Letters to the Editor
Jeffrey D. Sachs and the independent state.
July 12, 2024
According to Sachs, Ukrainians and their supporters insist that Ukraine has the “right” to join NATO. The U.S. also says so repeatedly. NATO’s policy says that NATO enlargement is an issue between NATO and the candidate country, and that it is no business of Russia or any other non-NATO country. This is preposterous. So writes Mr Sachs. If Mr Sachs is correct, that Ukraine is not independent, that Ukraine is subject to and must accept in full, the rule by Russia, then no country is independent. This begs the question as to why be a member of the UN....
Peter Sheehy from Blackheath NSW
In response to: Save Ukraine from American meddling
Faithlessness-Based Politics
July 12, 2024
“....Payman hadn’t contradicted Labor’s policy platform, written in 2023,.... She had done the opposite... tried to get the government to implement its own policy platform, recognition of the state of Palestine.... the Labor caucus unanimously agreed to Albanese’s decision to indefinitely suspend Payman from caucus, Albanese pontificating that he showed “strength in compassion” in not expelling Payman from the ALP.” A Labor PM has power to expel a member from the ALP? Truly? Pontificating is surely the right term, and just when Mr. A comes out as an opponent of “faith-based politics.” Labor now extends the Turnbull...
Bruce Wearne from Ballarat
In response to: Why does Albanese pander to his enemies and neglect his friends?
Albanese and AUKUS and relations with China
July 12, 2024
It is very easy to be a critic. The AUKUS pact is a chance to get technology transfer from the UK and the USA and skill up a generation of Australians. At the same time relations with China are much healthier and trade has resumed. Albanese is doing much that is right as prime minister.
Dr Jennifer Grant from The Entrance
In response to: Why AUKUS fails us – leaving us defenceless
Our Government Making Every Post a Loser
July 12, 2024
Alison Broinowski's excellent article includes the message that the Government may be considering appointing an 'Anti-Semitism Envoy', being a past president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. Such a move would compound the disaster created by the unremittingly partisan and resolutely uncritical support of the Israeli government exhibited by our Government since October 7. Most fair-minded Australians including a very significant number of Jews have been repeatedly horrified and dismayed by the unending lack of equitable support for a people identified to receive the support of the ALP by its stated policy. The daily stream of news...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: Labor’s fall: fast forward to disaster
The public service has no memory
July 12, 2024
In about one month 100 years of operational experience left the Department I worked for when 3 people retired. They have been unable to replace them. Just prior to that the department was concerned about the age profile of the department (another consultant report with KPIs ) So they recruited University graduates who expected to rapidly rise through the rank because they had a Degree and they expected to be payed according to their degree. One of the many problems with the old public service was that it took time to rise through the ranks. While the criticism...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: rodents-in-the-ranks
Casting doubt is part of the propaganda
July 10, 2024
Sam Varghese, is simply adding to the propaganda wars around Israel's war against Hamas. The casting of doubt about this or that atrocity serves the purpose of discrediting the enemy to bolster one's own narrative. That a massacre of Israeli citizens occurred on 7 October is not in question. The killing of some 240 young people at a music festival in southern Israel is not in question. That rapes occurred is not in question. But Varghese wants to analyse the veracity of the reporting without lending some words to the events themselves and the very real...
Harold Zwier from Melbourne, Victoria
In response to: The Age hits a low pursuing discredited narratives about Oct. 7 attack
ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE
July 8, 2024
I have long been a reader and an enthusiastic supporter of Pearls & Irritations which I have almost always regarded as a brilliant and valued journal. However, things began to change for me as a Jew after 7 October 2023. I became so disillusioned by your one-sided, and unbalanced reporting about the tragedies taking place in Israel/Gaza that I unsubscribed but eventually, realizing my own loss in doing so and missing so many of your other deeply thoughtful articles that I thought better and decided to resubscribe and even recently published once more on your site. To be...
Mike Lyons from Sydney
In response to: ISRAEL, BORN ILLEGITIMATE, SEIZES MORE ILLEGAL LAND IN THE WEST BANK
Peter Henning gets Gaza & Labor right
July 6, 2024
Thank you Peter Henning. We needed such a detailed timeline of how the Labor elite is trying to destroy Senator Fatima Payman’s determined drive to recall Labor to its principles on Gaza. This has been a sad and disillusioning week. Labour is doing itself immense damage and losing its voter base in seats with large immigrant-based populations. The power over the Labor Party of the alliance of Australian Zionism and the old white political power elites has been challenged by Payman’s idealism and courage. The result will be very damaging to Labor at the next election: it will face...
Tony Kevin from Canberra
In response to: Payman shatters the shackles of political amorality
Prof Hocking's article on caucus
July 5, 2024
Thank you Professor Hocking for your interesting and informative article regarding Senator Payman's stance and Labor caucus solidarity. I found it illuminating, and appreciated the detail you provided to support your argument. I also appreciated the examination of social media as a mechanism that supports the spread of incorrect history. I did want to question why you included the quotation from Patrick Gorman, Labor member for Perth. I didn't feel it added anything to the argument you were presenting, and I can think of many examples in the past of an international war [being used] as a domestic political...
Tim Shaw from Dernancourt
In response to: Senator Payman, Palestine, and caucus solidarity
Labor vs Payman on Palestine
July 5, 2024
Professor Hocking appears to argue that the position adopted by Senator Payman on recognition of Palestine was contrary to the policy of the Australian Labor Party. In doing so she claims that the wording of Labor’s amendment to the Greens’ motion, “to recognise the state of Palestine ‘as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace’”, “replicated the party platform and therefore the caucus position”. The relevant portion of the 2023 ALP National Platform states: “The National Conference: * Supports the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to...
Peter Albion from Toowoomba
In response to: Senator Payman, Palestine, and caucus solidarity
Accepting a two-State solution
July 5, 2024
I suspect Jenny Hocking misrepresents the positions of both the Greens and Senator Payman. Their opposition to the Government motion correctly recognises it for what it is – an attempt to delay as long as possible the recognition of Palestine. If the Government were truly even handed, they would also propose a motion along the lines that ‘the House of Representatives support the recognition of the State of Israel, as part of a peace process, in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace’. Ie, set similar pre-conditions on the recognition of Israel. I doubt the...
Brian Bycroft from Evans Head NSW
In response to: Senator Payman, Palestine, and caucus solidarity
Caucus scores own goal
July 5, 2024
Spot on Stuart. The Labor caucus dumping Senator Payman for voting for the Palestine policy in the party platform is an absolute own goal. Labor’s weak Palestine stance has now given rise to a new religious-based election grouping, resulting in less of the social cohesion the PM uses to justify that stance.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: For Labor, Payman breaching caucus rules is worse than Israel committing genocid
Our China knowledge deficit
July 5, 2024
Thank you, Jocelyn- a very helpful filling out of some much needed developments with/in China. And you may be pleased to add to your comments the multiple interactions that take place between the Confucius Institute and the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, the latter being a locus for discussions with Chinese scholars - including in China of 'ecological civilization' a term adopted by the Chinese in their Constitution. This action by the Chinese puts us to shame, being well beyond our limiting notion of Western Civilization'! 'Ecological Civilization' where humans and the rest of nature live...
