In 1989 the United Nations developed a Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which Australia signed. The rights in this convention include the rights of children to be raised by their parents and to have a relationship with both parents even if they are separated. Beginning in South Australia in 1975, and subsequently…
Reliable studies indicate that children often adapt better to their parents’ divorce if they are allowed to have a continuing contact with their non-custodial parents. Indeed, a recurring theme in the field of child psychoanalysis is that children of divorced parents often desire to develop a meaningful relationship with their non-custodial parents. Three things should be taken into account when it comes to child custody. First, no children should be denied their basic right to develop a meaningful relationship with both parents. Second, no legal system has the legitimacy to prevent meaningful child-parent relationships to flourish, unless, of course, there…
Australia and Taiwan have a common interest in maintaining peace and stability in the Pacific region. The microstates of the Pacific often have a small economic base and are prone to destabilisation. Their governmental structures are often weak, meaning that their resources can be exploited by foreign interests that have no interest on the long-term effects of their actions on the islands’ economies. Taiwan is the target of a storm brewing over the Pacific. Resources such as timber and fisheries immediately spring to mind. Criminal elements, including drug smugglers and gangs dealing in weapons, plus people smuggling, can take advantage…
Panama severed formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan on June 13 this year, ending over 100 years of cordial relations between the Central-American nation and the Republic of China. Beijing’s cheque book has become too fat to ignore and observers in Taiwan fear that Panama will be only the first in a cascade of Central-American nations dumping Taiwan to gain a slice of Beijing’s pie. Beijing and Taipei had reached a de facto diplomatic truce when Ma Ying-jeou was president. Ma, who represented the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, upheld the “1992 Consensus”, which meant that there was only one China,…
U.S. President Bill Clinton is said to have coined the phrase, “it’s the economy, stupid”. It was assumed that he had just discovered the importance of economics. Before we rush to judge Donald, don’t forget that the world through a crystal ballis seen upside down. The same President succumbed to the persuasion of neo-liberal advisers (Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers, then respectively chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve and Secretary of the Treasury) to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act – legislation that had protected the United States from a banking crisis since the 1940s. The abandonment of that act helped project the…
Euthanasia: watch your language! Reading Jane Munro’s article in News Weekly (May 6, 2017), “Rare win for the family at UN women’s commission”, the words which echoed strongly with me were: “Language is vital to United Nations documents. Every word is scrutinised and carefully evaluated.” Language of course is the thing which really separates us from the other created species. Language is used to express oneself. Language is indeed vital to the human being. Even the United Nations understands this. Indeed so important is language that it is used to “normalise” anything we wish to have normalised. We saw this…
