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Burmese days – Is the Golden Land on the cusp of a new era?

by on 07. Feb, 2012 in Asia, Culture, Human rights, Migration, Multiculturalism, My life, Photography, Politics, Refugees, Travel

  There are some special places on earth which lure you such that you make damn sure you visit and once you get there, become hooked and vow to return.  Such is my experience with the magical land of Burma. Probably my earliest exposure to Burma was when I worked at Lonely Planet. As a [...]

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Malaysia: the good, the bad and the durian

by on 23. Oct, 2011 in Anthropology, Culture, Ethnicity, Food, Human rights, Migration, Multiculturalism, My life, Photography, Politics, Refugees, Travel

As Australia continues its nauseating debate around the processing of asylum seekers and the proposed ‘Malaysia solution‘ finally meets its fate (hoorah!), my family and I have recently returned from a lovely holiday to peninsula Malaysia.  We had a fantastic time, and after many years of nearly visiting the country but always deciding at the [...]

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Exploitation or empowerment? The maid debate

by on 01. Aug, 2011 in Africa, Aid and development, Australia, Culture, Migration, My life, Photography, Social enterprise

For many years I have deliberated the ethics of hiring someone to clean my house.   With a mother who takes immense pride in her home yet believes it’s a plain waste of money to outsource cleaning, I grew up believing that only the very richest people had cleaners.   My early travels to Asia [...]

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Goo la la: bilingual babies

by on 10. Jul, 2011 in Culture, Language, My life

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been in awe of people who speak two or more languages fluently.  Whether they have learnt a second language at school from an early age or spoken a different language at home, I have longed for the capacity to seamlessly straddle two cultures and lamented my Anglo-Saxon roots for [...]

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