Letters to the Editor
Ali Kazak has exposed the ugly history of Zionism
November 3, 2023
Originally the establishing of Israel was just a Zionist land grab, and the separation of states by distant powers a result of a racist disdain for the Arab culture. But it's now more sinister because the stakes are much higher. Obviously ethnic cleansing is the way forward for an oil-hungry US and Israel. So, thanks to the complicity of ABC reporters and journalists and most western Governments, we are following the US/Zionist playbook in order to effect a genocide. How can people like Sarah Ferguson be gullible and brutish enough to demonise the Palestinians? For heaven's...
Gladys Jones from Carlton 3053
In response to: An open letter to ABC Managing Director David Ande
Crematorium Threatens Endangered Habitat
November 3, 2023
Peter Sainsbury notes that the second pillar of the World Resources Institute requires that we protect remaining natural and semi-natural ecosystems from conversion and degradation. All conversion and degradation of forests, grasslands and forests should stop by 2030 at the latest. Yet ACT Planning has given the provisional go-ahead for an unneeded, destructive crematorium complex on the boundary of the Callum Brae Nature Reserve that will destroy critically endangered trees as well as threaten an important wildlife corridor and biodiversity including the swift parrot and the Small Ant-blue Butterfly. Friends of Callum Brae Nature Reserve, a community group,...
Pamela Collett from Canberra ACT
In response to: If Green Growth is the Answer, Humanity needs a new question
Call Them By Their Names
November 1, 2023
Writer Jessie Boylan has stuck a chord that stays irrevocably in the mind. 8306 Palestinian deaths so far. Deaths that used to be 8306 lives. People. Men, women and many, many children who had names and families and hopes and dreams. By quoting them as numbers, without names or faces they become statistics of war. Collateral damage, that will just crumble in the dust. And the silence of our leaders is deafening. I am numb.
Sandra Ramini from Fremantle
In response to: We are the Silence: How words bear witness in life and in death
When reporting wars, the mass media cannot help themselves
November 1, 2023
Conservative Australian politicians have a debilitating pre-occupation with the ‘objectivity’ of the ABC. Needless to say, what they really cannot stand is when the simple truth about their policy stances produces its own criticism. Far from being pro-left however the ABC is overly cautious not to offend the right. Such caution is particularly evident at times of war. In 1991, the outcry over the ABC’s reporting of the first Gulf War was such that the Backchat program ran a special edition to help clear the air. The options were that the ABC was reporting objectively or that it was...
Tony Smith from Australia
In response to: Objectivity serves the powerful, and silences the oppressed
The war is just beginning
November 1, 2023
Julian Cribb has pulled together several disturbing scientific reports on climate. They should have the world on a war footing but other wars have taken prominence. In 2022 annual global mlitary spending reached US$2.2 trillion. And according to Cribb, US$1 trillion per annum is also spent on government subsidies to fossil fuel companies. Furthermore, McKinsey claims the world needs to spend another US$3.5 billion per annum on emissions reduction to achieve net zero by 2050. The spending deficit could be achieved by diverting the military spending and the subsidies to emissions reduction. But are we smart enough...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Hallucinatory world: Governments blind as catastrophes besiege civilisation
A Comment on Tim and Simon’s Twist
October 31, 2023
Since reading the 2017 Indonesian law on elections I have wondered when there would be a challenge to its provision that prevented anyone under the age of 40 to stand for election for President or Vice President. And the outcome of the fourth challenge to the Constitutional Court mentioned by Tim Lindsey and Simon Butt is not so outstanding, except in the way that the decision was made. I am glad to see Tim Lindsey and Simon Butt acknowledging the integrity of Justice Sadli Isra. It will not bode well if his honest and open statement in his dissenting...
Owen Podger from Australia
In response to: A twist in Indonesia’s presidential election does not bode well for the country
Two peoples, an equal claim to self determination and sovereignty
October 31, 2023
Unlike some of the contributing writers to Pearls and Irritations on the Israel/Palestine conflict in general and the current situation of the Hamas attack and the Israeli retaliation in particular, I find Peter Roger's article Netanyahu's War presents some realistic and evenhanded analysis of some negative aspects of Israeli and Hamas policies and the possible worst outcomes for both the long suffering Gazan victims and also the many Israeli victims. I believe all the pleading and threats by the international agencies, and by hawks and doves from both sides who live outside the disputed land will not...
Michael Dorembus from Malvern East
In response to: Netanyahu's War
Finally the uncensored truth. . .
October 31, 2023
If you paint your enemy as depraved and not even fit to live, then you will be supported in 'cleaning them up'. The systematic degradation of the Palestinian population has been brilliantly 'stage-managed' by the Zionist state. They have described the Arab peoples as animals and not fit to govern themselves. The Palestinians have endured this barrage of insults and oppression and restrictions over decades and even been branded as 'not fit to live'. And now, the western press has the audacity to question their pain. . . and that surely makes them complicit in this contemporary genocide.
Glenda Jones from Carlton
In response to: How can you sleep at night Anthony?
The UNSC must act now on Israel's invasion of Palestine
October 27, 2023
The UN Security Council may, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, determine the existence of a threat to the peace and to decide what measures shall be taken to maintain or restore international peace and security. In recent days, we have been informed that cruise missiles and drones were launched from Yemen in the direction of Israel but were shot down by the US Navy and that Israeli warplanes have struck targets inside Syria after rockets were launched towards northern Israel. Meanwhile 7,000 people, about a third of whom were children, are said to have been killed...
James Schofield from Aylesbury
In response to: The outside world must walk Israel back from the abyss. It cannot be part of the choir of incitement
We all need a mirror
October 27, 2023
Ali Kazak says… If Western countries are concerned for peace in the Middle East, then all they have to do is to make Israel accountable, recognise Palestinian people’s inalienable right to return to their homeland, to be equal with Jews and exercise their self-determination. I then add “And apologise!!” Now you have described our First Nations peoples' plight. How did the Voice fail, and Australians not see this? We all need a mirror.
