Dr

Paul Hendler and Mike Hyland discuss a political economy model for analysing reporting on the Usindiso building fire of 31 August 2023.

Paul Hendler and Mike Hyland discuss a political economy model for analysing reporting on the Usindiso building fire of 31 August 2023.

This is a three way discussion between Mike Hyland (social analyst), Morgan Pillay (development finance consultant) and Paul Hendler (development activist and investigative journalist), about the vexed problem of land invasions in South Africa, its risks and potential solutions to the problem.

News reports on land invasions in the Western Cape during 2021 were read and analysed, and then the meaning of these reflected on this three way discussion between Paul Hendler, Mike Hyland, and Arumugam Pillay of Stellenbosch Transparency.

The video records a panel discussion involving Abeedah Adams (Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Cape Town), Avrom Krengel (SA Jewish Board of Deputies) and Zane Dangor (Department of International Cooperation) about the ongoing genocidal assault by the IDF of Gaza in November 2023.

Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein criticising Palestine solidarity activists for their ongoing support for the armed resistance after the 07 November breakout of Gaza by Hamas and other fighters.

Jewish Voices for Peace in the Middle East (Germany) demonstrate against Israel's genocide of Gazans, with German complicity, and for a non (or anti) Zionist Jewish identity.

A young US citizen exopresses her solidarity with Palestine at a Jewish Voices for Peace demonstration in New York several years ago.

These are pictures of Julian Assange interacting with other inmates of Belmarsh Maximum Security prison

The video records the simulation of Covid-19 and countermeasures by BMGF, John Hopkins University Medical School and the Rockerfeller Foundation.

