Friends of the Earth Australia Media Release

Today the federal government officially declared the Illawarra offshore wind zone 20 kilometres off the coast of Wollongong in NSW.

Environmental justice organisation Friends of the Earth welcomes the announcement, saying it’s good news for action on climate change and job creation.

“From Gippsland in Victoria to the Illawarra and Hunter in NSW, offshore wind represents a massive opportunity to take action on climate change while creating thousands of new jobs” said Pat Simons, Friends of the Earth’s renewable energy spokesperson.

“As we all experience the worsening impacts of climate change from severe floods, storms and fires fuelled by burning fossil fuels, offshore wind has a critical role to play in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and providing a new source of electricity” added Simons.

With ageing coal fired power stations set to close over coming years, offshore wind represents a significant new source of electricity generation alongside onshore wind and solar power.

Earlier this year in February, Friends of the Earth’s Yes2Renewables project joined locals at Wollongong Harbour for a family fun day celebrating renewable energy and climate action, bringing together people who want to see offshore wind go ahead.

It’s good to see the work of local advocates is paying off, but the work of building the industry is only just beginning.

With at least four offshore wind zones declared around the country, it’s essential that the needs of communities are front and centre of this important new industry.

The federal government can build on today’s positive announcement with a plan that delivers community benefits from offshore wind, deep engagement with First Nations, local job creation and strong environmental protections.

Friends of the Earth will be following the next steps for offshore wind closely and will continue to work with communities to get the most out of the energy transition for people and planet.

By Michael Williss

A fresh warning that the US will lose a war with China has just been made by a US data analytics and military software company with US Department of Defense contracts.

It seems no-one is prepared to back the US to win a war with China, so why is Australia going all-out to align itself with provocative moves and hostility from the US directed at China?

Govini released its latest study of US capacity to fight China in June. Its annual reports measure the performance of the US federal government, looking at 12 top critical national security technologies through the lens of acquisition, procurement, supply chain, foreign influence and adversarial capital and science and technology.

It concluded that it is nearly impossible for the US to win a war against the PLA if a conflict were to break out between the two global superpowers.

The report also found that China has more patents than the US in 13 of 15 critical technology areas, further demonstrating how the US is falling behind in AI development.

“This year’s report also highlighted another reason a US conflict with China could be unwinnable: the very real possibility of parts scarcity.”

It identified serious risks within seven major DoD programs, including the cornerstone of AUKUS, namely the Virginia-class submarines. Not that this will worry the cargo-culters in Canberra who keep throwing billions at the fraught arrangement.

Another factor was China’s lead in the global supply chains.

Govini CEO Tara Murphy Dougherty said:

”China still has a dangerously high presence in US government supply chains. The Departments of the Navy and Army showed a decreasing reliance on Chinese suppliers over the past year, however, the Department of the Air Force showed a 68.8 percent increase in the usage of Chinese suppliers.”

Govini’s report adds to a number of similar scenarios in recent years, starting with the headlined warning by The Times on May 16, 2020 “US ‘would lose any war’ fought in the Pacific with China.”

In the New Atlanticist, Lieutenant Colonel Brian Kerg, an active-duty US Marine Corps operational planner, critiqued biases in modern US war games, in which military planners command opposing armed forces in simulated warfare. He writes that instead of a short, sharp war over Taiwan with a win for the US, as predicted by war games, the greater likelihood is one of a years-long war with China with uncertain outcomes. One of those, too terrible to contemplate, must be the likelihood of Chinese retaliation against Australia for joining the US, for being fully interoperable with its military, and the consequent rubbleisation of Australian cities and attacks on US military bases here.

Retired US Army Colonel Dr John Mauk agrees that any conflict over Taiwan will almost certainly be a prolonged war, and he says that it would be one that favours China. He writes:

“U.S. military forces are too small, their supply lines are too vulnerable, and America’s defense industrial capacity is far too eroded to keep up with the materiel demands of a high-intensity conflict. Another critical factor undermining U.S. capacity to sustain a war is that Americans lack the resilience to fight a sustained, brutal conflict.”

By contrast, China is well-postured to sustain a protracted high intensity war of attrition.

He says that the current political divide in the US impedes its ability to respond to national security crises, and that:

“Americans in general are unprepared for, unwilling, or incapable to perform military service. Short of reinstituting a draft, U.S. military services cannot attract or retain enough manpower quickly enough to sustain a fight with China.”

Former US assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, A. Wess Mitchell, believes that “United States is a heartbeat away from a world war that it could lose.” He writes that:

“… today’s U.S. military is not designed to fight wars against two major rivals simultaneously. In the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan, the United States would be hard-pressed to rebuff the attack while keeping up the flow of support to Ukraine and Israel.”

Comparing US and Chinese naval growths, Mitchell says that the US is no longer able to “outproduce its opponents”. With US debt already in excess of 100% of GDP, he says that the debt loads incurred through war with China would risk catastrophic consequences for the U.S. economy and financial system.

He raises the possibility of a Chinese fire-sale of US debt:

“China is a major holder of U.S. debt, and a sustained sell-off by Beijing could drive up yields in U.S. bonds and place further strains on the economy.”

Hillary Clinton raised this quandary facing the US with then PM Kevin Rudd in 2010 when she asked him “How do you deal toughly with your banker?” It is a question that the US has yet to find an answer to.

And questions there are. Harlan Ullman, a senior adviser at the Atlantic Council, opens a January 2024 article with the observation that:

“Since World War II ended, America has lost every war it started. Yes, America has lost every war it started – Vietnam, Afghanistan and the second Iraq War.”

He sounds a warning:

“… given likely weapons expenditure rates should a war with China erupt, the U.S. has the capacity for about a month before, as in Ukraine, it runs out of inventory,” before asking his questions: “War with China would be a strategic catastrophe. The U.S. has not explained how such a war could be fought and won. The economic consequences would be disastrous. And how would such a war end? Can anyone answer these questions?”

China is quite adept at utilising sentiments such as these. Major Franz J. Gayl, a retired Marine Corps infantry officer has regularly written for Chinese online news outlet Global Times. Last year, a number of his contributed articles to GT were published as a book, “The United States Will Lose the Coming War with China” which is available on Amazon.

Australia’s Liberal-Labor pro-US coalition has placed a $368 billion bet on the ability of the US to prevent the expansion of Chinese influence in the South Pacific or its recovery of the island province of Taiwan.