David Farrands from Melbourne
In response to: Blindly supporting Israel
The No vote was racist
October 27, 2023
I would like to take issue with what Fr Frank has stated in his article about the Voice. The statement that The NO vote is not indicative of a racist or stupid nation is factually incorrect. For the past 8 weeks or so, Door knocking, Letterboxing and standing at Pre-polling booths in the Port Stephens electorate it is of general consensus from all who stood beside me that a majority of voters in general were either from mildly angry to those who were objectively hostile. We received threats of violence, intimidation by big burly tradies towards a...
PETER DOWLING from RAYMOND TERRACE
In response to: Frank Brennan: Rejected by the people who dispossessed and colonised them
Australia is selfish and lacks empathy. Ignorant too!
October 27, 2023
As reported in The Conversation recently, the research, practice and teaching of Australian history is in a parlous state, and getting worse. The 2nd last paragraph 'Why is this a problem?' is highly germane to Anderson's argument, but the whole article partly explains why much of Australia is ignorant of it's history, and is getting worse. Ignorance is probably another reason that the lies and misinformation disseminated by 'No' proponents apparently were believed and acted upon by many when voting. Better historical awareness should have made the 'If you don't know, vote No' slogan laughable, as it was...
Karen Sydow from Ballarat, Vic
In response to: Australia has shown itself to be a selfish nation that lacks empathy
Nuclear waste and our oceans
October 27, 2023
Thanks to Peter Sainsbury for another excellent piece “Environment: Oceans to the rescue: 7 watery ways to reduce greenhouse emissions” (22/10). Given the latest push from the Coalition to introduce nuclear power in Australia, nuclear waste could be added to the list of toxins polluting our oceans. “The first operations involving sea disposal of radioactive wastes took place in 1946 in the Northeast Pacific, about 80 km off the coast of California. During the 48-year history of sea disposal, 13 countries have disposed of approximately 140 PBq (140 x 1015 Bq) of radioactive wastes into the oceans” (International Atomic...
Fiona Colin from Malvern East
In response to: Environment: Oceans to the rescue: 7 watery ways to reduce greenhouse emissions
Smoke and mirrors policies
October 27, 2023
Would the U.S. and others (such as Australia) who are not calling for an immediate ceasefire, end to blockades and a workable and sustainable two-state solution - effectively condoning the forthcoming (continuing) ethnic cleansing / expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza - be willing to accept the million or so displaced from northern Gaza or, indeed, all Gazans who could well eventually be annihilated or left to die? Given their effective support for Israel's desire to have Gaza, they should be willing to resettle all Gazans in their own countries.
Kam M from Canberra
In response to: Support the strong, suppress the weak
Blaming Judaism is beyond reasonable comment
October 20, 2023
In the P&I article by Paul Heywood-Smith of 20/10/2023 regarding the hospital bombing in Gaza, it is stated: I rather think that a more likely scenario is that a government which believes that it is entitled to steal another people´s land because that land was given to the Jewish people by God, might also be persuaded that God also authorised the occasional white lie if same would assist in the recovery of the land that God had earlier given. I don't have a problem with Israel being criticised, even when I believe it's over the top, but really,...
Harold Zwier from Elsternwick, Victoria
In response to: Western reporters’ shameful cover-up of Israel’s hospital massacre: A postscript
Biden's hospital atrocity pretence
October 20, 2023
Gaza Hospital. It is interesting to note that US President Biden was far from unequivocal in his remarks in Israel on the attach on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital. “Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” he told Netanyahu. Biden then added: “But there’s a lot of people out there not sure, so we’ve got a lot, we’ve got to overcome a lot of things.” Since the Hamas attack, a host of US spy satellites, drones and other means would have been on heightened alert, closely monitoring...
Paul Malone from Ocean Grove
In response to: Mass media reporters aren’t buying Israel’s hospital bombing story
BUT WHO CARES?
October 20, 2023
If the pen really is mightier than the sword, why are we still sickened to our stomachs by the western leaders' reaction to the wholesale genocide in Gaza? If articles like this, spelling out the savagery and wickedness of the Israeli attacks on a population, at least half of which, are children, are ignored by Mr Albanese and Ms Wong and their bosses in the USA what does that say about the people who purport to lead us? Reb Halabi couldn't be clearer in his condemnation of western world leadership, but who's listening? Who dares to speak out?
Sandra Ramini from Fremantle WA
In response to: HISTORY WHISPERS UNTIL IT SHOUTS
Triggers will slow planet wrecking
October 20, 2023
It was pleasing to read that, last year, investments in the global energy transition (US$1.1 trillion) equalled fossil fuel investments. However, as Peter Sainsbury explains, half of the transition investment was made by China and investment needs to “triple immediately” for the world to reach net zero emissions by 2050. While Sainsbury is justified in pointing out that Australia is one of twenty “planet wrecking” countries for its “aggressive exporting of CO2 pollution”, it’s important to differentiate Australians from their governments. Australia leads the world with residential rooftop solar and two Australians, Professor Andrew Blakers and Professor Martin...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: Environment: Australia labelled a ‘Planet Wrecker’
Australia's capacity to address global heating
October 20, 2023
Peter Sainsbury has again collated a useful update on the current climate trajectory (“Environment: On track for 2 degrees of warming within 20 years” 15/10). Sharing both the ExxonMobil and the Global Climate Tracker trajectories was certainly educational. While ExxonMobil, who famously withheld knowledge about global heating from the general public, 46 years on, still thinks they can continue business as usual by promoting pipe-dream delay tactic non-solutions like carbon capture and storage and biofuels, Climate Tracker puts the world’s continued addiction to fossil fuels on notice. Although conservatives constantly exclaim that addressing Australia’s mere 1.3 per cent of the...
