Fifty years ago, I enjoyed an overnight stay in Hong Kong while on my way from Melbourne to visit the United Kingdom for the first time. Hong Kong was already established as a “tourist and shopping paradise” by then. I remember being somewhat bewildered by the crowds of people everywhere I went. But it was Continue reading »
politics
Here’s a sad prediction for 2025. By the end of next year, more states and territories will have dropped the age of criminal responsibility to 10, and adopted punitive laws based on slogans such as Queensland’s “you do the crime, you do the time” for juvenile as well as adult offenders. The greatest proportion will Continue reading »
The arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Gallant sparked outrage in Israel and across the Jewish world. But the ICC’s decision is neither antisemitic nor a modern-day blood libel: it is a call for Jews not to sacrifice the universal ideal of justice on the altar of uncritically defending Israel. Two Continue reading »
I’ve had a hard day’s night watching an excruciating, made-for-Fox-TV showdown between political scientist Norman Finkelstein and the former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum. It’s white knuckled viewing, no doubt about that. It’s designed to be. Piers Morgan, an infotainment stalwart, presides over these so-called “debates” (which are anything but) by extolling his own Continue reading »
In October 2024, four key Southeast Asian countries became partners of BRICS, making the organisation much closer to home for Australians. So why have Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam put themselves on a path to membership? What is BRICS? BRICS was established in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa and is viewed Continue reading »
If it wasn’t already clear, the writing is now well and truly on the wall for the fossil car makers: Just a week after BYD launched its $US15,000 “Corolla killer” and with the world’s largest EV battery maker recently announcing it’s on track to cut battery costs in half this year, new research suggests the decline in Continue reading »
When we hear of so many incidents in which Israeli soldiers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories of Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank detain Palestinians and gratuitously ransack their homes (if not completely destroy their homes), one tries to understand what role humiliation plays in the way in which the soldiers orient themselves to Continue reading »
We have a major problem with the damage that Rupert Murdoch has done to newspapers in Australia, and any self-respecting government should take steps to correct that as soon as possible. A repost from January 05, 2024 I met Rupert when I was working for Gough Whitlam in Canberra. I got to know the people Continue reading »
Are you: a better coach for having played the game at highest level; a superior baron of a media corporation if you started as a desk journalist; a smarter tech billionaire for having cut code; an out-performing venture capitalist if once a failed entrepreneur; a far-sighted head of NASA if you journeyed as an astronaut; Continue reading »
How reassuring it is to be a mining magnate in Australia. Far more significant than royalty, such figures are the unelected captains of industry who know that governments will do whatever they can to accommodate their wishes and whims. True, the rhetoric might sometimes be sharp and seemingly at odds, especially when it comes to Continue reading »