This paper by Judge Stan Thorburn offers a brief account of the development of restorative justice in the Courts of New Zealand since it has been practised over the past 10 years. In particular, it examines a selection of court decisions and identifies significant principles emerging from them. Finally, it compares those to legislation, in […]

The distortions about the violence in Iraq persist even as the mayhem increases. Here are ten of the worst myths being spread in the media.The escalating violence in Iraq’s civil war is now earning considerable attention as we pass yet another milestone — U.S. occupation there, in two weeks, will exceed the length of the […]

Despite an intensified campaign against poverty, World Bank programs have failed to lift incomes in many poor countries during the past decade, leaving tens of millions of people with stagnating and even declining living standards, according to a report released Thursday by the bank’s autonomous assessment arm. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1208-06.htm

  On the 24th September the Dowling Rampa family – all nine of us – loaded up our Urvan with camping gear and with enough used cooking oil and biodiesel to fuel the first part of our trip to Alice Springs. The trial of the pine Gap 4 (Donna, Bryan, Adele, and myself) was due […]

by Peter Garrett < http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/author.asp?id=150> There is a fair amount of fuzziness about where the line of demarcation between church and state lies. This separation is a principle I firmly believe in, while also believing that someone’s personal values should and do inform one’s day to day thought processes and decision-making. But there is way […]

The White House has arranged to announce a guilty verdict for Saddam Hussein two days before the November 7, 2006, elections and, no doubt, plans to finally murder him. Meanwhile an appeals process is delaying, until at least five days after the elections, release of photos of members of the US military and its contractors […]

Saddam’s Unindicted Co-Conspirator: Donald Rumsfeld Saddam Hussein has received a death sentence for crimes he committed more than a year before Donald Rumsfeld shook his hand in Baghdad. Let’s reach back into history and extract these facts:. http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1106-30.htm

The Stern Report reveals that if governments do nothing, climate change will cost more than both world wars and render swathes of the planet uninhabitable. Can the world find the will to act? Gaby Hinsliff reports Sunday October 29, 2006 The Observer It is almost Halloween, and Rachel from San Francisco is worrying about pumpkins. […]

So much for compassion fatigue. Even after a year of record giving to tsunami-related relief, according to a Brisbane survey, ‘two thirds of the public still want to increase our overseas aid to countries that are poor, have poor social services, poor health standards or who are suffering from a natural disaster or post-conflict trauma’. […]

A Soldier Hoped to Do Good, But Was Changed by War Sgt. Ricky Clousing went to war in Iraq because, he said, he believed he would simultaneously be serving his nation and serving God. But after more than four months on the streets of Baghdad and Mosul interrogating Iraqis rounded up by American troops, Sergeant […]

At this point, the only people left who think that the U.S. must ‘stay the course’ in Iraq are Bush’s neocons and al Qaeda…As the bodies pile up in Iraq, new polls show that most Iraqis want us out of their country, and they want us out soon. At the same time, Al Jazeera acquired […]

Tired tonight, and a bit depressed. Had a medium-sized car accident today, driving down the single dirt road outside our house. My car is still drivable, but the lady who collided with me (or, as she would probably put it, with whom I collided), her car is lurking like a sad damaged thing at the […]