AUSTRALIAN
NATIONAL INDEPENDENT
CHINA – Our Kowtowing Has Been Thrown Back In Our Face
AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY RECOVERING
USA HATE CRIMES
ATTACK ON THE US CAPITOL BUILDING
HISTORY: ODESSA
BOOK REVIEWS: Behind the Horror
The Looting Machine
The Consequences of Equality
The Road
NUMBER NINETY FIVE SUMMER 2020-21
CHINA – OUR KOWTOWING HAS BEEN THROWN BACK IN OUR FACE
China recently put restrictions on the import of Australian wheat. (1) Admittedly they are not our biggest customer for this product but they had already banned, restricted or put heavy tariffs on many of our other exports including barley, timber, coal, wine, meat and seafood. (2)
Older readers may remember, back in the days when we had open discussions on the wisdom of flooding the country with Asian migrants, it was claimed that if we didn’t let them in the countries of Asia would not buy our exports. The results of the 2016 census showed Chinese made up over 5% of our population. (3) Presumably letting a big influx of Asian immigrants would result in Asian countries buying anything we wanted to sell at any price we asked. This was nonsense of course and China’s recent actions have demonstrated this.
As for the free trade deal with China one wonders why we bothered. It was supposed to open up trade especially for products like wine and meat. That trade deal includes a section on investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) under which Chinese investors can sue our government for decisions that adversely affect a Chinese investor’s profits. It’s little short of an attack on our sovereignty. (4)
It’s been suggested that because some of our leaders wanted to have the origins of the Covid-19 virus investigated they have provoked the response by China. (5) Exactly by what convoluted logic can looking for the origin of an infectious disease be related to trade? Possibly it was a trigger but only part of Beijing’s motivation. And there is some evidence that the virus did originate in a laboratory in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. (6)
As Clive Hamilton wrote in a recent article, Beijing has used an escalating program of punishment, not only economic coercion but a diplomatic freeze, and a barrage of insults and threats. Among 14 demands made by the Chinese embassy in Canberra are that we abolish our foreign interference law, allow Huawei into our 5G network, permit unrestricted Chinese investment and limit media criticism of their regime. Hamilton points out that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is hostile to free speech, free media, religious freedom, independent courts and civil society. He sees the Morrison government as taking a strong stand against CCP influence. Exactly how long they will maintain this stand is a worry. (7)
China’s actions should not be a surprise however. The country has never been a democracy and has a bad record of bullying other peoples. In the 18th century it was one of the more aggressive imperialist powers, becoming involved in ten wars and even carrying out genocide. (8) More recently it has actively suppressed minorities like Uighur, Tibetans and ethnic Mongolians. There appears to have been an active policy of reducing the birth-rate and numbers of the Uighurs. (9) Early in January 2021 there were 53 pro-democracy campaigners arrested in Hong Kong. (10)
China has been aggressively building up its military capabilities and by 2020 it had 1,375 fighter/strike aircraft, 150 submarines, three aircraft carriers, 2,900 short-range ballistic missiles and 220 advanced anti-ship cruise missile. Meanwhile it has occupied the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, bought up the Gold Ridge gold mine in the Solomon Islands and is providing infrastructure in New Guinea’s Bougainville Island. China has ramped up pressure on Taiwan and may even have designs on Mongolia. (11)
The Morrison government is making a stand against Chinese bullying and CCP influence and has charged Liberal MP Gladys Liu under the new foreign interference laws. (12) Exactly how long they will maintain this stand is a troubling question.
In fact the situation shows how we have become too dependent on other countries goodwill rather than standing up for our own sovereignty. We have happily entered into international agreements, and not just free trade agreements, that interfere with the way our country is run and put the government’s obligations to our own people as a lower priority.
And the free trade agreements have not been matched by an improvement in economic performance as expected. Our living standards, as measured by per capita gross domestic product (GDP), have tended to go backwards in relation to other nations. In 1914 only two other countries were doing better than us and at the end of World War II only five countries had higher or equal living standards. By 2019 we were struggling to stay in the top 12 nations. (13)
In fact our “progress” to free trade has not given us much in either jobs or economic growth. Our economic heyday was in the 1950s and 1960s when we had very little unemployment, in fact in our worst year it only rose to 3.2% and in most years was under 2%. Economic growth over these two decades was an average of 4.6%. (14) Our growth rate in 2019 was a pathetic 2.2%. (15)
So rather than doing better than with the less open economy of the fifties and sixties we are doing much worse. We have traded off our autonomy and independence and gained nothing in return. And we are being bullied by the world’s biggest dictatorship despite decades of kowtowing.
