The 1953 Armistice Agreement brought a sustainable halt to the Korean War, but has never ended it. Nor did it transform into a peace regime. During the last sixty four years the North and South Koreans have lived in conditions of neither war nor peace, which has certain advantages and downsides for both regimes separated by the Demilitarised Zone. (more…)
John Menadue
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ELIZABETH EVATT. Our Rights and Civil liberties- Death by a Thousand Cuts
Its time to give the Courts power to determine whether our anti-terrorism laws violate our fundamental rights of liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention. (more…)
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WE ARE ALSO READING AND LISTENING TO …
Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading and listening: (more…)
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JOCK COLLINS. How refugees overcome the odds to become entrepreneurs
Refugees face monumental challenges when starting a business. Many lack formal education, capital, social capital (relationships in the community), English language skills, and knowledge of the local market and regulations. (more…)
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EVAN WILLIAMS. University education: the monster in the room.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that anyone lacking a rewarding occupation must be in want of a degree. A university education is not only a good in itself, but an indispensable passport to a satisfying career and a secure lifestyle. It follows that universities should be open to all, that everyone should be encouraged to take a degree and that greater public investment in higher education is the key to national progress and prosperity. All of which, as we are now discovering to our cost, is nonsense – a dangerous fallacy that politicians on all sides are unwilling to confront. (more…)
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REBECCA PETERS. Las Vegas and Port Arthur – a tale of two tragedies.
Here’s what the Las Vegas massacre has in common with Port Arthur – Las Vegas is the worst mass shooting in modern US history; Port Arthur set the same record for Australia, and in fact for the world at that time. Both massacres occurred at iconic holiday locations, popular with tourists and honeymooners. The victims, survivors and witnesses came from across the country and even overseas. This means the events have personal significance for enormous numbers of people. (more…)
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SHAUN KING. The White Privilege of the “Lone Wolf” Shooter
White killers are invariably ‘lone wolves’ and not terrorists.Muslim and African-Americans killers are treated differently (more…)
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THOMAS ALBRECHT. Australia’s refugee policy is a failure. This is not the time to shirk responsibility.
Australia’s current refugee policy has been an abject failure. A proper approach by Australia must include, at a minimum, solutions for all refugees and asylum seekers sent to Papua New Guinea and Nauru, and an end to offshore processing. (more…)
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WALTER HAMILTON. Koike’s coup.
Japan is going to the polls on 22 October, with the conservative coalition led by Shinzo Abe facing a stiff challenge from a new party led by the right-wing governor of Tokyo. (more…)
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MICHAEL LAMBERT. Achieving Clean Energy
The constant refrain from the Commonwealth of reliable, secure and affordable power appears to dismiss the other objective of clean energy. This is reinforced by the failure to endorse the Clean Energy Target recommendation of the Finkel report. However, clean energy is feasible, affordable and can be made secure and reliable and certainly is good for the environment and long-term health of people and the economy. (more…)
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HYLDA ROLFE. A Sydney icon is under threat – the creeping commercialisation.
In this blog on 20 September 2017 I (John Menadue) described how ‘the new squatters in our National Parks’ are being given commercial access to our ‘public commons’. In NSW and elsewhere National Parks are being deliberately under funded, resulting in park deterioration which will then be used as the pretext for sale or commercialisation.
A former mayor of Woollahra and now Secretary of the Sydney Harbour Association, Hylda Rolfe, in a letter to the Minister for the Environment and Minister for Heritage, Gabrielle Upton, sets out the perils the South Head National Park faces and the unhelpful attitude of the NSW government. (more…)
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MARK OGGE. We have enough cheap, easy-to-export gas for 100 years. There is just one problem …
Hard to believe, isn’t it? But it’s true: in the last decade, tens of thousands of square kilometers of Queensland farmland has been covered in gas fields. The export gas rush in Australia is one of the largest and fastest expansions of a gas industry ever seen, anywhere in the world. We are awash with gas. The problem is we are allowing almost all of the cheap and easy-to-get-at gas to be sent overseas. (more…)
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KELLIE TRANTER. Shortage of information about Iraq airstrikes
In response to criticisms from Amnesty International that the Iraq government and coalition carried out “disproportionate” and unlawful attacks to take back Mosul, a Senior British Commander, Major Gen Jones, said recently that ‘it is naive to think a city such as Mosul, with a population of 1.75 million, could be liberated without any civilian casualties while fighting an enemy that “lacks all humanity”. That pragmatic approach is what our government would have us accept in relation to our involvement in Iraq until now. (more…)
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RIC DAY. Community Pharmacists – Under-Utilised
Community Pharmacists spend too much time dispensing prescriptions and not enough time promoting the safe and effective use of their customer’s medicines. Reform is needed. (more…)
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TOM IGGULDEN. Navy may be without submarine fleet for two decades due to replacement plan, experts say
The Navy could be left without a submarine fleet for up to 20 years because of a “wildly ambitious” schedule to replace the ageing Collins Class fleet, an independent report has found. (more…)
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WE ARE ALSO READING AND LISTENING TO …
Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading and listening: (more…)
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TIM LINDSEY. Watch out Indonesian democracy – Islamism, communism and Jokowi’s Neo-New Order?