It is an expensive way to be taught the African proverb that when the elephants dance, it is the grass that suffers.

Climate Council Media Release

The CLIMATE COUNCIL’s new report, Powering Past Gas: An Energy Strategy that Works, cuts through the noise in Australia’s energy debate, mapping a clear pathway to move beyond gas at home and in our exports.

The report reveals that, if Australia stops opening new gas projects now, supply from existing projects could meet our shrinking domestic gas needs for more than six decades – clear signal that it’s time to turn off the gas tap for good as we accelerate towards a cleaner, more secure energy future.

Climate Councillor Greg Bourne said: “More gas means more harmful climate pollution, endangering our homes and the places we love and putting our kids’ futures at risk. It’s time for Australia to power past gas and turbocharge our switch to clean energy.”

The report emphasises that Australia does not need new gas projects, as the world will shortly be awash with cheap gas at the same time as this fossil fuel will play a shrinking role in our domestic energy mix and that of overseas trade partners like Japan.

“Gas has a small, shrinking and short-term role to play in our energy mix. We can already meet much of our energy needs with renewables, like solar and wind. If we stopped exporting so much gas, current projects would be enough to supply our domestic gas needs for more than 60 years,” said Mr Bourne.

Senior Researcher at the Climate Council Dr. Wesley Morgan highlights the global shifts in energy consumption: “The global energy landscape is rapidly changing. Nations that have traditionally purchased Australian gas, such as Japan, South Korea, and China, are moving to renewables to slash their climate pollution. As we approach 2030 and these countries embrace clean energy, their demand for gas will decline, which means Australian gas expansion is a recipe for economic and environmental chaos.

“Australia must respond to these global shifts or risk being left behind. With new gas projects in the US and Qatar producing massive amounts of new gas, at much lower costs, it’s highly unlikely that new Australian gas projects will be profitable.

“Australia should take control of our own energy and economic future as these global trends accelerate. Now is the moment for Australia to start a sensible phase-out of gas exports as we ramp up the clean alternatives that the Albanese Government has put at the heart of its Future Made in Australia plans.”

The Powering Past Gas report offers a powerful alternative plan to the Government’s Future Gas Strategy, by advocating for a strategic phase-down of gas exports, accelerated electrification at home and a proper domestic reservation policy that prioritises meeting Australia’s shrinking gas needs first.

Dr Jennifer Rayner Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Climate Council said: “The Future Gas Strategy is the wrong response to Australia’s energy needs now. We need new policy thinking, not new gas projects.

“We can accelerate the switch to clean energy in our homes, businesses and industry – including stopping the gas industry itself guzzling up three times more gas than Aussie households use. A responsible domestic reservation policy can then ensure our shrinking gas needs are reliably met, as we prioritise the expansion of clean energy exports that help our export partners cut their climate pollution.”

By James Moore

“Home folks think I’m big in Detroit City. From the letters that I write they think I’m fine. But by day I make the cars, by night I make the bars, if only they could read between the lines. I wanna go home.” – Bobby Bare, “Detroit City”

There are images that never leave a boy’s consciousness. They inform the man he becomes but a certain mystery never recedes. I cannot ever forget seeing my father on the floor of our little house, lying on his back in the living room, kicking and screaming, “I want my mama. I want my mama.” His older brother, Tom, was leaning over Daddy hoping to calm his great angst but was having no success. I was eight years old and was trying to see around my mother’s seersucker waitress dress, fearful and withdrawn. In the driveway, there was a van and two men with white coats who came to the door. My father was a giant but I think they gave him a shot to ease his histrionics because he was stronger than any four men but he was easily handled. They then slipped a kind of jacket over his head and down his arms. The sleeves had ropes and snaps at the end and they were tied and buckled around behind his back. Daddy was sobbing as they helped him out the door.

I knew he was angry. I had seen that and felt it when one of his thundering hands knocked me out or sent my mother or me to the hospital or when he tossed kitchen drawers through the living room window. But I did not know about his sadness. As I became a teenager, I struggled to deal with my father’s antipathy toward me, an almost complete disinterest in his oldest son that I thought bordered on resentment. Maybe he was just angry at all six of his children because we were not what he had planned for after the war. When he got home from France, Daddy figured sharecropping cotton in the Mississippi River bottomland was the way to start his family life but there was no money in such an endeavor. My mother, an immigrant frightened of living in a shack with no electricity or running water, convinced him they needed to go north to look for work in the factories building automobiles and making steel.

Before he had time to think clearly about his future, my father was inside of a loud, cold, and dark factory providing labor for the assembly of Buicks, a car which he could never afford to buy. There were quickly a half dozen children and, in a few years, a $10,500 VA mortgage for an 850 square foot house in a small development across from one of the car plants that made bodies for the automobiles that rolled out of Flint and Detroit and down roads around the world. We were the Dixie Diaspora, gone from the farms of the South in a Great Migration to the industrial North.

There was never a way to know exactly what broke him but there were recurrent bouts of violence against his family, nervous breakdowns, and eventually twenty-four electroshock treatments at a state mental institution in Pontiac, Michigan. I never saw him drink but there was an unnamed darkness that moved within my father and sometimes he took a razor strop down from the wall and walked around the house snapping it for no reason. Maybe he wanted his children to be as afraid as he had been when he was a boy or when he was young and living with the sound of gunfire and cannon in the war, and we were scared.

I do not know if the war took from me the father a child has a right to expect and love. There was no concept of PTSD and soldiers were obligated to return home, forget what they saw and did, and begin their lives anew. The impossibility of that transpiring, and a proliferation of lingering mental anguish had hardly occurred to health care professionals. Because my father was good with a gun and became a sharpshooter, he was inserted behind the advancing Allied lines after D-Day, and went into villages with his platoon, tasked with taking out pockets of German resistance. His mission was to walk across Europe killing the boys who were wearing the Nazi uniform. My uncle once told me of my father’s abilities with a rifle and said, “Your daddy could shoot a squirrel out of the air from fifty yards away using a .22 when it jumped from limb to limb.” A useful skill when humans decide to kill each other over territory and power.

