Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

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.