Episoder
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Jacques and Jennifer do some post-Trump analysis, looking at how Trump's victory in the US elections could even happen.They argue that the rot has been there for centuries, with an individualist ideology embedded in the psyche of the people from the US's inception. Conditions have ripened for the triumph of a cult figure like Trump in more recent times, including a poorly educated populace, struggles with the cost of living, the dominance of neoliberal policies favourable to big business, desertion of the disenfranchised by the Democratic party, and the take over of electoral processes by big money (just to name a few).
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Andy Schmulow, Associate Professor in the School of Law at the University of Wollongong, talks about the deliberate tax evasion strategies of mega rich corporations, robbing the public purse of much-needed billions of dollars. Meanwhile the Australia Tax Office (ATO) takes a softly softly approach to bringing these corporations to heel. In fact, Andy believes the ATO's approach could actually be encouraging corporate tax avoidance.Senator Barbara Pocock has described the situation as one law for the rich and well connected and another for the battling and intimidated. Certainly a different approach was taken to Centrelink recipients in the government's notorious 'Robodebt' scheme, and we seem to be at the beginning of NDIS 'crackdowns' in a similar vein.At the same time we are told that there are no funds to address the housing crisis, and other social necessities - and the climate crisis for that matter.ReferenceParliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial ServicesAction:Contact your local federal MP and Senator and tell them that this is a crucial issue and the recommendations from this report must be acted on.Find your local electorate and MPs
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Mangler du episoder?
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Ben Rivers talks about the play he wrote and performs, 'The invaders' fear of memories: A play about the colonisation of Palestine'.The play is based on the diaries of his great-grandfather, Yousef Nachmani, who fled Tsarist Russia in 1907 for Ottoman Palestine. Full of Zionist ideals, he became complicit in the displacement of thousands of Palestinian people.Ben's father (Yousef's grandson) became a peace activist, and Ben continues his father's path with this play, believing that descendants have a responsibility to bring attention to history and tell the truth. As he points out, this history can help us understand what is currently happening in Palestine, and the ideology and conditions that have allowed the State of Israel to attack Palestine with such impunity. THE INVADERS’ FEAR OF MEMORIES: A PLAY ABOUT THE COLONISATION OF PALESTINETo buy tickets for the Melbourne performance, go to: https://www.themcshowroom.com/whatson/the-invaders-fear-of-memoriesDetails:The MC Showroom, Level 1, 50 Clifton Street, Prahran, VICFriday, 15 November 2024, 7:00 pm Saturday, 16 November 2024, 7:00 pm Duration: 75 minutes performance + post-show Q&A. (Doors open 30 minutes before the show).The production is being organised by the Loud Jew Collective with support and endorsement from the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) and the Averroes Centre of Arab Culture. Additional note from Ben: I would also like to mention that in each location I perform, there is a guest actor who performs excerpts of a poem called 'On This Land' by the renowned Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. The title of the play is taken from this poem. The poem is woven into the text towards the end of the play. The person performing this poem in Naarm, is Yousef Alreemawi - a Palestinian academic and musician and founder of the Averroes Centre of Arab Culture. Yousef will also be joining me onstage after the show for an audience Q&A.
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Jacques' guest, Suzan Saka, talks about the fascinating history and rich culture of the Alevi people, and their substantial presence in Australia. We wonder why we don't hear more about them!For those who want to learn more and have a good day out, there is an Anatolian Alevi Festival at Coburg Lake Reserve (metropolitan Melbourne) Sunday 17 November from 11am. You can also learn more about the Alevi culture and history here: https://www.alevi.org.au/eng/or go to facebook:https://www.facebook.com/share/12CvucJRtpz/?mibextid=9l3rBW Alevi Federation of Australia (AFA)28-32 Williams Road, North Coburg VIC 3058p: (03) 9354 8154e: [email protected]: www.alevi.org.auf: @Alevi Federation of Australia
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Jacques and Jennifer ruminate on the state of politics in Australia and the role of independents in disrupting the dominant duopoly of Labor and Coalition.They talk about how community development fits in with this, and they hark back to their very first program on relationality - the idea that we exist and thrive within a living network of relationships. This certainly explains a lot of the success of the grassroots campaigning by the independents.Cathy McGowan (2024 2nd edition) Cathy Goes to Canberra – Doing Politics Differently Melbourne: Monash University Press
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Jacques and Jennifer talk about Israel's denial of its genocidal onslaughts on the Palestinian people and the different ways it seeks to mask the truth in strategies of 'occlusion'.Examples include the planting of forests over 'emptied out' Palestinian villages in a mass exercise of 'green washing', the building of a 'Museum of Tolerance' on the site of the largest and most important Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, and the frequent declaration that Israel is a 'democracy' despite the opposite being obvious to millions around the world (and why 'we' need to support Israel against presumed 'terrorists' and presumed other 'non-democracies'...). ReferencesRashid Khalidi 2024, The hundred years’ war on Palestine: A history of settler colonial conquest and resistance, London: Profile Books.Saree Makdisi 2023, Tolerance is a wasteland: Palestine and the culture of denial, US: University of California Press.