Len Puglisi Puglisi from Burwood East
In response to: Does China matter any more?
We Boomers won the environmental lottery
July 5, 2024
We all see the myopic folly of the person who wins big on the lottery and squanders the proceeds – discarding the possibility of a lifetime’s comfort and security for a few months or years of absurd extravagance. Why then can so few recognise that we Boomers won the environmental lottery? In our lifetimes we have been able to achieve levels of health and education unimaginable to earlier generations, we have enjoyed unprecedented lifestyles, and yet we have done so at a pace which consumes and destroys the environment which sustains us. Unlike the spendthrift lottery winner, we may...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC
In response to: Let’s not forget our obligations to future generations
The Antisemitism definition missing from the public record
July 5, 2024
In all the discussions on social, print and other media concerning antisemitism’s definition, there is almost a complete lack of acknowledgement of the existence of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA). Specifically there is no discussion about the differences between JDA’s definition of antisemitism in relation to criticism of Israel/Palestine, and the definition espoused by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). I believe that such a comparison is long overdue in the media and isn’t just an academic exercise in terminology or semantics. As clearly outlined in your article, the IHRA’s antisemitism’s definition is one of the...
George Nossar from Mulgoa
In response to: Who can make the call on anti-semitism?
Who is a real Nazi
July 5, 2024
I read this article in total amazement. It reads like a statement issued by a combination of the US State Department and the Ukrainian Propaganda Ministry. Yours in shock, Dieter Barkhoff
dieter barkhoff from Box Hill North
In response to: Ukraine: where are the real fascists?
Speaking truth to power
July 5, 2024
Dr Helen McCue has well expressed the problem of Senator Fatima Payman and how the Gazan people suffer. Our Prime Minister and his Foreign Minister are missing the mark. They are paid by Australian taxpayers and expect that in this day and age, compassion should be the foremost issue in their work, and at times party lines need to be set aside. It is not Fatima Payman's problem. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister should look at themselves: they are making a statement about themselves. I am sure that Fatima Payman must have discussed her views in their party...
Therese Saladin-Davies from Emu Plains, NSW
In response to: Speaking truth to power
Sidelining Senator Payman
July 5, 2024
On the ABC Minister Mark Butler said, “…they get the privilege of putting themselves forward for election to public office with the Labor party next to their name on the ballot paper.” The corollary is that Labor gets to include a Muslim woman on the ticket, cynically attesting to its diversity credentials. Apparently the inconvenient fact that she has a different perspective to the white male lawyer majority in parliament is intolerable, even if a two state solution is Labor policy. By barring Senator Payman from the Caucus, Labor has effectively barred all the voters who hold the...
John Forrest from Great Southern, WA
In response to: Will Senator Payman influence Australian Government decision makers?
Patrick Gourley writing on Pezzulo
July 5, 2024
Patrick Gourley writes a superb dumper on this cretinous product of Oz Federal public service. What an insult it must be for good people in that excellent profession to suffer arrogant fools such as he. I am not the least surprised that the LNP chose to elevate this turd to 'greatness'. Well done Patrick.
Kevin Childs from Queensland
In response to: Mike Pezzullo: Colossus of ever-failing policy and political embarrassment
We need proactive governments to save our climate
June 28, 2024
As Julian Cribb observes, we have, for 9,000 years, been living in a uniquely stable climate. Within current lifetimes urban consumers in developed economies have lost all awareness of the risk to them of famine. But this risk is real: the UN Food Program is calling a global food crisis. This situation will exacerbate as the changing climate reduces crop yields further. As Cribb reports, irreversible tipping points are already being crossed with permafrost melting, seabed methane dissolving, and more. Developed-world governments seem to assume that they can trim their climate policy sails to the changing political wind, but...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Stoking the climate furnace…
Critics of Zionist values are not anti-Semitic
June 28, 2024
Moshe Feiglin is quoted as saying “but the land of Israel belongs only to the people of Israel because God gave it to us”. Generations of those like myself who had a Christian education have been brought up on this, the flight from Egypt, the crossing of the Jordan and the subsequent domination or elimination of the existing peoples living in Canaan. How young David, later to become king, and Jesus’ purported ancestor, was a hero for killing a man who opposed the brutal takeover of land described in the Book of Joshua. Now a modern Israeli leader channels a...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Israel’s Moshe Feiglin repeats Hitler quote at AJA event
Disappointed by Henry's call for an Apology
June 28, 2024
It's disappointed to read Mr Reynolds call for an Apology rather than accept that the True Sovereigns of these lands remain the Sovereign First Nations. Charlie should return Sovereignty, not apologise for stealing it. Perhaps Mr Reynolds would be well advised to look into the findings of the Beauchamp Committee of 1785. It was set up to locate where to send those sentenced to Transportation. The King had already announced such a return to Transportation, and this committee recommended, thus; “that Convicts will need strict supervision wherever they are sent, and that the destination to...
Graeme Taylor from Cockatoo, Victoria
In response to: Another royal tour: should we expect a formal apology to our First Nations?
Geoffrey Watson SC and the NACC
June 28, 2024
Geoffrey Watson SC persuasively argues that 1) NACC is supine and 2) this resulted in six Robodebt people getting off scot-free. I agree with his first point, but disagree with his second point. In my opinion, blame should be divided between Cmr Holmes failure to report them to the AFP and the AFP itself. I believe the NACC is right when it says the investigation phase is over. Now it is time to enter the prosecution and trial & sentencing phases. This phase is not the NACC's job. If someone - anyone - you, me, or...
Peter LANDER from Guildford NSW 2161
In response to: A supine integrity agency is worse than useless; it is dangerous
Palestine
June 28, 2024
Palestine Palestine. Oh! Palestine Should not be left to wither on the vine Our love for you does entwine Love and Peace for all is on the line Palestine. Oh! Palestine Your heart stolen By those whose lies do shine So long ago, over 100 years Your lands stolen, so many fears Hearts broken amid a lake tears All to the harsh sound of Zionist jeers Palestine. Oh! Palestine Your soul destroyed By those pretentious and divine Much forsaken by western eyes Downtrodden by British lies Whose manipulations so unwise All under your clear blue skies...
John Bentley from Tongala
In response to: UN Human Rights Commission: Israel’s is among the most criminal armies in the world. Chris Sidoti
‘I’m permanently pissed off’
June 28, 2024
I read this article, next to it was an ad for another article with a title asking why the US doesn't negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. It is disappointing to constantly read that people prefer immediate, temporary peace over the victory of established states against aggression, violence and barbarism. What do you think would happen next if a peace deal was established with a victorious Russia and Hamas? Really, what does that world look like to you? To me, it looks like it is in each countries, terrorist group's or individual's interest to be as...
michael plit from Macquarie Park
In response to: ‘I’m permanently pissed off’- just one feature of a Gaza malaise
LGBTQ+ people and Religious Organisations
June 28, 2024
Dear Editor Yvonne Patterson is unfortunately correct when she suggests that Australian governments are prejudiced towards LGBTIQ people because there has been no movement by any government to strengthen the laws against discriminating against LGBTIQ people in religious worklpaces and schools. Today the prime Minister has announced that the government will not attempt to bring in a religious discrimination law because he can't get bipartisan support. Yvonne also suggests we need an inquiry into these issues. Perhaps she is not aware of the very detailed report by Equality Australia in March 2024, entitled Dismissed, Denied and Demeaned: A National...
