Oceanía (Continuación)

Condolence messages are written on the pavement in 2014 after a hostage situation in Sydney, Australia, turned deadly. Credit Joosep Martinson/Getty Images

MundoOceaníaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional,

A routine Australian Senate committee hearing last month on security was never going to be normal in the aftermath of the Manchester terrorist attacks. Still, it is no small thing that the hearing led to a former prime minister lecturing the country’s most senior intelligence official on the causes of terrorism.

At least since former Prime Minister John Howard suggested in 2001 that asylum seekers coming to Australia might include terrorists, the two Australian anxieties of refugees and terrorism have been on a collision course. As the terror risk here has grown, and with the politics of refugees becoming more divisive, that course has accelerated in recent years.…  Seguir leyendo »

Australia’s Leftward Turn

MundoOceanía,

The political fault lines are familiar to any democracy. At election time, the people divide according to location. Those living in coastal cities tend to vote center-left; those in the hinterland are likely to vote conservative. The pattern repeats by age, education and ethnicity. The university graduate and the migrant lean center-left; the retiree and the local-born lean conservative.

The twist in Australia is that these social and economic forces are shaking out in favor of the Labor Party, not the conservative Liberal Party. Australia is decidedly more urbanized and more cosmopolitan than the United States, Britain or continental Europe. This essential difference in cultural makeup has allowed Australia to resist the wealthy world’s lurch to the populist right.…  Seguir leyendo »

A rally demanding justice for refugees in Melbourne, Australia, last month. Credit Rex Features, via Associated Press Images

MundoOceanía,

Like many Western countries, Australia has agreed to resettle refugees from the wars in Syria and Iraq. Unlike other countries, Australia explicitly favors Christians, even though they are a minority of those seeking refuge.

The Australian experience is a case study for Europeans grappling with an influx of refugees and for Americans considering the long-term implications of the Trump presidency: When Muslims are demonized, state-directed prejudice is more likely.

Data I obtained through Australia’s freedom of information law shows that 78 percent of the approximately 18,563 refugees from Syria and Iraq granted entry from July 1, 2015, to Jan. 6 of this year identified themselves as Christian.…  Seguir leyendo »

How to Stop a Lone-Wolf Terrorist

MundoOceaníaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional,

Tuesday is the sixth anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden. When you recall the extent to which Bin Laden dominated the public consciousness in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks, it’s remarkable that both his life and death now seem a footnote. Even Al Qaeda barely figures in our thoughts these days.

Yet terrorist attacks have increased significantly since 2001. Attacks in the Western world now arrive with such a numbing frequency that terrorism has long ceased to be something that happens “over there.”

President George W. Bush’s dictum that America had to invade Iraq so that we’d be fighting terrorists in Baghdad rather than Boston looks quaint.…  Seguir leyendo »

Sydney, Australia, earlier this month. Australians are racking up extreme levels of debt to buy homes. Credit Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

MundoOceanía,

Let me tell you a fairy tale called Australia. Despite what you may have heard about snakes and spiders and sharks, the remarkable thing about Australia is not its danger but its safety. At its best, this is a peaceful nation, with health care and education for almost everyone, that has enjoyed over the past two decades the longest period of economic expansion of any developed country in modern history. Our cities are regularly judged to be among the most livable in the world.

But we are in danger of stuffing it up, which is an Australian way of saying we may be ruining it all.…  Seguir leyendo »

Salvar a las madres de Asia

MundoAsiaMundoOceaníaInternacionalSalud Pública

Hoy que se habla tanto de un inminente “siglo asiático”, parecería que la región ya hubiera trascendido los problemas sanitarios típicos de los países pobres, por ejemplo altas tasas de mortalidad materna. Pero la realidad es muy diferente.

Se calcula que en 2015, en toda la región de Asia y el Pacífico murieron alrededor de 85 000 mujeres por complicaciones relacionadas con el embarazo y el parto (el 28% del total mundial). Hasta un 90% de esas muertes, que se concentraron en sólo doce países, podría haberse evitado con atención prenatal, obstétrica y perinatal de calidad.

Pero la falta de esa atención lleva a que la media de la tasa de mortalidad materna (TMM) en la región de Asia y el Pacífico sea extremadamente alta: 127 muertes cada 100 000 nacidos vivos, contra el promedio de 12 cada 100 000 de los países desarrollados.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesNaturalezaMundoOceanía

En 1972, le professeur de droit américain, Christopher D. Stone, rêvait d’attribuer «des droits juridiques aux forêts, rivières et autres objets dits "naturels" de l’environnement» dans son provocateur Should Trees Have Standing ? («les arbres devraient-ils se pourvoir en justice ?»). Quarante-cinq ans plus tard, la Nouvelle-Zélande a exaucé son vœu. Le fleuve Whanganui, le troisième plus long cours d’eau du pays, a été reconnu le 15 mars par le Parlement comme une entité vivante et s’est vu doter d’une «personnalité juridique».

