I’ll miss Hugo. When I first was introduced to him in Porto Alegre in 2003, he greeted me, “Mi padre,” and said he learned a lot from me. I was dubious about this and thought he was simply buttering me up, like any two-bit politician. Then he started telling me what he learned from Development Debacle, Deglobalization, and Dark Victory. I was stupefied; the guy actually read my stuff!
Following the 2013 Mardi gras parade (the corporate gaystream shadow of a radical and militant queer protest in 1978) a video was released online that showed a young shirtless man being choked by a police officer, then slammed headfirst into the pavement while handcuffed.
Outrage quickly spread across the Queer community and far beyond. Within two days, Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH) called for a demonstration against police brutality on Friday 8th of March. The rally was to gather at 6pm Taylor square, then to march to Surrey Hills cop shop then back.
Victoria has a new Premier with Ted Baillieu falling on his own sword, with Denis Napthine, the member for South West Coast, being appointed into the role of Premier of Victoria. Just in time as new economic statistics show that the Victorian economy is in recession. Restoring sanity to planning regulations for wind farm development could boost regional development and the Government's very low environmental credentials as it faces re-election in 2014.
Related: Petition - Let's get Victoria back on track: clean energy, protect our farms
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/08/australian-uranium-discovery-art
Australian uranium discovery threatens ancient indigenous cave art
Climate change induced sea level rise of one metre is likely to destroy 60 per cent of the developing world's wetlands says a new World Bank research working paper. The economic loss of these wetlands is estimated at approximately $630 million US dollars per year.
The World Bank study looked at the risk to coastal wetlands in 76 countries at a sea level rise of one metre. Because there are so many uncertainties with the rate of sea level rise, the one metre level was chosen to study the likely impact. This sea level may be achieved this century, with sea level rising 60% faster than IPCC projections. Sea level rise is unstoppable, but it can be slowed through emissions reduction and give us humans and ecosystems a chance to adapt. Sea levels will continue to rise for several centuries.
Newsletter date: 9 March 2013
Contents:
* NITV News: Festival for the Kimberley in Sydney
* The Wilderness Society: Promising news for Kimberley, but industrialisation still looms
* ABC AM: WA Liberals promise national park on re-election
* Broome Community No Gas Campaign: Broome community calls on Shell to protect burial grounds and to intervene to stop Woodside drilling works
* Hands off Country: Bob Brown Speaking at a Broome No Gas forum
* Greens Senator Scott Ludlam: Together, we're fighting for James Price Point
Dear Avaazers,
New Matilda, 7 Mar 2013, By Wendy Bacon
Asylum seekers on Manus Island say their hopes were crushed by visits from the Minister for Immigration Brendan O'Connor and his shadow, Scott Morrison last week.
The visits took place during six days of water shortages which left toilets overflowing. Some 274 detainees, including 34 children and six pregnant women, were unable to shower or wash in the hot humid conditions.
Neither politician took time to carefully investigate the conditions in the camp, in which the detainees have been imprisoned for months.
Three Aboriginal female authors taking part in the Adelaide Writers Week, Dylan Coleman, Ali Cobby Eckermann and Jeanine Leane, see their role as explaining Aboriginal culture to non-Aborigines.
They were asked for community radio how to remedy Indigenous Australians’ literacy levels being much poorer than those of non-Indigenous Australians.
Newsletter date: 7 March 2013
Contents:
* Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: ALSWA, Governor McCusker, McGlade and Gooda slam extensions to mandatory sentencing
* NIRS: Legal service slams WA mandatory sentencing push
* CAAMA: Calls for release of juvenile prisoners being held in a men's prison
* Background to Aboriginal imprisonment and Deaths in Custody
* The Stringer: Taoundai Conference brings on the Aboriginal Liberation Movement
* NIRS: Funding still not reaching communities: Smallwood
If you want something done right then do it yourself, or so the saying goes. And when it comes to credit card surcharges, come 18 March, consumers may have to do just that.
By The Stringer
March 6th, 2013
Noongar rights advocate and law student Marianne Mackay was lampooned by vicious racism on Facebook - the page has since been pulled down. A complaint was filed with
the Australian Human Rights Commission but little has come of it.
"Racists cannot keep on getting away with their malice and vitriol, it is
often far too hurtful and it is up to us to put a stop to it," said Ms Mackay.
The culprits who set up the Facebook page are not easily identifiable - they
The Wire
Indigenous health research institute Lowitja faces possible closure
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Produced by Joline Samawi
Story audio
http://www.thewire.org.au/storyDetail.aspx?ID=10098#
Australia's only Aboriginal and Torres strait islander health research institute is facing a crisis of funding. Backed by government support for three years The Lowitja institute may cease progress in 2014 due to a stop in payments.
Swiss voters have overwhelmingly approved strict controls on executive pay, raising hopes that this will pave the way for new anti-greed legislation across Europe.
In a referendum on 3 March nearly 68 percent of Swiss voters came out in favour of plans to give company shareholders a veto on compensation and ban big payouts for new and departing managers.
The "fat cat initiative," as it has been dubbed, will be written into the Swiss constitution and applies to all Swiss companies listed on the stock exchange.
Recreational animal cruelty practices in Ireland, better known as “blood sports” have taken a direct hit as "The Gathering" , a major Irish international cultural initiative, rejects these practices and deletes references to them from its website…
Yahoo! Japan profits from the endangered species trade, selling whales and dolphin meat.
If we can get Yahoo! to stop these sales, we can strike a serious blow to the whaling industry, saving the lives of thousands of whales each year.
On Wednesday 27th February, some student dissidents and fellow rebels from Sydney University staged some O-Week counter-activities. O-Week, which runs for three days in the week before semester begins, provides corporations and banks, major sponsors of the Sydney University “Union” who organize O-Week, the opportunity to present a friendly face to the student public at their stalls, offering games, prizes and giveaways.
