"Some of Fiji's best journalists left the industry as a result and the media still carry the mental scars today from that very disturbing period."
politics
More than five centuries after it was formulated in a series of papal decrees, the Vatican issued a formal announcement on March 30 repudiating the Euro-supremacist “Doctrine of Discovery.” In essence, the “doctrine” said that all lands not occupied by “Christians” passed into the hands of the European conquerors as soon as they were “discovered,” Continue reading »
Successive Israeli governments have pretended to engage in a ‘peace process’, but in reality they have continued to consolidate and expand the occupation. While our unelected representatives pontificate they, the Israelis consolidate. From Oslo to Sharm el-Sheik, Palestinians have been on a long arduous and thorny road to nowhere. This mad journey was started back Continue reading »
John Kerin’s contribution to the success of the Hawke-Keating government has been grievously understated and uncelebrated. Given the economic, environmental, managerial and social change it successfully engineered, having someone who could neutralise the farm lobby was a boon to the ALP’s parliamentary machine. It contributed significantly to the material reforms of the Hawke/Keating era. As Continue reading »
Figures show that the level of public housing has hardly increased in more than 20 years, even though the Australian population has increased markedly (by about 30%). State Governments in Australia provide subsidised public housing for elderly, disabled, unemployed and other people on low incomes. The rent for this public housing is based on the Continue reading »
Australia has only a few months of fuel reserves and we are on the edge of a technological revolution in transport. So in a strategic sense anything we could do to secure our fuel reserves or find alternatives to petroleum based fuels would make us more secure. Australia has all the raw materials to manufacture Continue reading »
China leads the world in building both coal and renewable infrastructure. Ten leading drivers of climate action are ineffective at keeping warming below 2oC. More and more species exposed to extinction as temperatures rise. The many faces of China The USA might spend as much on its military as the next ten countries put together Continue reading »
An Easter reflection on romantic weddings, love, and our global context. Towards a ‘Calming of souls’ and a ‘lightness of being’. Preparing for an upcoming Easter- time wedding, I asked the couple, spontaneously, what they love about each other. It was an innocent question. It is a joy to be invited into wedding celebrations and Continue reading »
Bruce Haigh, who died on April 7, was a diplomat, an adventurer, an artist and writer, a humanist, a romantic and a man with a deep love of his country, who mourned its fading ideals and values. Ominously, Bruce was born in Sydney on 6 August, 1945, the day the Americans dropped the atom bomb Continue reading »
In which the Democrats show their true colors as vicious discipliniarians.