Episodes
-
Jennifer and Jacques discuss the systemic and economic effects of internet platforms and social media, especially with power concentrated in a few super-rich companies.Author, Yanis Varoufakis, calls these 'technofeudalists', while most of us are reduced to 'serfs' - producing the products of the 'cloud' for free, and giving away data about ourselves that, in turn, is used to manipulate us. ReferenceYanis Varoufakis 2023, Technofeudalism: What killed capitalism. Australia: Penguin BooksKari Paul 2024, The House passed a Tik Tok bill: Will the US really ban the app? The Guardian, 14 Mar 2024Lily Hay Newman 2024, It's time to get real about Tik Tok's risks WIRED
-
Missing episodes?
-
Jennifer talks with Katelyn Butterss, CEO of the Victorian Public Tenants Association (VPTA) about what is happening with the demolition of public housing towers, and public housing in general.Katelyn begins by explaining the difference between public housing and community housing, While there is a place for community housing as part of the housing mix, public housing is cheaper, more secure and more protective of human rights. Research has shown it is important for housing the most vulnerable and preventing homelessness.Katelyn and Jennifer discuss the folly of selling off public land to private developers to redevelop the public housing towers - evidently for very little gain. Nevertheless the detail of the Victorian Government's plans are vague at this point, giving some hope for activists that it might change course.Links:Victorian Public Tenants Association3CR Raise the RoofSave Public Housing Collective
-
Jennifer and Jacques discuss how we are constantly distracted by new information coming in from our devices, which is draining our ability to focus, and think deeply and creatively. This has serious implications for collective sense-making and for our capacity to address threats to our wellbeing and survival.ReferencesRobert Colvile (2016) The Great Acceleration: How the world is getting faster, faster. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.Jonathan Haidt (2023) ‘Get phones out of schools now’, The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/ban-smartphones-phone-free-schools-social-media/674304/)Johann Hari (2022) Stolen focus: Why you can’t pay attention. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.Joshua Meyrowitz (1985) No sense of Place: the Impact of electronic media on social behaviour Oxford: Oxford University PressHartmut Rosa (2005/2013) Social Acceleration: A new theory of Modernity. New York: Columbia University PressSoshana Zuboff (2019) The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. London: Profile Books Ltd.New Community Journal (2018) vol. 16 (2) issue 62 Community Development + Social Media (order from [email protected]; the editorial "the promises+ predicaments of the social media" offers a good overview of critical works discussing this issue)Alan Kohler (The New Daily 4th February 2024) Social Media is Rewiring Humanity's central nervous systemDerek Thompson https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/cell-phones-student-test-scores-dropping/676889/
-
Jennifer and Jacques talk about the ways Australia is following disastrous paths toward constant war and has been for a long time, and why we need to fight for peace instead.ReferencesAlison Broinowski (2024) ‘Australia’s moment of choice: Illegal war on show in 2003 Cabinet papers’, Pearls and Irritations, https://johnmenadue.com/australias-moment-of-choice-illegal-war-on-show-in-2003-cabinet-papers/Joseph Camilleri (2024) ‘Time to silence the drums of war and give voice to the human spirit’, Disarming Times, 49(1), March 2024. (The journal of Pax Christi Australia)Michael Pascoe (2024) ‘Politics drives poor policy and forsakes principles in Palestine’, The New Daily, 16 March 2024.Naomi Klein on complicity in genocide, believes this is ‘not the first time’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOZENYTvibU
-
Jacques talks with Tim Hollo, author of Living democracy, about how we can rethink, rebuild and reconstruct our world from the grassroots up for a sustainable and hopeful future.This program resonates with a previous one on 24 November 2023 in which Jacques interviewed Jack Manning-Bancroft. The values that Jack consistently promoted, as does Tim Hollo – relationality, interdependence, inclusion, and diversity, strongly resonate with Borderlands and the Think Again philosophy. All look at the social-relational, spiritual, material and systemic damages that our current ways of doing things are inflicting on Mother Earth and her inhabitants, including us!In this interview, Tim offers a vision for a collective way out of the current mess we are in.ReferenceTim Hollo (2022) Living Democracy: An Ecological Manifesto for the End of the World as we know it. Sydney: NewSouth Publishing.
