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After three years of investigations, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide has delivered its final report with 122 recommendations. The commission has carried much hope for veterans and their families – now we wait to see action.

The veteran sector, including families, had lobbied for this inquiry for over a decade. For a long time, the call fell on deaf ears. The Ex Service Organisation Round Table even rejected the idea, saying veteran suicide was roughly the same as the national average.

The royal commission has addressed this question of poor data. Over the course of the inquiry, the certified numbers of people who died by suicide rose from around 300 to around 1,700. This was because a forensic focus was applied to the statistics.

These do not include deaths that may be suicide but have not been recorded as such, like single car accidents, for example. Ex serving veteran suicide is 26% higher than the national average for men and 107% higher for women.

What are the key findings?

The royal commission began its investigations thinking of veteran suicide as an individual mental health issue. Deployment trauma was expected to be a key influence.

It ended its investigations recognising that culture and systems had an overwhelming part to play. For example, there have been around 60 inquiries into military systems and culture over five decades and around 750 recommendations. Few have been met.

Commissioner Nick Kaldas explained:

When there’s been dozens of inquiries, hundreds of recommendations, and no one’s gone back to check whether they’ve acquitted the intent of the recommendations, I’d say that’s a failure of leadership.

The government tabled the seven-volume report in parliament on Monday. Speaking to media shortly before, Kaldas said:

What is clear from some of the horrible stories that we’ve heard is that many people simply turned a blind eye, over many years and felt that it was too hard, or they simply didn’t care enough to tackle the problems.

The commissioners point out that the veterans most at risk of suicide are those who haven’t deployed (gone overseas to fight). Why are service personnel who haven’t been deployed taking their lives?

The defence force is a hierarchical institution with a command and control culture. The rank system is legitimised through the military justice system. Commanders have complete control over their subordinates.

This maybe useful in conflict, but it’s exploited negatively in everyday service. The costs of service can be as great as the costs of war.

Physical and sexual violence was a common experience among the nearly 6,000 submissions.

Our research, some of which was commissioned by the inquiry, also developed the term “administrative violence”. This is when a commander mercilessly harasses or violates a subordinate.

Being made to paint rocks or sweep away rain, losing leave applications, prohibiting career progression and blocking courses of deployments are common strategies that strip the victim of purpose, identity and belonging.

Identity, purpose and belonging are central to an institution built around camaraderie and service. This is the mateship mythology of the ANZAC tradition.

In our research interviews, those who’d had bad experiences in the force all stated how much they loved their careers, the force, their mates and the job. The merciless bullying by a commander or peers leading to their termination was irreconcilable for them. The betrayal was painful.

Transitioning to civilian life is also a key issue. If a veteran is not supported, they also lose a sense of identity, purpose and belonging.

Many veterans transition successfully, but those who don’t can find themselves homeless, incarcerated or feeling suicidal. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ systems can and do exacerbate this, sometimes making it difficult for veterans to receive the support they need. Some, like Private Jesse Bird, have died trying to seek help.

What are the recommendations?

The report outlines 122 recommendations. It will take time to fully analyse them, but some important points stand out.

It comes as no surprise that a key recommendation of the commission is to establish a mechanism of independent scrutiny. The commissioners recommend the new body should monitor and continually report back publicly about progress on tackling the high rates of suicide among military personnel.

A similar recommendation was made by 44 senators in the 2005 inquiry. It was rejected and vetoed by the then prime minister, minister for defence and chief of defence.

Other recommendations have identified many of the factors that contribute to veteran suicide.

The Governor-General, Sam Mostyn, accepted the report at Government House.
Lukas Coch/AAP

There is strong focus on building a respectful workforce, identifying and addressing sexual assault, supporting victims and holding perpetrators to account. One recommendation suggests the government undertake independent research to find out the prevalence of sexual violence within the force.

This addresses much of the negative tribal, hierarchical and command and control factors underpinning the issue.

The quality of leadership is also addressed. The commissioners recommend commanders are assessed on their performance at achieving better cultural, health and wellbeing outcomes. They suggest strengthening the processes for deciding who gets leadership positions.

They also recommend reforming accountability checks on the force, including the role of the inspector general. The commissioners say this role should be done by someone who’s never served in the force to help ensure independent oversight.

The commissioners recommend the Department of Veterans’ Affairs improves veteran transition and wellbeing by better assessing ex service men and women, reducing wait times and bureaucracy.

The recommendations go much further, but these are of particular note because they address the closed, tribal and hierarchical character of defence force culture and systems. Importantly, there is a strong focus on education, research and information sharing to broaden our understanding over time.

Can defence be fixed?

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs appears to be taking this royal commission seriously.

The same cannot be said for the defence force.

Kaldas took the extraordinary step of speaking at the National Press Club in May. He highlighted the chief of defence and his organisation’s obstruction of access to important documents. Kaldas said:

I think there’s been systemic issues such as relying on parliamentary privilege for reports that have been tabled in parliament, therefore making it impossible for us to rely on or use those reports.

Many inquiries and investigations have concluded the Australian Defence Force is incapable of cultural reform.

This was recognised in the 2005 Senate inquiry into the Effectiveness of Australian Military Justice system. The force acknowledged this too in 2012 in the Beyond Compliance report written by the then Major General Craig Orme.

But the force has dragged its feet, or obstructed access to information in this royal commission.

Despite the resistance, there is cause for hope. The commissioners said:

[…] we have come across many, many really motivated, excellent people, both within the ADF and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, who have tried their best within the system.

It’s clear the royal commission has made the case for defence force cultural reform inarguable. With the force’s recruitment and retention at an all time lows, the case for change could not be stronger.

The Defence all-hours Support Line – 1800 628 036 – is a confidential telephone and online service for ADF members and their families. Open Arms – 1800 011 046 – provides 24-hour free and confidential counselling and support for current and former ADF members and their families. Läs mer…

MSG is making a comeback. The internet’s favourite cucumber salad recipe includes fish sauce, cucumber, garlic and – as the video’s creator Logan tells us with a generous sprinkle from the bag – “MSG, obviously”.

