Letters to the Editor
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Mike Lyons’ article of 6 September on China
Access to a less cowardly political platform in Australia would help.
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Garland lengthens the road to peace in Palestine
US Attorney-General Merrick Garland does absolutely nothing to advance the cause of a peace agreement.
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Lacking the ability to think
If you take the time to think through what you are being fed, you will see what you are being told for what it is.
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What market forces are driving the war against EVs?
We are already paying far to much for EVs, a cost to the driving public and the planet.
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China and Taiwan
The decision to opt for a one-state solution was made in Washington, no doubt with input from boardrooms in the US.
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Deaths in Gaza
Australia's silence on the carnage in Gaza sends the chilling message that this is acceptable under the dubious claim of “self-defence”.
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Eckersley urges revolt against corporate power
Yes, corporations do need to become aware and socially responsible.
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Peter Dutton and nuclear power
Peter Dutton wants to keep coal-fired power stations operating as long as possible.
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The sisterhood reads Pearls and Irritations
My grandmother did work, but not in the paid workforce.
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Private hospital care
If we made it a wholly public health sector, the world would be a better place.
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Omar Khayyam’s guide to the climate crisis
Climate challenges don’t diminish in response to governmental wishful thinking.
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A chance for a new PMA
The Australian Government could have partnered with Equinor to develop our potential Southern Ocean oil and gas fields.
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Acclaimed journalist charged with ‘anti-semitism’
She and others who have these views are not above the law.
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Lucky you didn’t bet the farm on it, Malcolm
Malcolm Fraser lost his trousers in the US and the current government may well lose us our strategic independence.
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Flattening moral distinctions
Apologies to the peoples of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya.
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Grate unexpectations
We did not expect Anthony Albanese to have no breadth nor depth of vision beyond getting elected again.
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Attack dog Chalmers runs rings around Dutton
Jim Chalmers should take the attack to Peter Dutton.
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Careful with That Axe Eugene
Australians and New Zealanders face a dilemma in having to divorce themselves from the West.
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The Americans now have the Country Liberal Party
Everyone is waiting to see the election results in the US in November.
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Mismanagement of Australia’s monetary system
The Commonwealth, by law, could control the monetary levers just as it does control the fiscal levers.
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ABC laying responsibility for any war on Iran
The ABC seems to be in full-on propaganda mode, following the Israeli 100-jet strike on southern Lebanon.
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One way or the other, we’re facing a reality check
We need major changes to global environmental management, and drastic lifestyle changes, to avoid the catastrophic crises foretold.
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The elephant in the room
While human numbers remain impossibly high, so too will over-production, over-consumption and over-pollution.
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Just how badly can Australian politics be driven?
Peter Dutton's comments do not inspire a great deal of confidence.
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National security?
Hardly a month goes by without talk of another failed defence contract which the voters have no say in because of national security.
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The economy
Ten years of abstemious economic activity on top of a dig-it-up-and-flog mentality have left Australia reeling, with all tax-paying Australians feeling the pinch.
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Not listening?
Are Government ministers capable of reconsidering their position in the light of well-phrased advice?
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Would MSO have cancelled Yehudi Menuhin?
Would the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra have ever considered blackballing Yehudi Menuhin from performing with them?
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Self-funding Universal Basic Income
Non-self-funding tax incentives are used by some countries to introduce employee ownership.
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Teals show the way to revive conviction democracy
Labor’s proposed reforms to political donation laws, while reducing sharply the amounts that can be donated, are potentially placing smaller parties and independents at a huge electoral disadvantage.
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AUKUS turnabout
The acronym was obviously carefully conceived, because the alternative sends a very clear message to Australia.
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The Americanization of Australia — observations
I lived in the US from 1977 to 2010, a total of 33 years, and returned looking for Australia.
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The definition of civilised
The conqueror is always more civilised than native inhabitants!
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Opposing anything, everything, almost everybody
I have never been able to understand the concept of an elected “Opposition” . What company would employ up to 49% of its employees to “oppose“ everything the other 51+% are trying to achieve?
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Spaceship Earth
Excellent analogy of our planet as a spaceship by Mark Beeson (“Spaceship Earth is experiencing turbulence” Pearls and Irritations, 6/8).
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How many “worst” leaders can we have?
Another "worst" at the bottom of the barrel.
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Universal Basic Income, Rental Affordability Crisis
Clearly the tax system requires adjusting to implement this policy.
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Labor swallows Coalition defence and foreign policy holus-bolus
The fact that AUKUS was presented as a fait accompli, without putting it before the Australian people first should anger all Australians.
