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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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Vilifying the most vulnerable

The most disappointing news and news reporting I’ve seen this week is around a beauty pageant in Melbourne turning really ugly. The violence and brawls actually happened at pageant after-parties, involving scores of young men and leaving at least one man unconscious. It’s disappointing not least for the serious injuries sustained by some of the people [...]

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