Letters to the Editor
Are we facing a new era of imperialism?
February 27, 2025
The only way the US would defend our shores is if we ceded our sovereignty to its emperor. We are a defenceless minnow in a sea of turmoil: because of the AUKUS pact; this must be blindingly obvious to the rest of the world. Viewed from the Trump Tower, the prospect of annexing a large, unexploited and underpopulated land mass, rich in rare earths and minerals and other highly desirable commodities, must be compelling, if not irresistable. Australia, the western front and largest island state in the US of A. Any deal on defence will never be to...
Roz Averis from What US wants must serve as a warning to others
In response to: What US wants for Ukraine must serve as a warning to others
Rare earths and radioactive motor subs
February 26, 2025
I refer to Andrew Farran’s article. We need to remember that just as we are now being asked to put our trust in Peter Dutton, after the Paris 2+2 meeting of Dutton and Marise Payne with their French counterparts, both Dutton and Payne’s official websites assured us that the French submarine deal was going swimmingly, only for AUKUS to surface days later. Today, a “US fast-attack nuclear submarine has arrived at HMAS Stirling at Garden Island in the first of what is expected to be several visits to Australia this year”, says WAToday. Which of 11 Oz rare...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Trump has ruled out allies, implying that too that with Aukus we have bought a p
Wake up Australia and Australians
February 26, 2025
A lot has been made of the Chinese warships off Australia’s east coast, but much less has been said about the close contact of Australian ships and planes with Chinese planes and ships in the South China Sea. The question needs to be asked: what are we/they doing so far away from our/their own backyards? Yes, international law says we/they have a right to be there, but is it necessary to be there? We should all regularly take a walk past the many war memorials dotted across our country and take time to think what percentage of the...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: the-fragility-of-australias-security
What the nurses said
February 26, 2025
This article by Tony Kevin brings again into focus the unsavoury practices of the Zionist movement. However, I would like to hear from the two nurses at the centre of this affair. Maybe I've missed it, but I have seen no comments whatsoever from the two nurses themselves. Have they been silenced? Are they silent by choice? Why did they agree to the interview? What do they think now about their comments? Surely, their comments would be of great public interest?
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: what-the-bankstown-hospital-nurses-affair-teaches-us/
Creationism in schools
February 26, 2025
What you are suggesting is just another way of indoctrinating children with so-called, and long-debunked, theological truths. Theological truths are not factual or evidence-based, but simply ideas based on a religion Why do you select only the Bible as an example of books that greatly affect society? Why not Karl Marx, Chairman Mao, Mein Kampf, The Origin of species, etc, etc? Because they don't promote creation and other religious fantasies? Keep your religions, all of them, out of our schools and away from our children.
Jerry Cartwright from Perth
In response to: The bible, the Hawking index and the case for critical engagement
End the mass murder or it will end us
February 26, 2025
We now live in a world where rule of law is no longer even an euphemism. I am a very hardened person, having fought many morality battle issues through my seven decades, but about a month ago, now well over a year after I forwarded a video to the ICC and ICJ in the Hague, where Israeli monsters had herded Al Shifa Hospital workers to a trench and then summarily shot them all (mass execution style). I then saw a video where innocent Palestinians were blown up by more Mk-84 bombs delivered through a port city and an airbase...
Dennis Cimino from Pomeroy, WA
In response to: END THE MASS MURDER OR IT WILL END US
The new Axis of Evil
February 25, 2025
From the perspective of a polar-orbiting satellite, the new Axis Powers — Russia and America — have got poor little Canada surrounded. They own 42% of the world's weaponry and 90% of its nukes. They covet Canada's natural riches – and care not a damn for its people. All they need to complete the encirclement is Greenland. Trump's Pentagon Night of the Long Knives was the first step in a deliberate putsch to eliminate rational US military leadership and replace it with fanatics, as he is doing elsewhere in government. As Hitler did with the SA/SS and Wehrmacht....
Julian Cribb from Canberra, ACT
In response to: The MAGA challenge to Australia’s self-respect
What significance does the Old Testament have?
