John Menadue

John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.

John's recent articles

SR PATTY FAWKNER SGS. The Feast for the Frayed and Fatigued

Christmas is the feast for the fatigued and the frayed, because God is with us in the actual reality, not the fairy tale version, of our lives.

MILES LITTLE.-Democracy? What kind?

'We have two Australias: Election results show a growing divide within the nation. So read a headline in the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday, May 25th, to an article by Matt Wade.

J.A. DICK. Spirited Community

A very personal email about a friend's faith journey.

GILLIAN BOURAS. The light in John Henry Newman's darkness

Whatever our creed, and wherever we are, in whatever circumstances, there are always times during which we need to be comforted and guided.

JOHN MENADUE.- Pearls and Irritations over the Holidays

There will be no posts on December 26, 27 and 28. Ian McAuley and Peter Sainsbury will have some weekend breaks. There will be some scheduled 'holiday' and some 'new' posts on other days. Many thanks to readers and contributors. Have a peaceful and happy Christmas and Hanukkah and .. other.

LORENA ALLAM and NICK EVERSHED.- Too hot for humans? First Nations people fear becoming Australia's first climate refugees.

Aboriginal people in Alice Springs say global heating threatens their survival.The town has had 55 days of above 40C in the year to July 2019. Central Australian outstations are running out of water. Poor quality housing in town camps cannot be cooled effectively. Indigenous leaders fear extreme heat will cause an influx of internal refugees. See the following link to The Guardian of 18 December 2019 for this ominous prospect. Photos are by Mike Bowers. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/18/too-hot-for-humans-first-nations-people-fear-becoming-australias-first-climate-refugees?CMP=Share

MICHELLE HIGELIN & KATHERINE TU. Australias climate inaction is far worse when you look beyond our borders

Australias contribution to the climate crisis is bigger than we think. ActionAid Australia uncovered that Australian companies are expanding coal, oil and gas operations with little oversight in some of the poorest areas in the world and women are paying a high price.

BINOY KAMPMARK.-Climate Change Accounting: the Failure of COP 25 and Australian Spoiling(Counter Punch 17.12.2019)

Prior to the UN Convention on Climate Change talks held in Madrid, the sense that tradition would assert itself was hard to buck. Weariness and frustration came in the wake of initial high minded optimism.

RICHARD TANTER: Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Threat to the British Nuclear Weapons State

The Scottish National Party election landslide win augurs more than Scottish independence including a profound threat to the viability of Britain as a Nuclear Weapons State.

J.A. DICK. Christmas 2019

The message of Christmas is our New Years challenge: to believe and to act on our beliefs. We believe that truth is stronger than fake political rhetoric and falsehood. Being a bully is destructive and demeaning. We are all our neighbours brothers and sisters, even when community harmony is difficult to achieve and maintain. Our human climate is threatened. The survival of humanity everyones human dignity and worth are at risk. Yes our ongoing challenge this Christmas and in 2020.

JINGQING YANG. China's enduring core values.

China. The public health care system is getting better and Australia can help. The health care system in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) was once a grave social concern and a major reason behind public disapproval of the government, but recent policy change that emphasises fairness, efficiency and strong government involvement has significantly elevated public confidence in the system and support of the government.

NEAL HUGHES and STEVE HATFIELD-DODDS. New study: changes in climate since 2000 have cut Australian farm profits22% (The Conversation, 18 December 2019)

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences farmpredict model finds that changes in climate conditions since 2000 have cut farm profits by 22% overall, and by 35% for cropping farms.

RORY McGUIRE.-Canberra isn't a bubble. It's a vacuum.

As the climate argument meanders slowly through the science it is becoming more apparent that the Canberra bubble is a misnomer. Canberra vacuum better describes the thinking related to our national capital's climate change policy.

KAMRAN CHAUDHRY. Asia Bibi's freedom a victory for Pakistan's religious minorities.

Although 2019 was a mixed year for Catholics in the Islamic republic, there were some encouraging signs.

0SCAR ROMERO. Advent Readings from a Modern Martyr.

No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor.

MOBO GAO. China finding its place in the world.

China: A Country with Soft and Hard Power Australians need to understand more about Chinese hard and soft power, given the weight of the Chinese economy in world trade and the role of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in international organisations.

RICHARD ECKERSLEY.-Your money or your life? Putting wellbeing before GDP

Some countries are now giving priority to wellbeing over economic growth, but are they going far enough fast enough?

STEPHEN ROACH.-Americas strategic China blunder( EAF 15.12 2019)

From tariffs and the blacklisting of Huawei to democracy and human rights concerns over Hong Kong and Xinjiang Province, the United States raised the heat on China to a boil.