But for many of us, it’s not obvious. Do you have a vague sense MSG is unhealthy but you’re not sure why? Here is the science behind monosodium glutamate, how it got a bad rap, and whether you should add it to your cooking.

What is MSG?

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the amino acids that make up proteins.

It occurs naturally in foods such as mature cheeses, fish, beef, mushrooms, tomatoes, onion and garlic. It provides their savoury and “meaty” flavour, known as umami.

MSG has been used to season food for more than 100 years. Traditionally it was extracted from seaweed broth, but now it’s made by fermenting starch in sugar beets, sugar cane and molasses.

Today it’s widely used as a flavour enhancer in many dishes and pre-packaged goods, including soups, condiments and processed meats.

There is no chemical difference between the MSG found in food and the additive.

MSG is often associated with Asian food but it also occurs naturally in many of the ingredients used in Mediterranean cooking, including tomatoes, mushrooms and Parmesan cheese.
Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock

Is it safe?

For most people, yes. MSG is a safe and authorised additive, according to the Australian agency that regulates food. This corresponds with food standards in the United States, European Union and United Kingdom.

Two major safety reviews have been conducted: one in 1987 by a United Nations expert committee and another 1995 by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Both concluded MSG was safe for the general population.

In 2017 the European Food Safety Authority updated its stance and set a recommended limit based on body weight, aimed to prevent headaches and increased blood pressure.

That limit is still higher than most people consume. The authority says an 80kg person should not have more than 2.4g of added MSG per day. For reference, Europeans average less than a gram per day (0.3-1 gram), while in Asia intake is somewhere between 1.2-1.7 grams a day.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand says the European update does not raise any new safety concerns not already assessed.

Isn’t it bad for me?

Despite the evidence, the idea MSG is dangerous persists.

Its notorious reputation can be traced back to a hoax letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1968. A doctor claiming to have experienced palpitations, numbness and fatigue after eating at a Chinese restaurant suggested MSG could be to blame.

With a follow-up article in the New York Times, the idea of “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” took off. Eating MSG was associated with a range of symptoms, including headache, hives, throat swelling, itching and belly pain.

However an early randomised control trial showed no difference in these symptoms between people who were given MSG versus a placebo. This has since been confirmed in a review of many studies.

The association between MSG, harmful side effects and Chinese food has been hard to shake since a hoax letter published in a medical journal in 1968.
travelview/Shutterstock

Can MSG cause reactions?

A very small percentage of people may have hypersensitivities to MSG. The reported reaction is now known as MSG symptom complex, rather than so-called Chinese restaurant syndrome, with its problematic racial connotations. Symptoms are usually mild, short-term and don’t need treatment.

One study study looked at 100 people with asthma, 30 of whom believed they had hypersentivities to MSG. However when participants were blinded to whether they were consuming MSG, not one reported a reaction.

If you believe you do react to added MSG, it’s relatively easy to avoid. In Australia, it is listed in ingredients as either monosodium glutamate or flavour enhancer 621.

Is it better than table salt?

Using MSG instead of regular salt may help reduce your overall sodium intake, as MSG contains about one third the amount of sodium.

One study found people who ate soup seasoned with MSG rather than salt actually liked it more. They still found it salty to taste, but their sodium intake was reduced by 18%.

MSG still contains sodium, so high use is associated with increased blood pressure. If you’re using MSG as a substitute and you have high blood pressure, you should closely monitor it (just as you would with other salt products).

Should I use MSG in my cooking?

If you want to – yes. Unless you are one of the rare people with hypersensitivities, enhancing the flavour of your dish with a sprinkle of MSG will not cause any health problems. It could even help reduce how much salt you use.

If you’re vegetarian or vegan, cooking with MSG could help add the umami flavour you may miss from animal products such as meat, fish sauce and cheese.

But buying foods with added MSG? Be aware, many of them will also be ultra-processed and it’s that – not the MSG – that’s associated with poor physical and mental health outcomes. Läs mer…

The South Australian government is moving ahead with plans to ban children under 14 from social media. Under the proposal, teens aged 14 and 15 would also need parental consent to have social media accounts.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has flagged the consequences for social media companies that don’t comply with the new rules would be “severe and harsh”.

He discussed the proposal with other state premiers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a cabinet meeting last week, and is encouraging national adoption of the proposed strategy.

Malinauskas has attributed the decision to “mounting evidence” of the “adverse impact” of social media on young people. This comes despite a lack of consensus among experts, with some researchers explaining there is “not a strong evidence base” of the harms social media pose to young people.

Similar laws exist elsewhere

South Australia’s move follows similar laws introduced elsewhere. In the United States, both Florida and Texas have passed similar legislation.

Like South Australia’s proposal, Florida banned children under 14 from social media, requiring parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds.

In Texas, all teens under 18 now need parental consent to create social media accounts. This is not without controversy, with one commentator describing this as a “misguided attempt to make the internet ‘safe’”, while introducing a law that “infringes on the rights of all Texans”.

In Spain, the minimum age for setting up a social media account increased earlier this year from 14 to 16. Technology companies were also required to install age verification and parental controls on social media and video-sharing platforms.

When South Australia first proposed its ban in May, comments from the community were swift and polarised. At the time, I examined the limitations and potential problems with the technical solutions being proposed for such a ban, including privacy concerns for managing account holders’ data.

So how will this proposed ban work?

The legislation will impose a “duty of care” on social media companies, requiring them to ban children under 14 from social media platforms.

This means Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat and other platforms would need to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent access by any South Australian child under the age of 14. They’d also have to ensure teens aged 14–15 could only access platforms with parental content.

Bans and limited access would be overseen by a state regulator. They would monitor compliance and impose sanctions, such as:

warnings, infringement notices and fines
court proceedings that impose corrective orders or civil penalties.

Legal action could also be taken against providers by either a regulator or parents on behalf of a child who has suffered significant mental or physical harm.