The odds were not good for my parents to experience financial success or find rewarding work after the war. They fell in love when he was patrolling the docks on the Southside of St. John’s Harbor in Newfoundland as an MP and before he left for France, they were married and my mother was pregnant with her first child at seventeen and bound for the land of cotton to await her young soldier’s return. Daddy had a tenth grade education, forced to quit school and work the fields during the Great Depression, and Ma never made it past eighth grade. Even in the great Post War economic boom, they were consigned to menial labor to earn an income. Ma carried burgers and open-faced sandwiches to truckers and factory workers at a roadside restaurant and earned nickel tips and Daddy bent his powerful back to lifting and moving objects needed on the assembly line. Nothing ever improved for them beyond those terms of employment.

Soldier Boy and Island Girl

None of this ever left my mind in those days when I was riding my motorcycle up Mississippi’s Natchez Trace from Texas. My father was lonely and I had questions. I did not expect answers to why he seemingly lacked any interest in my life, or sometimes, I thought, even my existence, but I did hope to reach some understanding of how he became such a troubled soul. The most disturbing memory I had was the day he was angry at my mother for some perceived indiscretion and he broke a broom handle in two and stabbed her in the arm as she tried to defend herself. When I saw the wooden shaft plunge into her forearm and the spurt of blood, I tried to stop Daddy, and later I woke up from my unconsciousness on the kitchen floor. What makes a man do such a thing to his wife?

My father felt a need to return to Mississippi after retiring from the General Motors Assembly plant because a few of his siblings were still living down yonder and he wanted to spend time with them and be around the woods and fields he had known as a young man. People often wish to return home late in life and I wondered if he was thinking about confronting his past in the quietude of those woods where his house sat. Maybe he was seeking more comfortably abiding memories to enjoy in his final years. His proximity to Texas, though, gave me the opportunity to spend time with him and seek a touch of peace regarding what had been missing from my childhood. The slow roll up the tall avenue of loblolly pines lining the Trace relaxed me in a way I had never been when I was around my father, and gave me the courage to confront him, as gently as possible.

Our early conversations were always on the porch of a house he had purchased not too far off the Trace and north of the Choctaw Reservation where he had spent much of his boyhood. I did not sleep in Daddy’s house because of the filth and clutter. He lived almost like a forest creature and never picked up or put away things; a bottle of Ivory Soap was on the fireplace mantle, engine oil containers sat on the edge of the kitchen table, a screwdriver in the sink, dinner plates never washed were in every room, newspapers on the floor, dust and mold spreading across most surfaces, virulent and thick in some spots. I brought my camping tent on the trip, tied to the back of my motorcycle, and slept in his yard near the garden. I told him I liked to be outdoors and that his house was too dirty for me to be comfortable. He ground his teeth but said nothing. Accepting he was no longer in charge was always a struggle for him.

Daddy was not a drinker; even in his most extreme, uncontrolled rages he had been as sober as he was dangerous. I never saw him have a beer when I was a boy, nor was there any type of hard liquor visible in the house. He may have had a nip with his hunting buddies, but we never saw evidence of any drunkenness. In retirement, though, he had been told about a remedy that might help his rheumatoid arthritis, which plagued his back after a life of lifting and carrying and pulling. A friend had informed him that a little glass of whiskey, neat, with a peppermint candy in the bottom of the drink, would ease the pain and ache in his bones. I had hoped it would also loosen him up to tell me stories that had gone untold.

I mentioned I had a fifth of Jack Daniels on my motorcycle in a pack, and some peppermint, if he wanted to sip while he sat the porch swing and waited on the sunset. Daddy got up without speaking and went inside and came back with two of the cleanest glasses he could find, and I got the whiskey off the motorcycle. When I walked back up the steps, he stuck out his glass and I dropped in a peppermint and then poured four fingers over the white and red striped candy. I was determined to hear about a part of his life he had not ever shared. Ma had said that he would not talk about the war to her in the two plus decades they were married. She thought there might not be anything to tell, but that seemed unlikely to me because he had served in France with the 3^rdInfantry Division.

He tipped his glass and fingered the sticky candy in the bottom.

“You reckon this helps?”

“Can’t hurt, Daddy. A little lubrication is good for our veins and bones, don’t ya think?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just the whiskey makin’ me numb.”

“Don’t matter, at this point in your life, does it? If it helps you not to hurt and suffer, can’t be all bad.”

“Well, it ain’t no cure and I never said it was.”

“I didn’t claim you did. I just thought it might be nice to have a drink with my father.”

“Okay then.”

A pickup truck passed on the state road about a quarter mile distant and we heard the loud, broken tailpipe blaring exhaust noise down the concrete. The sun was below the horizon and we had not turned on lights, which made me think he might be more at ease because I could not see his face, especially if I could get him talking about France and World War II. Fireflies were rising out of the overgrown grass surrounding his porch. A brief silence quickly became uncomfortable and I decided to start asking questions.

“I was wondering about your time in the war, Daddy.”

“What ya wonderin’?”

“Where were you?”

“That Alsace Lorry-aine part, I think they called it. I don’t remember, exactly.”

“What was that like?”

“Was like war, that’s what it was like. What you think it would be like?”

“I don’t know, Daddy. You never talked about any of it. Ma said you never even told her anything.”

“Well, it ain’t a damned thing ya talk about. It just was, and I got through it. That’s all there is to it.”

“You can’t tell me anything about it? What you did? What did you have to do?”

“I did what everybody else did, damnit.”

“Which is what? Don’t you think after all this time it might be good to just talk about it to someone who cares?”

“Naw. Hell, naw. Talkin’ about it don’t change a damned thing or make anything better.”

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“Well, there ain’t nothin’ to understand, buddy boy. That’s all.”

“Okay. I guess.”

I extended my arm and held the bottle of Jack into the light from the living room window. Daddy put out his glass and I poured, and then handed him a peppermint, which he unwrapped and dropped into the glass before he sipped. I waited for him to speak again but he said nothing and we both watched the dance of the fireflies grow brighter in the lowering darkness.

What I already knew was that Daddy had been a Private First Class and sharpshooter in the Anti-Tank company of the 3^rd Infantry, which was part of the Sixth Army Group with orders to drive the Nazis out of the Alsace Lorraine region of Northeastern France. He was serving in a battalion fighting in that section of the European Theater during the last two years of the war. The U.S. had liberated the Nazi held positions to the north and south as well as Lorraine to the east but were unable to clear the central part of Alsace, which became known as the Colmar Pocket, named after a small town at its geographic center. The battle intensified when the German Nineteenth Army launched operation Nordwind, attempting to push back the Americans and the French and hold the pocket.