-
On this special International Women's Day program Jennifer talks with Lida Hazara, founder of Women for Change, which has helped countless Afghan women find their way after migrating to Australia, including meaningful employment.Many Afghan people have evidently settled in well over time, making enormous contribution to Australian society. At the same time Lida reminds us that the situation of girls and women in Afghanistan is desperate under Taliban rule, as they are banned from education and excluded from participation in public life. She implores us not to forget these women and to act in solidarity with them so that their situation is much better on the next International Womens Day in 2025.Take actionRing Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and ask how Australia is advocating for women in Afghanistan: (02) 6277 7500Amnesty International research and campaignUNESCO update - let women and girls in Afghanistan learnIf you have ideas for collective advocacy for girls and women in Afghanistan email Borderlands: [email protected] is life, by Allara Briggs-Pattison
-
Jacques speaks with Hill, who presents an alternative Jewish perspective on the current Gaza crisis, a perspective we don't hear in the mainstream, including its long history starting from the 1800s.Jewish activists like Hill, who 'dare' to raise their voices are often viciously attacked by Zionists who too-often conflate critique of Israeli politics and Zionism with anti-semitism or being anti Jewish....And we certainly rarely hear about the role of the US, the Anglosphere and 'the west' in the destruction and elimination of an entire people... and that for the last 70 - 100 years...
-
The elimination of Palestinians from their land has been openly talked about and planned by Zionists and Israeli leaders for a long time, dating from the late 1800s and throughout the twentieth century, up to today. That plan ran alongside the earlier imperial British and present US interests to gain and maintain a foothold in that politically volatile but economically vital region.Jennifer and Jacques share some of the words that have come from their own Zionist/Israeli mouths. Such testimony reveals the nonsense put about by the 'West' and its mainstream media - that Israel's current assault on Palestinians is 'mere' self-defence following the Hamas attacks last October.ReferencesThe US and Israel violating the International Court of Justice decision:https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/us-veto-un-resolution-gaza-israel-hague?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=457596&post_id=141914246&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1nuipp&utm_medium=email Israel, Les cent pires citations by Michel Collon and Jean-Pierre Bouché https://investigaction.net/boutique/israel-les-100-pires-citations-precommande/ La Propagande d’Israel by Ilan Pappé https://investigaction.net/boutique/la-propagande-disrael/ TAKE ACTION:APAN: https://apan.org.au/events/ Loud Jew Collective: https://www.facebook.com/loudjewcollective/Jewish Voice for Peace (US based) (JVP): https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/
-
Jennifer and Jacques re-visit the devastating situation in Ukraine, which the US and its allies dropped that country in.While the west has now shifted its attention and resources elsewhere, the mainstream media complies and does the same.The US plan to kill more Ukrainians Jeffrey D. Sachs Feb 10, 2024 https://johnmenadue.com/the-us-plan-to-kill-more-ukrainians/How the West Brought War to Ukraine, author Benjamin Abelow https://www.amazon.com/How-West-Brought-Ukraine-Understanding-ebook/dp/B0BG5DRLKL?ref_=ast_author_mpbDe Wereld Morgen, Lode Van Oost: ‘Ukraine is at the edge of the cliff and NATO watches in agreement’…
-
Jacques and Jennifer continue their commentary on the escalating crisis in Gaza.The United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that there is a risk of genocide by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza and that Israel has the responsibility to prevent acts of genocide by its armed forces. Meanwhile the United Nations is undermined again, by powers not wishing to comply with international agreements for peace and order. In the latest instance, the UN agency 'UNRWA', which provides support and assistance to 5.9 million Palestinians living across several countries in the nearby Middle East, (more than 2 million in Gaza), has had its funding suspended by several nations on the basis of unproven allegations by Israel against four of UNRWA's 13,000 workers in Gaza. Australia has suspended aid to people in Gaza through UNRWA, even while the ICJ has told Israel to improve the