The proposed ban would also provide “exemptions” for beneficial or low-risk social media services (such as educational platforms), which are not yet identified.

What are the challenges of getting this to work?

While exemptions may relieve concerns for those opposed to an outright ban, it’s unclear how specific exemptions would be agreed upon, or how “low-risk” content would be defined.

Another significant challenge is the process by which children’s ages and parental consent mechanisms would be identified and tracked.

Age assurance and verification processes are not foolproof. They require strategies like self-reporting (which is easily circumvented), age verification by an adult (which raises privacy concerns for young people), or steps like uploading government ID (which raise data security concerns).

What is also unclear is how social media companies will respond to this latest move to force them to control platform access.

In other jurisdictions with similar bans – like Florida or Spain – these companies are notably silent. It may well be that to test the long-term viability of these bans, individuals and governments will need to take social media companies to court to prove the platforms have harmed children. Läs mer…

Melbourne-based Tony Yap is a leading figure in Australian interpretations of the abstract Japanese dance form of butoh and what he calls “trance dance”. In butoh and trance, movers consider the body as a porous receptacle for spirits and forces from outside of it, and which comes to move it.

Yap founded the Melaka Art & Performance Festival (MAPfest), staged in the Malaysian city of Melaka, in 2008, and this year’s festival ran from August 26 to September 1. Departing from butoh itself, many of the performances involved different levels of introspection and trance, where the focus and concentration of the performers was so intense that they barely seemed aware of their surroundings.

There were also works of what one might call “postmodern classicism”, which draw on ritual and traditional dances from Indonesia and surrounds, reworked within an abstract contemporary framing.

Adam Forbes’s butoh influenced solo.
Photo by and courtesy of Cheah Shelley.

MAPfest features work from experienced masters like Yap, and developing artists – among the more than 50 participants, the youngest artist in this year’s program was just 13 years old. There is a non-hierarchical approach to programming, and pieces are staged for the other performers as a residency designed to showcase work at five locations across Melaka.

Cultural exchange

Traders have moved between Melaka and China since the 15th century, and Yap’s Chinese ancestors have been in Melaka for over three generations.

Melaka has a long history as a site of trade and cultural exchange. The Islamic Sultanate was colonised by Portugal in 1511. Portuguese rule was followed by Holland, Britain and Japan. In 1963, the state of Malaysia was founded. Today, the city is home to ethnic Malays and Chinese, Indian and Eurasian communities.

The city’s relationship to MAPfest hasn’t always been smooth. At one festival, Yap tells me, a dancer embraced the statue of St Francis Xavier situated beside the Portuguese Church of Saint Paul. This led to restrictions on access.

Today, MAPfest’s participants deploy an almost guerilla approach to staging. I have not been involved in a production which seemed so risky, so negotiated in the moment right now, since my student days.

The locations of advertised performances shifted hourly; performers danced under garlands dripping flames; outdoor venues often had dubious surfaces to dance on, presenting hidden dangers. Following updates posted on Messenger, I scuttled from venue to venue, and up winding, nearly condemned staircases, held in place by improvised chains.

Just finding the performance could be an adventure.

Kiki Ando in the temple forecourt, village ruins.
Photo by and courtesy of Lorris Nguan.

Beyond the pretty UNESCO-protected homes of old Melaka lie decaying, overgrown areas, dotted with ruinous 20th century structures. These buildings, open to the elements from above and to the sides, rest amid fields of weeds (which performer Leslie Azzis burrowed beneath), and a temple soon to be bulldozed (home to Kiki Ando’s constantly evolving critique of consumerism).

Some of the most open-ended, improvised pieces were performed here, such as Adam Forbes’ mesmerising portrayal of an almost fluid body. Moving from behind a hanging piece of damaged roofing, he curled and slid across a vine-tangled white wall, dropping to his knees, shoulders rising and falling unevenly, before slowly crossing a plank to approach the audience.

Lee Kien Fei (left) & Tony Yap, Trance ‘Animalising’ workshop and improvisation in the ruins of St Paul’s Church.
Photo by and courtesy of Lorris Nguan.

Even more unexpected was when the multiracial party of artists gathered on a platform below the 16th century Church of Saint Paul to conduct one of three “animalising trance” workshops.

A tropical downpour forced us to seek cover in the remains of the ruined church up the hill. Hardier members moved onto the drenched, uneven stone pavings. Soft splashings in the puddles added an atmosphere of wonder.

As Yap told me later, this was typical of Melaka, where a problem leads to something unplanned and magical.

Destruction of the ego

The closing performance, the large scale, ecstatic improvisation Eulogy For the Living, was presided over by Javan trance master Agus Riyanto. Riyanto set up an altar at the rear of an indoor skate park, adorned with incense and offerings. He paced around the dancers, cracking a whip to bring on, and then dispel, trance.

Yap likened Eulogy For the Living to the involuntary, therapeutic dance of southern Italy known as tarantism, to the convulsive, almost hypnotised postures 19th century physicians witnessed in their hysterical patients, and to Antonin Artaud’s 1931 essay comparing theatre to the plague.

Artaud wrote that both theatre and the plague take “images [of] latent […] disorder and suddenly carries them to the point of the most extreme gestures” so there is a “destruction” of the ego.

Eulogy For the Living: Hysterics, Plague & Tarantism.
Photo by and courtesy of Teo Swee An.

Yap instructed male participants to wear black dresses, further evoking the mad rituals performed by acolytes of theatre’s sex-changing patron, Dionysus.

The choreography was by turns bouncy and vibrating (tarantism), extreme and violent (hysterical or plague-like), collective and infectious, as well as blending lyricism with mourning and gender ambiguity (Dionysian).

The performance cycled through eight or so states, plateauing before energy rose again. An otherworldly din of drone and electronic noise music sustained these choreographic cycles.

Resolving the performance, Riyanto flicked water from garlands onto the dancers. Many trancers required further ministrations from him to expel resistant visiting forces.

