politics

Catholic boarding school experiences: the need for a balanced perspective

https://johnmenadue.com/catholic-boarding-school-experiences-the-need-for-a-bal…
Created
Mon, 25/09/2023 - 04:53
Avid readers each day of Pearls and Irritations (of which I am one) hopefully enjoyed Paddy Gourley’s review of Martin Flanagan’s new memoir ‘The Empty Honour Board: A School Memoir’. Stimulated by that review I have now read Flanagan’s remarkably honest and painful memoir. His story is consistent with repeated accounts of sexual abuse and Continue reading »

Health impacts of sanctions deleted from UN declaration on universal health coverage (with Australian support)

https://johnmenadue.com/health-impacts-of-sanctions-deleted-from-un-declaration…
Created
Mon, 25/09/2023 - 04:56
In the lead up to the high-level UN meeting on universal health coverage (UHC) Australia has joined the US, UK and the EU in blocking any acknowledgement that ‘unilateral coercive measures’ (sanctions) can have negative impacts on the achievement of universal health coverage. The health consequences of sanctions include avoidable morbidity arising from increased barriers Continue reading »

America can’t stop China’s rise

https://johnmenadue.com/america-cant-stop-chinas-rise/
Created
Mon, 25/09/2023 - 04:56
There’s little doubt that the American government has decided to slow China’s economic rise, most notably in the fields of technological development. To be sure, the Biden administration denies that these are its goals. Janet Yellen said on April 20, 2023, “China’s economic growth need not be incompatible with U.S. economic leadership. The United States remains the Continue reading »

Okinawa disproves the US narrative about overseas bases

https://johnmenadue.com/okinawa-disproves-the-us-narrative-about-overseas-bases/
Created
Mon, 25/09/2023 - 04:50
Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki has implored the UN for international backing in his opposition to the prefecture being overrun with US military bases. The Japan Times reports: “I am here today to ask the world to witness the situation in Okinawa,” Tamaki told a session of the world body’s Human Rights Council, arguing that the Continue reading »

Earth Systems Treaty: John Hewson calls for action on ‘mega threats’

https://johnmenadue.com/earth-systems-treaty-john-hewson-calls-for-action-on-me…
Created
Mon, 25/09/2023 - 04:54
Former Liberal party leader John Hewson, in a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, enquired why the United Nations was not acting on proposals to deal with a series of well documented and interacting catastrophic threats. Three recent books, two of them by Australians, have highlighted the predicament our human Continue reading »

On carrots and sticks and the unemployed

https://johnmenadue.com/on-carrots-and-sticks-and-the-unemployed/
Created
Mon, 25/09/2023 - 04:55
Australia’s main Active Labor Market Program, the Duttonesque sounding “Workforce Australia”, is the latest iteration of a long line of models for Employment Services inflicted on the unemployed since the demise of the CES 25 years ago. It’s yet another Morrison government turd that the Albanese government should have flushed away the minute the ink Continue reading »

Ms Wong goes to New York.

http://aussiemagpie.blogspot.com/2023/09/ms-wong-goes-to-new-york.html
Created
Mon, 25/09/2023 - 04:01

God, I admire Penny Wong. I honestly do.


If you have heard her speaking before the UN General Assembly recently you know why. If you haven’t, just look at her. Listen to her.

The climate threat … Kiribati, Tuvalu and Marshall Islands are only a few metres above sea level … Many developing countries are rightly frustrated … Approaching climate tipping points … We must demand more from permanent members [of the UN’s Security Council], including constraints on the use of the veto …

Powerful words.

The mass-media memory hole: Ukraine, Libya and war crimes

https://johnmenadue.com/the-mass-media-memory-hole-blair-ukraine-and-libya/
Created
Sun, 24/09/2023 - 04:50
A key function of state-corporate media is to keep the public pacified, ignorant and ill-equipped to disrupt establishment power. Knowledge that sheds light on how the world operates politically and economically is kept to a minimum by the ‘mainstream’ media. George Orwell’s famous ‘memory hole’ from ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ signifies the phenomenon brilliantly. Winston Smith’s work Continue reading »

On sidelines of UN General Assembly, Sri Lankan president calls Aukus ‘a mistake’ and rejects fears over China

https://johnmenadue.com/on-sidelines-of-un-general-assembly-sri-lankan-presiden…
Created
Sun, 24/09/2023 - 04:51
President Ranil Wickremesinghe also derided the term ‘Indo-Pacific’ as an artificial framework with an inconsistent definition. He also countered recent claims by New Delhi that Beijing was sending ships to Sri Lanka to spy on India. Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Monday declared the Aukus security pact between Australia, Britain and the US “a mistake” Continue reading »
politics