The fiercest part of the combat was from January 22 to February 6 of 1945 during what the Army’s official history described as “incessant fighting” conducted through “enemy-infested marshes and woods, in heavy snowstorms, and over a flat terrain crisscrossed by a number of small canals, irrigation ditches, and unfordable streams, terrain ideally suited for defense.” The topography was made even more challenging for advancing Americans by the weather, which was detailed by a French General as “uncommonly cold” for the region. The term “Siberian” was used for comparison. Three feet of snow fell during the engagement, temperatures dropped to -4 Fahrenheit, and strong winds scoured the battleground and piled up problematic drifts.

The initial objective of the assault was to reach the 111 River and lay down a bridge to enable armored units to cross and support the 30^thInfantry. The portable bridge collapsed as a German Panzer brigade attacked, though, and the 3^rd Infantry elements were forced back into fighting house to house and street by street, decidedly outnumbered and outgunned. The snow was knee deep and thick with mines as waves of German armor and infantry kept coming at the Americans, but they ultimately managed to hold the bridgehead. In a week of fighting and dying and living in the cold, the 3^rd crossed the Colmar Canal in rubber boats and moved to capture six towns from the enemy in just eight hours. After enduring 500 casualties, the German garrison was cut off at Colmar, which assured the fall of the city.

The 3^rd then moved south toward the Rhine and Rhine Canal and took two strategic bridges to complete what was frequently called “one of the hardest fought and bloodiest battles of the war,” probably because Hitler viewed that region of France as historically sovereign territory of Germany; a loss would also signify the end of German occupation of the country. By the time the Alsatian Plain had been completely secured, the 3^rd Infantry Division was credited with annihilating three enemy divisions, including the feared 2d Mountain Divisions and the 708^thVolksgrenadiers Division, badly mauling the 186^th and 16^th Volksgrenadiers Divisions, capturing 4,000 prisoners, ending German occupation of twenty-two towns, and inflicting more than 7,000 casualties on the enemy. The final report stated that the 3^rd also killed a disproportionate number of the enemy compared to the total it took as prisoners of war.

Daddy had given me a copy of his discharge papers many years earlier and I had read some history of his division. I wanted to know at least a part of what he saw and what he did because I felt that it might help explain his emotional instability and his brutality to his family, and I refused to relent.

“Weren’t you part of that last assault in Northern France, Daddy? Were you there?”

“I was where we went. I don’t even know exactly. I told you it was the Alsace place.”

“What did you have to do?”

“Hell, you know what I had to do.” He sipped the last of his second glass of whiskey and got up from his chair. “I’m goin’ to bed, buddy boy.”

“I want to talk about this some more, Daddy.”

“I know ya do. But I don’t. And I ain’t a gonna.”

His balance was affected by the alcohol and he leaned on the door frame before he pulled the screen open and let it slam behind him. I watched him switch off the living room lights and go down the hallway littered with clothes and shoes he had not bothered to pick up and put in drawers or closets. His broad square shoulders were going rounded and seemed to curl forward and he struggled to maintain his proud, erect posture. I fell asleep on the porch listening to the country night and thinking that the world had mostly taken from my father and had given very little in return. I wondered how many there were just like him, trying to act as if nothing had happened to them in their youth.

The Man in Full

The next morning, we drove up to Starkville to get the oil changed in his car. We also stopped at McDonald’s because they offered specials for seniors. McDonald’s seemed to attract older diners in the mornings, and they sat and drank coffee and ate Egg McMuffins and talked across the tables. Daddy liked to chat with the strangers, probably because he lived alone, and his voice could carry across any room. Instead, on this particular morning, after he had finished slowly eating, he was quiet and stared at his coffee. I waited patiently for him to reveal what he was thinking, knowing that he might not say a word until prompted.

“You asked me to tell you somethin’ about the war,” he said.

“I’ve asked you many times, Daddy. You know that.”

“Well, I’m gonna tell you somethin’, but I don’t wanna talk about it after I’m done and I don’t wanna answer any questions about it, neither.”

The narrative he shared was about an incident that occurred after the 3^rd Infantry had ceased combat operations in Northeast France. German POWs were being put on trains to be shipped to repatriation camps and his unit had been ordered to guard the trains and not let anyone escape. Prisoners were loaded onto freight cars, sometimes the same ones that had carried Jews to concentration camps, and the POWs were told getting off was strictly prohibited under penalty of death. Daddy said he did not know if there was a portable latrine or a slop jar that the Germans could use on the train or if they were simply expected to defecate in the same space in which they would travel.

“I was just standing there along the tracks with my gun over my shoulder and talkin’ to my sergeant when he told me to turn around and look up the tracks,” Daddy said. “Some damned Kraut kid had jumped down from one of the cars and had walked off to take a piss. That’s all, just take a piss.”

His sergeant immediately reminded him of his orders. Daddy remembered the brief conversation in great detail. “He said, ‘Take him down, private. We have our orders.’ I told him I couldn’t shoot a man for just takin’ a piss. He said orders was orders and I knew what I had to do. I looked at him like he was crazy, but I raised my rifle and stared at the German a long time through my scope. He was just some blonde-haired damn teenager, didn’t look old enough to be outta school, much less fightin’ in a war. I didn’t see no reason to shoot nobody. The war over, far as we was concerned.”

In this moment, though, it was not, and his sergeant became threatening.

“Private, I am ordering you again to take down the enemy prisoner. Your failure to comply with this order puts you at risk of court martial at the end of the war. Failure to follow yours orders at this point would be very foolish.”

Daddy remembered that last command, but nothing stayed in his memory with the same intensity as when he recalled what he did to POW.

“I lifted my rifle, he was pretty far off, and I thought I could miss him, and he’d be warned and run back into the freight car. But the sergeant said I had been assigned to guard duty because I was a sharpshooter and he didn’t expect me to miss. I didn’t, neither. I decided I wanted it to be quick for him and me and I put a bullet through his head. When we went up to him to check he was dead, we saw he weren’t nothin’ more than a boy, just like I thought. His cheeks was even pink, and I remember his eyes, like he was shocked. He lay there all dead and gone; still had his pecker in his hand.”

“Jesus, Daddy. I don’t even know what to say.”

He sipped his coffee. “There ain’t never anything to say about any of all that, like I told ya before. But I been seein’ that boy just about every day of my life ever since. I think about what his life mighta been like, even, that sorta thing. Just didn’t seem right I had to do that. Still don’t seem right.”

“It wasn’t. But you aren’t guilty of anything.”

“I pulled the damn trigger, didn’t I?”

“But it was war, and you were following orders.”

“None of that meant a damned thing when I saw that boy’s face. Still don’t.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me, too. Have been my whole life, and it’s why I never talked about it. I try not to think about it but still do here some forty years on.”

“I have to ask something else, Daddy. And you aren’t gonna like the question.”

“What? What is it?”

“I need to know what you were thinking and why you stabbed Ma with that broomstick. You could’ve killed her.”

“I don’t know what the hell you are talking about, buddy boy.”

“Yes, you do. You got arrested. She finally filed charges and then divorced you.”

“Well, I know I got divorced but I sure don’t know what you are talking about with no stabbin’.”

“How can you not remember that, Daddy?”

“Cuz I don’t reckon it ever happened.”

“You think I made it up?”

“I just don’t know where that damn story came from and I ain’t gonna answer for somethin’ I didn’t do.”

The two dozen electroshock treatments he had received when he was held in a state mental institution, I came to learn later, had likely obliterated much of his memory. I began to think of this as a kind of grace for my father later in his life because he otherwise would have likely been haunted by his treatment of his wife and children. No further response from me was adequate, so I said nothing.

Riding the motorcycle down the two-lane blacktop the next morning and heading toward Texas, I was unable to stop thinking about my father’s description of the German boy and what war must have done to his family. But the killer also dies, just a lot slower and in different ways than the killed. Understanding my father’s anger at the world as he tried to live his life became a bit more possible for me. His wound seemed more harmful than an injury from an enemy’s bullet or shrapnel, and I had no intention of reopening it.

My responsibility became forgiveness.

This article was originally published on Texas to the world.

By Denis Hay

Description

Explore claims about Australia’s domestic violence statistics. Is it a genuine crisis or political misinformation? Analysis backed by AIC data.

The discourse on violence against women in Australia has intensified, especially with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s recent declaration of domestic violence as a national crisis. This critique examines the validity of these claims, exploring whether the narrative is driven by genuine concern or political motives, and analyses the statistics from the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC).

Causes of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a complex issue with various contributing factors. It affects individuals across all demographics, and both men and women can be perpetrators and victims. Understanding these dynamics and the underlying causes is essential for effective intervention.

1. Socioeconomic Factors:

– Poverty and Unemployment: Financial stress and lack of employment can increase household tensions, leading to higher instances of domestic violence.

– Substance Abuse: Alcohol and drug abuse are significant risk factors that contribute to violent behaviour within relationships.

2. Psychological Factors:

– Mental Health Issues: Conditions such as depression, anxiety, and personality disorders can heighten the risk of violent behaviour.

– History of Abuse: Individuals who experienced or saw domestic violence as children are more likely to engage in similar behaviours as adults.

3. Cultural and Societal Norms:

– Gender Roles: Traditional gender roles and societal expectations can create power imbalances that justify the use of violence to keep control.

– Cultural Acceptance: In some cultures, domestic violence may be more accepted or overlooked, making it harder for victims to seek help.

Perpetrators and Victims: Men and Women

Both men and women can be perpetrators and victims of domestic violence. Data from the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) provide insights into this dynamic:

– Female Victims: The AIC reported a 28% increase in intimate partner homicides involving female victims from 2021-22 to 2022-23.

– Male Victims: The AIHW notes that in intimate partner homicides, about 25% of the victims are male.

Men and Women Who Kill Their Children

Filicide, the act of a parent killing their child, is a tragic aspect of domestic violence that affects all genders. According to data:

– Male Perpetrators: Men are more likely to kill their children in the context of broader family violence or as part of retaliatory or control behaviours during separations.

– Female Perpetrators: Women who commit filicide often have different underlying factors, such as severe mental health issues, including postnatal depression, or a history of being victims of abuse themselves.

The AIHW and AIC provide data on these trends:

– Between 2010 and 2018, filicide was committed by both male and female perpetrators, with variations in motivations and circumstances.

– A considerable proportion of these tragic events occur during periods of intended or actual separation between parents.

Claims and Counterclaim

Political Motivation and Funding

– Claim: Critics argue that the heightened focus on domestic violence is a tactic to secure more funding for the domestic violence sector and gain political leverage.

– Analysis: While political motivations may play a role, it is essential to recognize the real and ongoing issue of domestic violence. Political strategies should not overshadow the importance of addressing and mitigating these issues.

Exaggeration of Statistics

– Claim: The statistics on men’s violence against women are exaggerated to depict men as inherently violent and justify stringent measures.

– Analysis: According to AIC data, intimate partner homicides (IPH) involving female victims increased by 28% from 2021-22 to 2022-23. However, overall homicide rates have declined over the past three decades, suggesting a long-term reduction in violence despite recent fluctuations.

Effectiveness of Misinformation

– Claim: Misinformation and exaggerated statistics do not aid in reducing domestic violence.

– Analysis: Accurate data is crucial for effective policymaking. Overstating the problem can lead to misallocation of resources and hinder effective intervention strategies. A balanced approach that acknowledges both progress and areas needing improvement is vital.

Statistical Overview from the AIC

Source: Australian Institute of Criminology

The Requirements of Intimacy

The only way to build a successful intimate relationship is if you can accept the other person has thoughts, beliefs, preferences, and feelings that differ from you.

• Can you respect those differences? Can you cherish the other person despite them? Can you accept them without trying to change them?
• Can you disclose anything about yourself, including your deepest thoughts and feelings, without fear of rejection, criticism, or misunderstanding?
• Is the message of your relationship, “grow, expand, create, disclose, reveal? Or is it, “hide, conceal, think only in certain ways, behave only in certain ways, feel only certain feelings?”
• Does this relationship offer both parties optimal growth? Can you both develop into the greatest persons you can be?
• Red Flag of potential abuse: blamers. People who blame their emotional states or behaviour on someone or something else in dating will eventually turn the blame on you.

The Role of Self-Image and Self-Esteem in Partner Attraction and Intimate Partner Violence

Self-Image and Partner Attraction

1. Self-Image and Attraction:

– Positive Self-Image: Individuals with a positive self-image often show confidence and self-assurance, traits that are generally attractive to potential partners. A healthy self-image can foster better social interactions and higher likelihood of forming positive relationships.
– Negative Self-Image: Conversely, a negative self-image can lead to insecurity and low self-esteem, which might repel potential partners or attract partners who may look to exploit these vulnerabilities. This dynamic can set the stage for unhealthy relationships.