I was seated to one side in Muslim robes I had purchased nearby. Smoke from the incense burned my eyes, almost forcing me to exit, as the dancers groaned and meditated before me. Eulogy For the Living provided an epic, immersive conclusion to a week of performance.

If a city characterised by cross-racial couplings and sometimes fraught multicultural exchanges can be translated into a festival, then this year’s MAPfest ably rose to the challenge. Läs mer…

“Where,” Vee wonders, “in God’s name did all that anger come from? And more to the point, where the fuck has it all gone?”

Catherine Wheel is a book for women – angry women, sad women, women who refuse to be broken – who keep going despite, and changed by, the men who wage war in their lives.

Journalist Liz Evans’ debut novel is about Kate and her ex-husband’s ex (and mistress), Vee (or Valerie). Kate is still reeling from the unravelling of her and Max’s marriage. She is determined to find out why Max left her for Vee, among the myriads of women with whom he had affairs.

Review: Catherine Wheel – Liz Evans (Ultimo)

“If I could find out what Valerie had gained,” she reasons, “I would better understand my loss.” Kate has tracked down Vee in Bridgewell, and moves there to teach yoga and work in the library. She slowly integrates herself into Vee’s life, even babysitting Vee and Max’s daughter, Iona, an experience she likens to “walking on the tips of swords”.

Kate carefully curates a friendship with Vee, keeping Vee ignorant of her past. She is wound “as tight as a drum … perfectly tensioned, precisely tuned, ready to spring”. As Kate drinks from Vee’s wine glass, matching her lips to the lipstick stain exactly, you wonder how far Kate will go in her unrelenting obsession to understand the attraction Vee holds.

Catherine Wheel is a compelling, if not groundbreaking psychological thriller, with a beautiful cadence.

Liz Evans’ debut novel is a compelling psychological thriller.
Sophie L. Reid

Women connected by men

The novel is deliberate and carefully crafted. Kate and Vee’s alternating points of view illuminate how they look at and think about each other. The comparisons highlight their insecurities: both women see the best of each other and the worst of themselves.

Kate’s story reads as a confessional, directed to Max, as she struggles to make sense of why he left her for Vee. “If I met her at a party,” Kate muses, “or in a supermarket queue, what would I notice? What would I think? What would strike me?” She continues:

I struggle with this, I really do, because what I am most struck by, continually, is her lack of definition. Is that what attracted you?

Her voice is intimate and familiar, referencing their old life together – a backstory that unfurls and deepens throughout the novel. To Kate, Max is still hers and they still share something intimate, even if he broke her and moved on. Valerie is almost an in-joke within their relationship.

But the entry of the charmingly boyish, badly dressed artist, Tom, brings something new to the narrative. In Tom, Vee finds a potential new love to prise her away from her on-again, off-again relationship with Max. Kate, seeing the opportunity to inflict pain on Vee, starts her own relationship with Tom.

Where Vee sees the chance for romance, Kate sees another Max – a womaniser, with little regard for women. But even she has little idea of the depths of Tom’s disregard for women.

The plot may sound like a lot to get your head around. But the book is really about Kate and Vee, and the damage done to them – and changes to their lives – because of men. These women are woven together, inexplicably, painfully, by the men in their lives.

Critiquing toxic masculinity

The novel stalls towards the middle, as Kate edges her way into Vee’s life. The process is naturally mundane and repetitive, revolving around love interests, jobs and motherhood. While Evans is methodological in building suspense and establishing the plot, it seems to rush into the climax and ending. I wanted a little more time to sit in the wake of the consequences.

But the impact of Catherine Wheel isn’t in the pacing – it’s in Evans’ emotional critique of toxic masculinity. Tom and Max, Max and Tom: two three-letter-named men who collect and leave a trail of so-called “hysterical” and “monstrous” women in their wake. Singularly, Max is an obsession for Kate to pursue. But together, Max and Tom represent a pattern of coercive control, gaslighting, abuse and internalised misogyny; a wheel, as it were, that needs to be broken.

The emotion of Evans’ writing feels real: the anger comes with great tiredness and the fight against the abuse the women experience is draining. The novel’s emotions resonate beyond the page; they linger. Evans’ observations often threaten to hit a little too close to home. Her portraits of the modern woman, demure and masked through her romantic experiences, left me wincing with recognition:

She’s not good with anger. They didn’t do anger in her family […] So now, she deals with upsets and injuries by remaining calm, keeping her distance, or complying to the point of self-erasure.

This book of fractured souls and tentative female trust can be confronting, even jarring. Catherine Wheel is a natural evolution of the genre of #Metoo fiction. It’s not about violence done to women’s bodies by men – or not solely about that – but about women’s minds and lives, and their self image. Läs mer…

Timor-Leste has had much to celebrate recently. August 30 marked 25 years since the Popular Consultation – or “The Referendum”, as many call it – when more than 98% of the population braced themselves against brutal repression to vote for their freedom.

Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, recently visited. This was a bigger deal than one might think: he’s a hero in Timorese eyes because of his international advocacy for their self-determination when he was prime minister of Portugal. He spoke to the parliament, praising the people’s “enormous courage and relentless determination”.

This week, an even bigger hero visits the island: Pope Francis. This occasion is of profound cultural and religious significance for one the most predominantly Catholic countries in the world. More than 97% of the population is Catholic.

History of Catholic activism

Churches in Dili, mostly in Portuguese style, are immaculately kept. Graveyards are revered and often attended by family members who have lights installed around their plots.

Yet surprisingly, this Catholic convergence is only recent. When the Portuguese left in 1975, estimates suggest only 20–30% of the country was Catholic.

During the Indonesian occupation, this number changed drastically. For some, this was because of the role the church played as a “shield of the oppressed”. Timorese beliefs of ancestor worship and animism also cohabited with Catholicism.

Pope Francis is visiting Dili.
Author provided, Author provided (no reuse)

During the years of occupation and the resistance, the Catholic church often advocated for Timorese protections when others turned a blind eye or remained complicit.

