I live near Bathurst jail. I used to live across the corner from it, but now we've moved about 10 minutes away.
While we lived across the corner I'd often see people released from the jail and start the 50 minute walk down to the station as they were just dumped back into society with less and less assistance or support in place. I'd often pop out the front door and ask of they wanted a lift, a number of times they'd say yes and I'd drive them down to the station (and once to Lithgow because he missed the train). People who do their time at Bathurst have been shipped in from all over the state, and are expected to just be able to get home again.
They also all carry their belongings in a clear plastic baggie the jail has given them, and everyone here knows if someone is carrying that bag they've just been released.. and a lot of people treat them like shit.
I started keeping a reusable shopping bag in my car to give them instead of using the clear baggie. Then I started stocking the bag with some essentials (masks, soap, socks, deodorant, snacks, drink, water, crossword book, pen, etc), so they might have a bit of comfort on their journey home.
Today I drove past the jail after dropping my housemate to work, and there was a guy standing at the bus stop with a clear baggie, so I asked if he wanted a lift to the station and gave him my jail bag.
He's excited to get home and see his dog after 16 months.
The lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has announced that he is seeking arrest warrants for Benjamin #Netanyahu and Yahya #Sinwar, along with senior figures of their respective regimes, for the commission of #WarCrimes and #CrimesAgainstHumanity.
Amidst the predictable performative outrage from the US political elite, one fact is barely reported upon: the US is amongst a handful of nations that does not recognise the #ICC, and has on its books a 2002 law (colloquially dubbed 'the Hague Invasion Act') threatening war upon the #Netherlands (!) should any US citizen (or the citizen of any US ally) be brought for trial before the ICC.
Given the fact that the #US routinely fails to follow its own laws, let alone #InternationalLaw, when it comes to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the chances of an actual US invasion of the European lowlands is scant. Nonetheless, the rogue nature of #USexceptionalism is the always the elephant in the room when it comes to all discussions of accountability for the most egregious crimes of #geopolitics.
Of course, it is worth noting that the so-called Hague Invasion Act is itself a crime under international law, as are all the current US and Israeli threats being made against the ICC.
San Francisco abandoned its plan to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves, but it will find a way to pay reparations to commuters inconvenienced by a protest. because San Francisco is not a serious place
@palvaro The US federal government is currently violating numerous laws (including, for instance, #Leahy laws about funding foreign military units credibly accused of #WarCrimes).
Can all the #SF citizens losing sleep and mental health (and in some cases, the lives of relatives in #Gaza) over their national government being complicit in an ongoing genocide get some kind of compensation?
Dangerous feelings the new IDGAF can help protect you against include:
โข insecurity
โข vulnerability
โข empathy
โข intellectual curiosity
โข human kindness
โข what happened to all my money?
โข am I supporting fascism with this purchase?
โข does my narcissism look big in this?
โDouble-tapโ attack. Understanding one of Russiaโs cruelest tactics in Ukraine
Hitting a building, waiting for first responders and the media to arrive, and hitting the same place again to target those who came to put out the fire, help the victims, or document a potential war crime is a well-honed tool of Russia in its wars. This ruthless and illegal
@ukrdef Ruthless, illegal and an imitation of a pattern of use set by the US drone program, which began during Bush, expanded under Obama, and expanded even further under Trump (while transparency even further diminished).
But there are many legal scholars who will straightforwardly affirm that President Obama is likely guilty of war crimes for his use of double tap drone strikes: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/flr/vol69/iss1/7/
Anthony Albanese condemns โslaughter of innocent peopleโ by Hamas โ video
When Iran attacks:
"Iran's ongong flouting of international law, its egregious human rights abuses and threat to International security is why this Government has imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel bans, including Magnitsky-style sanctions, on 85 individuals and 97 entities."
What about when Israel attacks? Can someone share what he said?
@rowlandm I have just been looking for any official Australian government response to the illegal attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus by Israel on 1st April. I have not managed to find anything. The only news stories I could find about PM Albanese or Minister Wong sending a message to the Israeli government during the first days of April related to the IDF slaughter of the 7 international humanitarian aid workers (one of whom was Australian).
