Rio Tinto says it is investigating an incident involving a loaded haul truck and a stationary light vehicle in Western Australia's Pilbara.

• Rio Tinto says safety is its main priority after a haul truck crushed a ute at a WA mine
• The truck was in manual mode at the time, though industry players are moving towards automation
• DMIRS is aware of the incident, which the miner says is under investigation

It is understood the driver of the light vehicle was performing maintenance on the haul truck on the morning of 21 November, at the Brockman 4 iron ore mine near Tom Price, when he ran over his own vehicle.

Rio Tinto has confirmed no one was injured in the incident.

It is an embarrassing safety breach for the mining giant and comes after BHP's runaway train disaster last year when a handbrake was applied to the wrong train.

It has also revived memories from October 2012 when a truck driver at Kalgoorlie-Boulder's Super Pit gold mine rolled a 793c haul truck onto its side.

The driver was not injured in that incident, but the ute was significantly damaged.

"Safety is our top priority," a Rio Tinto spokesperson said.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-22/rio-tinto-launches-investigation-...

The Scummo government is trying to be more subtle in its destruction of the ABC than this truck driver thus it is Gus's loony view that Ita Buttrose has no idea about what the government is doing by staff cuts through budget reductions and other ABC victimisation... Ita needs to stop interfering with programming and demand a better deal from the Scummo idiots... But Gus could be wrong... Ita might have said nothing of the sort in the toon above, just another fake news from the Murdoch media in full flight trying to unsettle the ABC...

If you computer is a couple of years older than a new born at the Prince Henry Hospital, you have a good chance that it won't be able to comprehend the ABC world, like the said new-born understands why Cheney is a Dick or that global warming is real... Please ABC, even "your old website" has gone bonkers.

Surfing the web from Pravda to Der Speigel and Le Monde, Gus can say with authority that either the ABC site is so advance that no-one can hook on it, or that some electronic boffin decide to sabotage the ABC on behalf of ScumBug. But the reason could be that budget cuts have been so severe that you only get half (or less) of what you shoud get...

The "old" ABC website completely gone to god (images don't show anymore):

New ABC website: CRAP.

Is this for real? Even the new site does not recognise its own cookie on where you live... Gus in Melbourne? You're kiddin'!

Re the above comment, my guess is that the ABC IT department has chosen a new computer program that is somewhat alien to Java(script). Same with the BBC that always demands you down "Flash" to watch the BBC videos, EVEN IF YOU HAVE DOWNLOADED THE LATEST FLASH VERSION the day before...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-29/you-dont-have-to-be-a-child-geniu...

Yes, the ABC website went down due to the Sydney gremlins in the atmosphere. And no we don't care about a surprise visit by someone who can string two notes together... I'm slanted and possibly jealous here, as I can't sing to save my life... Meanwhile, as the old ABC pages are working back as good as gold, the new website, possibly designed for kiddies smartphones, looks shit on my old computer. 

Read from top.

From the Friends of the ABC:

The notion that Australia’s SBS and ABC are politically “Left” is wildly incorrect. 

A far-Right military coup in Bolivia forced a sitting socialist President, Evo Morales, to resign and escape the country, yet they hardly reported on this fact. Instead, they devoted much favourable coverage to Right-wing demonstrators and security forces.

Need I mention the anti-coup mostly indigenous and poor demonstrators were not covered, and more than this were blamed for the violence?

Of course, there are a lot of background details and dissenting views on how events in Bolivia have unfolded and there were some apparently genuine concerns with the direction Evo Morales’ Government was taking. Nevertheless, at this point, the concrete facts are that army generals appeared on TVdemanding (“suggesting” in their words) a sitting president resign, potentially constituting an illegal coup by the military and that a violent crackdown ensuedagainst protesters at the hands of pro-coup security forces.

The lead-up to recent events is a broadly familiar story in the post-colonial Global South, especially during the Cold War. 

Evo Morales’ Socialist Party came to power in 2006. They nationalised parts of key industries including mining, depriving (mostly) Western multinationals from exploiting the nation’s resources and human capital, but also creating determined enemies out of these interests.

