My dear friend, the great Australian painter John Olsen was, at 77, the oldest artist to win the Archibald Prize. In 2019, over a long lunch at Catalina restaurant in Rose Bay facing the Sydney Harbour, I was with John and Barry Humphries when they yarned about what might happen to John’s 2005 Archibald Prize winning Continue reading »
politics
History confirms how the present, destructive militaristic culture of the US-led Atlantic alliance stands on the shoulders of well over a thousand years of Western immersion in extraordinary levels of horrific warfare. Continue reading »
It has been a year of erasing a people, systematically, ruthlessly and unrelentingly. A massacre here and another there. 500 killed yesterday and ‘only’ 140 today. It has been a year of obliterating a culture, an identity and a collective memory. A year of levelling universities, libraries and museums. A year of burning archives, photographs and centuries-old Continue reading »
If any lesson can be drawn at this dismissal juncture, it must surely be that violence engenders violence ... Continue reading »
The nature, and agenda, of Journalism Australia is clear. It will segregate the washed and unwashed, granting dispensations and protections to the approved while lessening the protections for lesser scribblers. Continue reading »
One year on, we renew our calls for a ceasefire, hostage deal and an end to Israel’s impunity and aggression. October 7 marks one year since the Hamas attacks which led to the killing of over 1,000 people in Israel. This week also marks the start of Israel’s genocidal war, which has led to the Continue reading »
With less than two months to go, voters may go to the American polls while their nation is at war. If they do, there is a significant chance that Australia will be dragged in, and in accordance with imperial tradition be sent to fight in the Middle East. There are not many nations, after all, Continue reading »
The massive Iranian rocket response to the Israeli assassinations of Arab leaders raises the question of who began this process of escalation and why? Continue reading »
As a result of its belligerence and intransigence, Israel is now almost completely ostracised by the international community, and also faces grave economic and military threats as the regional war expands. Israel rejects the two-state solution because it claims that a sovereign state of Palestine would profoundly endanger Israel’s national security. In fact, it is the lack of Continue reading »
Our five-minute scroll on X reveals testimonial of what happened on October 7. Francesca Albanese implores Malta to stop vessels carrying weapons from proceeding to Israel. A doctor reveals the horror of Israel’s attacks in Gaza, stating no toddler is shot twice by mistake. Israel has raided its own prisons holding Palestinian prisoners in a Continue reading »