Keith Suter’s Global Insights
What on earth is going on?
Articles (15 of 27)
Archive Article: Schoolies Week 27th November 98
December 23, 2008 | Schools are finishing and now the drinking begins. The annual "schoolies week" is underway and the police are busy making arrests. I have just returned from Brisbane. The Queensland media are full of stories of the way in which a huge contingent of under-cover police officers are tackling the 7,000 teenagers who have converged on Surfers Paradise alone for the Schoolies Week. Although the uniformed police presence has been highly visible, the majority of arrests have been made by plain-clothes officers mingling in the crowds. Schoolies Week is, of course, simply the precursor to the long alcoholic binge leading up... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 1:13 PM Comment
Archive Article: Singapore 25th July 98
December 23, 2008 | Singapore has a lot going for it. It is a success story of economic development, even with the current Asian crisis. But it is a pity that it has such a poor human rights record. It is very interesting to compare the social indicators of Singapore and Britain, such as the rate of literacy and the level of income. In most instances, Singapore is a more "developed" country than its former colonial master. Britain seems, by contrast, more of a Third World country. But Singapore has such a poor record on civil and political rights. This has been highlighted in... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 1:08 PM Comment
Archive Article - Slavery Today 19th Sep 03.
December 23, 2008 | There is a common belief that slavery is a thing of the past. Many people learnt at school about the wonderful work done by organizations such as the Anti-Slavery Society and individuals like William Wilberforce. They assume that the campaign to end slavery was won many decades, if not centuries, ago. I have just been reading the Annual Report of the London-based Anti-Slavery Society. Alas, the Society is still very much in action. The Society was formed in 1839 and it is the world's oldest human rights non-governmental organization. It is committed to eliminating slavery through research, raising awareness and... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 1:00 PM Comment
Mt Kosciuszko's Famous Loo.
December 23, 2008 | First Published: 25th November 2008, Daily Telegraph. Also Published: Puls Polonii: November 08. For Australian's getting caught short on top of their highest mountain Mt Kosciuszko help is now at hand with the unveiling of a new loo! Keith looks at the history behind the naming of Mt Kosciuszko and it's Polish heritage in the article: Australia's Zenith is named after a famous Polish General. Follow the link to read more about the history of Mt Kosciuszko... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 7:51 AM Comment
Archive Article: State Of The World. 18th July 03
December 22, 2008 | The annual "State of the World" book is the most important annual review of how the world's environment is going. It is published by the Washington DC-based Worldwatch Institute. As usual, there is some bad news and good news. The book is not just an annual statistical survey. Instead, each year's review focuses on some key issues and explores them at depth. One chapter this year is on "watching birds disappear". For example, almost a third of the world's 330 parrot species are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss and collecting pressures. Human-related factors threaten 99 per cent of... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 11:05 PM 2 comments
Archive Article: Teenagers To Rule The World. 24 Oct 03
December 22, 2008 | Don't judge the rest of the world's population by what you see in Australia or New Zealand. We are aging countries - and not necessarily representative of the world's growing population. The United Nations Fund For Population Activities has just published its "State of the World Population 2003". As usual, it makes very interesting reading. This year's focus in on the health of adolescents. Nearly half of all the world's people are aged under the age of 25 years. Within that group are people aged between 10 and 19 - about 1.2 billion. This is the largest numbers of teenagers in... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 10:44 PM Comment
Archive Article: Terrorism And Human Rights. 14 Nov 08
December 22, 2008 | The first international attempt to ban terrorism arose out of the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia on October 9 1934. That attempt failed - and almost 70 years later, the international community is still trying to solve the same problem. Some of the basic issues just seem to continue on decade after decade. One of the recurring issues in the struggle against terrorism is the problem of how we are to fight terrorism and yet avoid violating human rights. If government authorities are too heavy-handed in combating terrorism, they could actually increase support for the terrorists because it could... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 10:35 PM Comment
Archive Article: Thalidomide May 1 98.
December 22, 2008 | The thalidomide scandal is one of the standard case studies taught in media courses: fearless journalists take on a huge corporation which is behaving badly towards its child victims. But one of the key journalists in that campaign now has doubts about that victory. Thalidomide was discovered by accident in 1954 by a small German company called Chemie Grunenthal and it appeared to be a good sedative. It had none of the drawbacks of barbiturates, then the fashionable drug, and it was impossible to take an overdose. Grunenthal marketed the drug all over the world, including promoting it as an... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 10:28 PM 1 comment
Archive Article: The Bali Tragedy- One Year On 10 Oct 03
December 22, 2008 | The October 2002 Bali tragedy should be seen in the context of global violence and the nature of the new warfare state. First, thousands of people have been killed in recent years in Indonesia by Islamic fundamentalists. There are conflicts raging across the country from Aceh in the west, the Moluccas (Spice Islands) in the centre and West Papua in the east. The Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975 resulted, as a proportion of the population, in one of the bloodiest wars of the 20th century. Second, there are various terrorist groups at work in Indonesia and the neighbouring... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 10:22 PM Comment
Archive Article: The Break Up Of Countries. 11 July 03
December 22, 2008 | One of the most common themes in international politics relates to countries breaking up. I have just been reading a wonderful book that explains some of the international law principles involved. The late Julie Dahlitz, a distinguished Australian international lawyer based in Geneva, edited a collection of conference documents on "Secession and International Law". I helped organize the Sydney round of the conference series. Tragically, Julie passed away just as the book was being prepared for publication. The United Nations is to be congratulated for bringing the publishing project to its completion. This is easily the most readable introduction to... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 10:15 PM Comment
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