June 24, 2021

Can the success of the NHS vaccination rollout in the UK be applied in other areas of healthcare?

The success of the NHS covid-19 vaccination programme shows the benefits of national leadership and local delivery in healthcare. Working at speed and scale, the programme put in place a service delivery model that delivered a standard offer to the public with the aim of achieving equity in vaccine delivery and zero waste. The question now is whether these lessons can be applied in other areas of care as the NHS embarks on restoring non-covid services, arguably the biggest challenge in its history.

January 18, 2020

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 19 January 2020

Excess heat will be responsible for 8.5 million deaths per year by 2100. Russia possibly developing plans for adaptation to climate change but Australian politicians continue to rage against the dying of the coal-generated light while investors flee coal companies. Meanwhile an Australian hero works for a just transition.

September 5, 2024

India’s loss in Bangladesh not necessarily China’s gain

The fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government in Bangladesh has been described as a strategic loss for India and a potential gain for China. But various obstacles may hinder China from gaining greater influence in the region. Political instability, economic challenges, and India’s enduring importance to Bangladesh will limit the extent of China’s influential inroads.

August 29, 2024

Mixed opinions about unproven Synod on Synodality

The Second Session of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality is now just weeks away. Opinions differ markedly among reformers about its trajectory so far. Some are deeply disillusioned and fearful. Others see evidence of real progress even if change is slow and incremental.

July 10, 2023

The passing of Silvio Berlusconi - the end of an era?

Berlusconis political journey began ironically in the early 1990s on the tail end of the Italian anti-corruption campaign (known as tangentopoli) which saw the key Italian political parties decimated by accusations and charges of corruption, political control of state assets and a system of spoils for governing elites.

May 15, 2023

Universities and the future of humanity

The University Accord has yet to address a future which recognises the huge health and environmental threats to society. It should provide a vision of the university as A centre of learning to ensure the sustainability of the planet and the human race.

April 29, 2023

Seymour Hershs second strike

Hershs latest revelations on 12 April 2023 in his self-published Substack blog, Trading with the Enemy,detail, among other Ukrainian corruption scandals now widely known in Washington military and intelligence circles, the Zelensky regimes embezzlement of $400 million from US military aid to Ukraine.

April 7, 2023

The dissonance of democracy

On matters of war and defence, government executives and journo elites are exclusive and elusive. Theyre all too happy that peace is a fleeting pause between wars; to replenish ammunitions, the pockets of arms manufacturers and the ego of America.

February 13, 2021

Going for CALD on Covid

Two outbreaks of Covid in Victoria occurred among Greek and Urdu communities entirely predictable given that diverse communities had long been identified as potentially vulnerable. Despite repeated warnings no one in authority seemed to want to know. That is now being rectified to ensure the message on vaccines is heard loud and clear, with Health Minister Greg Hunt’s announcement that the federal government is to fund a significant communication campaign guided by specialist and community input.

December 2, 2020

Crossing irreversible climate tipping points

If the history of the 21st to 25th centuries is ever written, it will record that while dangerous a climate tipping point was crossed, the powers that be in Australia opened some of the worlds largest coal basins and undertookan Orwellian-titled gas led recovery.

September 19, 2020

The Revenge of the Special Relationship (Project Syndicate Sep 7, 2020)

Of all the older democracies, it is in Britain and the United States that right-wing populists have taken over conservative parties and rule their respective countries. This is not an accident, but rather an outcome that has been 75 years in the making.

March 31, 2020

Coronavirus postscript

Two brief comments as a follow up to my article on coronavirus on Monday.

July 20, 2024

Legacy media outlets also stand in dock over Gaza

How RNZ, ABC and other Western media failed to challenge Israeli war narrative.

July 18, 2024

Putin’s mistake in Ukraine: Moscow forced to move to Novosibirsk?

In 2004, Russia’s President Putin said the collapse of the Soviet Union “was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” This was picked up by our hawks as a Moscow wish for more Cold War.

July 9, 2024

Left-wing alliance victorious, French say ‘non’ to Le Pen’s National Rally and Macron’s Ensemble

Yesterday’s French elections’ results are everything except what predictions had forecast.

September 10, 2024

Showing one’s stripes: The MSO’s treatment of Jayson Gillham

Organisational management, especially when it comes to large entities, has little to recommend it. Arrange the schedules. Pamper sponsors and behave simperingly. Ensure a diet of pills to null the embarrassment. Mind the assets and fret over the brand. Sigh over ledgers and order spreadsheets.

