General World News

I am in N Sumatra right now, and will check local sources. My wife has some land in Aceh. It is a spectacular landscape, although it get get badly smashed by the tsunami that hit the region and reports were that up to 100,000 people were killed.

Reportedly, after 14 days on a boat, the people were supplied with food and water and pushed back to sea. Aceh already has a few hundred it is supporting .
Indonesia has not signed up to the Refugee Convention.
There are suggestions that they should go to Malaysia , where the UNHCR has camps and can assess them for refugee status, pending negotiations to settle them elsewhere.

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Just checked with a local friend. According to her, the people of Aceh have rejected the refugees. Given that Aceh has a degree of more independence than most other provinces in Indonesia l expect this will be the final word. My friend agrees, saying that Indonesia can barely look after its own people. I thought that was a bit harsh, and pointed out that Pakistan has taken on a couple of million refugees and is not in any better position.

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You know what a difficult place Aceh is politically. Hardly surprising that they take such actions, in spite of the religious imperative.

That said, it is a very beautiful place and always worth a visit.

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Religion does come into to some extent. There were concerns that the Rohingya practise a different form of Islam from the stricter Muslim residents of Aceh.

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Didn’t know that. Islam I guess is not different to other religions.

The different sects in the RC church have no brotherly love for each other. I remember when I went to CBC and the footy game vs Xavier, it was all about hurting the Jesuits.

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It isn’t so long ago that there were rebels in Aceh causing all sorts of problems. On my first trip there about 20 years ago there was a heavy army presence and we had to go through a couple of road blocks, where soldiers got on the bus and checked IDs.

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Sigh.
Not surprising considering anger over 140% inflation. But will be a disaster

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Bit of a stink over last night’s episode of the BBC’s showing of University Challenge. One of the two teams (both were colleges from Oxford and Cambridge) had as their mascot a blue octopus and one of their team, a woman wearing a full Muslim hair covering, was accused of wearing a coat in Palestinian colours.

BBC responded with saying the episode was filmed 6 months ago, and clearly they weren’t the Palestinian colours.

But the Twitter antagonists piled on saying that everyone knows the blue octopus is a symbol of anti-semitism and the BBC are anti-semites etc etc.

The show is on youtube under @CosmicPumpkin.

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well I’m clearly not one of everyone

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It was used to attack Jews in Europe, suggesting they had their tentacles in every facet of society and were trying to control the world. It became a symbol used to condemn Jews.

That wasn’t the context in the Uni Challenge, just a contestant that loves the animals. People are a little hyper at present.

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Greta Thunberg had a blue octopus in the background of one of her vids. It was explained that it was a symbol of neuro diversity, or something like that connected to autism.

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Seemingly it was just a car crash. Gas powered or gas bottle onboard.
Sad state of the world that everyone just expects the worst.

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Ah, going to watch Kiss, that will do it :wink:

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Deep State cover up?

yeah, Deep state loves blowing up a Bentley or two.