Catholic priests and nuns sought to protect human rights against military abuses. Atrocities were repeatedly denounced by the Apostolic Administrators of Dili.

Only staunch international support groups, such as East Timor Action Network or the Campaign for an Independent East Timor, mainly active in Australia, undertook a similarly powerful advocacy role.

Pope John Paul II briefly visited the territory in October 1989, which drew significant attention to the plight of the East Timorese under Indonesian occupation.

In his homily, made directly for the people, he said “you are the salt of the earth” (referring to how the East Timorese extract salt on the coastal plains) and “the light of the world”.

Later on, he affirmed that:

respect for the rights which render life more human must be firmly ensured: the rights of individuals and the rights of families.

This was a rare, radical claim for such a conservative pontiff.

City at a standstill

None of this has been forgotten by the East Timorese.

The mood is festive. Each successive second street lamp on Dili’s main roads has placards or images of the Pope, with alternating posts adorned with lights of stars or hearts.

While independence celebrations saw much of the colours of Timor-Leste’s flag across the city, the pope’s visit has much Catholic iconography, including the sale of many T-shirts.

The city will literally stop for this event. We’ve been told to stock up on water and food in preparation.

Pope Francis’ visit to Timor-Leste has drummed up excitement and merchandise.
Author provided, Author provided (no reuse)

Alongside Timor-Leste, Francis is visiting Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. The visits were originally planned for 2020 but postponed due to the COVID pandemic.

The government has allocated US$12 million (about A$18 million) for the visit. But there have been other costs too.

Some residents on “illegal” settlements have had their homes demolished for the site of Francis’ mass, with hundreds of thousands expected to attend.

Read more:
With pope’s visit, Timor-Leste must shine a light on its democratic ideals – not intolerance for dissent

‘One of the biggest events since independence’

The visit is a spiritual, cultural, and diplomatic mission all at once.

Spiritually, the visit promises “blessings and hopes” for a nation whose development remains precarious. It also offers a sense of unity via a promise of justice in faith.

Culturally, the papal visit will reinforce nation-building through the country’s strong Catholic identity, which remains one of the few predominant shared core values.

Diplomatically, Francis is paying respects to first cardinals of Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore – all key allies.

The pope’s visit also has geopolitical implications.

It is symbolic of peace and an endorsement for ongoing reconciliation with Indonesia. Indonesian Muslim leaders have helped plan the event, which they see as crucial for promoting “shared understanding”.

The other close neighbour, Australia, also views the visit as an “important moment”, with Australia’s ambassador to Timor-Leste, Caitlin Wilson, calling it “one of the biggest events held in the country since its restoration of independence in 2002”.

East Timorese academic Mica Barreto Soares says the visit is a “privilege for a country like Timor” because:

all eyes of the international community will zoom in on a now independent Timor, so it is not just religious but political.

But perhaps the greatest hope is the international and internal political solidarity that may come with the visit.

Domestic political impact

Politics on the island remains fraught, partly because of historical legacies and generational shifts in leadership.

Independence hero and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, leader of the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), remains highly revered but holds tight reins on power and is ageing.

So-called “Generation ‘75”, figures from the independence era, dominate the island’s leadership with little representation from younger generations. This is despite the fact around 75% of the country are under 30.

The minority FRETLIN party has reduced in voter popularity and is excluded from executive power, highlighting ongoing feuds and some shifts in internal political dynamics.

The government has been criticised for centralising power and marginalising other political voices. It’s also been accused of prioritising politically motivated large-scale infrastructure projects unaligned with people’s needs.

Most dangerous of all, it’s relying on the depletion of oil reserves. This is a fiscal cliff looming ever closer as Timor-Leste continues to draw down on its sovereign wealth fund (or Petroleum Fund), projected to be exhausted within the decade.

According to the World Bank, non-oil-related revenue stood at merely 14% of gross domestic product. Meanwhile, government spending was among some of the highest globally at 87% in 2023.

Francis is known for his advocacy of social justice and the poor. His visit to Timor-Leste could highlight these issues, pushing the country to focus on human development indicators and social services. These remain inadequately addressed, creating inequality that fuels political tensions. Läs mer…

The 2024 Paris Paralympics delivered heightened attention and awareness of a pinnacle sporting event for para athletes.

Australia has often set the standard for para sport, consistently achieving top ten medal tally results at the Paralympic games.

However, other nations have begun to invest more seriously in para sport, which may be a sign we need to devote more time and energy towards non-playing roles to keep up with this increased professionalism.

From rehabilitation to professionalism to advocacy

The Paralympic Games evolved from an event to rehabilitate war veterans and foster social integration to a global phenomenon with mass media attention, heightened levels of professionalism, and increasing expectations.

Much of this exposure serves to challenge deeply ingrained and often negative or tragic societal views of people with disabilities, by showcasing the incredible athletic performances of para athletes.

Indeed, many countries now fund Paralympic athlete pathways, champion the image of the Paralympic games and athletes as a platform for human rights advocacy and pay them equally for winning medals.

Paralympic athletes are painted as role models for people with disabilities while also being admired for their “positive” life stories and celebrated for their “superhuman” abilities.

However, while Paralympians are the face of this evolution, behind the scenes are a variety of others whose roles and pathways are less clear.

So what is the coach’s role in all of this?

Accompanying Paralympic sport’s rise in profile, professionalism and popularity has been a critical focus on developing high quality coaches in these contexts.

However, the growing attention given to Paralympians has not extended to the support given to coaches.

This is an important oversight, as the delivery and success of para sport revolves around a coaching workforce with the knowledge and understanding of how to create the necessary conditions for inclusion, as well as for supporting high performance.

Coaches often provide future Paralympians with their first taste of sport, guide them through crucial milestones such as classification, support them through often turbulent or accelerated performance trajectories and through major career hurdles such as retirement or declassification.

However, the importance of coaches and performance staff cannot be overestimated.