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Anthony Albanese
Here we go again. It is unrelenting. This time Paddy Gourley has a go at Anthony Albanese, again without also listing any of the considerable achievements of this government.
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The unsustainable lifestyles of the wealthy West
As Ted Trainer points out regularly in P&I, it is we, the wealthy of the West, who must radically change our lifestyles if we are to leave a liveable planet to posterity.
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The Bonfire of the Verities
The Bonfire of the Verities
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We must reverse bipartisan support for oil and gas
We are hurtling towards the destruction of most of the life on Earth.
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The need for large scale degrowth
Of course the power of the lobby is central but the core factor is that Israel is the empire’s forward base in the essential effort to secure Western access to oil
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NOTHING TO SEE HERE
A small boat sail to the North is a Nation of nearly 300 million people who live on smallish islands that are soon to be to varying degrees flooded by rising seas and smashed by storms.
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Small acts of sedition
Joanna Macy, she of Active Hope, wrote “Of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to nuclear war, none is so great as the deadening of our response.”
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When a white flag no longer counts
Where would Ireland be today if an IRA leader involved in the peace negotiations some thirty years ago had been assassinated?
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Pearls and Irritations Journal Limited
Dear John, Please accept my appreciation of the daily articles published daily in Pearls and Irritations Journal, and a big thank you for your service running it.
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Thank you
Dear Mr Menadue, Thank you so much for making arrangements for continuation of your P&I project.
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Well said.
Well said Mr Keating. Well said.
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There is an alternative political narrative
I commend Caitlin Johnstone's critique of the US electoral system and that neither Presidential candidate will adequately address the pressing social and environmental problems both the US and the world face. But Caitlin, there is an organisation and movement both here and in the US which is addressing the issues at a grassroots level that you say are so desperately needed to bring about real change to people's lives and a resolution to international conflict.
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July 26
You wrote your article on July 26, a powerful date in the fight against US imperialism that should be commemorated by all citizens concerned about the fate of the world.
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Not my Labor
Last Sunday I decided to write to the PM to list my dissatisfaction including AuKUS, Climate, Gaza, Defence wasting etc.
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Albanese’s Timidity
I wholeheartedly support Paul Begley's expose (July 30, 2024) of the shortcomings of Anthony Albanese's leadership of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party in his role as Prime Minister. He is clearly out of his depth with his no risk timid approach.
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Albanese is providing genuine Leadership
It is frustrating and indeed tiring to read a stream of P and I pundits doing the job of and plagiarising the Opposition leader in criticising Anthony Albanese who is running a highly effective government. Would they rather see a return of mediocre Coalition outfits?
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Why not apply the extradition treaty provisions?
One of the federal review agencies told me recently that sometimes public servants confuse policy with the law, the notorious example being Robodebt.
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PM’s reshuffle no sign of weakness
Paul Begley appears to judge the Prime Minister's strength or weakness using the same criterion as Peter Dutton. What if, amazingly, he actually decided that Home Affairs is not as important as Housing?
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Lacking moral fibre
Weep, Australia! We could be a great nation. But right now, we are not.
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I call on the government to resign.
During the war in Kosovo, after a massacre that Dutch troops failed to intervene in, and more recently when the Dutch government was found to have harassed and defrauded parents using government provided childcare, the Dutch government resigned in order to take responsibility.
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Not walking the walk, barely talking the talk
I find it almost impossible to understand how people in power, who have children, and who think of themselves as leaders, do not have sufficient respect for themselves, let alone the rest of us, to face up to the fact that the Planetary Climate Crisis requires urgent action right now.
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Envoys or no envoys
As Margaret says we need Political Leadership not cowardice. However, the sorry state of Australians politics rules this our at all levels.
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Party Solidarity?
The time is looking right for a break away from the hard liners of Sussex Street.
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Thank you John
Thank you
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Albanese government must present climate truth
David Spratt and Ian Dunlop warn us that the Albanese government is presenting the brighter side of our transition to renewables. They should and must present both the positive aspect plus the worsening deadly reality of climate change.
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The Greens and the CPRS – still!
It has become part of Australian political folklore that when the Greens helped defeat the Rudd CPRS legislation in 2009, they “ruined everything”
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Time to step up, Albo, or step away
Albanese’s leadership is not simply a weakness of leadership style: it is proving to be a tragedy with real world impacts – first for First Nations peoples; now, with climatic risk, for all.
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Actions, not words: Unpublished letter to The Age
The Israeli Defence Force kills innocent Palestinians to promote terror (19/7 Wong deplores Palestinian killings). It should be listed as a terrorist organisation.
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What are our defence strategies without AKUS?
"With AUKUS, the pride of politicians has thus become an obstacle to reaching the best solution to the ‘national security’ conundrum."