February 25, 2025
I was brought up in a Protestant household and attended church twice most Sundays until I left home at 19. I cannot understand how Christians can apply so much significance to the Old (largely Jewish) Testament often at the expense of the New (completely Christian) Testament. The first is about a vengeful God not unlike most mythological stories and the second is about a compassionate, all-forgiving Son of God. It is like comparing the medical practices of the Crimean war to modern day medical practices; a reference to what once the practice of sawed bones and now we...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: the-bible-the-hawking-index-and-the-case-for-critical-en
A broader view of radiation issues
February 24, 2025
Thanks so much for this article. So many people are nuclear energy fans (they tend to be Dutton fans as well) and dismiss radioactive waste storage problems as not an issue, safe storage is almost with us. But happy to have it in their backyards? I haven't seen any volunteers yet. We shouldn't be surprised that radioactive dust is blowing in the wind from mining sites. Because those who live near mines complain of dust and various health issues depending on what is being mined in their locality. Nor should we be surprised that that there are increased cancers,...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: The physical hazards of nuclear energy
AUKUS and the nuclear dumps
February 24, 2025
I don’t believe that there is any coincidence at all that this nuclear debate has resurfaced immediately after Morrison’s signing up to AUKUS without transparent Parliamentary discussion or electoral approval. I don’t believe that there was any scope left for Albanese to change the contract once elected not even any scope for the subject to be discussed at the ALP conference. I believe that a compliant media has helped cover up that temporary storage of low level waste will be stored in SA and WA shipyards adjacent to the Australian population. Already the argument that we have been...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: The-physical-hazards-of-nuclear-energy;;
Two-state solution out of the question
February 24, 2025
Fine words John, but ain't going to happen. Been too long in the oven, the oven's cold. As long as Iran and its proxies (Hamas and Hezbollah) are determined to annihilate Israel there will never be a two-state realisation.
CHRIS WAITE from LAUNCESTON TAS
In response to: Servile or just vile: Australia’s pandering to US, Israel
Who are the animals?
February 24, 2025
Outrage as Hamas disrespectfully handed back coffins containing dead Israelis, killed in an Israeli air strike, not a peep when dead Palestinians gleefully squashed by Israeli tanks filmed and posted online with descriptions describing how all their guts squirted out. Hamas could have just said, We don't know where they are, probably under the rubble with all the dead and squashed Palestinians.
Jerry Cartwright from Perth
In response to: Gaza, the deafening sound of silence
2035 climate targets matter
February 24, 2025
Ken Russell is absolutely correct in stating that “the incorrect use of net zero, together with carbon offsetting and carbon capture and storage, has enabled the development of a highly successful greenwashing operation designed to ensure the ongoing use of fossil fuels”. And who benefits? Fossil fuel corporations and the big end of town. Who suffers? All life on earth. The burning of fossil fuels, no matter where they are burned, is responsible for 75% of global heating. The year 2024 was 1.6 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures. For fossil fuel CEOs to dodge and weave climate commitments, and governments...
Amy Hiller from Kew, Victoria
In response to: Net zero emissions by 2050 is great for the fossil fuel industry
Locked up in Beijing and Australia
February 24, 2025
I have no idea what happens in secret trials in China, nor do we know what happens in secret trials and imprisonment in Australia or what is the evidence even the defendant is forbidden from seeing. What sort of government can hold you incommunicado for weeks, not for committing a crime, but because they think you know something they want to know, then send you to jail for years if you tell where you've been? The Australian government. So the same or similar laws, but only evil when China does it.
Jerry Cartwright from Perth
In response to: Locked up in Beijing, anti China media watch
A spotlight on the retirement phase of super
February 24, 2025
I applaud Andrew Podger for highlighting the need for an overhaul of the retirement phase of super in his article. The spotlight on this is overdue and should commence with an understanding of “what is” at present. From personal experience with Australian Super, communications are related to superannuation funds. Once these funds are rolled into a pension fund communications from Australian Super, related to pension funds, are non existent or not relevant to retirement phases. There is no guidance for retirees on managing the risks or free independent expert advice. A further concern is, with the rollover of monies...
Andrea Coney from Port Fairy
In response to: At last: A serious attempt to fix retirement phase of super By Andrew Podger
Is pragmatism the correct word?
February 24, 2025
I was disappointed that Jan Bruck in his positive focus on the pragmatism of former German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, could not explore her unique approach a little further than he does in his short article. Bruck does not recount one major occurrence during Merkel's chancellorship which might bring into question whether pragmatism is the appropriate descriptive word. I am referring to the Minsk Accords, two agreements made in August 2014 and February 2015, where Germany was the main negotiator (supported by the French leader, Hollande) representing Kyiv and Russia represented the breakaway Donbas republics. The agreements were...
