Keith Suter’s Global Insights
What on earth is going on?
Articles (10 of 27)
Archive Article: Sustaining The World. 14th Feb 03.
December 27, 2008 | Business schools are now catching up with the Bible. They think that they have found some new ideas - but Christians have known about them for thousands of years. Wesley Mission has just had a conference for its senior staff and the focus was on "corporate sustainability". One of this country's leading experts, Professor Dexter Dunphy, was the keynote speaker. By way of background, Professor Dunphy - son of the Australian pioneer environmentalist Myles Dunphy - gave the 1972 Boyer Lectures on "The Challenge of Change?" He was very quick off the mark in alerting society to some major developments.... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 9:00 PM Comment
Archive Article: The Banning Of Anti-Personel Land Mines. 21st Feb 03
December 27, 2008 | The fighting in Afghanistan has largely stopped (for the moment, anyway). But up to 300 people per month are still maimed or killed. These are the victims of landmines. One of the country's largest employers is the MAPA, the Mine Action Programme of Afghanistan, a coalition of 15 non-governmental organizations. Even so, on the current rate of landmine clearance, the country will not be clear until about 2200. I have just been reading explaining some of the background to stopping the spread of landmines: "The Banning of Anti-Personnel Landmines: The Legal Contribution of the International Committee of the Red Cross... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 8:53 PM Comment
Archive Article: Rights For People With Disabilities. 28 Feb 03
December 27, 2008 | There is a great deal of talk about human rights. But one very large group of people continue to miss out: people with disabilities. A scandal concerning the 2004 Athens Paralympics shows how far we need to go. On February 21, the University of New South Wales hosted a one-day conference on "A Comprehensive and Integral Convention to Promote and Protect the Rights of Persons with Disabilities". I was one of the speakers. The proposal for such a treaty has a very long history. 1981 was the International Year of Disabled People and Wesley Mission devoted a lot of... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 8:49 PM Comment
Archive Article: Rebuilding Afghanistan. 17th March 03.
December 27, 2008 | With so much attention on Iraq, it is worth recalling that the Afghanistan situation is still far from sorted out. International Alert, based in London, is an independent non-governmental organization which analyses the causes of conflict within countries, enables mediation and dialogue to take place, sets standards of conduct that avoid violence, and helps to develop the skills necessary to resolve conflict non-violently. It has been taking a close interest in the plight of Afghanistan. Two of its recent studies are "Aid, Conflict and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan: What Lessons Can Be Learned?" (by Haneef Atmar and Jonathan Goodhand) and "Afghanistan... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 8:43 PM Comment
Archive Article: International Criminal Court. 14th March 03.
December 27, 2008 | The 18 judges of the world's first permanent war crimes court at The Hague were sworn in on March 11. This is another important step in the protection of human rights and the maintenance of international peace and security. The International Criminal Court will be a court of last resort - intervening only when national authorities cannot or will not prosecute. Therefore, it will not be as extensive as the trials held after World War II at Nuremberg, Cologne and Tokyo. Consequently, it seems hard to imagine that any Australian would ever be brought before it because alleged Australian war... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 8:12 PM Comment
Archive Article: Learning About Foreign Affairs. 21st March 03
December 27, 2008 | One of the features of the Iraq crisis has been all the public debate over whether there should be the use of force, and if so what should be done. The public's right to know has been accepted as a fact of life and no one has suggested otherwise. But it has not always been like this. There is now so much public debate over all sorts of issues that it is very easy to assume this has been a constant factor in politics. But before World War I in 1914, there was not a single non-governmental organization dealing with... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 8:07 PM Comment
Archive Article: Decade To Overcome Violence. 28 March 03.
December 27, 2008 | Is there any alternative to war? While President Bush is arguing that somehow September 11 changed the world, for many people we just seemed trapped in the same old culture of violence. If it is not this war, then it is some other. The World Council of Churches, based in Geneva, has a project on the "Decade to Overcome Violence". The project was launched before the onset of the current Iraq conflict but the conflict provides additional evidence - if it were ever needed - of the importance of creating new ideas for the handling of violence. The project is... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 8:00 PM Comment
Archive Article: Computers And War Crimes. 4th April 03.
December 27, 2008 | Computers are now playing a role in monitoring war crimes and helping to apprehend war criminals. No doubt they will eventually be useful in helping to follow up on all the war crimes associated with the Iraq conflict. The current edition of the "New Scientist" magazine has an article on Dr Patrick Ball of the Science and Human Rights Programme of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has spent 12 years designing software that collects information on human rights abuses worldwide. One of his biggest successes was in the Slobodan Milosevic trial. He wrote a report for... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 7:52 PM Comment
Archive Article: Rebuilding A Country. 11th April 03
December 27, 2008 | With the progress made so far in the Iraq war, so the attention is now being focussed on what will be necessary to rebuild the country. There are many lessons to be learned from the relief operations in other countries. International Alert has published a discussion paper entitled "More Than Implementers: Civil Society in Complex Emergencies", written by Mick Quinn. International Alert, based in London, is an independent non-governmental organization which analyses the causes of conflict within countries, enables mediation and dialogue to take place, sets standards of conduct that avoid violence and helps to develop the skills necessary to... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 7:47 PM Comment
Archive Article: Christian Leaders Of The Future. 4 April 03.
December 27, 2008 | The Wesley Institute Graduation ceremony took place last weekend. It is amazing to see how much has been achieved in only 15 years. Wesley Mission has been involved in education for well over a century. Indeed, at one point all the Methodist ministers in this state had been educated at the Mission's Evangelists' Training Institute. In due course, the Methodist Church - and then the Uniting Church - devised its own form of education. The Mission remained involved in education, such as through its International Christian Leadership College, whereby young people came from overseas to learn about the Mission's work... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 7:42 PM Comment
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