Articles – Archive

This has been Seniors Week and we have been acknowledging the contribution that older Australians make to the community. ...

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Australia has a very low murder rate and it has remained low for a century. But if the Northern Territory figures are taken on their own, then the Territory has one of the world's highest murder rates. It is mainly violence between Indigenous Peoples, and alcohol, other drug...

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Switzerland has voted in the last few days to join the United Nations. It will become the UN's 190th member (with an independent East Timor in due course to become the 191st member). Switzerland is governed partly by refer...

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The State Budget is the most important set of decisions affecting disadvantaged people in this State each year. Each year the Government receives some good advice from the community sector - and this year is no different. ...

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As we are seeing in Afghanistan at present, winning a war may be easier than winning the peace. Military operations need to be planned with the end in view and with the determination to create a good peace. The Sydney-base...

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The schools are now getting back to work - including the country's largest school for older Australians. But unlike many younger Australians who may not be quite so keen on school, these older Australians love learning. Th...

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We are hearing a great deal about refugees from Afghanistan. We should not forget that there is also a refugee crisis in Africa. A few days ago, I was at the Sydney Community Consultation at which The Hon Philip Ruddock MP...

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Looking for lost relatives can be a long process. But then suddenly there is success. This may be a matter of God's timing. About three years ago, a Karen Clinch from Sydney rang ...

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A book has been launched entitled: "The International Commission of Jurists: The Pioneering Years". Its author, Lucian Weeramantry, a lawyer operating in the US, Sri Lanka and England, is a former member of staff of the International Commission of Jurists. The International ...

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The international tourist industry is having problems both because of the global recession and the fears of foreign travel due to the September 11 attacks. The Japanese foreign travel industry is down about 43 per cent. The good news is that this is the ...

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Christmas is a time for getting together with family, reflecting on the year passed and making plans for the future. Unfortunately for some it is also a time of great pain when the stress and isolation of being homeless, alone or addicted is too much to bare. This weeks e-ne...

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Wesley Mission is one of the country's largest providers of accommodation for homeless persons. Unfortunately, current trends suggest that the Mission's work will continue to grow. ...

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Our thoughts this week have very much been of Australian service personnel who have served in war. I have been reading about one Australian peacekeeper, who was a returned serviceman who went on to become a major - if poorly recognized - asset to Australia's foreign policy....

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Some events occur which get little publicity at the time and it is only in the long sweep of history that people can see that in fact a major event has taken place. Such an event has taken place in the last few days - and Australia missed out on it. ...

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In the United States, a person turning 100 used to be congratulated by name on the TV programme "Good Morning America'. Now there are so many Americans turning 100, a person has to be 105 before they get this national recognition. ...

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Communities are more than just the physical spaces in which we live, work and play. They are as much about the people we interact with in different facets of our lives, as they are about geographic locations. A new report brings all this to life in a very useful way. ...

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Does terrorism work? It certainly causes a great deal of suffering. But does it actually work? Some of the debate since September 11 last year has been based on the idea that one must use force against force. The implicati...

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There has been a proposal to permit the sale of alcohol at petrol stations and supermarkets. This is the triumph of economic rationalism over common sense. The head of the ...

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Wesley Mission has had another very successful Spring Fair. It is worth looking at this well known Sydney institution in a larger historical and social context. The Mission's Spring Fair began in 1914, around the time of t...

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The recent World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, finished up with mixed results. But the international environmental situation is not entirely gloomy. ...

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I have just returned from New York City for September 11-related events. As always, I very much enjoyed my time in the city. It is one of the world's most exciting cities. Unfortunately, it is also a city with major pollution problems. ...

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The United States is currently mediating a dispute over water between Israel and Lebanon. This is an indication of how disputes in the Middle East may occur as easily over water as over oil. ...

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The world has seen many changes in the last 25 years. A few days I did a survey of some of the major changes in world politics. The ...

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Some of us have for many years warned about the economic implications of an aging population. The Australian Government has now responded with a major statement. It looks as though the Australian Government will be able to cope with the aging Baby Boomers - but the Baby Boom...

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There is increasing debate over whether the United States will attack Iraq to get rid of Saddam Hussein. How has the US got itself into a position where a further war seems to be the only answer? Back in 1991, when the US ...

