Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

"Meanwhile, on the other side of the cabinet, Peter and Amanda had found an illegal immigrant and were torturing it. Peter was taking money out of its pockets while Amanda wrapped it tightly in razor wire so that it could not move without cutting itself." From Chapter 4 of the Chronicles of Nadir, as told from the grave by Tom Lewis.

"Chinese President Hu Jintao’s upcoming visit to the United States, postponed following hurricane Katrina, will be different from previous bilateral meetings. This time, the countries’ presidents will meet at a time of intensive American attention to the US-China trade balance and other economic issues, such as protection of intellectual property rights." Dingli Shen

"Any good international investment banker knows that the end of April is a bad time to come peddling his services, for that is when the world’s finance ministers return home from the IMF meetings in Washington, chastened that risks to the global economy could spill over into their own backyards. Ministers are too busy recovering from their trauma to think about paying fat fees for big new international bond issues. Who wants to build up debt if there might be a financial crisis around the corner? Better to keep socking away US Treasury bills, even if the return is far lower than on most other investments." Kenneth Rogoff

"Easter is about Christ, a great man who saw the inherent worth of all human beings. Even tax collectors and sex workers and lepers, those whom the rest of society wrote off. Christ always made time for the saints of his time. If we want to be Christ-like, we should make time for the saints of our era." Irfan Yusuf

"Fear is probably the first human emotion that we experience and sadly, for some, if not many, it is also the last. And while Fear has always been a part of the human condition, there are times when it becomes most of what we are instead of a  very small part of what we can be." Roslyn Ross

"Was it Sukarno who maintained the conflict or the conflict that maintained Sukarno? Some observers, varying from the one-time American Ambassador to Indonesia, Howard Palfrey Jones, to ex-Dutch Prime Minister and High Commissioner in Indonesia, Louis Beel, have maintained the latter. The Papua issue, they say, was giving Sukarno his oxygen, kept him in the saddle and gave him wellnigh dictatorial powers. However this may be, conflict there was." Arie Brand

"Ethical investment or socially responsible investment is about making a conscience decision to direct money into companies that are at least not harmful and ultimately make a beneficial contribution to a more liveable society. Of course there are a wide range of opinions about what constitutes an ethical or sustainable investment. There is certainly a great amount of diversity amongst the ethical and socially responsible investment funds, some have religious convictions, others are traditional investment managers who have recognised the financial value of sustainability and there are deep green managers who take a no compromise approach and only support the strongly positive investments." James Thier

"Don’t panic. The questions will be tough, but your Prime Minister set up this inquiry, he set the terms of reference, so you haven’t got too much to worry about. The commissioner in charge can’t prosecute you. All he can do is allow you to be questioned for a few hours by a team of kick-arse lawyers and QCs." Daryl Mason

"The twentieth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident of April 26, 1986 is prompting a new wave of alarmist claims about its impact on human health and the environment. As has become a ritual on such commemorative occasions, the death toll is tallied in the hundreds of thousands, and fresh reports are made of elevated rates of cancer, birth defects, and overall mortality." Kalman Mizsei and Louisa Vinton

"Why not harness the asset that Webdiary is not only to its own community but to society as an whole. We have State and Federal budgets coming up. What do we, as Webdiarists want to see happen in those budgets? What would be the cost, how would we balance the competing interests and how would we fund it all?" Malcolm B Duncan

"The increasing climate-change danger is mainly due to developments in China. The country derives almost 76% of its energy needs from coal, burning almost 2.2 billion tons of it in 2005, with consumption set to rise to 2.6 billion tons by 2010. Moreover, car production soared from only 640,000 in 2000 to 3.1 million by 2005, and annual growth is expected to continue rising by 80%. Petroleum independent until 1993, China now consumes more and more imported petroleum every year, and power consumption is predicted to double by 2025, requiring an average of one new coal-fired plant to come on line each week." Orville Schell

"Mr Howard has said in a media conference this morning that he will appear personally before the Cole Inquiry if requested to do so. His trade and foreign ministers are due to appear today and tomorrow, to discuss the timeframes of transmission of information from their offices to that of the PM's." Richard Tonkin

"His colour changed again, this time to the shade that old parchment has after it has been scraped back by obliging novices in a convent. He shuddered and a moment later, his face changed back again to the normal colour of Cabinet Secretaries, finely lined by thin red veins pumping port and other spirituous liquors." From Chapter 3 of the Chronicles of Nadir, as told from the grave by Tom Lewis.

"The negotiations that year that the RTC-agreements called for remained utterly futile. The proposal of Indonesia was that sovereignty would be immediately transferred to that country with a vague promise of some kind of autonomous status for Papua in the future. The counter proposal of the Dutch was to transfer sovereignty to the then still existing Union between Indonesia and the Netherlands, leaving the de facto administration in Dutch hands, and to continue negotiations under the aegis of, for example, the United Nations." Arie Brand

"It was now certain that the transfer of sovereignty would in Dutch parliament not get the two third majority required if Papua was not, somehow, excepted from this transfer. The question Papua was therefore put last on the agenda for final negotiations with Indonesia and it almost wrecked the outcome of this so-called Round Table Conference. Both parties decided finally that the status of this region would be decided within a year in further negotiations. For the time being it remained under Dutch sovereignty. The Dutch had however not been able to obtain self-determination for some other regions." Arie Brand

"China is about to adopt its 11th five-year plan, setting the stage for the continuation of probably the most remarkable economic transformation in history, while improving the well-being of almost a quarter of the world’s population. Never before has the world seen such sustained growth; never before has there been so much poverty reduction." Joseph E Stiglitz

"It seems likely this trend will get worse as the new workplace relations laws work their way into operation. Lower wages, less job security, much higher housing costs and higher levels of private debt are a worrying combination which is hitting more people, particularly the younger ones who are less likely to have equity in housing as some protection." Senator Andrew Bartlett

"We already know that the greater freedom and equality a woman has then the better the society functions. Education is often the first benefit that women receive when they are recognised as equals and that translates into fewer babies, better health, improved diet and increased incomes for families. Everyone wins in a world where females get the same opportunities and benefits as males." Roslyn Ross

"About ten months ago I wrote an article about the Dutch and the way they store away their "outprocessed" asylum seekers, published both on the Project SafeCom website and in the New Matilda magazine - a practice so nasty that it almost beats putting them far and far away in hot and arid desert 'refugee jails' like Baxter and Woomera. This week the Dutch PM Jan Pieter Balkenende is visiting Australia, and ABC's Lateline is grabbing him for an interview tonight. I've asked Lateline to ask Balkenende some questions about the West Papua situation and about the asylum barges." Jack Smit

"The fact that Sukarno and Hatta had, in Saigon, a meeting with the Japanese commander in chief, Marshall Terauchi, a few weeks before the declaration of independence of the 17th August 1945, seemed suspicious. This could suggest that the creation of the 'Republic' was in fact a political manoeuvre, a last hurrah, of the Japanese. It is of course true that the 'Commission for the Preparation of the Independence of Indonesia' was formed under Japanese auspices." Arie Brand