Last week, I listened to Stuart Rees and Sue Wareham, two regular contributors to P&I, discuss kindness and cruelty in public policy. (more…)
Richard Hil
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Give us a break, Alfred
It feels funny. Here I am, supposedly writing a book about the climate catastrophe as my house, street, town, and region are being buffeted by a category 2 cyclone. Cyclone Alfred. (more…)
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No more puerile ‘debates’ about the Gaza genocide, please
I’ve had a hard day’s night watching an excruciating, made-for-Fox-TV showdown between political scientist Norman Finkelstein and the former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum. (more…)
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History repeats in the most chilling of ways
Earlier this month, the Sydney Morning Herald published a cartoon by the irrepressible Cathy Wilcox. I gazed at the image for a long time. My first thought was that she’ll pay a price for this, and so might the Herald. And, true to form, there was indeed a strong reaction in some quarters. (more…)
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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. (more…)
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Are we locked in a dangerous illusion?
Two weeks ago, I was at a public event in Northern NSW listening to five speakers reflect on the state of the climate and what we might do about it – that, at least, was how it was pitched. (more…)
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It’s the silence that kills
“Do you agree that Israel has the right to defend itself?” This question, so often and repeatedly put by journalists, is irritatingly banal. Invariably, it’s pitched as a kind of provocation, as if to infer that the person being quizzed has never considered the matter, or worse, is a closet antisemitic. (more…)
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The slow strangulation of truth
Over the years I’ve learnt to chew and walk at the same time. It’s taken a while, but I think I’ve mastered it. Being able and willing to condemn the actions of Hamas, and criticising Iran while also condemning the callousness of Israel’s incursions into Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon is something I think most reasonable people can and should do. (more…)
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There’s no escaping the wrongs done to Indigenous people
Patricia Karvelas’s article reflecting on the Labor government’s ‘timid’, ‘pragmatic’, ‘realistic’ change of course in pursuit of bipartisanship on Indigenous affairs made for uber-depressing reading (ABC News, online, ‘Timidity reigns as Anthony Albanese backs away from Makarrata at Garma Festival’, 5th August). It confirmed that the institutional racism prosecuted by the No campaign, is alive and well. In the Trumpian era to say such things is to create victims who cry out: ‘how dare you call me a racist?!’ (more…)
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Why I’m not in the mood for the Olympic hurrah
The latest Essential poll published in Tuesday’s online Guardian revealed that a whopping third of those polled would, if given the chance, vote for the Mango Mussolini (the Donald). This is concerning. But it’s worse than first appears. Along with the dispiriting response to the Voice – based largely on conspiracy theories, lies and dog-whistling racism – and the fact that disillusionment with the political class and democratic institutions is sky high, our nation seems to be at an inflection point. (more…)
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Hostages have been freed, who cares about the Palestinian unpeople?
It’s been a month since I relocated to a new town. It’s been traumatic. The emotions have run wild and the somatic reactions strong. At the epicentre of this emotional firestorm is a deep, wounding sense of dislocation, of severed connections with people and place. (more…)
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Why we must never stop exposing cant and hypocrisy
To witness repeated atrocities around the world is hard enough. To observe wilful slaughter, when it’s openly supported by nations claiming adherence to human rights and international law, is nauseating. The killing of dozens of Palestinians in a supposed safe zone in Rafah is just the latest bloody outrage on global view. (more…)
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Murder by any other name
Writing on the heels of Stuart Rees’s recent article in P&I, A Plea for Gaza: ‘Remember humanity & forget the rest’, and as a participant in last Wednesday’s Gaza plea for humanity event at Parliament House, Canberra, I’d like to commend Stuart for his leadership, courage and tireless efforts to bring peace with justice to the Palestinian people. (more…)
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Why are you so afraid to speak out??
The brilliant, compassionate peace scholar and activist Stuart Rees, a regular contributor to this publication, constantly searches for ways of jolting the consciences of journalists, the political class – anyone in fact witnessing the horrors in Gaza. (more…)
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Terra solitarius – the true cost of young peoples’ loneliness
We’re sleepwalking toward social catastrophe. Perhaps we’re there already – terra solitarius. Almost anywhere you care to look – research findings, news reports, general social chatter – all signs point in the same direction: a society free-falling into mass disconnection, loneliness and isolation. The word epidemic is often used to describe this situation. It’s a phenomenon sweeping over many rich, western nations. (more…)
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Are we letting big tech outsource our humanity?