2. Influence on Relationship Dynamics:

– Confidence and Compatibility: Those with high self-esteem are more likely to seek partners who respect and value them, leading to healthier and more balanced relationships. They are also better equipped to communicate effectively and handle conflicts constructively.
– Insecurity and Dependence: Individuals with low self-esteem may become overly dependent on their partners for validation, potentially fostering unhealthy attachment styles. This dependence can lead to tolerance of negative behaviours or abusive tendencies in partners.

Self-Esteem and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

1. Risk Factors for IPV:
– Low Self-Esteem: Research shows that low self-esteem is a significant risk factor for both experiencing and perpetrating intimate partner violence. Victims with low self-esteem may feel undeserving of better treatment and stay in abusive relationships, while perpetrators may use violence to compensate for their own insecurities and feelings of inadequacy.
– Power and Control: IPV often stems from a desire for power and control. Perpetrators with low self-esteem may feel the need to dominate their partners to boost their self-worth, using violence to exert control and keep power in the relationship.

2. Cycle of Abuse:
– Perpetuation of Low Self-Esteem: Victims of IPV often experience a decline in self-esteem due to constant belittlement, emotional abuse, and physical violence. This diminished self-esteem makes it increasingly difficult for them to leave the abusive relationship, perpetuating the cycle of abuse.
– Interventions: Addressing self-esteem issues through counselling and support groups can be crucial in breaking the cycle of abuse. Empowering victims and providing them with tools to rebuild their self-worth is a vital step in intervention and prevention.

Supporting Evidence

1. Research Studies:

– A study published in the journal Violence and Victims found that low self-esteem in women was significantly associated with both experiencing and perpetrating IPV (Lewis et al., 2001).
– The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) reports that low self-esteem and self-worth are common among both victims and perpetrators of domestic violence, underscoring the importance of psychological factors in IPV dynamics (NCADV, 2018).

2. Therapeutic Approaches:

– Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) has been effective in helping individuals with low self-esteem to challenge negative thought patterns and build a healthier self-image. This therapeutic approach can be particularly beneficial for both victims and perpetrators of IPV (Horsfall, 2001).

3. Community Support:

– Community programs that focus on empowerment and self-esteem building have shown promise in reducing the incidence of IPV. Programs that provide education, support groups, and resources for building self-worth are essential in fostering healthy relationships and preventing domestic violence (Kasturirangan et al., 2004).

Conclusion: Self-image and self-esteem play crucial roles in partner attraction and intimate partner violence. Positive self-esteem fosters healthier relationship choices and dynamics, while low self-esteem can increase vulnerability to abusive relationships and perpetuate the cycle of IPV. Addressing these psychological factors through therapy and community support is essential for preventing and intervening in cases of domestic violence.

References for Above

– Lewis, S. F., Travea, L., & Fremouw, W. (2001). Characteristics of female perpetrators and victims of dating violence. Violence and Victims, 16(1), 3-15.
– National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV). (2018). Domestic violence and self-esteem. Retrieved from NCADV.
– Horsfall, J. (2001). Cognitive-behavioural therapy in treating low self-esteem. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 15(3), 243-254.
– Kasturirangan, A., Krishnan, S., & Riger, S. (2004). The impact of cultural factors on domestic violence in South Asian communities. Violence Against Women, 10(3), 282-302.

Conclusion

Domestic violence is a complex issue with numerous contributing factors, affecting both men and women as perpetrators and victims. Recognizing this complexity is crucial for developing effective interventions and policies. Accurate data and an understanding of the underlying causes are essential for addressing this pervasive social problem.

For further information and detailed statistics, please refer to the Australian Institute of Criminology and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

By acknowledging the complexity of domestic violence and relying on factual evidence, we can work towards more effective solutions that protect all individuals, regardless of gender.

Resources for Researchers

Resources for researchers, policy-makers, intervention providers, victim advocates, law enforcement, judges, attorneys, family court mediators, educators, and anyone interested in family violence

Question for Readers

– How can we ensure discussions on domestic violence remain focused on effective solutions rather than being swayed by political agendas?

Call to Action

– For Policymakers: Prioritize data-driven approaches to address domestic violence and distribute resources where they are most needed.

– For the Public: Stay informed by seeking out reputable sources and engage in constructive discussions on how to reduce violence in our communities.

This critique emphasizes the importance of evidence-based approaches and transparent reporting in addressing complex social issues like domestic violence, ensuring that efforts are both effective and just.

Recommended Course:

Free Stuff

Core Value Course

References:

Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), “Homicide in Australia 2022-23” [AIC Homicide Statistics.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), “Domestic Homicide“.

Homicide in Australia 2022-23

Homicide incidents 1989–90 to 2022–23

Homicide victims 1989–90 to 2022–23

Homicide offenders 1989–90 to 2022–23

Sentencing for child homicide offences

Female perpetrated intimate partner homicide

The role of depression in intimate partner homicide perpetrated by men against women

Videos Relating to Article:

The War on Men is total government misinformation

The absurdity of Australia’s Minister for Men’s Behaviour

Australia’s Big Lie

This article was originally published on https://socialjusticeaustralia.com/domestic-violence-crisis.html

National climate group Solutions for Climate Australia expressed extreme disappointment and concern at the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton proposing further decades of delay in tackling climate change, despite increasing climate disasters.

This follows a statement by Peter Dutton today, in an interview with The Australian, that the Federal Liberal Party wants to reject current targets and plans to reduce Australia’s climate pollution this decade.

“It is a tragedy that the Federal Liberal Party has no plan to stop the increasing climate disasters which are directly killing Australians, and damaging communities, agriculture and businesses across the country, and globally,” said Dr Barry Traill, Director of Solutions for Climate Australia.

“We need decisive action on climate pollution this decade to protect farmers, our food supply, businesses and trade. From uninsurable houses, to declining crop yields, to direct threats to life and property, we are all now being hurt by climate disasters.

“Australians voted decisively for action on climate in the 2022 election. Mr Dutton’s weak, do-nothing approach on climate is out of step with the electorate. The community showed it expects all political parties to adopt strong, science-based targets to reduce pollution.”

“The federal Coalition has not heeded the message of the nation on climate. They must do better.”

CFMEU Media Release

Claims Australia is suffering a major shortage of tradespeople have been shot down in a major blow for bosses’ lobbyists trying to exploit and undercut workers.

