Lillian Radulova investigates the impact of red meat on Australian health, diet, industry and the environment.

A US study released by Harvard University in April this year, found that people who consume more processed red meat have a 20 per cent higher chance of dying earlier. Image: Generation Next

Nobody adores animals more than Professor Mike Archer does!

According to the University of New South Wales (UNSW) scientist from the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental sciences, animals play a pivotal role in society.

Photographs of Australian marsupials hang from the walls of his home, and two cages alive with Australian native birds, squawk along to his fond personal stories of housing swamp wallabies and kangaroos, whose personalities he compares to puppies.

But people have to eat, and eat meat they will; it is what they have naturally been doing for over eight million years.

“The only time any ancestor of ours ever stepped into the herbivorous vegan zone was Paranthropus boisei who has got to be one of the ugliest humans that ever evolved on the planet,”
Archer says.

“It had a flat head, these gigantic cheeks, tiny beady eyes; this is a horror out of the worst nightmare you can imagine,” he describes.

“It was what happens to humans if they try out to be herbivores. And it’s extinct. It didn’t go anywhere. Our line; the omnivores, are the ones that have continually survived and done well.”

But following our natural instincts or our taste buds is not always the right choice.

It is proving increasingly difficult to ignore the ongoing flow of conflicting information claiming meat is necessary for wellbeing, and yet contributes to bad health.

Most recently, a US study released by Harvard University in April this year, found that people who consume more processed red meat have a 20 per cent higher chance of dying earlier.

The study, completed over 20 years and focusing on over 120,000 people, summarised that red meat consumption is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality.

But using U.S. literature to look at Australia is the equivalent of  “comparing apples and oranges” according to professor Felice Jacka from Deakin University in Victoria.

Australian livestock is largely grass fed and thus lean, while U.S. raised meat has a “far less healthy fatty acid profile” and more saturated fat due to being “almost exclusively grown on feed lots,” as Jacka explains.

According to her study, which looked at the overall quality of female diets through a wide sample of women in the Geelong area, has added to the conflicting mass of literature on meat consumption by linking its effects to mental health.

The study, released in March, found women who had less than the recommended intake of red meat every week were at least twice as likely to have a depressive or anxiety disorder.

“We looked at other forms of protein intake to see whether this was to do with protein and not to do with red meat specifically,” says Jacka.

“We looked at white meats like chicken and pork and we looked at vegetable protein…It was only red meat that was clearly and consistently associated with these mental health problems.”

Consumer options seem slim from this summary of literature; dying young with health complications versus being depressed throughout a very long life.

But balanced health can be achieved with balanced plates, according to accredited practicing dietician Lisa Renn, who recommends following the National Health and Medical Research Council’s dietary guidelines.

They recommend eating lean red meat three to four times a week with serves between 100-150 grams, the size of a deck of cards or the palm of your hand.

Red meat is healthy because its essential nutrients like iron and zinc are easily available for absorption.

According to Renn, the problem lies in the fact that “we’re having twice as much protein or red meat then we actually need each day.”

Having this higher level of protein consumption over a longer period of time is when health problems occur.

“Levels of red meat consumption has been linked with colorectal cancer and there’s also suggested evidence of other cancers,” Renn says.

“We know that 86 per cent of people did not achieve the five serves of vegetables per day that we’re hoping to get in. So if we’re having too much meat then potentially we’re not getting enough vegetables.”

But of the red meat we do eat, Archer believes there is more than just the health of people to think of. The environment and Australia’s biodiversity are both significantly effected by livestock consumption patterns.

The UN’s 2006 report, Livestock’s Long Shadow, revealed the livestock industry is responsible for 18 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, amounting to more than transport.

Furthermore, livestock production takes up 30 per cent of the world’s lands surface, which was formerly wildlife habitat.

But Queensland cattle farmer, Stuart Barrett, says there is a misconception around livestock production and environmental damage in Australia.

One of his strategies involves planting leucaena, a native taproot which retrieves moisture from lower in the ground and fixes nitrogen in the soil for other grass to feed off, while providing high protein for grazing cattle.

“I’ve actually seen real kilogram figures, dollar figures improving my business, and I’ve also seen environmental improvement in areas that were struggling,” Barrett reveals.

Barrett is one of many farmers taking part in the Target 100 campaign, launched in March by six Australian meat industry bodies including Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA).

The campaign’s aim is to achieve sustainable cattle and sheep farming by 2020 through its 100 proposed initiatives involving research and promotion of sustainable ideas.

“[Target 100] is a social networking medium, I guess, where people can actually come and see the truth about what’s happening there,” Barret says.

“I think the best way to get that information is to go straight to the horses’ mouth, so to speak, and make a connection with a real farmer.”

Despite the campaign deserving a “pat on the back”, Archer believes it’s not enough.

Industries should be looking at what has worked previously for our ecosystems in terms of meat production, and that involves looking back to the methods of Indigenous Australians.

“Wildlife is increasingly not safe in the wild. It’s increasingly important to find ways to get people to value the wildlife. And that often means a dollar value,”
Archer says.

His solution is to wild harvest one of our most undervalued resources; kangaroos.

Kangaroos are a good source of healthy lean meat with minimal impact on the environment. Image: Darren Stones

Although valued as a healthy lean meat, he believes the potential to depend increasingly on kangaroos needs to be extended and valued for its environmental potential; kangaroos do not produce excess methane, do not damage the soil with hoofs and do not tear out the roots of the plants they eat.

The outlandish suggestion of farming more kangaroos makes CSIRO’s deputy chief of business development, Greg Harper, openly laugh.

With less meat on them and the difficulty in herding them, Harper doesn’t see it as a valid solution.

“That’s a big jump,” Harper says.

“We’ve been developing the methods we use to domesticate and husband animals for at least 10,000 years, so a lot of these things are well developed and well thought through.”

Harper, also a non-executive director of MLA, does believe kangaroos can improve the livestock industry, but in an unexpected way.

The Reducing Emissions from Livestock Research Project (RELRP) is researching how microbes in kangaroos allow them to digest grass without releasing excess methane, a stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

This could lead to genetically selected or altered cattle, which release less of the gas.

Harper’s solution is for the meat ‘industry to maximize efficiency’, and continue focusing on specifically selected feed which quickens livestock’s rate of growth.

But ‘efficiency’ comes with a cost which Dana Campbell, CEO of Voiceless, says comes in the form of shortcuts.

Trimming chickens beaks and castrating pigs without pain relief are just a few ‘shortcuts’ taken by factory farms, which Voiceless campaigns against.

