““Many dangerous youths would normally yell and scream at us “we do not need you RAMSI, go home”. Mr Onisimo said there is a failure to regain the trust and…
Recurrent themes in Australian politics since the events of 9/11 and the beginning of the euphemistically though erroneously named ‘war on terror’ have been national security, border protection and exporting…
In my travels over the last week drumming up support for a Royal Commission into the Australian Federal Police I found myself in the pub at Bribbaree. While sitting barracking…
An interesting comparison drawn from the Bolt judgement. Yesterday marked a line in the sand in Australian journalism. It’s just one line, but a significant one, with the finding of…
Post update The Australian Government has today 28 September, 2011 at 7:30PM announced that it has invoked its right to immunity from prosecution in the Solomon Islands over a secret…
When we look at a map of the world’s major trouble spots we see or at least I see, a white footprint superimposed over each and every one of these…
There is no question about racism being a profound form of ignorance, but when it becomes something that informs employment decisions by one of the world’s biggest accounting firms, Ernst…
Little men with little minds and little imagination go through life in little ruts, smugly resisting all changes which would jar their little worlds. (Zig Ziglar) The following two comments…
The progress of human society, has in different ages, presented abundance of horrors and abundance of vices, which in treating history properly, we are obliged to pass over gently, and…
The following article appeared in Friday’s Jakarta Post: Maj. Gen. Wisnu Bawatenaya has been appointed to become commander of the Indonesian Army Special Forces (Kopassus) replacing Maj. Gen. Lodewijk F…
The following is a modified version of an article which first appeared in the Fiji Sun on 12 September, 2011 and which Blak and Black has linked to since publishing…
“Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris” (Now this bell, tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.) I have long loved John Donne’s Meditation XVII; it remains pause for…
Callahan and colleagues (2002)[i] suggested that organizations must focus on three trust-building tactics – accountability, reliance, and aspiration – to cultivate helpful internal whistleblowing procedures. These principles provide people and…
On 30 November 2010, the International Court of Justice delivered its Judgment in the case of Ahmadou Sadio Diallo (Republic of Guinea v. Democratic Republic of the Congo). The International…
I’m writing this post in response to some comments that have been left on Blak and Black over the last week or so. The comments are interesting from a number…
I have borrowed the title from Michael Stolleis' oxymoronically titled book Justice within Injustice which is about, oxymoronically, justice in the Third Reich. After having read Stolleis' essays, in which…
In the 1960s Donald Horne observed, "Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck." This observation was followed in the 1990s by Paul Keating when…
Following is a press release issued by the YIndjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation on 4 August, 2011. Under the heading: THE FACTS ABOUT FMG’s PROPOSED ‘SOLOMON HUB’ IN YINDJIBARNDI COUNTRY. I have…
In 1896 J. B. Moore, with what turned out to be prophetic insight, drew attention to the possibility of the immigration laws of the United States being utilised for the…
The following is a letter I received from a reader of Blak and Black and the Fiji Sun, talking about his experiences as a Pakistani/Australian living in Australia’s Capital, Canberra: Dear…