Eleanor Flynn from Melbourne
In response to: Exemptions in discrimination law: ‘safe spaces’ to act out prejudice towards LGBTIQ people
In response to your article
June 28, 2024
Dear Sir, Thank you for your article. It was interesting to see how this situation is perceived. I would like to bring a correction. Falun Dafa is not anti China. We peacefully denounce the unjustified persecution started in July 1999 by Jiang Zemin.
Martial Bachoffner from Vancouver
In response to: Criminal probe shines light on anti-China group’s wide links
Biden's Floating Aid Fails as Expected
June 28, 2024
March 15 this year, I wrote: Biden’s plan for sea-borne aid to Gaza is incredibly stupid - Pearls and Irritations (publish.pearlsandirritations.com) I feel the need to update that gloomy premise, as the current summary of the results of the floating jetty are far worse than I had foreshadowed: ‘They miscalculated’: Gaza’s floating aid pier failing to deliver in rough seas | Israel-Gaza war | The Guardian Fact: ‘Over the entire course of the pier’s operation so far, however, only about 250 truckloads of food and other humanitarian assistance (4,100 tonnes) have arrived by the planned maritime...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: ‘They miscalculated’: Gaza’s floating aid pier failing to deliver in rough seas
Common sense Wisdom
June 28, 2024
May I congratulate Geoff Davies on a common sense logical article on renewable energy, it makes absolute sense, especially with all the massively deep/ wide holes in the ground left over from years coal mining, which I believe some are already underway with feasibility studies with anticipation to go ahead with ORPH . I cannot believe that Peter Dutton is going to try and divide the nation once again just like with the voice referendum, using the most critical and important task that the nations of this planet need to deal with in the shortest time possible that we...
John Evans from Raymond Terrace
In response to: The cut-through message: wind, solar and pumped hydro are all we need, and cheaper
The Power Options Debate (A Professionals View)
June 21, 2024
As a hydropower engineer, responsible for the economic justification of aa of my projects I suppose I should weigh in on the power options debate. I agree with Geoff Davies assessment (P&I June 26, 2014) which coincidentally is the same as that of the CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator. Nuclear Power has never been an economical option even for systems larger than those existing in the interconnected system of the eastern states of Australia. China has nuclear power providing a small proportion of their total installed capacity but State Power acknowledge that this is not the...
Barry Trembath from Australia
In response to: The cut-through message: wind, solar and pumped hydro are all we need, and cheaper
A startling admission from a former insider
June 21, 2024
In amongst a blather of pseudo-intellectual posturing, Mike Pezzullo’s recent long essay in ASPI’s The Strategist makes a startling revelation. As someone recently removed from Australia’s security centre it’s disturbing when Pezzullo writes; “[Australia’s] actual grand strategy is being conducted, thankfully, at variance with our declared policy—through contributing to the building of a US-centred system of integrated deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, the hardening of Australia as a bastion for allied war-fighting operations, and the continuing integration of certain strategic functions undertaken on Australian territory into global US war-fighting systems”. Taken at face value this is an admission that the...
Mike Scrafton from Ireland
In response to: Across the US Empire, deranged shrieks drown out talk of peace
Nuclear power and weapons linked
June 21, 2024
Any nation that has nuclear power stations has access to making nuclear weapons and there are no effective international sanctions to prevent this. In fact one of the reasons Sir Phillip Baxter gave for building a nuclear power station at Jervis bay was to have access to nuclear weapons.
John Coulter from Bradbury S.A.
In response to: How Dutton’s HALEU nuclear power could lead to nuclear weapons
Robo-Debt fall-out
June 21, 2024
The question is, are our governments accountable. The answer appears to be a very clear no. I was not part of or included in Robo-Debt, I was just another citizen looking at a slow motion train crash. So much has already being said about Robo-Debt that I cannot offer a new insight. But I can note the complete lack of accountability from those who developed and implemented the Robo-Debt policy. Such lack of accountability translates into contempt for the very people that vote politicians into government in the first place. Robo-Debt is not the only time such contempt...
Peter Sheehy from Blackheath NSW
In response to: The National Anti-Corruption Commission: a damp squib
Graduates not 'job-ready' without the humanities
June 21, 2024
University graduates will never be ready for any jobs without a knowledge of history and the skills to analyse critically the social contexts in which they work. Any deficits in these regards will seriously impact their performance, increasingly so as they assume leadership roles in later life. Humanities-based contextual studies should be required subjects in every professional degree course in Australia. Taught well, they will enable graduates to contribute more effectively to the improvement of their organisations and the well-being of our democracy. Certainly this has been my experience after four decades of teaching courses in the...
Gary Werskey from Blackheath
In response to: In the face of disinformation and democratic decay, humanities graduates are more important than ever
The capitulation of Ukraine
June 17, 2024
I found this article by Geoffrey Roberts, insulting, offensive and misleading using misinformation in order to achieve the writers political agenda. I find what Roberts says in much in line with what Jeffrey D. Sachs has to say, which is that the war in Ukraine is a proxy war between the US and Russia and therefore independent Ukraine has no say. So the sooner Ukraine's learn to live on their knees and bow down to Putin the sooner the war will end. Except just prior to the war, a day, a week or a month prior, Ukraine was...
Peter Sheehy from Blackheath NSW
In response to: Negotiate now, or capitulate later: ten incentives for Ukraine to make peace with Russia
The legal black hole of nuclear
June 17, 2024
Ernst Willheim (17/6) asks the legal questions about nuclear: State rights, liability, safeguards and insurance. He concludes: “It is not clear that the Opposition has addressed any of these issues”. Shadow energy minister Ted O’Brien has travelled to Canada and Britain to check out small modular reactors, but appears to have spoken only to nuclear unnamed “nuclear experts” - promoters, not lawyers. Given the exceptional regulatory requirements for nuclear, can the Coalition detail its legally-binding ‘road map’ for the planning, building, maintenance, decommissioning and waste storage of nuclear plants? Technological innovation can be expected over the next decades,...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Superficial coverage of Dutton’s nuclear policy does Australia a disservice
Julian Cribb offers government a climate plan
June 17, 2024
It is great to see a photo of highly honoured world issues analyst Australian Julian Cribb as well and relaxed, and to hear his clear and logical voice (How to stop climate change, Podcast, June 14, 2024). He argues that world agriculture is not sustainable in quantity or quality for a human population of over 8 billion; and it will result in mass refugees. He considers most humans have rotten diets and die from related conditions such as cancer. He therefore recommends sustainable methods of natural regeneration, local urban production, and deep ocean production of nutritious fish and seaweed....
