland was joined by the Netherlands in the mid-80s.
The trend is clear: in the United States physician-assisted suicide (PAS) was legalised first in Oregon (1994), then in Washington state (2008), de facto in Montana (2009), in Vermont (2013), California (2015), Colorado (2016), District of Colombia (2016), Hawaii (2018) and New Jersey (2018).
Social democracies lead the way: euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Canada. PAS is allowed in Austria and is under active discussion in Germany, Portugal and Italy. Like Switzerland, Croatia permits it for “unselfish motives”.
Euthanasia is permitted in Colombia and has been debated in parliaments across South America. PAS was recently approved by New Zealand and the Australian states of Victoria, South Australia, West Australia and Tasmania. DM/MCMannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-9765037849337941132021-07-12T11:19:00.133+10:002021-07-12T17:49:07.735+10:00'I CAN BE MY WHOLE SELF': AUSTRALIA'S ONLY LGBTIQ PRIDE CENTRE OPENS
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<left>Sumeyya Ilanbey</left><BR>
By Sumeyya Ilanbey<BR>
11 July 2021<BR>
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<p>Hang was seven years old when she arrived in Australia with her family in 1978, part of the first wave of Vietnamese boat people seeking asylum.</><p>
For much of her life, she said, she worked hard to fit in. She perfected her English, lest her accent gave her away as a refugee.</p>
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<b><i>Premier Daniel Andrews with Hang Vo at St Kilda at the Victorian Pride Centre raising the flag on Sunday. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui</i></b><BR>
<p>She spun yarns of family summer camping trips, even though her parents and the three eldest children had in fact been working seven days a week to make ends meets.</p><p>
She concocted elaborate stories about her Christmas celebrations, despite being Buddhi,n a board in an executive team,” Ms Vo said.</p><p>
Melbourne's LGBTIQ community will take part in the annual Midsumma pride march on Sunday</p><p>
“I became really good at fitting in ... [but] I also learnt fitting in eroded the sense of who I am. Here, at the Pride Centre, I can be my whole self: all the parts of me are valued, celebrated, embraced.</p><p>
“The whole of me is needed here.”</p><p>
Ms Vo is chair of the Victorian Pride Centre on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda, which was officially opened on Sunday afternoon, making Victoria the home of Australia’s first purpose-built community hub for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, intersex and queer communities.</p><p>
Premier Daniel Andrews marked the event by announcing $1.9 million to deliver Melbourne Pride 2021 – a one-day street party in the city’s inner north, to be held annually thereafter.</p><p>
This year’s celebration will take place on December 5 to mark the 40-year anniversary of the decriminalisation of sex between men in Victoria.</p>
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<b><i>Equality Minister Martin Foley and Mr Andrews at an event to officially open the Victorian Pride Centre. Credit:Luis Ascui</i></b><BR>
<p>“We can’t have enough of these events in our state – somewhat cheeky to announce a northern-suburbs event in the south, but we built the place and we can get away with it,” Mr Andrews said, tongue in cheek.</p><p>
“To everyone who has had to hide, to everyone who has had to fear, to everyone who’s had to be not quite themselves, this is your space. Every space in Victoria is your space, because equality is not negotiable in this, the most progressive part of our nation.”</p><p>
A range of LGBTIQ organisations, including Transgender Victoria, bookshop Hares and Hyenas and the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, as well as the Australian Queer Archives, will be based at the Victorian Pride Centre.</p><p>
Port Philip City Council donated the land on which the centre is built, while the Victorian government spent more than $25 million on the facility.</p><BR>Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-76802927728928731392021-07-03T18:08:00.006+10:002021-07-03T18:15:51.895+10:00BENNETT'S POLITICAL THEATRE: THE DECISIVE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN FIGHT AHEAD2 July 2021<BR>
Bennett’s Political Theater: the Decisive Israeli-Palestinian Fight Ahead<BR>
by Ramzy Baroud<BR>
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Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair<BR>
<p>Many Palestinians believe that the May 10-21 military confrontation between Israel and the Gaza Resistance, along with the simultaneous popular revolt across Palestine, was a game-changer. Israel is doing everything in its power to prove them wrong.</p><p>
Palestinians are justified to hold this viewpoint; after all, their minuscule military capabilities in a besieged and impoverished tiny stretch of land, the Gaza Strip, have managed to push back – or at least neutralize – the massive and superior Israeli military machine.</p><p>
However, for Palestinians, this is not only about firepower but also about their coveted national unity. Indeed, the Palestinian revolt, which included all Palestinians regardless of their political backgrounds or geographic locations, is fostering a whole new discourse on Palestine – non-factional, assertive and forward-thinking.</p><p>