This video is a reflection on the South African and global lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, the congruence of this totalitarian control with the siege on information and Gaza and the optimism of rebellion and revolt from the 1960s through to the 2020s. ________________________________________ Video clip - Black Panther Bobby Searle was bound and gagged and chained to a chair during the trial of the Chicago 8 in 1968. Searle had persistently protested for his constitutional right to lead his own defence, which was denied. For more information see "7 Reasons why the Chicago 8 trial Mattered" (www.history.com/news/chicago-8-trial-importance ). _________________________________________ Picture - Chelsea Manning, whistleblower about US war crimes in Iraq, persecuted by US administrations under Obama and Trump. For more information see "The government is torturing Chelsea Manning (www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/06/the-government-is-torturing-chelsea-manning-does-anyone-give-a-damn/). _________________________________________ Picture - Indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad, by a crew of a US helicopter gunship. For more information see "Collateral Murder" video (https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/), scroll down one row of images and click on the Collateral Murder photo. _________________________________________ Picture - Julian Assange, publisher of the "Collateral Murder" video and other evidence of US war crimes. For more information see "Years of CN assailing Assange. (www.consortiumnews.com/2020/05/05/25-years-of-cn-assailing-assange-january-31- 2011/) _________________________________________ South African police brutality. Unverified video shows police officers assaulting resident. Photo shows police officers manhandling protesting refugees in Cape Town. No available information on police custody deaths under lockdown. By early April 2020 eight deaths reported, with (then) 25 people reportedly "dead from the coronavirus" (i.e. a total of 33 deaths, almost 25 per cent of which attributable to police violence). Since lockdown start, 200 more complaints of police assault and torture than at the same time in 2019. For more information see "Assault most common complaint... (https://ewn.co.za/2020/05/08/assault-most-common-complaint-against-saps-ipid-tells-parly) _________________________________________ Gazan children defiant amidst the rubble. The latest bombardment of Gaza has wreaked the most destruction of all of Israel’s nine attacks since 2006. For a summary of the attacks until 2014 see “Israel’s recent wars on Gaza” (https://separating.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Israels-Recent-Wars-on-Gaza-2006-14.pdf) The 2008 attack (Operation Cast Lead) resulted in extensive destruction of housing, damage to service and economic infrastructure and the deaths of over hundreds of people (mainly civilians). For the Goldstone Report findings with regard to the wilful destruction of civilian life and social and economic infrastructure, see “International Law and its Breaches with respect to the Occupied Palestinian Territories” (https://separating.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Summary-of-breaches-PHendler2.pdf) The current (2023) attack has been widely condemned as violating the UN Convention on Genocide. There is a significant body of literature on the genocidal aspects of Zionist colonization of the Palestinian people. In this regard see Professor Martin Shaw, “Palestine in an International Historical Perspective on Genocide” (https://martinshaw.org/2010/06/26/palestine-in-an-international-historical-perspective-on-genocide-2/) and also Palestine and Genocide Revisited (https://martinshaw.org/2013/05/24/palestine-and-genocide-revisited/). Activist and investigative journalist Chris Hedges, quoting Raoul Hillberg, the recognised scholar on the German genocide of European Jewry, has written about the way a strategy of genocide developed incrementally by the Third Reich (German State) towards the Jews, and by analogy Hedges has argued that this is also true of Israel’s developing policy towards the Palestinians (2018). (https://www.truthdig.com/articles/israel-is-captive-to-its-destructive-process-2/) _________________________________________ 2015/2016 Student revolt. Stellenbosch university was not immune to the student revolt, and the picture shows student throngs taking over Merriman Avenue on the campus. Led by Open Stellenbosch, the student activists demanded decolonisation of their curriculum as well as the dissolution of the university council (https://separating.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/call_for_dissolution_SU_Council.pdf) For critiques of the student revolt as elitist petite bourgeoise, see Wahbie Long’s “Let’s transform our schools first” (https://separating.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Lets-transform-our-schools-first.pdf) and his “Why black consciousness misses the mark” (https://separating.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Why-Black-Consciousness-misses-the-mark.pdf) _________________________________________ Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison in England is where Julian Assange is being held as a political prisoner/prisoner of conscience, pending his likely extradition to the US where he will stand trial for breaking the 1917 Espionage Act. For more information see "Indictment and arrest of Julian Assange" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indictment_and_arrest_of_Julian_Assange) For video of Assange inside Belmarsh see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wotKpVy8HXo _________________________________________ The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a global public health emergency on 30 January 2020. On 28 February 2020 the WHO announced a vaccine campaign by Glaxokline Smith in partnership with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). On 11 March 2020 the WHO declared coronavirus a world-wide pandemic. There is a critique of the role and function of the WHO in this regard. For more information see : "Covid-19 Coronavirus: The Crisis" (https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-19-coronavirus-crisis/5706741) _________________________________________ Bill Gates has developed views on epidemics and pandemics as being the single largest threat to humanity. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is dedicated to facilitating the research and development for vaccines that can meet these threats. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation were centrally involved in Event 201 on 18 October 2019, which was a simulation of Coronavirus Covid-2019. The event simulated economic collapse and a 15 per cent contraction of economic activity, as an outcome three months after the start of the virus. The event also projected a 'later' simulation of economic collapse world-wide. ------------------------------------------------ Critics of the Gates Foundation say it avoids economic restructuring and political changes to address poverty and social marginalisation. It's focus facilitates pharmaceutical companies injecting potentially lethal toxins into people, and a form of social control through 'digital health certificates'. ------------------------------------------------ The Foundation says that high child mortality incentivise poor families to have more children, contributing to overpopulation. Saving children's lives removes that incentive and could achieve a 15 per cent reduction in population. It denies planning to implant micro-chips in bodies for digital registration. ------------------------------------------------ For more information on Gates' views on epidemics see interview by Ezra Kein(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AEMKudv5p0&feature=embrelend) ------------------------------------------------ For more information on Event 201's simulation of global economic collapse see Covid-19 video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFZSU-sLFXc) ----------------------------------------------- For more information on the criticism of the Gates Foundation and their response see"Did Bill Gates admit vaccines are ........ to depopulate the world?" (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bill-gates-vaccinations-depopulation/); and, "False Claim: Bill Gates planning to use micro-chip implants." (https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-coronavirus-bill-gates-micr-idUSKBN21I3EC) _________________________________________ US military encirclement of Russia and China. Underlying the US military encirclement of and aggression towards Russia and China, is the need to defend the petrodollar, i.e. the system which requires that all oil transactions are made in US dollars, and also that petrodollar surpluses are invested in Western banks for the purchasing of US treasury securities. A graphic illustration of petrodollar recycling uses the Saudi Arabia national oil company as an example (https://separating.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Petrodollars-US-SA-scaled.jpg) Russian and Chinese attempts to trade oil in their own currencies threatens the petrodollar and thereby US economic stability. While much has been written about this, for the layperson the complex effects of dollar denominated oil prices on both the US economy and the rest of the world, is like a siege on the brain of the living. (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303548869_Petrodollar_Recycling) _________________________________________ Mother nature on the run from industrial waste. Pictures of sorted plastic and glass waste and plastic in the oceans - Typical quantity of glass bottles and plastics disposed on the Hendler household, Stellenbosch, every two to three weeks. Assume that this household's income is in the top five per cent of Stellenbosch households. Assume that this consumption of non-durables is typical for that segment. There are approximately 48 000 households in the Stellenbosch municipal area. Five per cent = 2 400 households. Therefore, every two to three weeks this quantity of plastic and glass waste, multiplied 2400 times, is disposed of in Stellenbosch by the top five per cent of income earning households. For more information on the pollution of the ecosystem by plastic see "The world's plastic pollution crisis explained" (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/plastic-pollution/) For more information on the pollution of the ecosystem by glass and plastic see "Breaking down the environmental impact of glass and plastic" (https://sunrisesanitation.com/breaking-down-the-environmental-impact-of-glass-and-plastic/) _________________________________________ Economic siege on informal sector. Informal sector traders have for a long time been dominated by formal sector companies, and under regulatory siege by the governmental authorities. In 2013 Stellenbosch municipality destroyed the livelihoods of informal traders near the town common (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3U2K-KRmTI). Further news and analysis about this and related topics is at Stellenbosch Transparency (https://stellenboschtransparency.co.za/videos/) _________________________________________ Cartoon of Israel's apartheid Wall. Israel's apartheid Wall represents a state of siege of the West Bank. For more information on Israel's apartheid regime see "Israeli practices towards the Palestinian People and the question of apartheid" (UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia) (https://stellenboschtransparency.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/ESCWA-2017-Richard-Falk-Apartheid.pdf) _________________________________________ The hegemonic siege of germ theory. In 2020, 2021 and 2022 entire societies in the global community were besieged (or “locked down”) as part of the war against the SARS Cov2 virus, and basic human rights (like freedom of movement, freedom to assemble and petition and freedom of speech) were suspended. Do discrete organisms (i.e. viruses) cause (bring about) specific illness conditions? Or is inflammation in its various forms a reflection of poisoning of the body arising from toxins in the environment (terrain)? “The Contagion Myth” (https://drtomcowan.com/products/the-contagion-myth/) discusses these approaches to diagnosing illnesses, weighs the historical evidence and concludes that not only do viruses not cause disease but viruses have not been proven to exist. _________________________________________ Picture - Palestinian protesters removing Israeli barbed wire on the boundary between Gaza and Israel, 2018. Gaza has been under a land, sea and air siege from Israel since 2006. Between 2006 and 2014 Israel attacked Gaza seven times, causing thousands of civilian deaths and maiming, and also wanton destruction of housing, buildings and infrastructure. Author Max Blumenthal writes that the siege that Israel has laid to Gaza restricts access to its border crossings, enforces severe curbs on its exports, and devises complex mathematical formulas to regulate the caloric intake of each resident. A January 2008 Israeli military study called "Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip - The Red Lines," estimated the required daily caloric intake in Gaza at 2 279 per person "in order to maintain the basic fabric of life" South Africa's lockdown was said set to destroy the informal and small business sectors and the formal sector will not escape unscathed. Mass unemployment is on the cards for a long time. Already people in former black townships were experiencing a hunger crisis. Will the siege of our townships and suburbs degenerate into a Gaza-type siege? For more information on the siege of Gaza see "Gaza, the world's largest open-air prison" (https://www.nrc.no/news/2018/april/gaza-the-worlds-largest-open-air-prison/

Mike Hyland and Paul Hendler discuss the context of, as well as some immediate factors that contributed to, a fire in the Usindiso building (Johannesburg) on 31 August 2023. They also reflect on conflicting interests between five role players in this event: the Johannesburg metropolitan municipality, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI), the legal owners of the building, the new owners of the building (through hijacking) and the tenants and occupants who suffer the dangers and indignities of dwelling in slum conditions. This is the first in a series of analytical discussions about news reporting of this particular event.

A preview of the discussion between Mike Hyland and Paul Hendler regarding the context as well as some immediate factors that contributed to a fire in the Usindiso building (Johannesburg) on 31 August 2023. This is the first in a series of analytical discussions about news reporting of this particular event.

This is a Press TV (Iranian) video of protests in the UK in May 2023.

This is a Press TV (Iran) news clip about a PSC Cape Town-organised event at the Castle of Good Hope.

The video records the second of a four part discussion about South Africa's post-apartheid urbanisation and housing policies and strategies, as justified and understood through the lense of neoliberal ideology, and criticism thereof from a neo-Marxist and classical political economy perspective.