For Campbell, there’s a clear choice, and it’s not economics, but opting to pay more for meat that guarantees ethical production, or reducing consumption altogether.

“The way we treat our animals is an indication of the way we treat each other,” Campbell says.

“It’ll be better for [consumers] health and better for the planet.”

State Government funding snubs suburban grounds making the NRL consider a switch to bigger stadiums, as Tony Salerno reports.

Brookvale Oval, home of the Manly Sea Eagles NRL club, one of the remaining suburban grounds feeling the pressure from the bigger stadiums. Image: Paul Glover

A new report commissioned by Graham Annesley (Minister for Sport) indicates that there will no longer be state funding for the upkeep and maintenance of suburban grounds.

The lack of funding has forced the NRL to consider moving games from suburban grounds to the bigger stadiums, namely ANZ and Allianz Stadiums.

The switch to the two larger stadiums would attract greater crowds through an upgrade in stadium facilities, more parking available and of course more seats for spectators.

“They want to go to a stadium that is secure, where they have a seat, good toilet facilities, great public transport – that’s how we get people coming to our games,” South Sydney CEO Shane Richardson told the Daily Telegraph.

The fact stands that: GREATER ATTENDANCE MEANS MORE MONEY FOR THE NRL.

So, isn’t the switch a simple solution?

A standard adult ticket at ANZ stadium is $25. In comparison, a standard adult ticket at a suburban ground, for example Brookvale Oval, also costs $25.

On face value the price is the same, but add on traffic, public transport and petrol prices; a suburban supporter would be paying a much higher price.

Last year, the Manly Sea Eagles were told by the NRL to move their Week 1 Finals game from Brookvale Oval to Allianz Stadium (formerly the Sydney Football Stadium) to attract a bigger crowd. The NRL’s plan backfired, as the crowd recorded was a dismal 13, 972.

It then became apparent that more fans would have attended had the game remained at Brookvale Oval. The the clear message from the Manly fans was they would not be willing to travel.

“I think if they were to abandon Brookie (Brookvale Oval) it would be a disgrace; think of all the legends that played at this ground and we’d be throwing it away,” Manly Sea Eagles supporter Anthony Fedale said.

“The travel is a big hassle because it is expensive, which is why no one turned up last year,” he said.

The Canterbury Bulldogs have been playing their home games at ANZ stadium since 1999, and the club has committed to continue to play their home games their until at least 2020.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs also call ANZ stadium ‘home’. The West Tigers move four home games a year to Allianz stadium, while the Parramatta Eels move two ‘home’ games to ANZ stadium when facing the Bulldogs and Rabbitohs.

If this trend continues, the future seems bleak for grounds like Brookvale Oval, Campbelltown Stadium, Leichhardt Oval, WIN Jubilee Oval, Parramatta Stadium and Toyota Park. They could follow the direction of the Redfern Oval and Belmore Sports ground, which were abandoned by the Bulldogs and Rabbitohs for the bigger stadiums.

“It’s sad that this heritage is gone, but it is in the best interest of the NRL, at the end of the day it’s a business. I’m sure if they want to support their club, they will be willing to travel,” said Bulldogs fan Joseph Kahawati.

But, what would the game really be losing if they were to disregard suburban grounds?

The Rivalries. The Fortresses. The Tribes. The Heritage.

“It’s what the game is all about. I go down to Campbelltown (Stadium) with my son every time they (Wests Tigers) play there and the atmosphere is just unbelievable. If the game moved to the bigger stadiums permanently that feeling will be lost forever,” Tigers tragic Peter Leonello said.

The Sport Minister’s withdrawal of funds will also have an affect on the Junior Rugby League system.

According to Evan Walsh, President of Balmain PCYC Rugby League Club, this could financially impact local clubs.

“The only effect this will have on us is via a possible increase in field hiring costs. PCYC is a non-profit group, so every dollar counts,” Walsh said.

President of St. George Junior Rugby League Chris Books believes that St George Junior rugby league has not felt the backlash of the fund withdrawal.

“The only potential (effect) may be in applications for the many and varied grants for ground upgrades and development but these are a bit of a lottery at the best of times,” he said.

According to Leichhardt council member Vince Cusumano, the fund withdrawal will considerably restrict both clubs and local councils.

“There is no doubt that if funding is taken away, then the ability of West Tigers and council, should the ground come back to us, to carry out improvements to the ground will be diminished,” he said.

This increase in costs to hire grounds including upgrades and improvements will discourage the NRL to host games at the suburban grounds.

With the Northern Territory becoming the second state after South Australia to introduce a container deposit scheme, the debate over Australia’s container recycling policy is heating up. However environment groups and the beverage industry do not see eye-to-eye on the issue, as Will Mumford reports.

The Northern Territory is the second state after South Australia to introduce a container deposit scheme. Image: James Lauritz/ Getty Images

WILL MUMFORD (WM): Most Australians are familiar with the weekly sound of a rubbish truck pulling up outside their house and the bottles and cans of the week’s recycling being emptied into the growling vehicle.

However with a beverage container deposit scheme, or CDS, being implemented in the Northern Territory this year, to go along with the one in South Australia, there are increasing calls for a national CDS to replace the kerbside collection model most of us are familiar with.

Jeff Angel, Managing Director of The Boomerang Alliance, who represent 17 of Australia’s leading environment groups, believes that now is the time to legislate nationally on a scheme.

JEFF ANGEL (JA): Why should South Australia only have the best container recycling system in the world when most of the containers are consumed on the East and they have very serious litter problems and very little high value recycling of containers.

WM: Dr Damien Giurco from the Institute for Sustainable Futures says that legislating state-by-state could be the platform for a national scheme.

DAMIEN GIURCO (DG): I think pragmatically, it will be a case where building one state at a time could be the platform for something national. It’s something we should look seriously at pursuing, I think any bottlenecks we should be able to iron out.

WM: However the peak representative body of the beverage industry, the Australian Beverage Council, are opposed to container deposit legislation. CEO of the Council, Geoff Parker, says that the Environment Ministers’ recent Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) on packaging waste options, indicates that a deposit system will be costly and ineffective.

GEOFF PARKER (GP): It’s just a matter of one policy being better than another. Under the Packaging Impacts Consultation RIS [Regulatory Impact Statement], there was a whole range of options that were independently analysed by PricewaterhouseCoopers and both of the container deposit programs that were put up underneath that RIS costed around about $2.5 billion. The National Bin Network was far cheaper than that and it would look at a whole range of different recyclable materials over and above just beverage containers which is obviously the focus of a container deposit scheme.

Listen to the full story below:

WM: Mr Angel says that the position of the beverage industry and particularly Coca-Cola Amatil, who are represented by the Australian Beverage Council, is based on false premises.