The challenge for the Palestinian people is whether they will be able to translate their achievements into an actual political strategy, and finally transition past the stifling, and often tragic, post-Oslo Accords period.</p><p>
Of course, it will not be so easy. After all, there are powerful forces that are keenly invested in the status quo. For them, any positive change on the path of Palestinian freedom will certainly lead to political, strategic and economic losses.</p><p>
The Palestinian Authority, which operates with no democratic mandate, is more aware of its vulnerable position than at any other time in the past. Not only do ordinary Palestinians have no faith in this ‘authority’, but they see it as an obstacle in their path for liberation. It was unsurprising to see PA President, Mahmoud Abbas, and many of his corrupt inner circle, riding the wave of Palestinian popular revolt, shifting their language entirely, though fleetingly, from a discourse that was carefully designed to win the approval of ‘donor countries’, to one singing the praises of ‘resistance’ and ‘revolution’.</p><p>
This corrupt clique is desperate, eager to sustain its privileges and survive at any cost.</p><p>
If Palestinians carry on with their popular mobilization and upward trajectory, however, Israel is the entity that stands to lose most. A long-term Palestinian popular Intifada, uprising, with specific demands and under a unified national leadership, would represent the greatest threat to Israel’s military occupation and apartheid regime in many years.</p><p>
The Israeli government, this time under the inexperienced leadership of current Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, and his coalition partner, future Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, is clearly unable to articulate a post-Gaza war strategy. If the political raucous and the bizarre power transition from former Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, to Bennett’s coalition is momentarily ignored, it feels as if Netanyahu is still holding sway.</p><p>
Bennett has, thus far, followed Netanyahu’s playbook on every matter concerning the Palestinians. He, and especially his Defense Minister, Benny Gantz – Netanyahu’s former coalition partner – continue to speak of their military triumph in Gaza and the need to build on this supposed ‘victory’. On June 15, the Israeli army bombed several locations in the besieged Strip and, again, on June 18. A few more bombs, however, are unlikely to change the outcome of the May war.</p><p>
It is time to convert our “military achievements (to) political gains,” Gantz said on June 20. Easier said than done; as per this logic, Israel has been scoring ‘military achievements’ in Gaza for many years, namely since its first major war on the Strip in 2008-09. Since then, thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed and many more wounded. However, Palestinian resistance continued unabated and zero ‘political gains’ have actually been achieved.</p><p>
Gantz, like Bennett and Lapid, recognizes that Israel’s strategy in Gaza has been a complete failure. Since their main objective is remaining in power, they are bound to the rules of the old game which were formulated by right-wing politicians and sustained by right-wing extremists. Any deviation from that failed stratagem means a possible collapse of their shaky coalition.</p><p>
Instead of mapping out a new, realistic strategy, Israel’s new government is busy sending symbolic messages. The first message is to its main target audience, Israel’s right-wing constituency, particularly Netanyahu’s disgruntled supporters, that the new government is equally committed to Israel’s ‘security’, to ensuring a demographic majority in occupied Jerusalem as in the rest of Palestine, and that no Palestinian state will ever be realized.</p><p>
Another message is to the Palestinians and, by extension, to the whole region whose peoples and governments rallied behind the Palestinian revolt during the May war, that Israel remains a formidable military force, and that the fundamental military equation on the ground remains unaltered.</p><p>
By continuing its escalation in and around Gaza, its violent provocations in Sheikh Jarrah and the entirety of East Jerusalem, its continued restrictions on Gaza’s urgent need for reconstruction, Bennett’s coalition is engaging in political theater. As long as attention remains fixated on Gaza and Jerusalem, as long as Bennett and Lapid continue to buy time and to distract the Israeli public from an imminent political implosion.</p><p>
The Palestinians are, once more, proving to be critical players in Israeli politics. After all, it was Palestinian unity and resolve in May that humiliated Netanyahu and emboldened his enemies to finally oust him. Now, the Palestinians could potentially hold the keys to the survival of Bennet’s coalition, especially if they agree to a prisoner exchange – freeing several Israeli soldiers captured by Palestinian groups in Gaza in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held under horrific conditions in Israel.</p><p>
On the day of the last prisoner exchange, in October 2011, Netanyahu delivered a televised speech, carefully tailored to present himself as Israel’s savior. Bennett and Lapid would relish a similar opportunity.</p><p>
It behooves Israel’s new leaders to exercise caution in how they proceed from this point on. Palestinians are proving that they are no longer pawns in Israel’s political circus and they, too, can play politics, as the past few weeks have testified.</p><p>
