In the history of Western civilisation, the notion of undertaking paid work for a living is a relatively modern idea. Hunter/gatherers worked somewhat cooperatively in their various tribes and to a certain degree shared the fruits of the hunt, the catch and the various gatherings. But these were subsistence societies who only occasionally traded and […]

I titled my previous blog essay Towards a More Civil Society. In that essay, among other things, I deplored the curtailment of free speech in our universities. There have been many instances in recent years of Universities avoiding confronting students with opinions counter to the conventional wisdom of the students and faculty members. Students are […]

I have a concept I would like to discuss. The general premise is this – if I feel bad and I have no discernible physical ailment, it must be someone’s fault! Not mine, of course, because it would be totally irrational to believe that I would willingly undermine my own sense of personal well-being. Someone […]

I have growing concerns about some aspects of our society. There are a number of worrying trends but at this stage I will try to elucidate only four of these. I wonder if it might be my aging that makes me more disgruntled and dissatisfied. Have I become more conservative? Well that is probably true, […]

“But Jesus said, suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come unto me: for to such belongeth the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:4 In the archaic language used in older translations of the Bible, the word “suffer” means to “allow”. In our remote indigenous communities we seem unable to make this translation and […]

Our lives are plagued with emotions. Our positive emotions, such as joy, hope, love, kindness and so on, provide a platform for a meaningful and fulfilling existence. But they are countered and often outweighed by our negative emotions – fear, hate, anxiety, anger and so on – which contrive to submerge us in misery and […]

Depression seems to be the plague of the 20th and 21st centuries. There is no physical or mental dysfunction that has such an ubiquitous and deleterious impact. The World Health Organisation has predicted that by 2020, unipolar depression will be second largest health problem in the world. Unfortunately, psychiatrists and psychologists have overwhelmingly come to […]

During my career in the Electricity Industry, Australia had some of the lowest electricity prices in the world. In Queensland for many years, under the guidance of Electricity Commissioner Neil Galway, we had the challenging target of keeping increases in electricity charges to less than half of CPI increases. As a result for many years, […]

In the lead up to the same-sex marriage decision, Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull acknowledged that some people with conventional religious beliefs believed that legislating for same-sex marriage would impinge on their ability to freely advocate and act on their religious convictions. Turnbull assured them that he would ensure that their rights to religious freedom would […]

When I was young, our family house was only a hundred metres or so away from the railway line. As well, my father worked for Queensland Rail for many years. Consequently it wasn’t surprising that I took an interest in trains, rolling stock and all that goes on above and around the rail tracks. In […]