Climate change, not China, is the real threat in the South Pacific
John Menadue

Climate change, not China, is the real threat in the South Pacific

Countries of the South Pacific have good reason to encourage China and other countries to assist them with infrastructure. And there is nothing that Australia should, or could, do about it.

A nation of narcissists
Patrick Lawrence

A nation of narcissists

Narcissism is the open-and-shut condition of the elites who fashion and execute American foreign policy. And they are utterly incapable of seeing their country as it is.

If we want to win the Pacific, we must first listen – and stop blaming China for everything
Fred Zhang

ANTI-CHINA MEDIA WATCH

If we want to win the Pacific, we must first listen – and stop blaming China for everything

A 9 September editorial in The Sydney Morning Herald, titled China and Australia in a high-speed race to win control of the Pacific, offered a vivid picture of the daily contest for influence in the region.


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Rupert Murdoch’s greatest scoop
Rodney Tiffen

Rupert Murdoch’s greatest scoop

On Wednesday 25 February 1976, The Australian published a sensational front page story headlined Iraq promises $US500,000 to pay Labor’s debts/Whitlam in secret Arab election deal.

Australia’s business lobbies seem happy to let the country burn. What will federal Labor do?
Giles Parkinson

Australia’s business lobbies seem happy to let the country burn. What will federal Labor do?

It is the writer Oscar Wilde who is credited with the quote: “The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Although I do have to admit the first time I came across it was in a Doonesbury cartoon in the 1980s.

NSW AG based Kathleen Folbigg’s compo on ‘no state malfeasance’, but no one has looked
Stephen Cordner,  Kerry Breen

NSW AG based Kathleen Folbigg’s compo on ‘no state malfeasance’, but no one has looked

When baby Azaria Chamberlain’s matinee jacket was found at Uluru in 1986, it led to the prompt release of her mother, Lindy Chamberlain, from prison.

Aged care crises continue under Labor
Sarah Russell

Aged care crises continue under Labor

It has been four years since the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety was tabled in federal parliament.

Australia’s media coverage of a military parade in Beijing confounds engagement
Ronald C. Keith

Australia’s media coverage of a military parade in Beijing confounds engagement

The 3 September military parade in Beijing, celebrating victory in World War II, is not a cause for hysterical histrionics. In Beijing, there was no equivalent to waving of the Nazi “Blood Banner” (Blutfahne) as in the intoxication of the 1934 Nuremberg rally.

The retreat of social democracy and the rise of the hard right
Stewart Sweeney

The retreat of social democracy and the rise of the hard right

From Warsaw to Melbourne, from Berlin to Texas, the streets of many OECD countries are witnessing anti-immigration rallies and the surge of far-right populism.

Fear is a weapon
Peter Hehir

Fear is a weapon

This is something that governments the world over have long known. Fear is ubiquitous and is wielded with seeming impunity.

Displacement and death in Gaza City as Israeli depravity continues
Ayman Qwaider

Displacement and death in Gaza City as Israeli depravity continues

This week, Israel killed my cousin Mohammed, a young and cheerful lawyer, along with his wife Myriam and their only seven-day-old baby, Jaber.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

Displacement and death in Gaza City as Israeli depravity continues
Ayman Qwaider

Displacement and death in Gaza City as Israeli depravity continues

This week, Israel killed my cousin Mohammed, a young and cheerful lawyer, along with his wife Myriam and their only seven-day-old baby, Jaber.

Israel and the Palestinians: Just one piece of the American plan
Howard Debenham

Israel and the Palestinians: Just one piece of the American plan

In his P&I article ’The Real death toll in Gaza’ posted on 5 September, John Menadue reminded us that Israel has become a criminal state and Now it is committing genocide.

The suppression of the Arab voice and the genocide in Gaza
Jaron Sutton

The suppression of the Arab voice and the genocide in Gaza

The United States’ unwavering military and political support for Israel is now accepted as the key enabling factor in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The Liberal Party and Israel
Dennis Altman

The Liberal Party and Israel

The Liberal Party is correct in claiming Australia’s relations with Israel are at their lowest point ever. The real questions to be asked are: who is responsible, and how much does it matter?