So far, Bennett has proven to be another Netanyahu. Yet, if Israel’s longest-running prime minister ultimately failed to convince Israelis of the merit of his political doctrine, Bennett’s charade is likely to be exposed much sooner, and the price, this time, is sure to be even heavier.</p><p>
<b><i>Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net</i></b><BR>
Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-66356417484366482612021-06-21T18:26:00.003+10:002021-07-03T18:24:25.707+10:00JULIAN ASSANGE ROTS IN JAIL AS US SLAUGHTERS FIRST AMENDMENTFrom CounterPunch<BR>
18 JUNE 2021<BR>
Julian Assange Rots in Jail as U.S. Slaughters First Amendment<BR>
BY EVE OTTENBERG
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Photograph Source: thierry ehrmann – CC BY 2.0<BR>
<p>Years pass, and journalist Julian Assange languishes in a British jail. His crime? Truthful reporting of U.S. military atrocities in Iraq, reporting that sparked a lust for vengeance among U.S. politicos and military men. With Assange, the American empire would manage what imperialists couldn’t with whistleblower Edward Snowden, who slipped through their fingers by wisely fleeing to Russia – namely, torture him to death in prison.</p><p>
For whatever reason, perhaps a mistaken belief in the rule of law, the power of a free press and the force of public opinion, Assange did not take refuge in Russia, China or Venezuela. This was a fatal mistake. Legal niceties simply fall like matchsticks in the wind when the empire takes offense. Its gaudy invocations of truth and justice are then exposed as mere words.</p><p>
If you doubt that, recall U.S. military jets forcing the grounding of Bolivian president Evo Morales’ plane in Vienna in 2013, because Obama hacks were convinced Snowden hid on board en route to Latin America. The U.S. didn’t hesitate to violate international law, not for a second. Eight years later, the West hollers its outrage over the authoritarian government of Belarus doing the same thing. But it’s useless to call out this hypocrisy, because the U.S. does what it pleases almost anywhere in the world, and the first law of its precious, thoroughly mendacious rules-based order is that those rules never apply to IT.</p><p>
That so-called rules-based order very damagingly replaces international laws and United Nations agreements. If the U.S. abided by a system of laws applied to all countries equally, it would not impose criminal sanctions on countries it deems too independent; hunger would not stalk Venezuelans, plague would not sicken Iranians, because without sanctions, both would have access to food and medicine. If the U.S. abided by international law, it would not so easily snap its fingers and have a vassal state like the UK assault its own hallowed legacy of press freedom by locking up a journalist in a dungeon.</p><p>
Think – if the U.S. honored international law, another country might even take legal action against American judicial abuses, like the de facto double jeopardy of Chelsea Manning. Even more critically, if the U.S. adhered to international law, which includes the Nuremberg laws, it never would have committed the war crime that caused its scandalous treatment of Assange and Manning to begin with – namely, invading and destroying Iraq.</p><p>
Assange has suffered from years holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London, where he sought asylum. Dignitaries like Hillary Clinton lamented publicly that he couldn’t be “droned.” The press vilified him for everything from a phony rape case to how he treats his cat. He has been held for years in Belmarsh prison, full of murderers and covid. And yet, if extradited to the U.S., his treatment would surely be shockingly worse. That’s why judge Vanessa Baraitser, no friend to Assange, whom journalist Chris Hedges in fact compares to the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, refused his extradition in January – she thought he would commit suicide.</p><p>
Speaking of the extremely anti-Assange biased Baraitser and how she managed her courtroom, Hedges called the trial “a judicial farce. There was no legal basis to hold Julian in prison. There was no legal basis to try him, an Australian citizen, under the U.S. Espionage Act. The CIA spied on Julian in the embassy…recording the privileged conversations between Julian and his lawyers as they discussed his defense. This fact alone invalidated the trial.”</p><p>
Hedges also cites the indispensable reporting of Craig Murray, who documented how the U.S. government directed the London prosecutor, James Lewis. “Lewis presented these directives to Baraitser,” Hedges writes. “Bariatser adopted them as her legal decision. It was judicial pantomime.” Close to one thousand years of English law just whooshed out the window with what this courtroom travesty inflicted on Assange, and scarcely a peep about it in our cowardly corporate media.</p><p>
Those already alarmed by the life-threatening abuse heaped on Assange and Manning by the U.S. government surely noted that prospects for the longevity of the first amendment dimmed even more in early June. That’s when news came of a justice department assault on the first amendment, brewing below the headlines, since the close of the Trump administration. I say below the headlines, because while the four New York Times reporters whose emails the DOJ had demanded did not know about this, Times executives did. However, the Biden administration had imposed a gag order on those executives.</p><p>