(1) Jared Lynch, “Now China Takes Aim at Wheat”, Daily Telegraph, 30 December 2020
(2) Jeff Kennett, “From here to Uncertainty”, Daily Telegraph, 30 December 2020
(3) Wikipedia
(4) “ISDS: The Devil in the Trade Deal”, www.abc.net.au/radionational 26 July 2015
(5) Finn McHugh, “China Fault Line Widens”, Daily Telegraph, 8 January 2021
(6) James Morrow, “The Left’s ‘Noble’ Lies”, Daily Telegraph, 7 January 2021
(7) Clive Hamilton, “World’s Eyes on Australia to See if we can Resist China”, The Australian, 6 January 2021
(8) Dr Aaron Ralby, “Atlas of Military History”, Parragon, Bath, 2013, p. 142-143; Michael Kerrigan, “China A Dark History”, Amber Books, London, 2019, p. 115
(9) Human Rights Watch, https/www.hrw.org/news/ 22 December 2020; “China’s Boast of Taming Uighurs”, Sunday telegraph, 10 January 2021
(10) “HK Feels China’s Iron Fist”, Daily Telegraph, 8 January 2020
(11) Chris McCormack, “Australia, World: Heed the Warnings”, News Weekly, 28 November 2020
(12) Rachel Baxendale, “Liberal MP Target of Foreign Interference”, The Australian, 6 January 2021
(13) World Bank ranking, https://en.m.wikipedia.org
(14) Rodney Maddock & Ian McLean, “The Australian Economy in the Long Run”, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987
(15) Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au Downloaded 11 January 2021
AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY RECOVERING
After shrinking by 0.3% in the March quarter and 7.0% in the June quarter the Australian economy grew by 3.3% in the September 2020 quarter. For the 12 months ending September the economy went backwards by 3.8%. By November the unemployment rate was 6.8%.
With the large amount of spending by the government to offset the problems caused by the Covid-19 epidemic our foreign debt rose by $47.5 billion giving a total foreign debt of $1,157.8 billion.
(Figures sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website, 12 January 2020)
USA: Who Commits Hate Crimes?
Despite the occasional hysteria about racists and white nationalist in the United States it appears that white people are considerably less likely to commit a hate crime than are black people.
Of 6,406 offenders in 2019, just a bit more than half, 3,365 (or 52.53%) were white while 1,532 (23.91%) were black. (1) The last census in the US showed that blacks constitute 13.4% of their population, while 61% were white – non-Hispanic, or 77% if white Hispanics are included. So proportionally blacks are much more likely to commit hate crimes than whites. (2) Most of these crimes do not involve homicide. In 2019 there were only 51 murders considered hate crimes. (3)
Hate crimes are not new of course. In 2018 members of a Latino street gang admitted to carrying out a racially motivated firebombing attack on black families in Los Angeles. The three men were charged over the attack in 2014. The order for the attack is said to have come from the Mexican Mafia, a prison gang that controls many Hispanic gangs in Southern California. (4) Last year, Temar Bishop 23, a black parolee was arrested over the raping and bashing of a white woman on the roof of his Bronx apartment building. Bishop said the woman deserved it because of slavery. (5)
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States
(3) Michael Balsamo, www.usatoday.com 17 November 2020
(5) https://www.lawenforecementtoday.com/paorlee-arrested-in-brutal-br... 28 June 2020
ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL BUILDING
Riotous behaviour broke out on 6 January, when Donald Trump supporters entered the Capitol building in Washington DC. Many had just left a speech by Trump at midday in The President’s Park about 1.2 miles from the Capitol building.
One of the demonstrators, Ashli Babbitt, an air force veteran was killed when a plainclothes policeman shot her at close range when she jumped through an interior window. The police officer appears to be black but was kept out of the spotlight in the days after the incident. Video of the scene indicated that there were police officers both behind Babbitt and in front of her. This and the fact that she was unarmed make her death unjustified. Three other demonstrators died, one by heart attack, one due to stroke and a third, Roseanne Boyland, 34, appears to have been trampled to death. One police officer died, apparently being hit by a fire extinguisher.
About 5:10 pm police used tear gas to drive people from the upper level of the Capitol building. And half an hour later the National Guard arrived.
About 57 police officers were injured and 68 people were arrested by the next day. One person charged was US Olympian swimming gold medallist Klete Keller, 38.
Some alleged details about the riot have come up although they may be hard to verify. One is that the police had attacked older demonstrators and children with batons and tear gas well before they came anywhere near the Capitol building. A suspicious package, thought to be a pipe bomb was said to be found at the Democrat National Committee. Eleven glass jars suspected of being improvised bombs were found in a cooler in a vehicle near the Republican National Committee building.
Meanwhile Trump has had his Twitter account closed. He is alleged to have inspired the riot but his last video on Twitter advised that there should be peace and his supporters should go home now. It looks like a lot of other accounts are to be closed if their message is not to the liking of those who run Big Tech companies. In fact Parler, a more freethinking answer to Twitter has been taken off line by Amazon Web Services.
Despite some silly comments by the new president Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the reaction by police to the rioters at the Capitol building were in stark contrast to the way most police forces dealt with the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted after the George Floyd death. Rather than attack BLM, many authorities caved into them to some extent, and in Portland, Oregon, they were allowed (with their Antifa allies) to set up an autonomous zone. The media too was sympathetic to the BLM supporters compared to the hostility shown Trump supporters who were described as insurrectionists. One commentator suggested that the children of Trump supporters be sent to “enlightenment camps”. Businesses actually gave substantial monetary support to BLM despite their riots having led to over 20 people being killed. Are the Trump supporters going to get anything?
Information was sourced from: The Epoch Times, 14 January 2021; Daily Telegraph, 8 & 14 January 2021; New York Post, 7 January 2021; American Renaissance and Gateway Pundit websites.
SOME OF DONALD TRUMP’S ACHIEVEMENTS WHILE IN OFFICE
The United States gained 7 million new jobs,
Middle-Class family income increased nearly $6,000, five times that of the Obama years,
Unemployment reached 3.5%, the lowest in half a century,
Incomes rose in every single metro area in the US for the first time in nearly three decades,
Unemployment for African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans set record lows,
Unemployment for women hit its lowest rate for 70 years,
Nearly 7 million people were taken off food stamps,
Poverty rates for African Americans and Hispanics reached record lows,
Income inequality fell for two straight years, and by the largest amount in a decade,
The bottom 50% of US households saw a 40% increase in net worth.
