Big families always used to be seen as a good thing — even a blessing. But increasingly population-controllers are telling us that they are a bad thing — even a curse. And the voices in the West calling for radical curtailment of family size certainly remind us of places like China, where rhetoric has…
It is two years since the civil war ended in Sri Lanka between the majority Sinhalese government in Colombo and the Tamil minority struggling for autonomy in their north-east homeland. The Tamils were crushed by overwhelming, undiscriminating firepower that rained down on them from the Sinhalese air force and ranks of artillery. Only when the guns fell silent were civilians separated from soldiers. The former were herded into largely known concentration camps while the fate of the latter is still unknown. The entire Tamil population of the north-east was caught up in the conflict. According to the Catholic bishop of…
Australia’s early chief of counter-espionage, Brigadier Charles Spry, reportedly warned Britain’s state security service, MI5, in 1954 that Britain should seriously consider withholding intelligence information from Australia in the event that Labor leader Dr H.V. Evatt became prime minister. Spry’s reported concerns came to light on April 4 with the release in London of…
Russia is being ruled by a “rich and debauched” elite, according to the man who ruled the Soviet Union before its break-up 21 years ago. According to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the main culprit for his country’s failure to democratise and prosper is Vladimir Putin, Russia’s current prime minister and former president. Gorbachev…
News Weekly, in its recent cover-story (“Build new dams now!”, February 5), has drawn attention to the scarcity of dams in Australia. Major infrastructure building in Australia has been missing for the last 30 years. This has been facilitated by politicians deliberately removing technical bureaucrats from the top managerial positions and replacing them with those…
Although toppled Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak was careful to preserve links with the United States, established 40 years ago by his assassinated predecessor Anwar Sadat’s non-belligerency deal with Israel, Egypt’s record was never one of a loyal ally. Egypt benefited enormously from its Israel peace accord and Sadat’s decision to expel Soviet advisers so as…