«La décision du Parlement néo-zélandais n’est que la traduction législative d’un accord politique trouvé en 2012, sur un différend judiciaire de près de soixante-dix ans», décrit Victor David, juriste à l’Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) de Nouméa, en Nouvelle-Calédonie et chercheur en droit à l’environnement.…  Seguir leyendo »

The former workers’ camp for the construction of the LNG project in Komo has been looted and stripped bare. Michael Main, Author provided

MundoOceanía, ,

The Papua New Guinea liquefied natural gas (LNG) project is the largest resource extraction project in the Asia-Pacific region. Constructed at a stated cost of US$19 billion, it’s operated by ExxonMobil in joint venture with Oil Search and four other partners.

The project extracts natural gas from the Papua New Guinea highlands where it is processed before being sent via some 700km of pipeline to a plant near the nation’s capital, Port Moresby. The gas is then liquefied and transferred into ships for sale offshore.

Construction for the project began in 2010, and the first gas shipment was made in May 2014.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘Despite a much-needed upgrade to the Nauruan hospital facilities ... medical consensus remains that the island is unable to accommodate complicated deliveries.’

MundoOceanía, ,

While much focus this week has been on whether President Trump will honour the covert deal made by prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Obama administration to accept some of the refugees held in Australia’s offshore detention camps, a medical crisis has been rapidly worsening on Nauru for a young woman suffering from life-threatening health complications.

More than 36 weeks pregnant with symptoms of pre-eclampsia and a history of miscarriage, her baby is currently breech. Based on medical opinion, these symptoms present a challenging and risky birth for a well-equipped Australian hospital staffed with highly qualified medical experts. Doctors raised the alarm weeks ago.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOceanía

Donald Trump’s “America first” inaugural speech found strange echoes in Australia this week.

After the newly sworn-in president had pissed on his government’s chips by killing off the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Scott Morrison promised to pursue an “Australia first” economic policy.

It was difficult to tell how his prescriptions differed from the longstanding orthodoxies held by both major parties in recent decades – the treasurer mentioned more trade deals, more access to Asian markets, and even floated a TPP without the US.

The listener was left to conclude that the phrase “Australia first” was not about any substantive change in policy. Dominic Kelly, who is working on a PhD on the Australian right’s intellectual infrastructure of thinktanks and advocacy groups, succinctly offers one interpretation of this: “Given that Morrison is a total believer in free markets, it’s opportunism.”…  Seguir leyendo »

White Australians Celebrate, Aboriginal People Mourn

MundoOceanía

Every year on Jan. 26, at the height of summer, Australians pull out their flags and barbecues, and raise a glass for Australia Day. But as the nationalism rises with the temperature, so does the anger and alienation felt by Aboriginal people, and increasingly, many other Australians.

The date commemorates the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove in 1788. Around 1,400 people arrived, half of them convicts, transported from England to establish a penal colony. In the aftermath of the American War of Independence, the British needed a new place to send criminals. The colonizers and their courts considered Australia “terra nullius” or “land belonging to nobody,” a legal fiction used to justify the theft of Aboriginal land over the next two centuries.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘The US marine base in Darwin ... and the implications it holds for Australian freedom of action should the US decide to militarily intervene in the South China Sea are troubling.’ Photograph: Patrina Malone/PR IMAGE

MundoAméricaMundoOceanía, , ,

Rex Tillerson’s cosy relationship with the Russian government was set to be the big controversy of his confirmation hearings to become the next US secretary of state. But it was the subject of Chinese construction in the South China Sea, and his statement that Chinese access to their facilities on the islands is “not going to be allowed”, that held the biggest implications for American foreign policy and security in Asia Pacific.

The suggestion of a more aggressive, interventionist, American regional involvement highlights the pressing task of developing a more independent foreign policy for Australia. A foreign policy which works closely with the US when it is undergirding regional peace and stability, but is willing and equipped to break from it when it is not.…  Seguir leyendo »

Indonesian military Chief Gatot Nurmantyo talks to reporters in the Indonesian capitals Jakarta on January 5. Beawiharta/Reuters

MundoAsiaMundoOceanía,

The Indonesian government has confirmed that it will not suspend military cooperation with Australia after a top general said earlier in the week that ties between the two nations would be cut. The incident is just the latest episode in a rocky relationship between the neighbours.

On January 4, Indonesian Military Chief Gatot Nurmantyo declared the suspension of Indonesia-Australia military cooperation, apparently because an Indonesian special forces commander trainer found materials at an Australian teaching facility that were insulting to both the Indonesian military and the state’s ideology of Pancasila.