Poverty was cut in half, Bolivia’s economy tripled in size, inequality declined, and the wealth generated by natural resources was managed equitably so as to benefit the country as a whole. Even the International Monetary Fund, an organisation certainly not known for supporting democracy and socialism, conceded in a 2016 report that Bolivia’s economic indicators were impressive.

Laura Carlsen notes that Evo Morales’ openly socialist Government set a "terrible example" by successfully improving the living conditions of its population and attaining the highest growth rates in the region.

Legitimate concerns began to be raised about Morales’ Government recently, provoking legitimate democratic opposition. However, this was exploited by the far-Right, which has since taken complete control, with the help of Western special interests and media.

But another crucial factor played into recent events. Bolivia has by far the world’s largest known lithium reserves, the key element of course in high-end battery manufacturing. Lithium has taken on a strategic significance, and earlier this year Evo Morales’ Government cut a $2.3 billion deal with China to develop Bolivia’s lithium reserves. This decision put Morales’ Government in the deep end of the new Cold War between China and the West, making Bolivia vulnerable to Western aggression.

Whatever legitimate opposition was aimed at Morales’ Government has been co-opted by the far-Right, which is being supported by Western interests and is now consolidating its power with violence and terror, and our media is tacitly supporting this.

Security forces have killed over twenty mostly peaceful pro-Morales protesters, injuring hundreds more; the acting Government has issued a decree exempting security and police forces from prosecution for the use of force; the coup leaders have said they may ban Bolivia’s largest political party from future elections and that its Senators will be arrested for 'subversion and sedition'. Displays of anti-indigenous sentiment are on the rise, with videos emerging of pro-coup demonstrators burning the indigenous Wiphala flag and police tearing it off their uniforms.

Our public broadcasters have failed to mention any of this. They have failed to clearly state that the Party that has taken control belongs to the far-Right and that it garnered a mere 4 per cent of the vote in October.

The “resignation” of Evo Morales’ Ministers is not being given any context: namely, that the Ministers stepped down because they were afraid for their lives, their relatives were kidnapped and some of their homes burned.

The injuries and deaths that are occurring are being vaguely attributed to “ongoing protests”, rather than the security forces loyal to the coup who are using live ammunition against protesters.

SBS's shared New York Times piece quoted the new far-Right president's gushing description of events without a word of criticism:

The challenge has fallen to Jeanine Añez, an opposition politician and the Senate minority leader, who promised to swiftly call new elections and restore stability. She appeared on television Monday morning, sobbing as she described the chaos of the night before. 

‘Bolivia doesn’t deserve this, all these deaths and destruction,’ she said, before promising a quick transition ‘that is absolutely necessary to return to a democracy’ … In the scramble to cobble together a civilian government, fears rose of increased violence by looters or Morales’ supporters.

This represents an absolute failure in reportage. Australia’s public broadcasters, so eager to signal their virtue when its easy to do so, loudly and often declaring whose traditional lands they are on, but when there are economic and geo-strategic stakes at play involving the U.S., we get to see the shallow depth of their journalistic integrity and the depth of their commitment to justice for indigenous peoples.

There’s no shortage of reliable sources documenting what’s happening in Bolivia, but our public broadcasters chose to avoid them.

---------------------------

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/abc-and-sbs-f...

Morales, 60, was Bolivia's first indigenous president. The former head of the coca-farmers' union is a symbolic figure among the Latin American left. His tenure as president began in 2006 and lasted until his forced resignation two weeks ago. Election observers from the Organization of American States (OAS) found "irregularities" in his fourth election on October 20, which has led to violent unrest. Last week, the military called for him to step down. Fearing for his life, Morales fled into exile in Mexico and he is now living in a secret location in Mexico City. The Mexican government has provided him with four bodyguards and an armored SUV.

DER SPIEGEL: Mr. Morales, how should we address you? Mr. Ex-president?

Morales: After my resignation, you can't actually call me president any longer. On the other hand, the parliament has not yet accepted my resignation. My parliamentary group has thus far been united in support of me.

DER SPIEGEL: Your opponents claim you willingly stepped down.

Morales: It was a coup that had been planned for a long time. It started when they started burning dolls that looked like me. Then they destroyed election documents and set fire to the homes belonging to members of my party and to union leaders. Then the police mutinied and the armed forces rose up against the constitutional order and called for my resignation. That is supposed to be a voluntary resignation? I stepped down so they wouldn't kill even more Bolivians.

DER SPIEGEL: The OAS has accused you of having manipulated the outcome of the election.

Morales: That is precisely the reason why progressives, the left and moderate governments distrust this organization. It serves the rich and powerful, as I am personally experiencing. I was wrong when I trusted the election observers. They allied themselves with those behind the coup.

DER SPIEGEL: Yet election observers presented evidence of manipulation on the night of the election.

Morales: It is a preliminary report. It says that there were irregularities and other problems, but it does not accuse me of fraud. Of the 35,500 urns in the country, the election observers inspected 72 of them and now say I received more votes than in previous elections. But these were urns from rural and indigenous regions, where people have always voted overwhelmingly in my favor. I asked OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro to wait a couple of days before publication, because otherwise there would be deaths in Bolivia. But he refused. It was a political decision, not a technical or legal one.

DER SPIEGEL: You needed to beat your opponent Carlos Mesa by at least 10 percentage points to avoid a run-off. When the first results came in, it looked like you wouldn't achieve that margin. Then the counting was suddenly interrupted, and when it continued, things suddenly started lookin better for you.

Morales: The irregularities the OAS found hurt me more than it hurt the opposition. The official count was never interrupted. Only the quick count was stopped. The official count is done publicly, with the participation of the parties. This result was not contested and the ultimate outcome is based on this count. For this reason, I called for a new count, urn by urn, vote by vote. I recognized that normal mistakes had been made, as happens with any election, but no fraud. Mistakes are human, one needs to recognize and rectify them.

DER SPIEGEL: Why was the count interrupted?

Morales: In the first projection of the results, I was seven percentage points ahead, so I said: Okay, with the votes from the countryside, we will win.

DER SPIEGEL: The general who called for your resignation last week was appointed by you. What role did the military play in your resignation?

Morales: I always had a good relationship with the armed forces. I'm the only president in the history of Bolivia who completed military service. I treated the armed forces well and equipped them with airplanes and helicopters. Now I have to watch on television as they use these weapons against the people. But the worst was the police. If they hadn't risen up against me, we would have been able to put down this coup.

DER SPIEGEL: Since your resignation, over 30 of your supporters have been killed in clashes with government troops. Is Bolivia in danger of erupting into civil war?

Morales: The plotters are responsible for the deaths. Up until my resignation, the police and armed forces had not shot a single person. I watched on television as they fired from helicopters down at the protesters in Cochabamba. It scares me and makes me very sad. They are killing my indigenous brothers and sisters. Simple farm workers.

DER SPIEGEL: Your followers have supposedly called for civil war and they are blockading important cities in the countryside. Do you not have them under control?

Morales: I reject violence. I have said that multiple times. But it is a natural reaction, given the degree to which the poor have been humiliated. The plotters even burned the Wiphala flag, the symbol of the indigenous peoples and our national emblem.

DER SPIEGEL: Who is responsible for this upheaval, in your view?

Morales: All those who do not recognize the election results. Opposition leader Carlos Mesa, who lost the election, and Luis Fernando Camacho, the president of the so-called Santa Cruz Civic Committee. He comes from a very racist family. His father supported the dictatorship of General Hugo Banzer and earned a lot of money that way. The supposed electoral fraud was only a pretense for these people to topple me.

DER SPIEGEL: You have also argued that the U.S. government is partly responsible.

Morales: When I was elected president the first time, the mine workers who had suffered under the military dictatorship warned me: Be wary of the U.S. Embassy! In 2008, we expelled the U.S. ambassador from the country because he was conspiring against us. During the most recent election campaign, I called in the deputy head of mission, because he agitated against me in the countryside. Washington was also the first government to recognize the plotters' regime.

DER SPIEGEL: Jeanine Añez, the vice-president of the senate, has declared herself the interim head of state, basing her claim on the constitution. Do you recognize that claim?

Morales: Where does her legitimacy come from? She has proclaimed herself president of her own accord and the military hung the sash on her. That is not a transitional government. It is a dictatorship.

DER SPIEGEL: You have called for a national dialogue. Does that call also apply to Jeanine Añez's interim government?