Who is a terrorist?
Paul Heywood-Smith

Who is a terrorist?

Since 7 October 2023 there has been a growth of the use of the allegation of terrorism for propaganda purposes.

The State of the ‘State of Palestine’
Patrick Lawrence

The State of the ‘State of Palestine’

The upcoming United Nations General Assembly may show whether those nations who have pledged to support a Palestinian state really mean business.

Seven hundred days of genocide: Israel attempts to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and will fail
Refaat Ibrahim

Seven hundred days of genocide: Israel attempts to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and will fail

September 4 marked 700 days since the outbreak of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which began on 7 October 2023.

Trump and the post-American world
Melvin Goodman

Trump and the post-American world

Donald Trump’s blatant campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize has a new claim for his resume – his “diplomacy” is contributing to a new world order.


John Menadue's book on Israel's war against Gaza

Israel's war against Gaza

Media coverage of the war in Gaza since October 2023 has spread a series of lies propagated by Israel and the United States. This publication presents information, analysis, clarification, views and perspectives largely unavailable in mainstream media in Australia and elsewhere.

Download the PDF

Latest on China

Climate change, not China, is the real threat in the South Pacific
John Menadue

Climate change, not China, is the real threat in the South Pacific

Countries of the South Pacific have good reason to encourage China and other countries to assist them with infrastructure. And there is nothing that Australia should, or could, do about it.

A nation of narcissists
Patrick Lawrence

A nation of narcissists

Narcissism is the open-and-shut condition of the elites who fashion and execute American foreign policy. And they are utterly incapable of seeing their country as it is.

If we want to win the Pacific, we must first listen – and stop blaming China for everything
Fred Zhang

ANTI-CHINA MEDIA WATCH

If we want to win the Pacific, we must first listen – and stop blaming China for everything

A 9 September editorial in The Sydney Morning Herald, titled China and Australia in a high-speed race to win control of the Pacific, offered a vivid picture of the daily contest for influence in the region.


John Menadue

Support our independent media with your donation

Pearls and Irritations leads the way in raising and analysing vital issues often neglected in mainstream media. Your contribution supports our independence and quality commentary on matters importance to Australia and our region.

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More from Pearls and Irritations


Latest letters to the editor

Mysteriously superior or mysteriously doomed?

Richard Cullen — Middle Park, Victoria, 3206

Witheringly convincing. Electing a petulant, five-alarm snake oil salesman as President (who has assembled a like-minded governing cult within the White House) is not what has caused the dismal Western trajectory so well analysed in this article – but it has certainly accelerated this development. The US — and its Global West posse — are steadily looking more mysteriously ill-starred (even doomed), rather than mysteriously superior.
Your right versus responsibilities

Alyssa Aleksanian — Hazelbrook

I blame the ridiculous oscillation and indecision by our government and medical officers, and the unquestioning gullibility of our media during the pandemic, for the rise of the right-wing sovereign citizens, Australian Zionists and white fundamentalists. If government officials oscillate during life and death moments regarding masks and vaccines, and make a health crisis all about personal rights, it inevitably gives rise to citizens who put themselves at the centre of their own universe. You have rights, yes, but they go hand in hand with responsibilities ie your civic duty towards your fellow citizens. I fear many of...
Devaluing the Australian flag

Alyssa Aleksanian — Hazelbrook

As we saw during the Australia-wide anti-immigration rallies, and more recently during the clash between the Sumud Flotilla supporters and Zionists on Bondi beach, the Australian flag is now being associated with the far right, white Australia pundits and genocide supporters. The words terrorist, terrorism and antisemitism have been devalued beyond recognition. Now our flag is subjected to the same. Are you ready for the future consequences of that, Anthony Albanese?
Ploy: when in trouble, attack someone else

John Michael Diehl Breen — Robertson NSW

Henry V, Maggie Thatcher and the Indonesian president Sukarno knew that when they were in trouble at home, the thing to do was to attack someone else. So killing others to protect your own skin is nothing new, is it Netanyahu?



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