Jacques Boulet interviews Dan McKinley, CEO of B-Corporation Dog and Bone  Dan and Jacques have a conversation about a kind of ‘in-between’ space between the ‘normal’ capitalist ways of running business and the more ‘radical’ alternatives we often pay attention to in Think Again.        In B-corporations real transformational relationships, processes and structures are actually being experimented with, in a space where central elements of the existing system are not only being talked about but are radically changed whilst at the same time continuing to operate with elements of the existing system… and many of these experiments – and certainly in the case of Dog and Bone - are making a real difference…           

Think Again

Learning more about B-Corporations – one road to humanising our economy...?

Given the PM’s struggles in public oratory and inspiring leadership, Jacques and Jennifer have written a speech for him and they deliver it in this program.      The PM thanks Victorians for the sacrifices they have made during COVID, thereby saving thousands of lives - not just in Victoria but also in NSW and Australia.      The PM also reveals his new insights around climate change, and the folly of AUKUS and nuclear submarines.   Refs:Aisha Dow 2021, Victoria’s sacrifices are not in vain, The Age, 3 September 2021, p.6. Thank-you Victorians. Your sacrifices have not been in vainBurnett Institute 2021, Victoria's community effort helps avert around 6000 COVID-19 cases, Burnet modelling showsBurnet modellingJames Schloeffel 2021, Eight of the PM’s most powerful quotes, The Shovel, reprinted in Australian Financial Review 1 October 2021.Honest government ad/ AUKUS                                               

The PM’s speech: Thanking Victorians, apologising for stuff-ups and promising to do better

With COVID exposing the cracks in our health system and the marginalisation of certain groups who are vulnerable to the virus, Jacques and Jennifer talk about a different approach led by the World Health Organisation that seems to have gone out of fashion.The WHO defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, not just the absence of disease. Health and ill health are seen as happening in the communities where people live and work, and within the economic systems and natural ecosystems they are part of.Jacques and Jennifer suggest we properly resource a community-based, empowering approach to health, as developed by the WHO, that considers the environments and systems people are part of.Most immediately we need to work with marginalised communities to increase COVID vaccination before we open up. Otherwise the virus will certainly ‘rip through’ these communities.   

COVID and the obvious need to invest properly in public and community health

Jennifer and Jacques talk about the abrupt turn in Australia’s defence policy, with the decision to develop nuclear submarines, and enter into a new security agreement with the US and UK.         Simultaneously we have sent out war signals to China, and offended the French by duplicitously breaking a submarine contract without notice – and France isn’t the only power we have put offside.          Jacques and Jennifer argue we need to do address the climate crisis, and invest in people, jobs, education, health, and housing , rather than in military waste and the nuclear industry.    Campaign link:The Independent and Peaceful Australia Networkhttps://ipan.org.au/               

Australia’s defense debacle: Making nuclear subs, war noises, and lock-stepping with the Anglo powers

Jennifer talks with Lida Hazara, founder and president of Women for Change In Melbourne, an organisation empowering Hazara people in Afghanistan and Australia through education and employment.Lida talks about her life growing up in Afghanistan, fleeing to Pakistan in her teens, and then settling in Australia.We learn what motivated her to establish Women for Change and the difference the organisation is making in the lives of girls and women. Contact Women for Change:https://www.facebook.com/hazarawomenforchange/https://www.hazarawomenforchange.com/Sign the petition:http://www.actionforafghanistan.com.au   

Afghan women making change

Matthew Rimmer, Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation Law at the Queensland University of Technology and Jacques talk about the 'medical apartheid' which is confirmed (yet again) and made worse by the maldistribution of the COVID vaccines between the rich and the poor nations.Yet again, a political and economic collection of economic powerholders (read: the pharmaceutical industries and those who derive their personal wealth from their operations) and developed nations (the EU, the Trump-US and till a few days ago, Australia) wanting to protect the latter via the protection of the 'Intellectual Property Rights' - 'TRIPS' of the companies who developed and then 'own' the vaccines and make money out of them. These companies have been refusing to waive the TRIPS and allow the vaccines to be produced and distributed more fairly.We're a long way off anything resembling 'global health justice' it seems...    