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: How to stop climate change
Australians would support non-alignment
June 17, 2024
Australia is part of The Global South. We would be wise to acknowledge (and embrace) the fact that we are fortuitously positioned between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. We have the potential to become a major player in a world where everything is changing rapidly and too often catastrophically. Why are we hanging on to increasingly anachronous allegiances to has-been imperial powers? Should we not urgently and seriously consider becoming a geopolitically non-aligned nation? Respectful friends of our neighbours and trading partners? We would be safer, I believe, without phantasmagoric protectors. I agree that the ballot box...
Penny Lee from Perth
In response to: Walking into war with China: an American trap hidden in plain sight
Journalists could bone up on nuclear information
June 14, 2024
It’s true, the Canberra Press Gallery is not homogeneous (Who prepared Dutton’s report on nuclear power?, 13/6). But presumably most journalists are not scientists. The same can be said of politicians, economists and commentators of a certain persuasion, who have gone in to bat against the CSIRO’s latest costings of renewables, fossil fuels and nuclear energy. They say science should not inform our decision as to whether we go nuclear (eg John Kehoe, AFR, 13/6). He, and the Coalition, advocates “letting the market decide”, as if the economics of such a hugely complicated technology can be divorced from...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Who prepared Dutton’s report on nuclear power?
Capitalism and democracy are different things
June 14, 2024
In the very excellent When Confucius meets Machiavelli, Teow Loon Ti states, “It implies whether these countries comprise people of European origin, profess an adherence to the idea of democracy and common values with the core, is endowed with valuable natural resources and willing to make them available to the Empire and its supporters on terms agreeable to them…” This sentence proves the lie contained within it. The lie that the US Empire is devoted to protecting the ideal of democracy. The US Empire has only ever been interested in defending Capitalism, not democracy. Millions of victims of...
John Donegan from Nathalia
In response to: When Confucius meets Machiavelli
Most certainly, we hold no sympathy for Hamas....
June 14, 2024
Please, please, there is no need to highlight the so-called atrocities Hamas is accused of committing on October 7th - very, very few of them are proven or substantiated. If 1200 died, there is now ample evidence via Al Jazeera and the Electronic Intifada, Haaretz, and various other Israeli sources that many, if not most were murdered by Israeli fire. The Hamas incursion is a pimple on Mount Everest in comparison to the thousands of such incursions and slaughters committed by Israel since 1948. To single out Hamas is a classic case of blaming the victim for...
Dieter Barkhoff from Box Hill North
In response to: Australia and the Israeli-Hamas War
Poor policy results in poor outcomes
June 14, 2024
There has been much ado about the so-called Reserve Bank of Australia’s modus operandi, but most of all, it overlooks the fact that the RBA is an instrument of the Federal Government, independent or otherwise. The Feds make policy, the RBA doesn’t, and it’s this policy which governs the fortunes of Australia and the RBA. Policy governs everything we do whether we like it or not and 30 years of poor policy has created mounting inequality and poverty. We are now reaping what we have sown! As we have seen with the pandemic, we can afford to do...
John Bentley from Tongala
In response to: Reserve Bank has squeezed us like a lemon........
Why is the US waiting for Hamas?
June 14, 2024
That is a good call by a very distinguished body of us Australians. After all, twice in five weeks Hamas has accepted a ceasefire proposal guaranteed by the US, Egypt and Qatar. Yet Biden and Blinken keep saying they are waiting for Hamas to accept? Why? Isn’t the onus on Israel to accept the deal?
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Australia and the Israeli-Hamas War
Stigmatising dementia
June 14, 2024
Dear editor, I too have a close friend diagnosed with younger onset Alzheimer's disease. She is in an excellent care facility, and every day I see photos of her smiling face, despite her advanced memory loss, and inability to walk or talk. To describe her life as one of 'intolerable suffering' is completely untrue. Dementia is an umbrella term for many diseases, including Alzheimer's, so it is inaccurate to say dementia or Alzheimer's. Whilst I understand the viewpoint of the author, and do not necessarily disagree with euthanasia in general, I think unfortunately the focus is on...
Helen Jones from Sydney
In response to: Time to change the law
The Hypocrisy on Gaza is widespread indeed
June 14, 2024
As most Australians are reviled by the Gaza war, seeing, as always, it is the innocent civilians who suffer in war, not the politicians or generals, it is interesting to compare the expressed Australian outrage over Gaza, the horror over Australian support for Israel, in articles such as this one, with the complete lack of interest expressed in what is happening, has happened, in other war zones around the world, where the international community watched and did nothing. Sudan, 150,000 murdered, 10 million displaced. Egypt, 35,000 illegal arrests and ‘disappearances’, 15,000 homes destroyed Syria, 500,000 gassed & murdered, 6...
Marcus May from Ocean Grove
In response to: Hypocrisy and deceit Down Under: Australia is a Zionist stronghold
Russia’s nuclear threat
June 14, 2024
I generally like Caitlin’s take on things especially criticism of the US for just about everything but regarding Russia she has, to my mind, a blind spot. Whatever justifications Putin uses, NATO expansionism or whatever, the fact is Russia, led by a dictator, invaded the Ukraine led by a democratically elected president (quibble about that but it’s a fact) . Putin complains about weapons from the US and other countries being used against Russia but I see no equivalence about him using weaponry from China and Iran to wreak havoc on the Ukraine and it’s people. I...
Richard Creswick from Northern territory
In response to: The reckless brinkmanship with Russia keeps on escalating
Religion and the Census
June 14, 2024
Paul Collins, the problem with your position is that the ABS HAS BEEN LISTENING to people of faith for far too long. Given that in all statistical probability there are closer to 50% of 'non faith people' rather than the reported 39%, it seems very reasonable to me that we try to get this accurate. So much feather bedding for 'people of faith', exemplified by Scott Morrison, goes on that it is about time we tried to demonstrate its irrelevance to modern Aust society.
Max Bourke AM from Campbell, ACT
In response to: Religion and the census
Labor's climate failures
June 14, 2024
Ketan Joshi concludes that over the past two years Australia’s total emissions have all but stopped falling and we won’t reach zero emissions until 2207 (“Environment: Government delivers climate rhetoric but not emissions reductions” Pearls and Irritations, 2/6). As climate impacts swirl around us, this is a shameful truth and bitter pill for future generations. Like many, I had hoped that the 2022 change of government would result in policy that would actually shift the pollution dial. But since native forest logging continues, environmental law reform has been deferred, coal mine expansions are still being approved, and Labor announced...
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: Environment: Government delivers climate rhetoric but not emissions reductions
Political hypocracy
June 14, 2024
So, those United States Study Centres are pushing political policy support for AUKUS, amongst others past, present and future, I'm sure. And crickets from those who object to interference in our political system. But, if it was a similar event from a Confucius Institute or other Chinese bodies supported by the United Front Work Dept, the media would be all over it, shouting from the roof tops. I don't want to see ANY political interference by any nation, but the hypocracy shown here is just appalling. AUKUS needs to be killed off as any manned sub, in...