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: Environment: On track for 2 degrees of warming within 20 years
There are no 'No' winners
October 20, 2023
When my friend in Aotearoa rang me to say how she despaired for Australia when the Voice was lost, I reminded her to keep her anger not her despair. What has the 'No' vote achieved? I stood in the 40 degree heat at the polling booth in my local rural area and was so, so proud of my fellow Voices from the Heart! The 'No' campaigners were represented by a majority of 'old white men' (as a 'yes' voter noted) and they were lost in settler resentment and lies about what the Voice would take from their rights to own...
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: Australian Politics has reached a dead end
The Korean War and Hollywood propaganda
October 20, 2023
This was only the first of the great US follies that we Australians have so slavishly followed in our frightened, isolated conservatism, leading us into the succession of catastrophies, for the countries and for our own young men, in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Is China to be the next catastrophy? Meg Hart is so very correct in her assertion that Hollywood has been a great propaganda machine, selling for mindless entertainment ('circuses') and obscene profit falsehoods about the 'goodies' (always handsome, overconfident and overbearing white males, with a thin sprinkling of exotic females for titillation) and the 'baddies', in...
Philip Keane from Geelong, Victoria
In response to: Meg Hart's 'Battle at Lake Changjin'
Captured by the fossil fuel industry
October 20, 2023
Peter Sainsbury’s research this week offers another valuable insight into the forces shaping how our climate is likely to evolve over coming decades. The Exxon-Mobil projections for 2050 demonstrate that this major fossil fuel producer sees sustained, substantial business growth between now and 2050. Climate Tracker confirm that the other major fossil fuel producers, and the countries - including Australia - that host their activities, are planning for that growth too. These revelations show that the fossil fuel industry is now completely confident that it is leading its host countries’ governments by the nose. They think they can continue...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: Environment: On track for 2 degrees of warming within 20 years
DeGrowth and Steady State - another ideology?
October 20, 2023
De-growth and steady state concepts occur to me as a flattening of the reality of planetary life. At an ecological and evolutionary and energy viewpoint there is no 'steady-state'. Things are either flourishing or dying, and when the ecology is at it's best, there is great redundancy in its flourishing that is invigorated in that which dies. And over time ecological systems alter by all sorts of 'external' inputs. The planet and 8 billion people must flourish to reach 'steady state'. This does not occur to me as de-growth. It does occur to me as an incredible transformation of...
Owen Allen from Atherton Qld
In response to: Planned degrowth is needed to stop the collapse of civilisation: Mark Diesendorf
Dutton has much to answer for
October 20, 2023
This weekend Australia determines whether we accept the request of our First Nations people for a Voice to parliament, or whether we put the country back “another 50 years” as Indigenous activist Gary Foley claims. Foley should know. He established the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and an Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern shortly after. Should the referendum be unsuccessful, it could well be the last one held. As Samantha Helps points out, the commonality to the challenges facing Australians is “sneaky, pathetic governance”. What could be more pathetic than Peter Dutton and the No case choosing...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: This land cries out in final warning
Trump's supposed misuse of sensitive information
October 8, 2023
It seems that the Australian media is assuming that American reports of Trump's supposed misuse of sensitive information applied to nuclear submarines to be supplied under AUKUS. These are Virginia attack class nuclear submarines that are not supposed to carry nuclear weapons. If they do, that would certainly be a big story. It would be a breach of the Treaty of Rarotonga, which we have signed and covers West Australia and the Fremantle submarine port. If Albanese agreed to let them carry nuclear warheads that would be in contradiction of everything he has said, including what he said at...
Brian Toohey from Australia
In response to: Trump allegedly shared potentially sensitive information about US nuclear subs with Australian billionaire
Why are we not there? Because Beijing won't give us visas
October 6, 2023
Hi Pearls and Irritations, I just read Bob Rogers’ lament on the lack of coverage of the Hangzhou Asian Games in Australian media. One can only ask oneself the thinking behind this total white wash? Bob wrote. Please pass on to Bob that one of the reasons it has not received much coverage, is that -- once again -- our requests for visas to report on it were not agreed to by the Chinese government. I tried for almost six months to get a visa. I wasn't allowed one. Frankly, I'm not surprised your contributors are unaware...
Will Glasgow from Australia
In response to: The biggest sporting event the West has never heard of
A CRY FROM THE HEART
September 29, 2023
Every time I read this great humanitarian I feel a twinge in my heart and spring in my spirit. He makes me believe that one day more Jews will find their moral compass and come to the conclusion that what they are doing to us, the Palestinians, in the name of their religion, is wrong and ask for forgiveness. Until the day that Jews around the world, push aside the shield of Antisemitism, raise their hands and say, 'Not In Our Name', Palestine, Israel, The Holy Land - call it what you wish, will never see peace. Thank you, Mr...
Jafar Ramini from Fremantle, Western Australia
In response to: WHEN WILL ISRAEL SEEK FORGIVENESS FOR ITS CRIMES AGAINST PALESTINIANS
The clear need for truth in political advertising
September 29, 2023
The classic cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. This, as Lucy Hamilton identifies, captures the heart of the No campaign. Subjecting us to a litany of misrepresentations and fabrications, this Trumpian campaign imagines so many potential costs that could arise from a Voice, and so few potential benefits. As Hamilton explains, we are being subjected to these distortions of the truth by people on the taxpayer’s payroll. We are paying to be wilfully misled. This is an absolute abuse of public money. In this age where Donald Trump has led many to doubt the trustworthiness of key...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, Vic 3127
In response to: The Voice reveals the urgent need for truth reforms
The echoes of assimilationism taught in our universities still haunt us
September 29, 2023
Many decades ago I was an honours student of anthropology at Sydney University. My thesis supervisor was W. R. ‘Bill’ Geddes. I was not fated to do outstandingly under him, but that’s another story. What haunts me now is his advocacy, not least in our one-on-one supervisory sessions in 1969, of assimilationism. It awakened no positive response in me - my family were of the left and always supported indigenous causes of another stripe. Was Geddes in some political relation to this idea or was it a peculiarity of his anthropology?
