World Affairs
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I am ashamed to be Australian.
I decided to become a photojournalist to help refugees tell their stories, and to show their plight. I was stunned by the lack of compassion and the outright racism I saw in my countrymen. I was angry as only a teenager can be with the politicians who fanned the flames of xenophobia. Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. What a Twitter-Happy Trump Might Mean For Nuclear Diplomacy
Far from making America great again, Trump is more likely to make America grope again in the darkness of the post-nuclear age. Continue reading »
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TIM COSTELLO. Abandoning generosity in Overseas Development Assistance.
Yet we are set to see our aid commitment as a percentage of national income drop to a record low level. Already since 2012 it has slumped from 0.36% of national income to 0.23%. This relegates us to the lower half of OECD countries in terms of generosity despite being near the top for economic Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Just a case of Israeli ‘chutzpah’ or the action of a village tyrant?
The apoplectic rage of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was something to behold. How dare the U.N., an organisation he takes little notice of anyway, condemn his ever expanding housing program for Jewish families in the contested West Bank and how dare the U.S. not even bother to veto it as has been the Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. Julie and Julia in the Promised Land
Australia’s position on Israel’s policy of building settlements in occupied Palestinian land is contrary to that of a clear majority of countries. It is driven by domestic political calculations, by both sides of Australian politics. Foreign Minister Bishop’s unnecessary public reiteration of this position not only addresses a favoured domestic constituency, but seeks to reassure Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. AHRC President Gillian Triggs: a year of living dangerously. Part 2 of 3.
Asylum seekers and children in detention There are four separate issues that typically get lumped into one confusing debate: the policies on asylum seekers, boats turnback and offshore detention; and the treatment of detainees. Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. AHRC President Gillian Triggs: a year of living dangerously. Part 1 of 3.
Increasingly, voters are frustrated with parties captured by special interests or catering to noisy minority activists. Citizens want competent governance that promotes the general welfare. Continue reading »
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TONY KEVIN. Henry Kissinger’s last hurrah!
Henry Kissinger‘s renascent role in US-Russian diplomacy Remarkably, 93-year old Henry Kissinger is still making judicious and fruitful public and private interventions in Russia-US relations. It seems his moment may have come again to make a difference as an East-West peace-broker, as he did in the Nixon-Brezhnev years ( for which he won the Nobel Continue reading »
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Australia’s Death by Numbers
The dead refugee had a name. But even in death Australia did not want to humanize him. For years now he had been no more than a registration number — BRF063 — under the country’s cruel refugee deterrence system known as “offshore processing.” Continue reading »
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WALTER HAMILTON. Japan’s New Blood
The Australian servicemen who left behind mixed-race children during the postwar Occupation of Japan set in motion changes that are chipping away at a nation’s stubborn myth of racial homogeneity. Continue reading »
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WALTER HAMILTON. ‘Fighting Monsters’
Australians, Americans and Japanese have been ‘fighting monsters’––the monsters of war remembrance––since 1945. A high-profile visit to Pearl Harbor during the week seemed to suggest another monster was being laid to rest. But while that piece of theatre left much to be desired, especially in its aftermath, another recent attempt, away from the spotlight, gives Continue reading »
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From the American Challenge to the Chinese Challenge?
The unfolding Western effort to preach to the Chinese and paint a picture of a shining and benign America and contrasting that with a threatening and malign picture of China is, among other things, a complete distortion of the historical truth. Continue reading »
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ALLAN PATIENCE. From America into Asia
As Australia necessarily rethinks its alliance with the United States, it must simultaneously educate itself into Asia. There is just no other way. Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. UN rebuffs Netanyahu and Trump.
The United Nations Security Council’s pre-Christmas condemnation of Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied territories surprised many and infuriated Israel. The move was rebuff to both Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to incoming US President-elect Donald Trump. How did it happen? And what will be the likely ramifications. Continue reading »
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End of an era in US-Thai relations!