August 13, 2024

The red glare of Xi's second PLA purge

In June 2024, China’s Politburo expelled former ministers of national defence General Li Shangfu and General Wei Fenghe from the Chinese Communist Party for violating political discipline and accepting bribes. The persistent corruption amid China’s top military brass has raised concerns over potential disloyalty and military readiness, casting doubt over President Xi Jinping’s control over the Community Party despite a decade-long anti-corruption campaign.

July 4, 2024

When is terrorism justified?

When does politically-motivated violence, or terrorism if you prefer the bastardised term, become legitimate resistance to oppression, occupation and savagery?

May 23, 2023

It's demoracy time in Timor-Leste, but not everyone shares the fever

The streets fall unusually quiet. No local buses blaring pop music, no bikes zipping through toot-tooting their presence. Then you hear it. All the blaring and the toot-tooting multiplied by election fever. It is democracy time in Timor-Leste, and no nation quite does it like this one.

May 21, 2023

Can the Global South build a new world information and communication order?

It is remarkable how the media in a select few countries is able to set the record on matters around the world. The European and North American countries enjoy a near-global monopoly over information, their media houses vested with a credibility and authority inherited from their status during colonial times (BBC, for instance) as well as their command of the neocolonial structure of our times (CNN, for instance).

March 2, 2020

JACK WATERFORD.The big risk is this flu taking root in our neighbourhood, such as Indonesia, East Timor or PNG

Scott Morrisons declaration of a coronavirus pandemic is premature, particularly for Australia, where the virus does not appear to have escaped quarantine and containment lines.

September 9, 2024

Poem: Intimations of mortality

Today it is hard to believe in the spiritual power of Nature, because our social behaviour is doing so much damage to it. Being obsessed with economic success and technological achievements, we live in a permanent state of stress and ambivalence, unable to make peace with Nature and with ourselves.

August 25, 2023

Mass killings of Ethiopian migrants by Saudi Arabia at Yemen border may amount to crimes against humanity

Saudi border guards have killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023. Saudi officials are killing hundreds of women and children out of view of the rest of the world while they spend billions on sports-washing to try to improve their image. Saudi Arabia should immediately and urgently revoke any policy to use lethal force on migrants and asylum seekers. Concerned countries should press for accountability and the UN should investigate.

July 8, 2023

The Palestine question: Western media and long-term solutions

Picture the Western medias outrage if a Russian helicopter gunship went into an occupied Crimean city neighbourhood and began shooting missiles at civilian homes, claiming a militant lived in one. War crime would resound.

June 12, 2024

Planetary overshoot: How much should we degrow?

Global rates of resource consumption and ecological impact are now far beyond levels that are sustainable, or that all people in the world could rise to, or that technical advance could make sustainable.

April 22, 2024

The word retaliation needs to be broken open to see what’s hidden inside

Some time back I watched SBS’ ‘The Australian Wars’. It was, to many, a completely different viewpoint of settler colonialism, the impact of invasion, and the very legitimate defence of land by Australia’s indigenous native population.

July 31, 2023

President Xis daughter dilemma

China and the U.S. are not mates. These two massive nations bristle over Taiwan, snarling like dingoes protecting their territory, with China threatening catastrophic consequences in case of a dust up.

June 11, 2023

Harvard China academic takes on the Economist

Even without Chat-bot assistance, it is fun to look up quotations and their origins online and then discover, for example, this quote reportedly from Winston Churchill: The only statistics you can trust are the ones you have falsified yourself.

July 29, 2024

China to debut Australia’s first flying car

Chinese smart electric vehicle (EV) company XPeng says it will debut what it says will be Australia’s first flying car at the Melbourne Electric SUV Expo in August, alongside four premium EVs it plans to bring to the country.

July 22, 2024

‘Brain Dead’ & dangerous, NATO proceeds

The trans–Atlantic alliance’s true purpose of global dominance is too objectionable to profess. Instead, it operates on the basis of fantastic conjurings, which no member questions.

July 1, 2024

Expanding refugee protection for a changing climate

Current refugee and human rights law principles still apply when climate change and disasters amplify the risk of displacement.

September 17, 2023

Growing the anti-war movement

Is war inevitable? The short answer, for any peace activist or anyone wanting to inhabit a world that can sustain life must be no! Is war an imminent possibility, then the short answer is, regardless of the hopes, wishes and desires of the people, an unfortunate yes.

