Parliamentary Contrast: Labor Cynicism vs Jacinta Price’s Courage

We recently endured budget week. There were no surprises as such because, as seems usual nowadays, everything of consequence had already been leaked to the press. But some of the detail turned out to be alarming Labor has recently found another hook to hang its profligate spending on – it’s called “intergenerational equity”. But it […]

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Little Girl Lost

Every now and then something really gets under my skin! I am far from being a perfect human being. I have faults ad flaws and vulnerabilities like every human on this earth. But by and large, with some help from significant role models, and a life of deep contemplation, I have learnt not to be […]

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Paradise Lost

There seems to be an ineluctable component of the human psyche that compels us to pursue Nirvana, the ultimate state of human well-being. In the past most major religions had mapped out a way to get there by spiritual paths. Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism had their own formulae about how to access Heaven, […]

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Trump’s Dilemma with Iran

Donald Trump’s postulated six week war against Iran has been dramatically inconclusive. Despite the USA’s military might and Israel’s formidable defence capability, a convincing defeat of Iran seems illusory. No doubt the USA and Israel have severely curtailed Iran’s military capability. And few of us would believe that is a bad thing, But they have […]

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Innovation, Discovery and Invention


When you peruse the history of human civilisation, our progress has been driven by innovation, discovery and invention. There can be no doubt that many of us and our forebears have benefited from the serendipitous distribution of the earth’s resources. We benefitted because we were in close proximity to fertile land, abundant wildlife, reliable water […]

November 13, 2011

Where Are The Free-Range Kids?


When my children were young we lived in a small country town. We travelled regularly to visit family and friends and for our holidays. Our trips normally took us through a larger town where it was often convenient to stop to have something to eat and allow the children to play awhile after being cooped […]

November 5, 2011

When People Matter


This week’s essay has connections with my previous two blogs in different ways. I suspect you will easily make those connections as you read on. I was reading some material that I had archived and stumbled across a quote from James Autry. Autry, an American Fortune 500 CEO (and poet) published a book in 1992 […]

October 30, 2011

Some Thoughts on Productivity


I often venture off into my blog essays pursuing some ideal or espousing arguments that I often feel I am poorly qualified to make. But this week I am going to propound on something I based my career on, and probably egotistically believe I have at least a few insights into. I spent at least […]

October 23, 2011

Some Wisdom from Steve Jobs


With the recent passing of Steve Jobs there has been a lot in the press about his life. He was in many ways a remarkable man. I don’t know much about him and I have no desire to deify him. But in celebrating his life one of the papers published an edited text of an […]

October 16, 2011

The Attribution of Intent


Suppose I am driving in the city and have decided it would be useful to merge in to the outside lane of traffic. Just as I am about to do so the car behind and to my right seems to accelerate to prevent me from taking advantage of the gap in the traffic. I brake […]

October 8, 2011

Taking Offense


Because of its implications on our rights to free speech, I have been following with some interest the Andrew Bolt case. He was recently convicted under the Racial Discrimination Act of racial vilification. In his judgment against Bolt on Wednesday, Judge Mordecai Bromberg stated, “I am satisfied that fair skinned aboriginal people, or some of […]

October 1, 2011

Paradise Lost


I am an inveterate reader of the religious historian, Karen Armstrong. Her writing is largely very readable, intelligent and well-informed by prodigious research. In one of her books I recall her pointing out that Heaven was largely unknown to the characters of the Old Testament. They did not seem to aspire to eternal life in […]

September 25, 2011

Science and Religion


I have written before about the conundrum that the universe poses us. Its history commenced spectacularly fourteen billion years ago with the big bang and out of that history evolved our own, the history of humankind. And of course the story of humankind and its earlier hominid relatives is a very recent one. Creatures somewhat […]

September 17, 2011

Coming Out Better and Not Bitter


This week’s essay contains some sentiments that are closely related to what I wrote last week. It is stimulated by something the good Dr Phil has taught me. He tells me that when we experience trauma we should make sure we “come out better and not bitter.” Whilst this is wise advice it is somewhat […]

September 4, 2011