SCIENCE SNIPPETS
NEW HUMAN: Ancient remains found in a cave designated as UW 105 in South Africa could be that of a previously unidentified human species. The cave is not far from the Rising Star cave where the species known as Homo naledi was found in 2013.
Michael Marshall, “Ancient Human Remains May Be A New Species”, New Scientist, 9 January 2021
ANCIENT INTERBREEDING: A study has found what appears to be the oldest known interbreeding between ancient human populations, specifically a group known as super-archaics in Eurasia interbred with the ancestor of Neanderthals and Denisovans about 700,000 years ago. The event was between two populations more distantly related than any other recorded and the super-archaic population appeared to have been separated from other humans two million years ago. It appears the super-archaics left Africa two million years ago, the ancestor of Neanderthals and Denisovans 700,000 years ago and modern humans 50,000 years ago.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200220141232.htm 20 February 2020
Y CHROMOSOMES OF NEANDERTHALS: Scientists have managed to analyse the DNA from the Y chromosomes of three male Neanderthals and two Denisovans and compare them to modern human DNA. It was found that the Neanderthal and modern human Y chromosomes are more similar to one another than they are to Denisovan Y chromosomes. They concluded that the most recent common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans lived around 370,000 years ago. Modern humans were thought to have interbred with Neanderthals about 50 to 70 thousand years ago, when the modern humans had migrated out of Africa. The study of Y chromosome DNA would indicate that Modern humans interbred with Neanderthals at least 100,000 and potentially 370,000 years ago. This would mean that modern humans, or people very closely related to them, were in Eurasia 370,000 years ago.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200924141449.htm 24 September 2020
ANCIENT EMPIRE: Artefacts found submerged under Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, South America, are believed to be from the Tiwanaku Empire. The empire reached its greatest power between 500AD and 900AD but some of the items are believed to be 2000 years old. The Tiwanaku Empire created the Akapana Pyramid and the monolithic Gateway of the Sun.
“Empire Gives Up Its Underwater Jewels”, Daily Telegraph, 14 January 2021
PERU’S CAT ETCHING: Work at an archaeological site in Peru uncovered a huge image of a cat drawn on a hillside more than 2000 years ago. It is the latest discovery in an area known as the Nazca Lines, a series of man-made patterns that cover 450sq km and are described as one of archaeology’s greatest enigmas.
Stephen Gibbs, “Cat Etched 2000 Years Ago Found In Peru”, The Times/The Australian 21 October 2020
IDENTICAL TWINS: A study on the genetics of identical twins shows they do not have identical DNA. There are more than five genetic differences in monozygotic, (i.e. identical) twins and in some cases up to 100 differences. The differences are thought to arise just before or just after one embryo split to form two.
Jackie Sinnerton, “Not Same Old Story for Twins”, Daily telegraph, 14 January 2021
ANCIENT HUMAN COUSIN: A two million year old skull has been found in South Africa by an Australian-led archaeological dig at the Drimolen cave system near Johannesburg. It has been identified as Paranthropus robustus and lived at about the same time as Homo erectus but had a much smaller brain.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-10/arachaeologists-find-skull-o... 10 November 2020
VIKING ANCESTRY: DNA sequencing of 400 Viking skeletons from across Europe and Greenland indicates more than just a Scandinavian ancestry. Foreign genes from Asia and Southern Europe seemed to have reached Scandinavia even before the Viking age, which dates from 800AD to the 1050s. Some Viking remains found in Scotland appear to have been from locals who had taken up Viking culture, as they were buried with Viking swords but are genetically similar to present-day Irish and Scotland. Scandinavian diasporas established trade and settlement stretching from the American continent to the Asian steppe. About 10% of the population of the United Kingdom are believed to have Viking DNA compared to only 6% in Sweden.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200916113544.htm 16 September 2020
HISTORY
ODESSA
Following the Allied invasion of Normandy and defeats on the eastern front it was looking likely that Germany would lose World War II. Top Nazis, especially members of the elite Schutzstaffel (SS) formed an organisation to allow them to escape retribution for war crimes and possibly resurrect the Reich in future years.
With the help of top German industrialists and bankers the “Organisation Der Ehemaligen SS-Angehorigen” or ODESSA, was formed in the Maison Rouge hotel in Strasbourg in August 1944. Odessa was well financed and well organised. A large and reliable network was developed. Secret transit points were established along the German border with Austria and Switzerland. From there, escaping Nazis often took the “Monastery Route” through Italy, moving from monastery to monastery with the help of Catholic priests, generally Franciscans. Once they reached Rome they dispersed to other countries. In occupied Germany ODESSA members used forged papers which enabled them to be hired by the United States military as drivers of US Army trucks.
Apart from ODESSA other underground organisations were formed to help Nazis. One network, called “Die Spider” (The Spider) supplied false papers, passports, safe houses, and contacts that could smuggle war criminals across the Swiss border.
An estimated 9,000 Nazi officers and officials found refuge in South America. Most settled in Argentina where President Juan Peron believed the Nazis could benefit the country’s technology and engineering. Some also found refuge in Spain, then under the leadership of the Fascist, General Franco. Others drifted to the Arab nations during the Arab-Israeli conflict. Some Allied powers such as the United States and the Soviet Union recruited prominent German scientists.