Morales: We have asked the international community to facilitate a dialogue. We have three conditions. First, before negotiations begin, a commission must be appointed that names the people responsible for the murders of our supporters. The attacks are crimes against humanity, and they cannot go unpunished. Second, if someone is brought to court, they need to be accorded their constitutional rights. At the moment, people are being persecuted simply because they belonged to my government. I feel guilty, because my ministers are being persecuted while I am outside of the country. Third, the murders must stop.

DER SPIEGEL: The country is extremely polarized. You have called for peace, but does peace even have a chance in these circumstances?

Morales: That is, in any case, my greatest wish. Reconciliation needs to happen fast. The military needs to understand that we are all a big family. Some believe they can rule the country because they have a lot of money. This mentality needs to change.

DER SPIEGEL: According to the constitution, the new president needs to call for new elections by January. Do you believe that will happen?

Morales: The deadline is January 22. I have no idea how the plotters intend to accomplish that.

DER SPIEGEL: Will you run again?

Morales: I am legally entitled to run, but if it helps establish peace in the country, I will abstain.

DER SPIEGEL: You already have three terms behind you. Why did you decide to run for a fourth time at all, given that a majority of Bolivians rejected that idea in a referendum that you called yourself?

Morales: I am not clinging onto power. The constitutional court made my candidacy possible. I come from extremely poor conditions and started to work when I was eight. I didn't want to become a union leader either, but when the coca farmers pushed me to do it, I accepted. And so it continued, until I had the possibility of becoming president. It was not my dream. It was not planned. I could simply have gone home and been happy. I took it on because I could no longer stand the repression and the injustice.

DER SPIEGEL: But it does seem like you are clinging onto power. Opponents accuse you of wanting to establish a socialist dictatorship in Bolivia like in Venezuela or Nicaragua.

Morales: For me, socialism is social justice. It is worth dying for. Without social justice, there is no peace. With our social programs we managed to lower extreme poverty from 15 percent to 8 percent. We have supported an economic model that allows us growth while keeping the International Monetary Fund at bay. We recently had higher economic growth than Chile, which was always heralded as a role model. Contrary to the suggestions of the IMF, we nationalized the energy sector. But nobody forgives us when the model of a socialist, pluralist, left-wing and anti-imperialist country works. It is a class struggle.

DER SPIEGEL: But you also controlled the judiciary, allowing you to acquire powers.

Morales: I always respected the laws. If, one day, I am going to be put on trial for abuse of my powers, it would only be because I don't have a good lawyer. I did not become president out of a desire to become rich, but out of patriotism.

DER SPIEGEL: Bolivia has a lot of mineral resources, including lithium, which is coveted internationally for its use in batteries for electric cars and mobile phones. You have repeatedly claimed that this played a role in your removal? Why?

Morales: We had a nice agreement with Germany that included plans for the construction of a lithium factory of our own. But several multinational conglomerates did not approve. They are against us processing our raw materials ourselves.

DER SPIEGEL: But it was said that your own government wanted to stop the project.

Morales: I had a strategy for how we would carry on, but since I am no longer president, I no longer have influence over these big projects. The plotters will no doubt cancel the agreement.

DER SPIEGEL: Interim President Jeanine Añez has announced that she will charge you with corruption and electoral fraud if you return. Are you afraid?

Morales: I am not responsible for organizing the election. I was already charged with murder and drug dealing under previous governments. The evidence was faked. So I know how this goes. I am not afraid, because I am not corrupt and did not carry out any electoral fraud.

DER SPIEGEL: Your opponents describe you as godless and possessed by the devil. The interim president entered the presidential palace with a big Bible under her arm. How do you explain this religious fundamentalism?

Morales: Before we decided on a new constitution, Catholicism was the state religion. We made it so that Bolivia became a secular country. All churches have the same rights, no religion is given priority. Faith is something holy. It transmits values and should serve reconciliation. But the plotters are misusing it in order to spread hate and racism. I am Catholic, but I also believe in Pachamama -- Mother Earth -- and in our indigenous gods. Now my opponents claim that Pachamama is the Devil's work and that I am Satan incarnate. I don't understand it.

DER SPIEGEL: Jeanine Añez also claims that the Bolivian conflict is being controlled from outside the country and that agents from Venezuela and Cuba had infiltrated your movement. Is that true?

