Appeasing the mighty (and the very private, private billionaire lobbyists)

Far be it for a nobody, not least a nobody with very little in the way of a bank balance, to say aloud and unabashed that this is a thing that’s a fait accompli, as the entire gaggle of ageing and aged fat cats on their yachts in the Eastern suburbs or thereabouts know full well. They know it because the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador, and other such political live wire acts, are part of their portfolio. To the detriment of every other body… but what does that matter when chess is such an elegant game, especially when it’s almost always a forgone conclusion that it’s checkmate to the awed and hapless majority? They asked for it, and the government has obliged. Why not? Money lobbies talks, and talks as ruthlessly and convincingly to the powerless as the inactions and omissions which have sanctioned the starvation and massacre of innocents in Gaza and the OPT. The omnipresence of robber barons in governments isn’t a new thing but, one had hoped, as hope springs eternal in the human mind, that society as evolutive as it has been or seeks to be, in the gaining of wisdom, or perhaps even through the lessons of history, that lessons have been learnt: that interference on this level is not the most prudent course to take, and given the democratisation of voice in the era of social media and what history has taught us, through revolutions, dethronements and the guillotine-ing of God-like figures with empires to burn, that eventually the starved and oppressed rise up and wars are fought. What did the the Executive Council of Australian Jewry hope to accomplish, for example, in prosecuting – to the tune of c. $1M – a young Imam who, having lost in his defence to exercise his right to free speech, has to pay back money used to prosecute him, money he did not have in the first place to spend for his own defence? What does justice look like in this case, when two wealthy members of the ECJA won their suit against a penniless Imam? It is the judiciary being used to stifle rights enshrined in international law, human rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression. What is the gain, other than further fomenting anti-semitic sentiment? It is the legal system being used, in all its sophistication, to carve out an already sizeable place for the disgruntled elite to be allowed to dictate who can say what, when, and where.