Among those who escaped were the notorious Doctor Josef Mengele who experimented on prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp. There is some controversy about how he eventually died but he seems to have lived out the rest of his life in Brazil.
Another notorious Nazi, Adolf Eichmann was seized by an Israeli Mossad team in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and smuggled to Israel. He was tried in Jerusalem for alleged crimes against the Jewish people. Found guilty he was hanged on 1 June 1962.
Sources:
Isbouts, Jean Pierre, “Secret Societies”, National Geographic, Washington, D.C.’ (9 771536 659031)
“The SS (Schutzstaffel): Organisation of Former SS Members (ODESSA)”, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/organisation-of-former-ss-mem... Downloaded 30 December 2020
CHINESE IMPERIALISM IN THE 18th CENTURY
During the 18th century one of the most aggressive empire builders was the Chinese Emperor Qianlong who after ten military campaigns, not all of them successful, managed to increase the size of his empire. A summary of these campaigns:
1747-49 First Jinchuan War Result stalemate
1755 Invasion of Zunghar (Dzungar) Empire Victory
1756-57 Conquering the Zunghars Victory
1755-59 Campaign against the Uighurs Victory
1765-69 Invasion of Burma Loss
1771-76 Second Jinchuan War Victory
1787-88 Repression of Taiwan Rebellion Victory
1788-89 Invasion of Vietnam Loss
1788 Defence of Tibet against the Gurkhas Stalemate
1791-93 Campaign against Gurkhas in Nepal Victory
The campaigns against the Zunghars (Dzungar) were brutal to the point of genocide. Somewhere between 480,000 and 800,000 died in the fighting or massacres that followed. No mercy was shown. Most males were killed while and the women enslaved. Thousands also died of smallpox. These campaigns depleted the national treasury but they allowed the Chinese Empire to double in size.
Sources:
Ralby, Dr Aaaron, “Atlas of Military History”, Parragon, Bath, 2013,
Kerrigan, Michael, “China A Dark History”, Amber Books, London, 2019
BOOK REVIEWS
“BEHIND THE HORROR: True Stories That Inspired Horror Movies” by Lee Mellor, Dorling Kindersley Limited, London, 2020 (ISBN 978-0-24140-943-5)
Many of us get a strange delight at watching spooky or outright terrifying movies. A worrying fact about many of the horror movies is that the characters and stories are at least partly based on real people or events.
An early movie about serial killers, M: A City Searches for a Murderer was made in Germany by director Fritz Lang in 1931, and was inspired by a number of killers who committed their crimes during the Weimar Republic era. Not only did the crimes involve a series of killings but a couple of the criminals also had butchering skills and the flesh of their victims was put into sausages for human consumption.
Most of the movies described in the book were made in the United States and include The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Psycho. Both of these were inspired by a killer called the “Plainfield Ghoul” whose real name was Edward Theodore Gein. Gein’s life was not a happy one, he was born with a congenital growth on his left eyelid, he was mocked at school and at home he suffered a domineering puritanical mother and drunken unemployable father. His brother died during a fire, possibly due to asphyxiation and possibly he was killed by Edward.
Gein killed and mutilated two women. More bizarrely he removed the bodies of women from their graves, using their skin to make masks and their skulls to make bowls. Gein was eventually arrested and not surprisingly he was declared insane and spent the rest of his life in a mental institution.
Nature can be cruel especially the sharks in the movie Jaws. The moviewas based on two events. Towards the end of World War II the USS Indianopolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine with many of the crew going down with the ship but many others were attacked by sharks as they struggled to survive. Years earlier, in 1916 in fact, a number of civilians were killed in a series of shark attacks off the Jersey Shore. Not only were there attacks at the beaches but along a stream known as the Matawan Creek. The shark however became entangled in a net and was killed when hit repeatedly with the boat’s oar. When the shark was cut open it still had human remains in its stomach.
Apart from vicious animals and deranged people some of the horror stories actually began with the actions of naughty children.
For instance The Exorcist that came out in 1973 was based on the antics of a 14-year-old boy known by the pseudonym “Roland Doe”. He was thought to be possessed and put through an exorcism. Years later an historian, Mark Opsasnick, researched to case and found that “Roland” was a notorious trickster. His antics that made people believe he was possessed were aimed at drawing attention to himself and manipulating his parents into relocating to another city.
Mellor deals with many other movies including more recent releases like The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019), both loosely based on actual events.
The book is easy to read and strongly recommended for those with an interest in movies, especially the horror genre.
“THE LOOTING MACHINE: Warlords, Oligarchs, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa’s Wealth” by Tom Burgis, Public Affairs, New York, 2015 (ISBN 9 781610 397117)
According to Tom Burgis, Africa accounts for 13% of the world’s population but only 2% of its cumulative gross domestic product. It is the repository of 15% of this planet’s crude oil reserves, 40% of its gold, and 80% of its platinum. The richest diamond mines in the world are in Africa, along with significant deposits of uranium, copper, iron ore and bauxite. In 2010 fuel and mineral exports from Africa were worth $333 billion, and this does not include the amounts that leave unaccounted for due to corruption.
This produces substantial profits for companies that exploit these resources but most of the companies are owned by non-Africans, either Westerners or more recently Chinese. Not that some Africans don’t benefit but the bulk of the benefits go to leaders and elites, including despots who run many of these countries. Meanwhile much of the populations of Africa remain mired in poverty. Corruption, judging by what Burgis tells us, is rampant.
