World Affairs
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Lidia, I’m angry, too
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 »
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China looks to turn a page with Japan, Britain, and Israel
And India announces breakthrough with China on the troubled border. Continue reading »
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Nobel messages from East Asia, 2024
Early in October 2024, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the award of two major prizes: the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to the Japanese grassroots peace organisation Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations), and the literature prize to the Korean novelist, Han Kang. From both winners came messages addressed to our troubled Continue reading »
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Thank goodness for Lidia Thorpe
Calling Lidia Thorpe “un-Australian”, as occurred in Canberra on 22 October, is to be reminded that being “Australian” is to grovel to British royalty, to curtsy, genuflect and pay homage and allegiance to an anti-democratic institution, to a man who has wealth, position, entitlement and power due to birth, and birth only. Continue reading »
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Prabowo Subianto, j’accuse
In a just world, Prabowo Subianto should not be Indonesia’s new president. He ought to be facing the full strength of the law in court, if not serving time. Continue reading »
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Gender equality? – Not our culture
Half the 280 million people in Indonesia are women, though not in the 48-member ministry; just five were drafted this week by the fresh president Prabowo Subianto. It’s a Cabinet fuelled more by testosterone than talent. Continue reading »
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The treatment of detainees at the Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in Canberra
So far, the only media outlets courageous enough to publish my revelations about the inhumane treatment of David McBride and other inmates at the odious Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in Canberra have been Pearls and Irritations and Canberra’s City News. Continue reading »
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‘Tis the voice of the lobster: reflections on Australia-China trade
Australian rock lobster exports to China were worth over $700 million in 2019. Last week PM Albanese announced the imminent lifting of restrictions by the end of the year amd credited the improvement of bilateral relations. Things however are a little more fishy. Continue reading »
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Coping with despair: Palestine, Lebanon and beyond
Israel’s atrocities for which they are not held accountable, leaves a world feeling powerless to do more than watch and protest. Intervention to cope with a pandemic of despair, requires life enhancing responses to foster peace and revive respect for international humanitarian law. Continue reading »
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We need PM Ishiba’s NATO like we need a hole in the head…
It is difficult to reconcile new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s expressions of concern for the security of his country with his advocation of an Asian version of NATO. Continue reading »
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Powder keg in the Pacific
While the world looks on with trepidation at regional wars in Israel and Ukraine, a far more dangerous global crisis is quietly building at the other end of Eurasia, along an island chain that has served as the front line for America’s national defence for endless decades. Continue reading »
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Make aid reach Gaza, but not until children starve to death for another 30 days, says US
For years, the Israeli authorities have restricted food, fuel and essential supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza, turning the deliveries on and off at will. This contributed to the desperate Hamas outbreak on 7 October 2023, which some experienced observers believe the Netanyahu government expected Continue reading »
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Who really owns the South China Sea?
We are told the AUKUS ‘security partnership’ requires Australia additionally to acquire a fleet of nuclear -powered submarines (SSNs) to accompany AUKUSThey will operate mainly in the South China Sea, allegedly to deter China’s expansionist goals Continue reading »
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America selects green reverse gear
America was once a marketplace leader in so many areas. Now the US faces a range of pivotal global markets focused on a greener future, dominated by China, that are developing rapidly without it Continue reading »
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Terms of engagement: Refusing the Zionist narrative
“Our language shouldn’t be designed to appease the oppressor.” Steve Salaita Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
The onslaught of Israeli horror continues on Northern Gaza. Learn about the victim in the images shared across the world, Shaban al-Dalu, a 19-year-old university student. Israel has dropped the equivalent of six atomic bombs on Gaza, three times smaller than Hiroshima. We see horror in the aftermath as women and children are found in Continue reading »
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Han Kang’s Nobel prize award is a cry for Palestine
South Korean novelist Han Kang has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, beating short-listed literary heavyweights like Thomas Pynchon, Haruki Murakami, Salman Rushdie, Gerald Murnane, and the all-odds-favourite, Chinese author Can Xue. Han Kang was as shocked as anyone else after receiving the call notifying her that she had won. When asked what she would Continue reading »
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Sulking over China
What the West wants from China is not often what China wants for China. They live in a special fairyland where they believe they know what is best for China. Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
John Mearsheimer on ethnic cleansing and Double Down news debunks the myth of self defence. Francesca Albanese questions Germany’s position on Israel, while chemical weapons are used on UN peacekeepers. Penny Wong announces sanctions on Iran, but not Israel. Life for Palestinian journalists and a record of IDF atrocities. Sophie McNeill corrects the ABC, Abul Continue reading »
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Modi’s party suffers another setback in Kashmir polls
It is unlikely that even the biggest supporter of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected his BJP party to win the recent election in the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) after the reverse Modi suffered in the national elections held earlier in the year. Continue reading »
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Under the shadow of a NATO-Russia nuclear war, Hibakusha awarded Nobel Peace Prize
As Vladimir Putin deploys mobile missile launchers throughout the Siberian Taiga armed with Yars heavy duty ICBMs, while making nuclear threats and claiming that these forces have been placed on a higher level of alert (though this isn’t necessarily so), NATO seems intent on compounding what seems already threatening and dangerous enough with the performance Continue reading »
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Never ending war on terror keeps us anxious, fearful, committed
President Bush declared the War on Terror in 2001. Dr Alison Broinowski AM, Australians for War Power Reforms (AWPR), former diplomat and Author, argues that America and its Western Allies including Australia have been involved in multiple ‘never ending’ foreign wars with no declaration in sight of victory. Continue reading »
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Taiwan: Is reunification with China a dead issue?
On January 13 this year, Taiwan, amid high hopes in the ruling party, held its quadrennial presidential/vice presidential/legislative election. It was expected to be a very consequential election. Taiwan’s future was said to be at stake. Continue reading »
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The unresolved tension at the core of Australia’s strategic policy
Australia wants to constrain China, but without tying itself to America’s own ambitions and all that might mean. Continue reading »
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All-out China-EU trade war looming – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Europe’s China business chief says conflict unavoidable. Plus: US lacks strategy for China confrontation; Japan’s new PM calls snap election; Junta’s election “census” a counter-insurgency ploy; America’s Gaza failure shakes confidence in rules-based order; Seoul has no answer for Pyongyang’s dirty campaign. Continue reading »
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While you weren’t looking: Meeting China in Sydney
While elsewhere the China discourse in the Australian media may have been on geopolitical tensions and defence and security concerns, community leaders, students and academics from seven universities in Australia and 15 universities in China and Taiwan met in Parramatta. Continue reading »
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Kishore Mahbubani: China’s ‘wiser’ long-term strategy paves way to No. 1 world power
Veteran Singapore envoy on what the West gets wrong about China, ASEAN as a bellwether region and why the US should prepare for No. 2 status. Continue reading »
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East Timor is not Palestine
Peter Job’s article in P&I, ‘Palestine – The Lessons of East Timor’, is an interesting foray into the link between international law and moral condemnation as offering a possible insight into the future of Palestine. As Job argues, one generally does need international law to be on one’s side if a just resolution is to Continue reading »
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Can this Odd Couple survive?
Before debating with Democrat VP candidate Tim Walz, the Republican
nominee JD Vance said the contestants’ views matter little because voters go for the top of the ticket, not the bottom. Continue reading » -
China unveiled: how moving East shattered my Western illusions
Moving to China has opened my eyes in a way I never expected. The stories I grew up hearing, the ones I accepted without much thought, started to unravel. One of the toughest things I’ve had to face is realising that the West, where I’ve spent most of my life, might not always be the Continue reading »