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Jennifer and Jacques continue their conversation about the Australian political system as we approach municipal and state elections at the end of this month, and a federal election before May 2025.Our two-party system comes under fire, especially the unrepresentative nature of the two main parties, and their use of power to keep out other players. Jacques and Jennifer also express their disappointment in 'timid Labor' once more.
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Jennifer and Jacques discuss the dominance and convergence of the two main parties, and how neither are able or willing to make the substantial changes we so badly need.They give a potted history of bold reformist Labor policies of the past, and they contrast this with the current timid and skittish federal Labor Party, currently in government.
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We are meant to be living in a democracy. That means that 'we' the 'people', the 'demos' in democracy are meant to have a say in how we are governed. But, as main political parties in Australia and other western countries align in the interests of ruling elites, and the disparity grows between what the parties agree on and what the people want, we have to question whether we are living in a democracy at all. And we have to ask if we are being hoodwinked with a charade of 'democracy' as a political branding execrcise.
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Jacques and Jennifer discuss how the US is an Empire with vast extended territories and has been for a long time, and how we have a collective blindspot about this as we refer to a limited 'logo' map of the US, which in reality was only a true representation of its real shape and extent for a few years in the 1850s. This is certainly a hidden aspect of the US's imperial hegemony and power as Daniel Immerwahr explains in his How to Hide an Empire: A Short History of the Greater United States (2020; London: Vintage).The presenters ask why Australia is so uncritical and meek in following the US lead, supporting its warfare adventures and giving up sovereignty in our own policies. As former PM Paul Keating has warned, we are in danger of becoming the 51st state of the US, if we are not already there.Also, see Don Watson's (2024) Quarterly Essay (95): High Noon: Trump, Harris and America on the brink
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In this conversation, Daryl and Jacques examine how the professions and their assumed expertise contribute to the systemic failure of institutions to meaningfully respond to the issues and problems they are supposed to 'deal with', particularly also through the ideological and hierarchical power accorded to professional expertise; indeed, how they often aggravate those issue and problems. We are looking at four social/systemic contexts - health, mental health, disaster responses and community development - based on Daryl’s and Jacques' experiences of working in such institutions and their professionals and on witnessing their collective and individual actions and behaviours; and the two of us sometimes being criticised for not ‘being professional enough’.
