Keith Suter’s Global Insights
What on earth is going on?
Articles (16 of 27)
Archive Article: The Club Of Rome November 98
December 22, 2008 | The Club of Rome sparked the environment debate in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Now it is seeking to do the same with a new form of "pollution": global financial speculation. I have just returned from the annual Club of Rome Conference. The Club of Rome is composed of 100 people serving in their personal capacities. It was created 30 years ago. It is not connected with the Catholic Church. Its name comes from the fact that one of its founders ran the Fiat motor car company, which was based in Rome, and he used the Fiat office as... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 10:08 PM Comment
Archive Article: The Community Care Revolution. 31 Oct 03.
December 22, 2008 | Australians are living longer and they are demanding higher standards of care. Older Australians are not necessarily willing or wanting to live in aged care centres. They want to stay home - they want "choices". "Choices" is, of course, the mantra of the current form of economic philosophy. This is different from the era of, say, early Ford motor cars, when you could have any colour you wanted - provided it was black (black was the colour of cars because it dried fastest on the production line). Last Monday I was involved in the launching of a set of policy... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 10:02 PM Comment
Archive Article: The Ghosts Of Balibo. November 03
December 22, 2008 | The largest loss of life ever sustained by the Australian media industry took place on October 16, 1975 at the East Timor village of Balibo. Five journalists were killed. All the governments that had citizens involved in the deaths have refused to reveal all that they know. In 1974, the Portuguese military rebelled and overthrew their government in Lisbon. The cost of fighting their African colonial wars was bankrupting the country and wrecking the military. The new Portuguese Government wanted to get out of East Timor as quickly as possible. East Timor was in the middle of the island chain... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 9:58 PM Comment
Archive Article: The HSC. October 98.
December 22, 2008 | The Higher School Certificate season is with us once again. Students and their relatives are under a great deal of stress. But are we making too much of the HSC results? Much of the stress that students feel is due to the way in which the HSC is seen as such a final examination, and that a failure in the HSC is seen as virtually terminal. There is life after the HSC. First, the HSC results only measure a student's skill in the examination at a particular time. The HSC has no predictive capacity. I have known students to come... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 9:54 PM Comment
Archive Article: The Importance Of Church History. June 03
December 22, 2008 | I was reading recently about the Mission's work among young people that attracted the police's attention. The police had to be called to deal with what was described as a "crowd of lively and noisy but good-humoured boys". Mission organizers had planned on 60 people attending - and about 800 did so. However, the meeting was held without incident and it was the forerunner of many youth-oriented activities, not least making sure that young people don't go off the rails. This "contemporary" account was actually dated May 30 1889. However, it seems very "contemporary" to us. This month Wesley Mission... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 9:49 PM Comment
Archive Article: The UN and Human Rights, December 98.
December 22, 2008 | With all the bad news about human rights violations nowadays, a sense of perspective is important to see that some progress has been made. December 10 was Human Rights Day: the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The State Attorney-General, the Hon Jeff Shaw QC MLC, spoke at a conference organized by the United Nations Association and the International Commission of Jurists. In a wide-ranging speech, the Attorney-General noted the gradual improvement in the status of Australia's indigenous people and the ending of racism in the country's immigration policy. To provide a contrast, Mr... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 9:24 PM Comment
Archive Article: We All Like Drinking Tea. 18th September 1998
December 22, 2008 | We all like drinking tea. But it's rare for a tea ceremony to be honoured in an Australian Catholic Cathedral. Last Saturday I attended a very moving ceremony at Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral, which had the theme "Peace Through a Bowl of Tea". Tea is a beverage enjoyed world wide. The custom of drinking tea was introduced into Japan from China in the 12th century. Zen monks used it to relieve drowsiness during meditation. Later on members of the aristocracy drank tea for its medicinal purposes. In the 16th century, Sen Rikyu brought to the simple custom of drinking tea,... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 9:05 PM Comment
Archive Article: Who Pays For Aged Care? July 1998
December 22, 2008 | There is a great deal of discussion about economic reform. But not too much attention is being given to how this will affect older Australians. Now there is a very useful publication which highlights some of the main issues. The NSW Committee on Ageing has published a book entitled Who Pays? The Impact of User Pays and Economic Policy on Older People. The Committee has made the book available to the general public and it is inviting public comment. The first half of the book is by Michael Fine and Jennifer Chalmers of the Social Policy Research Centre of the... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 9:00 PM Comment
Archive Article: India And Pakistan Nuclear Testing June 1998
December 22, 2008 | The Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests have again reminded the world of the dangers of nuclear weapons. But we ought not to forget the terrible legacy of the five other nuclear powers. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. The Russian Committee of that organization has published a book called Atom Declassified, dealing with the Soviet Union's nuclear history. Now that the Cold War is over and the Soviet Union has collapsed it is possible to get access to the top secret information on the Soviet Union's nuclear activities. The book sets... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 8:46 PM Comment
Drug and Alcohol Abuse - Archive Article Radio 2GB
December 13, 2008 | The Romans used to maintain control over their citizens by bread and circuses - the people were kept fed and entertained, and they were satisfied and so they did not rebel. 2,000 years later, we have not learned from that lesson. Sydney’s Wayside Chapel and some other churches have attracted much publicity this week with the so-called safe injecting room for heroin users. Wesley Mission has been among the range of organizations criticizing this experiment. Alongside all the criticisms that have been made, I would like to look at the big picture of drugs. Incidentally, it is worth bearing in... Full article »
Posted by: Amanda Foxon-Hill at 9:12 AM Comment
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