The man, who fled civil war violence and has never met his son, ‘extraordinarily distressed’ by treatment and fears being detained indefinitely
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From The Guardian Australia
Call Josh Frydenberg and tell him that spending public money on gas is a disaster for our climate and a reckless recovery response. Frydenberg is the Treasurer and has decision making power about the Budget – calling him is a powerful way to have your voice heard and stop big bailouts for gas companies.
Scott Morrison’s Covid Commission is stacked with gas executives, and are spruiking new gas projects almost every day. Not only are there significant concerns around conflicts of interest, these new gas projects would be a disaster for our climate.
‘Rio is just the tip of the iceberg’: First Nations groups call for strengthened cultural protections
Indigenous leaders warn more sacred sites risk irreversible damage unless cultural protections are strengthened, following the departure of three Rio Tinto executives following the Juukan Gorge blast.
CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques, iron ore division head Chris Salisbury and Corporate Affairs chief Simone Niven are exiting the embattled company as the fallout over the destruction of historic aboriginal rock shelters continues.
The First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance wants “robust” legislative reform across the country to protect cultural sites from damage as well as reform across the resources industry.
“The legislation that exists for Indigenous cultural heritage is focused almost solely on what developers and miners need to do to be able to displace impact,” NSW Aboriginal Land Council CEO James Christian said.
“It’s about what I, as a company, need to do to get the legal authority to be able to destroy or displace or just desecrate these sites.”
“We’ve got it wrong. It should be focused on protection.”
Jamie Lowe, CEO of the National Native Title Council, told SBS News the scandal is a sign “the paradigm needs to shift,” within the resources industry.
“The way that our heritage and our artefacts are treated, even when they’re given approval to be disturbed, is incredibly disrespectful,” he said.
“We need a dramatic cultural shift within these blue chips, multi-million-dollar companies.”
Protesters attend a rally outside the Rio Tinto office in Perth in June.
AAP
The ABC has reported mining companies Woodside Energy and Goldfields are reviewing their approvals for Australian mining sites, following the Juukan Gorge scandal.
But Mr Christian fears without stricter laws, more culturally significant sites will be damaged.
“Rio is just the tip of the iceberg,” he warned.
“And once you damage the site, you can’t undo it – you can’t unscramble that egg.”
‘An approval process’
The West Australian government is currently reviewing the Aboriginal Heritage Act following the Juukan Gorge disaster.
The Act as it stands offers basic levels of protection for Indigenous sites, making it an offence to damage an Aboriginal site.
But Section 18 of the legislation allows parties to apply for ministerial consent to use land in a way which could damage it, with immunity granted from prosecution.
Since the law was passed in 1972, there have been more than 3330 applications for consent to potentially damage sites, and at least 914 applications have been approved.
The before and after of Juukan Gorge following a legal mining blast conducted by Rio Tinto in Western Australia’ Pilbara region.
NITV
There have been just six prosecutions for damages to Indigenous sites since the law was enacted.
“In Western Australia, the protections are very low,” Barrister John Southalan, Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia said.
“It’s essentially referred to as an approval process, that’s how its largely characterised and seen in Western Australia.”
Mr Southalan said attitudes to protecting cultural sites in Australia are increasingly out of step compared to overseas.
For over a decade, The International Council of Mining and Metals has encouraged mining companies to gain the consent and support of Indigenous peoples before undertaking projects on traditionally owned land.
“In the more progressive parts of the industry, there is an acceptance that for areas of great significance and impact, if you don’t get the consent, then you don’t impact that,” Mr Southalan said.
“And that’s just not something we’re seeing Australia.”
Additional reporting: Camille Bianchi
Nuovo Paese agosto | august 2020
Editorial
Popular disquiet ignored
Public anger against economic systems that led to the global financial crisis (GFC), which briefly shook the world in 2007/08, has morphed into popular disquiet against politicians.
The GFC had brought financial institutions into disrepute and some of those reverberations led to Australia’s Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.
However, the current pandemic has cast a long shadow on the Commission’s condemning findings and on compelling urgent economic issues that can’t seem to unravel the Gordian knot of inequality.
In the meantime public disquiet has been directed at the nature and character of politicians who are seen with the mistrust that has undoubtedly been earned.
