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Keywords: Authoritarian

  • AUSTRALIA

    Mobile phone bill threatens dignity and decency

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 24 September 2020
    21 Comments

    The objections to the legislation focus correctly on the infringement of human rights. That phrase, however, is bloodless. It might suggest that rights form a list to be ticked off. Human rights are better conceived as a way of speaking about the conditions necessary for people to live decent human lives. The proper place from which to reflect on them is the actual lives of the people who are affected.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Human rights and pandemic lockdowns

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 08 September 2020
    11 Comments

    The Buhler arrest stirred a range of responses from across the political divide, many troubled. Legal representatives and human rights advocates were similarly disturbed by what they regarded as a lack of proportion and restraint in police action.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    UAE-Israel peace deal and the court of public opinion

    • Daniel Sleiman
    • 25 August 2020
    5 Comments

    It is an open secret in the Middle East that many Arab governments have normal diplomatic and security relations with Israel. The taboo is in its public acknowledgment.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Respecting Arts and Humanities in universities

    • John Warhurst
    • 16 July 2020
    11 Comments

    Government attitudes towards universities, the humanities and the arts, are often a strange mixture of ignorance, blindness and misplaced priorities. It is almost as if their graduates fail to match the image of what the government would prefer Australians to be.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Trauma and displacement are no time for profit

    • Salina Cheung
    • 13 July 2020
    4 Comments

    There is a trend of liberals calling for the West to open its borders to fleeing Hongkongers for economic benefit. It is commendable that these individuals want the West to offer Hongkongers refuge. But to frame this philanthropy in such mercenary terms makes this goodwill suspect: these voices want to capitalise on a traumatic moment of displacement.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Caesar Act ushers in a new phase of suffering for Syrians

    • Daniel Sleiman
    • 25 June 2020
    4 Comments

    America has lost the proxy war in Syria and is now looking at punishing ordinary Syrians for the actions of the Syrian government. The so called ‘Caesar Act’, officially known as the Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act, aims to cut off multilateral or direct commerce with Syria’s ruling Baath party, effectively inducing record inflation, poverty and market exclusion.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Beyond binaries in COVID-19 discussions

    • Justin Glyn
    • 20 April 2020
    7 Comments

    The question remains, however, is there a straight binary trade-off between granting the state power (to organise lock-downs, track its populace and coerce the people) and keeping its people safe?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Protecting civil liberties in a time of COVID-19

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 10 March 2020
    6 Comments

    Authorities can also be fearful, paranoid at the unruly nature of their subjects. Public health emergencies have been declared in various countries and while these are deemed necessary, they come with the exercise of broad, muscular powers.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    I'm not anti-China but pro democracy

    • Yen-Rong Wong
    • 27 November 2019
    6 Comments

    I have the luxury of laughing off jokes that make light of the power dynamic between mainland China and Taiwan and Hong Kong, but for many of my friends, it's not such a light matter. I struggle to put myself in their shoes, and I feel a sense of hopelessness that I'm not able to do more.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Hope and trepidation amid Lebanon unrest

    • Daniel Sleiman
    • 07 November 2019
    3 Comments

    Like many Lebanese Australians I've been watching the mass protests in Lebanon with hope and trepidation. Hope that government reforms, or a change of government, will bring about meaningful transformation in economic management, transparency and public services. Fearful because of the possibility of civil war.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Environmental boycotts and the free market

    • Kate Galloway
    • 04 November 2019
    5 Comments

    It is up to business to determine what the market wants. And business is being given a very clear message of market sentiment, through people protesting. For government to attempt to regulate this is a burden on freedom of speech and a significant imposition on the market mechanism, the very thing Morrison says he is trying to protect.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Timor-Leste's bloody sunrise

    • Mark Raper
    • 23 August 2019
    4 Comments

    One man rushed at Dewanto and cut him with a machete. The sister claims that the slaughter then began. Blood flowed out under the doors of the church like a river. Was this what she saw then or what she could not stop seeing in her nightmares? Or both? Over 100 died in Suai that day.

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