David Kelly from Sydney
In response to: Assimilation reemerges
Filling the hole - then what?
September 29, 2023
The article is an excellent contribution to filling the memory hole, as are so many of the P&I articles. But filling the hole is only the first step; the acquired knowledge has to be converted into action to be of any value. Besides voting for one of the largely identical political parties every three years or so, what am I supposed to do with the knowledge? How can I, as a citizen, make a personal and effective contribution to the political process? The problem seems to be not only the hole, but our form of democracy; an issue that P&I...
Erik Aslaksen from Allambie Heights
In response to: The mass media memory hole: Ukraine, Libya and war crimes
Disgusted!
September 29, 2023
Yes, a small bomb did go off in a marketplace, specifically at a time when the Han tended to shop there. But did it justify the obvious build-up of Chinese military strength on the streets and the imminent attacks on the Muslim religion itself - headed by the same enforced assimilation of Uighur children that Henry Reynolds article on what might have been the Australian model for the Han highlights so brilliantly. Could it be that your over-enthusiasm for all things (Han) Chinese blinded you to the blatant unfairness of this Maoist take-over of this Turkic nation for its mineral...
Jeremy Eccles from Sydney
In response to: Xinjiang: A Personal Perspective
Proposed cuts at ACU threaten work on Safe AI
September 29, 2023
This is particularly surprising given Chancellor Daubney's stated hope that ACU would play a central role in the development of ethical and safe AI. The cuts would end the positions for nearly every academic working at ACU on ethical AI. We believe this is an oversight, but a sign that the change plan is incompatible with Daubney's vision. In his speech to the Assembly of Catholic Professionals, Daubney said, As Chancellor of Australian Catholic University, I’d like to see our university playing a leading role as our society plays catch up in the formulation of legal and ethical frameworks...
Clayton Littlejohn from Melbourne
In response to: Has Australian Catholic University just lost the right to call itself “Catholic”
ACU and Post-Modern Epistemology
September 29, 2023
Epistemology is the foundation of the scientific method, of all human progress, of the other disciplines defended by the author here, and we all exercise an epistemology, whether or not it is trained and philosophical. Epistemology is central to all western philosophy since Plato. A better education in this is essential in educating students in critical thinking and problem solving skills, and would also be an antidote against our post-truth, conspiracy theory vulnerable times, and against the undermining of genuine expertise. The Arts & Humanities have never been as strong in Australia as they have traditionally been in most other...
Stephen Lake from Moss Vale, NSW
In response to: Has Australian Catholic University just lost the right to call itself “Catholic”
Enough is enough. Free Julian Assange.
September 22, 2023
I have come to the conclusion that I am living in a country that admires the policy and procedures of a police state. I may be wrong but when I see footage of a helicopter crew firing machine guns into a group of men I feel deeply upset. Especially when the integrity of the footage is questioned by governments which collude to blame one Australian citizen who chose to post footage of this dreadful event. Against the wishes of those countries who may have been effectively committing a war crime. I am the son of a father who spent his...
Dr Peter Willans from Coningham , Tasmania 7504
In response to: 64 Australian parliamentarians endorse diplomatic trip to free Assange
Expenditure priorities: AUKUS subs versus climate
September 22, 2023
In her article Elizabeth Boulton says: “It is surreal to imagine that the ONI report could predict anything [climatically] worse than what scientific reports already tell us” Quite so, but the non-release of the ONI report may have much less to do with the revelation of climate horrors as with the non-availability of sufficient funds to address the problems that it reveals because of prior AUKUS commitments. Within 24 hours of Morrison announcing his ill-conceived and enormously expensive AUKUS submarine deal it was embraced unqualified by Albanese and his inner sanctum. One of the criticisms mounted against the AUKUS deal...
Ian Bayly from Upwey, Vic.
In response to: Group think: Paralysis and the missing ONI climate security report
Why Labor is hiding the ONI climate report
September 15, 2023
The Albanese government is hiding the report by the Office of National Intelligence on the security threat posed by global heating. This report will say that by 2050 billions of people worldwide will suffer food insecurity and be on the move. It will advocate multi-billion dollar expenditure on climate mitigation, adaptation and measures to deal with hordes of climate refugees and domestic unrest. But largely as a result of toxic wedge politics such large expenditure presents Labor with a huge problem. Within 24 hours of Morrison announcing his ill-conceived and enormously expensive AUKUS submarine deal it was embraced unqualified by...
Ian Bayly from Upwey, Vic.
In response to: What is Albanese hiding? Maybe it’s the experts’ vision of the climate hell
It's time for urgent lifestyle changes
September 15, 2023
Growing up in the Cold War, when nuclear annihilation seemed imminent, our choice was to rebel and have fun: ‘we’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time.’ As Mark Beeson’s account makes clear, many of us Boomers have not yet shaken off that attitude, preferring to pursue what Jethro Tull dubs our ‘thoughtless pleasures’ to securing a healthy planet for our children and grandchildren. The danger of environmental collapse becomes more apparent each day, whether it’s melting ice-caps, devastating floods, or unprecedented bushfires. The continued and accelerating degradation of our environment, to support our ever-growing...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills, VIC
In response to: As good as it ever got? Hurtling towards the environmental abyss
Ending native forest logging is a trump card
September 15, 2023
The recent article by Bob Debus is a most useful summary of the value of our remaining native forests, and his call to stop logging them must be heeded (“A good start to urgent climate change abatement: end native forest logging now”, Sep 7). According to the 2017 WWF fact sheet, Tree Felling in Australia, “of the 1,250 plant and 390 terrestrial animal species listed as threatened, 964 plants and 286 animals have deforestation and resulting habitat fragmentation or degradation listed as threats.” Since then, climate change and the 2019/20 bushfires have made the situation even more serious. But Debus...