This battle for the emails started under Trump – no surprise there, from that sworn enemy of truth and a free press – and continued under Biden, for the first few months of his administration. Biden’s March 3 “gag order prevented the executives from disclosing the government’s efforts to seize the records,” according to the Times on June 4, “even to the executive editor, Dean Baquet, and other newsroom leaders.”</p><p>
The Biden administration ultimately “notified the four reporters that the Trump administration, hunting for their sources, had in 2020 secretly seized months of their phone records from early 2017,” the Times reported. Google had refused to cooperate with these prosecutorial excesses. A similar confiscation of records and gag order involving CNN and the Washington Post unfolded recently also.</p><p>
If this news didn’t chill every reporter and potential source who read about it, I don’t know what would. It is classic, brazen, government overreach to subvert freedom of the press. The Times article also reveals that “the government had never before seized the Times’ phone records without advance notification of the effort.” So things are getting worse. U.S. rulers and their legal henchmen became even more arrogant under Trump. Surprise! But it didn’t stop there. There were also secret seizures of congressional phone records. The Trump team drove several nails in the coffin of the first and fourth amendments, and the Biden folks quite tellingly hesitated for months to pull them out.</p><p>
So while Biden claims to support free speech, actions speak louder than words. Prosecuting Julian Assange speaks loudest of all. If Assange is convicted under the Espionage Act, that will kill off the first amendment once and for all. It will mean any reporter, of any nationality, working in any country, who digs into the U.S. government’s dirt, risks fatal grasp in the empire’s iron talons, namely, being hustled onto a plane, hijacked to Northern Virginia, charged with Espionage Act violations and being buried alive, for 175 years, in supermax, solitary confinement. True, most reporters are far too timorous ever to find themselves in that predicament. But for those brave souls who do, it will be cold and bitter comfort to know that their abduction, arrest and imprisonment testify to the truth of their reporting.</p>
<b><i>.Eve Ottenberg is a novelist and journalist. Her latest book is Birdbrain. She can be reached at her website.<BR>
Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-34581043314376713232021-06-11T13:21:00.010+10:002021-06-11T13:24:19.386+10:00ASYLUM SEEKERS - AUSTRALIAN POLITICIANS<p>In 94 years and four countries I would have hoped, still being alive in a country priding itself on humanity and human rights, that I would find that there is still some compassion left somewhere in the world and in members of parliament who make up the people who are supposed to represent the people of Australia.</p><p>
If those people really represent the mass of the country who actually voted them into office, then I suggest we consider ourselves worthy of being back as cave people of some thousands of years ago. Unless our families of the moment consider taking action to restore some modicum of humanity into our lives and behaviours, we really are no better than our ancestors from a bygone age.</p><p>
I have never seen people who consider themselves adherents of religions which claim to have compassion, humanity and support for the more under-priveleged among us behave towards people who have managed to get away from societies where they are persecuted, assaulted, incarcerated, murdered, perpetrate the same abuses on asylum seekers, and who become involved with the equivalent of what these people desperately hoped they had escaped from.</p><p>
To hold the sword of Damocles over their heads and threaten to return them to the purgatory from which they have fled, is a sort of torture one had hoped we were civilised enough never to contemplate. Yet here we have some so-called religious maniacs threatening to do just that.</p><p>
Is there no shame left anywhere and enough people in our societies who will object and ensure this doesn't happen?</p><p>
I would have hoped this wouldn't happen in my lifetime, but it seems it is an idle hope.</p>Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-70607360291686244752021-06-07T23:05:00.028+10:002021-06-07T23:19:48.324+10:00AGED CARE IN AUSTRALIA<p>I am 94 years old. My partner died last year aged 98. He was being treated at St Vincent's Hospital for metastatic prostate cancer.</p><p>
He told the oncologist at the hospital that he did not intend going into an age care facility and that he intended dying at home.</p><p>
He did not have an advanced care directive but knew that I would follow his requests for care until the end, knowing I would respect his wishes. As he has died and I am now on my own, I have no guarantee that anybody around me when I am at a stage when my end is approaching will necessarily heed my requirements.</p><p>
Unlike my partner, I do have an advanced care directive, but nobody close in Melbourne who will necessarily obey my requests.</p><p>
As things stand at the moment in Australia, and more specifically as they stand in Melbourne, I would sooner commit suicide - or do euthanasia if you prefer those words - to being committed to an aged care facility.</p><p>
