#IAmWatching Manus

Via the Combined Refugee Action Group on Facebook, the Daily Telegraph (!) reports on conditions at the new accommodations: "Half-finished security fences, incomplete sewerage works and demountable buildings still to be secured — this is what is being offered to nearly 600 asylum seekers who are refusing to leave the closed down detention centre on Manus Island." They have photos of the incomplete accommodation, directly contradicting the Australian government's insistence that it's all ready and waiting. There's a lot of detail here which other media haven't reported - such as that roads used by local residents to reach their homes run through the new accommodations! (ETA: Peter Dutton doubled down on the falsehood.)

The Night We Tried To Save One Life Among Hundreds Of Starving Men (Huffington Post, 8 November 2017). Behrouz Boochani reports on the effort to get help for the refugee who collapsed with a heart attack. On Twitter, Boochani reports that the man has been seen by IHMS and forcibly sent to one of the new camps. According to IHMS, he requires treatment in Australia.

Greens Senator Nick McKim makes a critical point about the government's deceptions: "But the biggest lie of all is that the boats have stopped. On the Turnbull government’s own evidence, there are still turnbacks happening in the waters off northern Australia. We simply do not know how many boats have sunk and people drowned before they were noticed by Australian authorities. Or how many people have been forced back to the countries they are fleeing to face death, torture or persecution. All that has been achieved is the removal of the drownings from our television screens."

Refugee Update: everywhere else

While the crisis on Manus continues to unfold, I wanted to round up a little other refugee news, lest it be neglected.

Australia's asylum boat turnbacks are illegal and risk lives, UN told (GA, 30 October 2017)

'Thousands' to join class action against Peter Dutton over detention regime (SMH, 26 October 2017)

Administrative Appeals Tribunal cases increase 600% and flood 'coming down the pipeline' (GA, 8 November 2017). Resources for the AAT have not been increased to match. This affects numerous groups of people, including those on the NDIS, as well as refugees.

Pet rules requiring asylum seekers to ask permission for cats and dogs criticised as 'authoritarian over-reach' (ABC, 20 October 2017). Dare I say this is petty? Labor's immigration spokesperson: "Peter Dutton should stop trying to be the minister for hamsters and hermit crabs". Sssnnnrrrkkk.

Government can detain asylum seekers brought to Australia for medical reasons, High Court finds (ABC, 3 May 2017)

Jon did a bit of detective work on the following misleading meme, which has been doing the rounds on Facebook. It refers to the arrival in August of six Chinese men at Saibai Island in the Torres Strait. They were deported to China; it's not clear whether they were seeking asylum. It misquotes an ABC interview which included an exchange recorded in Hansard, misattributing a reporter's wry concluding remark to Australian Border Force Deputy Commissioner Michael Outram.

Have some links

"What’s missing, though, is the fighting spirit. What’s missing is an understanding of history as a never-ending contest, whose virtues must be won and whose horrors must be confronted every single day."
— Maximillian Alvarez, 2016: A Liberal Odyssey -- A challenging essay about the danger of progressives fetishising an inevitably liberal, progressive future in the same way that Trump et al fetishise the imaginary Great America of the past.

In lighter Trump news, the First Lady was at some Olympic event or other when a Kpop idol (SHINee's Choi Minho) took away the spotlight.

How to call your representatives when you have social anxiety

Skin-whitening uptake sparks concern among Australian dermatologists (ABC, 26 April 2017) IIUC, there's a historical preference for lighter skin in Asian cultures, but there's also a desire to look more "Western" - along with the risk of dodgy whitening products harming peoples' health.

The Heart of Whiteness: Ijeoma Oluo Interviews Rachel Dolezal, the White Woman Who Identifies as Black (The Stranger, 17 April 2017) This is about a lot more than one woman's outrageous behaviour.

NSW government rejects findings of independent review into scripture in schools (SMH, 11 April 2017) They sat on the review for a year and a half, then declined to follow its recommendations - count the students actually taking scripture, let students who aren't taking it use the time to do classwork, and include the option to study ethics instead of religion.

Slavery claims as seasonal workers from Vanuatu paid nothing for months' work (SMH, 27 March 2017)

Section 18C: What racial vilification complaints have been upheld, dismissed by a judge? (ABC, 21 March 2017)

How to overcome bias (Mind Hacks, 17 February 2017) The "consider the opposite" strategy for overcoming confirmation bias.

Do-Gooder Derogation: Disparaging Morally Motivated Minorities to Defuse Anticipated Reproach (Social, Psychological, and Personality Science 3(2) 2011). "As predicted, participants rated vegetarians less positively after imagining their moral judgment of meat eaters. These studies empirically document the backlash reported by moral minorities and trace it back to resentment by the mainstream against feeling morally judged." This would explain the sheer quantity of stuff Snopes has had to debunk about NFL players in the US protesting police brutality. ISTG people will say absolutely anything to avoid having to take those protests seriously.

Links: Gender

Same-sex survey leaves an enduring pain for LGBTI people (SMH, 4 November 2017). Being publicly judged by others, having other people get to vote on your personal life, discovering that loved ones have voted "No"... I can only begin to imagine it.

Same-sex marriage debate putting kids at risk, not same-sex parents, experts warn (ABC, 23 October 2017). "The negative and discriminatory rhetoric of the current same-sex marriage debate is damaging the most vulnerable members of our community — children and adolescents."

Same-sex marriage bill: conservative MPs warn Malcolm Turnbull there could be up to 100 amendments (The West Australian, 30 October 2017). Here we bloody go. The Yes vote looks very likely to succeed, but the fight's not going to be over even then. (ETA: Now they're throwing together their own alternative bill at the last minute.)

Study on mental health impacts of anti-gay religious prejudice should be a 'wake-up call' for faith leaders (ABC, 19 October 2017)

Meanwhile, around the world: One in four people say those in same-sex relationships 'should be charged as criminals' (GA, 31 October 2017). That includes 16% of Australians. An interesting finding: people who actually knew an LGBTI+ person were more likely to support their rights. This has implications for content providers, especially I think when it comes to TV, because of the weird way that our brains interpret TV characters as being our friends.

AFLW's decision on transgender footballer Hannah Mouncey for 2018 draft full of contradictions (ABC, 18 October 2017)

Donald Trump: US court blocks President's transgender military ban (ABC, 31 October 2017)

Back to school dilemma: braids for boys (CBC News, 2014). "First Nation mother struggles with decision to cut or keep 7-year-old's braids."