Ray Peck from Hawthorn
In response to: A good start to urgent climate change abatement: end native forest logging now
A BIG THANK YOU to Gregory Andrews.
September 15, 2023
This what I like about Pearls & Irritations... a TRULY INDEPENDENT Media Platform. A BIG Thank You to Gregory Andrews. Sadly, several MSM in Australia (the worst is Sky News, in my view) are biased, and deliberately misinformed / deceived the general public in their reporting. Australia governments (Federal and State levels) have the responsibility to take down these malicious MSMs before they do further harm to our economy, the wellbeing of our citizens and damage to our international reputation. Thank You
Kim Tanzy from Erina
In response to: Insulating foreign policy from domestic politics: The legacy of Marise Payne
WHAT A NATION!
September 15, 2023
Watching the machinations of a furious, deeply flawed US Administration's reaction to Chinese expertise would be pure comedy, farce even, if it were not so damaging and divisive. As an Australian citizen, recently returned to this country after 50 years abroad, I am terrified to my core that America will take us into a totally unnecessary, foolhardy war with China. Whereas this huge neighbour and trading partner of ours, our best customer and best supplier, can bring talent and technology at the highest level to our doorstep and at a fair price. Sandra Harris Ramini, former editor of Business Life...
Sandra Ramini from Fremantle WA
In response to: Our media won’t tell us but Huawei’s Mate60 is set to challenge iPhone
"Fascist" Politics?
September 8, 2023
Deeply conservative, non-inclusive, anti-democratic attitudes have been embedded in both American and Australian societies since the beginnings of their colonisation. That disposition is not new, but it has arguably shaped how both of our societies have evolved over several centuries, and why neither of them are as inclusive, progressive, socially just as most other western societies have sought to be. Nobody is inclined towards a particular reactionary view for the sake of it: it mirrors anxieties, but when we write about these political trends, nobody is analysing our societies on those deeper levels, nobody is asking how as societies...
Stephen Lake from Moss Vale, NSW
In response to: The Right is obsessed with gender.
The Voice: my perspective
September 8, 2023
I read with interest the article by Abul Rizvi. I feel his deductions are correct, but I feel the reason the conservatives are against the Voice is far more sinister. I have noticed that in Australian politics in recent years, there is far more impact of foreign powerbrokers in our politics. I was horrified when the Labor party supported Aukus, including buying badly designed US nuclear submarines. At any time 30% of these subs are out of service for repairs. One would think that after all the other disastrous military purchasing decisions over the years that the government...
Doug Foskey from Lismore, NSW
In response to: How I decided to vote in the upcoming Voice referendum
Missing the Point
September 8, 2023
Allan Patience provides an analysis of the behaviour of the majority of our politicians as well as of the debate on the upcoming referendum that would resonate with many Australians. But he fails to ask the question: Why is this so? We pride ourselves on having a well-functioning liberal representative democracy, so either this is not true, or then a liberal representative democracy in not all it is hyped up to be. The politicians we get are a reflection of the political system and that applies to the Teals as well, so how would Mr. Patience like...
Erik Aslaksen from Allambie Heights, NSW 2100
In response to: Nail in the coffin: Australia has run out of luck
Why we need an Earth System Treaty
September 2, 2023
In the midst of high inflation, growing homelessness and worsening food insecurity, it's difficult to find the time and the mental space to think about the mega threats addressed by the Earth System Treaty. However, the mega threats have grown out of the same inefficient, inequitable economic and political systems that are causing high inflation and a wide range of other security issues (e.g. insecurity relating to food, water, finances and nation states to name a few). Could Pearls and Irritations commission a Q&A, or something similar, on why we need an Earth System Treaty and how the...
Robyn Alders from Fullerton
In response to: Why we need an Earth System Treaty
Forest policy missing in action
September 1, 2023
Like Peter Sainsbury, I am deeply frustrated by the distinct lack of action to protect our forests and prevent bushfires (“Environment: Sleepwalking into our fiery future” 27/8/23). While governments continue to support logging of beautiful native forests and archaic ‘hazard reduction’ burn practices, the situation will only worsen. Not one of ten key recommendations from the 2020 bushfire royal commission has been implemented. Yet, solutions exist. Ceasing native forest logging in Australia would be sufficient for us to achieve our 2030 emissions reductions targets. Following the latest fire science and using drone technology to...
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: Environment: Sleepwalking into our fiery future
It’s simple mathematics
September 1, 2023
Mike Scrafton is right. Our government is failing to address the climate crisis adequately because of its “obsession with growth” (The intergenerational report – a climate fairy tale, 26/8). The unholy link between the crisis and growth is evident from mathematics, my former discipline. It is found in the long-established equation, I = PAT, which describes an environmental impact (I) as the product of three factors (P, A and T). Here’s how it applies to CO2 emissions from Australia’s energy industry. ‘I’ is the level of emissions, ‘P’ our population, ‘A’ (affluence) our per-capita use of energy, and ‘T’...
Ian PENROSE from Kew
In response to: The intergenerational report – a climate fairy tale
Avoiding scandalous commitments of "Forceposture"
August 25, 2023
Australian people must be encouraged to discuss and debate our Force Posture agreement with the U.S., because it contains deep, far reaching, irreversible dangers and commitments, and the risk of nuclear war. The U.S. Policy, as promulgated in the U.S. Congress, is for War with China once we have weakened Russia; the contrived war in Ukraine is the U.S. process of weakening Russia. The U.S. makes no secret of their intention to war with China, in about two to four years time; Australia will be obliged to increase the size of our military forces to comply with commitments...
Thomas Adams from Moe
In response to: Never-never submarines.
