When Myanmar’s military coup took place three years ago, few thought it would turn out this way. Never has a military in Southeast Asia staged a successful coup and then failed to consolidate power afterwards. Yet this is precisely what’s happening in Myanmar. A fierce and determined coalition of resistance forces is in the process Continue reading »
politics
From the time Kevin Rudd romped into office as Australia’s first Labor Prime Minister since Paul Keating, the life of Australian Prime Ministers has been dangerous. Party hacks, factional gangsters, and pollsters shadow, stalk and linger, attempting to note signs of the weakness. A decline in the polls is treated as genuine political calamity, the Continue reading »
“If wars can be started with lies, peace can be started with truth,” Julian Assange: Petition EN5846 to the House of Representatives calls on the Australian government to suspend Australia’s ‘autonomous sanctions’ on Syria. A considered, conscientious response to the petition could have major implications for Australia’s foreign and defence policies. The US-led unilateral coercive Continue reading »
100 Fossil Fuel CEOs directly and knowingly threaten all life on Earth. As a medical oncologist and palliative care physician I feel a strange resonance with the modern killing fields of petromachy (the oils wars), where the true enemies, behind the mephitic black liquid, are the demonically evil, amoral, virulent, cunning, banal, and totally self-obsessed Continue reading »
On Washington’s telling, Beijing is spreading authoritarianism through producing goods and building infrastructure around the world while the US is promoting freedom and democracy by bombing and selling weapons. People nowadays say literally when they really mean metaphorically. I don’t know why; maybe a linguist can explain. But when I wrote literally in the headline, Continue reading »
It matters for Australia that Biden not be re-elected to the US presidency. A Trump administration might mean domestic chaos, violence, and division for the Republic, however, the danger is that Biden would be more likely to lead the world into catastrophic war. Another Trump imperium would be sadly the least worst, yet still terrible, Continue reading »
Rogue State – noun. “A nation or state regarded as breaking international law and posing a threat to the security of other nations.” (Oxford English Dictionary). Three unrelated statements have been issued recently that will change the way we look at the United States forever – or at least they should. They point to a Continue reading »
The Rhodium Group, an independent research organisation with a focus on China, says the nation’s economic policymaking process has stalled with it refusing to announce meaningful actions to overcome its pressing property and share market crashes let alone forge a clear path for the future. The full paper can be accessed here. Here is my Continue reading »
There can be no meaningful peace without full recognition of Palestinian sovereignty. Only new leadership and new vision, on both sides, will help. No issue of foreign policy that does not involve direct Australian military participation has caused as much division as the current Gaza War. There are several reasons for this. Since the creation Continue reading »
The Opposition’s shadow minister for home and foreign affairs, Barnaby Joyce, has blamed the prevalence of wind farms in the vicinity of Canberra for the territories increased level of horniness. ”Before all these windfarms, I was a happily married man... Read More ›