The term “genocide”, and its codification in international law, has its origins in the mass murder of Armenians in 1915–16. (more…)
Category: Politics
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School funding: Time to break the mould and build a new model
A deep contradiction has developed between Australia’s values and the way our schools are funded. (more…)
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The social smog of neoliberalism: How competition breeds violence and division
The Industrial Revolution transformed the material basis of human life. By harnessing energy and perfecting machines, engineers satisfied physical needs on a mass scale. (more…)
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The politics of extermination
In 1895, Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, asserted: “We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country … expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” (more…)
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A lament for Meanjin
For more than 80 years, Meanjin has been a quiet but powerful enabler of Australian literature. It required a mere pittance to keep it alive. (more…)
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Environment: Earth is getting hotter faster thanks to humans
We’ll look back on 2024 as the year we sailed passed 1.5. Marine heatwaves in 2024 and 2025 seriously damaged the Great Barrier Reef, again. Insufficient land and money to create enough new forests to offset carbon emissions. Iceland sends a letter to the future. (more…)
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Late marriage the new norm in South Korea
In 2024, South Korea set another demographic record, with women marrying for the first time at a historic high average age of 31.6, while men did so at an average age of 33.9. (more…)
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Can we save a ‘livable Earth’?
In reshaping the world for prosperity, humanity has undermined the very foundations of progress. (more…)
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‘No safe place left’ as Israel moves to ethnically cleanse nearly 1m Gazans
“This is the latest chapter in the genocide that Israel is committing in Gaza and part of a broader campaign of ethnic cleansing engulfing the entire Gaza Strip,” said Oxfam International. (more…)
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Why key leaders attended China’s military parade – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Nations “must adapt” to new power politics. Plus: Raid “will hurt” South Korea’s US investments; Trump’s strategic shift towards Pakistan; What’s next after Nepal’s 8 September massacre; Thailand gets its first minority government; Why India has the world’s biggest diaspora. (more…)
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Climate action can feel slow – but the fastest energy leap in history has begun
It’s increasingly common to hear from experts and the general public that the global shift away from fossil fuels is glacially slow, or even non-existent. (more…)
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From 9/11 to 9/9: How recent events reshaped understandings of power and deception
On 9 September 2025, Israel struck Qatar. Two days later, the world marked the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. (more…)
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The long-term damaging effects of COVID
Just as the Great Plague ravaged Europe and changed the course of history, we face a different society and future because of the COVID pandemic. Differing responses to dealing with the virus reveal gaping holes in the social fabric. (more…)
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SA’s algal bloom and the big, beautiful, bureaucratic ballet
The café owner at Edithburgh gave me a wintry smile. We were on Yorke Peninsula to play a concert as part of the opening of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Walk from Coobowie to Edithburgh. (more…)
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Palm Beach, Florida: latitude, 26.7 N – Gaza City: latitude, 31.5 N
In Palm Beach, there lives a man who, when not living in the White House, enjoys the balm of temperate climes. He lives in a mansion, extravagant and luxurious. He wants for nothing. (more…)
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Old people are the victims of neoliberal profiteers
Being the minister for Aged Care or Seniors is hard work and it is not a glamorous portfolio. (more…)
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‘Go for it!’: Kevin O’Brien’s Long Tan
Brigadier O’Brien’s Long Tan is the most important account of our iconic battle in 40 years. The book spins 23 short chapters around a short exclamatory order. (more…)
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Climate change, not China, is the real threat in the South Pacific
Countries of the South Pacific have good reason to encourage China and other countries to assist them with infrastructure. And there is nothing that Australia should, or could, do about it. (more…)
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A nation of narcissists
Narcissism is the open-and-shut condition of the elites who fashion and execute American foreign policy. And they are utterly incapable of seeing their country as it is. (more…)
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If we want to win the Pacific, we must first listen – and stop blaming China for everything
A 9 September editorial in The Sydney Morning Herald, titled China and Australia in a high-speed race to win control of the Pacific, offered a vivid picture of the daily contest for influence in the region. (more…)
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Rupert Murdoch’s greatest scoop
On Wednesday 25 February 1976, The Australian published a sensational front page story headlined “Iraq promises $US500,000 to pay Labor’s debts/Whitlam in secret Arab election deal”. (more…)
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Australia’s business lobbies seem happy to let the country burn. What will federal Labor do?
It is the writer Oscar Wilde who is credited with the quote: “The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Although I do have to admit the first time I came across it was in a Doonesbury cartoon in the 1980s. (more…)
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NSW AG based Kathleen Folbigg’s compo on ‘no state malfeasance’, but no one has looked
When baby Azaria Chamberlain’s matinee jacket was found at Uluru in 1986, it led to the prompt release of her mother, Lindy Chamberlain, from prison. (more…)
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Aged care crises continue under Labor
It has been four years since the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety was tabled in federal parliament. (more…)
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Australia’s media coverage of a military parade in Beijing confounds engagement
The 3 September military parade in Beijing, celebrating victory in World War II, is not a cause for hysterical histrionics. In Beijing, there was no equivalent to waving of the Nazi “Blood Banner” (Blutfahne) as in the intoxication of the 1934 Nuremberg rally. (more…)
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The retreat of social democracy and the rise of the hard right
From Warsaw to Melbourne, from Berlin to Texas, the streets of many OECD countries are witnessing anti-immigration rallies and the surge of far-right populism. (more…)
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Fear is a weapon
This is something that governments the world over have long known. Fear is ubiquitous and is wielded with seeming impunity. (more…)
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Displacement and death in Gaza City as Israeli depravity continues
This week, Israel killed my cousin Mohammed, a young and cheerful lawyer, along with his wife Myriam and their only seven-day-old baby, Jaber. (more…)
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Israel leaps over red lines in attack on Qatari capital Doha
The attack on Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital Doha shows Israel will keep escalating if global powers don’t stop it. (more…)