My criticism is not of people who are involved in aged care - most of them deeply committed to their work - doctors, nurses, everybody else working in aged care homes, nursing homes in general and all related places, because they are permanently underfunded, understaffed, inadequately provided with equipment and medications required and all related issues, but as of at this time, in Melbourne, on 8 June 2021, Covid has taken its toll, vaccination of everybody concerned is lacking and the federal government has shown that it is not in the least interested in remedying the situation at any time soon.</p><p>
I am in my own home with little assistance from government agencies of any sort, don't have any means of transport, and have just been notified that the urgent requirement for me to protect myself should I require help from Personal Alert Victoria will be available and installed in my home - "wait time" - is approximately 14 to 16 weeks for the system called MePACS, the letter being dated 27 May 2021.</p><p>
It is interesting to realise that when sporting teams or other such events require to fulfill they charters, goverments are there to assist them immediately.</p><p>
The letter I received states: "We apologise for the delay, this is due to the limited number of funded units available for Victorians."</p><p>
It is not surprising that people have died waiting for help when they have tried to get ambulances for emergencies because so mush is underfunded - so much has been privatised and all such services are grossly underfunded - sports facilities and sports grounds are <i>much more urgently required</i> - unless you are rich and can pay for everything - as ever, money talks, loud and clear.</p><p>
<b><i>MANNIE DE SAXE</i></b><BR> Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-47484905987628284982021-06-04T18:39:00.005+10:002021-06-04T18:46:18.706+10:00HOW PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE ALTERED THE EQUATION
1 June 2021<BR>
<center><H1><b>How Palestinian Resistance Altered the Equation</b></H1></center>
<b><i>by Ramzy Baroud</i></b><BR>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NQY8NxCQb6w/YLnoECCZzJI/AAAAAAAACTk/P4MBk9w7fRg0lxZQ-dfPXVr8wNiUo1Q0QCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/gaza54.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NQY8NxCQb6w/YLnoECCZzJI/AAAAAAAACTk/P4MBk9w7fRg0lxZQ-dfPXVr8wNiUo1Q0QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/gaza54.jpg"/></a></div><BR>
<b><i>Photograph Source: Neil Ward – CC BY 2.0</i?</b><BR>
<p>The ceasefire on May 21 has, for now, brought the Israeli war on Gaza to an end. However, this ceasefire is not permanent and constant Israeli provocations anywhere in Palestine could reignite the bloody cycle all over again. Moreover, the Israeli siege on Gaza remains in place, as well as the Israeli military occupation and the rooted system of apartheid that exists all over Palestine.</p><p>
This, however, does not preclude the fact that the 11-day Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip has fundamentally altered some elements about Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians, especially the Palestinian Resistance, in all of its manifestations.</p><p>
Let us examine the main actors in the latest confrontation and briefly discuss the impact of the Israeli war and the determined Palestinian resistance on their respective positions.</p>
<b><i>‘Mowing the Grass’ No More</i></b><BR>
<p>‘Mowing the grass’ is an Israeli term used with reference to the habitual Israeli attacks and war on besieged Gaza, aimed at delineating the need for Israel to routinely eradicate or degrade the capabilities of the various Palestinian resistance groups on the street.</p><p>
‘Mowing the grass’ also has political benefits, as it often neatly fit into Israel’s political agendas – for example, the need to distract from one political crisis or another in Israel or to solidify Israeli society around its leadership.</p><p>
May 2021 will be remembered as the time that ‘mowing the grass’ can no longer be easily invoked as a military and political strategy by the Israeli government, as the Gaza resistance and the popular rebellion that was ignited throughout all of Palestine has raised the price by several-fold that Israel paid for its violent provocations.</p><p>
While Israeli military and political strategists want to convince us, and themselves, that their relationship with Gaza and the Palestinian Resistance has not changed, it actually has and, arguably, irreversibly so.</p>
<b><i>The Altered Equation</i></b><BR>
<p>The Palestinian fight for freedom has also been fundamentally altered, not only because of the unprecedented resilience of Palestinian resistance, but the unity of the Palestinian people, and the rise of a post-Oslo/peace process Palestinian nation that is united around a new popular discourse, one which does not differentiate between Palestinians in Jerusalem, Gaza, or anywhere else.</p><p>
Palestinian unity around resistance, not peace process, is placing Israel in a new kind of quandary. For the first time in its history, Israel cannot win the war on the Palestinians. Neither can it lose the war, because conceding essentially means that Israel is ready to offer compromises – end its occupation, dismantle apartheid, and so on. This is why Israel opted for a one-sided ceasefire. Though humiliating, it preferred over-reaching a negotiated agreement, thus sending a message that the Palestinian Resistance works.</p><p>
Still, the May war demonstrated that Israel is no longer the only party that sets the rules of the game. Palestinians are finally able to make an impact and force Israel to abandon its illusions that Palestinians are passive victims and that resistance is futile.</p><p>
