politicodiary

As Covid-19 changes economies and world dynamics, Australia has its own reasons to prepare for what lies ahead..... Australia has never felt as insecure as it feels now. The pandemic led shakeup has left it feeling unsure about its regional and international preparedness to tackle contingencies. Also, with its equation getting spoiled with China, Canberra has reasons to invest into military preparedness. T he government is therefore planning to invest $1 billion Sovereign Guided Weapons Enterprise that will help Australia boost its own defence production capabilities. For this, the defence department is now looking for able partners.  The strategic industry partner is going to operate a sovereign guided weapons manufacturing capability to produce missiles and other weapons on the government’s behalf.  These missiles will be guided in nature, the new age technological advancement, to be solely used by the government. The Australian PM Scott Morrison has already been reeli...

The world has seen enough military coups and we don't want just another one in Myanmar The political upheavals, the military coups and the civil wars are not the wars that any nation’s people want to fight- because at the end of the day, they destroy everyone’s life. The story of Myanmar is no different, with military coup have robbed the nation of hope of a democracy. The war that Aung San Suu Kyi fought locked up in prison for decades has comes to knot end.   As her cabinet fell off the favour with the military heavy political party, the hope of democracy has once again become a faint light at the far end of the tunnel. Meanwhile, harried people are fleeing from Myanmar to Thailand. On March 28, official reports state that an estimated 3,000 people had crossed the river dividing the two countries into Thailand's Mae Hong Son province following two days of aerial attacks. It is another exodus of people looking for safe haven-something similar to the situation that has tr...

Biden is going to have to undo a lot of damage done to Palestine under Trump administration   Palestine’s fate seems to have been written in stone. Its luck doesn’t seem to turn on its own, at any point of time. For a country that has its own government and running economy, it does not seem to get the status of sovereignty that it deserves. The Covid-19 situation turned it into a beggar- if not literally. It is counted amongst poor nations, yet Israel wants to claim control over it. It does not have the means to develop its own vaccine, yet it helped Israeli doctors in developing an inhalation pump that can prevent spread of the Covid-19 virus into lungs of extremely sensitive patients. Now, it is running helter-skelter to secure as many Covid-19 vaccines that it can inoculate its own. The ones that live in Israel have been inoculated, but Palestinians who do not reside there are at a loss. Israel is not giving preference to their need but feels it is important to share its sur...

Taiwan is also using vaccine diplomacy to win allies to its end.... Taiwan has been generous to help its only South American ally with the Covid-19 vaccine. This is indeed a time when everyone should forget enmity and come on a level playing ground to help each other. The help comes after people went up and arms against the Paraguayan government for having let them down over shoddy medical facilities and no vaccine supply to combat the increasing number of cases of the virus spread.   Taiwan is clear that the help they are extending Paraguay has nothing to do with the vaccine supply they have received for their own country. Taiwan has faced a lot of repression against China, due to which it has found it difficult to create its own trade relations with any country. As of now, only 15 countries have formal diplomatic relations with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, and Taipei has long been nervous at Beijing's efforts to entice away its remaining friends. This is indeed new-age diplomacy...

Biden administration is serious about prioritizing education and they are doing everything possible to get it back on track The Biden administration is taking Covid-19 testing in schools extremely seriously, so much so that they will be investing $10 billion in the whole process. This is being done in order to ensure schools can reopen safely at the earliest. Children have been most affected by the extended periods of lockdown and pandemic spread.   The fund would be allocated towards testing school fraternity staff and student. The Department of Health and Human Services(HSS) has further stated that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as state and local  health  departments will also help schools to set up these programs, and that the final allocations will be made to health departments in early April 2021.     According to HSS and other world health services, testing in the most critical step to prevention of spread and further treatment. I...

Freedom of Speech and power of fourth estate might be becoming a farce in the free world... Threat of a chemical attack seems to be the easiest way to deter the ones fighting for truth and justice in Russia. This time, it’s a vocal newspaper service itself under the firing line. Novaya Gazeta was greeted with a chemical substance left outside its entrance, locking out the staff inside. There was no possibility to a conversation or moving out, unless the chemical substance was tested. The chemical substance is being investigated by Russian security services FSB. According to Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, the newspaper is being targeted for having been a point of evidence gathering through the articles that the newspaper had written in an investigative project undertaken in 2019.   The incident that led to writing the articles was about related to the assassination of several Syrians under detention. Towards this, three NGOs have recently filed a lawsuit against Russ...

  France along with Europe is planning a foolproof strategy for its Covid-19 recovery The French government is working towards establishing the method of a health pass that all citizens would carry along with them, at all times. This will help service providers to ensure that customers they are serving have been inoculated. All representatives of their respective sectors have been asked to do the needful to ensure the health pass is implemented correctly. The intensive care units across the country continue to receive a throng of patients. The infection rates are going up, but also is the vaccination drive to treat the patients. In the last five days, the French administration has ensured that some 800,000 jabs were given to deserving candidates.   Nearly two million of France's 67 million population have been double-vaccinated against COVID-19. Sixty percent of all care home residents have now had two COVID-19 vaccinations. Strangely, the intensive care seems to stil...

  Shifting processes to more automation is looking like a more viable solution to address migrant labour woes  According to economists, world economies will recover slowly from the pandemic’s onslaught. But the better solution should be depend less on migrant workers and more on automated services.   A World Bank report further suggests that pandemic-stricken countries will experience a nine per cent slump in labour productivity after three years compared with unaffected countries. Malaysia's five per cent decline in labour productivity last year supports that conclusion.   The migrant labour force was worst affected by the pandemic. Many remained stuck in foreign countries, without work, food or medical facilities, when the world literally went on a long lockdown. As we fought an unknown enemy, migrant workers fended each day for their lives, with fear and depression gripping their lives.   Many could not send money back home, to families making survival imposs...

  As the pandemic has found so many ways of humanity to thrive and survive, migrant workers are also finding great dignity in labour and purpose in work for themselves One of the ponds that has been resurrected through the effort of the migrant population and the NGO CatcH20 Group in Goa Migrant population has been worst effected by the pandemic led lock-downs. It has sucked into their livelihood and threatened their very existence. Many countries have been held up for human rights violation, when it came to helping and taking care of their migrant labour. The ugly truth of their lives came out in the open. India was a sad case of neglect. Actually, there were just too many to look after and with lack of proper documentation of the migrant workers nationwide, it became a difficult task to consolidate them and help them in a systematic way.  But the Goan administration under the aegis of an able CM Pramod Sawant, there have been many good moves made to protect the rights of the...