Life on this planet is on time we borrow,
The cup runneth over with anguish and sorrow.
Now babies might live, but mothers can die,
Children quickly grow learning to fight, kill and lie.Was itever any fun to shoot a fully loaded gun?
There’s an uncertain undercurrent washing through the world. Do you sense it too?
Citizens are upset!
They’re sad and despairing of political decisions that affect them living their everyday lives. Some people feel powerless to enact any changes and some are.
These rumbles permeate even the happy, chatty blogosphere. Its normally positive tone hamstrung by irresponsible politicians across the waves.
We don’t know where our world is headed.
Greed emerges as the new weapon controlling our fate.
The ripples of greed spread far and wide.
An unlikely source has some wisdom for us:
Vote for Ethically conscious candidates
Write (email) to your politicians – write don’t tweet
My previous post about media responsibility has triggered a lot of discussion about what we see and hear, particularly from those with personal connections to Ukraine.
My point was to show that there are other sides to the story, and definitely not to side with a dictator nor the West. So, as an appendix to that post, here is Reuters Fact Check reports about some information being bandied about on social media about Ukraine.
Video Game Manipulation Presented as News Facts
Some reports and images are captioned incorrectly date from 8 years ago, some are from other conflicts, not Ukraine and some are even sourced from video games.
Social media users are sharing a fabricated story about a CNN journalist allegedly killed in Ukraine amid Russia’s recent invasion. The posts are claiming CNN shared a tweet about the man’s death amidst the ongoing crisis in Ukraine after sharing the same story during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. But no such stories were posted by the news outlet and the screenshotted tweets come from unverified Twitter accounts posing as CNN pages. 12:03pm EST
A photograph circulating online of an injured girl is from 2018 and was taken during the Syrian war, not Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as users claim. 11:52am EST
Photos and a video captured during the 2014 Maidan protests in Ukraine have been shared on social media in February 2022 to falsely claim they depict the invasion by Russia. 10:04am EST
A photo of two children watching Ukrainian soldiers roll past atop two tanks has been falsely linked to the 2022 invasion by Russia. However, Reuters has traced the photo back to 2016. 7:49am EST
A military simulation clip from the video game Arma 3 is being shared online alongside misleading captions linking the footage to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Feb 25 2022
A stock image described as showing a female Ukrainian soldier has been shared on social media, with users falsely claiming it is Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine. 10:52am EST
A clip from the video game Digital Combat Simulator has been miscaptioned online, with social media users claiming it shows a Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down a Russian plane. Feb 25 2022
A clip of artillery fire from what looks like a military camp in low light is unrelated to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and dates to at least 2019, despite the clip being shared widely by social media users online. Feb 25 2022
A video shared online of a warehouse exploding was captured in Beirut in 2020, in an incident that killed more than 200 people. Contrary to claims being circulated, it does not show events from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Feb 25 2022
Then there was the Why Ukraine Matters Facebook post that went viral that listed more than 30 reasons in the world economy as to “why Ukraine matters., listing significant mineral and resources weath..
Much of the data included in the viral “why Ukraine matters” posts were true. Some of the items on the list had become outdated, but more recent numbers still showed that the country had a strong standing in various categories of reserves, production, and exports. However, we were unable to find figures to confirm a few of the claims, and a small number of them were flat-out false.
Snopes.com
Comments
I love comments from anyone but would dearly love this forum to be respectful of others’ opinions, even if you do not agree with them, so please bear that in mind if you are feeling especially emotional. If you are a troll or repeatedly rude, your comment will, unfortunately, have to be trashed.
The full attention of the media has moved from the pandemic to Ukraine. It is undoubtedly a concern with diabolical implications for global safety. But it also is a godsend for the media as listeners who had tuned out, weary of hearing about Covid tune in again. Simplistically, it raises media revenue through a higher number of viewers or listeners and associated advertising.
Putin is, according to accounts I have heard, a hell-bent dictator with dated geopolitical aspirations, who’s prepared to go to any length to secure his borders/economic and security interests/wealth. However, I note there is almost no coverage given here to the contribution of western countries to the background of this latest crisis. Are we entirely without blame?
A buildup in former Soviet Union Satellite states (e.g. Estonia), of troops, weaponry;
Pontificating on Ukraine developing closer ties with Western allied powers
Ukraine’s political desires to be part of NATO, an organisation birthed of the desire to keep Russia in check.
Is it naive of me to think that imbalanced media coverage and reporting means we might never move closer to understanding the motives of others with interests diametrically opposed to our own?
Except in Hollywood movies, has anyone ever solved their problems with a schoolyard bully by walking right up to them and poking them repeatedly in the stomach? Or by deliberating dancing around the bully’s enemies or opponents saying we will consider accepting you into our social circle?