OSCAR ROMERO. Advent readings from a modern martyr.

He sent the rich away empty handed.

KERRY BREEN and DAVID WEISBROT - Adverse events in healthcare: How to resolve an impasse.

One of the biggest challenges of modern health care, especially care delivered in hospital, is to identify, investigate, respond to and, where possible, prevent the near misses and adverse events that have been consistently documented in many developed countries.

OSCAR ROMERO. Advent readings from a modern martyr.

This is what advent is.

COLIN MACKERRAS. China's enduring core values.

Religion in China: What Price Freedom? Religious believers in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) can certainly practise their faith freely and openly, provided the government does not see any threat to state power or security.

CAIT KELLY. From skipping school toTimes person of the year: The making of Greta Thunberg (New Daily 13.12.2019)

To some shes a disturbed teenager, to others a Messiah, and now shesTime magazines person of the year.

GEORGE MONBIOT. Resist and Rebuild (Guardian Newspaper, 13 December 2019)

Yes, its dark. Darker, arguably, than at any point since the Second World War. We have a government not of conservatives, but of the radical right, who will now seek to smash the remaining restraints on capital and those who accumulate it. They will take their sledgehammers to our public services and our public protections. They cheated and lied to assist their victory; they will cheat and lie even more to implement their programme.

OSCAR ROMERO. Advent Readings from a Modern Martyr

The whole person must be saved: body and soul, individual and society.

JASON YOUNG. China in a time of change.

Chinas Environmental Problems, Policies and Prospects The economic transformation of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has come at a tremendous environmental cost. In the wake of increasing public concern, serious policies have been put forth to revitalise the environment and to introduce a more sustainable economy.

OSCAR ROMERO. Advent Readings from a Modern Martyr

In celebrating Christmas, many Christians do exactly the opposite of what the earliest Christians did. By celebrating Christmas, they succeeded in bringing Christ into the pagan feast of the sun. Todays Christians neopaganism is managing to paganize Christmas.

GEORGIA BEHRENS. Future doctors demand climate change action now (Insight Plus 18-11-19)

THE MJA-Lancet Countdown released its much-awaited 2019 report on climate change and health in Australia on 14 November 2019. This report provides a critical update on how Australia is managing climate change, which the World Health Organization has acknowledged as the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century. The reports message is clear: the time for action by individuals, local groups, and at all levels of government is now.

MOBO GAO. China's enduring core values.

China: Social Changes that Impact Relations with Australia The economic takeoff that has pushed China up to become a middle-income country has certainly brought great social changes. Economic development has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of absolute poverty, but one marked social change is increasing disparity as a result of sharp stratification of social classes.

KISHORE MAHBUBANI. ASEANs quiet resilience (East Asia Forum, 8 December 2019)

ASEAN should have begun to crack and fall apart from the strain of the rising geopolitical rivalries in Asia between the United States and China, if what critics say about its fragility were true. But ASEAN steadily marched through another difficult and challenging year and quietly delivered many positive results that will improve the wellbeing of its 650 million people.

PETER RODGERS: Australias silence over Israeli settlements

Following the Trump Administrations shift on the legality of Israeli settlements I wrote the following article for Plus61JMedia. The Morrison Governments silence on this issue is striking.

DAVID WALTON. China finding its place in the world.

China. Developing Its Border Relations The twin concerns in Australia about the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), relating to increased economic dependency and tensions over politico/security policy, are common throughout the Asia Pacific region.

JAKE JOHNSON. 'The Science Is Screaming': UN Report Warns Only Rapid and Transformational Action Can Stave Off Global Climate Disaster (Common Dreams 26-11-19)

Failure to heed these warnings and take drastic action to reverse emissions means we will continue to witness deadly and catastrophic heatwaves, storms, and pollution.

YINGJIE GUO. China finding its place in the world.

How Chinese National Identity Impacts Relations with Australia. What is most striking about Chinese national identity is its stability in the pre-modern past and its fluidity in the modern era. Its dramatic transformation since the mid-19th century is part of Chinas tumultuous socio-political change under the impact of traumatic encounters with foreign powers.

DAILAN PUGH. A Fiery Future

Hundreds of ancient Brush Box and other rainforest trees, many over a thousand years old, have been felled in the head of Terania Creek, their bases eaten out by fire. While the community stepped up to stop the loggers 40 years ago, this time nothing could stop the assault initiated by human-induced climate change.