This in large part explains the interest by a sizeable number of the USA’s citizenry in Donald Trump whose exterior is unlike any other politician and is becoming a role model of sorts.
It would be a mistake to analyse the current state of public affairs with a simplistic disdain for Trump’s vulgarities. In reality his policies have not strayed too far from American interests which is possibly why, notwithstanding serious legal questions about his personal and business affairs, Congress has tolerated him.
It is not unforeseeable that Trump wins a second term in the coming presidential elections.
The heavy lifting of who Americans can have as president has been done and neither Trump nor Joe Biden is likely to threaten established interests. The US is unlikely to give up it’s economic leadership noting that the three richest men (yes, men), Jeff Bezos , Bill Gates , and Mark Zuckerberg are Americans.
But, while popular disquiet busies itself with the theatre of elections another group calling itself Millionaires for Humanity are asking governments to raise taxes on the rich “immediately, substantially and permanently”.
Editoriale
L’inquietudine popolare ignorata
La rabbia dell’opinione pubblica contro i sistemi economici che hanno portato alla crisi finanziaria globale delel 2007/08, si è trasformata in inquietudine popolare contro i politici.
Questa ha portato discredito verso le istituzioni finanziarie e alcune delle conseguenti ripercussioni hanno contribuito alla nascita della Australia’s Royal Commission in materia di cattiva condotta nel settore bancario, previdenziale e dei servizi finanziari.
Tuttavia, l’attuale pandemia ha gettato una lunga ombra sulle conseguenti condanne della Commissione, oltre che su questioni economiche urgenti e convincenti, dal momento che non si riesce a sciogliere il nodo gordiano delle disuguaglianze.
Nel frattempo l’inquietudine dell’opinione pubblica si è rivolta verso la natura e il carattere dei politici, visti con la sfiducia che senza dubbio molti di loro si sono guadagnati.
Ciò spiega in gran parte l’interesse di un numero considerevole di cittadini statunitensi nei confronti di Donald Trump, la cui immagine è diversa da quella di qualsiasi altro politico e sta diventando una sorta di modello.
Sarebbe un errore analizzare lo stato attuale della cosa pubblica con un semplicistico disprezzo per le volgarità di Trump.
In realtà le sue politiche non si sono allontanate troppo dagli interessi americani, motivo per cui, nonostante le serie questioni legali sui suoi affari personali e commerciali, il Congresso continua a tollerarlo.
Non è improbabile che Trump ottenga il suo secondo mandato alle prossime elezioni presidenziali. Il grosso è fatto con la scelta dei due. Ma a prescindere da chi gli americani eleggeranno l’opinione comune è che né Trump né Joe Biden rischiano di minacciare gli interessi consolidati.
È improbabile che gli Stati Uniti rinuncino alla loro leadership economica considerando che i tre uomini più ricchi de mondo (sì, uomini), Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates e Mark Zuckerberg sono americani.
Ma mentre l’inquietudine popolare si occupa del teatro delle elezioni, un altro gruppo che si fa chiamare “Millionaires for Humanity” chiede ai governi di aumentare le tasse sui ricchi “immediatamente, sostanzialmente e permanentemente”.
Black Palestinian Forum: Countering Colonialism and Dispossession
Recording of the event
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti in discussion with key First Nations and Palestinian Australian speakers on the shared experience of dispossession, state-based discrimination and racism and how to counter it.
Panellists
Omar Barghouti – Palestinian writer and co founder, Boycott Divestment and Sanctions
Amy McQuire – Darumbal and South Sea Islander journalist and academic
Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah – Palestinian author, lawyer and activist
Professor Tony Birch – Indigenous Australian author, academic and activist
Hiba Farra, moderator – Palestinian lawyer and activist.
ZOOM Forum – Register Here for Link – https://bdsaustralia.net.au/black-palestinian-forum/
When: Saturday 29 August at 7:30pm EST
FILEF and the Australia-West Papua Association invite you to special film event online on the struggle of West Papuans for their independence and freedom from Indonesian occupation of their land.
Watch an update on the current situation by Veronica Korman, indonesian lawyer defending incarcerated West Papuan activists and herself an exile following trumped up charges by the Indonesian police, and Ronny Kareni, a representative in Australia of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.
