- The Guardian
- Issue #2122
Constructive
Penny Wong, addressing the United Nations, has said that Australia seeks to be “a constructive voice for peace and the upholding of international law including the protection of civilians.”
Australia lets US bombers use this country for trips to bomb Yemen, gives huge contracts to an Israeli military company involved in the ongoing genocide, and has always allowed the US to use Pine Gap as a resource in Israel’s favour.
On the other hand, there’s the occasional slap with a wet lettuce leaf through speeches like this. Let’s just say the ‘constructive’ bit needs work.
(Rightly) Proud
Weasellish, not to mention false, when someone is “rightly proud” of a non-achievement. Professional cornball Aussie, Peter Fitzsimmons says Australians are “rightly proud of having freed ourselves from the ‘traditional class system England specialises in.’ ” While it’s good that this country doesn’t have a House of Lords, dukes, duchesses, earls or fox hunting, if Fitzsimmons really thinks there’s no class system here, we have a bridge in Sydney harbour to sell him. It’s been in the family for a long time, but the kids have grown up and moved out, so we hardly use it. We think it’d be perfect for Peter.
Renaissance
Literally meaning ‘rebirth,’ and first used to describe the flourishing of culture and learning in Europe between (roughly) 1400-1650, ‘renaissance’ is often used just to describe people doing things – as when a musician releases yet another album but hopes it’s a comeback..
More dangerously, Japan’s remilitarisation has been described by one journalist as a “strategic renaissance.” Japan’s right wingers are simultaneously denying the inhumanity of the country’s wartime fascist government and moving towards aggressive remilitarising. Calling it a ‘renaissance’ is another act of denial.
Illegal
Former US President Donald Trump has called Haitian migrants “illegal immigrants” when they aren’t illegal at all. It’s very Australian of him, maybe he got the idea from Scott Morrison.
Safeguard
A safeguard is a nice and useful thing. It’s weaselly when used to mask something that makes us less safe.
Tanya Plibersek our Minister for the Environment and Water, was asked about the 1.3 billion tons of carbon emissions that will come from her approval of three coalmine expansions. Pausing only to take a selfie with a nearby bilby, Plibersek replied that “all of these projects fit within our safeguard mechanism”.
“Our”? The safeguard mechanism was first developed by Tony Abbott. Long story short, it allows companies to buy other companies’ emissions reductions rather than reduce their own emissions. What the safeguard does is make our lives more dangerous, but Labor think it’s a winner for them electorally.
‘Forcing’
This word is a leading member of the large club of weasel words whose purpose is to shift blame. According to politico.eu, “an informal alliance of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea is forcing NATO to tighten links with Indo-Pacific countries.” Poor NATO. All it wants to do is carry on protecting Western Europe from a Soviet Union that no longer exists, but this “informal” alliance is twisting its arm, and what else can a US-led intergovernmental military alliance do but give in?
Informal (alliance)
See above. Non-weasel sense: casual dress or language. Weasel sense: politico.au wants to pretend there’s an alliance, but have no evidence.
