1/. “Everything I know about morality & the obligations of men I owe to football” (Camus)
Football teaches us about team work & camaraderie, courage & fair play but most importantly it teaches us that some things are more important than winning #AFCON2021
2/. The lessons offered by football extend beyond our individual & collective behaviours
Just as FIFA sets the rules of the game on the pitch, so bodies such as the UN, set out rules on the world stage through a framework of intn'l law #AfricaCupOfNations
3/. Just as the rules of football ensure fairness on the pitch, so human rights ensure fairness around the world
Footballers should be free to express themselves on the pitch in the same way we should all be free to express our views & beliefs. #AFCON2021
4/. Just as footballers should be able to move around the pitch, so people should have freedom of assembly
Just as footballers shouldn't be shown the red card for no reason, so no one should be arbitrarily arrested, abused or detained without a fair trial
5/. Like the rules of football, human rights are well established & internationally agreed
Just as teams must respect the rules of the game, so nations are must uphold intn’l human rights law
If they fail to do so, @amnesty & @hrw will blow the whistle.
6/. Just as video technology/VAR is now being used to help football referees, so sophisticated digital tools & satellite technology are helping human rights organizations expose crimes, identify rights abuses & try to end impunity #AfricaCup#AFCON2021#AFCON#AfricanCupofNations
7/. Like a manager withdrawing his team mid-tournament, Trump withdrew the US from the UN Human Rights Council in 2018
The US - alongside Iran, North Korea & Eritrea - is now in a small group of countries now outside the UNHRC
It is also one of 7 countries not party to the ICC
8/. Imagine the chaos at #AFCON2021 if one team ignored the rules & was allowed to get away with it
Other teams would be encouraged to do the same
Players would be handling the ball & fouling each other ignoring the whistles of the referee & the incandescent rage of the crowd.
9/. Some world leaders try to justify human rights violations on grounds of national security, but the truth is there can be no genuine security without human rights
Other leaders - in Africa, Asia, the Americas & Europe - don't even try to justify their attacks on human rights.
10/. Just as a football team at the #AFCON2021 that egregiously & repeatedly indulged in foul play would face fines, points deductions or even disqualification, so it is time for the world to come together & to show rights abusing governments the red card.
12/. But in terms of corruption it is Western counties who are in the Premiere League
In 2016, mafia expert @robertosaviano said the UK is most corrupt country in the world with “90% of the owners of capital in London having their HQs offshore”
1/. “It is the greatest mass-killing in recorded history; & it goes on daily, hourly, as regularly as the ticking of your watch”
Arthur Koestler’s 1944 essay expressing frustration at the failure of the world to acknowledge Nazi atrocities resonates today wethescreamers.com
2/ “There are a few of us…yelling at you in newspapers…Now & then we reach your ear…But it only lasts a minute. You shake yourself like puppies who’ve got their fur wet; then the screen again descends & you walk on, protected by the dream-barrier which stifles all sound”
#Gaza
3/ Koestler notes maniacs lose contact with reality so “perhaps it’s we, the screamers, who react in a sound & healthy way to the reality which surrounds us, whereas you are the neurotics who totter about in a screened fantasy world because you lack the faculty to face the facts”
“They got me!” Liz Truss tells far-right kingpin, Steve Bannon, before going on to explain that, to have effectively tackled “the deep state” that runs Britain & its institutions, she would have “needed a bigger bazooka”! #LizTruss #BritanniaUnchained
"I was just saying it like it is & that’s what people respect me for"(!)
Liz Truss’ compares her premiership to a one night stand & says she was just “fattening the pig” for slaughter & that she should have gaslit the public like Rishi Sunak is doing (!)
"I faced the most almighty backlash...from the usual suspects in the media” Liz Truss
“Truss's decline is simultaneously tragic & horrifying but the claim that the media conspired against her can't go unchallenged. There are front pages praising her to the rafters” @mrjamesob
As the 2nd module of the #CovidInquiry begins covering “core UK decision-making & political governance”, comes news that Rishi Sunak - like Boris Johnson - has also fail to fully comply with the order to hand his WhatsApp messages
“The govt needs get professional IT experts to recover these messages”
Charles Persinger who lost his wife & mother to #COVID, echoes the call of @CovidJusticeUK’s lawyers calling on the @covidinquiryuk to commission experts to retrieve Sunak & Johnson’s ‘lost’ WhatsApp messages
Twitter's new privacy policy takes effect on 29 September
It gives X the right to use your posts - including DMs - & all your data - including phone, email, biometrics (e.g. face scans & eye scans) to train their AI & to share with any partner X wants👇 twitter.com/en/privacy
“I do not accept that Twitter has deteriorated in any way since Elon Musk took over”
A week before Twitter’s change in privacy policy, some questions for @elonmusk
1. What biometric information will be collected & what are the intended uses?
How will X ensure that that the data of X’s 530 million users isn’t used for unlawful purposes? mashable.com/article/x-twit…
1/. “I am often asked why the UK doesn’t have a successful far-right populist party. My answer is: because it doesn’t need to” @julie_renbe
Far-right politics are becoming mainstreamed in:
Italy
Finland
Sweden
Greece
France
Hungary
Poland
Germany
Spain
UK theguardian.com/books/2023/jul…
2/. The far right is being increasingly mainstreamed in both European & US politics
Last October, Giorgia Meloni - head of the Brothers of Italy party, which has historical roots in the post-war neo-fascist Italian Social Movement - won Italy’s election nytimes.com/2023/07/31/pod…