Equally important, we can no longer discuss popular resistance and armed resistance as if they are two separate notions or strategies. It would have been impossible for the armed resistance to be sustained, especially under the shocking amount of Israeli firepower, without the support of Palestinians at every level of society and regardless of their political and ideological differences.</p><p>
Facing a single enemy that did not differentiate between civilians and fighters, between a Hamas or a Fatah supporter, the Palestinian people throughout Palestine moved past all of their political divisions and factional squabbles. Palestinian youth coined new terminologies, ones that were centered around resistance, liberation, solidarity and so on. This shift in the popular discourse will have important consequences that have the potential of cementing Palestinian unity for many years to come.</p>
<b><i>Israel’s Allies Not Ready to Change</i></b><BR>
<p>The popular revolt in Palestine has taken many by surprise, including Israel’s allies. Historically, Israel’s Western supporters have proven to be morally bankrupt, but the latest war has proved them to be politically bankrupt as well.<?p><p>
Throughout the war, Washington and other Western capitals parroted the same old line about Israel’s right to defend itself, Israel’s security and the need to return to the negotiation table. This is an archaic and useless position because it did not add anything new to the old, empty discourse. If anything, it merely demonstrates their inability to evolve politically and to match the dramatic changes underway in occupied Palestine.</p><p>
Needless to say, the new US Administration of Joe Biden, in particular, has missed a crucial opportunity to prove that it was different from that of the previous Donald Trump Administration. Despite, at times, guarded language and a few nuances, Biden behaved precisely as Trump would have if he was still President.</p>
<b><i>What ‘Palestinian leadership’?</b></i><BR>
<p>The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, and his circle of supporters represent a bygone era. While they are happy to claim a large share of whatever international financial support that could pour in to rebuild Gaza, they do not represent any political trend in Palestine at the moment.</p><p>
Abbas’s decision to cancel Palestine’s elections scheduled for May and July left him more isolated. Palestinians are ready to look past him; in fact, they already have. This so-called leadership will not be able to galvanize upon this historic moment built on Palestinian unity and resistance.</p><p>
The Palestinian Authority is corrupt and dispensable. Worse, it is an obstacle in the way of Palestinian freedom. Palestine needs a leadership that represents all Palestinian people everywhere, one that is truly capable of leading the people as they attempt to chart a clear path to their coveted freedom.
Expanding the Circle of Solidarity
The incredible amount of global solidarity which made headline news all over the world was a clear indication that the many years of preparedness at a grassroots level have paid off. Aside from the numerous expressions of solidarity, one particular aspect deserves further analysis: the geographic diversity of this solidarity which is no longer confined to a few cities in a few countries.</p><p>
Pro-Palestine solidarity protests, vigils, conferences, webinars, art, music, poetry and many more such expressions were manifest from Kenya to South Africa, to Pakistan to the UK and dozens of countries around the world. The demographics, too, have changed, with minorities and people of color either leading or taking center stage of many of these protests, a phenomenon indicative of the rising intersectionality between Palestinians and numerous oppressed groups around the globe.</p><p>
A critical fight ahead for Palestinians is the fight of delegitimizing and exposing Israeli colonialism, racism and apartheid. This fight can be won at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), UNESCO and numerous international and regional organizations, in addition to the countless civil society groups and community centers the world over.</p><p>
For this to happen, every voice matters, every vote counts, from India to Brazil, from Portugal to South Africa, from China to New Zealand, and so on. Israel understands this perfectly, thus the global charm offensive that right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been leading for years. It is essential that we, too, understand this, and reach out to each UN member as part of a larger strategy to deservingly isolate Israel for ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity.</p>
<b><i>Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net</i></b><BR>
Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-38248531462589238522021-05-13T18:42:00.004+10:002021-05-13T18:46:11.971+10:00WORSE THAN THE DREYFUSS AFFAIR: THE PERSECUTION OF JULIAN ASSANGE12 May 2021<BR>
Worse Than the Dreyfuss Affair: the Persecution of Julian Assange<BR>
by Alfred de Zayas<BR>
Drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair<BR>
<p>It may appear unnecessary to repeat the truism that democracy depends on transparency and accountability, and yet, how often has the democratic order been betrayed by our leaders in the recent past? How often have the media abandoned their watchdog function, how often have they simply accepted the role of an echo-chamber for the powerful, whether government or transnational corporations?</p><p>