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The Enron financial scandal in the United States has led to a large amount of soul-searching. I have just been reading an excellent analysis of what went wrong with the type of people recruited to work at Enr...

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In the recent heated debate over whether Australia should ratify the treaty for the International Criminal Court, there were fears that Australians could end up in ...

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The greatest chance of there being a deliberate nuclear war is now between India and Pakistan. The flashpoint will be over Kashmir. The problem over Kashmir goes back to the winding up of the British Empire in the Indian s...

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July 7 is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday. This is an opportunity to reflect on the place of Indigenous Peoples in Australia. One area of concern is the high rate of unemployment among Indigenous Peoples. ...

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The Dalai Lama was recently in Australia and his lecture tour attracted enormous interest. A colleague of mine has asked me why there is so much support for the Tibetan cause in Australia. This is an interesting question - given that there is so little at first sight to attr...

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The Uniting Church has turned 25. Its 10th anniversary generated a great deal of interest. There has not been quite so much excitement this time. Perhaps this is a good sign that the Uniting ...

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Australia is becoming a country of many faiths. How are to improve the quality of religious dialogue? The current edition of "Christian Social Action", published by the US Methodist Church, has an article by Washington DC ...

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There are still miracles today. People who work with recovering alcoholics see miracles all the time. God is at work in this world partly through the lives that get saved from the evils of alcohol. The Drug Awareness Counc...

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East Timor has now been welcomed into the international community. This is the first country of the new millennium. How many other new countries we will see in the coming years? On the day East Timor came into existence I ...

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East Timor is now the world's newest country. The current independence celebrations are a vindication of all the campaigning that a number of us have done ...

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The Commonwealth Budget is always studied closely by Wesley Mission. Next Tuesday night's will be no exception - especially for its impact on social welfare. In particul...

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The bills from all the Christmas and New Year celebrations are now coming in. $12 billion was charged up to credit cards during the festive season. Here is an excellent book to help people to cope with their financial excesses. ...

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There is never a dull moment at Wesley Mission. One can never know where an enquiry may lead. Some months ago, a Karen Clinch of Richmond NSW rang Wesley Mission to get some information about Dr Frank Rayward, who was the ...

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The controversy over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is simply the most recent in a long line of events in the troubled history of chemical and biological warfare. The world's first anthrax bomb was invented by the British and dropped on a Scottish island. If the rest of ...

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Children are increasingly victims of armed conflicts - both as the targets and even as the perpetrators of violence. Although victimizing children in times of war is not new, the scale and scope of this process is today without precedent. ...

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How does Australia relate to Asia? This has been a standard theme in Australian politics for a long time - and there still seems to be no clear answer. I have just been reading an excellent book that sets out clearly the background to this issue. ...

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There is a great deal of debate over foreign aid from Australia to Third World countries. But there is very little attention given to the way that Third World countries pay more money back to the rich western countries than they get in foreign aid. In the early 1970s there w...

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We live in a world that is awash with statistics. But are we getting the right statistics? I don't mean that the figures are wrong - but that we may be getting right figures about the wrong issues? The ...

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December 10 next week will be the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is the basic document of the global human rights revolution. The Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the Uni...

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An ounce of prevention is better than a ton of cure. If prevention is so good, then why is the State Government so reluctant to finance it? ...

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Alcohol kills more Australians per year than were killed throughout the entire Vietnam war. In NSW alone, in a recent annual survey, 141 people were killed and more than 300 were seriously injured in drinking-related accidents. ...

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The Australian Minister for Family Services, Warwick Smith, announced last November that the Government would as a matter of priority commence the development of a National Strategy for an Aging Australia. That is a good decision. It is worth noting that New Zealand has alre...

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Some lawyers make money suing the manufacturers of cigarettes. Will they eventually be able to make money suing the manufacturers of alcohol? The recent NSW Alcohol Summit was a welcome - if long delayed - official recogni...

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A week is a long time in politics. Political history is full of stories of meteorites: meteors that have flashed through the skies, burnt out and then crashed to earth. Pauline Hanson is a meteor. For the past two years I ...

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The Wesley Institute Graduation ceremony took place last weekend. It is amazing to see how much has been achieved in only 15 years. Wesley Mission has been involved in education for well over a century. Indeed, at one poin...

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