When the book was written, extreme poverty was defined as living on $US 1.25 a day. In Nigeria at the time 68% of the population were living at this level, as were 43% of Angolans, despite both countries being substantial oil producers. In Zambia and Congo the figures were 75% and 88% respectively. In comparison only 33% of Indians, 12% of Chinese, 0.7% of Mexicans and 0.1% of Poles were in extreme poverty.
For every woman who dies in childbirth in France, 100 die in Niger, the country that is the source of the uranium used in Frances, nuclear power plants. Life expectancy in Finland and South Korea is about eighty years. These two nations are home to Nokia and Samsung, the world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturers, but the minerals used to make the phones come from the Democratic Republic of Congo where people are lucky to live to fifty.
Nevertheless a few Africans have become fabulously wealthy. Angola has made a fortune from oil exports and its capital, Luanda is one of the more expensive cities for expatriates. Monthly rent for a three-bedroom house is $15,000. Much construction in Angola, as in other parts of Africa, is done with Chinese finance and Chinese labour. While the government also puts its petrodollars into improving infrastructure such as roads, railways and bridges, much goes to embezzlers. Kickbacks are estimated to account for more than a quarter of final costs of government construction costs. Meanwhile the poor are kept out of sight. Burgis tells us that three out of four of Luanda’s inhabitants live in slums.
Money, poorly distributed seems to have exacerbated tribal, ethnic and religious divisions in Africa. And five years after the book was published much of the conflict continues, not that violence is anything new in Africa.
There are exceptions, such as Botswana with its small and relatively homogenous population. It had its independence and its own functioning institutions before two massive diamond mines were discovered. It also ensured that many benefits of mining stayed in the country.
Burgis is at pains to point out that exploitation is not new and explains how white colonialists like Cecil Rhodes brought violence and dispossession. He could have pointed out that white colonialists often displaced Moslems who ran an extensive slave trade.
“THE CONSEQUENCES OF EQUALITY” by Matthew S. Battaglioli, Arktos, London, 2016 (ISBN 978-1-910524-88-6)
Matthew Battaglioli writes of equality of humans, and the problems caused if we consider that all people are created equal, basically “blank slates” with no innate human nature.
It’s pretty obvious however that people are not equal in many ways. Some are taller than others, some have higher IQs and some are better looking. The various racial groups in the United States have different levels of income. Whites have higher median household incomes than blacks, but Asian Americans have higher median household incomes than whites. Battaglioli sees this as arising not from “hate” but differences in IQ. Inequality therefore arises from biological or environmental factors.
Nevertheless whilst inequality may be natural there are those who wish to remedy it and therefore turn to the government. Having the government intervene introduces a degree of authoritarianism and coercion. Banning so-called offensive speech is an example.
A consequence of equality is political democracy, something that Battaglioli is deeply sceptical about. He sees the democratic state as likely to be more engaged in warfare as say a monarchy. He also claims that a democratic state has a more than justified amount of power over its citizens. After all if you wish to sue a democratic government you must use the legal system set up by that government. And with modern technologies the state can spy on its citizens to an extent the monarchies of old could not imagine.
Meanwhile wealth increases but this also happened before most countries became democratic. The wealth of individuals and nations has been increasing for centuries. Then there are the welfare systems of the modern states that become increasingly inefficient and expensive, hence reducing possible wealth.
Battaglioli seeks an anti-egalitarian sort of revolution although he also sees serious obstacles to achieving this. He also supports succession.
He believes the infatuation with equality can only lead to more war, political corruption, degeneracy, cultural decay, and eventually all out decivilisation.
“THE ROAD: Uprising in West Papua” by John Martinkus, Black Inc., Carlton, VIC., 2020 (ISBN 9781760642426)
When the Dutch left the East Indies, and the independent state of Indonesia was formed, they still held control over West Papua. In the early 1960s the Indonesians tried to take West Papua by force, landing about 1,200 paratroopers. The Indonesians were no match for the Dutch marines they encountered and the native Papuans were happy to help the Dutch. As early as 1 December 1961 the Papuans had raised their Morning star flag showing a desire for independence, something the Dutch had helped to foster even to the point setting up a local police force, an auxiliary military and a civil service.
Nevertheless neither the United Nations nor important powers like the United States, then keen to keep Indonesia from siding with the Soviet Union, would allow independence for the West Papuans. On 1 May 1963 Indonesia officially took over. Were the Papuans consulted about this? No: Although in 1969 there was an UN-sponsored “Act of Free Choice” whereby a tiny selection of Papuans, 1,026 in fact, were allowed to vote on integration with Indonesia. Even this miniscule number were probably acting under threat.
Many Papuans were not happy with being taken over by Indonesia and showed their opposition through petitions, peaceful protests and sometimes violence. Those who spoke out were often arrested. The volunteer auxiliaries clashed with Indonesian troops and in one instance they stormed an Indonesian armoury and grabbed over 1,000 weapons.
Indonesian suppression of the Papuans really got underway in the 1970s, using weapons they had obtained from the US. Native villages were burnt down, women raped, people killed and survivors forced to leave their lands. Anything of value was stolen. Tens and possibly hundreds of thousands died and many trekked as refugees to Papua New Guinea.
Most of the atrocities were not reported in the media and foreigners who entered were heavily monitored and even threatened with death. Nevertheless a few stories of random killings, arrests and torture did leak out. In one case a Papuan man was bound and then sliced with a large military knife while troops stood around and laughed.