Morales: In truth, many Venezuelans came into the country in recent months in order to campaign against me. We deported over 1,000 Venezuelans because they became politically active. As for the Cubans, I always admired Fidel Castro. He helped us with our health services and Cuban doctors carried out cataract operations on over 700,000 Bolivians free of charge. That is what I call solidarity among the poor.

DER SPIEGEL: Latin America is more ideologically divided now than any time since the Cold War. That is largely due to the crisis in Venezuela.

Morales: I admire Venezuela, first Chávez, then Maduro. Maduro triumphed against the interventionism of the Americans and overcame an attempted coup. He will also overcome the economic blockade.

DER SPIEGEL: Maduro takes brutal measures against opposition figures and journalists. Do you seriously see him as a role model?

Morales: For how long has Ms. Merkel been in power in Germany? I won't claim she is authoritarian just because she has been in office for 16 years.

DER SPIEGEL: That is a poor comparison. Germany has a parliamentarian system and the government can be voted out at any time. In presidential systems like in Venezuela, that is not possible. When do you intend to return to Bolivia?

Morales: If it were possible, immediately. I miss my homeland a lot. I miss my work, too. I worked every day from 5 a.m. to 10 or 11 p.m. Now it looks like future generations will have to carry on this struggle.

DER SPIEGEL: What is next for you personally?

Morales: My safety in Bolivia needs to be guaranteed. If they want to put me on trial, they should go for it. I'll withstand it. But they cannot put me in jail, because I am innocent.

DER SPIEGEL: Mr. Morales, we thank you for this interview.

read more:

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-ex-president-o...

-------------------------

Evo overthrown, but Bolivian Socialism will be victorious!

Andre Vltchek

They pledged to do it, and they did – Bolivian feudal lords, mass media magnates and other treasonous “elites” – they overthrew the government, broke hope and interrupted an extremely successful socialist process in what was once one of the poorest countries in South America.

One day, they will be cursed by their own nation. One day they will stand trial for sedition. One day, they will have to reveal who trained them, who employed them, who turned them into spineless beasts. One day! Hopefully soon.

But now, Evo Morales, legitimate President of Bolivia, elected again and again by his people, is leaving his beloved country. He is crossing the Andes, flying far, to fraternal Mexico, which extended her beautiful hand, and offered him political asylum.

This is now. The striking streets of La Paz are covered by smoke, full of soldiers, stained with blood. People are disappearing. They are being detained, beaten, and tortured. Photos of indigenous men and women, kneeling, facing walls, hands tied behind their backs, are beginning to circulate on social media.

El Alto, until recently a place of hope, with its playgrounds for children and elegant cable cars connecting the once dirt-poor communities, is now beginning to lose its native sons and daughters. Battles are raging. People are charging against the oppressors, carrying flags, dying.

A civil war, or more precisely, a war for the survival of socialism, a war against imperialism, for social justice, for indigenous people. A war against racism. A war for Bolivia, for its tremendous pre-colonial culture, for life; life as it is being perceived in the Andes, or deep in the South American rainforest, not as it is seen in Paris, Washington or Madrid.

*

The legacy of Evo Morales is tangible, and simple to understand.

During almost 14 years in power, all the social indicators of Bolivia went sky-high. Millions were pulled out of poverty. Millions have been benefiting from free medical care, free education, subsidized housing, improved infrastructure, a relatively high minimum wage, but also, from pride that was given back to the indigenous population, which forms the majority in this historically feudal country governed by corrupt, ruthless ‘elites’ – descendants of Spanish conquistadors and European ‘gold-diggers’.

Evo Morales made the Aymara and Quechua languages official, on par with Spanish. He made people who communicate in these languages, equal to those who use the tongue of the conquerors. He elevated the great indigenous culture high, to where it belongs – making it the symbol of Bolivia, and of the entire region.

Gone was the Christian cross-kissing (look at the crosses reappearing again, all around the oh so European-looking Jeanine Añez who has grabbed power, ‘temporarily’ but still thoroughly illegally). Instead, Evo used to travel, at least once a year, to Tiwanaku, “the capital of the powerful pre-Hispanic empire that dominated a large area of the southern Andes and beyond, reached its apogee between 500 and 900 AD”, according to UNESCO. That is where he used to search for spiritual peace. That is where his identity came from.

