Quick Quips: Now That’s Over…

21/05/2019

While I’ve been consciously taking the time to pick up on important global events, it has been easy that last couple of weeks to have been caught up in the spiralling election coverage here in Australia. So now that our quiet corner of the world has been rightfully criticised by the world, what better time to throw our sights elsewhere? Just a short one this evening.

• Trump has tweeted about the “official end of Iran” should the nation entirely justified in ramping up defence in response to increasingly volatile threats from a global superpower “threaten the United States again”. As with North Korea, every denouncement under the sun may apply, but any so called “hostility” gleaned from its increased military strength make total sense when you consider the (truthful) history between the US and Iran.
• Chelsea Manning has again been arrested for her contempt of court, refusing to testify information she’s already given in the case against Julian Assange – who is still holed up in a UK jail. It is pathetically in tune for a regime (yes, I mean the US government) that is never held accountable for its actions to accuse someone who should be hailed a hero as in contempt. I bet not one of Manning’s enemies would even consider casting that same accusation towards Trump.
• Speaking of contempt for real justice, Trump plans on pardoning war criminals. The ICC, being barred from the US to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of war crimes, should just seal the US – that would just about cover it.
• The French Yellow Vest protests have entered their sixth month, even in the face of immense propaganda and oppression. Oh, how the media praised Macron when he was elected, defeating Le Pen, that figure of Europe’s authoritarian resurgence. How ironic.
• On the abortion disaster in America, Bernie Sanders attended a protest to overturn the harsh new laws popping up across the country, and ‘conservatives’ jump with anticipation as the issue may find its way to the Supreme Court, where they could potentially overturn Roe v. Wade (the law that made abortions a Constitutional right for women). I found this fascinating article that brought in a new perspective. Religious, patriarchal, and socioeconomic oppression were obvious, but the author makes a compelling argument that it is also driven by fears of the world losing its ‘whiteness’ – making it a racial issue too. It reminded me of the fears expressed by Tom in The Great Gatsby when he refers to a book about people of colour slowly becoming the dominant demographic; it seems the fears of white men have changed little.
• Israel’s culture minister, Miri Regev, has said (in response to Palestinian flags being waved at Eurovision) “Politics and a cultural event should not be mixed.” The man clearly has no knowledge of culture – the culture and art of a society usually tend to reflect the politics of it – nor any real respect for culture – for he should recognise the right for Palestinians to hold and express their own cultural identity. That would be too inconvenient, I suppose; you can’t oppress a people so viciously for so long if you thought they were in any way human.

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