GRETA THUNBERG,LUISA NEUBAUER,ANGELA VALENZUELA Why We Strike Again (Project Syndicate November 29 2019)

After more than a year of grim scientific projections and growing activism, world leaders and the public alike are increasingly recognizing the severity and urgency of the climate crisis. And yet nothing has been done.

KELLIE MERRITT. Wannabe Spy.

Kellie Merritt first met Bernard Collaery in mid-2005. She had not long returned from England, with three young children, recently widowed from the war in Iraq. She was still in shock and anxious about returning to attend a coronial inquest into the circumstances of the shooting down of an RAF aircraft, her husband was flying in. Bernard flipped through the pages of a dense, extensively redacted folder she couldn't make sense of. He put it aside and looking at her 2yr old he said, I have a lot in common with your daughter, and I'm going to help you. I...

JOHN MENADUE. China Series

China is in the 'news'. But it is not always well informed news. In addition much of our news and views about China are shaped in Washington and London.We don't really know much about China, our major trading partner by far and the rapidly rising power in our region. This is occurring as US influence is declining. Tomorrow Jocelyn Chey will introduce a twelve part series,What,Why and How about China.The twelve parts will be written by informed Australian experts.

HAJO DUKEN. No one is above the law

This sounds so obvious and innocent. However, in times of raids on journalists and the national broadcaster, moves to substantially curtail the liberty to protest, the prosecution of Witness K and his lawyer, and many other clashes between the law and our liberties, do we not have every reason to be suspicious and ask what politicians really mean when they lecture us that no one is above the law?

MADELINE GLEESON. Behrouz Boochani: Still in limbo (The Interpreter 28-11-19)

The Kurdish-Iranian journalist left Manus Island after sixyears, but the bureaucratic hurdles still lie before him.

MARK EMERICK. Brisbane priest urges more help for West Papuans in exile following visit to PNG

A HIGH-level Australian Catholic delegation has met with former Manus Island asylum seekers and refugees now in Port Moresby, and heard shocking stories of their detention. It was shameful to hear how our government has treated them on Manus Island and how some of them would feel safer in some totalitarian prison back home rather than what they had been subjected to, Brisbane priest and delegation member Fr Gerry Hefferan said.

GIDEON LEVY. The Contract on Corbyn (Haaretz 28-11-19)

Corbyn is not an anti-Semite. His real sin is to fight against injustice in the world, including the version Israel perpetrates.

ERNST WILLHEIM. Secret trials in the ACT courts

Canberrans were shocked to read on the front page of the Canberra Times on Saturday 23 November about a mystery prisoner, referred to as Alan Johns, who was prosecuted and jailed for charges unknown to the public or the Alexander Maconochie Centre (the ACT prison).

SAINT JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN. Advent is upon us.

Why need they observe certain rites and ceremonies? Why need they watch, pray, fast, and meditate? Why is it not enough to be just, honest, sober, benevolent, and otherwise virtuous? Is not this the true and real worship of God? Is not activity in mind and conduct the most acceptable way of approaching Him? How can they please Him by submitting to certain religious forms, and taking part in certain religious acts? Or if they must do so, why may they not choose their own? Why must they come to church for them? Why must they be partakers in what...

ANTHONY MILNER. Delicate diplomacy: Australia needs to understand its neighbours better (The Strategist, 26 November 2019)

Scott Morrison likes using the phrase delicate moment in time to describe the international dynamics Australia is now faced with. Its a time to build friendships on many fronts, as the government understands well. But the task is challengingeven in the case of countries that we expect to be natural partners, such as India. The AustraliaIndia Roundtable held in Melbourne this month highlighted the need for a sophisticated knowledge of the different players in our regionsomething which Australia still has to develop.

DAVID PEARSON. Ending homelessness - From charity to impact!

We have come to think of homelessness as something normal or an inevitable part of everyday life. It is anything but. In a country as prosperous, generous and as committed to the fair go as Australia, we ought not to accept it. For those who want to end homelessness, one of the most important things we can do is change the way we think about the problem.

YVONNE PATTERSON. Arrows of Hate: the Religious Discrimination bills

On 20 November, nine days after Armistice Day, the federal Attorney General laid out a battle plan sanctioning new discriminations against citizens needing hospital care and against older Australians needing aged care. Hospitals and aged care will be included in the Religious Discrimination Bills.

BENZI GOPSTEIN: Burning Christian churches in Israel justified ( Palestine Post 19-11-19)

The rabbi said he is ready to spend 50 years in prison for burning a church.

NATHAN GARDELS. Data as Labor (WorldPost)

Sometimes an analogy to something old yields an insight into something new. That is the case with the idea of data as labor, promoted by Glen Weyl and Matt Prewitt ofRadicalxChange.

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