humanitarian situation for civilians in Gaza in the interests of preventing genocide.ReferencesChris Hedges 2024, 'The four horsemen of Gaza's apocalypse', The Chris Hedges report, 22 January 2024.Henry Reynolds 2024, 'Australia's brutal "rules-based international order" is on full display in Gaza', Pearls and irritations, 17 January 2024.Margaret Reynolds 2024, 'Is this what Australia has become?', Pearls and irritations, 12 December 2023. Addtional program notesTrue to form, most of our mainstream commentators and politicians are still not making the connections: that Israel's accusations against UNRWA are part of (1) the long-term attempts of Israel to get rid of the UN agency (because it keeps the Palestinians alive and present in Gaza), and (2) a distraction from the consequences of the ICJ judgment for which Israel will have to justify itself before the end of February. Although Australia has a proud history in the establishing of the UN (as clearly detailed in Frank Bongiorno's recent 'Dreamers and Schemers'), more and more we confirm that we're standing on the wrong side of history. Meanwhile the death toll in Gaza grows to almost 30,000, and the figure for the wounded and incapacitated is moving towards 70,000. About 60 per cent of the infrastructure has been damaged. The intransigence and brutality of the Israeli government and army is clearly on show, aided and abetted by its Anglosaxon (not yet post-colonial) international friends providing them with the munitions, as well as strategic, political and propaganda support.Time for Australia - and the Albo-Wong-Marles bubble - to reconsider its global political stance...?
-
Jacques and Jennifer talk about the history of the idea and establishment of a Zionist Jewish state.They begin with the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, and cover developments in the 1800s and 1900s up to the turbocharging of the idea by a colonialist British Empire looking out for its own interests in the middle east. They cover the devastating developments in 1948 and again in 1967 with Palestinian people cleared off their land to make way for establishment and expansion of the State of Israel.While the colonising parties have changed, the colonial enterprise continues to this day, along with the perennial 'elimination logic' applied to indigenous peoples who get in the way.ReferencesOctober 2023 Interview with Ilan Pappé https://znetwork.org/zvideo/crisis-in-zionism-opportunity-for-palestine/ May 2023 Ilan Pappé https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-was-destroyed-in-12-months-but-the-nakba-has-gone-on-for-75-years/ https://archive.org/details/ten-myths-about-israel-by-ilan-pappe-2017 https://www.mo.be/en/interview/where-does-violence-middle-east-end-it-form-colonialism-becoming-more-extreme Arthur Neslen Occupied Minds: A Journey through the Israeli Psyche Pluto Presshttps://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-01-31/ty-article-opinion/.premium/israelis-post-october-7-humility-is-gone-the-arrogance-is-back/0000018d-60b3-d6d3-a98d-ecff5b600000 Catherine L., ‘De Palestijnse kwestie: een koloniaal probleem?’, in Catherine L., Wim De Neuter en Chomsky N., De Palestijnen: een volk teveel?, Berchem 1988Catherine L., Palestijnen. Geschiedenis van een kolonisatie, Berchem 2017Shlomo Sand The Invention of the Jewish People (Verso Books, 2009)
-
Jennifer and Jacques cast their eye over the 'mess' that was 2023, and how we are managing (or not managing) our affairs in Australia.They reflect on the true reformist, ex-PM Gough Whitlam, and how rare such inspiration and meaningful programs are today in a world of 'hollowed out parties, sound bites, and 24-hour news cycles'.Some insights are drawn from the US predicament as described by Rick Perlstein in an article in Mother Jones titled 'Infernal Triangle', with the points of the triangle being: authoritarian Republicans, ineffectual Democrats and clueless media. In short, neither of these are doing their job, a situation which has broad paralells in Australia: with an 'authoritarian' and conservative Dutton-led Coalition 'opposition', a compromising ALP and the News Corp./Nine Entertainment media - amplified by the 'social' media - demanding 'balance', the real winners are the 1% - 10% most profiting from global corporate capitalism.The presenters end by highlighting that resistance and activism are more important than ever.ReferenceBongiorno, F (2022) Dreamers and Schemers: A political history of Australia, Melbourne: LaTrobe University & Black Inc. (especially the great summary of 1960s-70s activism on pp. 260 - 290...)see also: "The problem with Australian politics? Both sides agree about everything" Alan Kohler (The New Daily Feb 22, 2024)(https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2024/02/22/)