While not wanted by the natives in West Papua the Indonesians have a lot at stake in the territory which has extensive mineral resources including copper and gold ore. The Grasberg mine, developed by the American company Freeport-McMoRan has made billions of dollars in profits. Millions are given to the military. A majority of the ownership of the mine is now with the Indonesians. Little if any seems to be going to the natives.
The violence in West Papua is getting worse according to Martinkus, and is largely ignored by the outside world. This shows the hypocrisy of the UN which campaigned against colonialism when the colonialists were white but shows total indifference when the colonialists are non-white.
NOTABLE QUOTE
“Perhaps the evolution of the human family starts in what some scientists have dubbed Savannnahstan, the early grassland ecosystem around the Old World Desert Belt at the cross roads of continents, and not necessarily and exclusively in Africa after all.”
Madelaine Bohme, “Ancient Bones”, 2020
NATIONAL NEWS SUMMARY
JOSH FRYDENBURG, Australia’s federal treasurer expressed concern about the presence of a “far-right” group calling itself the Proud Boys that marched in Melbourne on Australia Day. One of the marchers was detained by police after he clashed with an “Invasion Day” march. The Proud Boys group originates in the United States. Frydenburg claims there is a rise in far-right conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism. Australia’s domestic spy agency claimed last September that there had been a dramatic rise in the number of violent right-wing extremists under surveillance. An amount of $750,000 has been announced to fund a Holocaust museum in Canberra. The Victorian government has Holocaust education being taught in schools across the state (www.abc.net.au/news 27/01/21).
A NUMBER of white Australian teenagers were enjoying an Australia day gathering at Perth’s City Beach when a gang attacked them, kicking and punching until some needed hospitalisation. A girl was bashed and a couple of “kids” had their heads stomped on. The attackers included Africans and are believed to be from the “BTK” (born to kill) gang. Six of them have been arrested (H. McNeill & M. Juanola, www.theage.com.au 28/01/21; www.msn.com 29/01/21).
INVESTMENTS by foreigners in Australia, where there are any national security implications, will now have to be approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) under new legislation by the federal government. The legislation that came into force at the start of 2021 is aimed at investment in critical infrastructure like electricity, ports, water and telecommunications, but could expand to industries like banking, food and groceries data centres and other businesses that stored critical data. The number of FIRB applications was over 40,000 in 2016 but fell below 10,000 in 2019. The United Kingdom has passed a similar law (Glenda Korporaal, The Australian, 6/01/21).
TWO MEMBERS of St George Rugby League team, James Segeyaro and Corey Norman were involved in a fight at Cronulla, alleged to be sparked by “racism”. The two claimed they were walking home after dinner with two females, when approached by four men who used the N-word. They say they were also threatened with a knife (Daily Telegraph, 26/01/21). Segeyaro is of Papua-New Guinean origin and Norman has Aboriginal and Maori ancestry according to internet sources.
HIEU DUC LAM, 36, has pleaded guilty to scamming The Star Casino a number of times and taking from $10,000 to $44,000 on 15 occasions (DT, 21/01/21).
CHRISTMAS ISLAND was the scene of a disturbance when detainees at the island’s detention centre demanded better medical care and internet access. The perimeter fence was broken and fires set. Most of the detainees are to be deported and have had their visas cancelled after committing crimes in Australia (Nick Bonyhady, Sydney Morning Herald, 11/01/21).
HOME PRICES in Australia’s big cities have tended to rise despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Sydney’s home prices rose 2.7% over the year, while in Perth the rise was 1.9%, in Canberra 7.5% and Darwin 9.0%. In Melbourne however prices fell 1.3%. Housing loans were up 23% over the year and were boosted by government incentives (CoreLogic, DT, 8/01/21).
BEN WOOLLEY, a former soldier, attempted to intervene in support of a white woman being attacked by Africans in Melbourne. The woman escaped but the Africans turned on Woolley and he now has cracked ribs, dislodged teeth, a broken nose and impaired vision. Ajah Atem, 18, has been charged over the attack ( www.9news.com.au 5/01/21).
TWO GIRLS, aged 15, were subject to a gang rape by 10 men in suburban Brisbane. Shortly afterwards four men aged 19, 20, 21 and 22, were charged with 40 offences, including rape and indecent treatment of a child under 16. One of the offenders has been described as a refugee (Patrick Billings, “Two 15-year-old Girls Allegedly Gang Raped by 10 Men in Park”, Sunday Telegraph, 31/01/21).
ABORIGINAL ACTIVIST, Stephen Hagan, has filed a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission over words used with the board game Scrabble. He is seeking $150,000 compensation over what he calls racial slurs as the game allows words like “abo”, “coon” and “boong” to be played (“War on Scrabble Slurs”, DT, 7/01/21).
CHILD ABUSE material seized in an Australian-led investigation into a global online paedophile ring has led to the arrest of Ohrin Banas, 26, from the Sydney suburb of Lane Cove (Michael McKenna, “17th Australian Arrest in Global Child Abuse Probe”, DT, 15/01/21).
THE TAX cuts announced in the federal government’s budget last October are favouring high income earners and will do little for the rest according to international research. The cuts could add to inequality while doing little to raise productivity or economic growth (Shane Wright, SMH, 21/12/20).
FREDERICK TOBEN, director and founder of the Adelaide Institute died on 29 June 2020. He was born in Germany in June 1944. The Adelaide Institute was a revisionist organisation that questioned the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews are said to have been murdered by Hitler’s Nazi regime. Toben spent a number of spells in prison for his controversial views.