Journalists could and must do better to present a balanced perspective to the public. Media sways public opinion. Governments respond to public opinion when it suits them politically and shy away from making hard decisions that will be unpopular with the electorate.
We must discard any, ‘them versus us’ mentality if conflict is to be avoided.
Subduing a bully with force has a history of failing miserably, and ordinary people pay the highest price.
Sometimes a word or two can spark an outrage or can offer comfort. Other times words might even be prophetic.
Unfortunately, it seems the later is the case. I write about Australia’s Covid-free bubble and cautioned that weshouldn’t become too complacent and forget hygiene measures.
At New Year’s Eve, I noticed people were fast getting a too cocky with life, resuming normal practices like hugging and kissing, even though there were still a few isolated Covid cases in a few states, including ours. All cases were in hotel quarantine and out of public access, until now. Then:
Credit: Facebook meme
New Covid Outbreak in Queensland, Australia
A cleaner in hotel quarantine has come down with the highly infectious UK strain of the virus. The cleaner was catching public transport for a week prior to detection.
The region is now in lockdown from 6pm tonight and masks are mandatory. [You might remember I was prevented from wearing masks, last year in my workplace].
The announcement came at 8.30 am today, but at 8.20 am people were already out and about panic buying.
Toilet paper supplies, I suspect.
Credit: giphy
The lockdown is only until Monday morning, but they suspect it could last a week.
Has the public forgotten shops were once closed all weekend? Are we not able to survive more than one day without shopping? Are toilet paper supplies that thin? (Excuse the pun).
One Covid case; (no new cases today) and wholesale chaos reigns at the stores. Think of the UK – or other states and countries that have been in lockdown for months.
The hotel staff in the quarantine hotels, are now going to be tested daily. I wonder why this wasn’t previously instituted?
Thanks to TheKing’sNecktie, I discovered there is a Trump Mood Meter in existence, to determine, that is, the leader’s, former President’s mood. This is presumably, tongue-in- cheek.
However, I am confused as to its authenticity. It claims to guard against stock market volatility, by predicting the mood of Donald Trump. If folk voted for the Don, I am guessing they may believe the Mood Meter when buying or selling stocks? In the Trump – Covid era, anything is possible.
N.B. The meter predicts his mood based on Trump’s tweets for the last 24 hours.
Interesting that if it is not swinging towards cheerful, the meter will read as raging! Two polar extremes, like the man himself. This meter might become more interesting as we get closer to Trump leaving the Whitehouse, by force, or by his own volition.
It may just be the angle of this photo, from Pexels, but, weirdly, I see a silhouette of the barrel of a gun in the external shape of this building. But that’s just me, I suppose.
475 deaths from Corona, in Italy yesterday. 140 new cases overnight here, in Australia. No new cases in China – that they are aware of. Some good news from China, at last.
Iceland had its first death, possibly attributed to Covid 19! Iceland!
A sparsely populated area in the north of a country of only 250,000 people. An outpost in the very north of the Atlantic!
And who was it that perished in that tiny village in the north of Iceland?
An Australian tourist!
Unbelievable, but true.
RIYADH: The Saudi Health Ministry announced 67 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total in the Kingdom to 238. The ministry said that highest number among the newly recorded cases was 45 arrivals to Saudi Arabia during the past two days. These cases arrived from UK.
It begs the questions of how much international travel, for business or pleasure has contributed to spreading this virus, albeit inadvertantly?
The Australian Airline carrier, Qantas, has reduced flights by 90%. International travel has been curtailed indefinitely, for most people. The Government has now banned foriegners from visiting our country. If you are a foreign citizen living here, you may leave, but you cannot return.
Is the sun setting on the future of passenger cruising and travel? Along with companies whose sole business is tourism, holiday accommodation, hospitality, and recreation?
Supermarkets sales are booming, whilst every other business languishes, rots or dies – Death by Corona.
Toilet paper, rice, pasta, other staples and curiously broccoli, fly off the shelves as soon as they are re-stocked. Why just Broccoli?
Nurses, Doctors, Hospital staff such as Cleaners, Ward Admininstration staff and Service folk, Ambulance drivers, Paramedics, Police, Fire, Laboratory testing staff, Security Personnel, Emergency services, all continue to work. Thanks goodness they do.
A friend works in a Hospital laboratory conducting more than 1000 Covid 19 tests a day! His work is usually only URGENT specimens for the hospital. One hospital. How many more are being conducted at the major high volume blood laboratories in each city. That statistic staggers me.
Gyms, sporting clubs and Yoga studios have closed.
Cinemas have closed.
Social Clubs have closed.
Universities have moved to online delivery of lessons.
Fiestas and Public festivals and events are canned.
We cannot gather together in a group of more than 100.
Yet the Government refuses to close the schools – children are safer in the germ- riddled playground and public toilet than in their family home,according to our fearless leader!
