Terminology, take care. Take care Pearls & Irritations that you don’t fall into the trap – fall into the trap that is being carefully set. What is the trap? Why, the use of words. What words? Well, words such as ‘Gaza’, ‘Hamas’, ‘Hezbollah’, ‘terrorist’. What can be wrong with using the word ‘Gaza’ – you Continue reading »
politics
Not since Alaska has the US won a nation so cheaply. A friend joked to me recently that the best news Labor has had this week was being told that I was thinking that Anthony Albanese could very well lose next year’s election outright. The jibe at my forecasting record was fair comment, one I Continue reading »
Refugee and refugee support groups Australia-wide are deeply concerned about the extremely damaging implications of Australia’s new migration laws which are founded on principles of punishment rather than human rights protection. The new migration laws passed last week provide government with significant powers which are out of step with Australia’s human rights obligations, principles of Continue reading »
The world and its people are facing serious local and global challenges. Climate change, economic instability, limits to free speech, threats to independent media reporting, and increasing social inequality all signal the breakdown of democratic systems across the world. The genocide in Gaza and the war in Ukraine are ongoing. Our political institutions and leaders Continue reading »
In electorates with high numbers of Chinese and Muslim voters, it is time for a reckoning with Labor’s AUKUS policy. A 2024 poll sheds light on the persistent anti-Chinese sentiment in Australia, with findings that suggest the AUKUS policy is playing a significant role in maintaining this atmosphere, despite the Labor government’s more “restrained” public Continue reading »
If the world were watching the livestreamed systematic annihilation of Jews in real time, there would be no debating whether that constituted terrorism or genocide. My remarks at the Oxford Union debate. Addressing the challenge of what to do about the indigenous inhabitants of the land Chaim Weizman, a Russian Jew, said to the World Continue reading »
Trump seeks a currency commitment from BRICS or 100 percent tariffs will apply. The man feeding up to 3,000 Gazans daily has been targeted and killed, while Al Jazeera investigates IDF use of quadcopters with sounds of babies crying luring Gazans from their homes. A soldier tells Hareetz that what he has seen in Gaza Continue reading »
Palestinians are being intentionally massacred, starved, and stripped of everything needed to sustain human life. There are no words that can adequately convey the pain and depravity of this aggression. Those who cannot be moved by the pictures of dismembered and charred corpses will not be moved by some words. What sort of world have Continue reading »
Draconian laws don’t discourage climate protesters. Hydrogen’s rainbow of colours. CCS continues to underperform. Clean energy investments increasing but so are investments in fossil fuels. Destroying lives v inconveniencing the public George Monbiot in The Guardian recently compared the draconian jail sentences legislated and imposed during the previous UK Conservative government’s term of office (and now Continue reading »