Bruce Foskey from Blackwood, Vic
In response to: The Political Pragmatism of Angela Merkel
A considered vote vs a knee-jerk vote
February 24, 2025
The Teals’ pursuit of integrity in public service, and of major reform ... have the courage of their convictions....... can help revive honest government .... now give us hope. I heartily endorse your correspondent's assessment. Having experienced a (more properly described) community independent MP over the past almost three years, it has been a breath of fresh air. In Kooyong, Monique Ryan has enabled a new sense of building and being community. Her approach is to question: what is important to you, what issues concern you, how can I help you? And she listens to the answers, formulating her...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: It’s Teals, not Labor, who now bring hope
Nothing for nothing
February 24, 2025
Even though it is not even at the negotiation table, Ukraine is now finding out that aid from the United States comes at a heavy price to its critical mineral resources. A debt it didn’t even know it was running up. How long before we are asked to hand over a 50% stake in Australian critical minerals to the US in exchange for them “protecting us” with Pine Gap, Nurrungar, Northwest Cape and US forces rotation under the FPA?
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Ukraine isn’t invited to its own peace talks. History is full of such examples
Vote 1 Ventriloquist Dummy Party! Really?
February 24, 2025
Encyclopaedia Brittanica: “Semite, Name given in the 19th century to a member of any people who speak one of the Semitic languages, a family of languages spoken primarily in parts of western Asia and Africa. The term therefore came to include Arabs, Akkadians, Canaanites, Hebrews, some Ethiopians (including the Amhara and the Tigrayans), and Aramaean tribes. Although Mesopotamia, the western coast of the Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Horn of Africa have all been proposed as possible sites for the prehistoric origins of Semitic-speaking populations,” I reference Encyclopaedia Brittanica the bastion of white supremacy. When the leader of...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: peter-dutton-is-playing-with-fire
A tyrant by any other name...
February 24, 2025
Gim Teh writes chillingly of America under Trump. Surrounded by megalomaniacs and minions, with the numbers in the House and the Senate, a handpicked majority of conservative judges in the Supreme Court, and absolution from criminality while in office, he already has more power than George III. Only the 22nd Amendment stands in his way for a life tenancy of the White House. As his increasingly irrational behaviour plunges, not only his own countrymen and women, but also the whole global community into a quagmire of fear and uncertainty, doubts as to his mental state are being raised. ...
John Mosig from Kew, 3101
In response to: Trump: the wanna be king of America
7% of Americans believe chocolate comes from brown cows
February 24, 2025
After all, according to a 2017 survey, some 23 million Americans believe chocolate comes from brown cows. I looked into this statement and found it to be disingenuous. The survey was not scientific and wasn't meant to be taken as evidence of Americans' knowledge of dairy products. Also it wasn't chocolate, it was milk chocolate. This misinformation makes me question all future P&I articles now whereas I used to think it was above reproach.
Hazel Foote from Payneham
In response to: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/trump-the-wannabe-king-of-america/
Illegal occupation
February 24, 2025
Why isn't the world crying out about the illegal occupation of Palestine? Israel has the right to defend itself? Clearly not when it is illegally occupying Palestine and the West Bank. The Hamas attack was bad enough, but it disappears into insignificance compared to Israel's murderous attack on a foreign nation. Is the entire world cowering while the Zionists are exterminating an entire population? A Holocaust indeed.
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: Servile or just vile: Australia’s pandering to US, Israel
Greenhouse gas emissions from imports
February 24, 2025
Peter Sainsbury rightly draws attention to Australia’s huge exports of greenhouse gas emissions in the form of fossil fuels for combustion overseas. In addition, we must consider the emissions embodied in our imports of fossil fuels in the goods and services we purchase that are made overseas. It has been estimated that they are similar in magnitude to our official emissions, that is, greenhouse gases emitted within Australia. We can reduce our imported emissions, as individuals, by buying Australian, and, as a nation, by using renewable energy to manufacture more goods within Australia.
