Leadership is the present pre-election focus and Australians are challenged to deem what essential human qualities and skills are required to govern well so that as a nation we can walk proud. Rather than pampered politicians, for exemplars I turn to Jesuit Fr Steve Kelly, and Franciscan Fr Louis Vitale, who were sentenced this 17 […]

A call to evangelicals to respond to a significant Muslim overture. The Bible not only instructs us to be witnesses (Acts 1:8) but also to be peacemakers as part of our witness (Rom. 12:18). This is the most important reason we have to take the letter seriously. My experience has been that Muslims want to […]

For the Australian war artist George Gittoes, who has ventured onto battlefields in Vietnam, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and across the Middle East, no single war has defined his career. “I can’t think of another artist who invests so much time and money in researching his subject,” Gittoes says. “People say to me, ‘Why do you […]

The arrest and detention without bail of seventeen individuals on grounds that they were planning terrorist attacks against political targets in New Zealand represents a step towards the “Guantanomisation” of national security policy in this country, at least as it applies to political dissent. The reaction to the arrests shows that the public is sceptical […]

Domestic violence is being swept under the mat in Pacific Island countries, with culture being used as an excuse, the region’s top cops say. “It is easy to say `Look, that’s our culture, to (treat) women in this fashion.’ I don’t think it is the culture of any country to be able to engage in […]

Leaders of Pacific Island countries, including Australia and New Zealand, should devote special attention to the plight of West Papuan human rights defenders at the annual meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum starting on 16 October in Tonga says TAPOL, the UK-based NGO that promotes human rights, peace and democracy in Indonesia. The level of […]

Stories of Action and Change You Didn’t Hear About in 2006 and 2007. For the first time, Project Censored 2008 now highlights a new form of journalism: one that looks for the places where real change for the better is already underway. Here are their 10 featured stories… http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1979

The UN calls it ‘the world’s worst humanitarian crisis’. But what is causing the violence in Darfur, and why hasn’t the world acted to stop it? Jess Worth goes in search of answers. An estimated 400,000 Darfurians have been killed. Three million – half the population – have been displaced. Humanitarian agencies have limited access […]

Peter Hartcher | September 28, 2007 It is so often asserted as a truism: Australians have become more selfish, narrower, more materialistic. In February we had the great pleasure of having an Englishman, Oliver James, visit to diagnose the Australian malady for us as “selfish capitalism”. While in Sydney visit to promote his book, Affluenza, […]

By Di Martin One of the Bali bombers responsible for the deaths of more than 200 people in 2002 is trying to help Indonesia’s police catch terrorists. Ali Imron drove the van that blew Bali’s Sari Club apart in 2002 but he has always been the repentant bomber and since 2004 he has assisted Indonesia’s […]

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PEACE is more than the absence of war. It is about transforming our societies and uniting our global community to work together for a more peaceful, just and sustainable world for ALL. http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/