-
Jennifer and Jacques talk about some stories that may help us understand our times and think about doing things differently as a society, such as: 'The Hare and the tortoise', 'The emperor has no clothes', and 'The story of King Midas'. They finish up by talking about Donald Trump's 'The art of the deal', as discussed by Aboriginal author, Tyson Yunkaporta, in his latest book: 'Right story, wrong story'. To quote Yunkaporta: "... 'The art of the deal' is everywhere now. It's a shameful and shameless process. Flip, lie, contradict yourself, double down and yell until everything is broken, then enjoy your social advancement as you stand upon the smoking ruins of your relationships..." This is part of Yunkaporta's broader critique of the 'scorched-earth' policies of our destructive economic experiment which has been scaled to the planetary level. ReferenceTyson Yunkaporta (2023) Right Story Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking Melbourne: Text Publ.
-
Jeremy Walker from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) shines a light on the Atlas Network, an internationally coordinated body that has been working behind the scenes for many years to shape public opinion and government policies that favour corporate interests and profits. (We have been referring to the role of the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) played in the NO campaign during the Voice Referendum... the CIS is part of the ATLAS network...)The Atlas Network and its secretive affiliates have been successful in promulgating a neo liberal approach that promotes free trade, deregulation and privatisation - the idea that small government is good and most aspects of our lives should be left to an unfettered free market. In particular, through the Atlas Network the fossil fuel industry has been successful in putting a brake on reforms to cut carbon emissions for decades, hence the climate emergency we find ourselves in today.Much of its 'success' in capturing public opinion and government policy lies in its highly strategic self-interested approach, and the secret nature of its corporate affiliations. Certainly we have been manipulated on a grand scale, thus part of the solution is to bring it all into the light of day.(NB: The Advance network funded the conservative vote in the Dunkley by-election...)ReferencesWalker, J (2023) Silencing the Voice: the fossil-fuelled Atlas Network’s campaign against constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australia, Cosmopolitan Civil Societies,15(2). (Open Access)Walker, J (2022). Freedom to burn: mining propaganda, fossil capital and the Australian neoliberals. In Slobodian, Q & Plehwe, D (eds) Market Civilisations: Neoliberals East and South, Princeton University PressTienhaara, K & Walker, J (6 Apr 2022). Lessons from Australia show CCUS is about capturing public opinion and public finances, not carbon, National Observer.
-
Jacques interviews Antony Loewenstein, investigative journalist and author of the book, 'The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world' (Published by Scribe - 2023), which meanwhile won the Walkley Award for a 'book written by a journalist'.Trying to gain a better understanding of the Gaza disaster is stifled, on the one hand, by accusations of ‘antisemitism’ when commenting on actions by the present Israeli government or stifled by accusations of justifying this modern form Western neo-colonialism or accusations of Islamophobia when commenting on Hamas’ historical and recent actions… Terms like ‘occupation’ and 'resistance' to this occupation are loaded from the onset because historically-based justifications of the'rightful' possession of Palestinian/Israelite lands are reciprocally rejected.As the hoped-for but rather hypothetical two-nations solution is dissipating into a blur of antagonistic rhetoric, Antony Loewenstein offers some much needed historical and present-day background information. He comments on the global as well as the national Palestine/Israelite context and makes a plea for peace in meaningful terms rather than in the ideologically loaded terms systematically supported by western powers and their associated media.Links:https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-debunking-israels-mass-rape-propaganda https://rumble.com/v26g3um-noam-chomsky-increasing-threat-of-nuclear-war-humanity-about-to-fall-off-a-.html
-