Mark Diesendorf from BEROWRA HEIGHTS, NSW
In response to: Environment: Australia’s exported greenhouse gas emissions are double our domest
The considerable cost of retirement living
February 24, 2025
The article by Andrew Podger fails to refer to the issue which concerns many aging retirees and that is the frightening cost of low- and high-care accommodation, starting with the initial bond. The $250,000 referred to as retained superannuation capital is in no way adequate for this task. I am sure Andrew has considered this issue and i would be interested in his solutions.
michael greer from Fitzroy
In response to: At last: A serious attempt to fix retirement phase of super
Viva Barb Dadd's revolution
February 24, 2025
Thoroughly enjoyed your article Barb, beautifully written, poignant and a call to action for all aspiring activists. Congratulations.
Peter Day from Adelaide
In response to: A fantasy: The revolution that shook the world
Shame is old hat
February 21, 2025
It seems shame is an anachronism. As Paddy Gourley amusingly, but darkly, suggests, some ghosts who should remain just that are coming back into focus, assisted by the hugely comedic and deadly Murdoch juggernaut. Mark Pezzullo for one. An independent inquiry into the latter’s conduct as secretary of home affairs found Pezzullo had breached the rules on at least 14 occasions in relation to “overarching allegations” including using his power, status or authority “to seek to gain a benefit or advantage for himself, failing to act apolitically, failing to disclose a conflict of interest and failing to maintain confidentiality...
Fina Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Mike Pezzullo and the Murdoch comedy company
Don't be so hasty about Ronald Reagan
February 21, 2025
They are not the same people as on whose behalf Ronald Reagan, 40 years ago, celebrated the fact that 'Americans courageously supported the struggle for liberty, self-government, and free enterprise throughout the world, and turned the tide of history away from totalitarian darkness and into the warm sunlight of human freedom'. I'm really not sure about this particular bit of saintliness. Reagan was well in the grip of neoliberal big business. High profits, low wages, kill the opposition. Whatever lofty words he might have said, Reagan was leading the US down the path that has given us Trump. ...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Europeans (and others) vs Trump
Past time to cut the US apron strings
February 21, 2025
We can no longer ignore the need for Australia to plan for its own defence, rather than fund a role as a compliant auxiliary of the US in the Pacific. Amen to that!! Easier said than done when we have another unpredictable superpower in East Asia. Easier said than done, getting an anti-AUKUS letter published in the MSM. Speak up people. Time to rally! Australia long since took up parroting the US' anti-China chorus. But is any of it true, including that China is unpredictable? How has China behaved? Spreading influence by building infrastructure, not dropping...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: What if there is no way of Australia placating Trump?
Shame on governments that gave Murdoch free rein
February 21, 2025
Thank all the gods I don't read any Murdoch rag. I'm with Grace Tame! My sympathies to Paddy Gourley and all who are forced to read such garbage as part of their working life.
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Mike Pezzullo and the Murdoch comedy company
Myopic self-indulgence
February 21, 2025
At least Saul Eslake managed a reasonably accurate description of Trump. Otherwise, this dalliance in knee-jerk journalism is perhaps the most condescending, patronising, presumptuous, and vacuous insult I've ever read on P & I. He's used election results in order to support his apparent political and social myopia, engaging in no analysis whatsoever in order to replace facts with generalities. He excoriates and vilifies a contrived homogeneous mass of humanity in the US with no effort to account for reality: the US population simply doesn't fit, even generally, into his mischaracterisations. Instead of addressing the structural faults and...
Peter Warner from Eureka, California, USA
In response to: Europeans (and others) vs Trump
The cynical pre-budget submission process
February 20, 2025
Ross Gittins is correct that governments never pay attention to pre-budget submissions from the public. This is because the process operates on the assumption that submissions will be ignored. As Gittins says, the call for submissions has just gone out, as usual. But the high-level outline of what is in or out of budget is usually pretty much settled in December the previous year. In recent years this has slipped under increasingly disorganised governments but my guess, from both my experience and the wan looks of of my ex-colleagues, is that the final touches are being put on budget...
Damian Coburn from Kambah ACT
In response to: We may be short of leaders, but we’re not short on false prophets
Who do they serve?