Leigh Bunting from Adelaide
In response to: Serious concerns about the AUKUS submarine deal are not going away
Critical thought - Culturally Determined Mediation
June 14, 2024
The deep complexity of the considerable issues facing the Human Species over the coming years, will not be solved by thinking that adheres to the confines of 'acceptable' - culturally determined mediations. Characterizations of 'independence', that appear on the surface to sit outside of them, included. The Author of this article, the Authors linked within it, and P&I as a publication, are yet to cross this Rubicon.
Andrew Stretton from Tasmania
In response to: Raising the Bar
Can the Albanese Govt be trusted with Australia?
June 14, 2024
Since the loss of the 2019 Election the Labor party has been shell shocked , a rabbit caught in the head lights . It has been dealing with the mess left behind by the ONE minister Morrison Govt, unable to even get the Dutton chickens (refugees and immigration) home to roost. Albanese should have in his victory speach announced a review of the Public Service and of the AuKuSA submarine deal as the beginning of his bold agenda to fix the Morrison mess . Instead he has been wasting time and energy ensuring the Morrison/ Dutton mud doesnt...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SĄ
In response to: Can Scott Morrison be trusted in America?
Finally, the facts on Chinese growth
June 14, 2024
Congratulations Michael Keating on the brilliant article laying out the facts about Chinese growth and strategic development over the past 40 years. I began seeing with my own eyes 15 years ago the rate at which China was rapidly going green while the west was mostly in denial. Julia Gillard was right - this will be the Asian century - and hopefully we can still tag along. Neil O'Keefe
NEIL O'KEEFE from HEATHCOTE VIC 3523
In response to: Clutching at straws: America will not maintain its economic dominance
Dangers of Neutrality
June 14, 2024
Those politicians who may be inclined towards Australian neutrality pursue that inclination at the risk of their careers or worse as the experiences of Gough Whitlam and Imran Khan prove. https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/the-us-toppling-of-imran-khan/
John Curr from Brisbane
In response to: Neutrality would keep us out of a U.S. – China war
Doomsday clock
June 14, 2024
I was surprised at how much the doomsday clock had varied since 1947. The Sachs article gives the US presidential timeline but not the Russian or Chinese equivalents. So much depends on leaders. I wonder if as well as the UN building in NY there was an equivalent United People's building across the road how different the years since 1947 would have been. Are the ICC and the ICJ the beginnings of people power as opposed to leaders' power?
Gary Barnes from mosman nsw
In response to: Presidents who gamble with nuclear Armageddon
We must recover the common good
June 14, 2024
In the minds of those concerned for the salvation of life on earth the focus has been on securing an urgent transition from fossil fuel energy to renewable energy. This is certainly critical. Our government is supporting this transition, for good immediate reason, as a great commercial opportunity. Geoff Davies has identified that the energy transition alone will be insufficient to achieve a truly sustainable society. The other, at least as important, is to make the transition back from our market-based, neo-liberalism enhanced society to the more socially cohesive and caring society which reclaims the commons, and prioritises the...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Death machine: striking at the heart of the planetary problem
A spade is a spade, (unless it's Israeli . . )
June 14, 2024
The analogy Gillian Cowlishaw makes with domestic violence’s insidious control mechanisms is a perfect analogy for the truth manipulation that Israel has quietly been building and cementing into political structures worldwide over decades. The real victim, Palestine is repeatedly over-written by well-funded and loud false narratives. Australian Zionists, under the umbrella of the Jewish faith have been allowed to heckle and harass any truth tellers with information from that beautiful, ancient country of Palestine, by dismissing the teller and insisting that they alone control the story and the Jewish people must always be seen as the victims. Appallingly the...
Glenda Jones from Carlton
In response to: Coercive control — by country
Brave voices should be applauded
June 14, 2024
The Jewish Council of Australia is to be commended and applauded for their brave and principled stance on the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank. Israel's far-right national government insults our intelligence and compassion by continually seeking to dilute their murderous actions by calling them 'unintended' or 'a tragic mistake', or that such outrages are 'under review'. The Jewish Council of Australia quite rightly, and unequivocally, calls for Australia to hold Israel to account in the same way that Russia and some of its citizens are held responsible for the illegal invasion of Ukraine....
Robert Harwood from West Hobart
In response to: Rafah massacre demonstrates urgent need to cut ties and sanction Israel
Biden’s bombs burn babies
June 14, 2024
Biden’s bombs burn babies. There have been further murders by Israel in the day since. But so far, the reaction from the US and Australia and the world is not “enough is enough” as it was when Kim Phuc ran down a Vietnamese street with her back covered in flaming napalm. Buddhist monk Thich Tri Qang self-immolated to try to stop the Vietnam War, and US serviceman Aaron Bushnell has done the same this year over Gaza. Yet as of today Antony Blinken is still telling us that the “red line” for decisive US intervention hasn’t been crossed....
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: American-Israeli bombs incinerate women and children in Gaza’s ‘safe zone’
We need leaders who rise to the climate challenge
June 14, 2024
‘Lifestyle’ has been the major gain for the great majority of people since 1945. This has led the rampant consumerism which has us ‘using more resources than the world has to offer’. It is the political risk of compromising this lifestyle that prevents populist democratic governments from reining in our changing climate. This inability threatens to destroy the world which has evolved over the past sixty million years; this is the world we are leaving to our children and grandchildren. Violet Coco is intelligent, informed, passionate and provocative. She sees the critical state of our climate and environment, and...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Full spectrum resistance: we need militant teams who are willing to destroy the death machine
Bias in the Letters pages
June 14, 2024
... the denying of Israel’s Gazan starvation strategy (a longstanding affair) may have been too much for the normally acquiescent letters editors to bear. I wrote letters to The Age from 1999 until 10 May, 2024, and agree 100% with author Evan Jones's comment. It was extremely difficult to get any letter published that refuted outright errors of fact previously published in the letters pages on the Voice to Parliament, or that expressed alternative views on China, defence or Gaza. I still don't know why the anti-Voice brigade got such a free run. But for the rest, if you're...
