“The events since October 7 have been absolutely overwhelming. And that means they are overwhelming for everybody, but particularly for the people who are experiencing them, those who are suffering. The victims. It’s regularly said that October 7 represented the greatest killing of Jewish people since the Holocaust. And that’s correct. What’s said less frequently Continue reading »
politics
“Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.” That is from the Facebook page of the deputy commander of Israel’s 749 Combat Engineering Battalion (the 749) Lieutenant Colonel Adi Bekore. Did Continue reading »
‘I refuse to play the condemnation game. Let me make myself clear. I do not tell oppressed people how to resist their oppression or who their allies should be.’ Writer and activist Arundhati Roy has been awarded the PEN Pinter Prize 2024. This is an annual award set up by English PEN in the memory Continue reading »
Marie Curie discovered radioactivity, Alexander Fleming found Penicillin: in the 20th century, their merit was clear when they received the Nobel prizes. In 2024, the Physics and Chemistry Nobels are unusual, and show that the nature of discovery is changing with the advent of AI. How? Continue reading »
A lot has been written in the past few days about Senator Lidia Thorpe and her courageous act of speaking truth to power when she confronted coloniser, King Charles, in the colonial halls of Parliament. Yet amidst the commentary, one voice remains absent: the voice of the criminalised community. As a formerly incarcerated woman, I Continue reading »
The failure of last year’s referendum still troubles the country. The focus on the Voice to Parliament took attention away from the far more consequential question of truth telling, while paradoxically displaying how much it is still needed. The intense and prolonged debate displayed how historical interpretation still divides the country rather than providing the Continue reading »
Capitalism would need to invent a Guardian, if it did not already exist, writes Jonathan Cook. And in turn, The Guardian would need to invent a George Monbiot if he was not already one of its columnists. Chris Hedges hosts a very interesting discussion with Guardian columnist George Monbiot on his new book about capitalism and its modern incarnation, neoliberalism. Monbiot Continue reading »
“It was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases and the alcohol.” – Paul Keating, Redfern speech. Reaching out to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can be daunting for non-indigenous people, until respect is safely established, and an equal listening Continue reading »
Nihon Hidankyo, Japan’s nationwide organisation of atomic bomb survivors, was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. The award announcement said one reason the organisation received the award was that the personal testimony of its members has advanced “stigmatising the use of nuclear weapons.” When Nihon Hidankyo’s award was announced on Oct. 11, I recalled the visit Continue reading »
Opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has told colleagues that he has been doing the hard yards when it comes to Coalition policy, and will soon be announcing that he plans to convert the controversial, American designed Project 25, to the metric... Read More ›