February 20, 2025
There has to be concern that Peter Dutton thinks well of Trump. Trump’s pronouncements on Greenland and Panama, followed by his idea of removing Palestinians from their own land, and asserting that Ukraine started the war with Russia are cause for grave concern. So much so, that those working in any capacity within the Australian public service whose sworn allegiance is to the US president should be asked to return to the US.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: If the Coalition under Dutton isn’t liberal or conservative what is it.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
February 20, 2025
Refaat Ibrahim talks to one horrific issue in the never-ending repetition of the human experiment. It seems humankind is hardwired to a cycle of behavioural traits that finish in man’s inhumanity to man. As we lurch drunkenly into yet another catastrophic phase of what looks to be our destiny, some of the players have changed roles; sadly, the roles remain constant and the methods tragically familiar. In the 1930s, Hitler and Stalin divided Poland as a prelude to signing a non-aggression pact. With its eastern front buffered, the Third Reich set out to make Germany great again under Lebensraum....
John Mosig from Kew, Victoria, 3101
In response to: The displacement of Gazans: between possibility and impossibility
Alternative WTO?
February 19, 2025
The article poses that the World Trade Organisation is no longer effective and may be beyond recovery. One of the reasons for this decline seems to be the US' aberrant behaviour. One could pose the question whether an alternative WTO that excludes the US may serve as (temporary?) relief from the current problems. Well, there is an possible alternative that is being developed, namely BRICS. Joining BRICS may not please the US (and would likely produce more of the economic threats that Trump is happy to spray around), but sometimes it may be necessary to stand up to a...
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: Causes of peace… and war
Populist right policy – show us the evidence
February 19, 2025
There is no evidence that cutting public sector jobs saves the taxpayer money. History attests to the contrary. The point about populist right policy is that it is based not on fact but on popular misconception exploited for electoral advantage. During the years of Thatcherism, the series Yes, Minister was conceived to pillory the public sector as ridiculously bureaucratic, hopelessly inefficient, and perpetually self-serving. It thus reinforced the neoconservative ideological project of small government, public choice theory, and free-market economics. The reality is that public sector job cuts equal service cuts; and outsourcing and privatisation result more often...
Roz Averis from Adelaide, SA
In response to: Dutton's perennial stupidity of undirected public-service
Pacta sunt servanda
February 19, 2025
Well said, Saul. In our Australian bewilderment we shouldn't deny the benefit of the US connection. But our obsequious leaders, from our US ambassador, the foreign minister, (who both should have absented themselves from the inauguration of the felon-in-chief by making an appointment to meet Michelle Obama on that notorious occasion), prime minister and deputy prime minister following in that path, we have publicly failed miserably to assert our national interest and self-respect. Instead of meekly submitting the first payment of our ongoing impoverishment to the bogus nuke-submarine deal, they should have instead redirected funds to the Cambodian de-mining...
Bruce Wearne from BALLARAT CENTRAL
In response to: Europeans (and others) vs Trump
It's Teals, not Labor, who now bring hope
February 19, 2025
Labor swept into office on a wave of hope for a fresh start after nine years of Coalition inertia. Those hopes have been dashed by their lack of a sense of purpose or social justice. Anthony Albanese has not grown into the role of prime minister. He has given no sense of leadership, no impression of a vision for our future. He remains the political operator he has always been. Any sense of worthwhile government has been tarnished forever by legislation passed, in cahoots with the Coalition, in the last parliamentary sitting: muzzling charities once an election has been...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: Teals should hammer unfinished integrity agenda
Zionism as a terrorist creed
February 18, 2025
A good place to start seems to be to label Zionism (as clearly different from Judaism) as a terrorist creed.
Hans Rijsdijk from Albion Park Rail
In response to: Sourcing antisemitism: ‘Paid actors’ and urgent questions to be asked
The separation between capitalism and state
February 18, 2025
The problem as I see it is there never was a separation between capitalism and state. When anything goes as long as you're elected, the lies are ignored or go unnoticed and every election becomes about If you elect them they will put taxes up”. “No we won’t“. In our current election cycle, we have no mention of the billions of dollars wasted by the previous LNP govt on car parks, AUKUS etc , no mention of why we have a housing crisis, an education crisis, high inflation, no mention of the achievements of the present government, just constant...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: the-costs-of-impatience-a-psychic-disorder-of-modern-cap
No logic from God
February 18, 2025
While respecting Allan Patience’s academic achievements, I wonder about his logic. He asks, if I prefer to believe in science rather than believe in God, “why did I post about God in the first place?” Why not? Isn’t it critical to consider both sides of an issue in any intelligent commentary? Dr Patience also says that so-called philosophical “positivism” limits scientific research and theorising “to what is observable and measurable”. Sounds impressive, but hardly explains the value of science as the gathering of reliable information from all sources, experimenting and testing it before drawing conclusions that can be verified...