Gone was the veneration of the Western colonialist and imperialist culture, of savage capitalism.

This was a new world, with ancient, deep roots. This is where South America has been regrouping. Here, and in Correa’s Ecuador, before Correa and his beliefs were purged and ousted by the treacherous Moreno.

And what is more: before the coup, Bolivia was not suffering from economic downfall; it was doing well, extremely well. It was growing, stable, reliable, confident.

Even the owners of big Bolivian companies, if they were to care one bit for Bolivia and its people, had countless reasons to rejoice.

*

But the Bolivian business community, as in so many other Latin American countries, is obsessed with the one and only ‘indicator’: “how much higher, how much above the average citizens it can get”. This is the old mentality of the colonialists; a feudal, fascist mentality.

Years ago, I was invited, in La Paz, for dinner by an old family of senators and mass media owners. With no shame, no fear, openly, they spoke, despite knowing who I was:

“We will get rid of this Indigenous bastard. Who does he think he is? If we lose millions of dollars in the process, as we did in 1973 Chile and now in Venezuela, we will still do it. Restoring our order is the priority.”

There is absolutely no way to reason with these people. They cannot be appeased, only crushed; defeated. In Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador or in Bolivia. They are like rats, like disease, proverbial symbols of fascism as in the novel The Plague, written by Albert Camus. They can hide, but they never fully disappear. They are always ready to invade, with zero notice, some happy city.

They are always ready to join forces with the West, because their roots are in the West. They think precisely like the European conquerors, like North American imperialists. They have double nationalities and homes scattered all over the world. Latin America for them is just a place to live, and to plunder natural resources, exploit labor.

They rob here, and spend money elsewhere; educate their children elsewhere, get their surgeries done (plastic and real) elsewhere. 

They go to opera houses in Paris but never mingle with indigenous people at home. Even if, by some miracle, they join the Left, it is the Western, anarcho-syndicalist Left of North America and Europe, never the real, anti-imperialist, revolutionary Left of non-European countries.

They don’t need the success of the nation. They don’t want a great, prosperous Bolivia; Bolivia for all of its citizens.

They only want prosperous corporations. They want money, profit; for themselves, for their families and clans, for their bandit group of people. They want to be revered, considered ‘exceptional’, superior. They cannot live without that gap – the great gap between them and those ‘dirty Indians’, as they call the indigenous people, when no one hears them!

*

And that is why, Bolivia should fight, defend itself, as it is beginning to do so right now.

If this, what is happening to Evo and his government, is “the end”, then Bolivia will be set back by decades. Entire generations will again rot alive, in desperation, in rural shacks made of clay, without water and electricity, and without hope.

The ‘elites’ are now talking about ‘peace’, peace for whom? For them! 

Peace, as it was before Evo; ‘peace’ so the rich can play golf and fly for shopping to their beloved Miami and Madrid, while 90% of the population was getting kicked, humiliated, insulted. I remember that ‘peace’. The Bolivian people remember it even better.

I covered the civil war in neighboring Peru, for several years, in the 90’s, and I often crossed over into Bolivia. I wrote an entire novel about it – “Point of No Return”. 

It was an absolute horror. I could not even take my local photographers to a concert or for a cup of coffee in a decent place, because they were cholos, indigenous. Nobodies in their own countries. It was apartheid. And if socialism does not return, it will be apartheid once again.

Last time I went to Bolivia, few months ago, it was totally different country. Free, confident. Stunning.

Remembering what I saw in Bolivia and Peru, quarter of a century ago, I declare, clearly and decisively: “To hell with such ‘peace’, proposed by elites’”!

*

None of this is, of course, mentioned in Western mass media outlets. I am monitoring them, from the New York Times to Reuters. In the US, UK, even France. Their eyes are shining. They cannot hide their excitement; euphoria.

The same NYT celebrated the massacres during the 1965-66 US-orchestrated military coup in Indonesia, or on 9-11-1973 in Chile.

Now Bolivia, predictably. 

Big smiles all over the West. Again, and again, ‘the findings’ of the OAS (Organization of American States) are being quoted as if they were facts; ‘the findings’ of an organization which is fully subservient to Western interests, particularly those of Washington.

