Tag: Pearls and Irritations

Julian Assange

First the CIA, now the US Dept of Justice, could take actions that would see WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange dead – Pearls and Irritations

_Assange_02-C By 30C3_Applebaum_und_Assange_02.jpg: Ordercrazyderivative work: Hic et nunc - This file was derived from: 30C3 Applebaum und Assange 02.jpg:, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30439311

The stakes in the Assange case could not be higher for journalists everywhere. The outcome will determine whether the US can seek to extradite any journalist of any nationality, from anywhere with which it has an extradition treaty, for disclosing US war crimes.

And if Assange is extradited and forced to pleading guilty to some charge in exchange for a relatively lenient Australian served sentence, it implicitly endorses the US claim that its laws have global reach over journalists everywhere. There goes any “free press” and any real prospect of keeping power accountable.

Finally, unless the Australian Government can stop the extradition by the UK or the prosecution by the US or both, it will also show that our ‘alliance’ with them is little more than our subservience.

Source: First the CIA, now the US Dept of Justice, could take actions that would see WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange dead – Pearls and Irritations

Informed Comment

Reconstructing Australia’s economy from the wreckage left by the Coalition – Weekly Roundup – Pearls and Irritations

Floater

Beyond rent controls: can we have a market where tenants are treated with respect? On of the subjects of Ian McAuley’s weekly round up.

Source: Reconstructing Australia’s economy from the wreckage left by the Coalition – Weekly Roundup – Pearls and Irritations

Informed Opinion

Australia: The clever country? – Pearls and Irritations

Top view of a forest of trees forming the map of Australia. Top view. Environmental , Ecology, and sustainability concepts.

In the 1980s, then Prime Minister Bob Hawke told us we should try to become the clever country. Instead, we have become the stupid country. We now have the trade pattern of a poor developing nation. It is obvious that the decade of Coalition government has moved us away from that goal, giving us instead a country that is less caring, less fair, less focussed on community and less able to respond to accelerating climate change.

Source: Australia: The clever country? – Pearls and Irritations

Informed Opinion

The Australian retreat from Asia is becoming a rout – Pearls and Irritations

Malcolm Fraser at Gough Whitlam oration 2012

Eleven years ago I gave the speech below. I was then pessimistic about our understanding of Asia. The situation has got markedly worse since then, writ large in the unremitting attacks on China stemming from ignorance and parochialism, particularly in our White Man’s Media.

Source: The Australian retreat from Asia is becoming a rout – Pearls and Irritations