Eric Hunter from COOK
In response to: The problem of God, Dr Allan Patience, February 17
Breaking the cycle
February 18, 2025
Somewhere after my childhood and early adulthood the sense of responsibility seems to have been lost. We have charters of rights, but no charter of responsibilitities that I've ever heard of. We have freedom of speech without any compulsion to use that right responsibly. For years, wage theft has been an unashamed oops, not a crime. Teachers regularly complain that talking to parents about a child's persistent problematic behaviour brings the response that their child can do no wrong. In my own backyard, the federal Opposition can flood my electorate with a flyer of lies and distortions about the sitting...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122
In response to: Who should take responsibility for youth crime?
Views on new world order
February 17, 2025
Lavrov's views, published a few days ago, on the changing world order as The UN Charter Should Become the Legal Foundation of a Multipolar World should be read, considered, and critiqued by all pondering the rapidly changing nature of international relationships.
Bob Aikenhead from Victoria
In response to: Appeasement in the 21st century
COVID facts
February 17, 2025
The failure of the ABC to acknowledge or describe most of the disputes, uncertainties, errors and misrepresentations related to the mainstream of COVID narrative, policies and events is another regrettable issue. Australia is way behind the US, the UK and several other countries in exposing some of the alternate facts through broad scale inquiries, and with the commitment to transparency declared by the US' new Health and Human Services secretary, much more material will soon appear. I hoped that Pearls and Irritations might welcome broader discussion, but have seen little of it. Perhaps we could open this discussion...
Wendy Hoy from Kenmore Hills, Brisbane, Queensland
In response to: ABC's sycophancy erodes our democracy
AUKUS joke
February 17, 2025
How will the future (if ever) AUKUS vassals be branded? Fiat! Boom boom!
Alan Wilson from Adelaide
In response to: First AUKUS meeting of Trump 2.0: Business as usual
A1+ for Kym Davey
February 17, 2025
Kym Davey's article shoud be sent to every politician and every ABC board member. It is impeccable in its truth and superb in the summation of much (though sadly, not by any means all) that is a cancer eating the soul of the ABC. And (as with Alison Broinowski’s recent letter) it highlights the very, very important point that it is the ABC that implicitly, and by its charter explicitly, is supposed to provide truth on matters of import to Australians' understanding of events, developments etc. critical to building an intelligent nation. The current and immediate past ABC...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW 2575
In response to: ABC sycophancy erodes our democracy
What democracy?
February 17, 2025
No mention of the non-existent US democracy largely based on the non-thinkers voting and the thinking voters non-voting, all by design with the latest system of bribes (AUKUS) paid by compliant countries for protection which history tells will always be on its way unless further bribes are paid to the US arms industry
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: caligulas-horse-and-washington
Electoral targeting and the wealth divide
February 17, 2025
The economic indicators may have improved, but the wealth extremities have widened. Economic distribution is consolidating the fortunes of the super-rich and obscenely wealthy, at the expense of the already impoverished, disenfranchised, or at risk (employed or not). Here is the battleground for the contest of ideas, and emotions. Climate action, refugees or minority groups (however named, shamed and denigrated, including welfare recipients and people with a disability) are not driving extremes of inequality. The wealthy can as yet weather the storms (literally and figuratively) caused by climate change and economic instability. Others cannot. The appeal to the...
Roz Averis from Adelaise
In response to: The politics of fear - how belief and emotion drive electoral outcomes
Balfour Declaration tried to protect Palestinians
February 17, 2025
Thanks for a good article. Balfour’s 1917 letter, aka the Balfour Declaration (text below) stipulated: “ … nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine ..” . This promise was not honoured by the British administration or by the Zionists . Balfour Declaration 1917 November 2nd, 1917 Dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet. His...
Tony Kevin from Canberra
In response to: Israel and the dark legacy of Sir Mark SykesBy Susan GloverFeb 13, 2025
Trump’s Gaza diplomacy
February 17, 2025
Astonishing as the Trump announcement re seizure of Gaza was, perhaps more telling was that the only leader even hinting at agreement was Netanyahu. Not even neighbours like Egypt or Jordan were consulted in advance, nor did regional client states in the region agree. Perhaps Trump's Inept Isolationism would be a better descriptor.
Don Hird from Hobart 7009
In response to: Trump’s Gaza grab shows America is no better than China