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn, VIC
In response to: The AIJAC propaganda machine
Daniel Duggan
June 14, 2024
Thank you to Mary Kostakidis for spelling out some of the injustice being inflicted on Dan Duggan and his family. With the name Dreyfus there is a cruel irony that the federal Attorney General seems unwilling to put a stop to the inhumane treatment. Yours sincerely, Bill Holley
William Holley from Mayfield NSW
In response to: Living in fear: Can Australia protect its citizens from our dangerous American a
We cannot leave transition to our children
June 14, 2024
Andrew Glikson highlights once again how humanity is facing an existential crisis as our environment decays. Too many are either ignoring these imminent threats or denying the need for substantial, uncomfortable actions to prevent them. These attitudes are likely rooted in the comforting words from successive governments – either that climate science is ‘crap’ and must be ignored, or that they accept the science and have the issues in hand so don’t worry. But actions are not being taken fast enough. The Climate Change Minister seems to be making some progress, but his colleague in the Environment Ministry...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: Tracking toward a greenhouse atmosphere and acid oceans
Biden Administration Stands Self-Indicted
May 29, 2024
There can be no more definite proof that for the USA, any claim of upholding 'the International Rule of Law' is utterly and shamelessly a complete and arrogant falsehood than the recent responses to the Gaza situation. Within a few hours of the ICJ announcing a decision to determine the legality - or otherwise - of the actions of the leaders of the Israeli government in the context of war crimes and genocide, Joe Biden frothed his opposition, calling it 'outrageous'. Eminent international justices trenchantly disagree, and the international community increasingly protests strongly the Israeli government/military matrix genocide being...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: Horrendous images of burnt children after Israel bombs Rafah refugee camp
The degree of obedience of a soldier
May 24, 2024
Thank you for the article. Inevitably there would be a confrontation between the legal system, the tenants of mission command and the degree of obedience required of a soldier in a democracy. As you pointed out the Nuremburg Trials rejected slavish obedience to orders as the reason for behaviours and actions. For the Germans each soldier is now obliged, continuously, to reassess their decisions, behaviour and actions on the constitutionality, legality and morality of their mission or task. A soldier does so to avoid the abuses of human rights that have been repugnant features of the past. They...
Thomas Basan from Canberra
In response to: Justice miscarried: The unanswered questions of the McBride verdict
The role of the Greens
May 24, 2024
In their excellent podcast, Allan Patience and Joe Camilleri paint a bleak picture of the state of Australian politics. Rightly, they bemoan the inability of the second-rate politicians within the two major parties to address the ravages of forty years of neoliberalism, and respond to the challenges of climate catastrophe and social inequality. Rightly, they recognise that the machinery of government is controlled by powerful corporate and security interests. Yet they mention the Greens and Independents only cursorily, to dismiss their possible roles and never return to them. I cannot understand this. Patience and Camilleri want people with ideas,...
Richard Barnes from Canterbury, Victoria
In response to: The bleak picture of Australian politics: this is how we change
Dien Bien Phu and Vietnam war protests
May 24, 2024
The excellent article re the Viet Minh victory at Dien Bien Phu, is illuminative. Those who would seek more information are recommended to read Lucien Bodard's 'The Quicksand War'. Of great import is the information that it was an American military officer who drove Ho Chi Minh into Hanoi, in an American Jeep, proclaiming through a bullhorn 'Here is your new leader' ( paraphrased.) Bodard chronicles the vast corruption serial south Vietnamese governments, supported by - guess who - the USA. Just as today we see the USA flagrantly ignoring any semblance of the 'International Rule of Order'...
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: Ðiên Biên Phú at 70: The best journalists report from “the other side”
Finally, facts against the almighty Hasbara b.s.
May 24, 2024
It was very heartening to read Evan Jones' brave article, pushing back against the overwhelming media deluge by the pro-Israel community. The propaganda (Hasbara) that they spew out is extremely well-funded and quite ruthless. AIJAC’s decades-long pronouncements highlight that its personnel dwell in a parallel universe. It is a record of high-class charlatanry. How can AIJAC personnel, all well-educated, construct a fabulous version of a subject on which they devote their waking hours? The media has been generally happy to oblige AIJAC’s threadbare homilies. A commentator with the experience and intellect of Evan Jones reveals the shallowness...
Glenda Jones from Carlton, 3053 Victoria
In response to: The AIJAC propaganda machine
It's just the budget to win the next election
May 24, 2024
More members of the Coalition are likely to be replaced by 'teals' at the next Federal Election because the Coalition is largely irrelevant. Labor just needs to stay in office, hence the budget that just tinkered but did not make big changes. They did commit to building more housing which is good news. Murdoch's News Limited is being brought down to size. In the UK's investigators have found that the News of the World's illegal behaviour was much more than they initially realised, and more people are going to be held accountable, which will damage them further. This...
Louise O'Brien from Wollstonecraft
In response to: Jim Chalmers’ 2024 budget ignores that humans are social beings
The US has lost key states
May 24, 2024
Thanks to Israel's genocide in Gaza, the Saudis are not doing a normalisation agreement with Israel. The US tried to do a Plan B with the Saudis, which was an AUKUS type deal, but they have also walked away from that as well. This is of major strategic importance. The Saudis have signed up with the BRICS. Looks like India is refusing to sign an AUKUS deal as well. They currently buy around half of their military weapons from Russia and are refusing to change on this. Being a 'QUAD' member is largely meaningless. The US Petrodollars...
Louise O'Brien from Wollstonecraft
In response to: America's geopolitical position
Peacekeeping force for Gaza
May 24, 2024
Blinne Ni Ghralaigh’s plea for more action by the ICJ is backed by a current call from the 22 state Arab League for a multilateral peacekeeping force in Gaza. As Algeria is a member of both the League and the Security Council, it is to be hoped that Algeria’s Foreign Minister, Ahmad Attah, proposes setting up such a force by the Council. Our Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, should encourage him to do so urgently.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: As 700,000 civilians flee Rafah, our shared humanity compels the indication of further ICJ provisional measures
Gaza genocide
May 24, 2024
Thank you for telling the true, whole (for this period of our lives) story. I have heard/read snippets of these but not the concise whole. I did not know about Marwan Barghouti (for me more to learn). In connection to his story, John, mentioned Nelson Mandela. I would put the very sad story of Navalny here too.
Judith Gamper from Kambah ACT 2902
In response to: Gaza genocide protests by students shame the elites in the Westen world
We must break the power of lobbying and donations
May 17, 2024
The fossil fuel industry will never cooperate to bring about their own demise. Rather they seek to prolong and maximise their fossil fuel production, disregarding the ever-more-apparent risks that their emissions are producing. They cloak the need for emissions reduction in the panacea of carbon capture and storage – a technology with limited application and little proven success. The IPCC made clear, in its final report, that no new fossil fuel projects can be authorised. This decree, in Australia, seems to have energised the industry to push for authorisation of major new gas projects. The Future Gas Strategy is...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic
In response to: Labor’s Future Gas Strategy: The greatest capitulation of any Australian gover
Pushers of war for corporate gain
May 17, 2024
While always showing us corporations who benefit from the spoils and even threat of war, why not expose the real pushers of war for corporate gain…..the weapons industries. Oil gains feature but without weapons industries having war, where would they get profits for jobs and shareholder gains? It seems the reliance on weapons production is too big to ever let it stop. USA UK produces and sells weapons far more than any other nation, and it’s hard to sell a product without a user, it seems the producer has needs met by ‘whatever it takes”. It’s not really...
Julie Hunt from Alstonville Plateau, NSW 2477
In response to: corporatocracy
The US hegemon
May 17, 2024
I absolutely agree with this article, however it is anethema to politicians of all colours and most of the populace because of their perceived need to hold hands with someone stronger, as it was with the UK at one time. It is sad that most think we need someone to 'have our back' when there has been no guarantees of that - ever. It is only the self interest of hegemons that gives the impression of 'support'. To be independent of hegemony would show other countries that we are confident of our place in the world and will...
