Be Human

About 12 months ago, we were asking if the world could ever return to ‘normal’ post the pandemic. Some were looking for equitable economic reform, others were looking for significant environmental reforms and others were looking for improvement in an area close to their personal experience or belief systems. Most of us were hoping for a ‘new normal’ where the world would somehow address the issues that each of us are passionate about.

Unfortunately there seems to be a large group of people that are happy with the status quo and can’t wait to get back there. You could argue that Prime Minister Morrison is amongst this group, with his ‘gas lead’ recovery, social security payments returning to almost pre-pandemic levels, a lack of reform to industrial relations, continual victimisation of some refugees and ongoing corruption (which is really what ‘pork-barrelling’ is). Despite this, and much to Morrison’s consternation and dismay — probably because he isn’t controlling the narrative — there are signs of a ‘new normal’ in an area that no one saw coming.

At the end of January Morrison presented the Australian of the Year award to Grace Tame who was a leading campaigner for the repeal of Tasmania’s law prohibiting sexual assault victims from openly speaking about the violence inflicted on them. In February, Morrison’s tone-deaf comment that he had to be told by ‘Jen’ (his wife) that there was a good reason for the moral outrage over the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins in the Defence Minister’s Private Office, demonstrated how little attention he paid when announcing the Australian of the Year. You have to wonder if he read the brief (after all, he admits he didn’t read the claims against former Attorney-General Christian Porter before he sent it to the Police).

While Morrison’s comment will never rank up there with former Prime Minister Gillard’s ‘misogyny speech‘ it has reopened the discussion about sexual violence in Australia, despite Morrison ‘spinning’ his hardest to make the issue retreat in importance. As The Guardian article linked in this paragraph shows, the political reporters at the time of Gillard’s speech, some who still hold jobs in the press gallery today, completely ‘misread the room’ then as well.

By March, the media were discussing an increase in women discussing sexual assaults that were perpetrated on them, in some cases decades earlier. Higgins found the courage to share her story again and again of being raped by a senior male staffer in the Defence Minister’s personal office, together with the events afterwards that suggested to Higgins that the whole thing was going to be covered up. We also saw thousands of people parade down streets across the nation to draw people’s attention to the sexual abuse and violence perpetuated predominately on women.

Grace Tame has been using her fame wisely to discuss her story, with appearances at the National Press Club and television including ABCTV’s QandA and Network 10’s The Project. Brittany Higgins is continuing to tell her story, despite the probable personal cost of never working for a Coalition Minister again. When a former student of a private school in Sydney, Chanel Contos, asked on social media for stories from victims of abuse and violence perpetrated by school students, she was inundated. One of the private boys’ schools named in the testimonies of current and ex-school students was Brisbane Boys College. Their School Captain spoke on assembly on 18 March and probably scored his first by-line in The Guardian with an article entitledStop being boys, be human
Boys, this speech today is different, and it is the hardest one I have ever had to write. Not because it is difficult, but because it is heartbreaking.

Too many of my friends, our friends, too many of my loved ones, your loved ones, and too many women around Australia are victims of sexual assault.

The narrative needs to change. Boys, it feels like no matter where we look, this issue is not at the forefront of everyone’s mind, but why not? Why is it like this?
and
Let me tell you the numbers. Every single week a man kills his partner or former partner. Before the age of 16, one in five women experience some form of sexual abuse. And 97% of sexual offences are from men.

This is not solely an issue of protecting women but an issue of educating men. Stop being boys, be human.

Every person in this room must not just be an advocate for equality, but in our every action and deed we have to be proactive in stopping the abuse. This starts with putting an end to slurs and derogatory comments about women. It means standing up to any man, no matter how big they are, if we see it happening. And we have to keep our mates accountable, no matter where it may be.
The full speech is available here:


In some cases women are abusive and violent to men. As Brisbane Boys College School Captain Mason Black suggests, it is a far less common occurrence then men inflicting violence on women.

The ‘new normal’ are people like Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins, Chanel Contos and Mason Black who are calling out disgusting behaviour that has been swept under the carpet for far too long in Australia. While world peace, equitable economics and a green revolution would have been beneficial outcomes from the pandemic, if treating all others as humans rather than potential conquests is ‘all’ we get — we’ve done alright.

What do you think?

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Wam

13/04/2021

It is human to be a shag searcher for men and woman. Mason is extolling the the human element of self control over control of others, sharing over owning

talkturkey

18/04/2021

Dear Ad, 2353NM and Swordies All,

No day goes by without my feeling guilt that I have virtually ceased contributing to The Political Sword, and sadness upon sadness for the reason for this. Simply, I can no longer yell Venceremos!  ever since the last, stolen, election. Australia lost its future that day. It is the Dismissal in that its implications and realities can never be undone. Really, we lost our future in 2013 with the rolling of *J*U*L*I*A*, never mind Rudd's brief interregnum, we had been living through the insane Abbot years on hope, then through 2016 Bill Shorten #1 since then until the 2019 election which we knew we would win. But we were cheated forever by the collusion of Palmer, Murdoch, Gina and her hordes, and dirty tricks generally, exemplified perfectly by the acquiescence of the AEC to the plagiarising of their colours by Liu, and spun always by the Mass Media to the benefit of the ruling LNP. And on that day I really lost heart. I suspect that all those who used to write here feel that. 

There was Trump. Four years going hideously wrong, instead of using the time to try to prevent the coming tsunami of a confederation of forces which will now inevitably lead to the imminent eradication of Life on Earth. In the last few years we have sealed our fate and that of all other life forms. No life form will withstand > 4 degrees global warming, and we cannot stop that happening - indeed I see no reason to think there is a ceiling at all. Seven degrees? Twelve?  After that it's all academic anyway. No ice left, sea level rise of many metres. Eventually there might never again be the conditions for rain, when so much cloud might blanket the planet. Or the consequences might be quite different, but in any conceivable case they will be beyond anything the planet has experienced since Life began. It will be The Apocalypse. I do firmly believe that. Just the Bible said, but it's not due to a Grand Plan by God Almighty, it's just the extinction of Life on Earth because of the ultimate stupidity and brilliance of our own species. And I also firmly believe that Earth is the sole place in the infinite Universe Life did happen. Such a treasure to be lost forever because of Us. 

Just the Apocalypse in the Bible I said. "In those days shall the People gnaw their tongues in pain, and men will cry to the mountains, 'Fall on us, and hide us from the face of the Lord: for the great day of his vengeance has come, and who shall be able to stand?'" Paraphrasing from memory, but you get the picture.

I haven't got Religion, but I can read the writing on the wall, and I know Bible stories better than a lot of the zealots who come to my door spruiking their religious brands. And we have Morrison, a madman who believes in the Apocalypse too, but he believes he is one of an elect group of 144,000 people pre-ordained by God to will be "taken up" in a supposed event they call The Rapture, to be returned when He has exterminated all the rest of us and turned the planet into Heaven on Earth for them.

This, and those of Trump's Religious Right maniacs, and religion all around the world, has been the kind of thinking that has led us to this precipice. There is no fixing it now. And that is why I can't yell Venceremos any more.  But I love the Sword as i love Life on Earth and I wish I could say something positive.

Sadly I can't think of any such thing. But I can't pretend either.   

How many umbrellas are there if I have two in my hand but the wind then blows them away?