Among the many scandals and betrayals of democracy and the rule of law we recognize the persecution of inconvenient journalists by governments and their helpers in the media. Perhaps the most scandalous and immoral example of the multinational corruption of the rule of law is the “lawfare” conducted against Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, who in the year 2010 uncovered war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the United States and its NATO allies in Afghanistan and Iraq.</p><p>
In a world where the rule of law matters, these war crimes would have been promptly investigated, indictments would have been issued in the countries concerned. But no, the ire of the governments and the media focused instead on the journalist who had dared to uncover these crimes. The persecution of this journalist was a coordinated assault on the rule of law by the United States, United Kingdom and Sweden, later joined by Ecuador. The instrumentalization of the administration of justice – not for purposes of doing justice, but to destroy a human being pulled more and more people into a joint-criminal conspiracy of defamation, trumped-up charges, investigations without indictment, deliberate delays and covers-up.</p><p>
In April 2021 my colleague, Professor Nils Melzer, the UN Rapporteur on torture, published a meticulously researched and methodically unassailable documentation of this almost incredible saga. His book, The Case of Julian Assange (Piper Verlag, München 2021), can well be called the “J’accuse” of our time, reminding us how our authorities have betrayed us, how four governments colluded in the corruption of the rule of law. Like Emile Zola, who in 1898 exposed the web of lies surrounding the scandalous judicial framing of the French Colonel Alfred Dreyfuss in France, Nils Melzer shocks us 122 years later with proof of how countries that are ostensibly committed to the rule of law and human rights can betray the democratic ethos with the complicity of the mainstream media. Melzer writes about “concrete evidence of political persecution, gross arbitrariness on the part of the administration of justice and deliberate torture and abuse.”</p><p>
This is an enormously important book because it requires us to abandon our “comfort zone” and demand transparency and accountability from our governments. Indeed, it is scandalous that none of the four governments involved in the frame-up cooperated with Professor Melzer and only answered with “political platitudes.” Me too, I experienced the same lack of cooperation from powerful countries to whom I addressed notes verbales concerning violations of human rights – none of them responded satisfactorily.</p><p>
Melzer reminds us of Hans-Christian Andersen’s fable “The Emperor’s new clothes”. Indeed, everyone involved in the Assange frame-up consistently maintains the illusion of legality and repeats the same untruths, until an observer says – but the emperor has no clothes! That is the point. Our administration of justice has no clothes and instead of advancing justice, it colludes in the persecution of a journalist, with all the implications that this behaviour has for the survival of the democratic order.</p><p>
Melzer convinces us with facts that we are living in a time of “post-truth”, and that it is our responsibility to correct this situation now, lest we wake up in a tyranny.</p>
<b><i>Alfred de Zayas is a professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order 2012-18.</i></b><BR>
Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369553088243417986.post-69325285220608615592021-05-08T18:01:00.007+10:002021-05-08T18:09:58.605+10:00PALESTINE'S MOMENT OF RECKONING: ON ABBAS' DANGEROUS DECISION TO 'POSTPONE' ELECTIONS
<p>7 May 2021</p><BR>
<p>Palestine’s Moment of Reckoning: On Abbas’ Dangerous Decision to ‘Postpone’ Elections</p><BR>
<b><i>by Ramzy Baroud</i></b><BR>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-62QcHBmxpt0/YJZG6Jc9OsI/AAAAAAAACTI/B5Fe42YmY8cC9EgafMWLQJaz_3pvQPZOgCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/abbas1.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-62QcHBmxpt0/YJZG6Jc9OsI/AAAAAAAACTI/B5Fe42YmY8cC9EgafMWLQJaz_3pvQPZOgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/abbas1.jpg"/></a></div><BR>
<b><i>Photograph Source: U.S. Department of State – Public Domain</i></b><BR>
<p>The decision on April 30 by Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, to ‘postpone’ Palestinian elections, which would have been the first in 15 years, will deepen Palestinian division and could, potentially, signal the collapse of the Fatah Movement, at least in its current form.</p><p>
Unlike the last Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, the big story, this time, was not the Fatah-Hamas rivalry. Many rounds of talks in recent months between representatives of Palestine’s two largest political parties had already sorted out much of the details regarding the now-canceled elections, which were scheduled to begin on May 22.</p><p>
Both Fatah and Hamas have much to gain from the elections; the former relished the opportunity to restore its long-dissipated legitimacy as it has ruled over occupied Palestinians, through its dominance of the Palestinian Authority, with no democratic mandate whatsoever; Hamas, on the other hand, was desperate to break away from its long and painful isolation as exemplified in the Israeli siege on Gaza, which ironically resulted from its victory in the 2006 elections.</p><p>