If the Democrats had principles
August 25, 2023
It's the Same Old, Same Old. If a principled newer party wins enough votes to worry an unprincipled Old Party and bucks the status quo, the good-ole party calls the real democrats traitors or trolls. Not really as simple as that, though, is it, Bob? In the US, the undemocratic first-past-the-post electoral system denies smaller players a chance. Green v, progressive voters sign up to only vote for Greens and progressive independents. Otherwise, they don't sign up or vote at all. Hard for the ALP to grasp this but we're different in Australia.
Diana Rickard from Lovina Bali
In response to: Real chance of Trump victory in the US election
Myanmar: No basis for armed Western intervention
August 25, 2023
The military government of Mynamar is not a very competent one but that is not a reason to overthrow it. I could point to many richer countries with incompetent governments. When I visited Myanmar people freely complained about how little development there was but nobody was asking for violence. The so-called democratic opposition... many different groups, armies, militias and individuals [with] .....substantial battlefield successes seems to be even worse than Tatmadaw. Teachers being killed for working for the government, singers murdered for for the same reason. The reason for the lack of news about Myanmar in the Western...
Jonathan Smith from Shenzhen
In response to: Why has the West given billions in military aid to Ukraine.. Myanmar
Concentrate on the people, not the Opposition
August 25, 2023
Anthony Albanese should concentrate on what his supporters want, not try to outwit or outmaneuver the opposition.
Clare McKay from Forster NSW
In response to: “Empty Vessel”: AUKUS tensions surface
“Their minds are not clear” – the late Evan Whitton
August 18, 2023
Evan would be loving the burgeoning success of Pearls and Irritations. Congratulations Quentin and John!
Elizabeth O'Brien from Sydney
In response to: “Their minds are not clear” – the late Evan Whitton
Australians be aware
August 18, 2023
I have been for some time reading Pearls & irritations and alarmed at what I read - how unaware my fellow Australians are, and even more alarmed at where our Politicians are leading us . Like many Labor voters (not members of the Labor party) I am alarmed at the performance of the Albanese govt. A govt given a large majority large enough to make real difference early in its term of Govt during it's honeymoon period. An opportunity missed because it was to timid protecting its position as a govt. I am concerned that the many damning...
Bob Pearce from Adelaide
In response to: Voices lost in the wilderness
Aukus suffers badly from the democratic deficit
August 18, 2023
Marcus Strom’s article ties in with a key issue I have just raised with the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. Two years ago Marise Payne and Peter Dutton met their French counterparts, and then assured us that the French submarines were going swimmingly, yet within days the Aukus Treaty was announced. JSCOT have just informed me that the only part of the Aukus Treaty which has had detailed parliamentary committee review is the ENNPIA, which covers transfer of nuclear material. That is a seriously concerning democratic deficit unworthy of the Albanese government.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Aukus is a mad bad and dangerous war policy
The Language of War
August 18, 2023
With due respect for the Australian men and women who have been killed in war and are honoured on Anzac Day, I would like to send out a warning about the loose language of the current war mongering which has taken over sane debate in Australia. It’s the obfuscation in the language used that upsets me. Does the industrial military complex think the Australian public is too stupid to see through the pompous language of fear-mongering? So that we don’t realise they’re setting us on a path which would only increase the risk of death for our sons and...
Christine Williams from Sydney
In response to: -
Devastating reef reality
August 11, 2023
Although it was sobering reading, I thank Imogen Zethoven for outlining the Great Barrier Reef’s devastating reality. While most Australian politicians and media focus on the latest UNESCO ruling, both climate and water pollution are ever increasing, worsening the Reef’s plight. Australians need to face up to the fact that the iconic reef is in danger, grave danger. As a parent, I grieve for the life that we are so senselessly losing. I doubt my two young children shall ever experience the majestic colours and rich marine life within a healthy reef, and wonder when successive Australian Governments'...
Amy Hiller from Kew
In response to: “The terrible reality: Great Barrier Reef on threshold of rapid deterioration”
The PRC suffers from homelessness too
August 11, 2023
The author writes, '...this article is not about homelessness but about how, in a changing world, countries choose their method of achieving prosperity'. The PRC is currently suffering from homelessness, making it hard to grasp the point of this article. The following Wikipedia article is a good starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_China. The term is of course hard to define, leaving stories like this: (https://www.quora.com/If-China-is-communist-why-are-there-so-many-homeless-people) open to doubt: young people sleeping rough hunting jobs may not be strictly homeless. The poverty reduction campaign proclaimed a success prior to COVID took many visibly homeless off the street, and so...
David Kelly from Ashfield
In response to: China’s “security through prosperity” undermines Western colonial hegemony
Let us not forget Julian Assange
August 11, 2023
Stuart Rees is to be thanked for highlighting the suppression of debate and the control of information that the ALP administration seems to insist on. Just like the dark ages of Terry Sheahen and Graham Richardson. As Albanese is from the minor faction of the ALP, it would seem that the intent is to demonstrate unity by allowing the right wing to run the show and let us forget what is good for the country. It is obvious that subservience to the US is part of the ALP Right policy regardless of where this will take us. ...
John Davies from Mullumbimby
In response to: Why does the Australian Government fear dissent on AUKUS and Palestine?
Mythical Nazification of Ukraine
August 11, 2023
Chris Hermann (Letters, Aug 3) is disturbed that I referred in my article on Crimea (3 August) to Russian propaganda banging on about “mythical Nazis in Kyiv”. It seems I must spell out that I was referring to Russian claims about neo-Nazis permeating/influencing the government in Kyiv, not claiming that they don’t exist in Ukraine, as in most countries. But his claim that Nazis have amassed a great deal of power in Kiev/Kyiv has not only not been “established beyond reasonable doubt”, it is utter hogwash. He may not believe me but he could listen to an actual...
Jon Richardson from Canberra
In response to: There is nothing “mythical” about Nazis in Ukraine
Richard Marles' repeated use of "seamless"
August 11, 2023
So many risks with AUKUS: The Australian public has been given no proper explanation of the strategic rationale behind the AUKUS deal. There is the enormous financial cost, the great uncertainty of its success, and the fact that it will distract and divert money from us adequately addressing global heating. The agreement ties us to a country that is becoming divided, dysfunctional and politically unstable. Defence Minister Richard Marles has repeatedly used the word “seamless” to describe the degree of closeness required in our relationship with the US for the AUKUS deal to be successful. I...
Ian Bayly from Upwey
In response to: Re Mike Scrafton's "Abandoned sovereignty" 03/08/23
'No' supporters not all white supremacists
August 11, 2023
While in agreement with the substance of Allan Patience’s powerful denunciation of the morality – or lack thereof – in the No case against the Voice, his final argument is unconvincing. Patience makes a forceful statement of the moral imperatives propelling the Yes case – indigenous marginalisation, the frontier wars history, the stolen generations, and the still-unclosed Gap in life outcomes for our First Nations’ peoples. Responsibility for these lies squarely in the hands of our colonial forbears and ourselves. The No argument, led by Peter Dutton, has sought, as Patience explains, to undermine the referendum for the short-term political...
Chris Young from Surrey Hills
In response to: White Australia’s moral backwardness
Pearls and Irritations articles are a STANDOUT
August 5, 2023
Pearls and Irritations articles are a standout and bring uniquely unparalleled journalistic information to the public domain. P&I has contributed immensely to presenting independent and honest journalism otherwise dominated by some malign MSM. May I wish P&I great success in bringing educative and pragmatic insight and knowledge to the mainstream population.
Kim Tan from Erina
In response to: A growing string of Pearls and just as many Irritations
There is nothing "mythical" about Nazis in Ukraine
August 3, 2023
P&I deservedly prides itself on publishing diverse, non-mainstream viewpoints while encouraging civil debate. However, I found Jon Richardson's article A twentieth century Terra Nullius: Crimea, Canards and Confabulations quite disturbing to read. In his apparent zeal to demonstrate that Russia does not have a valid claim over Crimea, Richardson refers to mythical Nazis in Kyiv. His denial of the existence of this detestable ideology in Ukraine appears to extend to his previous contribution. It has been established beyond reasonable doubt that Nazis not only exist in Ukraine, but have amassed a great deal of power in Kiev/Kyiv. Even the...
Chris Hermann from Sunshine Coast
In response to: A twentieth century Terra Nullius: Crimea, Canards and Confabulations
Wen Wei Po: A reply to Jonathan Leung
July 31, 2023
He is quite right saying Wen Wei Po is not an anti-Beijing newspaper. So I too was most surprised to discover it was the source of the phoney New York Times June 12 article about machine guns in Tiananmen Square mowing down protestors. The only explanation I can find for this egregious aberration says that at the time the energy of the protestors had triggered even strong pro-Beijing elements to go honest and admit previous regime mistakes (like the Cultural Revolution) had discredited the government to the point where they too were allowed to hope something better would emerge...
Gregory Clark from Tokyo, Japan
In response to: Psy-ops warriors: Tiananmen Square and the media-pack
An Earth Systems Treaty
July 24, 2023
We all need to become planetary citizens.
Geoff Holland from Portland, Oregon USA
In response to: We need an Earth System Treaty to save civilisation. And we need it now
The tragedy of Palestine
July 24, 2023
I, of course, endorse Jafar Ramini's thoughtful article written with great sorrow and passion. Occupied Palestine is, of course, the 51st state of America with all the support and benefits available to other US states, So we will not get any positive reaction to the mayhem currently facing the israeli government: it is a great pity though that this supposedly liberated and free thinking Government in Australia continues to support and recognise the rogue state called israel and refusing to honour an election promise to recognise the State of Palestine. We, like America, pander to the Jewish lobby in our...
Jono Farmer from East Fremantle WA 6158
In response to: Palestine lives
Miscarriages of justice
July 24, 2023
In the late 1970s I was unwittingly involved in the wrongful conviction of Charles Splatt for a murder in Port Adelaide. I was a public servant and a police sergeant asked me for advice about a crucial forensic matter of which I had some knowledge, but not much. With great reluctance I provided the sergeant with a formula that appeared applicable, but told him that I would not use the formula myself, and if called I would tell the court I was not an expert in the matter. It turned out that Mr Splatt’s subsequent conviction hinged in part on...
David Hamilton from Launceston
In response to: Miscarriages of justice: Kathleen Folbigg is one of an unknown number of people
Not just Robodebt
July 21, 2023
It is not just wrongful decisions by DHS and DSS which have had a major impact on people’s lives, but also cruelly poor administration by what is now Home Affairs.
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Robodebt and the APS
Nuclear subs deal sunk
July 21, 2023
If war in the Ukraine has taught us something it is that drones, missiles and intelligence are the future weapons of choice. Submarines, whether conventional or nuclear powered are not in the mix and thinking we might rely on six submarines or Abrams tanks, for that matter, to defend Australia is risable. The nuclear option is surely untenable, surely. That leaves us with drones and missiles based in Australia controlled from Australia as our best hope of surviving. But best we use discussion to bargain our way out of war.
Kevin McCue from Canberra
In response to: Nuclear subs deal sunk
WHOSE FAULT IS IT
July 21, 2023
In his article Mr Austen, makes no reference to where responsibility falls. It is the Minns Labour government who won the May Election? or is it the fault / failure of the former LNP government? I would suggest that it is the former LNP government, who under Gladys B. wrecked the Sydney suburban rail system by wholesale changes to time-tables. The Bankstown / Liverpool/Campbelltown line. Express services on the Bankstown line were significantly reduced. Trains no longer used the Bankstown line to Liverpool and Campbelltown. The LNP governments unsuitable ordering trains from Spain - and more!!
Peter Dowling from RAYMOND TERRACE
In response to: 40,000 infrastructure defects reported in Sydney Trains’ maintenance backlog
Six hundred years of reform?