Becoming a Paralympic coach

The journey to becoming a coach in para sport is not as systematic as you might think.

Most coaches tend to migrate through to para sport after coaching non-disabled athletes, despite evidence suggesting coaching para athletes places demands on the skills and knowledge of coaches beyond that usually required in non-disabled contexts.

Further, the number of para athletes transitioning into leadership opportunities in para sport is often limited, with a recent EU workforce audit outlining the dominance of non-disabled coaches in this context.

This is symptomatic of a broader issue in which people with disabilities are underrepresented in sports leadership.

There are however many para athletes who’ve successfully transitioned from elite athlete to coach.

Wotjobaluk Elder Kevin Coombes was Australia’s first Indigenous Paralympian.

He played wheelchair basketball at five successive Paralympics and made his transition to coaching while still playing – as captain-coach during the 1972 Paralympics.

Louise Sauvage, who dominated wheelchair racing for decades, planned to become a para athletics coach following her retirement from the sport in 2004.

While she had doubts about her potential as a coach, she undertook postgraduate studies in applied science and drew upon good mentors and her own personal coaches to develop her coaching expertise.

Swimmer Roly Crichton competed at two Paralympics for New Zealand before dedicating three further Paralympic cycles to coaching para swimmers.

Crichton was instrumental in supporting fellow Kiwi Sophie Pascoe on her way to a record 11 Paralympic gold medals.

Together, these examples provide a clear need to mobilise the power of lived experience of former para athletes to support future Paralympic ambitions.

Looking to the future

An infusion approach to coach education has been signalled as a potential movement for sport organisations.

It places disability content, topics and issues throughout coach education curricula.

This plays a crucial role in shifting coach education away from positioning people with disabilities as “problems to be fixed” towards a more human understanding of disability.

Our research has highlighted the need for visible and accessible pathways for people with disabilities to transition into coaching.

Recently, Athletics Australia released an expression of interest to attract “recently retired international/national level para athletes interested in high performance coaching”.

Such initiatives are crucial to redress the lack of disability representation in para sport coaching.

Furthermore, clearer coach certification pathways in which disability is a central focus are required because many coaches never receive formalised training or education specific to disability.

This means those who do make the jump into para sport are “thrown in at the deep end”, and left to learn through trial and error.

Understandably, for coaches who have limited exposure to disability, this can be quite daunting and limits the transition of coaches into para sport due to a fear of the unknown.

With record numbers of delegations at Paris 2024, national Paralympic committees will naturally look to the future as they seek to advance the Paralympic movement and their own para sport development pathways.

It is crucial coaches are prepared for the complexity of para sport.

Coach education reform and targeted programs for para athlete transitions remain an area of considerable opportunity for national Paralympic committees and sport organisations wishing to leverage the legacy of Paris 2024. Läs mer…

The United States presidential election will be held on November 5. In analyst Nate Silver’s aggregate of national polls, Democrat Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump by 48.7–46.2. In my previous US politics article on August 30, Harris led Trump by 48.8–45.0.

Joe Biden’s final position before his withdrawal as Democratic candidate on July 21 was a national poll deficit against Trump of 45.2–41.2. By the election, Biden will be almost 82, Trump is now 78 and Harris will be 60.

The next event that could potentially change the race is Tuesday’s debate between Harris and Trump (Wednesday at 11am AEST). The June 27 debate between Biden and Trump eventually led to Biden’s withdrawal. With her current weakening poll numbers, it’s Harris that will need to perform best.

The US president isn’t elected by the national popular vote, but by the Electoral College, in which each state receives electoral votes equal to its federal House seats (population based) and senators (always two). Almost all states award their electoral votes as winner takes all, and it takes 270 electoral votes to win (out of 538 total).

The most important swing state is Pennsylvania, with 19 electoral votes. Silver’s aggregate gives Harris just a 0.3% lead in that state. Harris leads in Georgia (16 electoral votes) by 0.1% and in Michigan (15 electoral votes) by 1.2%. The Electoral College is biased to Trump, with Harris needing to win the national popular vote by at least two points to be the Electoral College favourite.

Harris’ Electoral College win probability has dropped in Silver’s model in every day’s update since August 27, and Trump now has a 64% chance to win, his highest since Silver started his Harris vs Trump model in late July. Harris’ win probability peaked at 57% on August 14.

The FiveThirtyEight forecast model still has Harris narrowly ahead with a 53% win probability. The difference is mostly because Silver’s model is applying a convention bounce adjustment to Harris’ current polls owing to the late August Democratic convention. With Harris’ numbers slipping, this convention bounce adjustment is justified.

A national poll by the highly regarded Siena for The New York Times that was conducted recently (September 3–6) gave Trump a 48–47 lead. In this poll, 47% said Harris was too left-wing, while only 32% thought that Trump was too right-wing.

Silver said that left-wing positions Harris took in 2019 during her failed 2020 presidential campaign may be biting her now. He particularly cites Harris’ agreement with the proposition that her “health care plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants” in one of the 2019 Democratic debates as an example of Harris being too left-wing.

I wrote about the US election for The Poll Bludger last Thursday, and also covered the lack of a honeymoon for the UK’s new Labour government, the lack of a French PM two months after the parliamentary election (President Emmanuel Macron has now appointed the right-wing Michel Barnier PM), and the far-right’s gains in two German state elections.

Full Australian Redbridge poll details

I previously referred to a national Redbridge poll, but did not have full details then. Labor led by 50.5–49.5, a two-point gain for Labor since the mid-July Redbridge poll. Primary votes were 38% Coalition (down three), 33% Labor (up one), 12% Greens (up one) and 17% for all Others (up one). This poll was conducted August 20–27 from a sample of 2,017.

Just 24% said the Labor government had done something to make their life better. Of those who could identify this, 28% nominated tax cuts and 26% electricity rebates. There was a 31–31 tie on better economic manager between Anthony Albanese and Labor, and Peter Dutton and the Coalition.