RAGHE ABDI, a young radicalised ISIS supporter is alleged to have murdered two people, a man aged 87 and a woman 86, in their home in South Brisbane. He was confronted by police on the Logan Motorway but was shot when he lunged at the police with a knife yelling “Allahu Akbar”. He died shortly after. Abdi had previously spent time in jail with attempting to pervert the course of justice. He was out on bail following his arrest by counter terrorism police at Brisbane airport where he had a one-way ticket to Somalia and was believed to be going to fight for ISIS (“Shot Jihadist in Murder Probe”, DT 18/12/20).
A FEMALE officer was assaulted when police were called to a complaint at a unit in the inner-Sydney suburb of Surry Hills. The officer was pulled into the unit but released after the occupants were capsicum sprayed. A small number of people of African appearance were charged (ST, 15/11/20).
PARDEEP LOHAN, of Lidcombe, Sydney, has pleaded guilty to “exit trafficking” of a woman and her child and could get 12 years in jail. Lohan used threats, coercion and deception to force the woman to travel to India with her child and gave false information to the Immigration Department in a bid to get her visa revoked. A few months earlier a man in Darwin was charged with exit trafficking his wife to India and stealing $60,000 from her and her relatives (Natalie O’Brien, DT, 26/11/20).
AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL students are well behind students in Asian countries in international mathematics tests (Natasha Bita, “Asians Have Our Number”, DT, 9/12/20).
INTERNATIONAL NEWS SUMMARY
MALAWI is facing a rising number of rapes with the recorded number being double that of 2018. There’s been a substantial rise in the number of minors who are victims of rape. In one incident last November a 31-year-old man was arrested for raping a five-month-old baby. A man in Blantyre allegedly raped a two-year-old, killed her and dumped her body in a black plastic bag. Superstition plays a part and some men believe that sleeping with a minor helps cure disease, or helps them get rich (Larneck Marsina, www.voanews.com/Africa/superstition-blamed-rise-malawo-ra... 15/12/20).
MAURICE TAYLOR Sr. a black American personal trainer has been charged with killing two of his children, aged 12 and 13, by beheading in their California home. It’s alleged he also showed the bodies to his two younger children. He claims other inmate are trying to kill him but claims he is not guilty (Lauren Fruen, www.dailymail.co.uk 22/12/20).
INDIAN AND Pakistani forces waged their biggest artillery battle for over a year leaving 13 dead and dozens wounded on the disputed Kashmir border. Hundreds of civilians have fled and both sides blame the other for the violence (“Fighting in Kashmir”, Sunday Telegraph, 15/11/20).
SOUTH KOREA’S population has fallen for the first time due to the country having the lowest birth rates in the world, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Korea has 51.83 people, and deaths have risen to 308,000 a year compared to only 276,000 births (“Population Falls as Birth Rate Shrinks”, The Australian, 6/01/21).
CONFLICT IN Ethiopia over a breakaway province, Tigray, has caused thousands to flee to neighbouring Sudan. Hundreds and possibly thousands have been killed in the northern Tigray. There have been allegations of atrocities including children having their heads cut off and babies being cut out of pregnant women (Will Brown, “Genocide Fear As Refugees Flee Brutal War”, Sydney Morning Herald, 23/11/20). The neighbouring country of Eritrea, has accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front of firing rockets at its capital, Asmara. Rockets have also been fired at airports in the Amhara region of Ethiopia (Cara Anna, “Rockets Cross Border in Ethiopian Conflict”, SMH, 16/11/20).
SINGAPOREAN AUTHORITIES detained a 16-year-old boy who plotted to attack Muslims with a machete on the second anniversary of the 2019 Christchurch mosque killings. The boy was a Protestant Christian and ethnic Indian planned to livestream the attack. He described Brenton Tarrant as a saint (Amanda Hodge, TA, 29/01/21).
A WOMAN in Italy disappeared during a dispute with a neighbour who had ties to the mafia. An informer has now claimed that a figure in the region’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia murdered the woman, Maria Chindamo, 42, and fed her to the pigs (“Mafia Fed Woman to the Pigs”, DT, 8/01/1).
A FEMALE baker in Egypt was arrested after she baked cupcakes that resembled naked buttocks, breasts, penises and vaginas. The cakes were served at an elite club in Cairo favoured by the middle classes. The woman claimed that she had been given photos of genitals and asked to use those shapes. The baker could be sent to prison (“Penis Baker Faces Schlong Jail Term”, DT, 21/01/21).
LISA MONTGOMERY, a white American woman was recently put to death by lethal injection, the first woman to be executed in the United States in nearly seven decades. The woman was among 11 so far put to death after the Trump administration resumed federal executions after a 17-year hiatus. Montgomery was convicted of murdering an expectant mother to steal her baby (“Execution of First US Woman in 67 Years”, DT, 14/01/21).
THIRTEEN MEN and a woman were sentenced to prison by a court in Paris for aiding the Islamic terrorists who carried out the massacres at Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in 2015. 12 of the men were given sentences ranging from four years to life and the woman was given 30 years for financing terrorism (“France Jails 14 For Terror Atrocities”, DT, 18/12/20).
A TWIN SUICIDE attack on an open-air market in Baghdad left at least 28 dead and 73 wounded. Suicide attacks had become less common in Iraq with the last one being in June 2019 (TA 22/01/21).
