The Dualism Quandary

Having studied physics, chemistry and mathematics, I have always been intrigued by what is the nature of the natural world. Conventional science would have us believe that science is about “discovering” the Laws of Nature that have governed the Universe since its creation. If you are religious you probably believe that God laid down these […]

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Guarding Our National Values

I am now in my eightieth year and remain a loyal and grateful Australian. As others have rightfully said, “To be born Australian is akin to winning the Lotto”. But being Australian has become more problematic in recent decades. As a young man, I and my peers were unabashedly patriotic. Sometimes our beliefs might have […]

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How the Middle East Succumbed to the Enigmatic Donald Trump!

As I write, Hamas seems to have agreed to a peace deal brokered by Donald Trump. This is a great achievement for Trump and, although many things could still go wrong in prosecuting the peace plan, we should give credit where credit is due. The struggle between Israel and Hamas was a seemingly intransigent problem […]

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The Perversity of Transgender Politics

It is such a strange phenomenon, Transgender Politics. It is built on the fantasy that human beings can voluntarily choose their gender. Many other aspects of our biological endowment are not challenged in such a way. I haven’t heard for example of brown-eyed people demanding that they should be called blue-eyed or short people demanding […]

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What’s Happening to Our Democracy?


In previous blogs I have bemoaned the fact that many public debates are being stifled by the fact that some minority groups with particular vested interests seek to have their particular points of view from being challenged by indulging in pseudo acts of self-suffering which they term “taking offense”. That in itself is a curb, […]

March 25, 2012

In Praise of Women


We have recently, on Thursday 8 March, celebrated International Women’s Day. This event apparently has been celebrated since 1909. Many countries have public holidays in recognition of their women folk. Some of you might occasionally suspect that I am a misogynist, sexist, chauvinist. But even I can find substantive reasons to celebrate the accomplishments and […]

March 21, 2012

The Tyranny of the In-Tray


It is one of the paradoxes that I encounter when coaching executives that those who seem to want help with time management are invariably those who are best at it! It seems to be that if time management is something you care about you probably have already done more than most to ensure you are […]

March 10, 2012

Who Has Got The Problem?


I suppose I am going to go to great lengths to bore you this week. I seem predestined to go over material I have already given you. You might criticise me for insulting your intelligence! But I am moved to talk again about the cowardly tactic of taking offense and the demeaning practice of acting […]

March 4, 2012

The Beginning of a Classical Tragedy


Part 1 – The Journey to ETS The old captain and his crew had been retired. They had sailed many journeys and brought back great tribute. But he had been succeeded by Maximus Rudderless the young-faced commander so popular with the people. The citizens waited in great expectation. This commander had a new crew, although […]

February 25, 2012

Fuzzy Logic


My blog essay comes this week with a warning attached. Engineers, economist and accountants are advised that this material may cause offence. (To tell the truth I will probably be disappointed if it doesn’t!) As my writings will demonstrate there are many areas where my knowledge is deficient. For some time now I have been […]

February 18, 2012

Getting over Racism


In recent weeks there have been discussions about racism in Australia, particularly with respect to indigenous Australians as a consequence of the committee report on proposed changes to the constitution and then as a result of the appalling incident in Canberra where dissidents from the so-called aboriginal tent embassy confronted the prime minister and the […]

February 4, 2012

Social Inclusion


There has been some rather interesting discussion in the papers in the last few weeks about the notion of “Social Inclusion”. In the recent cabinet reshuffle of the Gillard government, the unfortunate Mark Butler was made Minister for Social Inclusion. At a press conference afterwards the new Minister found great difficulty in explaining what the […]

January 29, 2012

The Three Commandments


You may remember (but this is more than likely just my ego surfacing again) that I wrote a blog essay a few weeks back which I titled “The Power of Three”. In this essay I conjectured if Readers Digest Condensed Books Division had got their hand on the Old Testament they might have distilled the […]

January 22, 2012

A Little More on Aging


It seems to me that I have written something on this subject before some twelve months or more ago. But of course now that I am older my perspective might have changed somewhat. Was it Samuel Johnson who said something to the effect, “That nothing focuses the mind like a hanging!”? No doubt those whose […]

January 14, 2012