On 16 September, police broke up an academic discussion at the offices of renowned activist NGO the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH). The topic was the killings of alleged leftists in 1965 and 1966 in the wake of the failed coup that brought former president Soeharto to power. (more…)
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JIM COOMBS. The neo-liberal failure on energy
JIM COOMBS: The source of our current “economic imperatives” and crises, especially in the fields of energy, is that we can’t see beyond the “neoliberal” (does it have a meaning?) insistence that only a “market solution” answers economic problems. Surely, “economics” is better than that. (more…)
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SRIPRAPHA PETCHARAMESREE. The Rohingya exodus.
The most recent Rohingya exodus has been making headlines during the past few weeks. But just a week ago Daw Aung San Suu Kyi broke her silence. In her more than 30 minute speech addressing the Myanmar Parliament and diplomats on 19 September, the term Rohingya was not used. Rohingya continues to be “forbidden to name”. This explicit denial of the name not only works against the existence and human rights of Rohingya but also against any desire of the Myanmar government to work towards peace and harmony as well as to fulfil its international commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms. (more…)
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OISÍN SWEENEY: Will the Coalition degazette the Murray Valley National Park and cement its anti- environment reputation?
Up to now, Australian Governments of both sides have largely honoured national park declarations made by each other. However, it’s now official National Party policy to degazette the Murray Valley National Park which would be a low point in Australian conservation history. Given the success of The Nationals in dictating NSW environment policy in the last few years, and the degree to which the Coalition has regressed on environment protection, this is something we need to be worried about. (more…)
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WE ARE ALSO READING …
Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading:
Dance of the elephants – Inside Story (Matthew Ricketson). When governments and Big Media dance together, it is not a pretty picture.
US Senate Democrats show off anti-religious bigotry – Washington Post (Michael Gerson)
Pope Francis Calls Out Trump, Accuses Him of “Pro-Life” Hypocrisy – Vanity Fair (Tina Nguyen)
Bangladeshis helping Rohingya: “I gave them shelter because I am a human being” – Aljazeera
Debate about energy needs to put people first – Pearls and Irritations Repost (Tony Maher). What coal mine workers think about the energy mess, by the National Secretary of the CFMEU.
Rooftop solar and storage, cheaper than subsidising old coal – RenewEconomy (Giles Parkinson). Coal is expensive, dirty and old hat!
The life my brother never had because he was gay – Canberra Times (David Kirby). David Kirby writes about his brother, Michael.
We’ve turned our universities into money-grubbing exploiters – Ross Gittins. It’s not just the current government’s assault on university funding. Commercialisation of our universities goes back at least 30 years and has left academics with the dismal choice of a crippling workload or a lowering of teaching and research standards.
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EVAN WILLIAMS. Nanny state? Bring it on!
Among conservatives, the term “nanny state” is enjoying a new vogue. And its use is by no means confined to a handful of loony libertarians. Any action intended to protect personal safety or curb anti-social behaviour is now seen as evidence of the dreaded nanny state taking over our lives. Gun-control laws, mandatory helmets for bike riders, plain packaging on cigarettes, compulsory vaccination for kids – all are part of a sinister left-wing plot to destroy capitalism. (more…)
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JEAN PIERRE-LEHMANN. The Clouds of Imminent Trade War Are Looming
In the conclusion of her outstanding book on the First World War (The War That Ended Peace) historian Margaret MacMillan asks whether, as many have argued, war in 1914 was inevitable. She refutes this view; the final sentence of the book contains these four words: “There are always choices.” (more…)
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JOHN BENSON. Biodiversity is threatened in New South Wales
The New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) was the first of its type in Australia. Established by a Liberal government, its lyrebird emblem became world-renowned. But the Service is not valued by the present Government and now faces grave uncertainty. (more…)
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PETER FLINN. The brave new world of fire services in Victoria: is it go or woe?
The Country Fire Authority (CFA)in Victoria has long been recognised as one of the world’s leading volunteer fire-fighting organisations, but its boundaries with Melbourne’s Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB),which comprises career fire-fighters, have not changed since 1945. (more…)
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TRAVERS McLEOD. Opportunity for regional leadership on Rohingya refugees.
Australia and Indonesia, the Co‐Chairs of the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime, have been asked by regional experts to fulfil a promise made after the 2015 Andaman Sea crisis by responding quickly to the refugee crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh. This is an historic opportunity for the Bali Process to demonstrate its value and the benefit of cooperation problem solving in the region. (more…)
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RANALD MACDONALD. Testing times for the ABC with a ‘competitive, neutrality enquiry’.
One of our most trusted institutions is under real threat- and, like Humpty Dumpty, once broken may never be able to be put together again. (more…)
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WE ARE ALSO READING …
Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading. (more…)
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WARWICK ELSCHE. From as far away as Australia it is difficult to assess America’s Trump administration.
Reading as widely as possible and watching American news reports helps but does not altogether solve the problem. Indeed, many Americans, far closer to the action are finding themselves similarly baffled. The President of just eight months has, in his own words, given us a picture of a truly remarkable occupant of the world’s top office. (more…)
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KOMALA RAMACHANDRA. Australia’s ‘Modern Slavery’ Proposal Falls Short
In mid-August Australia’s justice minister proposed a new law requiring the country’s biggest companies to report on their practices and policies to prevent forced labour in their operations and supply chains. The government wants to ensure that consumer products like food, electronics, and clothing – whether they’re made abroad or domestically – are not produced by people forced to work against their will. It is a laudable goal, but the steps they’ve taken are inadequate. (more…)