JA: They firstly say that the 10-cent deposit on the retail price of a beverage makes them less competitive against other discretionary purchases. There is no evidence that their sales are harmed when a container deposit system comes in, but they’ve convinced themselves that some consumers will not buy a Coke, they’ll buy an ice-cream.

WM: Whilst Dr Giurco believes that a CDS is the most efficient container recycling method, he says that stakeholders should evaluate a national CDS by its environmental effectiveness rather than its potential economic burden.

DG: The economic rules we dream up we are in control of and we need to make sure they are a means to an end that we would want and so I think putting the rules of economics as the out of boundary which can’t be violated is putting things back to front.

WM: One issue highlighted in the recent Northern Territory scheme, is the inability of some collection depots to pass the containers back onto the beverage companies once they have been received from the consumer. This has lead to several depots having to close down across the state, and criticism of the policy’s efficacy in practice. However the Manager of M.T. Bins Michael Knight, who operates a collection depot in Katherine, has a simpler explanation.

Why have some depots struggled to sell the containers back to the beverage companies?

MICHAEL KNIGHT: Well that simply was because they didn’t have contracts with the coordinators. And that’s exactly what’s happened to the two blokes in Darwin, both of them have no contracts with coordinators and we told them that when they first started. They’ve gone gung-ho into it, carrying on a troop making lots of noise but everything else is going fine, no one else is having any problems whatsoever.

WM: With submissions to the government’s Regulatory Impact Statement having closed at the end of March, both sides have made sure that their voices were heard by policymakers.

Has the Australian Beverage Council consulted with government regarding the issue?

GP: We’ve also made a submission to that RIS [Regulatory Impact Statement] process, we know that they will be considering that in the near future. Again, if there’s a more effective, cheaper option out there, it’d make sense to go with that rather than something that’s going to cost taxpayers and companies and consumers and local governments a whole lot of money.

WM: But Mr Angel is confident that a national deposit scheme may finally be gaining some traction.

JA: We’re closer than we’ve ever been. There have been at least three or four attempts in the last 25 years to get a container deposit system in place. We have to spend the next three months working very hard on every state, on every environment minister, on every premier. Cause it takes a lot of work to get to this decision point.

Two completely different films led this years Oscar race for the Best Motion Picture, but silence proved golden as Sam Murphy reports.

'The Artist' starring Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo wins the Oscar for the Best Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical. Image: abcnews

Silence is officially Golden! The Artist wins one of the show’s top awards by collecting the gong for Best Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical.

On one end of the spectrum is Hugo, a 3D, high budget Scorsese film. On the other The Artist, a silent, black and white French film. Both films transported viewers back to the origins of film through their nostalgia inducing stories and imagery.

Visually, they were starkly different. Audiences of ‘Hugo’ sat with 3D glasses while those of ‘The Artist’ watched a grainy, black and white film. Hugo was accompanied by surround sound. The Artist simply relied on a minimal soundtrack with no dialogue. Viewers flocked to the former with few rushing to the latter.

Against all odds The Artist took out best film at the 84th Academy Awards, becoming the the first silent film to do so since ‘Wings’ in 1927. While garnering rave reviews from critics, it begged the question, was it simply a one-off or the beginning of a back to basics trend in the film industry?

Daivd Dale, film critic and author, believes it is definitely a one-off.

“There may be one or two other silent films made as a result of ‘The Artist’ but it seems to be a one off,” Dale said.

The Artist is the brainchild of French director Michel Hazanavicius. The success of the film has transcended beyond its homelan, garnering stellar reviews from prominent global print media such as the New York Times and the UK Guardian.

However, Dale said it’s a “case of nostalgia for the film-maker rather than the viewer.” He said despite its critical praise it isn’t “translating into bums-on-seats.”

“The movie is cute but doesn’t have much substance…watching it for the second time may not have the effect as it did the first.”

At the box office, The Artist has made a worldwide total of $114,249,836. Hugo managed a total of $165,482,000 although it’s still being shown in most major cinemas worldwide. In comparison, last years Best Motion Picture ‘The Kings Speech’ earned a total of $414,211,100, almost quadruple what The Artist has earned.

The Artist was released to the Western World under different circumstances to the aforementioned. As a silent, black and white film with a relatively unknown French cast it had to rely on merit alone to draw people to the cinemas and has relied largely on its critical success.

Its critics have marveled in the reliance on genuine acting through facial expression and its subtle visual effects rather than its recreation of the past. This suggests that nostalgia is not the only technique charming viewers.

New York Times critic A.O. Scott praised the film for its subtle homage of the past rather than it being a complete recreation. He described it as being “like a reconstituted classic roadster with a GPS device and a hybrid engine.”

It’s clear that the intention of director Michel Hazanavicius was to evoke a certain nostalgia for ‘old’ Hollywood.

Speaking of the film in press rounds, the stated that it is “a very old Hollywood cliche,” going on to cite that as “one of the charms of the movie.”

When speaking of the film Hazanavicius uses the word “cliche” several times. These obvious homages seem to help an audience unaware of silent film to resonate with some of the most popular images from classic Hollywood.

Critics have picked up on musical and visual similarities from films like Citizen Kane, Singin In The Rain and A Star Is Born. Hazanavicius suggested this is what makes the film familiar to viewers.

Whether it be nostalgia generating or ‘simple’ to audiences, The Artist is one of the most unusual Academy winners in recent years. Its critical triumphs and box office downfalls reveal a film pushing the boundaries oddly by returning to those set nearly a century ago.

As much as the film is a homage to the past, it also sets a precedent for the future.

Sydney’s Art Month for 2012 is a shining success, further establishing Sydney’s growing reputation as an arts city. Anita Senaratna reports.

Art Equity, just one of the many galleries on display as part of Art Month in Sydney, combines art and financial expertise. Image: artmonthsydney

Every year, the bright geometric posters adorning Sydney billboards and bus stops signal the beginning of Art Month, a festival that celebrates visual art in all its forms.

This year’s festival consisted of over 300 artists and 200 events spread out across Sydney in the month of March. Held in over 100 different galleries, the festival combined commercial galleries and galleries in the inner city with smaller Artist-Run Initiatives (ARIs) and venues in Blacktown, Parramatta, Casula and Gymea.

James Dorahy, former 2011 Art Month board member and current operator of the James Dorahy Project Space in Potts Point, said that Art Month festival served a broader purpose than just showcasing art.

“[The main goals were to] to celebrate the diversity of contemporary art in Sydney and to create a festival which opens up the idea of new audiences to galleries,” Dorahy said.