In this article in the Bangkok Post, journalist Alan Dawson writes of a trend by the Thai government to improve relations with China at the expense of the US. Obama’s ‘pivot to Asia’ is having difficulties in the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. See link below to Bangkok Post article. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1167845/end-of-an-era- Continue reading »
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DANI RODRIK. Put globalisation to work for democracies.
A repost from the New York Times, Sunday Review, 17 September 2016. A Chinese student once described his country’s globalization strategy to me. China, he said, opened a window to the world economy, but placed a screen on it. The country got the fresh air it needed — nearly 700 million people have been lifted Continue reading »
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Broken men in paradise.
‘The world’s refugee crisis knows no more sinister exercise in cruelty than Australia’s island prisons.’ In this long, searing account in the New York Times, Op-ed columnist, Roger Cohen, describes what he found on a recent visit to Manus Island. Continue reading »
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ANDREW AILES. Peace on earth – the children of Aleppo.
Peace on Earth Peace on earth. Goodwill to men, Echoes like Sullivan’s Great Amen: The chord he lost when sitting by, His brother as he watched him die. Continue reading »
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MICHAELSAINSBURY. Xi who must be obeyed
Already China is prodding at the U.S. at this delicate time when it is shifting administrations, testing the waters, as it were with its capture of an underwater drone not far from the Philippines this week. Internally, he faces the 19th Congress as his test. Continue reading »
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Shakespeare on refugees, strangers and inhumanity.
In a series of speeches written by Shakespeare, Thomas More makes the argument for the humane treatment of those forced to seek asylum after being expelled from their homeland. This is a repost from August 23, 2016. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Series: We can say ‘no’ to the Americans. How the Fraser Government said ‘no’ on Chile and El Salvador.
In 1982, when I was Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, the Fraser Government ignored the pressure from the US that we should not help people in South America suffering at the hands of US-supported military governments. Continue reading »
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RICHARD BROINOWSKI. Series. We can say ‘no’ to the Americans
How Bill Hayden stood up to the Americans on Vietnam. Continue reading »
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JOANNE WALLIS. Hollow hegemon: Australia’s declining influence in the Pacific
Australia has vital strategic interests in the Pacific but comparatively less influence with which to pursue them. Pacific states are largely unwilling to accept Australian leadership. Continue reading »
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MACK WILLIAMS. When and how to say ‘no’. Darwin?
We cannot remain oblivious to the fact that the creeping incrementalism, which has characterised the Defence Postures relationship, is likely to slip us into positions from which it would become increasingly difficult to say No. We need a line in the sand now to prevent this happening. Continue reading »
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ROSS BURNS. After Aleppo.
The international community remains hopelessly divided and in many cases incapable of assessing the real dynamics of the conflict in the face of its gut-wrenching humanitarian dimensions. Continue reading »
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Putin interferes in US election. In the past the CIA interfered in Japan.
The following is a New York Times Report of October 9, 1994. In a major covert operation of the cold war, the Central Intelligence Agency spent millions of dollars to support the conservative party that dominated Japan’s politics for a generation. Continue reading »
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ROBERT MANNE. The Australian’s attacks on Gillian Triggs.
The attack launched by the Australian on Gillian Triggs and the Human Rights Commission has been obsessive, petty, relentless, remorseless and ruthless. Continue reading »
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SPENCER ZIFCAK. The Federal Government Attacks its Watchers
In recent years, the Federal Government has made an art form of undermining the autonomy of independent statutory offices established to hold it to account. One by one, statutory offices have been subject to forceful governmental and media assaults. Continue reading »
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JAMES O’NEILL. Dangerous delusions in Australian foreign policy.
Our media just does not get it. It is not disputed that there are significant US military bases in Japan (Okinawa), the Philippines, Guam, South Korea, Afghanistan and Australia, among other places. … Strategic planners are unable to point to a single instance of China interfering in the freedom of navigation of civilian shipping. Continue reading »
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TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI. The ‘information war’ hits Sydney.
This action by a small number of Japanese in Australia harms the Japanese community itself and demeans the work of those in Japan and elsewhere who have fought so long and hard for historical truth and justice. Continue reading »