SRI LANKA, which suffered a long civil war against Tamil separatists that ended in 2009 has been accused of reneging on promises of justice for the thousands of civilians killed in the final stages of the 37-year war. A report is to be made to the UN Human Rights Council on 24 February (C. Vogt & A. Jayasinghe, TA, 29/01/21).
IRAN HAS declared a “day of martyrdom” and vowed to avenge the killing of one of its senior commanders by a US drone. Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was killed on 3 January 2020. There are militia groups in Iraq who are loyal to Iran and they are believed to have made rocket attacks on Baghdad’s “Green Zone” in December (ST, 3/01/21).
THE US ARMY has sacked 14 commanders over a number of murders and sex crimes that occurred at The Fort Hood military base in Texas. There were five suspected murders during 2020 and the disappearances and deaths of two soldiers who reported sexual harassment. The action followed outrage after Fort Hood Specialist Vanessa Guillen, 20, went missing in April. Her dismembered body was found on 30 June. A suspect in the case, Aaron Robinson shot himself (“Top Brass Sacked after Five Murders at US Base”, AFP/ TA, 10/12/20).
AN ISLAMIST insurgency by a group known as Al-Shabab has taken over the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique. The insurgency started in 2017, over 2300 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee the region. The United Nations have appealed for $254 million to help those affected (ST, 20/12/20).
ARIEL ROBINSON and her husband, Jerry Robinson, two black Americans known as the “Worst Cooks in America” have been charged with homicide by child abuse. They had adopted a three-year-old white girl and beat her so badly she died (Megan Palin, www.the-sun.com/news/2177748/worst-cooks-in-america-wi... 20/01/21).
T’KIA BEVILY, a black American woman has been found guilty of capital murder in the death of her 14-month-old stepdaughter. The toddler received multiple blunt-force injuries to her head. Morris Bevily, the child’s father has also been charged (www.clarionledger.com 30/01/21).
WANG TING-YU, co-chair of Taiwan’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, says Australia should send a clear signal to China that threats to Taiwan will not be tolerated. (SMH).
ABORIGINAL PROBLEMS
Living conditions, education, employment and life expectancy in Aboriginal communities in regional and remote Australia are akin to those of developing nations, according to a report by the Centre for Independent Studies.
The Productivity Commission estimates that state and territory governments spent about $33.4 billion on Aboriginals in 2015-16. A problem with spending, according to Jacinta Price, deputy mayor of Alice Springs, is that funding is spent as if all Aboriginals experience the same adversities. The “Closing the Gap” strategy has done very little to address disadvantage in remote areas and life expectancy has not improved. School attendance is said to have declined across all states and territories.
The report reveals that in remote areas Aboriginal school attendance rates are less than two-thirds, which is below Zambia (69%) and Iraq (76%). Aboriginal men in these areas have a life expectancy 14.3 years less than non-Aboriginal males, which places them on par with third world nations like Yemen, Eritrea and Gambia. Aboriginal women in remote areas live 13.8 years less than non-Aboriginals.
In NSW average domestic violence rates in areas with an Indigenous population greater than 50% is nearly ten times higher than the state average. Ms Price said there should be more focus given to regional areas where English is not a first language. She sees changes to the national anthem or the date of Australia day as “tokenistic”. (1)
A study has found that smoking among Aboriginals kills one in two older adults. The report from the Australian National University found smoking caused 37% of deaths at any age in Indigenous adults, but this increased to about half of deaths for those aged over 45.
In historical times, and even up to the 1970s, some Aboriginal workers were paid in tobacco and this is used as an excuse for high levels of smoking among today’s Aboriginals.
Fortunately while about 40% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders smoke, as compared to 14% of the general population, the rate has tended to decrease by 11% over the last 10 to 15 years. (2)
Domestic violence rose substantially in the Northern Territory during the Covid-19 pandemic with assaults up 30 to 50% in the second half of 2020. This seems to be linked to higher welfare payments and looser mutual-obligation requirements which stoked problem drinking. A 46-year-old anti-domestic violence campaigner and member of the Tangentyere Women’s Family Safety Group was killed by a man who ran over her in a hospital car park. The man has been charged with murder. In the period from June to November 2020 there were more assaults recorded than in any equivalent month since 2014. (3)
Aboriginals are still overrepresented at every stage of our criminal justice system and are said to be the most incarcerated people in the world. Most states and territories have above world average incarceration rates and this is costly to the taxpayer. In 2017-18 the total net operating costs of prisons was $3.4 billion or $4 billion if community corrections are included. Recently however crime rates have been falling slightly. (4)
It appears the taxpayer is not getting much bang for the buck when it comes to Aboriginal affairs. As for our jail system, it may need some changes as does our justice system, but history indicates simply going soft on crime or making excuses for criminality can make things worse.
(1) Amelie McGuire, “Remote Communities in Third-World State”, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 January 2021,
(2) Rachel Clun, “Smoking Kills Half of Indigenous People Over 45, Study Reveals”, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 January 2021
(3) Amos Aikman, “Violence ‘Fuelled by Pandemic Welfare’”, The Australian, 29 January 2021
(4) Travers McLeod, “Prison Stems From Disadvantage and Entrenches It”, The Australian, 10 December 2020
NOTABLE QUOTE
“A society that is no longer capable of distinguishing between itself and the forces that dissolve it, is gambling away its future.”
Volkmar Weiss, “IQ Means Inequality”, 2020
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