Besides the exhibitions, this year’s events included: walks, conversations with notable people in the Sydney art world, art workshops for children and adults, dinners, drinks and art bars that allowed visitors to socialise after viewing exhibitions.

Jo Holder is the director of The Cross Art Projects in Kings Cross, one of the 100 Sydney galleries that participated in Art Month 2012.

‘The art scene is certainly more fragmented than it used to be. I think that’s led to a lack of cohesion in the art world in Sydney,” Holder said.

Holder identified that one advantage of this year’s Art Month was its structure – the way it simultaneously united all the different galleries spread out across Sydney and divided them up into more accessible “precincts.”

“Melbourne’s still got everybody going to everyone else’s openings, so it’s still got a kind of group dynamic…whereas Sydney tends to be more little groups associated with certain spaces or certain geographic areas,” she said.

Holder said the guided walks and precinct parties allowed visitors to see numerous galleries in the one area at the same time, providing Sydney’s art world some much-needed “cohesion.”

“In that way I think it’s a good idea to map it all out and just give people a sense of what’s in an area, you can take an area and go around it and that’s kind of one day… and it can be fun and social,” she said.

However, Holder did express doubts about events such as art bars-bars set up specifically for Art Month visitors to drink, dance and discuss exhibitions – in relation to the festival’s goals.

“I don’t think art needs art bars,’” said Holder.

“It’s good to have it but not as an end unto itself, art is not an accessory to drinking…why make it decor for some other agenda?”

Holder admitted that although she did tend to have more of a “purist” approach to events, she felt like this year’s Art Month had conveyed its message a lot better than it had in previous years.

“I think this year they’ve pulled it back a bit, it’s not to where a purist like me would like it which is sort of no logos, just do the art…more unmediated… so it’s much more about the artist and the spaces rather than a kind of intermediary layer of people promoting it,” Holder said.

Sebastian Goldspink, the producer of this year’s Art Month, said that Sydney has just as much to offer in terms of art as cities such as Melbourne with more of a reputation for being arts-focused.

‘The whole Melbourne/Sydney debate is more and more kind of diminishing. It used to be said that Melbourne was the more cultural centre of Australia but there’s amazing stuff happening in Sydney and Art Month is definitely a celebration of visual arts in Sydney,” Goldspink said.

On the subject of art bars, Goldspink said that the idea behind them was more to do with extended opening hours for galleries then having people meet up at the bar and discuss what they had seen.

“It’s based on the German kaffeeklatsch [literally ‘coffee and chat’] kind of idea, of going to the theatre then meeting up afterwards, saying “Hey, did you see this? Did you like this?” “Oh, it’s great,” he explained.

Goldspink said that responses to this year’s festival had been extremely positive, and that contemporary art, both in Sydney and on a global scale, was continuing to grow and change.

“It’s always happening. There’s definitely no decline in contemporary art, and it’s always rapidly evolving…and we never know exactly where it’s at because it’s only in the benefit of hindsight, it’s so mercurial and you can’t really put your finger on it.”

A steady decisive shift towards electronic books, or eBooks, is shaking up the book industry. Daisy Souza reports.

The Apple iPad e-book reader is rapidly growing as a popular choice to book reading. Image: The Message, Tick Content.

Almost 100 Angus & Robertson and Borders book stores closed last year in Australia, forcing Australia’s largest booksellers to turn to electronic books to survive in a dynamic industry.

Publishing house, Pan Macmillan however, wasn’t going to be deterred.

Pan Macmillan sensed the gradual shift and launched Australia’s first digital only imprint, Momentum Books, in February of this year. Momentum Books offers 22 titles that are only available as digital books.

Joel Naoum, one of Momentum’s publishers, said the industry is experiencing radical change.

“The whole book industry is under strategic review and the book industry in Australia isn’t doing all that well,” Naoum said.

Although eBooks only make up about five-percent of total market sales in Australia, their popularity is growing rapidly. In the US alone, eBooks generated about $87 million dollars (AUD) in revenue, tripling the number of sales from the previous year.

Hard copy books can cost a lot more to publish due to printing and distribution costs. In comparison, digital books are what children’s writer Andy Griffiths describes as a “low-cost, low-risk way of publishing.”

The transition to an eBook “just made total sense” when Griffiths began his website ‘Andy from A to Y’ in an attempt to answer his fans questions. It quickly became too big to contain and the digital book Andypedia was born.

Andypedia has hyperlink capability, allowing for related story titles, character names and themes to be linked to one another. This approach is more interactive and often appeals to younger children.

“It just gives a different reading experience,” Griffiths said.

“People definitely seem to be embracing eBooks at a rapid rate.”

The accessibility of eBooks is an undeniable advantage. No longer do readers have to trawl through bookstore after bookstore in the hope of finding a particular book amongst hundreds of others. With eBooks, readers have thousands of options at their fingertips and are able to find exactly what they want, with just one click.

Griffiths pointed out how valuable this is for Australians living in more remote areas.

The lowered risk of digital publishing meant that publishers and authors had the opportunity to produce and publish works they would usually write off.

“It’s certainly got me thinking about books…it lets me do off-the-wall things I wouldn’t have thought of doing before,” Griffiths said.

This is what Naoum described as the “philosophical” aspect of digital publishing.

“There is a sense in Australian publishing that most books that are successful are big top 40 or ‘blockbuster’ books,” said Naoum.

The reduced cost of publishing eBooks means publishers can be more lenient in the projects they take on and experiment with new authors. As Naoum articulates: “we can take risks without it being risky”.

In order to remain relevant to readers, booksellers must try and respond to the demand for eBooks. Jon Page, of Pages and Pages Booksellers in Mosman said it’s important that bookshops offer eBooks.

“An eBook is another format just like a hardback, paperback or audio. Readers do not read one format exclusively they will read a mix and bookshops need to offer the complete range of formats,” said Page.

Annie Nelson, a TAFE educator, described how beneficial eBooks are for students and a mix of professionals.

“[It’s] very convenient for a programmer to have a language book open on one side of the computer screen while writing code on the other,” she said.

“A textbook I use costs over $160 to buy as hard copy at the Co-op bookstore in Sydney. The (slightly shorter) eBook version is about $30…I suggest to my financially challenged students to just buy the eBook version.”

Of the 22 titles Momentum Books offers, most are under five-dollars, the most expensive retailing nine-dollars.

There is one point, however, that publishers, authors, readers and booksellers can agree on; that there is always going to be a place for print books in the realm of the written word.

Page certainly thinks so. “I think the printed book is still the optimal format for reading and especially if you are a book collector like me.”

Additionally, Nelson believes some books aren’t suitable as an eBook.

“I think an eBook of Matisse’s paintings, for example, just wouldn’t sell as well as a hard copy one. People want to see the painting printed out,” Nelson said.

Naoum agrees that while the eBook is perfect for ‘disposable reading’, one could never give an eBook as a gift.Even as the popularity of eBooks grow extensively, it will become more difficult to admire a row of collectible cloth-bound Kindles on a bookshelf.

Jonas Løvschall-Wedel chats to five-time Walkley Award winner Monica Attard about her journalism beginnings, personal connection to Russia and the role of The Global Mail.

Monica Attard spent four years in Moscow as the ABC correspondent, now she's the managing editor of The Global Mail. Image: Ella Rubeli

The clock is just turning to 9am. Monica Attard is sitting behind her computer in her modern but spartanly decorated office. It’s still quiet, but in just an hour or so the building, opposite the botanical garden in Sydney’s CBD, will be buzzing with stories ticking in from all over the world.

After 28 years at ABC in a variety of different roles, ranging from foreign correspondent in Russia to hosting the Sunday Profile and Media Watch, Attard left the world of broadcasting to become managing editor of Australia’s new cosmopolitan website The Global Mail.

During her illustrious career, Attard has experienced more than most journalists could ever hope for. She has covered the collapse of a superpower and won several Walkley Awards; including the golden one. She has been Australia’s watchdog barking from Media Watch and found a home in an organisation that shares the same journalistic values that she holds so dear.

That being said, the climb to the top has not always been a light mambo for Attard. Before she could bow before the Walkley Committee and hold some of the most attractive positions in Australian journalism, she had to work crazy hours and endure working in a sexist environment; where women got the coffee and men handled the scoops.

At the age of 53 years old, Attard reflects about how she grew up in Sydney as a budding journalist. She first went into journalism in 1977 doing a cadetship split between Channel Seven and The Sydney Morning Herald, which were both part of Fairfax then.

In those times Channel Seven was already quite commercial, but she remembers there being a good news service with some great journalists, including a news director named John Campbell.

“He gave me my first break and I’m therefore very fond of him. There were some really fantastic news people around at those times who knew the game and knew how to do news and how to write, so it was a great learning experience,” she says.

When she joined the journalistic ranks back in the late 70s it was somewhat of a man’s world. Reminiscing of her first years she recalls it being really tough to be a woman in commercial media. As a cadet she was always the one sent out to do the flossy supermarket stories.

“I remember standing in an isle doing a story on an extraordinary rise in the price of sugar. And I remember finishing and thinking: if this is what its about I don’t want to be doing this,” she recalls.

Before going into journalism, she had first started at university then dropped out to go into journalism. “I remember thinking: oh my goodness I think my father was right, I should have stuck with studying law. I remember thinking at the time, as a very raw and ambitious seventeen to eighteen-year old that I was in the wrong game because it was just awful, that degree of sexism and in those days it was quite blatant inside newsrooms as well.”

“You would always be the one to go and get the cups of tea and coffee. They would never ask a young male cadet to do the same thing, never, and they would often come with sexist barbs. Not sexually related barbs but sexist – that was offensive. It was just the way it was in those days,” she says.

A few years later Attard did find the spot that suited her in the Australian media landscape, and she stayed there for 28 years. “I feel like I found my spiritual homeland at the ABC,” she says.

At the ABC, she found a culture where the values were; to get a story out because it was an important story, rather than because it might be a popular one. She came from a culture of commercial media at Channel Seven, and after that at 2WS and 2GB, where she didn’t feel comfortable. This changed at the ABC.

“I felt as if I shared their news values. I loved their programs, I loved their commitment to fairness and accuracy and public interest journalism,” she says.

Attard stayed at the ABC for almost 30 years, during which, she was able to move from one program to another over a long period of time. During this time, she worked both in Australia and abroad. She felt as if she changed jobs every few years, but stayed within a culture that felt very comfortable.

Winning five Walkley Awards, it is not surprising that Attard is proud of her career. But there is one epoch that does stand out, as something she looks back on with particularly warm feelings.  That being her coverage of the collapse of the Soviet Union. She was in Moscow from December 1989 to 1994 and reported on the last years of Gorbachev’s rule, the cue against him, the rise of Boris Yeltsin and the collapse of Soviet communism. A time she found to be absolutely mind-boggling.

She had come from a background of almost clear obsession with everything Soviet. And suddenly found herself in Moscow reporting back to the Australian people about the biggest story in the world at the time, and was actually getting paid to do it.

“I used to wake up every morning and think that I was the luckiest person on the face of the earth. It was an extraordinarily privileged position to be in,” she says.

As exciting as the job was, it was an equally strenuous one as she worked 15-16 hours a day for almost four years. She remembers it as a hard job, but certainly also as a fascinating one.

Today Russia still takes up a big place in the former foreign correspondent’s heart and she can’t help small frown lines from appearing around her eyes when she talks of all the fascinating characters she met: the ordinary Russians on the streets, some extraordinary characters in the Russian political milieu, and in the foreign correspondent corps. Here she worked alongside people like David Remnick, current editor of ‘The New Yorker’.

“To have been in such a privileged position to have been able to watch these people in operation was an extraordinary thing,” she remembers.

Today Attard still follows Russia avidly. Even though she does at times find the news to be most distressing. After her posting she spent many years going back and forth between Australia and Russia because she was married to a Russian then.

Between 2003 and 2005 she ended up living in Russia again working as a lawyer in Moscow. Again she found it to be an extraordinary experience living there because of the changes that had occurred. The old Soviet was absolutely dead, and she found the new Russia to be an almost ugly 1970s Saudi Arabia.

“It was extraordinarily ugly, and I found that very difficult to cope with. But when I now look at what Putin has done to Russia and the fact that he has just been re-elected president, a lot of things make sense to me.”

“We have always known that the Russians love authority, they love a firm hand, and the fact that they have re-elected him gives you an inkling that this must still be true, even now 22 years after the fall of communism.”

In spite of Russia’s unfortunate development and her being less than impressed with President Putin, she still feels a very close connection to Russia, and she’s not about to close the door on her overseas romance.

“I would love to move back. I quite often feel, on a very deep guttural level, that I ought to be there. I feel in many senses that I was kind of born to live there. But at the moment it’s just not possible, so I’m here,” she explains.

In 2005 it was announced that Attard was taking over as host for ABC’s high profile watchdog program Media Watch. She stayed in this role for two years but found it to be a very taxing job and decided to resign after the 2007 season. She took as many blows as she could endure.

