Archive | Human rights RSS feed for this section

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

  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 [...]

Read full storyComments { 2 }

Malaysia: the good, the bad and the durian

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 [...]

Read full storyComments { 6 }

Note to Gillard: go back to where you came from

For those engaged in Australia’s asylum seeker debate, SBS Television’s 3 part reality series ‘Go back to where you came from‘ has been one of the year’s most anticipated TV events and I for one certainly wasn’t going to miss it.  Even before the series went to air, a good 40,000 people on Facebook indicated [...]

Read full storyComments { 3 }

The selective nature of our religious tolerance

XNYRK87XA2C4 Ask many left-leaning, well informed Australians what they think about France’s ban on wearing the burqa in public and you’ll typically hear cries of dissent and disgust at this violation of human rights and attack on religious freedom.  However, talk to the same people about a topical issue involving Christians or the church in [...]

Read full storyComments { 0 }