As part of the FTA being negotiated with China Australia is required to recognise that China is a market economy. I actually didn’t think there was much doubt that this was the case these days, but a recent news report has given me pause. According to Reuters as quoted in an ABC-Newsmail this evening, an […]

The Iraqi Parliament is due to sit today and the parties still haven’t managed to form a government – that’s a good sign. Much of the Australian commentary on the Iraqi elections, including a number of articles published in On Line Opinion, is prefaced on a belief that the US has imposed democracy on Iraq […]

IT is surely appropriate that Charles, Prince of Wales, and Mrs Camilla Parker-Bowles, are to be married in what is effectively the local registry office. His performance as Prince of Wales, and heir to the throne has been pedestrian, and very ordinary, to say the least. As one who believes in the Constitutional Monarchy, and […]

Congratulations to the Iraqi nation. In the face of extreme intimidation Iraqis turned out in numbers that would have been considered to be satisfactory even in well-established democracies like the US. There was never any real doubt that voters would turn out, but there is nothing like confirmation. And there was always a question of […]

Abu Bakar Bashir, spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah is being more honest, and more strategic, than Jamie Isbister, project manager with Catholic welfare agency Caritas, or Father Chris Riley, head of Youth off the Streets. Bashir says that “he is losing the battle for the hearts and minds of Aceh’s tsunami survivors because of the […]

I’ve avoided writing about the Indian Ocean Tsunami so far. Mostly out of respect. Respect for those who died. Respect for their relatives who grieve. Respect for the existential pitilessness of nature. Time for analysis and comment comes, but not immediately. Others have not been so respectful, and as the water recedes it becomes time […]

According to reports of work by John Kerry’s pollster, Stan Greenberg, Osama bin Laden’s tape helped George Bush’s re-election. Without denying that Greenberg has a vested interest in promulgating this theory, it is probably true, because that was one of bin Laden’s aims. I have yet to hear a convincing argument from a commentator as […]

Silly me. I assumed that there could be no way that Bush’s result in this election could be challenged, but there is. In the Florida election 2000 it was the voting machines with their hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads. This year it is the computerised voting machines without their hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads! Just […]

No-one else appears to have commented on this, but it could just be possible that George Bush owes his win to The Guardian. They launched a campaign called “Operation Clark County” to help their readers to have a say in the US elections. The paper provided its readers with names and addresses of residents of […]

TOMORROW Papua New Guinea celebrates 29 years of Independence. If you were to believe some commentators, and sections of the media, there is nothing to celebrate, and an even bleaker future lies ahead. I don’t agree. Papua New Guinea has its problems, serious problems, but there are some indicators, and opportunities, that offer hope for […]