William Briggs

We have been told that China poses a real and present danger to Australia and, regardless of the truth, it has become a ‘truth.’

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And so, the statues topple. History is revised and historical figures, deserving of homage are lumped together with those who deserve condemnation. There is a madness upon the earth. Somehow, symbols of slave-owning society, and those who fought against slavery have been mixed, amalgamated, and history has been turned upon its head. (more…)

Scott Morrison’s most recent statements regarding defence and security are chilling reminders that a war with China is no longer merely a possibility, but that real plans are being made in real time. (more…)

Television cameras show streets filled with angry men and women. The air is thick with tear gas. There are batons, armoured police, and pepper spray. For some a symbol of resistance. For others fearful scenes of anarchy. For many more a sign that something is terribly wrong.

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A new ‘cold war’ has been announced. While some will have it that COVID 19 is at the root of the deteriorating relations between the US and China, the pandemic is but a symptom of a deeper and potentially far more deadly problem; how the US responds to its perceived China threat.

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It is now 105 years since Gallipoli. We have had more than a century to reflect and possibly learn the odd lesson or two. But it seems that nothing has been learned. (more…)

The campaign by Julian Assanges’s lawyers to stop his extradition and the support that his campaign has won and is winning across the globe shows just how torn the fabric of our democracies has become. (more…)

In an often-confused world, some things have a ring of certainty. The steady rise in anti-Chinese rhetoric is an example. It is disturbing, and largely baseless, but is becoming one of life’s truisms. This is not to suggest that China is beyond criticism or that its internal politics are in any way defensible. A country that can treat its working class in so poor a fashion, that can ride roughshod over human rights, is difficult to defend. But then, Australia has allowed for a massive casualisation of the workforce and has been more than once criticised by the UN Human Rights Committee for its treatment of indigenous Australians and refugees. Glass houses and all that. (more…)

Is Australia a racist country? Are Australians racist? The questions crop up with unfortunate regularity. There is another question. How did Australia become a racist country? An accident of birth cannot be a reason for what has become an entrenched fear of the other, and yet there is a deeply rooted xenophobia in Australia. How did we get to this point? After all waves of migration have marked the development of Australia since Europeans first arrived. (more…)

Amid all the hand-wringing, wailing and gnashing of teeth in the aftermath of the election, it might be wise to reflect on some possibly painful little truths pertaining to the process and indeed legitimacy of the entire electoral system.

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Julian Assange was arrested and taken from the Ecuadorean embassy just one day after the Federal election was called. Coincidences, or accidents of chance can, just occasionally, present political opportunities. This particular coincidence offered a chance for the arrest, and the whole saga of his years in the Ecuadorean embassy to figure, if only in a minor capacity, in the election process, but on the contrary the players in the election, quickly drew a line under the entire affair.

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ANZAC Day is once more upon us. We are told that it is a time for reflection. And, so it is. The sad truth is that we engage in little actual or meaningful contemplation of the date or of its deeper meaning. There are, of course, exhortations, there are reminders (lest we forget), there are nationalistic refrains, there are figurative and literal calls to arms, but very little by way of real or objective consideration. If we were encouraged to a deeper thoughtfulness then we would not hear school-children repeat, and sincerely mean, the nonsense that the ANZACS went to Gallipoli to preserve or win the freedoms we have today. No, we are not meant to reflect, but rather to accept that the sacrifices of a century past had merit and that we must prepare for future sacrifices.

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That the ALP won the Victorian election was not really a surprise. The magnitude of that victory certainly was. Tea-leaves are being read and many a goat has had its entrails threatened as the political class and the media search for understanding. Something is happening out there and that something is being reflected across the globe. It is in the drawing together of a web of interconnected causes and effects that we can understand the Victorian result and all of those other ‘somethings’ that are shaking our world. (more…)

One hundred years ago ‘the guns fell silent’ or at least WWI ended. Since the end of the war to end all wars, however, 120 million more people have died as a result of armed conflict. Well might we remember, but what are we remembering and what have we learned along the way? (more…)

I stood the other day in a post office queue. Among a range of souvenirs marking the centenary of the end of WWI, were commemorative snow globes. It suggested all that is perverse in marketing, but then it might be argued that marketing is a perverse science. Australians are increasingly being convinced to ‘buy’ a product that they neither want or need – militarisation and all that goes with it. (more…)

Race and racism have come to dominate political debate in Australia in recent times. However, as Senator Ian McDonald assured us earlier this year, racism does not exist in Australia! The Liberal Party have declared themselves a racist free zone, although the Sudanese community in Melbourne might see Dutton’s statements that they are nothing more than a collection of crime gangs a little inflammatory. There is no racism in the ALP, although Shorten has claimed that foreign workers are responsible for a rise in unemployment. Both parties share policies that effectively criminalise asylum-seekers. The Greens are not racist, but there has been an appreciable rise in anti-Chinese racism following Greens leader Cassie O’Connor’s outbursts. Nobody is a racist and yet racism is on the rise. (more…)