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Jacques and Deb Salvagno have a conversation about Timor Leste and the role and strengths of Women in that country's efforts to create a just and prosperous country for all; Deb is co-founder or East Timor Woman Australia (ETWA), an organisation that has worked in solidarity with women weavers' cooperatives in Timor Leste since the early-2000s. They talk about Timor Leste's (bloody) struggle for independence achieved 25 years ago. Deb talks about the importance of solidarity with the so-called 'developing world' and especially with the women who too often continue to be excluded from power but who have so much to contribute when given the chance to lead.ETWA and their Timor Leste cooperative partners are showcasing their achievements of more than 20 years at an exhibition 'Tais, Culture & Resilience: woven stories from Timor-Leste' at Melbourne University's Trinity College (Professor Sir Joseph Burke Gallery - 100 Royal Parade, Parkville), launching on Thursday 19th of September 6:30 - 8:30 (open till November) and a Symposium on Saturday 21st September at the same venue from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. ($20). For more info: www.etwa.org.auWe also need to correct some info we provided last week...The Multicultural Women’s Spring Bazaar is happening on the Sunday the 22nd September at the North Melbourne Community Centre in 49-53 Buncle StreetFor more information about att events, you can also call Borderlands on 03 9819 3239 or 0466 123 766
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Jennifer and Jacques talk about the need to de-grow the economy and change our fundamental way of life to save ourselves and the planet.The capitalist system has us on a downward spiral of mass exploitation and extraction, with the 'global south' supporting our privileged way of life through cheap labour and the devastation of local ecologies. The presenters look to the later Karl Marx (largely unpublished) for inspiration about more communal ways of organising ourselves that are socially and environmentally sustainable.ReferencesKohei Sato 2024, Slow down: How degrowth communism can save the earth, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.Raj Patel & Jason Moore 2017, A history of the world in seven cheap things: A guide to capitalism, nature and the future of the planet, Berkely: University of California Press,Poem: For the land of my birth India, by Nandini Sen MehraInternational Organisation for Migration (IOM), https://www.migrationdataportal.org/resource/decade-documenting-migrant-deaths-data-analysis-and-reflection-deaths-during-migration
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Jacques talks about the ways that Australia continues to drop the ball on international justice, while defaulting to the (US) 'might is right' principle, and thus gradually losing its moral standing in the eyes of the rest of the world. It is a shameful contrast to our history of supporting international rules that all are expected to abide by, and forums of justice where errant nations are called to account. And we continue to cede the non-ceded Aboriginal lands to growing establishments of American weaponry and military bases.Jonathan Cook (https://substack.com/@jonathancook) ‘Nothing's changed since 1948 – except now Israel's excuses don't work’Mick Hall in Consortium News (https://mickhall.substack.com/p/change-on-way-abc-reviews-icj-ruling?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1996583&post_id=147507114&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1sqhym&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email)Eugene Doyle solidarity.co.nz. Stuart Rees https://johnmenadue.com/politicians-browbeaten-and-brainwashed-by-zionismpic/ Arthur Neslen Occupied Minds: A Journey through the Israeli Psyche (Pluto Press) Naomi Klein ‘Doppelganger: a trip into the Mirror World’ (2023 – Allen Lane publ.).Henry Reynolds: The military Americanisation of Northern Australia https://johnmenadue.com/the-military-americanisation-of-northern-australia/
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Jacques and Jennifer talk about the Palestinian conflict and its wider political and military context, especially the role of the US and the west in general, and the biased and woeful coverage in our news media.As asked by Stuart Rees quoted from Pearls and Irritations: 'Why can't an alleged human rights abiding country such as Australia name Israei policies as grotesque and genocidal?...'
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Jennifer speaks with Graham Matthews,Socialist, activist and person with disability, about the proposed reforms to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).In late March Bill Shorten, Minister for the NDIS, introduced a Bill to Parliament, projected to save over $14 billion over the next five years, while giving the government a lot more control over what can be claimed for under the Scheme into the future. The Bill took many be surprise, especially as the government is yet to respond to the NDIS review. Many people with disability are fearful about the proposed changes, and the states are concerned about the lack of arrangements for 'foundational supports' they may be expected to provide for people not eligible for the NDIS.The Bill has not been passed into law, and there is still time to influence the outcome.
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Jennifer and Jacques continue their theme of pre-election issues, leading up to the federal election and some state elections.For this program they talk about the history of 'multicultural' policies and living realities in Australia and where we are headed with them and whether we really deserve to be called and advertised as a 'success story'. They finish with some reflections about what multiculturalism actually means and could mean.
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Jennifer and Jacques discuss some international issues merging with domestic ones leading up to the elections.... 'systemic collusion' at work...In particular, they focus on the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza, perpetrated by the State of Israel with considerable international support. On the domestic front this has led to the squashing of protest and dissent on a variety of levels. Most recently, Senator Fatima Payman has defected from the Labor Party, to become an independent on the 'cross bench'. This is the Australian two-party system at work in its usual 'lethal triangle' with the mainstream media...And if you would like to understand the Gaza crisis from its very origins, read: Rashid Khalidi (2020/24) The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: a History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance London: Profile Books
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Simon Reeves talks with Jacques about his work as a peace and community development activist, including 'love as a force for change and good'. Simon is involved in 'disruptive' peace activism and in the development and empowerment of local communities, especially in an empoverished neighbourhood in Norlane, North Geelong, Victoria.
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