Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

|| Kenneth Davidson says politicians threaten Parliament || Scott Borgerson on the geo-politics of global warming    || Michael O'Hanlon on progress in Iraq    || Roger Cohen on Europe's move to the right || Max Boot on what to do about 'our thug' in Azerbaijan || Thomas Friedman says Iraqis find the US a bad democratic || Report on US refusal to allow Darfur report at UN || David Aaronovitch on health fatalities and the flu scare  || Reem Nafie on torture in Guantanamo Bay || Interview with Orhan Pamuk ahead of his trial ||

Today four years ago a boat on its way through the sometimes treacherous waters off the Indonesian coast sunk within the Australian Government's Search and Rescue Zone for ships in distress. Some people were rescued. Several people cancelled their plans to board the massively overcrowded vessel - and are alive today as a result. Three hundred and fifty-three people, mostly Iraqi and Afghan asylum seekers, including 146 children, drowned. ... In memoriam...

"How did multiculturalism go from being hailed as an antidote to alienation to being accused of aiding and abetting terrorism, the scourge of the new century?" Petro Georgiou MP

"It is now  a well established aspect of Australian history that Catholic Social Teaching, particularly Pope Leo XIII's  teaching on the just wage in Rerum Novarum, was a significant  influence on Australian policy makers a century ago when an Industrial Relations system and mechanism was set up to balance the interests of workers and businesses. ... The Howard Government is currently proposing sweeping changes to the Australian industrial relations landscape. For the first time the Government has the numbers in the Senate to bring in such changes without the support of minor party and independent senators who held the balance of power in the Senate for over two decades. These changes have the capacity to fundamentally alter the fabric of Australian workplaces and society at large. This briefing paper aims to outline the basic changes being put forward and in light of Catholic Social Teaching offer critical comment on the changes and their likely effects." Social Action Office, Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes, Queensland.

|| Ross Gittins on the irrational world of economics || Alan Kohler on the impact of technology on media laws  || Robert Reich on the replacement for Alan Greenspan  || Report says China to tackle economic inequality || Hatem Mukhlis says Iraq constituion will breed chaos || Paul Krugman on free-trade and the US wage freeze || Correct link for the devil and the school band || Report says Bush to appoint someone to run the US (satire) ||