TV ratings must be up higher than ever before, or perhaps residential internet data usage is?
I remain at work, by direction. Everything but essential appointments are cancelled. Essential means an appointment that is vital, for safety reasons. So there will be very limited community visits for me – I will be spending my days at work, filing!
Quite frankly, I would rather stay at home, on unpaid leave and write, or paint. One consolation is the traffic is better. And I have my podcasts to listen to. There is no Covid 19 news on them.
As I drive the long drive to and from work, I listen to stories of history, of what it was like to endure life in years gone by, scientific advances, the wars, heroic tales of people who overcome adversity or those who achieved success. I listen to philosophers and researchers – those who study the past to find answers to the future, who create our future. It interests me and is much preferable than listening to Corona updates.
Corona Anxiety
My daughter is worried. A 20 year old girl should not have to worry about whether she will live or die by the hand of a virus. She worries about having money to buy food and essentials; she works at a hotel, empty of guests, so her shifts have been drastically cut. There is a pitiful amount of money coming in.
She worries about paying rent. The landlord will no doubt still collect every last cent that is due. There is no relief for those who pay for their accommodation, or who have a mortgage. We help her, of course. We are her parents and willingly help. What if we weren’t here?
I reassure her worried teenage young adult mind, by telling her that humans are a resilient species. We have survived famine, years of food rations in the Great Depression and The World Wars. People ate rabbits, for the most part! I don’t tell her that part.
Yet in all this, life feels like it’s on hold.
I am flooded with daily emails about the extra precautions industry and businesses are taking, offering hand santizer, cleaning door handles, countertops, using gloves to handle food, only taking credit cards for payment, in order to avoid ‘dirty’ cash. I wonder: did your business, never ever clean your products or benches, door handles or ATM’s buttons before?
The mood at work and throughout society now, is solemn. And it can only become worse. People are worried, talking constantly about the latest media updates. It is hard to remain joyful and optimistic when everything is so uncertain.
In case you are not aware, the head of our country has taken himself on holiday. He is out of contact – although supposedly still being sent daily briefings.
There would normally be nothing at all wrong with that, except that there is a national crisis – we have had months of bushfires burning through swathes of country to unprecedented levels.
And the head of our country is nowhere to be seen and remains silent.
Or is he?
Some say he deserves some quiet time with his family at Xmas. I agree, but if you are elected leader of a country, are you not on standby, 24 hours a day, seven days a week?
Would you not want to support your people in a time of crisis?
Nurses, Doctors, Hotel Housekeepers, hell even Taxi drivers have to work over Christmas, so why not the leader of our country? Someone that has given himself a big fat pay rise of late, when the rest of Australia waits six or more years for a pay rise. Six years.
Some say the P.M. has gone to New York to open a Hillsong church there – his faith is admirable, but how is this more relevant than our country?
Is he serving our country to the best of his ability or massaging his own ego?
Over 800 folks have lost their homes to fire in the last months. Rural fire Service folks, often volunteers themselves, have not had a day off in months. They are soent, exhausted and get NO pay, but the P.M. is entitled to a holiday, on full pay to open a church in New York?
It makes my blood boil!
I was discussing this with another blogger, Snow on her blog who wondered why we can’t boot him out of his job for this. We can’t kick him out as he hasn’t done anything wrong – legally. Morally – yes, there is an error in his judgement, however, he enjoys the full support of his cabinet ministers, so any repercussion is unlikely.
This is the same Prime minister who brought a lump of coal into parliament to show his support for maintaining coal fired power generation sources!
His government believes coalfired power is still the way forward because it is so very cheap to produce here and supports lots of jobs.
But the shift in public opinion is building. The youth in Australia want action on Climate change and they know burning fossil fuels is not good for our planet.
In the meantime, the only thing burning at the moment is Australia and Australian homes. And the #AussieNero sits idly by.
Smoke alarms are being triggered in our nation’s capital, Canberra, such is the poor air quality from bushfires.
Sydney suffers with a constant smoke haze and I can even smell it up here in the North, 800 km away.
Last year, the Amazon and Columbia suffered through many fires. The land in many areas is becoming drier and the rainfall is dimishing. This year, even the Monsoon rains in Indonesia have not yet arrived.
With lower rainfall, the soil becomes ignited far more easily from a stray cigarette butt, or a deliberate back burning off operation, or other accidental or deliberate causes.
The high winds that accompany climate changes fans any bushfires to catastrophic levels.
And the rainfall needed to saturate the ground does not come.
Here is a recent map of the fires across Australia from abc.net.au
And still the P.M. is silent. I hope the New Yorkers realize the price our country is paying.
Perhaps they might even say a prayer.
Well may we say, #wherethebloodyhellareyou Mr Morrison.
Walls that take us on a desolate and dying path to nowhere…..
Something to Ponder About 