“I hate to say it but it’s a pretty tough job. People have always said to me, that if you are going to throw stones, you better be prepared to have a few thrown back at you. I just didn’t know that there would be quite so many stones thrown back at me. It’s a tough job, and not one that I especially enjoyed; I’ll have to say,” she admitted.

The hard days at Media Watch are now long gone, but Attard has far from slowed down. In the beginning of February she launched The Global Mail, which is funded by Wotif.com entrepreneur Graeme Wood. And the first two months has been intense.

“It has been chaotic, busy and crazy. Crazy hours, where you are in this building from seven in the morning to three the next morning. Just crazy hours, crazy lifestyle but a heck of a lot of fun,” she says.

Her hope is that the The Global Mail will function as a disrupter in Australian media, and a publication that people will value for approaching stories for their public interest worth and their values. Just as she hopes that people will appreciate the new sites’ worldwide reporting.

“I think that it is very sad that so much mainstream media has abandoned international coverage. As though Australians, because we are so far away from the rest of the world, are not interested in international affairs, when in fact I think we are. And I certainly think that if we are not, we ought to be,” she says adamantly.

“To be in a situation where you can have correspondents around the world who are on staff and professionally paid, who are doing a professional job, and bringing you information and news from the various regions of the world, is a very luxurious position to be in, and I think that it’s a really important role that they are playing.”

The Global Mail is unashamedly a current affairs website. Attard says that they will take note of the 24-hour news cycle, but that’s all. With all the other media fighting over the news she doesn’t feel that there’s anything particularly deep or penetrating that ‘The Global Mail’ could add to the current news cycle. There’s no need for another news player, but there is a need for a current affairs player.

“Today they are all writing the same thing, so our mission is to stay outside this echo chamber where they are all talking about the same thing. The mission here is to write stuff that in some cases is in the mainstream and is being talked about – but is not necessarily being written about in depth with some degree of thought and analysis.”

The Global Mail has been given funding for the first five years. As to whether the Australian people are in fact interested in foreign affairs remains to be seen.

But Attard remains optimistic.

“I think that the role of The Global Mail is to bring the world and Australia in the world to Australians and hopefully to anybody else around the world that likes the coverage.”

Voiceless, the animal protection institute, has a new confronting campaign aiming to improve animal living conditions on factory farms. Olivia Shead reports.

Chickens are one of the many animals subject to confinement, overcrowding and inhumane conditions associated with factory farming. Image: Britannica Advocacy for Animals.

For decades, publicity over animal rights has seemed to hover just out of view. However in 2011, there was huge growth of concern over the secret disgrace of Australia’s factory farms, as campaigns began spreading far and wide.

Now, Voiceless aims to do their part, with their new television advertisements catapulting into Australian living rooms.

The campaign, ‘Factory farming: the truth is hard to swallow’ features hard-hitting facts through emotion-driven storytelling. Focusing on the reality of pork and poultry farming, Voiceless opens the curtains on the often-unseen truths of cow stalls and hormone-induced hens.

With the support of Academy Award Winning Producer Emile Sherman, narration by actors and Voiceless Ambassadors Hugo Weaving and Abbie Cornish, Voiceless has a loud message to be heard.

Mr Weaving opens the campaign with haunting words.

“This year 10 billion animals worldwide and 500 million in Australia will suffer lives of pain and distress in factory farms,” he narrates in the film.

“If I treated a dog the way pigs and chickens are treated on these farms, I’d likely be prosecuted.”

The words ring true, with Australian law classifying animals as property – a commodity, confined to cages. Unlike many other similar campaigns, Voiceless does not show you an overly gruesome depiction of factory farming, instead attempting to hone in on common decency.

“We are not out to shock people with these ads,” said Sherman.

“We simply want the Australian public to think about where their food comes from, and to look further into factory farming.”

Australia is lagging greatly behind the European Union, who in the past decade passed the world’s toughest animal anti-cruelty laws. The laws saw the banning of the most cramped battery hen cages and the tightening of rules on pig castration and the slicing of their tails.

By relying on facts and figures, Voiceless hopes that the emotion driven up from the campaign can lead the public to pressure politicians.

“We all know how politics works; it’s not going to go anywhere unless politicians know there are votes behind those opinions,” said Dana Campbell, CEO of Voiceless.

However Australian animal laws are caught up in a circuit of contradiction, with those in charge of enforcing laws being the very people who protect the profits of the food industry.

Graeme McEwen, chair of the Barristers Animal Welfare Panel concurs.

“Animal welfare is administered by the departments of primary industries,” he said. “It’s like putting the minister for resources and mineral development in charge of climate change.”

Though there are supporters of Voiceless in the government, most notably newly appointed foreign minister Bob Carr, anti-animal cruelty laws are still far from being revised.

Executive Director of the Cattle Council of Australia, David Inall, spoke of Voiceless as being at the “more extreme end” of the spectrum when it came to animal rights.

“It [Carr's support of Voiceless] is certainly something that we would harbour some concerns about,” Inall said.

“We would hope that Mr Carr is able to put aside any of his views in that area and to provide a very strong service for Australian agriculture, that is what we would expect of a foreign minister.”

With opinions falling on both sides, Voiceless continues to speak loudly.

Both the Seven and Nine Network have offered free advertisement slots for the campaign and Campbell has been in conversation with GetUp with regards to the continuation of the campaign for future months.

Whatever the case is, it is clear that Voiceless aims to place the future of animals in people’s hands.“Ultimately, each of us must respond to animal cruelty in our own way,” said Campbell.

“The response is often a journey, where the starting point is learning the truth that lies behind your fork.”

Recent anti-corruption protests and local elections in the southern Chinese village of Wukan has reignited discourse about China’s future. Cate Cadell investigates.

The discussion on Chinese politics has flared up again following the riots in the Guandong village of Wukan that led to village elections earlier this month. However experts say the political significance of the Wukan election has been overplayed by the media.

Thousands gathered for a demonstration in the centre of Wukan village, in south China's Guangdong province. Image: The Telegraph

The village was dubbed a ‘beacon of democracy’ when a four month standoff between citizens and party authorities ended with a democratic election of new village representatives.

Though according to Hans Hendrischke, a Professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Sydney, there has been a critical misunderstanding in the media about how Chinese politics work.

“The village level is in fact not a Government level,” said Hendrishke. ”This was a village election, it was never illegal. You could have one every week!”

“It’s a case of the press reporting certain elements and not others,” he said.

“If the whole level went above the village into township level then the whole situation would be different.”

The Chinese Government is made up of a hierarchy of officials, each set elects the one directly above. The lowest level is the township council, and village level elections are below that; meaning they have little or no bearing on the system.

