I am in Adelaide. Lucky me, lucky Adelaide. Have read two rather good essays, about Australia's Place In the World. There are two quotes that speak to the same period, which covers me growing up (or taller, anyway) and then the mid-1990s pivot. From Hugh White's Quarterly Essay "Hard New World - our post-American future."... Continue Reading →
The Lay’Em Out Brigade
Just saw this footage of an Australian journalist reporting from Los Angeles getting shot in the calf by a rubber bullet. https://bsky.app/profile/luckytran.com/post/3lr5amqrwlc2j It puts me in mind of various things, including Jack London's novel The Iron Heel. ALSO, this poem below, which I learned about via Shakers and Movers, an astonishing song by Midnight Oil.... Continue Reading →
Who stands for an anthem? Australia from the 1970s to the 2020s
I remember going to sporting events (athletics meets, cricket) in the 1980s in a sleepy country town in South Australia (Adelaide, its capital). Most of the time no anthem would be played - everyone I knew (obvs not a random sample) regarded Advance Australia Fair with either 'no opinion' or some derision. Plodding, vacuous, nowhere... Continue Reading →
The Voice as “divisive”? Brilliant letter about what a No vote will mean.
Australia is, I fear, about to make an appalling mistake. Otherwise smart and empathetic people will be voting the same way as the knuckle-draggers and openly-racists (whose views they would normally abhor). And the morning after? Well, this letter, I think in The Saturday Paper, nails it.
Labor sleepwalking us to disaster on climate as on defence…
The Australian Labor Party is going to get us all killed. Either slowly - via climate change - or quickly, as collateral damage in a war between China and the USA. And there is an interesting parallel in the policy processes underlying both disasters. I just finished reading 'Sleepwalk to War: Australia’s Unthinking Alliance with... Continue Reading →
“Nuclear electricity” – 1978 booklet by Australian Mining Industry Council
So, the Australian government has torn up a contract it made with the French for some submarines and is now going to buy some nuclear ones. Smarter people than me (Laura Tingle, Guy Rundle etc etc) have written about the geopolitics of all this. One point, made by various commentators, is that building/operating nuclear subs... Continue Reading →
Intelligence Deficit or Empathy Deficit? Of “Covidiots” and the Voight-Kampff test
Hands up if you've ever changed your mind on a topic after someone called you stupid? [crickets] Yeah, me neither. I am not "stupid" (blah blah scholarships, degrees etc etc etc blah blah) but omfg have I done more (far more) than my share of stupid things. And the root cause of most of those... Continue Reading →
Scenario-building – The month(s) ahead for the Commonwealth… “same boat,” “spotfires” and “deep moat.” COVID #auspol
Let's say that there are three scenarios (all of which involve NSW losing control of the shituation - you could have other scenarios too, if you like, where Delta goes easy on us). Let's call them "same boat" "spot fires" and "deep moat" I think spot fires is most likely. Same boat In two months... Continue Reading →
Thelma and Louise and Australian COVID & Climate Responses, via Donald Horne
Just under thirty years ago, about 100m from where I am right now, I saw the wonderful Thelma and Louise. There's a short clip that stayed with me that I think we need to remember. https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/2b001c5a-43ea-41f8-9271-219994adf091 Well, I was watching Insiders (Sunday morning current affairs, mix of interviews, humour, panellists, on the national broadcaster ABC)... Continue Reading →
Skytrains, planes and automobiles (sorta) – 48 hrs of climate criminality, a confession
Look at me, I'm on the other side of the world, ma! (1). Here's the view from my quarantine window. Yep, sunny (2) Adelaide. Two days ago I was in actually sunny Manchester. Thanks to the wonders of the internal combustion engine and a global infrastructure that supports/encourages hyper-mobility, even in a pandemic, here I... Continue Reading →
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