A CFMEU analysis of Jobs & Skills Australia occupation and internet job advertisements data busts the myth peddled by employer groups that there is a worker shortage which must be addressed through migration.

The vast majority of building and construction-related jobs have an indicative vacancy rate below 1%.

In February, there were just 56 ads for plasters – a profession employing 27,600 people nationally.

There are 30,000 bricklayers and stonemasons employed in Australia, yet only 111 job ads, which indicates a vacancy rate of 0.4%.

Vacancies for plumbers, tilers, fencers, carpenters and joiners, insulation and home improvement installers were all lower than 1%.

CFMEU National Secretary Zach Smith said:

“We have exposed the blatant lie that Australia is suffering from a tradie shortage that must be fixed through migration.

“Master Builders is pushing a pathetic fiction so they can access easily exploitable migrant labour and undercut the wages and conditions construction workers deserve.

“These groups should be absolutely ashamed of pushing complete bullshit that is designed to hurt Australian workers.

“The most in-demand job in the sector is construction managers – not people on the tools building the homes, offices and infrastructure Australia needs.

“The most appalling part is this myth isn’t just being peddled by exploitation-hungry employer associations, it’s also coming from within BuildSkills Australia, which is supposed to be an impartial source of information for the federal government.”

Mr Smith has written to BuildSkills Australia CEO Brett Schimming raising deep concerns with the organisation’s recent submission calling for more trades to be added to the Core Skills Occupation List.

The CFMEU national secretary also raised concerns BuildSkills’ Rob Sobyra’s media commentary backing the position of employer groups.

“Allowing an employee to express their own personal opinion as being reflective of the position of the organisation is totally unacceptable,” Mr Smith wrote.

“If BuildSkills is to have the continued support of the CFMEU then we require you to take urgent action to rectify this unacceptable situation and to inform the foundation members of the action that you are taking.”

By Michael Willis

The first operational outcome of the Pillar 2 AUKUS arrangement between the US, UK and Australia has just been announced.

The three countries will share data from their submarine-hunting PA-8 Poseidon aircraft, manufactured by the troubled Boeing Corporation.

This was announced on May 29 in an “exclusive interview” given to US online website Breaking Defense by Michael Horowitz, whose office serves as the Pentagon’s day-to-day lead on AUKUS issues.

(In a deliciously ironic slip, the website referred to the United Kingdom as the “Untied Kingdom”, true of the political cohesion of both the UK and the US at this time.)

All three AUKUS nations:

“… operate the Boeing-made maritime surveillance aircraft; the US operates 120, Australia 12, and the United Kingdom nine. A key part of the P-8 is its collection of sonobuoys, which are dropped into the water to hunt down submarines. (“Sonobuoys” is the preferred US-spelling of the English language “sonar buoys”.)

According to Horowitz, the Pentagon’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Development and Emerging Capabilities, a new “trilateral algorithm” will allow them to share information from P-8 sonar buoys between each other.

According to Breaking Defense, the trilateral algorithm requires a high level of trust between the three countries.

“Even among Five Eyes partners,” it says, “sonobuoy information is highly sensitive, as sharing that data not only makes clear what each country has the ability to gather and where those buoys are deployed, but because it clearly reveals what and where each country is tracking.”

Pillar 2 arrangements build on those of Pillar 1 which are solely concerned with Australia’s acquisition of the hugely expensive nuclear-powered submarines.

At a cost averaged out at $A33 million a day over 35 years, we are promised a fleet of 8 submarines with the apparent advantages of extended range and endurance, higher speed, increased payload capacity, and reduced refuelling needs.

But given our own use of sonar buoys and knowing that our own all-but-at-war with “enemy”, China, has the same or superior detection technologies, it is the claim that SSNs (nuclear-powered submarines) have greater stealth and reduced detectability that is the major sales pitch justifying our $368 billion spend.

SSNs are claimed to have reduced noise and to be able to operate at greater depths, thus making them harder to detect.

Reduced noise will affect passive sonar buoys which listen for sounds generated by submarines. These sounds can include engine noise, propeller cavitation, or other mechanical noises.

Greater depth will affect active sonar buoys, those that send out a sound wave which then bounces off the submarine, allowing the buoy to detect the “ping” that travels back to the buoy. That ping is weaker the greater distance it has to travel.

Former Senator and submariner Rex Patrick was critical of the AUKUS decision for Australia to begin its SSN acquisition with the purchase of three second-hand Virginia Class SSNs from the US.

“The first highly noticeable issue with the Virginia class is a problem that has surfaced with the submarine’s acoustic coating that’s designed to reduce the ‘target strength’ of the submarine (how much sound energy from an enemy active sonar bounces off the submarine, back to the enemy),” he said.

“The coating is prone to peeling off at high-speed leaving loose cladding that slaps against the hull, making dangerous noise, and causes turbulent water flow, which also causes dangerous hull resonance (where the hull sings at its resonant frequency, like a tuning fork) and extra propulsion noise. I know a bit about this as a former underwater acoustics specialist.”

Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD) is another method of detection. MAD detects disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field caused by the metal hull of a submarine. MAD sensors are typically deployed on aircraft and can detect submarines at relatively close ranges. The signals weaken with distance.

However, the Chinese are developing the ability to detect extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic signal produced by speeding subs.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter found an ultra-sensitive magnetic detector could pick up traces of the most advanced submarine from long distances away.

The researchers calculated that the extremely low frequency (ELF) signal produced by a submarine’s bubbles could be stronger than the sensitivities of advanced magnetic anomaly detectors by three to six orders of magnitude.

The bubbles are an inevitable consequence of the submarine’s cruising speed, which causes the water flowing around the hull to move faster as its kinetic energy increases and its potential energy – expressed as pressure – decreases. When the pressure decreases sufficiently, small bubbles form on the surface of the hull as some of the water vaporises. This process causes turbulence and can produce an electromagnetic signature, in a phenomenon known as the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effect.

Though faint, ELF signals can travel great distances, thanks to their ability to penetrate the water and reach the ionosphere, where they are reflected back to the Earth’s surface.

Detection by ELF turns the advantage of an SSNs higher speed into its opposite, namely the disadvantage of higher detectability.

This ability of science to increase the detection of SSNs led even the pro-US Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) to publish a warning that “the oceans of tomorrow may become ‘transparent’. The submarine era could follow the battleship era and fade into history.”

It titled its article on a study of submarine detection by Australian scientists and academics “Advances in detection technology could render AUKUS submarines useless by 2050.”