By 44–32, voters opposed Australia granting visas to Palestinians fleeing Gaza, while they supported extensive security checks on anyone seeking a visa to leave Palestine by 73–10. By 72–16, voters supported a ban on all online gambling advertising.

Morgan poll: Labor gains to be just ahead

A national Morgan poll, conducted August 26 to September 1 from a sample of 1,697, gave Labor a 50.5–49.5 lead, a one-point gain for Labor since the August 19–25 Morgan poll.

Primary votes were 36% Coalition (down 3.5), 30.5% Labor (up one), 13% Greens (steady), 6% One Nation (up two), 9.5% independents (up 0.5) and 5% others (steady).

The headline figure is based on respondent preferences. Allocating preferences by 2022 election flows gives Labor a 52–48 lead, a two-point gain for Labor.

Final federal redistributions in Victoria and WA

Final federal redistributions were announced last Thursday for Victoria and Western Australia. They confirmed the draft redistributions with the new seat of Bullwinkel created in WA while Higgins was abolished in Victoria. This week, the final redistribution of New South Wales will be released.

There have been minor changes to the draft redistribution, with The Poll Bludger estimating that Labor’s margin in the Victorian seat of McEwen increases from 3.5% under the draft proposal to 3.7%, while their margin in the WA seat of Tangney decreases from 2.9% to 2.6%. I covered the draft redistributions in June.

Final NT election results

At the August 24 Northern Territory election, the Country Liberal Party (CLP) won 17 of the 25 seats (up nine since 2020), Labor four (down ten), the Greens one (up one) and independents three (up one). This is the Greens’ first ever seat in the NT parliament. The Territory Alliance, which won one seat and 12.9% of the NT-wide vote in 2020, did not contest.

After a narrow Greens loss in Fannie Bay, when Labor preference flows were weaker than expected, the Greens had an upset win in Nightcliff, narrowly defeating Labor from third place on primary votes after the exclusions of a progressive independent and the CLP.

Final NT-wide primary votes were 48.9% CLP (up 17.6% since 2020), 28.8% Labor (down 10.7%), 8.1% Greens (up 3.8%) and 14.2% independents (up 2.2%). The ABC’s two-party estimate is a CLP win by 57.4–47.6 over Labor, a 10.4% swing to the CLP. Turnout was just 68.5%, down 6.4% from 2020. Läs mer…

One of the big ideas of the 21st century, “smart cities” promised a new world of connected, data-driven and sustainable urbanism. Pervasive digital infrastructures would monitor flows from sewage to traffic to criminal activities, providing information in real time and anticipating and preventing risks.

However, in practice, smart cities have been disappointing. Schemes like Alphabet’s failed “city built from the Internet, up” was criticized for being opportunistic data grabs. And many other smart city projects have been fragmented and unimpressive

But smart cities have not gone away. A new generation of “AI cities,” or what I call “platform cities,” is emerging. Platform corporations like Amazon, Alphabet and Huawei are already transforming cities by exploiting people and places through data extraction and surveillance. Now, they want to build and manage cities.

Eric Schmidt, former chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., asked people to imagine “all of these things that we could do if someone would just give us a city and put us in charge.” Corporations want control of cities, and following the example of Singapore, the world’s only smart nation, many platform cities want to be something more like city-states.

There are multiple plans for these new smart settlements as public-private partnerships (PPPs) or entirely private entities. One proposal, which contained many of the common features of platform cities, emerged in 2021. The state of Nevada considered a proposal that would have allowed companies owning 78 square miles (202 square kilometres) of land to become innovation zones (IZs). These zones would have had the legislative powers held by counties, including raising taxes and running school districts, courts and police forces.

While the proposal did not pass, it continues to be studied by the state. Other similar efforts are emerging, including the Solano County development in California, and the proposed Telosa, developed by the ex-CEO of Walmart.

New political systems

Platform cities share several core elements. The first is separation from the surrounding political environment. For example, according to its charter, Próspera in Honduras would be allowed to operate its own intelligence services and to call on external military assistance.

The second is a new kind of entrepreneurial citizenship, which favours low taxes and property rights over democracy and human rights. Again, in Próspera’s charter, property ownership determines the number of votes.

Insider News takes a look at Prospéra, a city-state being constructed in Honduras.

The third is ubiquitous data collection and surveillance. For example, marketing material for the desert city of NEOM in Saudi Arabia claimed that the city would collect 90 per cent of all data in order to support lifestyle improvements for residents.

Read more:
The scaling back of Saudi Arabia’s proposed urban mega-project sends a clear warning to other would-be utopias

Fourth, platform cities share a bland globalist outlook with common esthetic and design features generated by famous architectural firms like Zaha Hadid Partners, BIG and Norman Foster (an original member of the NEOM advisory board).

In a more sinister way, these cities also emphasize the social and political homogeneity of proposed residents. While there are frequent references to “multiculturalism,” for cities in Majority World countries, this seems to mean whiter than the surrounding populations.

This links to the fifth and final commonality: a highly exclusionary outlook, favouring protection of residents over the welfare of humanity as a whole. The design of these cities often hide distributed and networked technologies of surveillance, in which ubiquitous surveillance as part of a luxury lifestyle also secures residents from outside threats.

Political context

For Próspera, an overt form of neo-colonialism was envisioned: the first project was proposed on the island of Roatán. Existing poor and Indigenous residents were to be integrated as minimum-waged service workers, although the platform only presented this as development.

Like Arizona’s IZs, Próspera’s Roatán development has been shelved, but the company continues legal battles with the Honduran government. Telosa remains on the drawing board.

Manipulating the popular imagination of new technologies like AI allows longstanding elite fantasies of separate government to become acceptable and mainstream. The political environments favoured by platform city developers seem to be either strong authoritarian governments that can override objections — as with NEOM — or relatively impoverished and weak governments seen as easy to manipulate, as with Próspera.

Proposed AI cities assume or aspire towards governance models that are independent from the surrounding political context.
(Shutterstock)

It might appear contradictory that neoliberal, even libertarian, tech CEOs would support either authoritarian regimes or developments. However, as contemporary historian Quinn Slobodian has shown, neoliberal thinking supports democracy only as long as it is not a hazard to the free market.

There is also the growing ideological influence of what computer scientist Timnit Gebru and philosopher Emilé P. Torres have described as “TESCREAL:” transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, (modern) cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism and longtermism. This is an increasingly coherent bundle of beliefs advocating for the survival of a select elite of technologically savvy people over environmental and social justice for all people.

AI-based platform cities are being sold as innovative projects for a common future. But they look more like exclusive communities to protect the rich from future catastrophes. In these protected, inwardly secure and sustainable cities, a technologically enhanced elite would survive and prosper, while the rest of humanity would be forced to fend for itself. Läs mer…

World renowned South African poet James Matthews has died at 95. His was the last great voice of an era of writers who worked against South Africa’s repressive and racist system of apartheid, which resulted in him being relentlessly harassed, detained by police and his work banned.

Schooled in District Six, an area of Cape Town where black people were forcibly removed to make way for white development, he was most famous for his poems. But he was also a journalist, cultural worker, short story writer, novelist, proponent of the Black Consciousness movement and a one-man cultural institution who never stopped speaking truth to power, even after the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.

Hein Willemse is an esteemed literature scholar who was a friend of Matthews and who wrote a book on him. He explains why the death of this remarkable man is such a great loss.

Who was James Matthews?

James was born on 24 May 1929 in the Bo-Kaap district of Cape Town, the eldest of six children. He attended school in District Six.

He worked various menial jobs. One was as a messenger running errands, what was called an “office boy”. He was later employed as an editorial clerk and telephonist at the Cape Times newspaper. He also worked as a reporter for the legendary black South African newspaper Golden City Post in Johannesburg, and later wrote for Muslim News, under the editorship of Imam Abdullah Haron, one of the first anti-apartheid activists to have died in police custody in 1969.

Even as a young boy, James was always interested in writing. Some of his teachers noted his talent and even encouraged him. Even though he left school prematurely, midway through high school, his passion endured. Matthews published his first story in a Cape Town newspaper, The Sun, at the age of 17 and from then on there was no turning back.

Initially, he wrote short stories and published these in various magazines such as Hi-Note and Drum, as well as in a collection called Quartet(1963), edited by celebrated South African writer Richard Rive. His collection of short stories Azikwelwa (1962) was published overseas. It was later republished locally as The Park and other stories (1983). He published an autobiographical novel, The Party is Over (1997), initially published in 1986 in German.

From the 1970s onwards, James almost exclusively concentrated on writing poetry. Today he is known mostly as the poet who published collections such as Cry Rage (1972), Pass me a Meatball, Jones (1977), No Time for Dreams (1981) and Poisoned Wells and Other Delights (1990). Dissidence and political militancy, infused with the self-awareness of Black Consciousness characterise his earlier poetry.

Today we think of James Matthews as an important politically committed writer, especially during the time of political and social oppression in South Africa. His was the persistent voice of political liberation, and freedom of expression. He did not want to be hamstrung by authoritarian political forces, and he abhorred apartheid intensely.

What forces shaped his career?

I think the most important force in his writing career must have been the apartheid strictures forced on black people. One must remember that apartheid not only divided people into social groupings, limiting their potential. It also forced them from their land and homes, impoverished them, and destroyed their neighbourhoods, creating the fiction of them as lesser people. Matthews almost intuitively confronted this inhumanity.

In the late-1960s he found the liberation movement and philosophy Black Consciousness very attractive, especially its core tenets of self-reliance, self-worth and its stress on the commonality of all oppressed people in the country.

His words and his opposition to apartheid landed him in the cross hairs of the apartheid government. For some time he could not travel internationally. The government banned his books and he was detained for extended periods on several occasions.

His post-1994 poetry focuses primarily on the social issues that concerned him: poverty, exclusion, the unfulfilled dreams and the politics of racial and social exclusion practiced by the new government, its excesses, xenophobia. And, inevitably, ageing and death, as evidenced in his Flames and Flowers (2000), Age is a Beautiful Phase (2008) and Gently Stirs my Soul (2015).

What works or achievements particularly stand out for you?

James was an extraordinary, driven person, a non-conformist who would not allow restrictive norms to hem him in. That trait often landed him in hot water even among his friends. When used positively it led to significant cultural moments. For instance he established the first black-owned art gallery in Cape Town, in the suburb of Athlone.

His publishing house Blac published his own work and that of other writers. In old age he often presented poetry writing classes to learners and university students around the country.

I think one must view James’ work as a writer’s perspective on a particular environment and each of his works, his collections of poetry, speaks to a South African historical moment. I prefer to look at the whole, the impact of his oeuvre.

He was recognised internationally quite early on in his career. In the US he was awarded the Woza Afrika Award (1978)link, drafted onto the Kwaza Honours List (1979)link, and awarded a Fellowship in Writing to the University of Iowa in the US. In Germany he received the Freedom of two cities – Lehrte and Nuremberg.

But only in the democratic era did he receive honorary doctorates and awards in South Africa. In 2004 he was awarded the National Order of Ikhamanga for:

his excellent achievements in literature, contributing to journalism, and his inspirational commitment to the struggle for a non-racial South Africa.

In 2022 the Department of Arts and Culture recognised him as “A Living Human Legend”.

How should Matthews be remembered?

Culturally, his death represents the end of an era. James has been a literary and cultural institution in Cape Town, an icon. There is even a mural commemorating his presence in one of the main throughfares in the city.

In South African literature he is part of a generation of pioneering black writers who truly established a tradition of resistance writing in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. His works were among the first to be banned by the apartheid government, and he was an important voice of dissidence during a very difficult time in the country.

Internationally he has been recognised as a person of extraordinary courage and honoured for his consistent commitment to the values of justice and humanity. Läs mer…