COVID and the injustices of global vaccine distribution

Jennifer interviews Diana Sayed, who is CEO of the Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights. Diana describes the work of the Centre that supports and advocates for Muslim women in Australia in all of their plurality and multiple ethnicities, sects and beliefs.Diana discusses the situation In Afghanistan through a pro-woman, feminist and human rights lens. Given Australia’s 20 year presence in Afghanistan, she highlights our country’s obligation toward Afghan people, and she provides some practical ways that we can influence our government to do the right thing by them.Sign the petition:http://www.actionforafghanistan.com.au  

Afghanistan, human rights and the strength of women

Jacques and Jennifer look at the botched and devastating withdrawal of the US and allies from Afghanistan and they try to make sense of it through the lens of history. They look back to the carve-up of the old Ottoman Empire by colonial powers after WW1 (creating divisions that last to today), the US-Soviet competition for influence in Afghanistan leading to endemic corruption and a coup in 1978, the Soviet invasion from 1979 to 1989, following civil war, and the rise of the Taliban in the 90s, which was enabled by US money and weapons. Then in 2001 the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Towers culminated in the US ‘War on Terror’ directed at al-Qaeda and the Taliban who were based in Afghanistan. This ‘War on Terror’ has spread to surrounding countries and led to a proliferation of new ‘terrorist groups’, while costing 320 billion per year.  An overarching trend in Afghanistan’s history has been the self-interest of major foreign powers and associated vested interests, with the US invasion and withdrawal a recent example. Jacques and Jennifer finish with a quote from Tariq Ali: ‘At the very least, refuge is what the West owes (Afghani refugees): a minor reparation for an unnecessary war’. Sign the petition: Action for Afghanistan   

Withdrawal from Afghanistan: Making sense of the mess through history’s lens

Monique Hurley from the Human Rights Law Centre talks with Jennifer about the abuse of many people in our prison system, as reflected in a recent IBAC report: ‘Special report on corrections’. Among the routine  abuses are: unjustified use of force, strip searching and social isolation.Monique outlines what needs to happen to change this situation. This includes Australia implementing the UN anti-torture protocol (OPCAT) it has signed, by January next year.Monique also tells us what listeners can do to advocate for the human rights of people in prison.    

Human rights and the abuse of people in our prison system

Matt and Jacques have a conversation based on Per Capita’s last Discussion Paper ‘Generation Stressed’: House Prices and the Cost of Living in the 21st Century.It became clear based on research comparing the cost of housing across three generations – in the 1970s, mid- to late-80s and early 2000s -  the latter - Gen X people - who bought their homes around the turn of the Millennium, suffered from a 130% increase in the lifetime cost of owning a home compared to 30 years earlier (i.e. compared to those who bought their homes in the 70s).  The Discussion Paper then explores some of the consequences for individual households and for the Australian economy as a whole. https://percapita.org.au/our_work/generation-stressed-house-prices-and-the-cost-of-living-in-the-21st-century/   

Home ownership for all has gone AWOL in OZ… or has it?

Jacques and Jennifer talk about the scandalously unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines throughout the world, while a few people and companies make billions by charging exorbitant prices (US$16 to $24 a dose, with the cost of production estimated US$1.18 to $2.85 a dose). Meanwhile the more reasonably-priced AstraZeneca vaccine has fallen flat.While richer countries seem happy to pay the higher prices to stay ahead of the queue, poorer countries are left mostly unvaccinated.'The People's Vaccine Alliance' is campaigning for a COVID-19 vaccine that is freely available to everyone everywhere ... Go to www.peoplesvaccine.org Anna Marriott and Alex Maitland, The Great Vaccine Robbery: Pharmaceutical corporations charge excessive prices for COVID-19 vaccines while rich countries block faster and cheaper route to global vaccination. via  ‘The People’s Vaccine’  www.peoplesvaccine.org or directly : file:///G:/3CR%20The%20Great%20Vaccine%20Robbery%20Policy%20Brief%20final.pdf  Jillian Deutsch and Ashleigh Furlong ‘How AstraZeneca threw away its shot’. The subtitle is: ‘AstraZeneca and the EU might have ruined Africa’s best chance out of the pandemic’. from POLITICO https://www.politico.eu/article/how-astrazeneca-threw-away-its-shot/ Edward Luce (Financial Times) Covid has shown up Western Democracy’s childish tendencies https://www.ft.com/content/b7e1438c-95a2-44a6-9677-74d945a741b5And for a good summary of the national COVID vaccination schamozzle, see Farrah Tomazin and Clay Lucas inthe Saturday Age of July 31st pp. 23/28-9 How Vaccine Rollout went off the Rails