Pancasila, from the Sanskrit word for for “five”, panca, and the Javanese for “principles”, sila, is the name given to the official founding principles of the Indonesian state.…  Seguir leyendo »

Faysal Ishak Ahmed

MundoOceanía,

“They’re trying to kill me, if they kill me take care of my son.”

These were the last words of Faysal Ishak Ahmad before his death on Christmas Eve. The Sudanese refugee uttered these words during his last visit to his friend Walid Sandal. This is not a scene from a tragic film or novel. This is the reality of the prison on Manus Island, hundreds of kilometres from Australia and in the middle of a silent ocean.

Faysal was born in Darfur, Sudan – a region associated with war, genocide and displacement. A symbol of affliction in western media. In other words, Faysal was born into war.…  Seguir leyendo »

One way to anticipate the future is to look to the past. Bernard Spragg/Flickr

MundoOceanía

When the industrial revolution hit in the 1800s, countries with large disparities in wealth, low property ownership, deficient democracies and disparate education systems were left behind.

There’s a new industrial revolution just around the corner, driven by artificial intelligence and robotics. Deterioration within the key institutions of suffrage, education, and land policy indicate that Australia may be one of the countries left behind this time.

The first millennium

One way to anticipate the future is to look to the past.

British economist Angus Maddison has estimated that in the year 0, the population of Western Europe was 24.7 million. 1,000 years later it was 25.4 million – an increase of just 700,000.…  Seguir leyendo »

Australian players celebrated their defeat over Pakistan this month in Brisbane. Dan Peled/European Pressphoto Agency

MundoOceanía,

When young men loiter on street corners or in shopping malls throwing out insults or physically intimidating passers-by, we condemn their behavior as antisocial. When Australia’s top athletes do the same, we celebrate their “wit” and “spirit”.

Sporting prowess is the highest form of status for young men and boys in Australia, as it is in many other places. And in Australian sport there is no pinnacle higher than the national cricket team, which has won four of the last five world cups.

For a cricketing superpower, Australians have a poor on-field reputation. Mutually respectful competition has been replaced by ugly belligerence.…  Seguir leyendo »

Melbourne, Australia, 2012. Scott Barbour/Getty Images

MundoOceanía, ,

Our Christmas smells like pine needles and chlorine. My children help decorate the traditional tree at their grandparents’ house, then run outside to leap into the swimming pool. They sun themselves in the humid air of an Australian summer.

Back at our place they have been building a gingerbread cottage and adorning it with snowdrifts of icing while batting away flies. On Dec. 25, we will be baking a whole ham studded with cloves and roasting a turkey, but unlike most roasts served on the other side of the Equator, ours will be served with cubes of fresh mango, stirred through with lime.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsiaMundoOceanía, ,

It's so typical of the West to sneer at the actions of what they see as "small brown folk on the other side of the world."

The latest example of this racist and colonial mentality is the outrage and virtue-signaling criticism of the Philippines' hardline approach to drug crime under President Rodrigo Duterte.

Yet the Philippines has a problem. The scourge of drugs -- particularly crystal methamphetamine, known in the country as shabu -- has taken its toll on families and relationships and on communities and barangays (small neighborhood-based local governments) right around the nation.

It's a problem that has led to theft, violence and death over many years.…  Seguir leyendo »

The author’s photograph of a demonstration by Cypriot refugees in Melbourne, Australia in 1995. Ashley Gilbertson/VII

MundoOceanía,

I was 17 when I first came face to face with refugees. It was 1995 in Melbourne, Australia, and it was a Saturday. As usual I was out taking pictures of my friends skateboarding. We rolled up to a spot near the state Parliament. Across the street a protest was taking place — Cypriot women calling for the government to help them find their sons who had disappeared during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. I left my friends and took a photograph of the protesters.

A few days later, in the darkroom, I pulled the film out of the wash and saw the image.…  Seguir leyendo »

Demonstrators in Melbourne, Australia, protesting last month against the United States president-elect, Donald J. Trump. Julian Smith/European Pressphoto Agency

MundoOceanía,

I grew up in Footscray, a West Melbourne neighborhood then brimming with factories and optimism. Refugees had always moved to Footscray to start anew: Eastern Europeans in the 1950s and ’60s, Southeast Asians in the ’70s and ’80s, Africans in the ’90s and the new century. A foreman gave my dad a trial at a car-trailer factory, thinking this 100-pound man would not be able to lift heavy metal parts. He didn’t know that my father’s previous job as a slave laborer was to bury dead bodies. He got the job.

But when businesses began to move production overseas in the early 1990s for cheaper labor costs, many proud working-class Anglo-Australians — including the kind of foreman who hired my father — were laid off.…  Seguir leyendo »