According to the authors:

“The results should ring alarm bells for the AUKUS program to equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. Our assessment suggests that there will only be a brief window of time between the deployment of the first SSN AUKUS boats and the onset of transparent oceans.”

However, it is the expanding frontier of quantum computing that may be the ultimate nail in the AUKUS submarines coffin.

Quantum computing is the sexy new kid on the block – witness the Australian government’s investment of almost a billion dollars in a bid to build the world’s first commercially useful quantum computer in Brisbane. It’s bound to make the shareholders of US company PsiQuantum very happy, including notorious corporate investors such as Black Rock.

In July 2016, the Australia government awarded a contract to local company Q-CTRL to develop a quantum navigation system can use the motions of a single atom to precisely determine the course and position of a submarine and maintain accuracy to a remarkable degree. This overcomes two disadvantages of navigation by GPS: GPS is vulnerable to jamming by an adversary, and its signals cannot penetrate sea water to any appreciable depth.

That’s the good news story.

The bad news is that China has already funded its multi-billion-dollar National Quantum Laboratories to develop quantum-based technology applications for “immediate use to the Chinese armed forces”, possibly including targeting stealthy submarines.

According to Zhu Jin in The Conversation:

“New quantum sensing systems offer more sensitive detection and measurement of the physical environment. Existing stealth systems, including the latest generation of warplanes and ultra-quiet nuclear submarines, may no longer be so hard to spot.”

Using devices that measure and analyse the gravitational pull exercised by the mass of a submarine on the movement of sub-atomic particles in a sensor would overcome the disadvantages of sonar buoys and magnetometers, rendering any otherwise undetectable object with mass detectable.

The other area in which China is more advanced than its competitors is the use of quantum computing for encryption and decryption of communications.

In a 2022 paper on Quantum Computing and Cryptography, the authors that:

“China has set the pace for creating secure quantum communications that cannot be intercepted or manipulated. Further advances in Chinese quantum communication networks, especially networks designed for military use, will put the Navy at increased risk when deployed to the Indo-Pacific. If Chinese communications are virtually unbreakable and U.S. Navy communications can be exploited by Chinese quantum code-breaking technology, it will quickly lose its ability to safely operate among PLAN forces.”

All of this leaves one wondering about just what due diligence was done before Morrison, and the 24-hour copycat decision-maker Albanese, committed us to the folly of paying $A368 billion to purchase a subservient position embedded within the US war machine by means of a soon-to-be fully detectable and therefore likely to be destroyed fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

Oxfam Australia Media Release

Two-thirds of population now squeezed into less than a fifth of the Gaza Strip

Israel’s relentless air and land bombardment and deliberate obstruction of the humanitarian response is making it virtually impossible for aid agencies to reach trapped, starved civilians in Gaza, Oxfam said today, as the latest ceasefire deal negotiations continue.

A lethal combination of closed border crossings, ongoing airstrikes, reduced logistical capacity due to evacuation notices and a failing Israeli permission process that debilitates humanitarian movement within Gaza, have created an impossible environment for aid agencies to operate effectively.

With the Rafah Crossing closed since 6 May, Kerem Shalom is the only crossing that thousands of humanitarian aid trucks queued at Rafah could be re-routed to use, but inside is an active combat zone and extremely dangerous. Long delays in Israeli approval to collect and move any aid that enters, means that missions often have to be aborted.

Over one million people have fled Rafah into Al Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. 1.7 million people, more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population, are now estimated to be crammed into an area of 69 km2 – less than a fifth of the Strip. Despite Israeli assurances that full support would be provided for people fleeing, most of Gaza has been deprived of humanitarian aid, as famine inches closer. Last week, Israeli attacks killed dozens of civilians in tents in areas it had declared “safe zones”.

As the humanitarian situation within Gaza deteriorates even further and more children die of starvation and disease, Oxfam said that:

• A food survey by aid agencies in May found that 85 per cent of children did not eat for a whole day at least once in the three days before the survey was conducted, with dietary diversity worsening.
• Living conditions are so appalling that in Al-Mawasi, there are just 121 latrines for over 500,000 people – or 4,130 people having to share each toilet.
• Just 19 per cent of the 400,000 litres of fuel a day needed to run the humanitarian operation in Gaza – including transportation, the provision of clean water and sewage removal – is being allowed in and is not delivered every day.
• According to the UN, aid deliveries have dropped by two-thirds since Israel’s invasion of Rafah. Since 6 May, just 216 trucks of humanitarian aid entered via Kerem Shalom and were able to be collected – an average of eight a day
• It’s estimated that hundreds of commercial food trucks are entering daily via the Kerem Shalom crossing. Although important for increasing food availability in Gaza, the consignments include items like non-nutritious energy drinks, chocolate and cookies, and food is often sold at inflated prices that people cannot afford. Lack of dietary diversity is one of the key drivers of acute malnutrition and has been assessed as ‘extremely critical’ in Gaza
• People are paying nearly $700 for the most basic tents and there is so little space left, that some have been forced to set up tents in the cemetery at Deir al-Balah

Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa Director said: “By the time a famine is declared, it will be too late. When hunger claims many more lives, nobody will be able to deny the horrifying impact of Israel’s deliberate, illegal and cruel obstruction of aid. Obstructing tonnes of food for a malnourished population while waving through caffeine-laced drinks and chocolate is sickening.

“Israel claimed weeks ago that it would provide full humanitarian support and medical assistance to civilians it had told to move. Not only is this not happening, its ongoing impunity, bombardment and deliberate obstruction have created unprecedented and impossibly dangerous conditions for humanitarian agencies to operate.”

As the occupying power, Israel is legally obligated not to restrict or delay the entry of goods required to meet the basic needs of Gaza’s residents, and must actively guarantee the continuous and uninterrupted supply of all aid.

Meera, an Oxfam staff member in Al-Mawasi who has been displaced seven times since October said “This area was designated a humanitarian zone, but there is nothing humanitarian about the situation here. The conditions are unbearable, there is no access to clean water, people are forced to rely on the sea.

“These people deserve so much better. Children should be in school, not worrying about how to support their families. Babies should be sleeping in warm beds, not exposed to insects.”

Oxfam is calling for an immediate, permanent ceasefire to end the death and destruction, full and permanent access of all ground crossings for humanitarian aid to be delivered at scale and the release of all hostages and unlawfully detained Palestinian prisoners.