The great COVID vaccine robbery: Billionaires profiteer while poor countries are left behind

Having held conversations about Human Rights in several previous Think Again programs, we now propose to widen our purview, wondering whether other species and things might have 'rights' as well... 'Western Enlightenment' thinking has located the 'me' and the human - the 'Anthropos' - right in the centre of all there is, everything and everybody else... the 'other'... Jacques talks about a more recent 'awakening' to the rights of nature, especially in light of the destruction humans continue to inflict on all other species-persons and things in the ecology they are part of. He invites listeners to start dipping into 'posthuman' thinking, trying to 'think' humans out of the centre of everything and reflect on the fact that we are so relationally connected with what we destroy mindlessly that we may make life on mother earth for humans quite impossible...Burdon, Peter (ed.) (2011) Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence Kent Town (Adelaide - SA): Wakefield PressAustralian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) www.earthlaws.org.auNew Economy Network Australia (NENA) https://www.neweconomy.org.au/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/16/new-zealand-river-granted-same-legal-rights-as-human-beingKimmerer, Robin Wall (2013) Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants Minneapolis: Milkweed PublicationsStone, C (1972) “Should Trees Have Standing – Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects” in 45 S. Cal Law Rev. 450 Stone, C (2010) Should Trees Have Standing? Law, Morality, and the Environment. Oxford: Oxford University PressBraidotti, R (2014) The Posthuman Cambridge: Polity Press

Humans, their Rights and the consequences for non-humans

Jennifer interviews Lucie Krahulcova from Digital Rights Watch about the Australian Government's increasing powers to surveil us, with minimal transparency and accountability. Australia compares badly with other jurisictions in the protection of human rights (such as the UK and even the US), and Lucie talks about the need for a Human Rights Charter or Bill of Rights. She urges us to contact key politicians and tell them not to expand digital surveillance powers and the serious encroachments on our human rights.

The Australian Government's increasing powers to spy on its people through digital technology

Jacques and Jennifer talk about human rights, including a bit about their history and how their focus has changed over time. There have been three generations of human rights in modern times: (i) civil and political, (ii) economic and social, and (iii) cultural and collective. In recent 'neo-liberal' times the focus has been highly individualistic and commercial.While Jacques and Jennifer consider human rights to be an important basis for agreements about how we are to live together, they also acknowledge their current use and capture by those in power - both internationally and within-nations.

Human Rights: What are they and why are they important?

Andreea Lasch explains the UN anti-torture protocol (OPCAT) which Australia has signed but is dragging its feet on implementing. OPCAT would help prevent torture and abuse happening in our places of detention. It is a unique opportunity to address human rights abuses on the most powerless in our society, including Aboriginal people in police custody.Under the Protocol, independent inspectors could enter places of detention, but Andreea explains that Aboriginal representatives need to be consulted to ensure that inspection processes are culturally safe. But time is running out. Before January 2022 (!) our governments need to make a real commitment to implementing OPCAT, including inter-governmental agreement, legislation, substantial funding and the creation of inspection bodies and processes.Yet another example of our federal system NOT working... and creating a space where state and federal governments can blame one abother for their inaction....

The UN anti-torture protocol (OPCAT): Why are the Australian and Victorian governments dragging their feet?

Think Again offers weekly conversations and reflections about current events, trends and public pronouncements on contemporary and emerging issues. The show moves beyond what we read and hear via the public and ‘social’ media, to invite alternative possibilities to guide our thinking, living and organising.

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Think Again

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