Following the speakers’ update you can watch the acclaimed Film Australia documentary LAND OF THE MORNING STAR by journalist Mark Worth, broadcast by the ABC. The film features rare archival film and eyewitness accounts.
View interviews and film here
The event starts on THURSDAY 30th of JULY 2020 and the film will stay on YouTube after the event.
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NP luglio 2020/July 2020
EDITORIALE
Sicurezza e non sofferenza per i senza lavoro
Se c’è qualcosa di positivo nel bilancio delle vittime e dei disordini causati dalla pandemia, è che questa ha dimostrato che i disoccupati sono vittime di fattori fuori dal loro controllo.
Il sostegno finanziario fornito dai governi a coloro che hanno perso il lavoro a causa di COVID-19 riconosce la responsabilità collettiva per i disoccupati.
Il fenomeno della disoccupazione, nato con la rivoluzione industriale, ha visto regolarmente la stigmatizzazione di coloro che erano senza lavoro.
Tuttavia, è insolito, se non innaturale e malsano, che una persona desideri di essere inattiva, improduttiva, dipendente o isolata.
Che il lavoro ci sia per chi vuole lavorare è un luogo comune ma, a pensarci meglio, è intrinseco che una persona disperata farebbe qualsiasi lavoro.Questo maschera le tensioni insite nella natura stessa del lavoro, a partire dal rapporto storico tra dipendente e datore, per cui, spesso, lavori di alto livello e gratificanti ottengono buoni salari e condizioni, a discapito di quelli di basso livello.
Le economie mature hanno ulteriormente degradato i posti di lavoro di basso livello con la casualità, motivo per cui la raccolta di prodotti e servizi (come nel settore alberghiero e in quello dell’assistenza) dipende fortemente da visitatori stranieri disperati che lavorano ai limiti della legalità.
La disoccupazione è destinata a salire non solo per colpa della pandemia, ma anche per l’impiego dei computer e dell’intelligenza artificiale, il cui impatto su vasta scala ricorderà la scomparsa dei lavori agricoli causati dall’industrializzazione.
Le attuali misure in favore di coloro che hanno perso il lavoro devono continuare: il “jobseeker pandemic payment” deve diventare la norma.
I fondi sono disponibili e la società non può permettersi di non farlo, perché l’esistenza umana non può essere una sofferenza.
Le risposte a lungo termine devono includere una valutazione adeguata di tutto il lavoro e un buon inizio potrebbe essere la professionalizzazione dell’assistenza ai bambini e agli anziani, come si è già fatto con i servizi di insegnamento, assistenza infermieristica e di emergenza.
EDITORIAL
Safety not sufferance for the jobless
If there is a positive in the pandemic’s death toll and disruption, it is that it has shown that the unemployed are casualties of factors out of their control.
The financial support given by governments to those who lost their job because of COVID-19 acknowledges the collective responsibility to the jobless.
The phenomenon of unemployment that emerged with the industrial revolution has regularly seen the stigmatization of those out of work.
However, it is unusual, if not unnatural and unhealthy, for a person to want to be inactive, unproductive, dependent or an isolate.
A common accusation is that there is work available if people want it but, if examined, its inherent suggestion is that a person would do the work if desperate.This masks tensions in the nature of work, from the historical relationship between employee and employer, which in part is the reason why, often, high status and rewarding jobs get good pay and conditions and low status jobs don’t.
Mature economies have further degraded low status jobs with casualisation, which is why picking produce and serving (as in hospitality and in care industries) are heavily dependent on desperate overseas visitors who have legal work limits.
Unemployment is set to rise and not all will be from the pandemic but due to computers and artificial intelligence whose impact in scale will be similar to the disappearance of agricultural jobs from industrialisation.
The current care for those who have lost their jobs must continue with the jobseeker pandemic payment becoming the standard.
The funds are available and society cannot afford not to, because human existence must not be a sufferance.
Long-term answers must include a proper valuing of all work and a start could be the professionalization of child and aged care, as was done with teaching, nursing and emergency services.
As early as next week, Israel proposes to forcibly annex up to a third of the Palestinian West Bank, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it “another glorious chapter in the history of Zionism”. Israel’s incendiary move, paved by US President Donald Trump’s “peace” plan, has provoked near-universal condemnation.