“What they have conceded, and what is important in the Chinese context, is that they haven’t used police force or brutal force to clamp down,” said Hendrishke

“It’s unlikely that this will cause a bottom up democratic process though because it was just a village election.”

Hendrishke claims that the concessions made by the Party were done in “a degree of disregard.”

“They [the Chinese Government] are saying ‘lets calm this thing down, lets show a soft side because it’s not going to do us any harm’,” he said.

Corruption

The civilian protests began in September last year and flared into riots in December, when a village representative died suspiciously in police custody. The townspeople protested what they claim were ‘corrupted’ land grabs.

Village authorities were responsible for claiming collective land for development purposes, and angry land owners claim they weren’t compensated. They suspect the authorities pocketed the profits themselves.

Frank Ruanjie, who heads the Australian branch of the Chinese Democratic Party, said this is a common occurrence in China.

“It’s a big problem; the local officers and people develop the farmland without offering compensation,” Ruanjie said.

Ruanjie, a pro-democracy survivor of the Tiananmen square massacre has since been exiled to Australia, and publishes the Independent Chinese newspaper ‘Tiananmen Times’.

“I suspect the leadership of the village sold farm land to business people and took the money for themselves, they certainly didn’t consult the village people,” he said.

Despite strong suspicion, there has been no concrete evidence that corruption occurred during the land sales. However it is known that thousands of land grab protests have happened in the past decade, largely unreported.

“The way local industrialisation happens in China is in land sales, that is how Chinese enterprises are funded,” said Hendrishke. “The central government is not able to control land claims. Local governments have to find 60 percent of their budget, one of the few ways to do this comes out of land sales and leasing.”

“You could have corruption in the authorities taking the money themselves but there is no proof in the article which is quite interesting,” said Hendrishke.

Ruanjie argues that unmonitored local land grabs have potential to impinge on the human rights of Chinese villagers throughout the country.

Wukan election committee members count votes on the afternoon of March 3, 2012. Image: WantChinaTime

“In some villages, there’s proof local authorities develop viruses and use them on the people. They hire members from the black society, underground people, to take care of the villagers who are on the developer’s land.”

Media blackout

Wukan has been set apart from other similar incidents by comprehensive international coverage. However it’s brought attention to the limited media coverage within China.

“The Chinese people know very little about what happened in Wukan,” said Ruanjie.

“The central government blocked the news from the country. They [Party authorities] would want to keep the election secret, they don’t want other villages to look to Wukan.”

Search terms on China’s popular social media site, Sina Weibo, were blocked shortly after the riots escalated, with phrases such as ‘Wukan’ and ‘WK’ returning no results until they were unblocked on December 21, days after the protests ceased.

According to Ruanjie, the blackout “is a very serious situation.”

“If you want to comment on Wukan, you can’t be in the country. If you are in China you don’t know China.”

The future of Chinese democracy

While dialogue is still playing out, there is still doubt as to whether the uprising will have any lasting political effect.

“The government gave into the villagers to a very limited degree,” said Hendrishke.

“It’s quite likely they can’t be bothered to look into village finances because it’s got much larger fish to fry; there’s a degree of disregard. If there is a ripple effect in the villages that is not something that’s all too new, but it may have a ripple effect in terms of the policy the government took.”

As the elections wrap up, the potential for political follow up movements appears slim, and some argue that the win was not democratic in nature but economic.

“The trouble is the demands of the Chinese people are economic. Economic demands are easy to satisfy, political demands require change,” said Ruanjie.

“In terms of democracy, if you think it’s long, it’s long away. If you think it is near, it’s very near.”

Old villager shot through his left eye. Image: Handed over by KIA

Mutilation and executions accompany Burmese claims of democracy and freedom. Kasper Stensgaard reports from Burma.

Less than a week before Burma’s election, rare photos of execution, mutilation and burning of civilians in Burma’s Kachin State emerge, while the Burmese government claims such atrocities are not taking place.

Investigation conducted in Burma’s predominantly Christian Kachin State in March 2012 portray inhumane and seemingly arbitrary attacks on villagers. Dozens of highly sensitive photos obtained through credible sources entrenched in the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a rebel group fighting against the government army, strongly indicate that the government is, in fact, brutalising its own people despite often dismissing these allegations as foreign attempts to destabilise the union of the Burmese people.

The photos were taken by the KIA after the government army, also referred to as the Tatmadaw, allegedly attacked the two villages of Nam Tsan Yang and Namwai in October and November 2011. Namwai village is located just a few kilometers inside the neighbouring Shan State, but has become a part of the hostilities in the Kachin State. According to survivors who now live in refugee camps in Myitkyina, the capital of the Kachin State, five villagers were killed in Nam Tsan Yang while the death toll in Namwai amounted to three. Four of the alleged murders can be seen in the photos.

The two villages are approximately 45 kilometers from each other and are located close to the Chinese border. The similar trails of destruction and terror found in the villages suggest that the Tatmadaw execute their atrocities using the same tactics everywhere, indicating the attacks may be military strategies more so than spontaneous actions of individual commanders and soldiers. It would seem unlikely that Burma’s highest ranking military officials are unaware of the onslaught in the conflict zones as most of them have drawn on personal combat experience in order to reach the peaks of the military hierarchy.

39-year old Nam Tsan Yang villager, Ding Si Roi Ji, now lives in a refugee camp in Myitkyina. She witnessed how the Tatmadaw surged through Nam Tsan Yang on the afternoon of October 25, 2011. As one of just several who had enough luck to flee the scene, Ding Si Roi Ji explained how a grotesque event played before her eyes before she found herself panicking through thick jungle to save both her life and that of her daughter’s.

Villager taking photo of Jarp Khan Naw's dead body. Image: KIA

“We all knew and liked Mr. Jarp Hkan Naw. He was from the Lisu tribe. I’m not sure exactly how old he was, but he was somewhere in his sixties. He lived in the village all his life,” Roi Ji continued, “He was mending a fence in the village when suddenly the Tatmadaw attacked from all directions. He did not manage to escape and was seized by the soldiers”.

After Jarp Hkan Naw found himself in the hands of the soldiers, he was soon suspected of being more than just a mere villager, Roi Ji explained. “He was instantly accused of being a KIA collaborator. They screamed, ‘Those hands of yours have been used to produce bombs that have killed our soldiers.’”

Jarp Hkan Naw frantically claimed his innocence and insisted that he was just a simple peasant like any other villager. This did not convince the soldiers, Roi Ji said. “The soldiers beat him up ferociously and finally grabbed machetes and first chopped off the arms and then the legs of the still conscious man. Soon he was panicking on the ground with blood gushing out of his body. The soldiers showed him no mercy. Finally the soldiers emptied a big canister of petrol on him – and set him ablaze.”