As for direct public statements from PM Albanese to the Israeli government concerning its slaughter of tens of thousands of people in Gaza, the overwhelming majority of them non-combatants, or its deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war, or the findings of the ICJ that it is plausible that Israel may be engaging in genocidal acts, there's little beyond "Hamas bear responsibility for what is happening" (i.e. green light) and then a bit later "show some restraint".
@ApaulD@KarunaX The situation in Sudan and the surrounding region is atrocious. Millions displaced. Millions going hungry. Evidence of systematic eliminationist violence in some areas. As always, African news barely breaks the surface of western media outlets.
However, there are some crucial differences between the starvation crisis in Sudan and the starvation crisis in Gaza that make the latter of particularly acute moral concern for so many ordinary Australian citizens.
Western governments are more directly complicit with the genocide in Gaza. The Australian government is not supporting and helping to arm the RSF. The US is not using its veto in the Security Council to protect the aggressive and dominant force. Western media are not running hundreds of stories uncritically spreading the military propaganda of the side committing most of the atrocities. The leader of the opposition is not attempting to criminalise activities drawing attention to the Sudanese crisis. People are not losing their jobs if they speak out about the crisis in ways that criticise the authorities most responsible for perpetuating and escalating it. President Biden would not be able to end the food crisis in Sudan with a single phonecall.
@HardBeingGreen By linking ceasefire to getting rid of Hamas, Wong ensures she is not actually calling for ceasefire. Compare demands during the Troubles in Northern Ireland for peace that were conditional on Sinn Fรฉin playing no role in the resulting situation. These were not really calls for immediate ceasefire, but for some future end of a conflict that is for now to be sustained until the elimination of one of the parties to that conflict. She's not calling for ceasefire, but for Israeli victory through ongoing violence.
By failing to name the fact that Israel is conducting atrocities against civilians at a scale and pace not seen for decades, Minister Wong continues to contribute to public misunderstanding. By naming only Hamas and not the Israeli government as a barrier to peace (and by saying nothing about ongoing Australian arms exports to Israel), she continues to in fact support ongoing violence.
@therightarticle The Science Museum administration were not forced to do anything. Sounds like they chose to shut their own exhibit rather than have more attention drawn to their dirty dealings with corporate coal giant Adani (which has a long track record of widespread accusations of pollution, corruption, SLAPP harassment of activists, and much, much more).
Neither was the Science Museum administration forced to sign a partnership deal with Adani in the first place, just as they were under no compulsion to take money from another massive dirty energy company a few years back for another climate gallery where they also faced considerable public backlash - it's almost like they don't want to learn, in a very unscientific manner...
in the first hour of this #iran attack, i saw the word โunprecedentedโ probably 12 times, and i canโt figure out for the life of me whatโs unprecedented about this situation
@plink@palestine@israel Having now skimmed through dozens of updates on that link, 1,000s of words, the fact that #Israel conducted an illegal act of war against a civilian building on Iranian soil that killed 16 people recently is never mentioned, with the missile strike on #Damascus is only vaguely mentioned 3 times. It is never labelled an 'unprecedented escalation', despite that being just as true as the latest development.
Also not mentioned by the #NYT is the fact that the 1st April Israeli strike was widely condemned as yet another breach of international law โby the #UN, the #EU, the #ArabLeague, the #OIC, the #GCC and dozens of national governmentsโbut was not condemned by the US government.
Also not mentioned at all the highly pertinent fact that Israel (and its primary backer and weapons supplier the #USA) has spent six months committing atrocities against millions of civilians in #Gaza, with more children, more journalists, more healthcare workers, more humanitarian aid workers, and more UN employees violently killed than in any other conflict since at least the Rwandan genocide (and in some cases going back to WWII). Israel is responsible for the most rapid deterioration of the nutritional status of a civilian population since WWII.
@plink@palestine@israel I didn't bother getting into all the other details they either get wrong or frame in misleading ways.
One example: they remove refugee status from large numbers of Palestinians, implying that while the target of one of Israel's latest massacres in Gaza was once a refugee camp, that is no longer true. Just because Israel displaced them so many decades ago, doesn't mean they are no longer refugees. Indeed, there are still very large numbers of Palestinians in Gaza (and elsewhere) who remain UN-recognised refugees to this day, with UN resolutions affirming their right to return to their land, resolutions Israel remains in defiance of.