Politics
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A necessary reckoning of bloodletting in Gaza
The premeditated bloodletting in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and many other largely forgotten parts of the world speaks hauntingly of the normalisation of death and destruction, largely for cruel, self-serving and illusory reasons. Continue reading »
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War powers reform: no ticker for a no-brainer
Worst of Friends by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain is a simply wonderful book, aimed at “pre-schoolers and up”. Continue reading »
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The Australian dream
Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating — who is staunchly against AUKUS — said, of Australians, that we are not content with our geography. Continue reading »
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Australia’s school system: winners and losers?
In a school system so deeply segregated along class and cultural lines it is not hard to identify the losers. But the question is whether there are any real winners? Continue reading »
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Women missing from strategic decision-making: A call for inclusive leadership
As conflicts rage across the world, one painful truth remains: women are still missing from the decision-making table. Decisions that shape the futures of millions continue to exclude half the population. Continue reading »
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Anti-Palestinian discrimination in NSW public schools
Over 4000 people have signed a petition in three days, calling for an apology for a student who was reported by the Sydney Morning Herald to have been banned from attending his Year 12 formal for wearing a keffiyeh (Palestinian scarf) at his graduation. The student is from a Palestinian background, and the scarf is Continue reading »
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Biden’s last hurrah against Russia and Putin
Frustration escalates for the lame duck president. Continue reading »
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China speaks for conscience of the world at UN over horror in Gaza
Disgraceful veto of draft ceasefire resolution by US coincides with arrest warrants by International Criminal Court for Israeli pair on war crimes. Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
Gideon Levy speaks out on the ceasefire in Lebanon while Yusuf Cat Stevens speaks out on the starvation of women and children. Canadian health workers speak out against the complicity of the Canadian government while people in Gaza create their own ambulances. In Canberra, climate disruption in Parliament House as protestors call out the government Continue reading »
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Australia and the ICC arrest warrants
If Australia is to have any influence at all in resolving the horrendous carnage now taking place in the Middle East it needs to demonstrate that it acts independently of American pressure. The politicians who lament the fraying of our ties with Israel seem totally unconcerned about the impact of our position on countries far Continue reading »
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Zionism: An existential threat to Judaism
When recently sacked by Netanyahu, Gallant, in an emotional speech said: “Israel has fallen into moral darkness”. This is what Zionism has internally inflicted on Judaism – moral decay. The security threat suffered by good Jewish people globally is what Zionism has inflicted externally. Continue reading »
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Australia: The epicentre of US power projection in the Indo Pacific
Australia has willingly become the “epicentre of the projection of US power in the Indo-Pacific”. It does not make Australia safer. It makes Australia the epicentre for any retaliation to that projection of power. Continue reading »
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If Tel Aviv was reduced to rubble like Gaza, the world would stop the war immediately
My mother survived the WW2 Nazi Auschwitz extermination camp, and she always asked why was the world silent? Why did they look away from the genocide of the Jews and do nothing? Today we know the answer as our government and media look away and do nothing for the Palestinians. Continue reading »
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ABC News’ death rattle
I’d like to think that ABC News’ revamped online iteration is like an ancient Aunty’s death rattle. Surely, its demise must follow. Continue reading »
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Orban and Netanyahu: the transnational Right’s pervasive Islamophobia
Viktor Orbán’s obsequious letter to Benjamin Netanyahu offering him sanctuary from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hungary is not a surprise. It is another red flag in the Islamophobic world of the transnational Right. The mass and prolonged slaughter of Palestinian Muslims (and Christians) cannot be seen as a crime committed against other humans Continue reading »
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Imran Khan and Pakistan’s deepening chaos
Even as more than 40 lives were lost last week in the latest resurgence of sectarian violence on Pakistan’s northwestern flank bordering Afghanistan, the nation’s media remained focused primarily on a nationwide “do or die” protest focused on the capital, Islamabad, and organised by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). Continue reading »
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A triumph for greed over commonsense and humanity
For the third year in a row the nations of the world, meeting in solemn climate conclave, have vowed to cook their children and grandchildren alive. Continue reading »
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The politics of ignoring genocide
Jews in Germany, Bosnians in former Yugoslavia, Tutsis in Rwanda, and now Palestinians in Gaza. In a recent interview, Francesca Albanese posed a rhetorical question: What kind of monsters have we become to see the live-streamed genocide of Palestinians and not act? Continue reading »
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‘No appeal from the grave’ Phillip Hughes, workplace deaths and getting the balance right
The death of cricketer Phillip Hughes ten years ago to-day (November 27) was one of several hundred workplace fatalities in 2014. Continue reading »
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Earth first: a foundational moral principle
COP29 was a failure not because there wasn’t enough money on offer, but because it ignored population. Continue reading »
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COVID 19 Response Inquiry Report: A comprehensive review despite its limited terms of reference
My recent review of the book, Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism, by Steven Hamilton and Richard Holden (H&H) highlighted its ‘convincing, frank and honest account’ in just over 200 pages, and encouraged the Health Department in particular to listen to its lessons. The official COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report by Robyn Kruk, Catherine Bennett and Angela Jackson ( Continue reading »
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High impact submitters weigh up porn codes
At least one group of experts is asking why proposed online porn regulation lacks natural justice, damages sexual expression and promotes risky technology. Continue reading »
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Philippines maritime legislation does not impede freedom of navigation and overflight over the archipelago
The Philippines enacted two enabling legislation on 8 November 2024. Known as Republic Act (RA) 12064 or the Philippine Maritime Zones Act; and Republic Act (RA) 12065 or the Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, the legislation has attracted a fair number of criticisms from the region among those not familiar with the 1982 UN Convention Continue reading »
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Negotiate, don’t escalate
A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
Jeffrey Sachs explains his position on US wars to Piers Morgan. Penny Wong advises Australia’s approach to the ICC will be guided by international law, not politics. Bisan Owda takes us into the realities of winter for 1.9 million displaced citizens in Gaza and injured doctor Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya speaks of his commitment to Continue reading »
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What ails America – and how to fix it
America is a country of undoubted vast strengths—technological, economic, and cultural—yet its government is profoundly failing its own citizens and the world. Trump’s victory is very easy to understand. It was a vote against the status quo. Whether Trump will fix—or even attempt to fix—what really ails America remains to be seen. Continue reading »
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In the death throes of Ukraine’s lost war, we witness the birth of WWIII
In the space of a couple of days this week two completely unprecedented attacks occurred that have the potential to rewrite world history. The US and UK directly attacked Russia and, for the first time ever in war, an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile was fired – by Russia. Naturally, most people in the West paid Continue reading »
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COP 29: grossly inadequate funding signals a deepening East–West divide
Developing countries at COP 29 presented the Western world with an annual US$1trillion financial transfer bill for the cost of their profligate carbon fuelled global warming inducing industrialisation. That sum was no NGO rule of thumb figure but one produced by an organisation funded by Western governments themselves – the International Energy Agency, the world’s Continue reading »
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Is Israel above international law? Let’s put the ICC warrants into perspective
On 19 November, the ICC issued warrants for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, in response to the request by the Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan KC, back on 20 May. Continue reading »
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Distorting elections: Australia’s professional politicians feather their own nests
The ALP is full of legends – of which many old party folk are defiantly proud – of political skullduggery. There have been stuffed ballot boxes, and mysteriously disappearing ones, and forged minutes of branch meetings. Continue reading »