It has been deplored as a grave violation of international law by the UK’s Tory Prime Minister, most of Europe and the developing world, over 250 leading international lawyers, and an unprecedented 50 independent UN experts, and by 1000 European parliamentarians. Europe is considering sanctions.
Ben Saul is Challis Chair of International Law at the University of Sydney and the past Whitlam & Fraser Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University. He has been involved in technical activities with the Israeli Defence Forces and in Palestine.
Following the online Forum run by Amnesty Australia this month to mark Reconciliation Week, FILEF invites you to watch
WHEN THE RIVER RUNS DRY
52 min | Directed by: Rory McLeod/Peter Yates – Streaming online at SBS on Demand until June 30th
An exploration of the rules governing the Murray Darling Basin and how they are destroying the environment, causing extinction-level events and displacing First Nations communities, as water rights and security become increasingly vital issues for them.
The film brings Indigenous voices to the fore in the form of the Barkindji, the people of the River, who, after one hundred and seventy years, have become dispossessed and marginalised. The Barkindji survived because of the Baaka, the Darling River, and now, due to the decimation of this vital river system, they no longer feel connected to their dreaming, their totems, or their culture.
When the River Runs Dry shines a light on what is happening and manifests how we, as a country, need to bring this immense, beautiful and remote river system back from the brink of catastrophe.
This film is both a celebration of the resilience of people and nature, and a call to arms.
The film is introduced by uncle Bruce Shillingsworth (see interview here) activist in the Water for the Rivers movement from the north-west NSW, where communities have been devastated, by water mismanagement and stealing along three states, by big cotton farmers and irrigators.
The evils of racism against the First Nations peoples in land and water dispossession, echoing 250 years of discrimination, call for a public outrage much like that inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, to highlight the tragedy of Aboriginal deaths in custody and very high incarceration rates.
This is a free event, but a donation towards funding for elders along the river would be appreciated.
We need your help urgently! We’ve collected more than 2 dozen much needed care beds that will assist those with medical needs along the Baaka (Barwon Darling River). These funds will assist in transportation of the beds from Sydney to patients in remote/isolated communities such as Brewarrina, Wilcannia, Walgett and Bourke (including Enngonia). Many people in these communities have medical conditions that restrict their mobility but they don’t have access to therapeutic bedding. These beds are medical grade, motorised, heavy duty and durable which include hospital grade mattresses. We are pushing for the delivery of these beds by early July!
https://bit.ly/37LSxgo
‘Balikpapan Seven’ accused of promoting West Papua independence movement at Indonesia rallies
Seven Papuan activists have been found guilty of treason and sentenced to up to 11 months in prison for their involvement in anti-racism rallies in West Papua last year, a verdict that has been condemned by human rights groups.
The men, known as the “Balikpapan Seven”, were convicted over protests that were sparked last summer by a viral video in which Papuan students were called “monkeys” and subjected to other racist taunts. Thousands of people took part in the rallies, some of which turned violent.
Patrick Dodson: deaths in custody is not just about policing, it’s about dispossession – video
West Australian senator Patrick Dodson – a commissioner at the 1991 royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody – said racism explained the deep distrust indigenous people had for Australia’s institutions. “Systematically, First Nations peoples have been treated as inferior, as deficient and tolerated through condescension,” – Senator Dodson.
Categories
NP giugno 2020
NP giugno/june 2020
La paura non può essere base per l’autorità/Fear is no basis for authority
Editoriale
La paura non può essere base per l’autorità
La paura umana è un meccanismo protettivo che reagisce con la lotta o con la fuga se percepisce una minaccia.
L’attuale minaccia pandemica ha presentato molteplici sfide complesse e ha messo in luce alcune profonde carenze sociali ed economiche, non ultima l’inadeguatezza dei servizi e delle attrezzature sanitarie.
Tuttavia, poiché di questo si è già discusso e trattato, una volta che lo spettro di questo virus sarà passato, potrà valere la pena analizzare l’uso che è stato fatto della paura e il suo impatto individuale e collettivo.
Sembra che molti, se non tutti i leader governativi del mondo siano stati lenti non solo nella risposta, ma anche e persino più lenti nell’informare la loro gente sul virus.