August 2, 2023

Electile dysfunction and the end of the world

The good news this week was the result of the Spanish elections, the bad was the news of global boiling, the takeover of artificial intelligence and Putins continuous threats of nuclear war.

May 30, 2023

Imran Khan and the Pakistan military's showdown

The arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on May 9th sent shockwaves throughout Pakistan, igniting widespread and violent protests across the nation.

April 24, 2020

NOEL TURNBULL. The origins of Anzackery

In the late 1950s and early 1960s Anzac Day was in decline a malaise exemplified by Alan Seymours play “The One Day of the Year”, the origins of Anzackery.

September 22, 2024

American exceptionalism versus Australian distinctiveness

The presidential election campaign that is underway in the US is full of hoopla, hysteria, loopy hats and fatuous slogans. It is somewhat gratifying, therefore, to note that, here, in Australia, we are above all that nonsense. But (one must ask) is our political system in Australia really that much better than in America? And are our political mindsets really more attuned to refined Aussie nuances?

April 25, 2024

Red poppies and bare ground: Why do we discriminate among our war dead?

The 100 000 or so dead men and women in Australia’s overseas wars are symbolised by red poppies, on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, in shrines around the nation, on the more than 5000 war memorials in our towns and suburbs, in war cemeteries overseas, and worn on Anzac and Remembrance Days.

April 24, 2024

Iran just destroyed US power in the Middle East

Former US ambassador Chas Freeman argues that Iran’s strike “changes all the rules of the game in the Middle-East”.

June 23, 2021

Australia's Covid vaccine rollout, Part 4. A good outcome by Christmas is possible

A move away from AstraZeneca is inevitable in Australias vaccine rollout, brought on by the need to reach herd immunity and to resolve the blood clot concerns. We forecast plenty of Pfizer arriving from after September, and the possibility of completing a high efficacy vaccine rollout by December. For the coming months, though, the rollout will inevitably be slowed at which time all Pfizer doses should go to those remaining in the most at-risk groups.

February 20, 2020

PAUL MALONE. Is the United States a democracy?

_The disenfranchisement of much of the population, the unequal distribution of wealth and power and the muddled voting systems calls into question the US claim to be a democratic state.

June 8, 2024

Mainstream media turns blind eye as UN visits Xinjiang, criticises US

Human Rights are big news again. There are murders in Gaza, there are restrictions in Ukraine, there are allegations of abuses in Iran and any other place that the US sees as an adversary but, one thing that isn’t big news is that the United Nations has recently visited Xinjiang. So far, 100% of our mainstream media have ignored this news.

April 17, 2024

“Seamless integration”: Japan to become sub-contractor for US aggression towards China

‘New era for alliance’ headlined the right wing Japan Times after the Japan-US summit talks in Washington this week between President Biden and Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida.. But not everyone was so enthused.

September 14, 2023

Our media won't tell us but Huawei's Mate60 is set to challenge iPhone

The moon waxes and wanes, the tide ebbs and flows, empires come and go but some empires come more than once. This is, once again, Chinas time. While there have been moves to prevent this from occurring, one recent event proves they are unsuccessful.

August 26, 2023

The 10 rules of the rules based International order (RBIO)

Breaking news: Pentagon releases the ten rules of the Rules Based International Order (RBIO) as seen by the United States of America.

June 27, 2021

The High Courts surrender to the Morrison-Dutton immigration detention regime

For almost thirty years, there has been a tussle between the courts and government in Australia over immigration detention. Alas, the High Court called a truce on Wednesday with a 4-3 decision which is as unprincipled as it is harsh.

February 11, 2020

KIM OATES. Ten questions patients should ask their doctor.

Although patients are the people who have the best knowledge of themselves and their particular concerns and who obviously have a strong interest in achieving a good outcome, they are often reluctant to ask their doctor questions.

September 21, 2024

Watch football on commercial television and take your chances

So the Australian Government has decided that one way to curb the disastrous level of gambling is to impose restrictions on television advertising during sporting programs. While we might all wish it luck, the saturation advertising of games of chance during football coverage suggests that it is being out-manoeuvred.

August 15, 2024

How Rupert Murdoch helped create a monster – the era of Trumpism – and then lost control of it

You can’t help but feel sorry for Rupert Murdoch.

August 7, 2024

Who caused the Ukraine war?

The question of who is responsible for causing the Ukraine war has been a deeply contentious issue since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal