There’s been a song popping into my head during the past few days. It’s the Talking Heads song Once In A Lifetime. You know the one (ahem…if you remember music from 1981). It’s been happening since the insane idea emerged to ban the burqa – more accurately, the niqab – from Parliament, relegating women wearing […]
Once In a Lifetime (with apologies to Talking Heads) and #wish, a welcome uproar: @mary_sayed comments
October 9, 2014
Alleged abuse against #refugees outside ICC jurisdiction: @jansant reports
September 27, 2014
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has declined “further analysis” of evidence included in a submission authored by Tracie Aylmer, alleging atrocities against refugees committed by members of the Australian government. The ICC said in a letter (below) dated Thursday, September 18: “the allegations appear to fall outside the jurisdiction of the Court”. […]
Ethics, morality and the war on ISIS: @richardsheggie comments
September 26, 2014
War against ISIS Young (and not so young) people are tired of the almost perpetual state of war that has that emerged since World War II. With US and Australian military intervention now commencing in Iraq and Syria, we are at war yet again in the Middle East. The target is the rapidly growing “caliphate” […]
Fun and games in the Queensland Parliament – The Qld Weekly #qldpol: @Qldaah
August 31, 2014
Campbell Newman is Eliot Ness. Leaked briefing confirms existence of LNP robots. A tale of three crowns. Racism alive and well in the deep North. Flight Centre Newman Government guarantee. . Campbell Newman is Eliot Ness “Populist governments need an enemy,” wrote University of Queensland Professor of Law Graeme Orr in his 2013 piece describing […]
WTF is #TeamAustralia: @YaThinkN wants to know #auspol
August 13, 2014
OK I will admit that I have been AWOL from news and social media in recent weeks. Yes, one of those people who have been reduced to the ‘don’t have a bloody clue and should not be given the privilege of voting’ status as they are clueless. Life just sucks sometimes and the PM’s recent […]
The shadowy underbelly of Australia’s fair go: @FrBower comments on #racism
July 23, 2014
“I am not a racist! But…” We have all heard it and many of us have said it, but what does it mean? Australians are, for the most part, a pretty decent lot. We love the larrikin, the underdog and the idea of a fair go. However, just as there is always another side to […]
Are Australians struggling with cognitive dissonance over #asylumseekers? ASRC’s @jj_juliajacob comments
July 10, 2014
Cognitive Dissonance is a phrase introduced by psychologist Festinger in the late 1950s to describe the mental conflict or psychological discomfort a person feels when their beliefs and assumptions are contradicted by new information. Human nature is such that when dealing with mental discomfort, it chooses to do one or more of the following 3 […]
Visiting concentration camps in Utopia: @burgewords interviews @GGeorgiadisRN on ‘that’ comment the DIBP didn’t like
April 24, 2014
The Australian twittersphere freaked out when refugee advocate @VanessaPowell25 was threatened with legal action by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) earlier this month. Unless she removed a post on her Facebook, which documented one moment at a protest outside the Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney’s Western Suburbs, the DIBP would “consider […]
Rights and justice for #refugees are not commodities: @novidados reports
April 15, 2014
When they come for the innocent without crossing over your body, cursed be your religion and your life. Anon The quote above came to my attention as I followed the protests at Villawood Detention Centre on social media over the past few weeks. It seems apt to think about protest in these terms, as […]
The killing of fair play: @Jansant comments on what the ALP has lost
April 12, 2014
I used to be proud of being born and raised in Balmain, the spiritual home of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The area has produced and attracted some of the greatest names in Australian history, people of politics like Sir Henry Parkes, Tom Uren, Neville Wran and Herbert Vere ‘H.V.’ Evatt (aka Doc Evatt), […]