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China brokers national unity government
Excellent comments by these leading Australians. The role envisaged for Bob Carr is a great idea.
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Ignorance about China
At last someone has written and article about the real China.
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Oslo is dead
The rule of law must now replace the discredited fiction that was Oslo.
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IT Outages
Unless the rules are worldwide, there is little to be gained.
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Evading a US “iron dome”
Paul Budde’s article reminds us of the fragility of our digital society and economy.
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What an unshackled Oz could do
We are allowing ourselves to be taken for a ride by the US and the UK in their blatant self interest of attempting to keep a lid on China.
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A very informative and timely article
Thank you.
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The Summit of the Future offers hope for us all
Excellent news that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for a Summit of the Future at the UN on Sunday 22 and Monday 23 September 2024.
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Violence and solving political problems
I don’t in any way condone the violence against Donald Trump. But it is a bit rich for Joe Biden to then decry violence as a means of solving political problems.
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Maintain the rage
Caitlin maintains her rage - and so will I.
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BEWARE OF A LEOPARD TRYING TO CHANGE HIS SPOTS PARTICULARLY IF HE IS OUR OPPOSITION
It goes without saying that we must be wary of a Leopard who seeks to change his spots; especially if that Leopard is the Honourable Peter Dutton.
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We’re almost in a supertropical world now
Violet Coco pins her hopes on a popular uprising to power the changes we need. She may be right.
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EV chargers – Australia
Tariffs by other countries on Chinese EVs will absolutely be good for Australia. I am more than happy for Australia to be a dumping ground for excess Chinese EVs.
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The Two Envoys – a comment
People need to stop trying to use Russia as a whipping boy comparison if they want to be taken more seriously on Zionist Israel’s ongoing atrocities in Gaza.
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Joe Biden is no mere bystander
If Joe Biden is as compos as he claims he is, then he deserves to stand accused of being fully complicit in the war crimes in Gaza
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Religion has never had anything to do with it
Palestinians lost their land without ever having a say. It was always about politics. It was 'never' about religion.
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Expert advice for a sustainable Australia
Australians are fortunate in having definite advice on clean energy and sustainability from expert Mark Diesendorf.
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Is Julian Assange beyond all criticism?
Mr Barns wrote recently in P&I; "I have spoken with (Peter) Greste and met with him, along with my Australian Campaign colleagues. He is not, these days, fixated on whether Assange is a journalist or publisher and told us as much in an online meeting held on 6 February 2023".
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Jeffrey D. Sachs and the independent state.
If Mr Sachs is correct, that Ukraine is not independent, that Ukraine is subject to and must accept in full, the rule by Russia, then no country is independent.
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Faithlessness-Based Politics
The PM's "compassion" drives a faithless-based party tractor into the house that should be protecting the polity's social cohesion.
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Albanese and AUKUS and relations with China
Albanese is doing much that is right as prime minister.
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Our Government Making Every Post a Loser
As if the Senator Payman affair was not bad enough, it seems it could get worse.
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The public service has no memory
One of the many problems with the old public service was that it took time to rise through the ranks. While the criticism of the old Public service systems was the slowness of change, one of the advantages was institutional memory.
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Casting doubt is part of the propaganda
Sam Varghese, is simply adding to the propaganda wars around Israel's war against Hamas.
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ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE
I genuinely encourage you to consider publishing views which are different to the anti-Semitic opinions which I read so frequently in your journal.
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Peter Henning gets Gaza & Labor right
The power over the Labor Party of the alliance of Australian Zionism and the old white political power elites has been challenged by Payman’s idealism and courage.
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Prof Hocking’s article on caucus
I can think of many examples in the past of "an international war [being used] as a domestic political opportunity"
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Labor vs Payman on Palestine
It seems that Senator Payman has demonstrated the courage to be more faithful to ALP policy than the other timid ALP senators.
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Accepting a two-State solution
I suspect Jenny Hocking misrepresents the positions of both the Greens and Senator Payman.
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Caucus scores own goal
The Labor caucus dumping Senator Payman for voting for the Palestine policy in the party platform is an absolute own goal.
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Our China knowledge deficit
A very helpful filling out of some much needed developments with/in China.
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We Boomers won the environmental lottery
We Boomers are, as Mike Scrafton notes, the ‘pivotal generation’. We have enjoyed the environmental lottery’s winnings, but we also have the knowledge of what must be done to protect those to come from the unmanageable consequences of our extravagance.
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The Antisemitism definition missing from the public record
In all the discussions on social, print and other media concerning antisemitism’s definition, there is almost a complete lack of acknowledgement of the existence of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA).