Leigh Bunting from Adelaide
In response to: Three compelling reasons to exit ANZUS
Betrayal X 2
May 17, 2024
Labor has betrayed us on both climate and AUKUS/Defence. Send in more Teals to act on the former and please Teals act on the latter. As it currently stands, as climate catastrophe races towards us and we prepare for war as a puppet of the US, we are doomed without immediate action.
Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn
In response to: Future Gas Strategy is a betrayal of promised Climate and Environmental Policies
We should all support an Earth Systems Treaty
May 17, 2024
I first read about Julian Cribb's climate book How to Fix a Broken Planet- Advice for Surviving the 21st Century (2023) last year in P&I (July 22/2023). I was most impressed by how comprehensive it is. To solve the main threats to our world, it proposes ten globally agreed and legal solutions, the Earth System Treaty (EST), on which all UN countries should take action. The first action is to ban nuclear weapons. Cribb seemed ecstatic as he wished it well, It is a milestone to our becoming one people on one planet. So it is disappointing to read...
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: To avoid human population collapse, We must transform Society
Yes, Minister. Listen to the kids
May 17, 2024
And now - it's back to the NT. A Labor government here is trying to pee higher than the CLP pretenders. 'Tough Love', More police, More prisons. And the next step for these retributive recidivists? Reintroduce mandatory sentencing?? The only thing that stops these kiddies' power games is that someone in their circle of friends and family is caught in the Act and sentenced mandatorily. The new police minister here wants all homeless people herded up and dumped in the bush. But then again, he's helping clear the bush so ... It's all sounding gaza-ish, isn't it?
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: No, Minister. It's you who should be in court
“Future Made in Australia"
May 17, 2024
The horrible thing about Albo's Future Made in Australia is the complete lack of imagination in lifting it from Biden's 2021 “Future Made in America”. Why are Australian governments so secondhand and second-rate?
Paul Andrew from Adelaide
In response to: Accepting reality: the future will not be made in Australia
A valuable contribution
May 17, 2024
Thank you. Thank you.
Patrick Widows from Margate. Tasmania
In response to: Negativity and the Budget. Philip Huggins
Cognitive dissonance over climate catastrophe
May 17, 2024
A Guardian survey of hundreds of top climate scientists indicates only six percent think the 1.5C goal is achievable. Nearly eighty percent warn of dire consequences, a “semi-dystopian” future of wider famine, mass migration and conflict driven by dwindling basic resources. An agreement signed last year between Tuvalu and Australia was a world-first bilateral agreement on “climate mobility” (The Conversation, 11/11). Australia has, commendably, created migration pathways for people from Tuvalu who face the existential threat of rising sea levels. Yet in the context of the Federal government’s gas strategy announcement, our commitments to the Pacific nations are sounding...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: 77% of top Climate Scientists think 2.5°C of warming is coming – and they’re horrified
Ceasefire guarantee or red line of blood?
May 17, 2024
The text of the Gaza ceasefire agreement published on Al Jazeera says that the US, Egypt and Qatar are the guarantors. Hamas has accepted it. So it is time the guarantors stepped up to the plate and took active steps to stop the continuing small mass murders and the Majdanek-inspired “900 calories per day keeps people quiet” approach of the Ben-Gvir Smotrich real government of Israel. The Biden red line, which is not a red line according to Blinken, is nothing but a trail of blood running across the sea from Gaza to Washington.
Geoff Taylor from Riverton
In response to: Israel’s willing executioners
Hope now rests on very thin ice
May 10, 2024
77% of IPCC climate lead scientists, as reported by the Guardian this week, see that we will, almost inevitably, be facing catastrophic global temperature rise within the foreseeable future. This news, together with the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group’s newly-published report “Too Hot To Handle”, underscores Adrian Glikson’s despairing preview of humanity’s seemingly inevitable demise in the Earth’s forecast sixth mass extinction. Thirty years ago we had the information that we needed, as a species, to recognise, accept, and overcome this threat. Regretfully governments, with fossil fuel industry encouragement, opted instead to focus on other pressing issues that allowed...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills , Vic
In response to: The Orwellian rules-based climate
EEZ rules
May 10, 2024
I was enlightened by this article as to the rules for entering an EEZ. The question begs as to why HMAS Hobart was in that particular area (enforcing sanctions on DPRK sounds a bit thin), so what were their orders and on whose authority. If the orders came from the UN, then China's reaction is overblown. If we are lapdogs to US orders then that is different. I can understand that the EEZ borders in the Yellow Sea are tight but maybe there are other factors at work such as the Chinese/DPRK at-sea goods transfers are being hindered...
Leigh Bunting from Adelaide
In response to: China dropped a flare near an Aussie copter in its EEZ. What’s wrong with that?
Blinken and the mote and beam
May 10, 2024
As the Chinese saying goes; for every finger the US points outward, three fingers point inward. This parallels the biblical story of seeing the mote in your neighbour’s eye but not the beam in your own. Which is very much the case with Anthony Blinken’s latest claim that Hamas is holding up a ceasefire in Gaza. The reality is that it has been possible since the early stages of this conflict for Joe Biden to bring it to a halt, with diplomatic, military and financial pressure. He didn’t, and the deaths of over 30,000 Palestinians lie squarely on him, as...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: The State Department report on human rights
The US empires' Days are numbered
May 10, 2024
The US Government now spends more on interests payments to service it debt than on defence, which is the tipping point when an empire is finished. Every year the US Government continues to spend well beyond its means. Thanks to US sanctions, where over 50 percent of the world's population is living under some type of sanction, much of the world is moving away from using the US dollars and TWIFT for trade. Together the euro and yuan have the ability to replace the US dollar, and many countries are trading in their own currencies. In the near future...
Louise O'Brien from Wollstonecraft
In response to: Australias-national-defence-strategy-where-ideology-trump
Australia's American lenses
May 10, 2024
ABC Nightlife between Phil Clark and Michael Pascoe mid-week discussed the 'nest of spies' reported in 2021 by ASIO DG Mike Burgess, who is happy to cast shade on China and Russia, but which was reported this week via the Washington Post to have been from India. The MSM seems to have made virtually nothing of it with government and opposition spokespeople quoted on the good relationship Australia has with the world's biggest democracy and defence partner India - everyone has moved on. But imagine the response if the spy ring turned out to have been from China. As Pascoe...
Ka Ma from Australia
In response to: Our Biggest China Lie
Avani Dias and The Australian
May 3, 2024
Sam Varghese makes a cogent argument for exposing News Corps' white blindfold approach to journalism. I'd suggest the fact that she's a woman would also be a factor. And then there's the potential for The Australian (or any of the other rags that News Corp - I hesitate to say - publishes) to aggravate Modi and News Corps' potential for making any money there. Nothing like ethical standards.
Erik Hoekstra from Leura
In response to: If Avani Dias had been white, would Murdoch media have ignored her India ban?
Lest we forget -- Who should we commemorate?
May 3, 2024
What should we commemorate? The quest for peace in our lifetime. Those who champion alternatives to war. The right to want the commemoration of war money to go into mental health services, which are desperately needed due to, in part, the continuation of war at all costs. Those who champion the rights of children, especially those on the fringes, the victims of war, and First Peoples. Those who stand up for the countless women tortured daily, and all too many killed by those who know them. We should commemorate the women who stood up and aired the need for...