It was not Israeli and American pressure, either, that made Abbas betray the collective wishes of a whole nation. This pressure coming from Tel Aviv and Washington was real and widely reported, but must have also been expected. Moreover, Abbas could have easily circumvented them as his election decree, announced last January, was welcomed by Palestinians and praised by much of the international community.</p><p>
Abbas’ unfortunate but, frankly, expected decision was justified by the 86-year-old leader as one which is compelled by Israel’s refusal to allow Palestinians in Jerusalem from taking part in the elections. Abbas’ explanation, however, is a mere fig leaf aimed at masking his fear of losing power with Israel’s routine obstinacy. But since when do occupied people beg their occupiers to practice their democratic rights? Since when have Palestinians sought permission from Israel to assert any form of political sovereignty in occupied East Jerusalem?</p><p>
Indeed, the battle for Palestinian rights in Jerusalem takes place on a daily basis in the alleyways of the captive city. Jerusalemites are targeted in every facet of their existence, as Israeli restrictions make it nearly impossible for them to live a normal life, neither in the way they build, work, study and travel nor even marry and worship. So it would be mind-boggling if Abbas was truly sincere that he had, indeed, expected Israeli authorities to allow Palestinians in the occupied city easy access to polling stations and to exercise their political right, while those same authorities labor to erase any semblance of Palestinian political life, even mere physical presence, in Jerusalem.</p><p>
The truth is Abbas canceled the elections because all credible public opinion polls showed that the May vote would have decimated the ruling clique of his Fatah party, and would have ushered in a whole new political configuration, one in which his Fatah rivals, Marwan Barghouti and Nasser al-Qudwa would have emerged as the new leaders of Fatah. If this scenario were to occur, a whole class of Palestinian millionaires who turned the Palestinian struggle into a lucrative industry, generously financed by ‘donor countries’, risk losing everything, in favor of uncharted political territories, controlled by a Palestinian prisoner, Marwan Barghouti, from his Israeli prison cell.</p><p>
Worse for Abbas, Barghouti could have potentially become the new Palestinian president, as he was expected to compete in the July presidential elections. Bad for Abbas, but good for Palestinians, as Barghouti’s presidency would have proven crucial for Palestinian national unity and even international solidarity. An imprisoned Palestinian president would have been a PR disaster for Israel. Equally, it would have confronted the low-profile American diplomacy under Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, with an unprecedented challenge: How could Washington continue to preach a ‘peace process’ between Israel and the Palestinians, when the latter’s president languishes in solitary confinement, as he has since 2002?</p><p>
By effectively canceling the elections, Abbas, his benefactors and supporters were hoping to delay a moment of reckoning within the Fatah Movement – in fact, within the Palestinian body politic as a whole. However, the decision is likely to have far more serious repercussions on Fatah and Palestinian politics than if the elections took place. Why?</p><p>
Since Abbas’ election decree earlier this year, 36 lists have registered with the Palestinian Central Elections Commission. While Islamist and socialist parties prepared to run with unified lists, Fatah disintegrated. Aside from the official Fatah list, which is close to Abbas, two other non-official lists, ‘Freedom’ and ‘Future’, planned to compete. Various polls showed that the ‘Freedom’ list, led by late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s nephew, Nasser al-Qudwa, and Marwan Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, headed for an election upset, and were on their way to ousting Abbas and his shrinking, though influential circle.</p><p>
Yet, none of this is likely to go away simply because Abbas reneged on his commitment to restoring a semblance of Palestinian democracy. A whole new political class in Palestine is now defining itself through its allegiances to various lists, parties and leaders. The mass of Fatah supporters that were mentally ready to break away from the dominance of Abbas will not relent easily, simply because the aging leader has changed his mind. In fact, throughout Palestine, an unparalleled discussion on democracy, representation and the need to move forward beyond Abbas and his haphazard, self-serving politics is currently taking place and is impossible to contain. For the first time in many years, the conversation is no longer confined to Hamas vs. Fatah, Ramallah vs. Gaza or any other such demoralizing classifications. This is a major step in the right direction.</p><p>
There is nothing that Abbas can say or do at this point to restore the people’s confidence in his authority. Arguably, he never had their confidence in the first place. By canceling the elections, he has crossed a red line that should have never been crossed, thus placing himself and few others around him as enemies of the Palestinian people, their democratic aspirations and their hope for a better future.</p><BR>
<b><i>Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net</i></b><BR>
Mannie De Saxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12860936567655277147noreply@blogger.com0