Category: Current Affairs
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THE BATTLE OF VERDUN – A CENTURY LATER
As we turn our attention this weekend to the centenary of the signing of the armistice to end World War I, I look back at a visit that Padma, Xander, Joseph and I took this summer to a battlefield in France which proved to be the ultimate test of human endurance. The Battle of Verdun […]
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AN AUSSIE MEAT PIE TO SAY THANKS
I’ve been waiting 21 years to say ‘thank you’ to former Australian Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer. Today I got that chance and bought him an Aussie meat pie to show my gratitude. In 1996, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his deputy Tim Fischer acted swiftly and decisively to launch a gun buyback program. […]
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AMERICA FIRST. EARTH LAST.
I’m not going to comment on why I feel Mr Trump’s announcement today of withdrawing from the Paris Accord was so reckless. Why bother? I’m preaching to the converted amongst (most of) my Facebook friends. Most of the ‘facts’ he presented today have already been debunked. He kind of just said ‘We’re out because I […]
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WHATABOUTISM
For a number of weeks now as I’ve observed the political debate in the United States I’ve been searching for a certain term. A term used to describe a behaviour used by some in an argument to point out the opposing view’s hypocrisy. I found the term I was looking for: whatboutism or the UK’s […]
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AUSSIES IN VIETNAM WAR
“Australia, they fought alongside us in wars including losing over 500 brave Australians in the Vietnam War, which some of us remember.” US Republican Senator John McCain, 2 February 2017. I appreciate that Senator McCain spoke out on behalf of Australia. Some of us might not have known that little fact he delivered in his […]
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AMERICA FIRST
I was too young to comprehend John F. Kennedy’s inauguration address when it was delivered in 1961. But the words he delivered in that address resonated with me throughout my formative years. ‘Ask not what your country can do for you … ask what you can do for your country.’ They were poignant words of […]
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AN AMERICAN ROLE MODEL
Eight years ago, millions of black American youth woke up the day after the Presidential election and said, ‘Wow! Some day even I can become President’. Last night, millions of American girls went to bed thinking, ‘Wonderful. It sure looks like some day even I can become President’. This morning millions of American youth are […]
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THE TOUGHEST JOB YOU’LL EVER LOVE
It was 35 years ago today that a bunch of recent college graduates in agriculture, forestry and environmental education and I landed in Central America to begin our two-year Peace Corps Costa Rica Volunteer assignments. We all got to know each other a few months earlier in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. The Peace Corps flew […]
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