July 21, 2023
Catholics are missing the point when talking about the failure of the Catholic Church. If it has failed and is irrelevant - get rid of it.
James Mitchell from IPSWICH
In response to: Fallen potatoes-the failure of the Catholic Church
Confusing the evidence
July 21, 2023
Chris Bonnor argues that ‘It is always important that public debate on schools reflect what we know rather than what we’d like to believe.’ It’s a great shame that Bonnor undermined his otherwise excellent article by the use of an example which was not relevant to his thesis. As a former school executive, I have no doubt that Ross Fox gilds the lily when claiming credit for improvements in educational outcomes in Canberra-Goulburn Catholic systemic schools result from the Catalyst program, and exaggerates the contribution of systemic schools in providing for students with behavioural and educational difficulties, perhaps...
Christopher Bounds from Canberra
In response to: Lies, damned lies and school statistics
Julian Cribb and Saul Griffith must be heard
June 28, 2023
Inventor and climate activist, Saul Griffith, in his recent Quarterly Essay “The Wires that Bind”, describing the urgency of essential action, wrote: “Real climate action in Australia and globally, must happen at the level where citizens interact with their local infrastructure and invest in their homes, businesses and communities. We need a new social contract such that every Australian can join the game.” Cribb’s 2023 book “How to Fix a Broken Planet” brings together in a short and highly readable volume, his conclusions about the survivability of the human species. It offers the reader a sensible and practical path...
Bob Douglas from Australia
In response to: Our planet is imploding: when will we act to save ourselves?
There is a plan for human survival
June 26, 2023
Recently Professor Cribb asserted that “nobody has a Plan for Human Survival.” This is not a true statement. PLAN E, introduced in this journal last year, is a concept for an emergency response to the hyperthreat of climate and ecological crisis. Professor Cribb has previously argued that PLAN E does not address his list of 10 mega threats. In fact, PLAN E does account for these and more. The hyperthreat encapsulates all forms of climate and environmental problems (threats 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 on his list). The overall ‘Grand Strategy’ takes an “entangled security”...
Elizabeth Boulton from Melbourne
In response to: Our planet is imploding: when will we act to save ourselves?
Retired US Admiral confirms Australian subservience
June 23, 2023
Many thanks to Margaret Reynolds for such a forthright criticism of Australian subservience to the US in matters of foreign policy and defence. That the United States takes this subservience for granted and has the capacity to compel subservience if ever it was questioned has been made clear in the comments of an (unnamed) retired US Admiral to the editor of the Australia Pacific Defence Reporter, Kym Bergmann. Kym quotes the Admiral's words in his most recent 20-minute podcast, which should be listened to in full. It is a chilling account of our subservience, and adds to the thrust of...
Mike Williss from Adelaide
In response to: A subservient defence policy undermines Albanese’s successful first year
Ordering women into silence
June 21, 2023
Thank you, Jack Waterford, for publicising your contempt and rejection of the police and justice system in the ACT when it comes to protecting the privacy and dignity of women rape survivors. Of course, it's not just in the ACT that this happens but, in the male-dominated legal system generally. All the right words are used to suggest that everything is being done to help the victim but very little action is taken to prevent the perpetrator from verbally violating his victim over and over again in and outside of the court. In this, he uses his legal accomplices...
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: Our law and order violate women
China – Is it Really a Threat
June 20, 2023
But it is important to emphasise that China’s apparent lead is largely due to its very large population about four times that of the United States. GDP/capita is the measure that determines the stage of development. By this measure the World Bank (there are slight differences between institutions who measure this because of different methodologies) calculates China’s GDP/capita as $23,382, and the US as $80,035. the United States is ranked No. 8 and China is ranked No. 73 (quoted in Wikipedia). The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (which is really a wolf in sheep’s clothing) would have us believe that...
Barry Trembath from Australia
In response to: Why is America so reluctant to acknowledge China’s economic power?
Wen Wei Po NOT an anti Beijing newspaper
June 19, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Gregory Clark's article and would like to circulate it to my friends. Unfortunately, his assertion that Wen Wei Po was a weak Hong Kong newspaper known at the time for extreme anti-Beijing positions. Everyone in Hong Kong knows that, while it is not exactly a top selling daily, it's always been a diehard pro-Beijing paper. Like all newspapers at the time, without independent verification of the various stories bandied around, the Wen Wei Po just parroted the Tiananmen Massare stories. After all, there were a few fake eyewitness accounts doing the rounds at the time....
Jonathan Leung from Hong Kong
In response to: Psy-ops warriors: Tiananmen Square and the media-pack
Relations with China
June 19, 2023
Kevin Rudd has tackled the issues well in his book The Avoidable War, while fully cognisant of defects on both sides of the US China divide. He proposes the need for agreed guardrails to minimise escalation of incidents, while accepting strategic competition. China talks of its redlines. We need Australian institutions which are involved in collective security discussions which include not just military but economic aspects and representation which includes China. The democratic deficit is clearly on show, after the gross deception of the Australian public, by DFAT and Defence, in September 2021 after the Paris 2+2 meeting, a deception...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Australia preparing for war- can it stop the rot?
An Answer to Neoliberalism
June 19, 2023
In answer to Alan Patience's Anticipating a Post-Capitalist World, one of the obvious solutions is to do away with 'workers' and 'bosses' by forming as many work places as possible into cooperatives. In this way workers become the owners and elect the 'bosses' thus forming a truly democratic workplace. Corbyn was going to encourage that in the UK had he got in. It could only be sponsored from a labour-socialist party which unfortunately Australia has no longer got. Maybe the Greens will get powerful enough to subsidise/encourage a big push to cooperatives. Its one of the few hopes we have.
Malthus Anderson from Tarras, New Zealand.
In response to: The End is Nigh! Anticipating a Post-Capitalist World