The Tatmadaw left the smouldering body on the ground and the photos depict how the KIA found it the next day. His former neighbours, who knew him and his daily routines very well, said that it was almost laughable that the Tatmadaw of all people suspected him of being affiliated with the KIA and that he thus had become an innocent victim of a hideous and completely arbitrary crime.

Another photo from the same village shows the remains of an unidentified villager who was decapitated and set on fire so intensely that only the skeleton remained. A large bone is visible behind some burnt rags while the skull is seen on the ground a few meters from the corpse. Another photo of the same victim shows the scorched site of the immolation just left of the body. It has not been possible to confirm the identity of the victim.

In what appears to be an attempt to create long-lasting destruction, the village was subsequently razed and pillaged as can be seen in the photos.  Tools, vehicles, vegetables and rice were rendered to ashes while many cows, pigs and chickens were meticulously put down. Such devastation begs the question if the mission was a inherently intended to ensure that returning survivors would face as difficult a time as possible if trying to resettle in the village.

With the remains of his home still on fire, this villager lost everything he had. Image: KIA

After years of informal cessation of hostilities, fighting between government troops and the KIA reignited in June 2011. So far it has displaced at least 75,000 ethnic Kachin, many of whom have fled to areas near the Chinese border that the KIA dominate through several strongholds. At the time of writing, the fighting and attacks on villages are still being reported.

International economic sanctions have been imposed on Burma for years as a result of numerous human rights violations. However, the common people of Burma have not felt a big blow as they have been terribly poor for as long as anyone can remember. The real effect has been felt by the military leaders and their business cronies, which may explain the government’s current efforts to show the world that it is no longer the black sheep of Asia. Most notably, by allowing for what it calls a free and unrigged election on April 1 and by releasing hundreds of political prisoners in January 2012. It is nevertheless this particular government that is responsible for the onslaught that still haunts the ethnic minority areas.

Photos from the village of Namwai are even more conclusive of how the Tatmadaw is violating a plethora of human rights. The village was attacked on November 19, 2011, and the next day the KIA showed up and found traumatised survivors searching for their possessions in the still burning and smoking remains of their homes.
One picture shows a pool of dried blood that, according to the KIA, was the result of a villager found executed and covered with a blanket.

The next day the KIA found a male villager of about 60 or 70 years whose identity was not established. The man had seemingly been executed at point blank range with a gunshot to the left eye. Further study of the picture reveals the man had several cuts and blood all over his body, indicating physical abuse prior to his execution.

It has been notoriously difficult for international human rights and aid organisations to operate on Burmese soil, and since December 2011 the Burmese government has made it almost impossible for UN aid agencies to access the conflict zones in the Kachin State. In this period only twice have the agencies been allowed access.

An unidentified victim whose body was burned. Image: KIA

In 2008, when cyclone Nargis wreaked havoc in Burma’s southern delta region, more than 140,000 people died while millions of people lost their homes.  At the time the Burmese government appeared apathetic and made no known effort to help the affected people. In fact, for weeks the government refused to accept any help from foreign countries or international organisations, despite the flotilla of cargo ships, carrying aid resources, which was moored just off the coast. The result was thousands of additional losses of life.
So far the government has not done anything to help displaced villagers in the Kachin State, although immediate and unrestricted access of international organisations to the conflict areas could make a big difference.

In a February 2012 press conference in Bangkok, Win Mra, chairman of Burma’s National Human Rights Commission (BNHRC) told reporters that he deemed investigations into the conflict zones would not be appropriate at the present point in time. The establishment of peace was of greatest importance, he said, and explained that as a consequence, alleged violations of human rights would “recede into the background”. Burma’s human rights took another knock last month when the Burmese parliament, Hluttaw, announced that Burma’s current president Thein Sein, who founded BNHRC, had had no right to do so and as a result, the commission was dissolved entirely.

According to several of the survivors from the two villages, the purges are part of an unofficial strategy of the government, one that aims to annihilate ethnic minorities, such as the six ethnicities of the Kachin people, and leave behind only ethnically “clean” Burmese.

Burma’s former president, General Than Shwe, retired in March 2011 but is widely believed to still to be pulling the strings from behind the scenes. In the biography “Than Shwe – Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant” the author, Benedict Rogers, considered an expert on Burma, states the Burmese regime’s hatred towards the ethnic minorities is influenced by a fascist ideology.  This ideology is embodied in the governing principle of “Amyo, Batha, Thathana,” which translates as “One race, One language, One religion,” the race and language being Burmese and the religion Buddhism. Unfortunately for the Kachin people, they are not of Burmese ethnicity, few speak Burmese and even less are Buddhists. Despite the testimonies of the villagers and the regime supposedly finding inspiration in an ideology replete with fascist principles, it is not possible to prove a direct link between the executions and a hidden agenda of specifically targeting ethnic minorities.

In March 2011 General Than Shwe retired as Burma’s president, supposedly due to ailing health, after which Thein Sein took over the reins. In his inauguration speech Thein Sein, who as such is responsible for the atrocities in the two villages described in this article, emphasized the importance of ending Burma’s several ethnic armed conflicts, and pronounced how the ethnic minorities had experienced “the hell of untold miseries”. So far there is no sign that Thein Sein’s sympathies have reached the battlegrounds or that life there has not gotten any sweeter.

Throughout the years under the rule of Than Shwe several international diplomats confronted him with scores of reports about violations of human rights in Burma. In one case, when questioned by a former Western ambassador in 1995, Benedict Rogers notes Than Shwe reacted rather surprised and said: “We are Buddhists and we wouldn’t hurt a fly.” There is – in an extremely ironic way – perhaps something to this claim. For many Burmese Buddhists killing a fly or any other animal is considered a sin. Nowhere in Burma’s areas dominated by Buddhism can you find flypaper on the tables, whereas this is commonplace in establishments in the Christian Kachin State. Perhaps the Christian ethnic minorities of the Kachin State, if given the choice, would be willing to risk a fly or two in their bowl of rice if it meant less terror and bloodshed in the villages where they have lived for generations. Ironically, maybe the generals would not hurt a fly, but it has been thoroughly documented that they disregard the lives of many ethnic minorities. This could be the reason why many Burmese say that the generals have Buddhist as well as military uniforms that can be expediently worn and taken off at their convenience.

This is how the KIA found villager Jarp Khan Naw. Image: From KIA

The KIA say this is an executed civilian covered with a blanket. There is an area with dried blood next to the body. Image: KIA