Jessica Perini from Everleigh
In response to: ‘Impactful projection’, 1915 style: Lest we forget Anzac Cove
Lest we forget -- beyond ANZAC
May 3, 2024
6 am and I can hear them gathering. Every year since COVID began, our neighbours have insisted on an ANZAC Day service in our street. The bugles blare at the rising of the sun. New Zealand and Australian anthems are sung. “For those who’ve come across the seas ...” And I turn over in my bed and rage. My adopted grandpa, he was one of them. I do not denigrate his years of service. Nor the beliefs he held. It is the sanctification of the period that irks me to the core. This act has been made saintly. An...
Jessica Perini from Everleigh
In response to: ‘Impactful projection’, 1915 style: Lest we forget Anzac Cove
Terrorism: let’s call it out
May 3, 2024
Terrorism: “the use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims”. Enculturated from birth into a patriarchal system, most see gender politics as simply ‘how it is’ or may not perceive it at all. While many instances of violence against women are instances of controlling behaviour, it does not require women to act in any particular way in order for that violence to occur. It is in some respects an invisible threat which nevertheless has the effect of causing women - and some men - to at least be ever-mindful of their behaviour in...
Fiona Colin from Melbourne
In response to: Why is violence against Australian women not rated as terrorism
Every morning I wake early, Gaza is my first thought
May 3, 2024
Every morning I wake early, Gaza is my first thought. I am not alone, I’d wager many of our deadbeat politicians, if they could be honest and they can’t-evidently, also wake early thinking of Gaza. Thank you for publishing this piece-it’s perfect and I am weeping. Our corrupt media is entirely complicit-it is utterly shameful.
Link from Wiradjuri
In response to: Weeping for Gaza
Future Made In Australia (Michael Keating article)
May 3, 2024
Like so many democracies, Australia is struggling with the “Guns, Butter, Future Growth” dilemma, as Paul Kennedy wrote in “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers”, back in 1998. Part of the reason for that struggle is that the importance of “Pure science” is often not recognized, as Janeway wrote in “Capitalism in the age of Innovation”. Australia has reduced its spending on pure science, even medical science, as part of its response to the lower taxes, currently at 27% of GDP, way below most developed countries except USA (24%). Now our exports of Iron Ore, coal,...
Noel Thommpson from Sydney, NSW, 2066
In response to: A Future Made In Australia:Can it work and what are the risks
In a parallel universe
May 3, 2024
According to some physicists there exists a multitude of parallel universes. In one of these: * Palestine is recognised, but Israel is not, because ‘there was yet to be a negotiated agreement’ including, i.a., a finalised border for Israel; * Armed Israeli groups such as the IDF and settler groups were designated as terror organisations because of their attacks on citizens in the West Bank; * The Israel governing body was not recognised because many of its members were opposed to a two-state solution and supported violence to achieve their goals. * Israelis were being evicted from their land,...
Brian Bycroft from Evans Head NSW
In response to: Australia’s recognition of the State of Palestine an overdue move
US Demands China stop Supplying Russia in Ukraine
May 3, 2024
“US Secretary of state visits China and demands the Chinese stop supplying Russia arms for their war in the Ukraine” as reported on SBS world news . I wonder how it would be reported If the Chinese Secretary of state went to the USA and demanded that the US stop supply Israel weapons for use in the Palestine genocide - I wonder how the US would react?
Bob Pearce from Adelaide SA
In response to: War on Gaza a cruel month of massacres
An eminence grise in his own lunchtime
May 3, 2024
Finally got to view the Sarah Ferguson / Mike Pezullo interview. Jack Waterford treated Pezullo more kindly than he deserves; it is really very hard to see Pezullo as any more than a Dodgy Brothers plastic statuette of Arthur Tange. Kissinger redux he might think of himself but he's only about $0.30 in the $ there.
Richard Llewellyn from Colo Vale NSW
In response to: The Anti-China War Book: Pezzullo hears the call again
Measures That Matter, Matter
May 3, 2024
Our politics seem still dominated by short-term thinking – the result of our short federal election cycle. Chelsea Hunnicutt’s call to remind the Treasurer about his promised Measures That Matter is welcome. Short-term policy to provide short-term benefits is really just a more sophisticated form of pork barrelling. This Labor government needs to raise its vision above the daily fray, to demonstrate that it has some vision of the world that lies well beyond the next election. We have a moral responsibility to provide a secure world for future generations. The great majority of voters have a vested interest...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC
In response to: As we approach the Federal budget, whatever happened to ‘Measuring What Matters’
Israel's historical mythology and Arab Jews
May 3, 2024
Dear Jeff Kildea I agree wholly with the gist and thrust of your article. However, I must take you up on an aspect of Israel's historical Mythology - namely that the Arab Jews were 'kicked out' of the lands they had lived in for several generations - the largest population of Jews in the world in ad 750 lived in Iran, and in 1948 there were 150,000 in Tehran alone. There are still over 8000 living there. The gist of my proof comes from Israelis I have known - one, Ed Marcus, who along with his brother...
dieter barkhoff from Box Hill North
In response to: The Belfast Good Friday Agreement – a model for Palestine?
Corals warn humanity to speed energy transition
May 3, 2024
I am very much afraid that climate expert Julian Cribb is correct that the world's corals are in deep trouble due to fossil fuel emissions bleaching them; so in effect they are warning us: The corals are telling us our time on Earth may well be up, if we do not heed the warnings they provide. That is, are humans intelligent enough to survive... or not? (Coral catastrophe signals our own undoing, P&I, Apr 19, 2024). Why on Earth can't all fossil fuel companies simply accord with the very critical climate science and reform fast to making their profits...
Barbara Fraser from Burwood, Vic
In response to: Coral catastrophe signals our own undoing
Cautious Terrorism
May 3, 2024
Gareth Evans writes of Australia being 'the latest of formerly cautious countries' now wanting statehood for Palestine. 'Cautious' is not the word I would use for the shameful conduct of Australia in condoning genocide by the Israeli government and IDF top brass. Australia supports state-sanctioned terrorism by supplying ADF personnel and war machines and parts to help Israel murder yet more Gazan women and children. It's hard for me to condemn Hamas for defending Gazan rights for oppressed people while our 'cautious' politicians bury their heads in the sand to not see or hear the cries of...
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: The Urgency of Palestinian Statehood
SEZs are the answer
May 3, 2024
While the above article uses the Korean model of industrial development, the elephant on the page is China which is by far the most relevant and current example of how industrial development can happen successfully led by Government. Ironically, the To Boldly Go article features the Australian proposed legislation “Future Made in Australia” which more resembles Made in China 2025 than Korean. Special Economic Zones can be owned and controlled by Government where Australian private enterprises (not foreign multinationals) can manufacture exclusively for export thereby not distorting the domestic market . As such each SEZ can specialise and...
Brian Lynch from Brisbane
In response to: ‘To Boldly Go’—but not so far as to replace the private sector