Afghan Lives Matter …not apparently to Australia

Afghan Lives Matter  …not apparently to Australia, whose government chooses to lash out at condemnation of itself and its unprincipled and uncontrollable military elements, rather than taking any criticism, legitimately directed at it, on the chin, with contrition and humility for its soldiers vile misdemeanours. 

“Morrison’s demand for an apology from China is a trick aimed at diverting public attention from Australia’s crimes in Afghanistan” – Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University in Shanghai – as reported by Global Times – 

Of course it is.  What do you do when caught fairly and squarely in an act or acts of indescribable evil?  …and by ‘you’ I don’t mean you personally, although some may lean towards that, but the ‘you’ of those in high places whose scruples and principles do not bar them from fostering and supporting such acts – for a variety of ill-intentioned reasons…  Well, of course, you at once begin to focus attention away from what you have done or caused to have been done, to some innocent but interested party not favoured by you. As though some artistic but fictional portrayal of what you did or provided scope and occasion for being done, is far worse than the actual acts themselves.  Notwithstanding that you yourself are not beyond the concoction of formal false evidence (much less a simple illustration used to make a valid point) to inappropriately and incorrectly focus attention on merely alleged acts of others, also not favoured by you (think MH17). 

Is the Australian PM’s labelling of this portrayal as Chinese hypocrisy not the height of hypocrisy itself?  Self-disgust is obviously not one of Australia’s strong points.  Neither is self-integrity. Cheating, lying, manipulation and self-interest, maybe …but those are not normally classified as virtues.

Virtue signalling is something one should not indulge in …especially when one is signally lacking in many of the recognised virtues oneself.

Since I have provided Chinese media view on this, let me fairly also provide Australia’s national media view.   “China refuses to apologise for graphic image of Australian soldier tweeted by government official” – ABC News

You be the judge in forming your own perspective – virtuously.