Virginia Tilley   14 December 2011   The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that the Arab Spring is 
threatening the safety of Christian communities in the Middle East.[1] He 
did not realise it, but this public warning—much as President Obama’s UN 
speech in September[2] struck the death knell for US credibility in the 
Middle [...]

By Chris Hedges, December 06, 2011 “Truth Dig” -  Chris Hedges gave an abbreviated version of this talk Saturday morning in Liberty Square in New York City as part of an appeal to Trinity Church to turn over to the Occupy Wall Street movement an empty lot, known as Duarte Square, that the church owns at Canal Street [...]

NOVEMBER 1, 2011, 9:15 PM How to Feed the Hungry, Faster By TINA ROSENBERG  On Friday, I wrote about how people in Dhobley, Somalia, are getting emergency food despite a guerrilla war that is keeping out aid workers ― and food.  Instead of trucking in sacks of food, World Concern and its partner, the African Rescue Committee, distribute  vouchers that people in [...]

OCTOBER 27, 2011, 9:35 PM In Famine, Vouchers Can Be Tickets to Survival By TINA ROSENBERG The town of Dhobley, Somalia, sits at the gateway of hell.  Just west of Dhobley is the border with Kenya, and the road to Dadaab, which hosts a giant complex of refugee camps; Dhobley has become the last stop in Somalia [...]

American civilians killed in 9/11: 2,977 Afghan civilians killed in the War On Terror over 8,800 Iraqi civilians killed in the War On Terror estimates range from over 150,000 (WHO) to over 650,000 (The Lancet) to over 1.1 million (IIACSS/ORB) to as high as 1.45 million (extrapolation) The Lancet’s estimate 2.5% of the country’s population [...]

Simon Smart September 9, 2011 I’m getting ready to duck, but don’t shoot the messenger. The results are in: religious people are nicer. Or so says Robert Putnam, professor of public policy at Harvard. Described by London’s Sunday Times as the most influential academic in the world today, Putnam is not a religious believer. Best [...]

By Savi Hensman Riots and looting have wrecked large parts of the United Kingdom. The homes and possessions of some in already disadvantaged areas have gone up in smoke, and others may lose their livelihoods. The past few days have left many across the UK shocked and distressed. Saddest is the plight of those who have [...]

THERE are riots and there are riots. Experience shows that mass violence can erupt in the most unexpected of circumstances. In recent decades people have rioted because their football team has lost a match or because their livelihood was threatened by the invisible power of market forces. Thirty years ago in the UK, black people [...]

When society feels like it is falling apart it is our job to find ways of binding people back together, to express solidarity over selfishness and hope over fear. Therefore our first reaction to the frightening extent of looting and disorder that has swept our cities must be to reaffirm our common humanity. Those on [...]

Elenie Poulos Australian Christians and non-Christians alike are grieving the loss of a moral heart in our country. I have heard countless expressions of disillusionment, sadness and shame over the politics of border control. Many are angry and may well be inclined to join the ancient chorus and say “Amen” to the curse on those [...]

Published on Monday, July 25, 2011  by Pierre Tristam Timothy McVeigh, meet Anders Behring Breivik. Those two right-wing reactionaries, two terrorists, two anti-government white supremacists, two Christians—have a lot in common, down to the way the massacres they carried out were first mistaken for the work of Islamists by an American press rich in zealotry of [...]

The latest attempt to stem the flow of asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat, the so-called ‘Malaysian solution’, is causing great angst in the community and with our political leaders. This proposal involves people trading by the government of a democratic country committed to the rule of law. People trading is wrong even when [...]