Many of us worried about what we humans are doing to Mother Earth – and to ourselves, of course - have wondered about the paradox of our continuing dedication to ‘economic growth’ and our knowledge of what this growth is doing to Earth and ourselves… Indeed, the assumed need for ‘growth’ remains a seeming unchallengeable postulate of our economic system, commentators confirming it for all kinds of reasons, like it’s needed to increase our wellbeing, to defeat poverty, to allow for more social justice, but there’s meanwhile a vast body of research documenting that economic ‘growth’ isn’t improving any of these things…Jacques talks with Anitra Nelson about degrowth, and realistic ways we can work together to create a socially and environmentally sustainable future.Links:Degrowth Network Australia –https://degrowth.info/en/blog/degrowth-network-australia Find recordings from the first (mid-2023) Australian Degrowth week webinar series hosted by New Economy Network Australia: https://www.neweconomy.org.au/nena-events/annual-events/degrowth-week/Check out some degrowth publications at Anitra Nelson's site:https://anitranelson.info/A 2022 Scientific American opinion piece on degrowth: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/these-technologies-help-you-live-lightly-on-a-fragile-planet/Degrowth on Channel 10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHY-8juqt1oThis is a link to the 48 min video I have made on Ted Trainer's Pigface Point site which has been introducing visitors to the case for transition to The Simpler Way since the 1980s. It indicates the basic causes of the global predicament, and the form a sustainable and just society would have to take. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9WSfGGdZRs Ted Trainer [email protected]
-
Jacques talks with Jack Manning Bancroft about his new book: Hoodie economics: Changing our systems to value what matters. (Published in August 2023 by Hardie Grant Books - Richmond/Melbourne)'Hoodie Economics' is not your regular economics book... Jack Manning Bancroft, founder and CEO of te mentoring program AIME pulls apart what 'people in suits' might think of as economics, and presents a revolutionary new value system - one that celebrates relationships over transactions and incorporates Idigenous knowledge and ideas from those on the margins of society' (from Books and Publishing).The values the Borderlands Cooperative has been pursuing – however implicitly that may have been happening - are and remain since our inception‘relationality, diversity and inclusion’ as we reiterated in our program in February this year... in fact, our very first program of Think Again, now 4 ½ years ago in June 2019, was about ‘relationality’ and we have come back to this theme again and again in the course of our conversations and what this might mean in our living practice and the systems we perpetuate… so listening to Jack's responses and reading his book really felt confirming...His links with Deakin University's Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab are revealed all across the interview and the book... really worthwhile investigating!
-
In a world where Artificial Intelligence seems to be intruding into so many aspects of our lives, Jennifer and Jacques challenge common notions of what AI is, especially the idea that it is 'intelligent' at all. (Clue - it just fakes intelligence).They explore the myriad dangers of delegating decision-making affecting humans to the computational power of AI. ReferencesKohler A 2023, 'AI's dangers: Like fixing the climate, it's another mission impossible'. The New Daily, 5 November.Milmo D 2023, 'AI could cause 'catastrophic financial crisis says Yuval Noah Harari', The Guardian 10 November.Walsh T 2023, Faking it: Artificial intelligence in a human world. Collingwood: La Trobe University Press.
-
Jennifer and Jacques discuss how the tide is turning against neoliberalism, the discredted doctrine that what is good for big business is good for everyone.Part of the neo-liberal 'package' introduced in the early 1970s, was a conservative reaction against the cost of welfare and a push for greater accountability and evaluation of outcomes. While Jacques and Jennifer are in favour of evaluation in principle, too often it is based on countable indicators that allow companies and organisations to milk the public purse while providing no benefit to the people the programs are for. They argue for more meaningful and democratic forms of evaluation such as 'Participatory Action Research' and 'Developmental Evaluation'. ReferencesMichael Quinn Patton 2011, Developmental evaluation: Applying complexity concepts to enhance innovation and use. The Guilford Press, New York.Yoland Wadsworth 2011, Everyday evaluation on the run. Allen & Unwin, SydneyYoland Wadsworth 2011, Do it yourself social research. Allen & Unwin, Sydney
- Show more