It is as if by saying: “We have proof that a coup did not take place, because those who had organized the coup say that it actually did not happen.”

*

In Paris, on the 10th November, in the middle of the Place de la Republique, a huge crowd of treasonous Bolivians gathered, demanding the resignation of Evo. I filmed and photographed these people. I wanted to have this footage in my possession, for posterity.

They live in France, and their allegiances are towards the West. Some are even of European stock, although others are indigenous.

There are millions of Cubans, Venezuelans, Brazilians, living in the US and Europe, working tirelessly for the destruction of their former motherlands. They do it in order to please their new masters, to make profit, as well as various other reasons.

It is not peace. This is terrible, brutal war, which has already taken millions of lives, in Latin America alone.

This continent has the most unequally distributed wealth on earth. Hundreds of millions are living in misery. While others, sons and daughters or Bolivian feudal scum, are attending Sorbonne and Cambridge, to get intellectually conditioned, in order to serve the West.

Each time, and I repeat each time, a decent, honest government is voted in, democratically, by the people, each time there is someone who has invented a brilliant solution and solid plan to improve this dire situation, the clock begins ticking. The years, (sometimes even months) of the leader are numbered. He or she will either be killed, or ousted, or humiliated and forced out of power.

The country then goes back to, literally, shit, as has happened just recently to Ecuador (under Moreno), Argentina (under Macri) and Brazil (under Bolsonaro). The brutal status quo is preserved. The lives of tens of millions are ruined. “Peace” returns. For the Western regime and its lackeys.

Then, as a raped country screams in pain, countless international NGO’s, UN agencies and funding organizations, descend  upon it, suddenly determined to ‘help refugees’, to keep children in classrooms, to ‘empower women’, or to fight malnutrition and hunger.

None of this would be needed, if the elected governments which are serving their people were to be left alone; left in real peace!

All this sick, pathetic hypocrisy is never discussed, publicly, by the mass media. All this Western terrorism unleashed against progressive Latin American countries (and dozens of other countries, all over the world), is hushed up.

Enough is enough!

Latin America is, once again, waking up. The people are outraged. The coup in Bolivia will be resisted. Macri’s regime has fallen. Mexico is marching in a cautiously socialist direction. Chile wants its socialist country back; a country which was crushed by military boots in 1973.

In the name of the people, in the name of the great indigenous culture, and in the name of the entire continent, Bolivian citizens are now resisting, struggling, confronting the fascist, pro-Western forces.

Revolutionary language is once again being used. It may be out of fashion in Paris or London, but not in South America. And that is what matters – here!

Evo did not lose. He won. His country has won. Under his leadership, it became a wonderful country; a country full of hope, a country that offered great prospects to hundreds of millions all over La Patria Grande. Everyone south of the Rio Grande knows it. Marvelous Mexico, which has given him asylum, knows it, too.

Evo has won. And then, he was forced out by the treasonous military, by treasonous business thugs, feudal land owners, and by Washington. Evo and his family and comrades have been brutalized by that extreme right-wing paramilitary leader – Luis Fernando Camacho – who is calling himself a Christian; brutalized by him and by his men and women.

Bolivia will fight. It will bring back its legitimate President where he belongs; to the Presidential Palace.

The plane which is taking Evo to Mexico, north, is actually taking him home, back to Bolivia. It is a big, big detour. Thousands of kilometers, and months, perhaps even years… But from the moment the airplane took off, the tremendous, epic journey back to La Paz began.

The people of Bolivia will never abandon their President. And Evo is, forever, tied to his People. And Long Live Bolivia, Damn It!

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2019/11/19/evo-overthrown-but-bolivian-socialis...

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Author Mona Eltahawy, who was a guest on the November 4 episode, described the ABC's determination as "unbelievable". She continues to argue that the public broadcaster shouldn't have pulled the episode in the first place.

"The ABC has signalled it is privileging the fragile sensibilities of white men over the wellbeing and safety of women," she said. "It is a reminder that imaginary violence against men upsets and disturbs more than actual violence against women."

During the episode, Ms Eltahawy asked: "How long must we wait for men and boys to stop murdering us, to stop beating us and to stop raping us? How many rapists must we kill?" The author and columnist has maintained that her question was a hypothetical one.