Non sono stati così lenti nell’applicazione rigorosa della legge e nell’emanazione di provvedimenti per fronteggiare quella che sostanzialmente era una questione di salute pubblica.
Non si può negare che alcuni provvedimenti punitivi si siano resi necessari contro chi ha consapevolmente favorito l’infezione.
Occorre tuttavia prestare maggiore attenzione e sensibilità quando i governi privano le persone delle libertà fondamentali, anche quando si sostiene che questo venga fatto in nome del bene pubblico.Le persone stanno tollerando nuove forme di sorveglianza, che si sommano alle molte invasioni, spesso autorizzate a far parte della vita commerciale. Si pensi ad esempio alla raccolta e il monitoraggio delle transazioni dei consumatori.
In Australia la polizia ha fatto irruzione negli uffici dei media e nelle residenze dei giornalisti senza che ci siano state condanne, il che lascia aperta la possibilità che si sia trattato di mere intimidazioni.
Le banche, le cui prassi a dir poco scandalose sono già state rivelate durante la recente Hayne Royal Commission, stanno oggi valutando l’utilizzo di sistemi di sorveglianza con intelligenza artificiale al fine di monitorare il comportamento (non solo le prestazioni) dei loro dipendenti, per affrontare i problemi “culturali” che hanno causato scandali.
Pericoli come COVID-19 e altri eventi che possono provocare terrori sociale, non devono essere usati per aumentare l’inquietudine della comunità al punto che la paura umana diventi paura degli umani.
I governi non devono usare la paura come base della loro autorità, che deve sempre venire dal popolo.
Altrimenti si va verso l’autoritarismo.
Editorial
Fear is no basis for authority
Human fear is a protective mechanism that activates the fight-or-flight responses to perceived threats to survival.The current pandemic threat has presented many complex challenges and exposed some profound social and economic shortcomings, not the least in adequate health services and equipment. However, as these are discussed and dealt with once the spectre of this virus is over it may be worth examining the use of fear and its individual and collective impact.
It seems that many if not most government leaders around the world were slow to respond and even slower in taking their people into their confidence with information about the virus. They were not as slow in the rigorous application of law and order measures to what was substantially a matter of public health. There’s no denying that punishment was needed for those who knowingly threatened the infection of others. However, greater care and sensitivity needs to be exercised when governments deprive people of basic liberties, even when it is argued that it is for the public good.
People have tolerated new forms of surveillance that have added to the many encroachments that have been allowed to become part of commercial life such as the harvesting and monitoring of consumers’ transactions. In Australia police have raided media offices and journalists’ residences without any charges that leaves open the conclusion that they were meant to intimidate. Banks, whose scandalous practices were exposed during the recent Hayne Royal Commission into financial services, are considering Artificial Intelligence surveillance systems to monitor employee behaviour (not just performance), to deal with ‘cultural’ issues they claim caused the scandals.
Threats like COVID-19 or any other provocative community threat must not be used to heighten community anxiety to the point that human fear becomes a fear of humans. Governments must not use fear as the basis of their authority, which always must come from the people.To do otherwise is a descent into authoritarianism.
A series of online talks by art critic:
Costantino D’Orazio28th of May – 6th of August
The Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney and its counterpart in Melbourne are offering a series of lectures by Costantino D’Orazio, one of the most famous Italian art critics. The three conferences, which will take place between the 28th of May and the 6th of August, will analyse the work of artists such as Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Bernini and Balla, giving us an insight into less known aspects of these great painters, thanks to the expertise and great communication skills of our distinguished guest.
This webinar will be held online via Zoom and you can book by clicking on this link:
Caravaggio: truth and myths of a legendary painter
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Connection to Country. The Pilbara.
Streaming/online:
28th May, 7pm to 7pm, 30th May
https://www.artfilms-digital.com/
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The old people always say, the land don’t belong to us, we belong to the land
The battle by the Indigenous people of the Pilbara region in Western Australia to preserve 50,000- year-old rock art sites and sacred cultural heritage from the ravages of a booming mining industry.
The Burrup Peninsula (or Murujuga), in the Pilbara region, holds the largest concentration of rock art in the world, dating back over 50,000 years.
An ancient landscape so sacred that some parts shouldn’t be looked upon at all, except by Traditional Owners.