“Our own backyard is worth examining for our humanity. It has been reported that there are around 1700 people each night in Canberra who sleep without a roof over their heads,” writes political columnist MICHAEL MOORE.
“Shockin’ me right outta my brain” was the Skyhooks’ lyric in Horror Movie, which bemoaned the television reporting of the Vietnam War.
How much more are we shocked outta our brains with the addition of appalling images on social media?
During the Vietnam War era, it was not the images that offended, but rather the reality of what people were seeing as the war dragged on.
Social media brought the plight of people even closer, especially in Palestine and Ukraine. However, atrocities are also being committed in such areas as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Mali and Sudan.
Images are coming to our personal devices wherever we are, whenever we open them. It is no longer just the nightly news.
The images reveal returning to a time where some people have no humanity for others, no compassion. In Australia, and perhaps in Canberra specifically, we have the good fortune to look through a very privileged lens at the rest of the world.
It is incomprehensible, when looking through this lens, to understand how people can treat each other so abominably.
Starving and killing babies, small children and teenagers is simply barbaric. Revenge killing, particularly when it is at a disproportionate level, is even more appalling. It is an offence against international legislation, an affront to the UN Charter on Human Rights and is certainly immoral.
There are less extreme situations that also lack humanity.
The transition of the US from a tolerant, accepting society where there was pride in welcoming people from all over the world to the current violent, intolerant and divided community it has become is sad to witness. Even more upsetting is how this has been exacerbated by recent policies of the Trump administration and their minimal regard for the rule of law, national or international.
Although much more subtle than the war-ravaged Ukraine and Gaza, the Trump administration has systematically undermined health care and preventive health in the US. Babies have died and will continue to die in increasing numbers. The measles outbreak through lack of vaccination provides just one example of the current deaths.
Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr has also slashed the funding for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. Surveillance, monitoring and warning around disease prevention is now much more tentative. This is not just for the US but also for the world – as up until recently the CDC has been a world leader in public health.
The Trump administration has also withdrawn humanitarian funding from the WHO and impoverished countries that are attempting to constrain diseases such as HIV, Ebola and covid. Not only are these diseases killing many people, but withdrawal of treatment also means even more people will be infected. This is regularly being infected with more than one disease at the same time.
How much of a difference is there between deliberate taking of life and taking of life “by omission”? The WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, chaired by Sir Michael Marmot, identified that wealth and health go hand in hand. Statistically, the wealthier you are, the healthier you will be – and the longer your life expectancy.
Although there are a myriad of factors at play in this socially determined impact, suffice it to say, opting out of responsibility for thinking and acting on the disadvantage of others lacks humanity. This applies in Australia and across the world.
Our own backyard is worth examining for our humanity. It has been reported that there are around 1700 people each night in Canberra who sleep without a roof over their heads. Some will be on the streets or in parks, others will be sleeping in their cars. Despite this, over the last decade the ACT government has cut funding to public housing while the need has grown.
Last week this column explored the disproportionate number of indigenous people detained in the Alexander Maconochie Centre. This is just the most obvious of the many disadvantages that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders suffer.
When more than 100,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, they demonstrated their humanity. The Australian government must take stronger action to prevent deliberate starvation, and other forms of inflicted suffering.
We can, and we should, expect more humanity and compassion from the Australian people and especially from our governments.
Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health. He has been a political columnist with “CityNews” since 2006.
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