If we are to look at Australia’s economic progress over the last thirty years we might conclude that we have done quite well. Australia’s per capita GDP over that period has risen from 14th highest in the world to 7th. This is something that we should feel grateful for – but it doesn’t tell the […]
I have written before about my great concern for indigenous Australians. It cannot be denied that from the time of European settlement in Australia our Aboriginal population has suffered terrible injustice. This injustice, compounded by the well-meaning but largely unsuccessful interventions by Governments of all persuasions, has resulted in an indigenous population suffering severe disadvantage. […]
I was gently chided last week for relating to my readers a story told by Richard Wilhelm. Drawing on his experiences in China he described how a Rainmaker was brought in to bring relief to an area in severe drought. The rainmaker was purportedly able to affect the weather by bringing his own mind into […]
Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930) was a sinologist, theologian and missionary. One of his accomplishments was to translate the Tao Te Ching into German (It was then subsequently translated into other languages). He was a personal friend of Carl Jung. He spent more than twenty years in China becoming fluent in Chinese and was a great champion […]
Having not done so for some months, I thought this week I might return to the subject of politics. There was always the temptation to comment on international affairs but it all seems so depressing. Mind you our politics might not seem much better. Except in politics we have at least one of the greatest […]
Years ago I stayed at a pub in Melbourne. I went down to the bar and had a drink while I was waiting for a colleague to join me for dinner. I ordered a beer at the bar and took a sip whilst looking around familiarising myself. All seemed to be pretty standard until I […]
Several weeks ago I wrote an essay about time. I made the point that the most popular scientific theory of creation, the “Big Bang Theory”, postulates that time commenced with the creation of matter with the Big Bang. I theorised that perhaps the Big Bang is an artifice that we need to understand creation because […]
Can you still remember the Arab Spring? Four years ago courageous citizens in a number of Middle Eastern countries took direct action to free themselves of the oppressive yoke of tyranny. The more optimistic and idealistic of Western observers of this phenomenon heralded this movement as the “Arab Spring”, confident that the overthrow of tyranny […]
This is not going to be a very erudite essay. I promise, for those of you more scientifically inclined, I will write something more substantial on the topic of “Time” at a later date. But before I do that I want to make some more subjective comments on this most arcane and difficult topic. I […]
It is a strange quirk of the human condition that we almost universally romanticise the past. T H White captured the sentiment in his lovely book The Once and Future King. The myth of King Arthur and Camelot reflect our desire for an idealised past. As in many such myths (including the Christian one) we […]