"Since I asked that question on Q&A in Melbourne, I've asked it at speaking engagements in Sydney, New York City, Boston, Chicago and just these last few days at Abantu Book Festival in Soweto, South Africa," she said. "And everywhere I ask it and everywhere I explain that the ABC pulled the episode and is investigating it, people have laughed at how fragile Australian men are."

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/abc-finalises-q-and-a-invest...

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I have not see this episode of Q&A and do not plan to... Nor do I plan to see "Silent No More"... All good shows exploring the violence against women. On this site we have already exposed some of the controversies on this subject, including la vie en rose... in a lot of tears followed... , http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/32971 and http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/32297

on Mad as Hell (Series 11 Episode 3) with Shawn the Sheep, sorry I mean Shaun Micallef, there was a sketch at 17:30 that one wonders what it was all about... Could the lady with the lisp, the chairperson of the ABC, Ita, have made a suggestion to this satirical outfit that there were not enough ethnics in it — and appeared too whitey, whitish with no shades of grey or colours? At this stage being a Mad-as-Hell replica of Aussie whitey politics, where the Bogan from the Shire, Scotty from Marketing, rules the roost of feather dusters — it seems difficult to go beyond the token spot of colour. We shall see...

Yes, I love Shaw the Sheep as well... Read from top.

London: ABC chair Ita Buttrose believes the Australian workforce has changed dramatically, saying younger workers lack resilience and "almost need hugging" for regular reassurance.

Buttrose, who began her career as a copy girl at The Australian Women's Weekly and went on to edit the magazine, made the comments to the Australia-United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.

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Buttrose said this was in stark contrast to when she was a journalist, when she said not hearing from proprietors like Sir Frank Packer and bosses was a good thing because "no news means good news".

"But it seems to me that today's younger workers, they need much more reassurance and they need to be thanked, which is something many companies don't do.

"They're very keen on being thanked and they almost need hugging – that's before COVID of course, we can't hug anymore – but they almost need hugging.

"You have to understand that they seem to lack the resilience that I remember from my younger days," Buttrose, now 78, said.

She added that resilience seemed to be in "short supply" worldwide.

...

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/buttrose-says-millennial-workers-lack-re...

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Oh, how times have changed.... How one has learned a lesson whatever it is... Ita's generalisation of the situation is pathetic... Resilience? The millennial have as much as "herself" in very difficult situations — when many of them have no security of employment, when their race from job-offer to job-offer is peppered with about one hundred and one applicants in line, all with more university degree than the pope, for a broom cupboard assistant-casual... And the best job is to pedal for Foodorama... As the boss in charge of a department, I had to find shortcuts to make sure the staff were "doing the best job they could" — and this may have involved a bit of clowning instead of politically correct hugs... Acknowledgement of staff, emotionally and on performance, is part of the course... I suspect that in "her days", Ita was sent busy by the Packers with a mission to make money or ELSE!... After this there was no need for further input... The fear of god was the oil in the machine...

But you could not do this with the staff then and now... And yes, Ita should write "another book"...

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One of the benefits of being an ABC employee is the relative freedom to publicly disagree with your own boss. And there was no shortage of responses from staffers when ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose, 78, reportedly said younger workers lacked resilience.

“But it seems to me that today’s younger workers, they need much more reassurance and they need to be thanked, which is something many companies don’t do,” Buttrose said in a speech reported by the Sydney Morning Herald’s Latika Bourke.

Buttrose’s speech was given under the Chatham House Rule which “allows people to speak as individuals, and to express views that may not be those of their organisations” and is not to be reported by anyone attending.

The newspaper got around this by talking to people who attended the virtual event.

“She was speaking under the Chatham House Rule; the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age did not attend but sources who dialled in relayed some of her comments,” Bourke said.

Buttrose was quoted as saying: “They’re very keen on being thanked and they almost need hugging … they seem to lack the resilience that I remember from my younger days.”

Former foreign correspondent Sophie McNeill led the charge against the comments, taken as an insult by many ABC staff.

Lack resilience? How insulting. Us millennials at the ABC were usually paid less but expected to do so much more than many of our older colleagues, plus many are on insecure contracts for years - @ItaButtrose clearly needs to go & meet more of them...

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jul/24/news-corp-columnists-clima...

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