The biggest problem with Artificial Intelligence will be the way we use it, writes Dr Richard Hil. (more…)
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So why the secrecy?
Last month, Chris Bowen, the Climate Change Minister, delivered the second Annual Climate Change Statement to the federal parliament. The Minister’s address was in part detailed – especially when it came to the government’s many policy achievements – but less so when it came to the question of climate heating and national security. (more…)
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Facing climate catastrophe, secrecy is the last thing we need
Confronted by the horrors occurring in the Ukraine, Ethiopia, Sudan, Myanmar and now the Middle East, it’s hard to contemplate that an even more imposing global tragedy is already here – climate breakdown. (more…)
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Another day in the colony
The deputy prime minister Richard Marles was asked by Insider’s host David Speers if the voters of Australia were right to roundly reject the constitutional recognition of Indigenous peoples and the Voice to parliament. Of course they were right, said Marles, they’re always right. In a press conference and later during question time in parliament, Anthony Albanese said he respected the outcome of the referendum, pointing out that it’s wonderful that democracies like Australia can have such referendums without the disorder we see in other countries. (more…)
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Israel’s vengeance will not make for a better world
The depressing, crushing spectacle of extreme violence and mayhem unleashed across Israel and Palestine over recent days is a reminder of the depths to which humanity can sink. (more…)
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We’re going nuts, why wouldn’t we?
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted in a profoundly sick society” – Jiddu Krishnamurti (more…)
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Time to grow up? Australia is becoming a militarised US outpost
I hesitate to stray into the florid world of military strategists, senior public servants, cabinet ministers and assorted think tanks, but what on earth is going on with Australia’s so-called defence policy? The Albo government seems hellbent on turning Australia into a militarised outpost of the US whose ‘pivot’ to the Asia-Pacific region has led to the installation of all manner of hardware and personnel. (more…)
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No need to despair, there’s always the NRL!
What are we to make of what we’re witnessing on our TV screens – the fires, the floods, the storms, the loss of life and habitat? It certainly appears deadly – and monumentally serious. July was the hottest month ever recorded. (more…)
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What really sucks about aging
“It’s like arriving at a bus station at five minutes to midnight, in the middle of a bustling city, dressed only in your undies”. That’s my friend’s rather odd male-centric take on reaching seventy years of age. But let’s go with it – for now. (more…)
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Discovering the village effect
It probably wasn’t the best time to venture near to the Belarus border. (more…)
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Primed for the ultimate AI disconnection
Time to leave for planet Zog. That’s what came to mind recently I as pondered an article about young Japanese men and female holograms. (more…)
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Parachuted professors
In a who-cares-about-standards world, the appointment of some university professors looks very much like insider trading, secret patronage, and who you know, not what you know. How else to explain appointments as professors of public figures, seemingly agile enough to vault over the usual obstacles straight to the top of the academic hierarchy? (more…)
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Imperial power: The Iraq war, 20 years on
Iraq’s trauma is regarded in some quarters as an ill-gotten remnant of the past: something to be air-brushed from history. But not so for those experiencing the ravages of imperial power. On the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq – March, 20, 2023 – the people of Iraq await a historical reckoning.
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Shoving democracy aside in Brazil… and elsewhere
The destruction of the Brazilian congress by supporters of the former, and now self-exiled, President Jair Bolsonaro is yet another example of the power and real consequences of misinformation and deceit peddled on the internet. (more…)
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High stakes in the climate diaspora
Weeks and months after devastating floods hit many regional centres across NSW and Victoria, there emerged a fresh crop of mycelium-like symbols, otherwise known as ‘for sale’ signs. Pitched on lawns in front of stud-exposed and newly renovated houses, or on empty blocks of land. These commercial hoardings have become the grim tell-tale signs of the climate diaspora. (more…)