It is depressing but it is true. Prime Minister Tony Abbott is deliberately stoking racism and nationalism in a bid to reverse his collapse of public support, as shown by the polls.
Why else would he have made a speech that revived the legal fiction of terra nullius that was officially killed by the High Court in its historic 1996 Mabo decision?
Why else would he have chosen to declare, just before NAIDOC week that the British colonial invasion of this continent was a great act of 鈥淏ritish foreign investment鈥 that Australians today should be grateful for?
1016
Dave Zirin
Haymarket Books, 2014
200 pages, US$16
With World Cup fever sweeping the world, mainstream media outlets faced a problem: how to relate to the fierce political battle taking place on the streets of Brazil over the future of their society.
The media has been flooded with idealised caricatures of Brazilian society, complete with pristine white-sand beaches, a hypersexual citizenry and a rich, happy tapestry of cultural diversity.
The Australian government says there is no need for people to flee Sri Lanka because it is a democratic country. It also claims that, following the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May 2009, Sri Lanka is a 鈥渟ociety at peace鈥.
But the end of the war does not mean the country is at peace. It just means that the violence is now one-sided. The Sri Lankan army still commits acts of violence against the Tamil people, but the Tamils can no longer fight back.
I must admit I didn鈥檛 really want to. I was tired and the footy was on TV at the same time. I had already been at church in the morning 鈥 surely I had fulfilled my obligations?
But somehow this day was different. I knew I had to go and march. I had to stand up for the things I believe in, the things that I see this government seeking to take away from those who need it most.
Mostly I had to march because my memories compelled me.
The Refugee Action Coalition released this statement on July 8.
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Up to 10 mothers in the family camp have attempted suicide in the last two days on Christmas Island 鈥 some by hanging, some by drinking concoctions of liquids.
Scores of police and Serco officers have been stationed inside the family camp 鈥 almost one to a room 鈥 to try to maintain calm and prevent more suicide attempts.
One 25 year-old woman remains in the medical centre, with at least one deep cut requiring 16 stitches, after throwing herself from a container two days ago.
Not a week, nor even a day, goes by without a new outrage from the Tony Abbott government. One recent outrage was when Abbott declared that Australia was 鈥渦nsettled鈥 before the British invasion 鈥 taking us back to the days of terra nullius.
This stand, alongside plans to quarantine how young people spend welfare payments while earmarking billions of dollars for unneeded (and technically dubious) fighter jets, indicates the character of the Abbott government.
The 鈥渋ncommunicado detention without judicial scrutiny鈥 of 153 Tamil asylum seekers has turned the world's eyes on Australia's refugee policy and brought many questions into the spotlight.
The first question was raised by 53 international law scholars from 17 Australian universities, who after the government revealed it had handed over 41 passengers of an asylum boat to the Sri Lankan navy.
The number of victims of Israel鈥檚 merciless bombing of Gaza reached 90 fatalities as of July 10, with several members of individual families among the dead.
One such family is that of 75-year-old Muhammad Hamad of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. Six members of his family were killed when Israel bombed the home of his 30-year-old son Abd al-Hafez Hamad, a commander with the armed group Islamic Jihad, on July 8.
Victorian planning minister Matthew Guy approved stage one of the East West Link toll road on June 30, ignoring key recommendations from the planning panel to reduce impacts from the project.
Guy said he had granted relevant approvals for the project on the condition that the Linking Melbourne Authority redesign parts of the project.
Australian man Jock Palfreeman was assaulted by a guard at Sofia鈥檚 Central Prison in Bulgaria on July 8.
Palfreeman has been serving a 20-year in the prison since being found guilty of murder in 2007.
Andrei Monov was killed during a street brawl in Sofia, Bulgaria鈥檚 capital. He was the only son of two well-connected people in the Sofia legal fraternity.
Palfreeman says he went to the defence of a young Roma boy who was being attacked in the street by Monov and others. When Palfreeman intervened, he was also attacked and acted in self-defence.
If there is one thing Prime Minister Tony Abbott will not stand for, it is attempts by the powerful to bully the weak.
Reports recently emerged that 10 mothers jailed indefinitely in the Christmas Island detention centre had attempted to take their own lives. With sick children, the women apparently believed the children might have greater chance of better treatment if they were unaccompanied.
Days of Israeli bombings had killed more than 100 people in the Gaza Strip by July 11, ElectronicIntifada.net said that day. The dead included many children. It comes after large-scale raids and many arrests in the occupied West Bank.
In response to this drastic escalation in 鈥渃ollective punishment鈥 of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) national committee issued the statement below.
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