Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

The big end of town looks after the big end of town, under AWAs or otherwise. If you are from town’s other end, Mr Howard would have you believe that your tailor-made AWA will look after you, too. Then again, if you believe that, he might like to hear from you personally. There is a fantastic bridge near his Sydney residence.

John Howard's 'vision for 2020' seems from the news reports to have been more about what the future isn't (it isn't about climate change, it isn't about workers rights) than what it will be. Here's the full text for your comments.

Following yet another run of problems over the last few days we have moved to another hosting provider. Update: password system now fixed.

Download a copy here. Still infested with ideas that are based on the hope that the rains will come back one day (despite the predictions in the IPCC WGII report that the long-term rainfall trend is down for (at least) the rest of this century).

It would appear that the system is failing to send out passwords for new accounts etc - and we currently can't work out why: if you have registered but not received a password, email  admin@webdiary.com.au and I will set a new password for you ...

In May and June 2007 the Gandhian/activist wing of the Australian Peace Movement is going to produce two nonviolent action programs which promote and develop a grass-roots resistance to war.

A meeting with the World Bank International Advisory Group on the Nam Theun 2 Dam in Laos

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and FirstWatch International have undertaken a project to produce profiles of countries that have the potential to be a "Nuclear Strategic Concern." Last Wednesday they listed Australia.

The extensively-leaked IPCC WGII report on impacts was released on Good Friday.The draft full report (including the 61-pages of the full Australia/NZ chapter) was briefly available on the WGII website, but has now gone again: the Summary for Policymakers is now available here.

March site statistics and financials

The latest update from the Democratic Audit program at ANU on how our democracy is working.

"The circumstances of the last 24 hours indicate the fairly shambolic nature of the proceedings."

Leaders of the European Union gathered in Berlin this weekend for a grand birthday feast celebrating half a century of European integration. To mark the occasion, they have revealed The Berlin Declaration.

These notes were prepared by Ed Haber for the Third Voice Alliance ...

The fight to save Lao's environment is being quietly lost and the disappearance of a significant local environmental advocate may have just drawn the line in the forest.

By way of introduction to the speech Petro Georgiou gave in Melbourne last Wednesday, I'd like to share something of my own recent experience of the effort taken by people set on becoming part of our society, citizens of our country, to study and learn the English language.

"Upon coming to power in March 1996 the Coalition removed reference to Australia being a “good international citizen” as an objective of Australian foreign policy. Examination of the Coalition’s 11 years in office confirms that omission was deliberate." Robert McClelland MP.

Paul Krugman recently delivered the keynote speech at the Economic Policy Institute's second Agenda for Shared Prosperity event. Webdiarist Peter Hindrup recommends we read this interesting speech and open a conversation about it as "apart from anything else it might just shake some of regulars from their entrenched positions and create a real debate."

How do you feel about the idea that the new work at Spaceport Woomera isn't really about the conquest of space, but actually the control of other nations? What if South Australia is set to become a base from which the US could deploy troops to anywhere in the world?

Women's basic rights are being rapidly eroded in Iraq and occupation forces seem to have forgotten their promises of empowerment.

There's been a big effort by the Member for Bennelong and his boys to beat up this Brian Burke business into a bigger deal this past week. We'll see if it will all blow over in a news cycle, but beyond all the bluster about anyone and everyone who's been within a bull's roar of this bloke, there is a much bigger issue.

They are simply unable to see themselves in Hicks’ shoes. While they hate the boyhood image they see in David, their self-image is that of a schoolyard gang of bullies.

The latest update from the Democratic Audit program at ANU on how our democracy is working.

February statistics and financials, plus news on Project Syndicate.

From the end of February 2007, Webdiary will no longer be publishing articles sourced from Project Syndicate, including those from J Bradford DeLong. Subsequent articles in Professor DeLong's Anatomy of the Global Economy series can be accessed via the Project Syndicate site here.

We ceased publishing P-S-sourced articles at the end of February. Webdiarists interested in following the writings of messrs Singer, Sachs, Stiglitz, Rogoff, Nye, DeLong and others can do so at the Project Syndicate site.

A number of thoughtful observers have expressed puzzlement in recent months about financial markets’ perceptions of risk. While markets have judged today’s world  – especially the dollar and securities linked to it – to have low risk when viewed in historical perspective, geopolitical risks in fact appear to be large.

Over the last few years, my input to any discussions on "how would we know if this feared big crash is on us" was "when the Dow falls more than 300 in one day". Soon we'll know if I was right.

"The fundamental problem with the ICJ’s decision is its unrealistically high standard of proof for finding Serbia to have been legally complicit in genocide.": Antonio Cassese, the first President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia